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Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Taul “Toy Crusher” Waters is a Jacksonville, Florida–based artist whose practice evolved the way street knowledge usually does: illegally, obsessively, and with a sense of humor sharp enough to draw blood. He cut his teeth in graffiti and illustration, learning early how to communicate fast, loud, and without permission. That foundation expanded into graphic design, painting, digital illustration, and blogging—each medium treated as another surface to disrupt, remix, or interrogate. His work balances discipline with defiance, blending professional execution with the residue of alley walls, sketchbooks, and long nights spent refining ideas that refused to behave. Taul draws inspiration from hip hop culture, drum and bass rhythms, science fiction, horror, skateboard graphics, and the kind of absurd life experiences you only understand after surviving them. More recently, his exploration of synthography has pushed his visual language into stranger territory, where machines collaborate in the chaos rather than clean it up. Darkly comical and deliberately confrontational, his work invites viewers to laugh first, think second, and then realize they’ve been implicated the entire time.
Showing posts with label Intellectual Takeout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intellectual Takeout. Show all posts

Thursday, February 5, 2026

EPISODE 18: The Deep

On this day in whatever year this was, I sweated more buckets than a small village trying to put out a fire...
I painted this at 818 Studios at One Spark one year many moons ago alongside Campbell, OXEGEN, VAN, and a few others. I also remember doing a bunch of characer throwies and scaring a few of the patrons of the show. This was something that couldn't be helped, seeing as they came to see street art and that's exactly what we gave them. You can't see it, but I'm shrugging my shoulders aggressively right now...

...From the Archives!
Blackbook Collab 2000

This was something the homie from Chicago and I did when we were out in the desert in 29 Palms in between two 2 month training operations. That California heat did something to our linework for those 4 months. Yet we left there having listened to so much good West Coast Hip Hop we weren't even mad. Young guns.

I'm just going to get right down to making some folks mad...

From Intellectual Takeout:

THE CASE FOR AI LITERACY IN A SKEPTICAL AGE
"The artificial intelligence debate is immediately polarizing. We’ve all heard our family or friends talk about it. AI is either seen as a boon or met with severe pessimism.

But there’s a middle ground worth considering. This isn’t about championing AI as the solution to all our problems. Rather, it’s about realizing that AI literacy is essential, whether we choose to use these tools or not.

AI literacy isn’t about becoming an expert in machine learning. Unless you work in that field, it won’t do you much good. Instead, it’s about understanding what generative AI systems are, what they can and cannot do, and how they’re likely going to shape our economic landscape in the future."
>>> READ THE REST HERE <<<

I imagine that someone who's vehemently against the implimentation of AI systems, LLM'S, image generators, etc. probably sounds like I used to sound when I outright refused to learn to use Photoshop. Turns out you end up kinda needing it at some point. Being a purist is admirable in many ways, but evolution is inevitable. I truly don't believe that AI can in any way replace traditional art, film, music, or any of various other human made creative endeavors. However it's easier and faster to assemble something with an electric drill than a handheld screwdriver.

For all of us on the dark side in perpetuity, let the madness of 2026 begin...

From Screen Rant:

THIS NEW SERIAL KILLER MOVIE FROM THE WRITER OF SE7EN COULD BE THE NEXT SLEEPER HORROR HIT
PSYCHO KILLER TRAILER

"2025 will stand as a benchmark for horror, as it was loaded with everything from Oscar-caliber box office smash hits to universally-acclaimed independent films. While Sinners and Weapons may be the titles that everyone remembers long-term, smaller-scale hits like Companion, Clown In A Cornfield, and Heart Eyes set the tone before we got into peak spring and summer movie season.

2026 is already off to a strong start as far as critical scores are concerned, as January will see the release of We Bury the Dead, Primate, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and Sam Raimi's return to horror in Send Help. While Send Help may still fit the bill, none of the January releases has qualified as a major box office success.

That could change in February, as one horror movie on the docket seems poised to be a breakout hit in the way the aforementioned early 2025 releases were. 20th Century Fox is set to debut Psycho Killer on February 20th, which could be the box office sleeper hit that truly kicks off 2026's horror run."
You may recognize the lead, Georgina Campbell from Barbarian, Black Mirror, or that one movie where she's a park ranger in a very disturbing situation that I'm too lazy to look up right now but will probably highlight this text and link it later on. Andrew Kevin Walker wrote this (yep, that Se7en dude) so the twisted factor will be on 10. Not too many film makers can do a serial killer / slasher joint and make you feel like you can't guess what they'll do next or what they're motives are, so buckle up.

