well hello there! im mentioning this a little late, maybe near a year late at this point, but thats how i roll i guess. Jai Tanju has been making zines and little art books for a while now, you may or may not know about his MUTE series of books, its a collection of photos taken by his friends. MUTE #2, 116 pages, 8.5″ x 8.5″, perfect binding, full-color interior ink, compiled by Jai Tanju, photographs by erik olsen, chris patton, ken nagahara, louie barletta,sam milianta,luda crooks, b. fonville. jonathan hay, matt price and he axed me to give him some photos as well, i think i got 20 some odd pages in it. just dumb photos of my friends doing the dumb stuff we do day in and day out.

here is a few little images of mine…

you can order the book by clicking HERE if you feel like you need it, and if you feel like you dont need it, let me tell you that you DO need it, trust me on this one, as a whole its a pretty rad little thing.

thanks Jai!

Over the last couple of weeks, we printed another piece by Sam Flores that’s being published by Upper Playground. It will be sold through their site and is being released in conjunction with Sam’s show Ego, Addiction, and Other Bedtime Stories at Subliminal Projects in LA. This print is 12 colors, 18×18 inches. Check out the rest of the photo set here.

Our buddies at WACTAC (Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council) just posted a great interview with our dude Ewok. You can read all about his graffiti, world travels, inspirations, and see some of his new awesome poodle paintings right HERE.

Oh and stay tuned for news about yet another upcoming collaboration between Burlesque and WACTAC coming very very soon!

We recently wrapped a job for Transworld Skate/Snowboarding via Target. I designed six signs to be hung in different backstage rooms for the X-Games. Bennie printed them.

Here’s a shot of all six (24 x 24″ each, 2 color prints on chipboard) hanging up at the Target office in downtown Minneapolis. Thanks to our dude John Samels for the photo!

Here are some details of the six designs:

Finally, Spring is settling in to Minneapolis, and we’ve got a bunch of stuff going on that’s bright like the sun. Mike’s been super busy with the poster art…check out his Hifi Club 4th Anniversary Poster.

Ben now has scars on his eyeballs.

Here’s the poster for the last Coldsprints indoor bicycle racing event of this series on April 18, designed (and about to be printed) by me…

We’re printing a poster for Sam Flores that will be for sale through Upper Playground. 12 colors! Should be wrapped up in a couple of days. I’m about done with the separations for another Deuce Seven print that is going to be pretty awesome too. Aaron stopped by with some stuff to scan for an art print, and we got a new pile from Jake Bannon too…good stuff! Stay tuned…

Back in the Spring of 2006, I played an opening DJ set at Spankrock’s show at the 7th Street Entry while they were on tour supporting their awesome (then brand new) album “YoYoYoYoYo.” The group’s three DJs gave me a copy of their side project mix CD entitled Couche Tard, named after the chain of Canadian convenient stores. It’s a solid hour of wild beats, electro-funk, and Huey Lewis. Right up my alley. Three years later, the DJs in question – Devlin, Darko, and XXXchange – asked Burlesque to create some artwork and screenprint the packaging for a reissue of the mix, which would also include a DVD with a video mix to go along with the entire audio track from the CD. Holy moly.

Here’s a look at the front cover of the CD. I knew I wanted to include the image of the Couche Tard owl character, but beyond that, they pretty much told me to go nuts with the artwork. I think XXXchange specifically requested that Dracula make a cameo appearance and I had no problem with that.

Here’s a shot of the packaging opened up with inserts for the CD on the left and the DVD on the right.

Check out this preview video for the whole package, put together by the creator of the DVD, Caleb Bouchard (no relation to Couche Tard) of {&/or}:

You can cop the Couche Tard CD / DVD from the Fully Fitted DJs at Turntable Lab.

Just got back from a weekend in Chicago to see the Eccentric Soul Revue. BRLSQ blog devotees will recall the poster I designed for the show a few months ago and typed about here. If you don’t remember and don’t feel like clicking, here’s the poster:

Awesome sign above the Park West Theater:

The lineup for the night:

Renaldo Domino. I was trying to get a good photo of his killer name buckle, but I’m no Wes Winship and my partytime photo skills are elementary.

The Notations. Sweet, sweet soul in four party harmony. All of the singers were backed by Chicago’s own JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound, filled out with a string and horn section. They did a hell of a job of keeping the night not only sounding good, but flowing super smoothly from singer to singer.

The man of the hour, Mr. Syl Johnson! He’s an incredible performer. 100% dynamite. He performed a lot of songs I was hoping he would, including “Conrete Reservation” (which he’s only done live a handful of times), “Come On Sock it to Me,” the breakbeat classic “Different Strokes,” and “Is It Because I’m Black?”

Syl performing “Come On Sock it to Me”

Make sure you’re sitting down for this one… Syl and the Uptown Sound hit it TEN TIMES:

Syl Johnson listing all the rappers who sampled the intro to “Different Strokes”

The Numero Group merch table, featuring the Brotherman poster and the Eccentric Soul Revue poster, both designed and printed by us!

The Eccentric Soul Revue poster will be going onsale at our online store this Thursday along with Aaron Horkey’s INITFEST 2009 poster! Be there!

Apparently Dreamhost has gotten their shit together and our email is working again. This is the second time this week…so I’m still crossing my fingers.

Due to an issue with our host, we are having problems receiving email. If your message to an @burlesquedesign.com email address get bounced, hang on a bit and it should get worked out. At this point, we’re not sure if messages are being stored and delivered or not. I’ll update as soon as I know more.

i had to dip outta the states for a minute and get back to my roots with some raw watercolor paintings, best place to REALLY watercolor paint the way God intended you ask? the Cayman Islands…

expect not to see any of the paintings i make anywhere ever, im stuffing each painting into a empty bottle then throwing that bottle to the hammerhead sharks that patrol the waters of this place. its like one of those time capsules, once the greys come and vaporize our little planet in a few weeks, they will find my paintings in the bellies of… alright, ive been alone in the hot sun on hidden beaches for far too long, im outta here. werd life.

if you wanna see some of whats been going on, follow this link…

click HERE, HERE and HERE for more.