a whole host of angels shuffling through my iPod
the universe of Mass Effect is very gripping. it grips me often and for long periods of time. hence my lack of posts. while John Shepard, Ashley Williams and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya rest after a massive fire fight with rogue machines on the earth's moon, I figure I'll throw some stuff up here.
a. a sneak peek at the next/last piece in what is a trilogy of images. you have seen 2. the first will be redone. maybe removed from the trilogy. i've only sat here coloring this for like 2 hours, but it is almost finished. just needs some clouds and feathered glow. this of course is a very small crop of the piece. what this preview looks like really shouldn't suprise or interest you. but i like to keep track of the progress.
b. You Should Be Working 003. may soon be working on a chillin's book in this style. we'll see how long the project lasts.
c. back to the moon, then the work x-mas bash. bye.
a. a sneak peek at the next/last piece in what is a trilogy of images. you have seen 2. the first will be redone. maybe removed from the trilogy. i've only sat here coloring this for like 2 hours, but it is almost finished. just needs some clouds and feathered glow. this of course is a very small crop of the piece. what this preview looks like really shouldn't suprise or interest you. but i like to keep track of the progress.
b. You Should Be Working 003. may soon be working on a chillin's book in this style. we'll see how long the project lasts.
c. back to the moon, then the work x-mas bash. bye.
a simple song of hope
not so much different than the last time, but anyways. i'm calling it done for now.
epilogue: HOPE! (click for big)
graphite & digital.
---
saw No Country for Old Men again last night. Even better the second time, for me. Ready for a third.
Also interesting: the East Coast video pick: Cashback.
Gotta go. Time for Groceries and Mass Effect.
epilogue: HOPE! (click for big)
graphite & digital.
---
saw No Country for Old Men again last night. Even better the second time, for me. Ready for a third.
Also interesting: the East Coast video pick: Cashback.
Gotta go. Time for Groceries and Mass Effect.
fogmoth, a work in progress
screencap of a currently untitled piece. I have some scraps of ideas for a title, but I'll need to cut them up and put them all together. a somewhat epilogue to the 5 names piece (which will be probably re-colored to fit this piece). also: this isn't cropped correctly or anything yet. i'm still working on it, dangit!
click for biggie.
click for biggie.
say my name like a guessing game
five names for the same thing.
click to make it bigger, obviously.
a narrative type thing i have been wanting to start for awhile. maybe i'll like it enough to continue.
graphite which was quickly/poorly colored. that's all i'll really say.
when scanned, it doesn't really look much like graphite.
click to make it bigger, obviously.
a narrative type thing i have been wanting to start for awhile. maybe i'll like it enough to continue.
graphite which was quickly/poorly colored. that's all i'll really say.
when scanned, it doesn't really look much like graphite.
it was my voice that moved the first rock
and i'd do it all again.
not too much to update on here. saw no country for old men. was good. had some ideas for drawings that i am acting on at the moment. also working on drawings for a website. lots of drawings, not lots of time.
here is a work in progress. really just the first sit down at this drawing. the hole will contain a house and yard and things. it's a reference to the mabinogion. it's a piece of an idea i've had jotted down forever, now combined with the shell stuff. i think lorna has quit on the collab before it even began. so on top of lots of drawings there will also have to be lots of coloring. this piece is currently on the backburner while i work on the website stuff and a couple new/fresh ideas. also a couple birthdays upcoming that should have drawings associated with them. and xmas is almost here too. and new years. anyways, here's the shell.
click on it to make it way bigger. i'm not sure if i'll ink this or not yet. but there will be more things added to it for sure. with computers.
not too much to update on here. saw no country for old men. was good. had some ideas for drawings that i am acting on at the moment. also working on drawings for a website. lots of drawings, not lots of time.
here is a work in progress. really just the first sit down at this drawing. the hole will contain a house and yard and things. it's a reference to the mabinogion. it's a piece of an idea i've had jotted down forever, now combined with the shell stuff. i think lorna has quit on the collab before it even began. so on top of lots of drawings there will also have to be lots of coloring. this piece is currently on the backburner while i work on the website stuff and a couple new/fresh ideas. also a couple birthdays upcoming that should have drawings associated with them. and xmas is almost here too. and new years. anyways, here's the shell.
click on it to make it way bigger. i'm not sure if i'll ink this or not yet. but there will be more things added to it for sure. with computers.
shepard book. you can't kill the signal.
Artfarm had a pretty good turn out, and the screenprinting went better than I imagined it would. Neat.
While in Raleigh, there was a Wake County library sale. Everything must go. This was the last day of the sale when you could fill a box for $5 or fill a bag for $2. I filled a bag. In the mix:
The 1968 Rand McNally World Atlas "Imperial Edition". I like lines. Maps are covered in lines. Therefore, I like maps. My sketchbook has a few ideas for drawings involving maps of certain places. This will be nice to have.
Squiggly lines: Picked up a book called Arabic: Language Familiarization Course. It has many squiggy lines. Also Gregg Shorthand which is a very bizarre book of squiggles for every word in english in shorthand. Very strange. A Practical Guide to The Runes: Their uses in Divination in Magic. Runes are lines. Not squiggly ones, but still. The Experience of Nothingness. This has a cover of squiggly lines, but I was more interested in this inward thinking nothingness thing.
Great Adventures with National Geographic. I went in looking for National Geographics. I would have filled 2 boxes. Instead I stumbled about a hardcover book collecting different adventure trips the Nat.Geo. folks went on. Lots of neat architecture and stuff from other countries.
A Guide to Anatomy & Physiology Lab -- about 115 pages of black and white close ups of human bones, and macro photography of human skin and hair and blood and things. All kinds of patterns and things. Also some Bodies-esque stuff of arms and legs with the skin removed and the muscles exposed.
The best things I stumbled upon would have to be The Art of Dreaming and The Second Ring of Power, both by Carlos Castaneda. I had overheard a conversation about this author a few weeks ago but I could never recall his name or the titles of his books when I would return home. I even saw the conversation maker out at a show and asked him what they were but forgot again. Then while roaming the endless grid of tables at this sale, I saw The Second Ring of Power. It was just sitting there calling for me. I picked up the book thinking that the back cover would describe some crappy dork fest about power rings and things. But as I picked it up I noted the authors name and my memory flooded hard. It's like Carlos himself astral projected into my mind. I don't know if you are supposed to real these autobiographical tales of astral projection in any sort of order, or where these 2 fall into that order, but I am going to start one tonight. Hopefully they will be as cool as they sound.
While in Raleigh, there was a Wake County library sale. Everything must go. This was the last day of the sale when you could fill a box for $5 or fill a bag for $2. I filled a bag. In the mix:
The 1968 Rand McNally World Atlas "Imperial Edition". I like lines. Maps are covered in lines. Therefore, I like maps. My sketchbook has a few ideas for drawings involving maps of certain places. This will be nice to have.
Squiggly lines: Picked up a book called Arabic: Language Familiarization Course. It has many squiggy lines. Also Gregg Shorthand which is a very bizarre book of squiggles for every word in english in shorthand. Very strange. A Practical Guide to The Runes: Their uses in Divination in Magic. Runes are lines. Not squiggly ones, but still. The Experience of Nothingness. This has a cover of squiggly lines, but I was more interested in this inward thinking nothingness thing.
Great Adventures with National Geographic. I went in looking for National Geographics. I would have filled 2 boxes. Instead I stumbled about a hardcover book collecting different adventure trips the Nat.Geo. folks went on. Lots of neat architecture and stuff from other countries.
A Guide to Anatomy & Physiology Lab -- about 115 pages of black and white close ups of human bones, and macro photography of human skin and hair and blood and things. All kinds of patterns and things. Also some Bodies-esque stuff of arms and legs with the skin removed and the muscles exposed.
The best things I stumbled upon would have to be The Art of Dreaming and The Second Ring of Power, both by Carlos Castaneda. I had overheard a conversation about this author a few weeks ago but I could never recall his name or the titles of his books when I would return home. I even saw the conversation maker out at a show and asked him what they were but forgot again. Then while roaming the endless grid of tables at this sale, I saw The Second Ring of Power. It was just sitting there calling for me. I picked up the book thinking that the back cover would describe some crappy dork fest about power rings and things. But as I picked it up I noted the authors name and my memory flooded hard. It's like Carlos himself astral projected into my mind. I don't know if you are supposed to real these autobiographical tales of astral projection in any sort of order, or where these 2 fall into that order, but I am going to start one tonight. Hopefully they will be as cool as they sound.
post-its / you should be working 001
mobius snake king guy. purple post-it, ink & graphite.
E tea guy. yellow post-it & ink.
we're going to jump / the blank badge
I don't really believe in coincidence. I feel like the things you say and do are at some level related to things you have heard at some point in your life. If someone else does or says a similar thing as you, that makes sense. We all come from the same sea creature. All of our brains grew the same way. If the brain naturally gives you ideas and impulses, than I think it is safe to assume that someone else's brain is giving them the same ideas and impulses.
This tho, I thought was at least a happy occurance of thinking about things and then having those things reinforced moments later.
Yesterday I blogged about NYC in a post with lyrics from Across the Universe by the Beatles sprinkled throughout. Right after posting, I was very tired and decided to read before going to bed. I had started re-reading The Invisibles a couple weeks ago. Last night I wanted to read something that I had read before. I recalled re-starting the Invisibles. So I shuffled through the pile (huge) of comics on my nightstand. There was the Invisibles volume 1 with an envelope inside as a bookmark.
The Invisibles volume 1 is of course titled "Say You Want A Revolution." And in a portion I had read 2 weeks ago, King Mob summons up the Psychedelic God / Head - John Lennon. Anyways. The bit I was at last night was a bonus to the happy occurance because in it Tom O'Bedlam has a speach about cities and magic. Here it is:
-
When we met first I promised you a secret to keep in your pocket, didn't I? A fine and shiny secret, passed from hand to hand through the years, master to pupil.
Didn't I say I'd tell you what citites are? Listen, then, for I'll not tell it a second time.
Here it is as I was told it once, old but new-minted with each fresh telling. Our world is sick, boy. Very sick. A virus got in a long time ago and we've got so used to its effects, we've forgotten what it was like before we became ill. I'm talking about cities, see?
Human cultures were originally homeostatic; They existed in a self-sustaining equilibrium, with no notions of time and progress, like we've got. Then the city-virus got in. No one's really sure where it came from or who brought it to us, but like all viral organisms, its one directive is to use up all available resources in producing copies of itself.
More and more copies until there's no raw material left and the host body, overwhelmed, can only die. The cities want us to become good builders. Eventually, we'll build rockets and carry the virus to other worlds.
Cities have their own way of talking to you; Catch sight of the reflection of a neon sign and it'll spell out a magic word that summons strange dreams. Have you never seen the word 'IXAT' glowing in the night? That's one of the Holy names.
Or make tape recordings of traffic noise and listen to them at night. You'll hear the voices of the city coming through, telling you things, showing you pictures. Sometimes they'll show you where they came from.
In waking dreams I've seen cemetary planets circling abandoned stars. Like mausoleums, silent and dead, every building a headstone.
That's what cities do... But those of us who know the secret learn ways to unlock the power in cities. We make a pact with them and they give us gifts in return.
-
The city has its own gods and spirits; Electric-eyed car gods, funeral gods in the form of underground trains that burrow through the dark like old CROM-CRUACH, Lord Worm himself. And totem Animals too. If you want to be a sorcerer, you'll learn to honor these animals. Rats there are and pigeons. Invisible animals, see? They're overlooked and despised, like we are. Nobody sees their comings and goings.
