Tim Burton―director of the underdogs, odd-balls, freaks, and supernaturals with works like Alice In Wonderland, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and Beetlejuice―is the first auteur that comes to mind during the Christmas season for me thanks to 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, with a career-spanning retrospective going on at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), all New Yorkers will be able to understand his warped sensibilities, respect for the mutated, and appreciation for the dementia that flows through the veins of our modern societies. Tim Burton, as we all ought to know, is much more than just the man who made Batman. Obviously, while I think we all should check out the MoMA exhibit―which, by the way, features numberless drawings, sketches, character designs, storyboards, and so on from the man’s archives―I recognize that that’s impossible for most, so I’ve decided to discuss three of my Tim Burton favorites, all of which I hold are severely under-appreciated. Read the rest of this entry »

The movie news of the year―at least on this side of the Atlantic―has almost wholly revolved around Spike Jonze’s filmic adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s seminal children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, an innocent-looking 48-page essential that no good mother would be caught without. The big screen version of the generation-transcending classic is quite visually spectacular and emotionally moving (I’m not going to get into criticism or review here―The New Yorker’s for that), which is, not incidentally, what most Sendak fans assumed it wouldn’t be. (“How can you―and why do you want to―inject live-action life into a masterpiece of the two dimensional?” many asked.) The magical transformation from innocuous paperback to grandiose $100-million-dollar-budget silver screen spectacle can be explained by noting the importance of a simple “a-ha” moment Jonze had several years ago upon splitting with his girlfriend Sophia Coppola: The Wild Things embody wild emotions (anger, fear, and loathing; happiness, exuberance, and excitement). The trouble-making director, along with one of this generation’s most lauded scribes, Dave Eggers, transformed Sendak’s bedtime story into an exploration of the most primordial feelings that unify us all.

Unusually, the film did not come attached with the usual Disney-style marketing package (numerous throw-away action figures, cheap pajamas, lunch boxes, video games, and so on), but rather a sort of grassroots call to (creative) arms. Where The Wild Things Are gave people the bug to simply create in reverential celebration of a seminal work of toddler fiction. Obviously, Jonze et al. had a roll in the development of these “extended value” efforts, but theirs was more of the warm, encouraging father than the demanding, out-of-touch boss. Read on for a rundown of some of my favorite objects that were created in concordance with the flick. Read the rest of this entry »

In these heated, confusing times of economic recession and political angst, unavoidably and inevitably, we all find ourselves listening to music of the more soothing variety to put our world in balance and perspective. Some folks veer towards the classical end of the musical spectrum while others default to country; the cheesier of those among us turn to Kenny G. while the more refined look to Coltraine; but we Anthem staffers increasingly find ourselves on a sonic journey to Scandinavia for our aural Xanax fix.

Maybe it’s the fjords; maybe it’s the omega-3 fatty acid diet; or maybe it’s just the placid snow-covered, oftentimes sunless landscape the Northerners dwell in. Whatever it is, we Americans find ourselves entirely in want of the X Factor that is making the musicians mentioned below (and many more) pump out such mesmerizing and enchanting tunes. Here are some of our favorite new disco/new Balearic/cosmic disco favorites (don’t worry about the genre monikers―just jam). Read the rest of this entry »

It need not be reiterated that over the past few years we’ve seen an unprecedented number of collaborative projects between pairs or trios of brands that may or may not be from the same industry. Major efforts of this variety have been embraced by both massive corporations (Target has been doing it for years and now plans to work with Rodarte for a seasonal collection; Pepsi famously teamed up with A Bathing Ape; Jil Sander’s +J line for Uniqlo is in stores now) and smaller ones (Monocle has worked with countless people, from Comme des Garçons to Porter; practically every issue of Arkitip, a tiny independent Southern California art publication, features a collaboration with folks like Mike Mills and Peter Saville).

This trend isn’t unusual per se, however: All sorts of companies have partnered with non-employees and separate businesses for ages, but for the most part, such pairings haven’t been publicized or used as marketing ploys. So why is it that we can no longer enter a store as ubiquitous as the Gap or J. Crew and not catch sight of a tag that features both the shop’s name and an affiliate’s? Simple: Sustaining a brand’s image and reputation is harder than ever due to cheap forms of marketing and the impact of the Internet today; additionally, the “two is better than one” mindset has convinced many clothiers, luggage manufacturers, cobblers, liquor producers, and so on to shack up with competitors with equal ambition and creativity or companies outside of their field who can spread whatever product they make in conjunction to their loyalists. Belvedere may not be the choice vodka of hipsters, but if Parisian graffiti artist and restaurant and hotel owner André slaps his Mr. A. character on their bottles, it will instantly become a nightclub hit.

The following is a rundown of some of our favorite collaborations as of late in no particular order.
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At Anthem, we’re all book lovers but in different ways. I personally tend to find myself diving into novels, nonfiction tomes, and, yes, comic books of all shapes and sizes, while others within our editorial family veer more towards the art side of the spectrum, gobbling up coffee table volumes and artist monographs every chance they get. Our mass-market preferences aside, though, we all lovingly support anyone bold enough to try their hand at small press. From ‘zine publishers to pamphlet printers to digital distributors, the independent book-lovers of this day and age inspire us―and pique our curiosity.

For the first installment of Another Anthem, we’ve chosen three such entities that share nothing more in common than a deep-seated passion for the smell of heavy ink mixed with thick paper, the sensation of turning the pages of a yet-to-be-broken-in creaky spine, and, of course, the excitement that one wells up upon discovering a new novelist, illustrator, poet, painter, or what have you. Independent publishers, like us, are indiscriminate as long as the content they carry is top-notch.

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After a successful collaboration with Today’s Issue by Bas de Boer we are very proud to announce a collaboration with Anthem Magazine. Nik Mercer, the associate editor of Anthem Magazine, will do a bi-weekly feature called Another Anthem where in he will highlight creativity from around the world. We are looking forward to it! Stay tuned for #1.