UPDATED! Hey everybody, its been a little while since I did a major update... Actually, this is my first update ever. and since the Grand opening of the site a lot of stuff has happened... I recently moved in to a new Office on lovely Fraser Street in Vancouver... Directly above a polish store and a underground asian gambling ring..... Life is good... But a ton more stuff has happened... Thats for sure.. I started a company with some friends called "Tour De Friends"... The very first "Tour De Friends" porject was a music video for Living with Lions (posted below) but look for a t-shirt line and some more video productions coming outta there soon! Also in other accomplishment type news.. The music video for Ten Second Epic's "Liftetimes" which I wrote and co-directed was nominated for "Best Rock Video" at the Much Music Video Awards.. I ended up losing to Nickelback................... yikes... I'll be posting a video of those event soon. But in the meantime, check out some of the work i been gettin done over the last year! And feel free to email or contact me for job enquiries at codyfennell@gmail.com BOOM!
Ladies and Gents, my 2nd music video, and this time on my own with no budget. Luckily for me I have a ton of talented friends that went above the call of duty to help make this video a real special one. Shooting this video was one of the craziest days of my life. I was prolly asked 400 questions back to back, then just went you think its over it was my turn to ask all the questions when it came time for me to figure out and learn all the software to create the special effects in the video.. This was a fun video to make and a awesome learning experience.. I look forward to the next video! big shout outs go to Ryan Walter Wagner behind the camera, Jenna Kuchera on the makeup tip, Katrine Elander and Kimberly Parsons on the threads and needles, and the awesome Tyler Shiwndt who helped create the sound effects and extra music for the video... All the great buds that helped out in this video inspired the name of my production company in the making "Tour De Friends". Which you will be hearing more about in the future. Enjoy some pictures from the shoot by Joe Sales and Daniel Bray.
.: POSTER SECTION UPTDATE!!!!:.
Go on over to the poster section to see some of the latest additions.. and the golden oldies too.
.: EYE SPY ZINE:.
Flemish Eye Records, home of awesome bands like Women and Chad Vangaalen decided to compile, artwork, photography and writings from all the artists on their label, then contacted me to make the front and back cover.. A prject I was really stoked to be a part of. The whole book turned out really well and is available at record shops across the whole country.
.: CHARLIE BROWN/SPEED BUMP SIGNS :.
my first Street art project, I was notcing that the speed bump signs around town looked alot like Charlie Browns shirts so me and my friend Mark Summers hit the streets one night with a ladder and a screw driver and made it happen. Ryan Walter Wagner came with is to document everything. Since this was our first venture into late night art, The idea of cops busting us was in the back of our minds and sure enough on the very first Charlie Brown speed bump sing we put up a cop car approached us with its lights on.. They pull right up to us and rolled down the window, leaned out and says "Hey, Cool sign!... uhhh, you guys didnt happen to see anyone run by with a laptop and dvd player did you?" "uh no officer" "ok! thanks guys!" and they rolled off to conitinue the beat... Lucky stuff.. Enjoy the pics! I wanna do more Charlie Brown Speed bumps all over the place.... eventually...
.: SNACK TIME :.
Well, let me introduce to you to my first ever comic strip "Snack Time". I have been meaning to do a one panel comic strip for ages. These are the first three that I have completled, you can find them in Vancouver's own Discorder. Look forward to them appearing monthly.
.: SHIRT SECTION UPDATE:.
I been making a bunch of new shirts! check em all out over in the Shirt section.
.: NEVERLAND :.
Well, me and my best buds got together and started a Michael Jackson coverbadn called "Neverland". Our good friend Stephen Hardie has been performing as MJ since he was a kid.. He actually earned his entertainers badge in scouts by performing MJ. So it was very fitting to get this going.. The cool thing about it all is all the design work that has come along with it... I have been making gigposters, shirts, props and background visuals. so far we have played 3 sold out shows and are looking in to playing some kids parties. Stay tuned for what happens next on that front.
.: Advert for Fortune Sound Club:.
Fortune sound club contacted me to creat a print advertisment to run in Vice and all the local rags, they told me i could do whatever i wanted with their slogan "You Can't test the sound".. A slogan created because of there crazy speaker system that blows head up every weekend. Heres what I created for them... a Exterior image of the club.... the morning after.
.: THE EVOLUTION OF BERNARD BURNER :.
I thought I would do up a little post on The evolution of Bernard Burner.. Bernard came from a time when Barn Burners singer Kevin Keegan would often refer people to a manager that didnt exist Named Barnard Burner.. Eventually I made a shirt for Barn burner with a Skeleton eating a pizza and we decided that was to be Bernard Burner. Following that he has appeared on their album cover, more shirts and me and Kevin have started to write a Bernard Burner comic.. One day soon I wanna make a Barnburner music video that features Bernard Burner hammin it up off the page.
coloring sheet
.: THE GIANT COLORING SHEET :.
