"A guy dressed up like Abraham Lincoln smashes a bunch of mirrors, glass, and pottery set to the tune of 'From the Ashes' by Nik Furious."

I made this video in the spring of 2003 for one of my video classes at Carnegie Mellon University. It was filmed in the backyard of 4624 Henry Street in Pittsburgh (in Oakland, right off of Craig Street).

The idea was simple -- get my friend (who shall remain nameless unless he chooses to identify himself) to dress up like Abraham Lincoln and break a bunch of mirrors. The execution wasn't quite as simple, but still pretty easy. However, getting people to understand and/or enjoy the video was pretty difficult.

There's an underlying theme in Emancipation (though maybe a bit ill communicated). At its most conceptual, the core of this video asks: "Could Abraham Lincoln face himself in the mirror knowing that he ended American slavery to win a war and not necessarily because it the was the right thing to do?"

So that's why he's constantly looking at himself and smashing mirrors in this video, because I imagine him subconsciously torn up by the fact that he only did the ethical thing when it was convenient. Pile onto that the layers of meaning added to the situation because the guy wearing the Lincoln costume is half black and half white... and now you've got a fine art video!!!

Or not. I mean, it's still just a guy breaking stuff. Here are some stills:

Originally, this video was set to the song "Lovin' You" by Minnie Ripperton. I posted that version to YouTube years ago, but the audio was stripped off by the record label and I eventually just removed the video entirely.

Adding "From the Ashes" (one of my Nik Furious songs, a remix of "Bacon") to this re-edited version gave me an opportunity to tighten things up. The result is a much slimmer 2:40 instead of the original 4:20 runtime.

From the Ashes by Nik Furious [ 3:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can download "From the Ashes" at AudioShocker.com.

"Spider-Man is mysteriously whisked away to the Xandu Dimension, where the evil wizard tasks him with procuring the Wand of Watoomb... which is just a wrench that Xandu uses to steal cable."

Lo-fi and low brow, this short Spider-Man parody video [DEAD LINK, SORRY!] was filmed on Beeler Street (near Carnegie Mellon University) in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh in the summer of 2005. It was the first video I ever posted to YouTube. It was also the first video I ever had removed from YouTube because of the boobies.

Here are some stills:

Along with editing this video, I starred as the mugger, Xandu, and Mary Jane. Xandu was a lot of fun because I got to wrap myself up in towels and wear a shaving cream beard. Like I said before, this video is very stupid.

My friend (who shall remain nameless unless he chooses to reveal himself) played Spider-Man. He also sang on the theme song I recorded as Nik Furious:

Nik Furious - "Spider-Man Vs. Xandu feat. Scott" [ 2:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I posted the "Spider-Man vs. Xandu" theme years ago on the AudioShocker. You can download the song here.

UPDATE Oct 24, 2020: I re-uploaded the Spider-Man Vs. Xandu theme song! You can download it here. Maybe I'll re-upload the video somewhere someday...

UPDATE Oct 14, 2013: Blip, the video service I use to host Spider-Man vs. Xandu, has emailed me to let me know that they're deleting my videos next month. So I need to find another way to share this video with you!

UPDATE Nov 5, 2012: You can learn more about the creation of this song and listen to the instrumental version here.

On Thursday, September 1st from 5-10 PM I'll be at AIR peddling my minicomics and zines at the mega-awesome super-bodacious PITTSBURGH ZINE FAIR!!!

Here are my new releases created especially for this year's debut show:

Tales for a New Gen

I'm thrilled to present this zine of three short sci-fi tales by Justique Woolridge. I did a few illustrations and the book design for TFANG, but make no mistake -- Justique is the star here, writing the kickass tales and designing the gorgeous cover.

NoPants Zine Anthology

NoPants was my early 00s satire of corporate magazine culture, full of nonsense and cheeky ignorance. I've decided to collect the three original NoPants issues and create a new one just for the Pittsburgh Zine Fair. But instead of printing them individually, I'm collected them into a 48-page anthology of insanity.

Along with these two new releases, I'll also have issues of Time Log, some Super Haters ashcans, my sci-fi minicomic Passage, Poetree (which was randomly featured on the front page of Pop City today (see below for a screen cap), and more.

Still not convinced? Check out this video ad for the Zine Fair:

You might recognize the music -- it's my song Essential from Brilliant Shower. I'll be playing my Nik Furious music at the Fair from 8-9:30 PM, tearing it up with some of my mixtape mixes, original instrumentals, and favorites from other musicians.

So that's it. That's all I've got. That's my best sales pitch. Hope to see you there!!!