Walk along one of the window displays of David Jones in the city (where copies of The Big Issues are usually on sale every other week) and spot not one, but three Marvel characters in the window. No wild guesses as the mark hits with the usual suspects of Spider-Man, Hulk and Wolverine adorning the big splash canvas.



Alyse Graham from Robert Townson High School and her piece, "We All Have Issues" for Art Express to thank for the bright and comic book love large in the city streets. Grand dash of colour and paint, texture in the lines all out with the chaos working to resolve. Art-speak much? Bold and wild, simple as that and the style is just right for the look of them.

Another DJ window display features noses on a reason (one cut off to spite the face, one brown looking sniffler) and another set features metal scraps, iron lines and all other things worthy of a tetanus shot in what looks like a struggle along a train set.

There on display like deaf doggies in the window since some weeks before. There to stay until who knows when the egg pops out of the backside of the hamster trapped up the wrong end of comfort.

After that, a return to the windows space of the slightly non-responsive and rather fake looking people playing dress-ups in the windows the other times during the year.

Do you know if these kids sell, or are allowed to sell, their art works from Art Express?

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And thus endeth a day that featured the Australian National Championships of 2008. And double demerit points. And a day that the shop was closed. Even picking up that Saturday gone.

SCEGGS in Darlinghurst was a steady trickle of sweat from everyone in the hall. Jugglers, yo-yoers, spectators. The heat was indeed on in all cheesy manner of speaking. Smell of talcum powder in the air. And the stench of plastic gym mats. A lot of those in attendance as well.

Free yo-yos for all attending and from the look and throw, a clear reason why. Tricks, slips,

Sports ladder, 1A, Y and all manner of outside the box throw downs. (Boxes of actual scoring in play, step out and practise the hang of sticking a trick).



Congrats to shop regular Jason Hay (crouching tiger with a V salute in above photo), picking up second place in the Y division.

Results of the championships:
1A division:
1st - Kahli
2nd - Mark
3rd - Skip

Y division:
1st - Daniel
2nd - Jason
3rd - Kahli

So what did you do to close out the Australia Day long weekend?

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Late notice to be sure. Like a spud lodged in the back end after a night on the upstyle-down.

Anyway, for those looking to catch strings turning tricks and more than just balls landing in hands, check out the Australian National Championships later today.

Today, forthwith too right ol chap.

Details for you:

SCEGGS Darlinghurst
215 Forbes Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Monday 28 January 2008

Judges: Stuart Brown (Yoboy), David Quach (Quagi) and Soon Van (Sleeper)

Schedule:

• 12:00-14:00 - Compulsories for 1A.
• 14:00-15:00 - Sports Ladder as well as a tutoring session for any newcomers to the yo-yo scene
• 15:00-17:00 - 1A and Y division freestyles. Best trick comp.

Spectators best turn up after the end of the compulsories. They're for the yoers to book themselves a place into the later divisions and will just be standard trick pulling with no flair necessary.

Actual contest begins after than. And the jugglers (who will be sharing a part of the hall) will still be swinging and juggling and hoop circling it up.

Spectators are free to come and watch. Word also is that everyone who turns up will receive a free yo-yo.

Drop in folks!

Update: Super quick wrap of the 2008 Championships.

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Anyone who walks into the Comic Shop will no doubt hear the familiar sounds of Australia's youth radio network piping through the air vents. Namely that being of triple j. Or to others, "what kind of spit is this?"

Great for listening to all kinds of artists that aren't of the bubble gum pop or middle of the road persuasion. And there does happen to be that kind of market. Kind of market that can spot an album cover from a tiny square portion of the whole?

Probably.

Anyway, so the triple j album cover quiz challenge thingo from Richard Kingsmill is to do that. Spread falls from the list of feature albums played over the course of the year, get them right, score the booty of albums therein.

Working it out proves to be a mighty test of an hour. Resources handily at hand hand over the answers. Got to hand it to the junk about the house in scoring the answers. Mess works best here it seems.

First album cover on the puzzle grid is so undeniably that of The Hives that it's almost Will Sassoish for the man who stands off right on its square. Didn't spot Young Modern right off the bat? Don't even call yourself Australian.

Everything else, sadly having not paid any attention to the album covers (as well as being away from Australian radio for a portion of the year), washes it into the higher and harder stakes.

And that's where the resources of scratching posts and cluttered desks come in handy. Not to mention another eyeball to spot and pick them off.

Copy of the mag magazine at hand to sift through and it happens to contain the albums released for the year? Like that from Queens of the Stone Age and John Butler Trio? How sweet it is.

Then there's the stuff that's not entirely easy to pick up and off of the printed page.

Rate Your Music steps in with a few lists compiled from its users. So many to flush through, and not one of them made easy to run through either. Sanity even steps in to pitch a fork or two, and it's all about looking at the entire year's releases week by stinking week. Architecture In Helsinki and LCD Soundsystem from that round of things.

Makes the eyeballs water at the faraway blinks to recover. Three resources down and handy all to leave but one and two.

Of course, with the spot varnish that is the tiny squares on the quiz, who wouldn't think of using something like Photoshop to blow them up and attempt at rendering the barely there fonts to see? Alas, not much value in that plan of attack after a long while of trying to temper the bicubic/bilinear enlargement process.

So like it's like a weird circle that the final clue to answers on the cover challenge happens to find itself on Zan Rowe's Run With the Hunted blog on the triple j website. Looking over some of her picks of the Best Albums of 2007 so far... it's a bit of creative calendar working when the kids of a nuclear never happen pop up as the real tough nut to bust.

Spend an hour or less, spend some time and peel those eyeballs. That quiz is a fun thing to carve up.

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What happened to the glitz and glamour of foil and hologram covers on comic books? Sure you can get 20 different variant covers, 19 of which are probably drawn by Mister Turner, but gone are the days of straight to shelf flashy covers. Or you could always go to Dynamic Forces if you are willing to part with your hard earned.

T'was the early to mid nineties, maybe the height of the "speculator" craze that brought about so many variables to the fore. Or maybe it was because the comic companies were just trying to defribulate a market that was all but dead. Either way, covers like Iron Man #290 with its gold foil inlay, Superman #123 with glow-in-the-dark electricity zapping from his new duds, Wolverine #75 with a banging hologram stuck straight on the cover and Spider-Man #25 with its giant hologram cover making it one of the coolest covers of its time.

Either way, these covers were exciting. Even though I wasn't slightly interested in any 2099 series except Spidey, I still had to get every issue #1 just for their kick butt chromium facia.

I'm not saying that chromium, foil and hologram covers are no longer released. Only that their prevalance on the shelves is going the way of the collectors card... only difference is, I was happy to see cards go.

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Clearly from the trailers and the actual film itself, Bumblebee, the cute little yellow Volkswagen Beetle Bug isn't looking so much like himself in the large scale adaptation. Doesn't really matter about the look of the scamp Autobot unless looking for the pure waters in which to soak the ear drums and eyeballs in.



When put to scale against the other statues from the Transformers lot, it's quite the tempting gnaw to see how and if the little yellow one fits into the hungry mouth. Not to be tried though. Merely thought of with a linger.

Anybody who dares actually eat a statue better have a side dish ready in case the polystone, porcelain or resin disagrees vehemently.

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