-
And this part about minds:
-
Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of lust, as OBIDUCT; HOBBIDIDANCE, Prince of Dumbness; MAHU, of Stealing; MODO, of Murder; FLIBBERTIGGIBBET, of Mopping and Mowing. So many giants and deomns and always room for more in poor Tom's head.
Your head's like mine, like all our heads; Big enough to contain every God and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!
But what do we choose to keep in this miraculous cabinet? Little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over. The world turns our key and we play the same little tune again and again and we think that tune's all we are.
-
Grant Morrison, man. Grant Morrison.
This tho, I thought was at least a happy occurance of thinking about things and then having those things reinforced moments later.
Yesterday I blogged about NYC in a post with lyrics from Across the Universe by the Beatles sprinkled throughout. Right after posting, I was very tired and decided to read before going to bed. I had started re-reading The Invisibles a couple weeks ago. Last night I wanted to read something that I had read before. I recalled re-starting the Invisibles. So I shuffled through the pile (huge) of comics on my nightstand. There was the Invisibles volume 1 with an envelope inside as a bookmark.
The Invisibles volume 1 is of course titled "Say You Want A Revolution." And in a portion I had read 2 weeks ago, King Mob summons up the Psychedelic God / Head - John Lennon. Anyways. The bit I was at last night was a bonus to the happy occurance because in it Tom O'Bedlam has a speach about cities and magic. Here it is:
-
When we met first I promised you a secret to keep in your pocket, didn't I? A fine and shiny secret, passed from hand to hand through the years, master to pupil.
Didn't I say I'd tell you what citites are? Listen, then, for I'll not tell it a second time.
Here it is as I was told it once, old but new-minted with each fresh telling. Our world is sick, boy. Very sick. A virus got in a long time ago and we've got so used to its effects, we've forgotten what it was like before we became ill. I'm talking about cities, see?
Human cultures were originally homeostatic; They existed in a self-sustaining equilibrium, with no notions of time and progress, like we've got. Then the city-virus got in. No one's really sure where it came from or who brought it to us, but like all viral organisms, its one directive is to use up all available resources in producing copies of itself.
More and more copies until there's no raw material left and the host body, overwhelmed, can only die. The cities want us to become good builders. Eventually, we'll build rockets and carry the virus to other worlds.
Cities have their own way of talking to you; Catch sight of the reflection of a neon sign and it'll spell out a magic word that summons strange dreams. Have you never seen the word 'IXAT' glowing in the night? That's one of the Holy names.
Or make tape recordings of traffic noise and listen to them at night. You'll hear the voices of the city coming through, telling you things, showing you pictures. Sometimes they'll show you where they came from.
In waking dreams I've seen cemetary planets circling abandoned stars. Like mausoleums, silent and dead, every building a headstone.
That's what cities do... But those of us who know the secret learn ways to unlock the power in cities. We make a pact with them and they give us gifts in return.
-
The city has its own gods and spirits; Electric-eyed car gods, funeral gods in the form of underground trains that burrow through the dark like old CROM-CRUACH, Lord Worm himself. And totem Animals too. If you want to be a sorcerer, you'll learn to honor these animals. Rats there are and pigeons. Invisible animals, see? They're overlooked and despised, like we are. Nobody sees their comings and goings.
-
And this part about minds:
-
Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of lust, as OBIDUCT; HOBBIDIDANCE, Prince of Dumbness; MAHU, of Stealing; MODO, of Murder; FLIBBERTIGGIBBET, of Mopping and Mowing. So many giants and deomns and always room for more in poor Tom's head.
Your head's like mine, like all our heads; Big enough to contain every God and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!
But what do we choose to keep in this miraculous cabinet? Little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over. The world turns our key and we play the same little tune again and again and we think that tune's all we are.
-
Grant Morrison, man. Grant Morrison.
Jai guru deva
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box;
I watched Perfume: The Story of a Murder on DVD the other night. Not as good as the book but the same story for sure. Just really smoothed over and simplified. Still some what interesting, I suppose.
Words and lines are spinning constantly inside and tho the trees provide the paper required, i can't bring myself to let the maps and drawings and letters be born. I can feel the source staring at me, right beyond the limits of my own eye's ability. I need glasses that focus inner vision.
I some what talked to a guy the other night about Astral Projection and he was telling me of a series of books that sounded like something I should read. But I don't recall the names or the subject matter. Something about a Journey into Exile I think, but the book I find while searching for that is nothing at all like what he was talking about.
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns. It calls me on and on across the universe.
In my mind, in tales I tell myself as backstories for drawings that are never told or drawn, New York is some form of magical place where things that are unattainable thrive. Around the beginning of the end of the year they shine bright enough to summon unwise and wise men to leave gifts at the foot of the great building beasts. That time is near in this year. It is bringing new faces to its large apple of a heart and these faces will grow and prosper and bear fruit of their own. It's a place I could never see myself, unfortunately. But I know my friends and people that I consider extensions of myself will love it there. Enjoy it, Charles.
Nothings gonna change my world.
Ohm.
[never decide to type a blog without a topic ready]
I watched Perfume: The Story of a Murder on DVD the other night. Not as good as the book but the same story for sure. Just really smoothed over and simplified. Still some what interesting, I suppose.
Words and lines are spinning constantly inside and tho the trees provide the paper required, i can't bring myself to let the maps and drawings and letters be born. I can feel the source staring at me, right beyond the limits of my own eye's ability. I need glasses that focus inner vision.
I some what talked to a guy the other night about Astral Projection and he was telling me of a series of books that sounded like something I should read. But I don't recall the names or the subject matter. Something about a Journey into Exile I think, but the book I find while searching for that is nothing at all like what he was talking about.
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns. It calls me on and on across the universe.
In my mind, in tales I tell myself as backstories for drawings that are never told or drawn, New York is some form of magical place where things that are unattainable thrive. Around the beginning of the end of the year they shine bright enough to summon unwise and wise men to leave gifts at the foot of the great building beasts. That time is near in this year. It is bringing new faces to its large apple of a heart and these faces will grow and prosper and bear fruit of their own. It's a place I could never see myself, unfortunately. But I know my friends and people that I consider extensions of myself will love it there. Enjoy it, Charles.
Nothings gonna change my world.
Ohm.
[never decide to type a blog without a topic ready]
and he hoppin' away!
Today on my drive back to work from lunch, I was behind a car with the vanity plate "MSTRJEDI"
I watched the documentary "How to draw a bunny" tonight. It is about the artist Ray Johnson. He was a friend of Andy Warhol's but had been making odd work well before him and after him, into 1995. His mind was fabulous. His last piece was exceptionally intriguing but I don't want to spoil it. Rent this movie for sure. If your local video store doesn't have it, ask them to order it for you. I asked East Coast and now they have it for me to rent a second and third time. Or get Netflix or a friend with Netflix.
I watched the documentary "How to draw a bunny" tonight. It is about the artist Ray Johnson. He was a friend of Andy Warhol's but had been making odd work well before him and after him, into 1995. His mind was fabulous. His last piece was exceptionally intriguing but I don't want to spoil it. Rent this movie for sure. If your local video store doesn't have it, ask them to order it for you. I asked East Coast and now they have it for me to rent a second and third time. Or get Netflix or a friend with Netflix.
The road is clear and laid out ahead of me.
I watched the Darjeeling Limited this weekend. It was very enjoyable. Not as good as Royal Tenebaums (will anything ever be) but I want to watch it again and again, so that's a good sign I think. The train car sequence near the end that follows up on all of the side characters was amazing. It made me very happy with its cleverness.
My roommate is almost all of the way moved out. I'm interested in his empty room so that I can come home and go into complete sensory deprivation. I think that will be pleasant, but we'll see. It may make me more detached than I already feel.
This passage of this Bright Eyes song came on the iPod on my drive today. It really sums up my whole reasoning for a secret trip to Raleigh. There are bits of hope in these seemingly hopeless songs that I really find comforting.
I'll get home and meet my friends at our favorite bar.
We'll get some lighter heads for our heavy hearts.
And we will share a drink.
Yeah we will share our fears
and they will know how I love them.
They will know how I love.
They will know how I love them.
I am nothing without their love.
-
I am feeling really dizzy all of the sudden.
My roommate is almost all of the way moved out. I'm interested in his empty room so that I can come home and go into complete sensory deprivation. I think that will be pleasant, but we'll see. It may make me more detached than I already feel.
This passage of this Bright Eyes song came on the iPod on my drive today. It really sums up my whole reasoning for a secret trip to Raleigh. There are bits of hope in these seemingly hopeless songs that I really find comforting.
I'll get home and meet my friends at our favorite bar.
We'll get some lighter heads for our heavy hearts.
And we will share a drink.
Yeah we will share our fears
and they will know how I love them.
They will know how I love.
They will know how I love them.
I am nothing without their love.
-
I am feeling really dizzy all of the sudden.
velveeta goldmine
I think I just one-upped The Boy Who Lived With The Boy Who Lived. Check this freakin' brilliant wordplay/idea out:
MY NAME IS URL.
Whoo that's a good one.
Also, what about this:
Drawings or Photos or Paintings or some form of artistic expression that depicts Stick Figures trying to live in our modern real world. Stick figures looking for jobs. Stick figures on the subway (& eating subway - high five, kyle). Stick figures looking at stock figures. Stick figure celebrities. Stick figures being racially profiled. Etc. No one ever thinks about the stick figure and his feelings anymore.
That's really it. I wanted to jot those ideas down. Tonights ideas were born while chatting with Kyle Chalk. Blame him if they sucked. His chatting made me think or this garbage.
PEACE.
MY NAME IS URL.
Whoo that's a good one.
Also, what about this:
Drawings or Photos or Paintings or some form of artistic expression that depicts Stick Figures trying to live in our modern real world. Stick figures looking for jobs. Stick figures on the subway (& eating subway - high five, kyle). Stick figures looking at stock figures. Stick figure celebrities. Stick figures being racially profiled. Etc. No one ever thinks about the stick figure and his feelings anymore.
That's really it. I wanted to jot those ideas down. Tonights ideas were born while chatting with Kyle Chalk. Blame him if they sucked. His chatting made me think or this garbage.
PEACE.
10-4.
In the post Jarvis street shooting I find it somewhat humorous that while walking after my run tonight, a large group of teenage and younger kids stood in the intersection past my house dancing around to rap music and yelling at each other to "come smoke this" and "your butt stinks!". The funny part is that while walking by, since they are in my path and why would I turn back, one of the youngest starts yelling "hey white man, why you in my hood?!". He was probably 10 if he was lucky. He was the smallest 10 year old I ever saw. Maybe I'll change my route, but probably I won't.
According to puddlegum.net which seems like some sort of elitist indie music site without many articles, this is how you are supposed to listen to the new Radiohead album (in rainbows) -- by weaving in parts of the supposedly complementing OK Computer.
Here's their playlist. It does actually sound nice together.
Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)
According to Lorna, the humorfest piece looks ridiculous in a good way. I get to see it tomorrow and maybe I can snap some photos (I just sat here and negotiated which to type: pix or pics).
According to puddlegum.net which seems like some sort of elitist indie music site without many articles, this is how you are supposed to listen to the new Radiohead album (in rainbows) -- by weaving in parts of the supposedly complementing OK Computer.
Here's their playlist. It does actually sound nice together.
Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)
According to Lorna, the humorfest piece looks ridiculous in a good way. I get to see it tomorrow and maybe I can snap some photos (I just sat here and negotiated which to type: pix or pics).
penic(h)illin'.
I can eat! Thank Fleming, I'm cured! Food has never tasted so good.
Well, actually it tastes just as I remember it.