This was fun, Olio Fest is a yearly music fest that happens in Vancouver. Last year they asked me to do some live art on stage while some bands played.. I wasnt really down.. But then me and Mark Summers came up with the idea to create a giant colouring sheet for the crowd to do.. So i drew up a colouring sheet of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson as if they were the Sistine Chapel. Michaels got his custom cherubs.. Macaully, E.T, Bubbles and Peter pan... It was a lot of fun, tons of people joined in and made it look pretty whacky...
.: I LIKE IT RAW 1, 2 and 3:.
2010 has been a lot of fun, and one of the reasons it has been so fun was these partys that me and my friends put on a local sushi restaraunt.. A huuuuge sushi restaraunt, with a wall of framed comic books, neon signs that say things like "VACUUM" and "ACTIVEWEAR", giant bears and a massive Balcony.. its awesome... I made these fliers with all my fave party peeps and sent the invite out... Each party had about 150 people show up and each one was just a awesome time.
Welcome to the grand opening of codyfennell.com!!!
I tell ya, this website has been a long time coming and I'm excited to invite you in to check out the place.. Originally I figured launching this site would be pretty low key but as the launch date approached, that wasn't the case. The city of Vancouver caught wind of what was going down and they decided to embrace the situation and make it official. Public workers, local citizens and City officials all came out for the joy-ace occasion.
There was balloons, a velvet ribbon, giant scissors, a sweet stone pillar, photographers and a ton of cheering.. It was nuts man.. nuts! But the craziest thing of all was the Mayor himself left his office downtown to do the ribbon cutting.. I have been a huge supporter of the Mayor ever since he cleaned up the streets of all that crime so I felt in good company.. Anyways, this whole thing was was shaping up to be a huge event.. There was even talk of snipers. serious! Some of you may of seen this on the news, but for those who missed it, heres what went down...
So the Mayor shows up a little late but he was a sweet dude right off the bat. Joking around , Having a gas, just being cool.. I got to talk to him for a couple minutes but soon enough we had to get down to business and he was no slouch.. There was people telling us what to do, where to stand, The mayor seemed used to this kind of treatment. I didn't know what was going on.. The next thing you know the giant scissors are out, I hadn't even seen scissors that big before, then photographers are tellin' me to smile. I was actin quick, thinkin' fast, then it happened.
HE CUT THE RIBBON!!! The crowd was hyped, There was a strobe of photos being snapped off and Just like that, the website was up and runnin', a spot for online viewing 24/7. I was all like "yesss!" and the mayor was pumped too. Still The formalities were yet but over.
We still had to take care of the mandatory handshake photo but the Mayor assured me the real fun would soon begin. You know, I may frame this photo, Its not often you get to shake hands with the mayor.
Next thing you know, the mayor jumps like 4 feet in the air. Which I though was pretty impressive for a old dude. It was out of nowhere. "WHOO-HA!!! Lets turns this function in to a party ." he yells, then all the sudden that "Master P" song "Bout Bout It" started playing over the PA... I was starting to feel a sneaky suspicion the city holds these grand openings just to get out of the office.
So then the Mayor grabs one of the balloons, sucks all the helium out, and does the most kickass impersonation of a mickey mouse getting kicked in the nuts. It was actually pretty hilarious.. You know with the high voice and all?
and just like that, the party was on. Music was bangin, peeps were dancing, more inhaling of helium, everybody doin impressions, saw a pretty good Mike Tyson. Things were getting a little out of hand.
The next thing you know, the Mayor took off with all the chicks for like 20 minutes.. Just disappeared around the corner... Kinda killed the party for the rest of us, But hey! When you're the mayor, you're the mayor.
But after all that, things settled down a whole bunch, me and the Mayor finally had a chance to get talking. I gave him a guided tour of the site, told him about some future endeavors I wanted to work on, hopefully picking up some new clients and venturing into some new areas... Then he said "listen, your gonna have to hustle, you may have to bleed for it. But as long and you never backdown to the man and you stick to your guns, you will stay on the right track. There's only one person who's gonna make it happen.. And thats you Cody"
I'll never forget those words, The mayor is a smart, smart man... And after everything was said and done, I felt pretty good about getting back to work and starting some new projects to keep the site ever evolving. The internet is a big place and I'll be doin' my best to keep this place a good place to be.. place, place place.... Big shout outs go out to the Mayor and everyone else who came down, Ryan Walter Wagner for coming down and taking the photos,, and my family, friends, bands and employers that have been down since day one. See you all in the future.
