A Festivus for the Rest of Us

We're knocking off for the winter festivities, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for all their support over the past year, especially for making the Amos Online Store such a success.

Have a great holiday and try not to overdo it. Cheers.

P.S. Further to Russell's post on the topic of Christmas, I would refer anyone who has not seen it to the Seinfeld episode, The Strike, which details Frank Costanza's efforts to establish an alternative holiday in response to the commercialisation of Christmas.

Why Winter Festival?

For those that maybe concerned, there is no politically correct madness in this year's Amos seasonal greeting card. It just so happens that none of us at Amos are Christians. Yet we all celebrate at this time of year. So instead of using the term "Christmas" (a festival specifically created to celebrate the birth of Christ), we went for the more generic term, "Winter Festival".

We could have used the term "Yule". Contrary to popular belief, the celebration and rituals of this Northern European winter festival pre-date Christianity. Yule is a homage to the Winter Solstice lasting from the end of December through the beginning of January, the time of longest nights in the North. The sun stops waning (when days were getting shorter) and begins waxing (the days now get longer). Yule traditions of the ancient tribes include decorating the fir tree, putting up holly and mistletoe, giving gifts, and feasting. Yule was suppressed by the early Christian church and some rituals were co-opted and assimilated to make the forced conversion to Christianity more palatable to the ancient peoples of Northern Europe.

And lets not forget there are countless other cultural celebrations at this time of the year. We don't want to exclude those.

So before anyone tars us with the "PC gone mad" brush, just remember that one man's (or woman's) Christmas is another man's (or woman's) Yule!

So whatever your festival, HAVE A GOOD ONE!

Selected Works in Japan

Reviewed on honeyee.com. I'm sure it must be saying good things...

http://www.honeyee.com/news/2007/art/037/index.html

It's Simone de Beauvoir!

How could you not know that! French author and philosopher. Pioneer of 20th Century Feminism (from an existentialist angle) and one time companion of Jean-Paul Sartre.

Congratulations to Gregory H. and Michael B. Forward addresses and drawings will grace your doorsteps.

Who is this?

First correct answer sent to info-at-amostoys-dot-com wins a drawing.

The last one of the year...

We had to sneak in one more release before the end of the year. Nothing for 6 months then we go crazy!

At the request of TK from Silly Thing we have produced this grey scale version of the Wrestling Elves. After the super scarce White SE YOD, this is the most limited toy we have released for sale to the public. Available from Silly Thing and our webstores only. Some of our allocation will also be available as a special priced set including Juno's "Chapel of Dawn" CD, containing the original character artwork designed by JJ.

Gold Members get ready. You're up first, this coming weekend. Any remaining will be made available to Silver Members the following weekend.

Sunn Oooof)))

Just returned from the All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmare Before Christmas festival in Minehead, UK. This is becoming a twice yearly pilgrimage for me, my family and a few friends. A great weekend for which I have to thank Barry Hogan for his hospitality. Highlights included a very rare set by sonic guitar psyche monsters, The Heads. A great comeback show from Portishead, a top set from Jap rockers, Boris, and a revelation for me... The Paranoid Critical Revolution. One of the best guitarists I have ever seen. There were loads of other great performances too..Om, Oneida, Kling Klang, Black Mountain, Autolux, GZA. The list goes on.

I missed drone legends, Earth, but my biggest regret of the weekend was giving up on the quite hilarious black ambient low end doom merchants, Sunn 0))) and their moaning tree man. I watched them for a full hour, eventually had enough of their art metal amateur dramatics and left the room. Almost immediately after which one of the two main protagonists (both pictured below) proceeded to punch the other, who then fell through their quite considerable stack of designer amps. The show was brought to a halt when the security had to drag the assailant away. I missed it by seconds. Proper Rock and Roll!!!

New P.B. for Half-Marathon

I ran the Bedford Half-Marathon today. I finished in eight place in 1:13:27 (first Male Veteran over 35!). I was pretty pleased with that, 33 sec. faster than my previous best , and in horrible weather.

Keep on trucking.

Nigel is the winner!

We've finally decided to declare Nigel Bendle as the winner of our YODzine YOD comic strip contest. He sent us a bunch of entries from which it it is hard to pick our absolute favourite. There were other great entries too. There's a handful of these still up on the YOD myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/greatyod

Meanwhile here's one of Nigel's which fits my mood for the day... Anyone remember East 17? Will anyone know what this means? I don't care. I like it!