Things I have come to realize in the past weeks:
Heroes now sucks. The Office now sucks. 30 Rock is teetering on sucking. I needed free time, so these things are good for me. But bad for people that watch still.
...the wind brushes through your hair and as you shiver your way into warmth you see one of those shadowy figures in the corner of your eye. Turning to make sure that you are still sane, you spot the shadowy figure come to life, hailing you with the sign of peace. But you rush along to your original destination and never speak of it to anyone. The poor guy. What did he do to you other than wish you well?
Well, actually it tastes just as I remember it.
Things I have come to realize in the past weeks:
Heroes now sucks. The Office now sucks. 30 Rock is teetering on sucking. I needed free time, so these things are good for me. But bad for people that watch still.
...the wind brushes through your hair and as you shiver your way into warmth you see one of those shadowy figures in the corner of your eye. Turning to make sure that you are still sane, you spot the shadowy figure come to life, hailing you with the sign of peace. But you rush along to your original destination and never speak of it to anyone. The poor guy. What did he do to you other than wish you well?
sigils in use.
I am sick. It's pretty sucky.
A.
Here's an idea I had tonight while watching TV. An animated movie where all the trailers/promos/clips released prior to the movie's release are not animated but instead acted out by real people dressed as characters from the movie and among real life recreations of sets from the movie.
OR
The exact opposite of that. Real move, animated trailers/promotion.
That would be fun.
B.
I watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Quite interesting. It gave me an idea which is as follows: The Flat Earth Society was right. Our Earth is flat and is indeed surrounded by a massive impassable ice wall. Global warming strikes this flat Earth. The ice wall begins to melt. Water levels rise, somehow people survive this. But what is on the other side of the wall? The rest of our earth which is round and this was just a flat portion of? Monsters? Devils? A land mass similar but different from the flat Earth's? Just an idea I had while watching a movie that was warning me of our pending death. I should have probably been paying more attention. This can be said of every school lesson ever.
C.
Dear Jim Woodring,
This is great. I love it.
Signed,
Billy
A.
Here's an idea I had tonight while watching TV. An animated movie where all the trailers/promos/clips released prior to the movie's release are not animated but instead acted out by real people dressed as characters from the movie and among real life recreations of sets from the movie.
OR
The exact opposite of that. Real move, animated trailers/promotion.
That would be fun.
B.
I watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Quite interesting. It gave me an idea which is as follows: The Flat Earth Society was right. Our Earth is flat and is indeed surrounded by a massive impassable ice wall. Global warming strikes this flat Earth. The ice wall begins to melt. Water levels rise, somehow people survive this. But what is on the other side of the wall? The rest of our earth which is round and this was just a flat portion of? Monsters? Devils? A land mass similar but different from the flat Earth's? Just an idea I had while watching a movie that was warning me of our pending death. I should have probably been paying more attention. This can be said of every school lesson ever.
C.
Dear Jim Woodring,
This is great. I love it.
Signed,
Billy
the room with THE view.
For about a month now I've been wondering about the great nothing that happens when you die. Won't it be so strange to be aware (mentally/physically/metaphysically) one moment and then all of the sudden...not? There really isn't a way to describe that, right? Especially if you (too) don't believe in the afterlife or rebirth or anything fancy like that. As far as nature and science goes - that's it. Worm food. But while driving back to work after lunch today (driving the same paths everyday makes my mind wander) I got to wondering (wandering) - Matter can't be created or destroyed. What is our consciousness? Our mind is creating self-awareness, sapience and our conscience...does that count as matter? I know that it isn't a phyiscal thing that exists in one of our defined states of matter but it is something isn't it? Anyways. That made me wonder what really happens at the end. I don't recall a whole lot from science classes so maybe I'm thinking about all of this wrong.
But really, while thinking this my real idea came about. You may or may not know the old clayamation christian TV show Davey & Goliath. I only know about it because my dad used to talk about it a lot and we got him some VHS of it one xmas. If you haven't seen it, Goliath is a dog that can talk to Davey and acts as a conscience to him. So I was thinking what if there were a similar thing with a boy and a conscience sidekick/friend/thing but in this idea the sidekick/friend/thing was a submarine. I know that sub conscience isn't a word but it sounds similar enough (for me) to subconscious to be a good/stupid idea. Anyways. That's really it. Maybe the submarine would talk via some sort of walkietalking/sonar/radio frequency or something. The kid would have to live near a lot of water too, for this submarine to really prove to be any help.
A week without any ideas and that's the best I've got? Ick.
I went to the mall yesterday to find a pair of running shoes. Mall should be the 8th deadly sin. Someone figure out how to change the 7 deadly sins to include Mall. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) the town the show takes place in is located on a Hellmouth (a gateway to hell). Well in Greenville the Colonial Mall is located on and most likely IN a hellmouth. I walked into the Foot Locker where there were 3 employees. One behind the counter, one leaning on the counter and one standing near the Jordans. I could tell where the children's sneakers were but aside from that I wasn't sure what I was looking at. We don't have a Lady Foot Locker and to me most running shoes look like girls shows (is that racist?) so I was really lost. But no matter what, not one employee actually moved or acknowledged me. I got really nervous by that and walked out. Luckily there is a rackroom shoes right outside the mall and all the ladies there were helpful and at least talked and acted like they had a job in a store where their job was to sell something.
Also last night I watched Sunshine. It reminded me a lot of Alien due to the creepy dark space ship and the eerie shots and things. Even without the Alien connection this movie was really really awesome to me. The idea was cool (reignite our dying sun 50 years in the future so that mankind can continue to live) and the spaceship was cool too. They have a giant solar panel shield attached to their payload (the bomb to reignite the sun) which the ship hides behind. They are close enough to the sun that their ship/skin would burst into flames with even a second's exposure. Really cool movie. Can't wait for the DVD to see what kind of commentary/other things there are. First the Fountian (on DVD), now Sunshine. There has been some really good Sci-Fi for me in 2007. Next I think I'll rent 2001 (How haven't I seen this?) and probably get caught up on Battlestar Galactica before it ends.
And now a word about a computer/360 game, so stop reading here if that bores you --
Half-Life 2: Orange Box came out today (last night if you pre-ordered from the Steam client - I did). Aside from the greatness that is Half-Life 2 (+Episodes 1 & 2) and Team Fortress 2 you also get Portal. Portal was a senior project done at a college where Valve (creators of HL2) comes to your final crit and reviews your game. Valve hired the Portal kids after seeing their final project. With the somewhat long training under my belt I can tell you that they made the best decision ever. In Portal you have this Portal device where your left click creates a blue portal and your right click creates an orange portal. When you walk into one, you come out of the other. Momentum carries over between portals too, so if you put one high on a wall and one 20 feet below you and then jump into the lower one, you launch out of the top one with the speed you had entering the first. The neatest effect to me tho is that you can look into one portal and see out of the other one. So if you shoot one on a ceiling and one on a wall, when you look into the wall one you can see yourself from above. A few times I have almost thrown-up from the vertigo caused by this game. Seriously.
Anywhoo. That's about it. Hopefully more soon...possibly before 7 days from now.
But really, while thinking this my real idea came about. You may or may not know the old clayamation christian TV show Davey & Goliath. I only know about it because my dad used to talk about it a lot and we got him some VHS of it one xmas. If you haven't seen it, Goliath is a dog that can talk to Davey and acts as a conscience to him. So I was thinking what if there were a similar thing with a boy and a conscience sidekick/friend/thing but in this idea the sidekick/friend/thing was a submarine. I know that sub conscience isn't a word but it sounds similar enough (for me) to subconscious to be a good/stupid idea. Anyways. That's really it. Maybe the submarine would talk via some sort of walkietalking/sonar/radio frequency or something. The kid would have to live near a lot of water too, for this submarine to really prove to be any help.
A week without any ideas and that's the best I've got? Ick.
I went to the mall yesterday to find a pair of running shoes. Mall should be the 8th deadly sin. Someone figure out how to change the 7 deadly sins to include Mall. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) the town the show takes place in is located on a Hellmouth (a gateway to hell). Well in Greenville the Colonial Mall is located on and most likely IN a hellmouth. I walked into the Foot Locker where there were 3 employees. One behind the counter, one leaning on the counter and one standing near the Jordans. I could tell where the children's sneakers were but aside from that I wasn't sure what I was looking at. We don't have a Lady Foot Locker and to me most running shoes look like girls shows (is that racist?) so I was really lost. But no matter what, not one employee actually moved or acknowledged me. I got really nervous by that and walked out. Luckily there is a rackroom shoes right outside the mall and all the ladies there were helpful and at least talked and acted like they had a job in a store where their job was to sell something.
Also last night I watched Sunshine. It reminded me a lot of Alien due to the creepy dark space ship and the eerie shots and things. Even without the Alien connection this movie was really really awesome to me. The idea was cool (reignite our dying sun 50 years in the future so that mankind can continue to live) and the spaceship was cool too. They have a giant solar panel shield attached to their payload (the bomb to reignite the sun) which the ship hides behind. They are close enough to the sun that their ship/skin would burst into flames with even a second's exposure. Really cool movie. Can't wait for the DVD to see what kind of commentary/other things there are. First the Fountian (on DVD), now Sunshine. There has been some really good Sci-Fi for me in 2007. Next I think I'll rent 2001 (How haven't I seen this?) and probably get caught up on Battlestar Galactica before it ends.
And now a word about a computer/360 game, so stop reading here if that bores you --
Half-Life 2: Orange Box came out today (last night if you pre-ordered from the Steam client - I did). Aside from the greatness that is Half-Life 2 (+Episodes 1 & 2) and Team Fortress 2 you also get Portal. Portal was a senior project done at a college where Valve (creators of HL2) comes to your final crit and reviews your game. Valve hired the Portal kids after seeing their final project. With the somewhat long training under my belt I can tell you that they made the best decision ever. In Portal you have this Portal device where your left click creates a blue portal and your right click creates an orange portal. When you walk into one, you come out of the other. Momentum carries over between portals too, so if you put one high on a wall and one 20 feet below you and then jump into the lower one, you launch out of the top one with the speed you had entering the first. The neatest effect to me tho is that you can look into one portal and see out of the other one. So if you shoot one on a ceiling and one on a wall, when you look into the wall one you can see yourself from above. A few times I have almost thrown-up from the vertigo caused by this game. Seriously.
Anywhoo. That's about it. Hopefully more soon...possibly before 7 days from now.
Stop me if you've heard this one...
I've been slacking a bit here. I have had a vast lack of things to say so I didn't say anything. Anyways. I have some things to say now.
Been playing some Halo with Hani (Hanlo) the past couple days. That also explains the lack of posts. Hani is getting good tho, and that's nice.
So here are some ideas. Please tell me if these are horrible.
1. "Chuggy Cheese" -- This would be a bar themed around a grown up version of Chuck E Cheese (Previously: Showbiz Pizza, where a kid can be a kid). The mechanical rat (Chuggy) would be a drunken doppleganger of himself with beer belly and rat coozie. Maybe there would be pizza here. I think there should be in order to have the "cheese" portion of the name make sense. But the pizza would be better then what I remember Chuck E's being like. Along with pizza there would be an arcade with Skee Ball and Wheel 'em In and other assorted games that earned you tickets. Instead of the crappy "rubber ball" or "foam airplane" or "candy" from a Chuck E Cheese gift showcase, Chuggy's would have beer and bigger beers and shots and things like this. 100 tickets nets you a tallboy. 300 earns you a pitcher. Some sort of system where it wasn't a complete rip off, but the place was still making some money off of the quarters and things. Also, make the games spill proof. Cover them in grandma's couch plastic.