Thank you @dandoonah for sending me this!...
This is a snapshot of the state of mind of the majority of America right now. Even though that photo is parody gold and their tweets are off the chain, it says something that a police department has a social media account that clowns that much...

This had me tense the entire trailer and - at first - I kinda failed to understand why...

IRON LUNG TRAILER

...then I read the synopsis...

From Iron Lung:
"Set in a post-apocalyptic future where an event known as "The Quiet Rapture" caused all known stars and habitable planets in the universe to disappear, a convict is sent to search an ocean of blood discovered on a desolate moon, using a small submarine nicknamed the "Iron Lung".

An ocean of blood. The only hope left after The Quiet Rapture. In the rusting halls of crumbling space stations, the last remnants of humanity craft a submarine to explore the bleeding depths… and weld one soul inside to pilot it. But hope in this void is as illusionary as the starlight. This is not an expedition.

It’s an execution."
It's something about the feeling of extreme remote isolation in this description that makes this seem like an interesting story apart from everything that's been released so far. Cosmic Horror works because of the existential dread its narratives usually invoke. To shut the lights out on the entire universe, then somehow come to the conclusion that an ocean of blood has the answers to...look, all I can say is whoever wrote this (Mark Fischbach) pass that, please.

This will forever be etched in my memory as one of the weirdest things I've ever experienced sitting down. Almost up there with Beau Is Afraid...

VIVARIUM TRAILER

From Thrillist:
"This piece contains spoilers for Vivarium.

In Vivarium, a young couple finds themselves drawn into and trapped inside a 21st century suburban nightmare: a neighborhood populated by an endless sprawl of homes of the exact same size and shape, isolated from the world and crushed by the brutal sameness of their surroundings. Unlike your typical 21st century suburban nightmare, the couple also finds themselves enslaved to a race of interdimensional humanoids, forced to nurture one of their kind as it grows, with unnatural swiftness, from infant to adult."
>>> WATCH FULL MOVIE HERE <<<

I went into this blind and not knowing anything about the story it was based on. I honestly didn't expect it to be anyting but an artsy drama, yet it swiftly turned into something strainingly disturbing and a little twisted. The majority of the film has you thinking "W exacty TF is going on right now?", but it definitely pays off. You can relate to the characters frustration and confusion while they endure the surreal events they're suffering and you become immersed in solving the problems they're faced with. I'm glad I stumbled upon this because I'd honestly never heard anything about it.

Speaking of stumbling upon...

LOXY - X OF SWORDS MIX (2020)

You don't just listen to a Loxy mix...you survive it. The breaks, the selection, the mood, the transitions; all of it makes for a head-heavy listening experience. Took me six years to hear it, though.

I was about to do my usual corny outro, but then I saw this...

GHOST TRAIN TRAILER

Sleep tight, and stay up!

LYNX & MAPLE - SHAKU

#toycrusher #taulwatersuniverse #mechdirective #art #artblog #jacksonville #jacksonvilleflorida #jax #jaxart #jaxartist #duvalcounty #duuuval #horror #jacksonvilleart #jaxartblog #intellectualtakeout #ailiteracy #psychokillermovie #andrewkevinwalker #onespark #oxegenmbk #818studios #loxy #metalheadz #ironlung #markfischbach #lynxandmaple #thrillist #vivariummovie #ghosttrain2026

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Episode 14: Obscure Broadcaster

Made it through another year! I should probably refinance this blog or something...

...From the Archives!
TAUL'S AWESOME MIXTAPE #3 - 2000

Some may not know this about me, but I was a whole disc jockey for a long time. I played quite a few venues (some in other countries, some on boats, some in rooms so dark you could barely see the turntables), but it got to the point where hanging out in bars and clubs became over-stimulating for me. The above sketches were done during that time and I was all over the place. (You can see the influence in the subject matter and color choices.) You can say what you want about generative AI, but with that type of power I can now take these concepts into a million different directions.

Anyway, this is odd...

From Big Think:

DRONE DISCOVERS WEIRD UNDERWATER VOLCANO OFF CALIFORNIA
The newly discovered seamount as mapped by Saildrone Surveyor. (Credit: Saildrone / NOAA)

"After surveying 45,000 square kilometers of once mysterious ocean floor Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the un-crewed sailing drone Surveyor moved far to the south, discovering a previously unknown seamount within 200 miles (322 km) of the NorCal coast."
>>> READ THE REST HERE <<<

I don't know what's funnier: the fact that a scientific publication described a discovery as "weird", or the fact that one of them described it as an "enormous bundt cake". I take an interest in news like this because these types of discoveries always beg much larger questions - mainly "What do they plan on doing with this information?"
Don't get me wrong I'm not necessarily anti-Christmas or anything, but I thought this may be an interesting read 'cause 'tis the season and all that...

