Welcome to this week’s installment of Welcome to the Insta-hood. This week I interviewed @nightliquid_retro

1. Tell me a bit about yourself.                                                                                                 “Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m Sebastian. I grew up in San Jose, California, but I live in Berlin now and work as a sound designer & music producer. I’m obsessed with synthesizers, retro gadgets and 80s goth music.”
2.  How did you come up with your IG name?                                                                     “The goal was to come up with a catchy, yet weird name that means absolutely nothing. Mission accomplished!”
3. What inspire to create your theme on your IG?                                                     “Imagine walking into a toy store as a kid. You’re overwhelmed by excitement – fascinating, colourful objects everywhere, new discoveries behind every corner. “Oh, I’ve seen that on TV before! Oh, but what’s this, right next to it? I need it!” You want them all, but you can never have them all. This is precisely the emotion I want to evoke when people visit my profile.”
4. What are your top five items you have posted on your feed and why?                     “Pac-Man Watch by Nelsonic (1982)” 

“As a kid, video game watches were the holy grail of awesomeness. Obviously the gaming experience was very limited, but it was a portable videogame that you could proudly display on your wrist.”

Sony D-88 Discman (1988)

“A classic case of style over substance. However, I still love the fact that this came out in an era were even huge corporations were experimenting and taking risks with product design. Everything was possible.”

Yamaha QY10 Mini Music Workstation (1990)

“This was a pretty ground breaking concept back in the day: A portable & battery powered music production workstation, smaller and lighter than the original Nintendo Gameboy. Of course it was very limited and not very intuitive, but the idea to sketch out full song is a very appealing idea, even nowadays.”

Nintendo / Sharp – Famicon Titler (1989)

“This is a very rare Japanese version of the Nintendo Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) that allows users to edit video, even for adding sound, animation and subtitles. It’s fascinating that such a thing even exists.”

Casio – CK 200 Keyboard Boombox (1985):

“A portable music playback device that allows you to play along to the music and add beats? Awesome! This is pretty much everything I’m interested in combined into one neat little box. Casio made so many cool gadgets back in the 80s, it’s ridiculous. Game watches, game calculators, synthesizers, keyboard boomboxes, the list is endless.”

5.  What decade would you consider to have best gadgets and why?                                   “I’ll definitely have to go with the 80s. The portable consumer electronics market was still in its infancy; many companies were still testing the waters. Oh and not to forget: The instantly recognizable 80s tech product design aesthetic. Lovely.”

If you would like more information on Nightliquid_Retro his contact info is below:

IG: @nightliquid_retro

Email: info@nightliquid.com

Thank you for the interview!

Until next time!

This week’s soundtrack write up belongs to 1981’s Shock Treatment! It is a movie directed by Jim Sharman. It was also co-written by Sharman and Richard O’Brien.

Richard O’Brien is the same person who wrote “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” And like Rocky Horror, Shock Treatment is full of dance worthy tracks! There is a on going debate whether Shock Treatment is a continual of Rocky Horror Picture Show but I am not going to pick  a side on that debate.

There are some returning characters but they are not played by the same actors. They are returning actors (like Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn and Little Nell Campbell) but they are not playing the same roles they did in Rocky Horror. So it is really your own called whether or not you feel like this is a continual or something that is completely on it’s own from Rocky Horror.

The movie has Janet and Brad Majors (played by Jessica Harper and Cliff De Young) who have recently been married and visit the town of Denton, Ohio. The town is now owned by a major company called Farley Favors and now the whole town of Denton lives within a TV studio.

While Janet and Brad visit a live taping of Denton they are picked out from the audience as contestants for a game show. The prize from the show was getting Brad into a mental hospital and  Janet transformed into a major TV pop star. Throughout the whole time there are various songs that discussing Denton, and the relationship of Brad and Janet.

I picked three random songs from the soundtrack to discuss:

Denton, U.S.A:

This is one of the opening songs and it is one of my favorites from the soundtrack. It’s up tempo beat and weird town anthem of what they envisioned there perfect town to be.

Shock Treatment:

This is the main song and it is sung in the mental hospital that Brad is held prisoner in. Janet has reveal her true diva self to Brad and he is helpless to do anything about it because is trapped in a cage.

Bitchin ‘In Kitchen:

This song is sung while Brad and Janet are on the game show. They are airing out their problems and difficulties they have in their marriage so far. The game show host concludes that the best prize for them is that Brad have a “mental check up.”

 

Until Next time!

This week’s artist’s Spotlight is on Martin Ontiveros

1. Describe your art aesthetic.                                                                                                  “It’s kind of a mix of ancient Mesoamerican/Mesopotamian art, heavy metal imagery, the occult, medieval art, underground comics, and a bit of Jim Flora. I think, anyway. It’s always tough answering this question.”
2.  What is your favorite piece you have created and why?                                            “The reality is, I probably haven’t made it yet, I’ve done quite a lot and my style has evolved in the last couple decades so it would hard to single anything out. But for the purposes of answering the question I’d say either the shirt I did for Mastodon or maybe the Rob Zombie poster. I was around 12 or 13 when I started thinking maybe art was something I’d want to become good at and it was largely because of Rock album and apparel art, people like Derek Riggs who painted all the early Iron Maiden stuff, Pushead, lots of thrash metal and punk album illustrations, I wanted to do that too. I figured if I wasn’t going to become a rock star, then I could do my part for Rock n Roll/Metal with my art and how the music was presented visually. So those two projects are the pinnacle of my efforts for that so far, and they both happen to be bands/people that I really admire so I lucked out in that respect too. I’m at the point where some of that is in my reach, it’s very humbling. “
3. .What things inspire you when you make your art?                                                          “I like phenomena, and watch videos and documentaries or listen to podcasts about UFOs, lost civilizations, cryptids, aliens, witches, magic, secret societies, cults, alternative dimensions, hidden histories, anything bizarre, really. I keep books on the shelf about mythology and weird beasts, medieval woodcuts, mostly depicting devils and witches, magic, alchemy. It’s all for reference or to get me imagining a place where these things might exist, like “huh, maybe?”. The mystery of those subjects inspires me more than knowing if any of them are actually true. Also lately I’ve been listening to audio of people explaining characters and events of the Silmarillion by Tolkien because that damned book is just too dense for me to cut through, I’m glad that others did all the hard work for me, ha! “
4. One is one random fact about you that not a lot of people know?                                 “I’m ambidextrous but draw left-handed. And I’m nice on the inside despite my prickly appearance. “
5.  Do you have any upcoming shows, projects etc. that you would like to share?        “I’m in a 3 person show in Seattle at Statix Gallery opening October 4th and later that same month I’m in Hi-Fructose Magazine’s Art Of the Mushroom group show in Oakland at The Compound Gallery, October 20th. In November I’ll be at Designer Con, and might have some new vinyl toys to premiere and that’s gonna rock. December is the Taller Del Diablo Show hosted by HellionMX in Mexico City and its 40 artists painting hand made papier-mâché devils made by renowned cartonería sculptor Leonardo Linares (look up the Linares Family, you’ll flip your lid). Got nothing for January 2019 but in February I put a show together with Lurk1, MiRs, Angela Fox and myself at Q Pop Shop in LA. So I got some killer shit coming up, with some killer people! “

If you would like to contact Martin his email is martinheadrocks@gmail.com

And is IG is @martinheadrocks

 

Thank you for the interview Martin!

Until Next time!