While typing this, a possibly better idea came to mind: Chuck D Cheese. You'd go there to eat pizza and learn about fighting the power through the magic of Public Enemy. And the mechanical rat would be a mechanical Flava Flav. Yeaahhhh Boyyyyyyy.
2. "Ocean's 7-11" -- This would be a prequel to Ocean's 11 where Danny and the gang (as kids: Picture the lil' rascals) set up a really elaborate scheme involving masks and training sessions and EMPs (barney rubble; trouble!) in order to steal a slushie or a slim jim or something insignifigant. But not money. This would be how they learn to work together as a team and there wouldn't be any love interests involved because they would be certain that girls have cooties. And they are right. Maybe the girls in the movie would be playing Cootie or Cootie Jr. at some point in the movie. What was really the point of Cootie Jr. anyways? Other then the tiny eye pieces, a little kid could play Cootie Sr. no problem. I don't remember how you earned the right to accessorize your Cootie, but I'll bet it wasn't fun. The only fun was building the Cootie. It was the opposite of Mouse Trap. If building a Cootie would set up your mouse trap for you then I think everyone would have a lot more fun. I've lost the point of the #2. tho. So yea. Prequel.
3. This one only really (and barely) works as a visual, so try to envision it. I want to draw this up as a little one/multi page short comic type thing. But there's no real plot at the moment, only this idea: A blind guy. Simple enough. But since this is a comic, he has to speak in word balloons, right? Well in this case when he opens his mouth to talk, the word ballons are shaped like big eyeballs and so while he is talking/making sound he can see. Sort of like sonar but with eyeball word balloons. So the comic would involve that and some sort of simple plot/story for him to follow for a couple pages and that's it. It would probably end sad or something. Maybe smoke gets in his eyeballoons or something.
4. South Park Season 11(A) started tonight. The idea behind the episode (Cartman gets Tourettes) was awesome sounding. The episode was alright but not as good as some older South Parks. But the Tourettes leader guy that couldn't stop yelling "Piss!" was hilarious to me.
Finished up my drawing for the upcoming ECU Humorfest. It isn't funny, but still. Will be mailing it to Lorna Wang this week and she will be putting that wax on it. I'd like to come up with a way to say she'll be doing encaustics and also make it sound like she is a rap record producer and is doing whatever phrase it is that they do with wax. Nice going on that one memory.
A side note: Greenville NC will not have the Darjeeling Limited this week. That is complete bullcrap.
Been playing some Halo with Hani (Hanlo) the past couple days. That also explains the lack of posts. Hani is getting good tho, and that's nice.
So here are some ideas. Please tell me if these are horrible.
1. "Chuggy Cheese" -- This would be a bar themed around a grown up version of Chuck E Cheese (Previously: Showbiz Pizza, where a kid can be a kid). The mechanical rat (Chuggy) would be a drunken doppleganger of himself with beer belly and rat coozie. Maybe there would be pizza here. I think there should be in order to have the "cheese" portion of the name make sense. But the pizza would be better then what I remember Chuck E's being like. Along with pizza there would be an arcade with Skee Ball and Wheel 'em In and other assorted games that earned you tickets. Instead of the crappy "rubber ball" or "foam airplane" or "candy" from a Chuck E Cheese gift showcase, Chuggy's would have beer and bigger beers and shots and things like this. 100 tickets nets you a tallboy. 300 earns you a pitcher. Some sort of system where it wasn't a complete rip off, but the place was still making some money off of the quarters and things. Also, make the games spill proof. Cover them in grandma's couch plastic.
While typing this, a possibly better idea came to mind: Chuck D Cheese. You'd go there to eat pizza and learn about fighting the power through the magic of Public Enemy. And the mechanical rat would be a mechanical Flava Flav. Yeaahhhh Boyyyyyyy.
2. "Ocean's 7-11" -- This would be a prequel to Ocean's 11 where Danny and the gang (as kids: Picture the lil' rascals) set up a really elaborate scheme involving masks and training sessions and EMPs (barney rubble; trouble!) in order to steal a slushie or a slim jim or something insignifigant. But not money. This would be how they learn to work together as a team and there wouldn't be any love interests involved because they would be certain that girls have cooties. And they are right. Maybe the girls in the movie would be playing Cootie or Cootie Jr. at some point in the movie. What was really the point of Cootie Jr. anyways? Other then the tiny eye pieces, a little kid could play Cootie Sr. no problem. I don't remember how you earned the right to accessorize your Cootie, but I'll bet it wasn't fun. The only fun was building the Cootie. It was the opposite of Mouse Trap. If building a Cootie would set up your mouse trap for you then I think everyone would have a lot more fun. I've lost the point of the #2. tho. So yea. Prequel.
3. This one only really (and barely) works as a visual, so try to envision it. I want to draw this up as a little one/multi page short comic type thing. But there's no real plot at the moment, only this idea: A blind guy. Simple enough. But since this is a comic, he has to speak in word balloons, right? Well in this case when he opens his mouth to talk, the word ballons are shaped like big eyeballs and so while he is talking/making sound he can see. Sort of like sonar but with eyeball word balloons. So the comic would involve that and some sort of simple plot/story for him to follow for a couple pages and that's it. It would probably end sad or something. Maybe smoke gets in his eyeballoons or something.
4. South Park Season 11(A) started tonight. The idea behind the episode (Cartman gets Tourettes) was awesome sounding. The episode was alright but not as good as some older South Parks. But the Tourettes leader guy that couldn't stop yelling "Piss!" was hilarious to me.
Finished up my drawing for the upcoming ECU Humorfest. It isn't funny, but still. Will be mailing it to Lorna Wang this week and she will be putting that wax on it. I'd like to come up with a way to say she'll be doing encaustics and also make it sound like she is a rap record producer and is doing whatever phrase it is that they do with wax. Nice going on that one memory.
A side note: Greenville NC will not have the Darjeeling Limited this week. That is complete bullcrap.
01/01/08
I picked up Halo 3 today at lunch and they carded me. I'm pretty glad that stores are enforcing video game ratings. If a young kid buys the game and his parent's get pissed at the violence then it should be the store or the parent's fault. Not the game's.
This makes me recall an older rant/question I had -- why do toy stores sell toys from R rated movies? It never made much sense to me. If it's a comic or specialty shop or something like this, I can understand. But when T-1000 is hanging on a shelf next to Power Rangers or even R2-D2 it seems to me to cheapen the rating system. I'm tired so the reasoning on this one may not be so sound.
New TV Shows started over the weekend. I caught a couple and here's my thoughts:
The Simpsons: The intro to this episode continued where the movie left off and that was very pleasing. But that was really the end of the good for season 19(?)'s premiere. Stephen Colbert was completely pointless and throw-away. I'll be looking forward to the Alan Moore episode but I don't have any hopes for this show anymore.
Family Guy: The Star Wars episode. This was actually pretty good. I am a pretty big Star Wars / A New Hope fan tho, so I may be biased. Especially nice to see Family Guy breaking from their "do you remember when this happened?" jokes which are followed by "wacky", "crazy" and "original" ideas. Family Guy jokes have the same problem as Adult Swim programs: They rely too much on random craziness and not enough on things that are actually funny. Random craziness was good when Adult Swim first started. I think it's time for a change in their concepts.
Chuck: I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of this. I knew the plot coming into it and I was still confused by some of the things they were showing me. Also, setting a show in Best Buy is pretty dumb too.
The Big Bang Theory: A laugh track and Darlene's boyfriend from Rosanne. I actually watched all of this I think, but I'm not really sure why. The two geeks are actually geeks and not the TV version of geeks (TV geeks read comics or like computers or like general science and math, these geeks get really into physics and things). The jokes weren't very funny, but I'll give it a second chance at least.
Kid Nation: Kids are idiots. Especially these kids. There are one or two kids on here that have the traits of kids that I actually like: funny/insane comments that only make sense in a kid's mind. But the majority of these kids are just know it all punks. And they can't make Mac & Chee worth a damn. The gold star buisness is stupid. Running stores and having "servants" is stupid. At least the kids were smart and chose 7 more toilets instead of a TV. I can't wait til the episode where they all drink bleach.
Heroes: What should have started with a bang (and also ended with a bang last season)started with me wanting to change the channel constantly. There were "limited" commercials but I don't know what they were limiting. There were still a ton of commercials. This episode of Heroes failed because it followed lame characters. Matt Parkman is boring as hell. His character is lame, his job is lame and he doesn't use his powers for anything then being lame. I like the girl he is keeping, but mostly only her power and not so much her sassyness. They also follow Nathan Petrelli who now has a beard to show that he is a drunk and is sad. He sucks. Claire the Cheerleader sucks. Her family is boring. The flying boy from her school is annoying. What used to be my favorite parts (Hiro and Ando)were also killed. Hiro is in Ancient Japan and his hero is a completely lame character that was probably supposed to be in A Knight's Tale. And in the current timeline, Ando is stuck with Hiro's dad who has somehow vanished after falling off a building with some sort of ninja assassin. Everyone on the show talks vague about every thing on the show. How do people actually live in this world? Kristen Bell's character had better be more then just her pretty face.
I Tivo'd some other things that I have yet to check out (Journeyman, Reaper, Bionic Woman) but I don't have very high hopes. I'm really looking forward to 30 Rock (w/ Seinfeld!) and the Office (might be boring!)but that's probably it until LOST starts back. Horrible shows will give me a chance to catch up on Battlestar Galactica and to rewatch Oz.
Supposedly the new Wes Anderson short (prequel-ish to the Darjeeling Limited)will be on iTunes tomorrow (actually today, but w/ev). This is exciting because I doubt that Greenville will be one of the limited cities to get the film.
This makes me recall an older rant/question I had -- why do toy stores sell toys from R rated movies? It never made much sense to me. If it's a comic or specialty shop or something like this, I can understand. But when T-1000 is hanging on a shelf next to Power Rangers or even R2-D2 it seems to me to cheapen the rating system. I'm tired so the reasoning on this one may not be so sound.
New TV Shows started over the weekend. I caught a couple and here's my thoughts:
The Simpsons: The intro to this episode continued where the movie left off and that was very pleasing. But that was really the end of the good for season 19(?)'s premiere. Stephen Colbert was completely pointless and throw-away. I'll be looking forward to the Alan Moore episode but I don't have any hopes for this show anymore.
Family Guy: The Star Wars episode. This was actually pretty good. I am a pretty big Star Wars / A New Hope fan tho, so I may be biased. Especially nice to see Family Guy breaking from their "do you remember when this happened?" jokes which are followed by "wacky", "crazy" and "original" ideas. Family Guy jokes have the same problem as Adult Swim programs: They rely too much on random craziness and not enough on things that are actually funny. Random craziness was good when Adult Swim first started. I think it's time for a change in their concepts.
Chuck: I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of this. I knew the plot coming into it and I was still confused by some of the things they were showing me. Also, setting a show in Best Buy is pretty dumb too.
The Big Bang Theory: A laugh track and Darlene's boyfriend from Rosanne. I actually watched all of this I think, but I'm not really sure why. The two geeks are actually geeks and not the TV version of geeks (TV geeks read comics or like computers or like general science and math, these geeks get really into physics and things). The jokes weren't very funny, but I'll give it a second chance at least.
Kid Nation: Kids are idiots. Especially these kids. There are one or two kids on here that have the traits of kids that I actually like: funny/insane comments that only make sense in a kid's mind. But the majority of these kids are just know it all punks. And they can't make Mac & Chee worth a damn. The gold star buisness is stupid. Running stores and having "servants" is stupid. At least the kids were smart and chose 7 more toilets instead of a TV. I can't wait til the episode where they all drink bleach.