From Intellectual Takeout:

C.S. LEWIS’ ‘LOST’ PARABLE ON THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
C.S. Lewis was famous for taking ordinary topics, injecting them with an unexpected twist of thought, and presenting them in a fanciful way for his readers. His thoughts on Christmas are no exception.

In 1954, Lewis sat down to write an essay entitled Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus. The essay described the fictitious island of Niatirb (aka Britain) which had a yearly celebration called “Exmas.”

As Lewis goes on to explain, the celebration of Exmas is characterized by insanity in which individuals run around sending greeting cards and buying gifts for others because it is demanded of them. Such insanity naturally brings the following results:
>>> READ THE REST HERE <<<

She (the author this article) isn't lying when she says Lewis was famous for his method of taking a thought and flipping it. I remember hearing Alan Watts speak of him and saying that he claimed that an individual can write or inject nonsensical words into a sentence and still somehow manage to make the reader comprehend the objective point of said sentence. How geeked up was he to even come up with a concept like that?

With all the hype about IT: Welcome to Derry (which I still haven't watched, btw), we're forgetting that there's a wild, wacky side to the town they don't want us to stay woke about...

IT BAD LIP READING

I completely lost it in the first 40 seconds of this video. I'd pay money to see full length films of Bad Lip Readings of this entire franchise.

I don't usually do this, but this was just rude...

This is a screen shot of my alliance chat in State of Survival when I greeted a new member, only for them to run right out the door. War games are full of weirdos.

Ok, I tried to get through it. I really did...
SKINAMARINK TRAILER

From IMDB:
"Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. To cope with the strange situation, the two bring pillows and blankets to the living room and settle into a quiet slumber party. They play well worn videotapes of cartoons to fill the silence of the house and distract from the frightening and inexplicable situation. All the while in the hopes that eventually some grown-ups will come to rescue them. However, after a while it becomes clear that something is watching over them"
>>> WATCH THE FULL MOVIE HERE <<<

Now, for us latch key kids who grew up in the 80's and were used to being left alone without adult supervision for long stretches of time, this film plays into the fear of abandonment trope. Those of my generation may be quick to put this right into the Cosmic Horror section. However - for literally EVERYBODY else - this movie goes right into the "WTF is this even about?" bin. I won't lie, I dig the eerie, ominous, esoteric aesthetic of the film (I am obsessed with The Backrooms, after all). The monotone and minimalistic frames add to the mystery, but what it lacks is a clear direction and - quite frankly - useful dialogue. It's a film that, in all honesty, is worth the watch; even if it's just to say you did. I just couldn't get more that 75% through it. Mainly because I felt like I got it by then, but your mileage may vary.

This next mix tape is by a beatsmith legend that needs no introduction. I just have to note that that Nonrev track with the Bobby Byrd break at the end is top tier left field.

DILLA BATCH | BARELY SURFACED (1995 - 1999 UNDERRATED EXTENDED MIX)


Alright, if you're from Duval and you don't already know, let me learn you...
SATURDAY DECEMBER 20TH 2025
DOORS AT 7PM / SHOW AT 8PM
UNICAT
602 E. UNION STREET JAX, FL 32206

From The Space Gallery:
"Duval Destroyer’s inspirations include living in the current moment, human rights, impermanence, change and mysticism. Destroyer states, “We are equal. All born into this realm of polarity and change. We all come into this world as vulnerable little children. All beings want happiness and hope to avoid suffering. The time to end war is now. Non-violence in thought, speech and action is the only way to create peace through equality. All equal. All one. As the organs and cells of the body must work together for overall health, we must also work together in unity for the progression of humanity and the greater good. No one is more important than another. Everyone plays their part. Different and beautiful and equal."
Jacksonville has many living legends haunting it's walls and galleries and DUVAL DSTRYR is no exception. You can see his works live and direct this upcoming weekend before Christmas, so make sure you drag your @$$ over to UNICAT this Saturday. You might catch me there if you don't blink...

...but that's going to be it for me on this one. Hope you're enjoying the holiday season!

Stay up!

MADLIB - ETERNAL BROADCASTER

#toycrusher #taulwatersuniverse #mechdirective #art #artblog #jacksonville #jacksonvilleflorida #jax #jaxart #jaxartist #duvalcounty #duuuval #horror #jacksonvilleart #jaxartblog #bigthink #underwatervolcano #cslewis #intellectualtakeout #jdilla #jaydee #nonrev #bobbybyrd #skinamarink #imdb #IT #badlipreading #madlib #beatkonducta #stateofsurvival #duvaldstryr #unicat