Heroes: What should have started with a bang (and also ended with a bang last season)started with me wanting to change the channel constantly. There were "limited" commercials but I don't know what they were limiting. There were still a ton of commercials. This episode of Heroes failed because it followed lame characters. Matt Parkman is boring as hell. His character is lame, his job is lame and he doesn't use his powers for anything then being lame. I like the girl he is keeping, but mostly only her power and not so much her sassyness. They also follow Nathan Petrelli who now has a beard to show that he is a drunk and is sad. He sucks. Claire the Cheerleader sucks. Her family is boring. The flying boy from her school is annoying. What used to be my favorite parts (Hiro and Ando)were also killed. Hiro is in Ancient Japan and his hero is a completely lame character that was probably supposed to be in A Knight's Tale. And in the current timeline, Ando is stuck with Hiro's dad who has somehow vanished after falling off a building with some sort of ninja assassin. Everyone on the show talks vague about every thing on the show. How do people actually live in this world? Kristen Bell's character had better be more then just her pretty face.
I Tivo'd some other things that I have yet to check out (Journeyman, Reaper, Bionic Woman) but I don't have very high hopes. I'm really looking forward to 30 Rock (w/ Seinfeld!) and the Office (might be boring!)but that's probably it until LOST starts back. Horrible shows will give me a chance to catch up on Battlestar Galactica and to rewatch Oz.
Supposedly the new Wes Anderson short (prequel-ish to the Darjeeling Limited)will be on iTunes tomorrow (actually today, but w/ev). This is exciting because I doubt that Greenville will be one of the limited cities to get the film.
Teddy.
I had planned to scan in a bunch of sketches and doodles and being a "While You Should Have Been Working" drawings series, but I got a secret message about a suprise birthday dinner at Tokyo that I couldn't pass up. And now I am way too full because I thought it would be a good idea to add another roll to my 1 roll & Soba combo that already gets me pretty full. The last time I was there someone had left over Gray's Roll, so I tried some. I really liked it (or at least, didn't hate it like I do most sea based sushis.) Gray's roll is Deep Fried Eel with Cream Cheese and Avacado. So I added that to my meal and then traded half of it with Eva for half of her order of Gyoza (Fried Pork Dumplings). This was too much food. I have like half a thing of Soba in my fridge that at this moment I really don't want to think about.
And to top it off since it was a birthday party they brought Tempura Cheesecake and a Tempura Banana. I only had a small piece of each but let me tell you this: Hot Bananas are really nasty.
Other then a feast it was a pretty normal day. We had a spur of the moment photoshoot for a website I am coding. That was interesting. Lots of people in our office and lots of outfit changes.
This is the main highlight of my day tho. This is a video of Grant Morrison speaking about magic during a Disinformation seminar. It's pretty interesting and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day. Turning dreams/desires into real-life changing things is really cool to me. So anyways.
Hope you can understand most of that through his thick accent. I like the bits near the end when he talks about how we will soon live in McDonalds and how rich people don't spend money. His brain is strange and lovely.
And to top it off since it was a birthday party they brought Tempura Cheesecake and a Tempura Banana. I only had a small piece of each but let me tell you this: Hot Bananas are really nasty.
Other then a feast it was a pretty normal day. We had a spur of the moment photoshoot for a website I am coding. That was interesting. Lots of people in our office and lots of outfit changes.
This is the main highlight of my day tho. This is a video of Grant Morrison speaking about magic during a Disinformation seminar. It's pretty interesting and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day. Turning dreams/desires into real-life changing things is really cool to me. So anyways.
Hope you can understand most of that through his thick accent. I like the bits near the end when he talks about how we will soon live in McDonalds and how rich people don't spend money. His brain is strange and lovely.
64 bits.
1. In 1964 on a television near you there were 2 shows based on monster families. You had your Addams Family and your Munsters. I have a tough time chosing a favorite between the two. At work the other day I confused them as being one show in my head and was trying to figure out why a family with the last name of "Addams" would be on a show called the Munsters. Anyways, it dawned on me at that moment that it was very strange that in 1964 television had 2 shows about monsters that were civilized. How could this happen? Did people really like monsters that much back then? How can we make it so reality tv shows and law firm shows and mtv movie awards are replaced with a show about monsters?
If you look at TV, there are a lot of strange people based in reality shows. You've got Heroes, Supernatural, Kyle XY, Lost to a certain extent, etc etc. I think that maybe these, and the re-makes of Battlestar Galactica & Bionic Woman could maybe lead to a revival of either the Munsters or the Addams. I think the Munsters would be better as they didn't have 2 movies staring Raul Julia whom no one would want to replace.
There's also a chance that the almost Munsters-esque sure to be piece of trash Caveman show will ruin any chance of more physically freakish people having their own shows. Sorry Rosie O'Donnell. Sorry Dane Cook. The Cavemen are going to ruin your careers more then you ever could.
2. Sitting in a resturant and eating by myself is not something I am bothered by but I guess it bothered Hani. He called me and when I told him I had just ordered food and was eating alone he dashed over quickly to sit and eat too. Maybe he was hungry or maybe he's just a nice guy deep down underneath that black soul of his. Probably just hungry.
3. Picked up Death Proof today at Best Buy. They had the normal edition or the Best Buy only 3 disc edition which came in a metal box thing. I really hate DVDs that don't come in either the standard plastic DVD case or the newer box-set style cardboard sleeve thing with DVDs somehow attached to a case thing that slides in/out. Stange plastic Simpsons heads are stupid. Metal tins are stupid. Gimmick-ish packaging like the Strangers with Candy notebook shaped DVD sets are stupid. Just make something in a standardized shape that fits on my shelf of DVDs.
4. More then strange DVDs and Cavemen, I hate Chuck Norris related jokes and Nic Cage's face. That is all.
If you look at TV, there are a lot of strange people based in reality shows. You've got Heroes, Supernatural, Kyle XY, Lost to a certain extent, etc etc. I think that maybe these, and the re-makes of Battlestar Galactica & Bionic Woman could maybe lead to a revival of either the Munsters or the Addams. I think the Munsters would be better as they didn't have 2 movies staring Raul Julia whom no one would want to replace.
There's also a chance that the almost Munsters-esque sure to be piece of trash Caveman show will ruin any chance of more physically freakish people having their own shows. Sorry Rosie O'Donnell. Sorry Dane Cook. The Cavemen are going to ruin your careers more then you ever could.
2. Sitting in a resturant and eating by myself is not something I am bothered by but I guess it bothered Hani. He called me and when I told him I had just ordered food and was eating alone he dashed over quickly to sit and eat too. Maybe he was hungry or maybe he's just a nice guy deep down underneath that black soul of his. Probably just hungry.
3. Picked up Death Proof today at Best Buy. They had the normal edition or the Best Buy only 3 disc edition which came in a metal box thing. I really hate DVDs that don't come in either the standard plastic DVD case or the newer box-set style cardboard sleeve thing with DVDs somehow attached to a case thing that slides in/out. Stange plastic Simpsons heads are stupid. Metal tins are stupid. Gimmick-ish packaging like the Strangers with Candy notebook shaped DVD sets are stupid. Just make something in a standardized shape that fits on my shelf of DVDs.
4. More then strange DVDs and Cavemen, I hate Chuck Norris related jokes and Nic Cage's face. That is all.
Sally sells.
In case you missed how harmoniously yesterday's post's topics worked out let me clarify. BioShock is a game that takes place in an alternate 1960's where steam powers high tech machinery. This is a common theme for nerd-worlds and goes by the phrase "Steampunk". At the same time, Half-Life 2 which takes place in a modern/futuristic world is delivered online via an application called Steam. So it worked out that I was playing these two games over the weekend. Sometimes the planets just align in a perfect obtuse angle.
Anyways - Onward.
1. I played Frisbee golf with one of my bosses on Sunday for the first time in a couple months. I saw a guy there that used to live on my hall in the dorms. He had an adorable little 2 month old puppy that was about the size of my hand. What irked me about this puppy was its name: Jango. Now, this guy was a somewhat nerd who read comics and liked star wars but didn't mention it to anyone. He was undercover. But no matter how little nerd you have in you, you know that Jango Fett is a poor excuse for Boba Fett. Sure, Boba is Jango's clone. Sure so it every Stormtrooper in the universe. But still. Boba did it first and better and first. That's it. Now, my boss tried to explain to me that here in NC and elsewhere people may miss hear "Boba" as "Bubba" and that wasn't a good name for a dog. I guess this makes sense, but still. Name your dog Bossk or Zuckus. Don't name it after something from the new trilogy.
2. Started in on Baltimore or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola/Christopher Golden. I hope it's good, but I have a lot of faith in M.Mignola. Christopher Golden is the guy that has been in charge of all the Hellboy Novels, which I haven't read, so I'm sure he's an alright fit with Mike. I hope so. This novel also has Mignola illustrations throughout which are like candy surrounded by paragraphs and punctuation.
3. I'm no good about talking about the ideas behind my drawings. I always think it sounds silly/lame/whatever so I try to let them speak on their own and let people take them as they will. But I started this blog in order to try and be able to write/talk about myself and what I like and that kind of thing, so I'm going to give this a shot with a rough outline.
A. Shells can hold the sound of the ocean. This is neat, and a couple years ago the thought came to me that in a story of some form a character should tell his story/memories/things to a shell and then once he is gone from this world, the shell will be a place to hear his tale/memories/things. I still think this is a neat idea.
B. In the past few months I have found my memory to have taken a massive step backwards. I used to be pretty good at remembering minor events or little phrases and things that I could respawn into real life at any time. This doesn't happen much any more. I forget a lot of things and major chunks of my memory can't be recalled. As I said in a previous post, supposedly your brain never actually forgets things so there's possibly hope. But at the moment, I've got a dim light on in the attic and all the places where the bulb doesn't shine are gone.
C. Apart from my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Brother) I feel as if I have no real blood relatives. For whatever reasons (Passing away, family ties, memory issues) there arn't any other blood people in my life. Like somehow the Burkerts just started one generation before my brother and I.
So this is the combination of these things. Originally the people (relatives) would be part of word balloon type things coming from the shell, but I didn't really like it in the comp I was working on tonight, so I scrapped it for coupon clipping dotted lines. Clip and Save your favorite/lost memories. Stick them into a shell and return to them as you need them. You'll never forget when it's locked in time in a shell or a song or a sketch. I will be bringing this to New Hill, NC this weekend to see what Lorna Wang can do with it as far as color. The gray here is just to differentiate the shell from the rest of the drawing since it's hard to distinguish between the different linework. This is 11x17 in person, but much smaller here.
Click for a larger view.
That's it for tonight. Enjoy.
Anyways - Onward.
1. I played Frisbee golf with one of my bosses on Sunday for the first time in a couple months. I saw a guy there that used to live on my hall in the dorms. He had an adorable little 2 month old puppy that was about the size of my hand. What irked me about this puppy was its name: Jango. Now, this guy was a somewhat nerd who read comics and liked star wars but didn't mention it to anyone. He was undercover. But no matter how little nerd you have in you, you know that Jango Fett is a poor excuse for Boba Fett. Sure, Boba is Jango's clone. Sure so it every Stormtrooper in the universe. But still. Boba did it first and better and first. That's it. Now, my boss tried to explain to me that here in NC and elsewhere people may miss hear "Boba" as "Bubba" and that wasn't a good name for a dog. I guess this makes sense, but still. Name your dog Bossk or Zuckus. Don't name it after something from the new trilogy.
2. Started in on Baltimore or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola/Christopher Golden. I hope it's good, but I have a lot of faith in M.Mignola. Christopher Golden is the guy that has been in charge of all the Hellboy Novels, which I haven't read, so I'm sure he's an alright fit with Mike. I hope so. This novel also has Mignola illustrations throughout which are like candy surrounded by paragraphs and punctuation.
3. I'm no good about talking about the ideas behind my drawings. I always think it sounds silly/lame/whatever so I try to let them speak on their own and let people take them as they will. But I started this blog in order to try and be able to write/talk about myself and what I like and that kind of thing, so I'm going to give this a shot with a rough outline.
A. Shells can hold the sound of the ocean. This is neat, and a couple years ago the thought came to me that in a story of some form a character should tell his story/memories/things to a shell and then once he is gone from this world, the shell will be a place to hear his tale/memories/things. I still think this is a neat idea.
B. In the past few months I have found my memory to have taken a massive step backwards. I used to be pretty good at remembering minor events or little phrases and things that I could respawn into real life at any time. This doesn't happen much any more. I forget a lot of things and major chunks of my memory can't be recalled. As I said in a previous post, supposedly your brain never actually forgets things so there's possibly hope. But at the moment, I've got a dim light on in the attic and all the places where the bulb doesn't shine are gone.
C. Apart from my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Brother) I feel as if I have no real blood relatives. For whatever reasons (Passing away, family ties, memory issues) there arn't any other blood people in my life. Like somehow the Burkerts just started one generation before my brother and I.
So this is the combination of these things. Originally the people (relatives) would be part of word balloon type things coming from the shell, but I didn't really like it in the comp I was working on tonight, so I scrapped it for coupon clipping dotted lines. Clip and Save your favorite/lost memories. Stick them into a shell and return to them as you need them. You'll never forget when it's locked in time in a shell or a song or a sketch. I will be bringing this to New Hill, NC this weekend to see what Lorna Wang can do with it as far as color. The gray here is just to differentiate the shell from the rest of the drawing since it's hard to distinguish between the different linework. This is 11x17 in person, but much smaller here.
Click for a larger view.
That's it for tonight. Enjoy.
Steam, punk.
Nothing all that great or interesting happened last week. On Wednesday I had said something at work that I thought would make a good post. Maybe it wouldn't have, but I guess I'll save it for one day this week when there is a lull. I have atleast 3 days worth of junk at the moment, so this should be back to the full weeks of boring dretch.
Speaking of dretch -- I picked up 30 Rock season 1 on DVD the other day. Tina Fey could probably write about garbagemen and make it funny. (Rachel Dratch = Dretch. It's a stretch. Like her...acting?)
1. Excited tonight to find out that my old buddy and almost same-birthday'd red headed pal Bret has moved to Raleigh. That's exciting. That's why I was excited.
2. Finished Bioshock over the weekend. I saved all of the little sisters (instead of harvesting their bellies for tasty Adam) so the ending was an upbeat one. I'm interested to find out what happens if you do end all of their little lives.
3. Borrowed skate. for a day from Hani. More fun then the demo. And the demo was a lot of fun. I uploaded a bunch of videos to the skate website, but I'm having trouble seeing them online. They probably arn't as cool as I remember them being when I made them. I like this game and I still may pick it up (buy at Target this week and get a $10 gift card. Nice.) but at the moment it was overwhelming the amount of stuff you could do. I also feel like a Nintendo traitor for not having Metroid Prime 3 yet. I almost bought it today, but I want to go ahead and replay Prime 1 & 2 before hand. This is probably not necessary, but I still wanna.
4. Re-finished Half-Life 2 today and finally started HL2: Episode 1. Getting prepped for The Orange Box. Half-Life 2 is pretty much the best FPS I have ever played. It brought Havok Physics into everyone's lives and that's been a great addition to most games that used it. Also, I think you can tell great level design when you feel like you are exploring off the beaten path and it's actually the way the developers wanted you to go. They don't force feed you where you need to go next with arrows and things - they trust that you are smart and curious enough to look around and try things and think: maybe I can jump over here. It's very intuitive and you feel really smart when you do what they wanted you to do.
5. Finished Crooked Little Vein when I woke up this morning. A very disturbing but interesting read. I hope that the Mike McGill character has further adventures. He could be like the new Cal McDonald.
6. While talking to Bret this evening, I came up with this joke. I ran it by Brantley and he laughed, so I think that it's a keeper. This is Joke #1 in my stand-up routine that I am too shy to ever do -- If you are eating at an Indian Resturant and you call ahead to get a table, did you make an Indian Reservation? Badump-pishh.
That's all for now. Leave some stuff for the rest of the days.
Speaking of dretch -- I picked up 30 Rock season 1 on DVD the other day. Tina Fey could probably write about garbagemen and make it funny. (Rachel Dratch = Dretch. It's a stretch. Like her...acting?)
1. Excited tonight to find out that my old buddy and almost same-birthday'd red headed pal Bret has moved to Raleigh. That's exciting. That's why I was excited.
2. Finished Bioshock over the weekend. I saved all of the little sisters (instead of harvesting their bellies for tasty Adam) so the ending was an upbeat one. I'm interested to find out what happens if you do end all of their little lives.
3. Borrowed skate. for a day from Hani. More fun then the demo. And the demo was a lot of fun. I uploaded a bunch of videos to the skate website, but I'm having trouble seeing them online. They probably arn't as cool as I remember them being when I made them. I like this game and I still may pick it up (buy at Target this week and get a $10 gift card. Nice.) but at the moment it was overwhelming the amount of stuff you could do. I also feel like a Nintendo traitor for not having Metroid Prime 3 yet. I almost bought it today, but I want to go ahead and replay Prime 1 & 2 before hand. This is probably not necessary, but I still wanna.
4. Re-finished Half-Life 2 today and finally started HL2: Episode 1. Getting prepped for The Orange Box. Half-Life 2 is pretty much the best FPS I have ever played. It brought Havok Physics into everyone's lives and that's been a great addition to most games that used it. Also, I think you can tell great level design when you feel like you are exploring off the beaten path and it's actually the way the developers wanted you to go. They don't force feed you where you need to go next with arrows and things - they trust that you are smart and curious enough to look around and try things and think: maybe I can jump over here. It's very intuitive and you feel really smart when you do what they wanted you to do.
5. Finished Crooked Little Vein when I woke up this morning. A very disturbing but interesting read. I hope that the Mike McGill character has further adventures. He could be like the new Cal McDonald.
6. While talking to Bret this evening, I came up with this joke. I ran it by Brantley and he laughed, so I think that it's a keeper. This is Joke #1 in my stand-up routine that I am too shy to ever do -- If you are eating at an Indian Resturant and you call ahead to get a table, did you make an Indian Reservation? Badump-pishh.
That's all for now. Leave some stuff for the rest of the days.
Pizza Dog
1. Just finished a drawing for a down/dirty/quick/simple heat transfer t for a friend. It's for their birthday and if I have forgotten yours and/or not pulled together a gift yet then I'm really sorry. I'll come up with something. I had a bad August when it came to memory. Anyways, I'll post the drawing next week. It's kinda nice I think.
2. Speaking of memory: I was reading that the human brain can't actually forget anything. If this is actually true then I am very interested. I really need some sort of way to re-tap into my memory and make it useful again. Was reading on the wikipedia for "Chewing Gum" (don't ask) today that memory is stronger in gum chewers. I need to re-take up this habit I guess. Sugar free tho', not the cat pee kind. Unless that's sugar free. Have you had the mint mohito gum? It's pretty tasty.
3. I'm about 10 chapters into "Crooked Little Vein" by Warren Ellis. So far it's really good. It's about this American detective tasked with finding a lost book that was written right after the constitution. But as it turns out the book exchanges hands among a very seedy type of people. They use some phrase a lot better then "Pervert Money" but the book is at home right now and I think that kind of sums up the phrase they use. While reading it last night, the detective gained a guide through this world of perversion and it started to remind me of 8MM. I really hope it is nothing like 8MM in the end because I hate Nic Cage and I like Warren Ellis. Anyways, 10 chapters in and I can already NEVER look at Godzilla the same way. Mr. Ellis' mind is twisted into a beautiful flower of nastyness.
4. I'm at work right now and I hear that this building is haunted. I don't believe in ghosts or anything paranormal or 4d, but I keep hearing keys jingling. So if I turn up missing in a few days or I am found lying soulless in my bed, then this place is haunted and ghosts are real. And Dan will cheer.
5. Tried to watch Wild Hogs this weekend. What a horrible mistake. And they are making a sequel. I hate hollywood.
6. East Coast Video, the local video store (suprise!) has a really cool policy -- they rent movies as soon as they get them. In the DVD rental world most DVDs are sent to the stores at least a week prior to release. This is good for stores like Blockbuster that wants their employees to have seen the movies on release. But this is better for a store like East Coast which just puts them right on the shelves. So when I return home tonight I will have the extended DVD version of Death Proof (1 half of Grindhouse) waiting for me. I'm pretty excited.
7. While waiting on my t-shirt drawing to scan earlier tonight (11x17 @ 1200 dpi..takes a while) I doodled up this little diddy:
Clicking on it will give you a larger view. Instead of scanning in all these doodles and junk I have laying around (I still may, in order to add more meat to my posts) I decided to combine some of the characters/things that I've doodled. So this is a small grouping like that. The man is unnamed. I've lately found myself drawing these "T" Headed people. Dunno why, but I'll scan them in soon so that they can act as a group. The floating octopi thing is also unnamed. Not seen here are his neat 3-lens glasses. I call him squid squid but that's not really clever enough. On the ground there is Pizza Dog. He's a slice of pizza that has dog like qualities.
This image may be colored and will probably have some suctioncup thingies on the tentacles too. My scan was done so therefore my drawing was done.
That's all. Time to brave the ghost filled halls.
2. Speaking of memory: I was reading that the human brain can't actually forget anything. If this is actually true then I am very interested. I really need some sort of way to re-tap into my memory and make it useful again. Was reading on the wikipedia for "Chewing Gum" (don't ask) today that memory is stronger in gum chewers. I need to re-take up this habit I guess. Sugar free tho', not the cat pee kind. Unless that's sugar free. Have you had the mint mohito gum? It's pretty tasty.
3. I'm about 10 chapters into "Crooked Little Vein" by Warren Ellis. So far it's really good. It's about this American detective tasked with finding a lost book that was written right after the constitution. But as it turns out the book exchanges hands among a very seedy type of people. They use some phrase a lot better then "Pervert Money" but the book is at home right now and I think that kind of sums up the phrase they use. While reading it last night, the detective gained a guide through this world of perversion and it started to remind me of 8MM. I really hope it is nothing like 8MM in the end because I hate Nic Cage and I like Warren Ellis. Anyways, 10 chapters in and I can already NEVER look at Godzilla the same way. Mr. Ellis' mind is twisted into a beautiful flower of nastyness.
4. I'm at work right now and I hear that this building is haunted. I don't believe in ghosts or anything paranormal or 4d, but I keep hearing keys jingling. So if I turn up missing in a few days or I am found lying soulless in my bed, then this place is haunted and ghosts are real. And Dan will cheer.
5. Tried to watch Wild Hogs this weekend. What a horrible mistake. And they are making a sequel. I hate hollywood.
6. East Coast Video, the local video store (suprise!) has a really cool policy -- they rent movies as soon as they get them. In the DVD rental world most DVDs are sent to the stores at least a week prior to release. This is good for stores like Blockbuster that wants their employees to have seen the movies on release. But this is better for a store like East Coast which just puts them right on the shelves. So when I return home tonight I will have the extended DVD version of Death Proof (1 half of Grindhouse) waiting for me. I'm pretty excited.
7. While waiting on my t-shirt drawing to scan earlier tonight (11x17 @ 1200 dpi..takes a while) I doodled up this little diddy:
Clicking on it will give you a larger view. Instead of scanning in all these doodles and junk I have laying around (I still may, in order to add more meat to my posts) I decided to combine some of the characters/things that I've doodled. So this is a small grouping like that. The man is unnamed. I've lately found myself drawing these "T" Headed people. Dunno why, but I'll scan them in soon so that they can act as a group. The floating octopi thing is also unnamed. Not seen here are his neat 3-lens glasses. I call him squid squid but that's not really clever enough. On the ground there is Pizza Dog. He's a slice of pizza that has dog like qualities.
This image may be colored and will probably have some suctioncup thingies on the tentacles too. My scan was done so therefore my drawing was done.
That's all. Time to brave the ghost filled halls.
Only Munty.
Last week: Heroes Season 1.
Yesterday: The Office Season 3; 30 Rock Season 1; Black Donnelly's Complete Series.
Next week: Upright Citizens Brigade Season 2.
It's really hard sometimes to like things and want to support them by giving them your hard earned cash. I do this for pretty much all my favorite comic authors/artists, most of my favorite shows, Nintendo and none of my favorite bands other then Ween. I've only recently consider buying movies that I like. I'm afraid of the format war and being stuck with a bunch of DVDs that will be stashed away with my VHS collection. Of the 5 seasons above, I would probably not buy Heroes and Black Donnellys. I liked Heroes, but it's not as good as LOST and I only just recently bit the bullet and bought that. Black Donnellys was really good while it was on the air, but when it went to internet only I stopped watching. And since the show was only a season I'm afraid they didn't get to tell the whole story they wanted to tell. If buying the DVD would get it back on the air, I would consider that but otherwise I'll save my $50 ($30 on amazon).
Pretty excited about UCB Season 2. I thought for sure that would never make it to the public. I'd also love to rewatch 30 rock and Office. Anyways.
I think I will start Crooked Little Vein tonight. I think it should read a lot faster then Perfume since there will hopefully be 100% less french in it. Sacre Blue.
I forgot what I was going to write about.
Oh well.
Yesterday: The Office Season 3; 30 Rock Season 1; Black Donnelly's Complete Series.
Next week: Upright Citizens Brigade Season 2.
It's really hard sometimes to like things and want to support them by giving them your hard earned cash. I do this for pretty much all my favorite comic authors/artists, most of my favorite shows, Nintendo and none of my favorite bands other then Ween. I've only recently consider buying movies that I like. I'm afraid of the format war and being stuck with a bunch of DVDs that will be stashed away with my VHS collection. Of the 5 seasons above, I would probably not buy Heroes and Black Donnellys. I liked Heroes, but it's not as good as LOST and I only just recently bit the bullet and bought that. Black Donnellys was really good while it was on the air, but when it went to internet only I stopped watching. And since the show was only a season I'm afraid they didn't get to tell the whole story they wanted to tell. If buying the DVD would get it back on the air, I would consider that but otherwise I'll save my $50 ($30 on amazon).
Pretty excited about UCB Season 2. I thought for sure that would never make it to the public. I'd also love to rewatch 30 rock and Office. Anyways.
I think I will start Crooked Little Vein tonight. I think it should read a lot faster then Perfume since there will hopefully be 100% less french in it. Sacre Blue.
I forgot what I was going to write about.
Oh well.
shooting star / the weak end
Just in from NYC so I'll need to blog before I forget everything.
1. Battles. I have seen most of my all time favorite bands live. And some other bands that I liked and their live show blew me away. This Battles show was better then anything I have ever seen. It made bands that I think shred look like sissies. Completely amazing.
2. Saw Superbad again while in NYC. Still hilarious. I'd like to see it again.
3. All my goals for NYC were accomplished. I had a really fun time. Rode around the subway more times then I'd like to remember. Drank a lot. Ate quite a bit. Met up with my "sister" Leah, Clay and Kymia all at seperate times and all pretty fun. Met a couple new people who were also very cool. It's too bad I love NC or else I may consider moving there. Probably never happen tho.
3. Finished Perfume on the plane today. The last page was completed a mere second before we were getting off the plane. This book was really really great. It had the perfect ending in relation to the character and his mindset. They did more things with stink then you'd think. Totally recommended.
4. On my flight home today, this italian guy next to me (with a Luis Vuitton bag...) did a father/son/holyghost cross while we were landing. He had so little faith in flying that he had to involve faith in his flying. While typing that, I accidently typed flaying. I think that would be an interesting means of travel.
5. Finished Invincible Volume 8 the night before I left. This series is great. Now I can catch up on the current issues and be set. Next on the platter: Transmetropolitan volumes 3 & 4. Looking forward to those. Thanks 20% off at comic shop coupon!
6. I'm sure someone has made computer "emote" versions of the I love NY shirt (ie. I <3 NY) and if they didn't, they should. But they should also make I H8 NY shirts. I'd wear one.
7. An idea for a character I had (Martian Luther King, an alien that can cause you to dream) has slowly evolved into what I think would be a cool t-shirt. Afraid of the "RACIST!" comments, clay and katie really helped round out and smooth the idea while in NYC. I have a lot of notes and I hope to get working on images soon. The flight & drive home gave me about 8 more drawings ideas to work on so I will hopefully stay busy.
Time to eat some dinna.
1. Battles. I have seen most of my all time favorite bands live. And some other bands that I liked and their live show blew me away. This Battles show was better then anything I have ever seen. It made bands that I think shred look like sissies. Completely amazing.
2. Saw Superbad again while in NYC. Still hilarious. I'd like to see it again.
3. All my goals for NYC were accomplished. I had a really fun time. Rode around the subway more times then I'd like to remember. Drank a lot. Ate quite a bit. Met up with my "sister" Leah, Clay and Kymia all at seperate times and all pretty fun. Met a couple new people who were also very cool. It's too bad I love NC or else I may consider moving there. Probably never happen tho.
3. Finished Perfume on the plane today. The last page was completed a mere second before we were getting off the plane. This book was really really great. It had the perfect ending in relation to the character and his mindset. They did more things with stink then you'd think. Totally recommended.
4. On my flight home today, this italian guy next to me (with a Luis Vuitton bag...) did a father/son/holyghost cross while we were landing. He had so little faith in flying that he had to involve faith in his flying. While typing that, I accidently typed flaying. I think that would be an interesting means of travel.
5. Finished Invincible Volume 8 the night before I left. This series is great. Now I can catch up on the current issues and be set. Next on the platter: Transmetropolitan volumes 3 & 4. Looking forward to those. Thanks 20% off at comic shop coupon!
6. I'm sure someone has made computer "emote" versions of the I love NY shirt (ie. I <3 NY) and if they didn't, they should. But they should also make I H8 NY shirts. I'd wear one.
7. An idea for a character I had (Martian Luther King, an alien that can cause you to dream) has slowly evolved into what I think would be a cool t-shirt. Afraid of the "RACIST!" comments, clay and katie really helped round out and smooth the idea while in NYC. I have a lot of notes and I hope to get working on images soon. The flight & drive home gave me about 8 more drawings ideas to work on so I will hopefully stay busy.
Time to eat some dinna.
The Nerdiest Post I have made yet
Before I begin what the title claims, I wanted to drop a link to a pretty awesome service that I checked out yesterday. I was going to blog about it as soon as I used it, but I figured I'd save it incase there was nothing to talk about today. Anyways, here's the deal. There is this company called "Moo". They print things. They have a very polite website and some nifty products. The thing that I used their site to make(and bought) was this new book of stickers that they offer. Here's the link. The thing is simple: Upload 1 to 90 of your favorite jpgs (family, friends, artwork, etc). They make this super easy -- if you have a bulk of images, then you load a zip of them and it will extract them for you. That is pure customer service. Next they bring you to the cropping. Completely easy. Move your images around, zoom in zoom out etc. Well designed and a joy to use. I uploaded 8 images. After this they bring you to a section where you get to choose the color of your sticker book. Simple. Then you pay for it. $9.99 for 90 postage stamp sized stickers of whatever you choose. For kids this is a winner.
This was in their FAQ, and I thought it was really clever. Your order is printed on one of the pages in the sticker booklet so that the printer can know what to do with it. But instead of having a bunch of boring text and a barcode and junk they have opted instead for a sticker system. They print an extra page of stickers (each page is 6) and so the first one will be a type of animal, this will tell them what color to make the booklet. Next will be some sort of object, that will tell them where to mail it and so on and so forth. It's like pictograms used in buisness. Very cool to me.
So I should have my set in about 9 more days and I'll post again about the final product. I'm sure I'll recommend it some more.
Now then. On to the nerdiest post I have made yet. I think I've been holding back.
1. One of the most exciting comic book days for me in a long time. Sometimes you buy so many comics that you get behind on certain storylines (Grant Morrison's Batman run for me, at the moment). So you fall behind and then another issue comes out. So you have 2 sitting there. Anyways, I am about 5 behind. But nothing in this stack will be unread by tomorrow morning. It's almost every one of my favorites.
a. Local #10. This series is almost over I believe and every issue is just perfect.
b. Hellboy: Darkness Calls #5 of 6. In my mind there is no way you can go wrong with Mike Mignola's writing. He also does the covers so that helps. This HB series has a new artist named Duncan Fegredo. At first I wasn't excited about this. I love Mignola's work. Guy Davis (The Artist of Hellboy spin-off BPRD) grew on me in one issue. He is amazing. I was worried about this Duncan character. But I shouldn't have been. He takes a lot of Mignola (shadow heavy with lots of "irrev. lines") a splash of Guy Davis (Looser linework and lots of character in faces) and a bit of what I assume is his own style as well (all around goodness). He is like a stew of the greatest things in Hellboy. He is a welcome addition.
c. The Walking Dead #41. The Walking Dead is a comic that is normally late. Not anyones fault and it always delievers some great zombie action, but still. It comes out once every 6 weeks or so most of the time. Well, issue #41 is like the 3rd one in 4 weeks. That's awesome. We're getting spoiled by this. Zombies are at the gate of the jail. Someone will probably die.
d. American Virgin #18. This is just a nicely drawn book with an interesting premise. I always like reading it.
e. Ex Machina: Masquerade Special. 2 days ago, before I knew what was coming out this week, I felt like it had been over a month without an issue of Ex Machina. Maybe even 2 months. It seemed like it has disappeared. Y was still coming out, so I knew that BKV hadn't fallen off of the earth but I was worried. This issue supposedly explains why there are no superheroes (ie. the Great Machine) allowed in NY in the present day-ish story line. Should be interesting.
f. Brit #1. Robert Kirkman (Invincible, Walking Dead) has written a bunch of Image superhero books. The cool thing about them all is that unknown to you at first, and only very minorly touched on through similar locations/characters, they all take place in the same universe. I don't know if you could call it the Kirkmanverse because I'm not sure what the Superpatriot does when he isn't in Invincible. But anyways, Brit is one of those characters. He originally starred in his own mini series which I don't think did too hot. Then he wasin a few issues of Invincible. Now he has his own series which will probably do great due to Invincible.
g. The Mouse Templar #1. This is the real reason for my excitement this week. When MouseGuard was first published, I was told I should check it out. I flipped through it and I wasn't really in to the style of the artwork and I had never heard of the writer. (The comic sold out instantly and went on to be one of them expensive 1st printings. Oh well). The basic premise of MouseGuard is Mice with swords and armor and grand adventures. Like Redwall but with drawings. In the end, I really enjoyed MouseGuard and am buying the new Winter series right now and really liking it. Anyways. This isn't MouseGuard. This is Michael Avon Oeming's dream project. As far as I know (I have looked at his work before but never bought any) Oeming has been talking about Mice Templar for years. It's here and it's amazing looking. This is a new style of drawing for him and it is so Mignola-esque that I couldn't help but buy it on looks alone. Plus it seems to be a double-sized issue. That's a good value.
It took me a second, but here is a great example.
2. Puzzle Fighter HD is finally here on XBOX Live. This is how they shorten the title for their menus at least. It is actually titled "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix". This of course is a gag on the long winded Street Fighter 2 titles of the 90s. My history with this game is as follows.
A really long time ago I did not have a Playstation. This was in the early days of its life. We finally got one when Final Fantasy VII was released and picked up Vandal Hearts as well. At this time in my life (and still a bit now) I was completely enthralled by the Capcom/Street Fighter Universe. I think it was similar to the Robert Kirkman thing and the Dark Tower and things like this where everything is unreleated at first glance but actually tied together somehow, even if it is loose.
So you have your Street Fighter games, you have your Dark Stalkers games, you have your Cyberbots. These were the main fighting games of Capcom at the time. Then they go and make an amazing puzzle game with characters from all 3 series. Later they would follow on this success with Gem Fighters and even taking the idea to major extremes with Marvel Vs. Capcom 1/2/etc. Self Referental things are for me.
Anyways, I rented this game from Blockbuster back when the store was worth a damn. I played through it lots. Then there was awhile when I didn't have it. Lets call this the dark ages. I then found it in Best Buy on sale and knowing that I loved it and that it was so unknown that it would be out of print soon, I had to ask to buy it. It was OK'd and I rejoiced. This game along with Final Fantasy Tactics was the reason I never did anything with peers in High School. If you could track the hours that Eric Peterson, Mike Love, Gabe Fowlkes, Matt and I logged into this game, I'm sure it would suprise you. We seriously played it a lot.
A side note: A neighbor later bought a Playstation and asked to borrow cool games. I lent him this and he lost the instructions. I love Capcom art so this really depressed me.
When it came time to move to college, I could find a single person that had ever played this game. And once I showed them how, they would try, but my high school years of training were pretty brutal so no one played more then one evening. I even tried this experiment a few months ago with similar results. But now it is on XBOX Live and I have a hard time putting it down. In public matches I was 14-2 before my xbox crashed (wtf!). In ranked I am 5-0. There are a lot of people online that have never played this game (it also came out later for the Sega Saturn and the GBA, so they have no excuse). They hop into games and it's over in under a minute. I had the standard guy who logs in and calls you gay and tries to shock you into hating him but he lost so fast it wasn't even funny.
And his reason for losing, but what he didn't realize, was that he picked Dan of all people. Here's a breif rundown of Dan that I wish I had to look up on Wikipedia but I am infact lame enough to know this. Dan, a Street Fighter character with similar fireballs/hurricane kicks to Ryu/Ken/Akuma was originally introduced as a joke. His backstory and character design along with his tiny fireball attacks were an attempt to make fun of SNK/NeoGeo fighting games (King of Fighters mainly). He is this joke that they kept around for a long time.
In Puzzle Fighter, the object of the game is to put like colored gems together and once you have a large "power gem" you place these circular "crash gems" of the same color onto them and they vanish from your side of the screen. This is like completeing a line in Tetris. The "Fighter' part of Puzzle Fighter tho comes into play when you use the crash gem. Depending on the size of your power gems your opponent will suddenly get a bunch of gems dropped onto his screen. The pattern of the drops (Drop Pattern) is dependant on your character. So Ryu drops columns of the same colors while better characters drop seemingly random bunches of mess.
Anyways, Dan being the joke that he is has a drop pattern of all red gems. So no matter what you do with him your opponent will have tons of red all over his screen. This is nice because you end up with massive red power gems that you crash and kill dan easily. A good Dan player uses one of two strategies neither of which is guaranteed to win: You either bombard them with so much red that it clogs their screen and they lose, or you don't destroy much and amass power gems of your own to unleash all at once in a massive chain combo. Dan vs. Dan matches are a lot of fun.
Long story short, this game is a lot of fun and had it not been for the lag I had and the 2 crashes while playing, I would have attempted to take the current #1 leaderboard position (40-1) through the night. That's ok tho. I did some nice achievements like finishing the game on Hard with Dan (took a lot of tries), finishing the game without losing, etc.
They have added all the Saturn modes (Y - match 3 colors and they vanish, like puyo pop; and Z - rotate 4 gems at once to clear portions of the screen, like tetris attack/puzzle league/warios woods/etc) and also a new X' mode which has rebalanced characters (much needed as high level play was always between Ken and Donovan. Now more people stand a chance). I love this game. I think you should play it if you really just read that long ass post.
I could write another 10 paragraphs about this game but I'd rather go play it or read comic books.
3. I am headed to NYC Friday morning. I will be attending a free Battle concert. I will be seeing SuperBad again (first time paying for it tho). I will hopefully run into my High School hero and friend (and recent Drawn front page link) Kymia Nawabi. I will hopefully see my "sister" Leah. I will hopefully see Clay. It should be a lot of fun.
4. I grind my teeth when I type these things. Ouch.
5. My evening, post toothbrushing but presleeping, brown belt sudoku has been replaced with Picross DS. I love Picross and Nintendo has finally seen fit to release an american version of the game. The last Picross game they brought over to the US was Mario's Picross on the original white-brick Gameboy. That was 12 years ago. And it was one of those rare sleeper hits like puzzle fighter. I have finished about 70 of the 15x15 grids and they just started giving me 20x20. These are getting tough but it's so fun. I need to break out my graph paper again and make some more of my own. I have a self portrait one I made but haven't broght over to the digital realm yet. And a couple PFS ones as well.
6. In the new Print magazine they have this article about a new Nickelodeon kid's show called "Yo Gabba Gabba". It has Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and what appear to be giant kid's version of the Wonder Showzen puppets. It looks really strange and great. I saw an episode on at lunch the other day (according to TiVO) but when i flipped to it it was actually...something else. I don't remember what. Spongebob probably. I bring this up only because kids shows are sometimes reallly strange/interesting (ie. Lazy Town!) and this looks like another one of those. I'll bet it's cool.
7. While in Aurora, Brantley gave me some really interesting ideas for the superhero comic threads that are building in my mind. My memory being what it is tho, I can't recall them. I'll have to have another round table discussion with him over Frank's pizza's cheese steak.
8. I think that'll be it. This was long and I am going to check the TiVO and read about mice with swords.
This was in their FAQ, and I thought it was really clever. Your order is printed on one of the pages in the sticker booklet so that the printer can know what to do with it. But instead of having a bunch of boring text and a barcode and junk they have opted instead for a sticker system. They print an extra page of stickers (each page is 6) and so the first one will be a type of animal, this will tell them what color to make the booklet. Next will be some sort of object, that will tell them where to mail it and so on and so forth. It's like pictograms used in buisness. Very cool to me.
So I should have my set in about 9 more days and I'll post again about the final product. I'm sure I'll recommend it some more.
Now then. On to the nerdiest post I have made yet. I think I've been holding back.
1. One of the most exciting comic book days for me in a long time. Sometimes you buy so many comics that you get behind on certain storylines (Grant Morrison's Batman run for me, at the moment). So you fall behind and then another issue comes out. So you have 2 sitting there. Anyways, I am about 5 behind. But nothing in this stack will be unread by tomorrow morning. It's almost every one of my favorites.
a. Local #10. This series is almost over I believe and every issue is just perfect.
b. Hellboy: Darkness Calls #5 of 6. In my mind there is no way you can go wrong with Mike Mignola's writing. He also does the covers so that helps. This HB series has a new artist named Duncan Fegredo. At first I wasn't excited about this. I love Mignola's work. Guy Davis (The Artist of Hellboy spin-off BPRD) grew on me in one issue. He is amazing. I was worried about this Duncan character. But I shouldn't have been. He takes a lot of Mignola (shadow heavy with lots of "irrev. lines") a splash of Guy Davis (Looser linework and lots of character in faces) and a bit of what I assume is his own style as well (all around goodness). He is like a stew of the greatest things in Hellboy. He is a welcome addition.
c. The Walking Dead #41. The Walking Dead is a comic that is normally late. Not anyones fault and it always delievers some great zombie action, but still. It comes out once every 6 weeks or so most of the time. Well, issue #41 is like the 3rd one in 4 weeks. That's awesome. We're getting spoiled by this. Zombies are at the gate of the jail. Someone will probably die.
d. American Virgin #18. This is just a nicely drawn book with an interesting premise. I always like reading it.
e. Ex Machina: Masquerade Special. 2 days ago, before I knew what was coming out this week, I felt like it had been over a month without an issue of Ex Machina. Maybe even 2 months. It seemed like it has disappeared. Y was still coming out, so I knew that BKV hadn't fallen off of the earth but I was worried. This issue supposedly explains why there are no superheroes (ie. the Great Machine) allowed in NY in the present day-ish story line. Should be interesting.
f. Brit #1. Robert Kirkman (Invincible, Walking Dead) has written a bunch of Image superhero books. The cool thing about them all is that unknown to you at first, and only very minorly touched on through similar locations/characters, they all take place in the same universe. I don't know if you could call it the Kirkmanverse because I'm not sure what the Superpatriot does when he isn't in Invincible. But anyways, Brit is one of those characters. He originally starred in his own mini series which I don't think did too hot. Then he wasin a few issues of Invincible. Now he has his own series which will probably do great due to Invincible.
g. The Mouse Templar #1. This is the real reason for my excitement this week. When MouseGuard was first published, I was told I should check it out. I flipped through it and I wasn't really in to the style of the artwork and I had never heard of the writer. (The comic sold out instantly and went on to be one of them expensive 1st printings. Oh well). The basic premise of MouseGuard is Mice with swords and armor and grand adventures. Like Redwall but with drawings. In the end, I really enjoyed MouseGuard and am buying the new Winter series right now and really liking it. Anyways. This isn't MouseGuard. This is Michael Avon Oeming's dream project. As far as I know (I have looked at his work before but never bought any) Oeming has been talking about Mice Templar for years. It's here and it's amazing looking. This is a new style of drawing for him and it is so Mignola-esque that I couldn't help but buy it on looks alone. Plus it seems to be a double-sized issue. That's a good value.
It took me a second, but here is a great example.
2. Puzzle Fighter HD is finally here on XBOX Live. This is how they shorten the title for their menus at least. It is actually titled "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix". This of course is a gag on the long winded Street Fighter 2 titles of the 90s. My history with this game is as follows.
A really long time ago I did not have a Playstation. This was in the early days of its life. We finally got one when Final Fantasy VII was released and picked up Vandal Hearts as well. At this time in my life (and still a bit now) I was completely enthralled by the Capcom/Street Fighter Universe. I think it was similar to the Robert Kirkman thing and the Dark Tower and things like this where everything is unreleated at first glance but actually tied together somehow, even if it is loose.
So you have your Street Fighter games, you have your Dark Stalkers games, you have your Cyberbots. These were the main fighting games of Capcom at the time. Then they go and make an amazing puzzle game with characters from all 3 series. Later they would follow on this success with Gem Fighters and even taking the idea to major extremes with Marvel Vs. Capcom 1/2/etc. Self Referental things are for me.
Anyways, I rented this game from Blockbuster back when the store was worth a damn. I played through it lots. Then there was awhile when I didn't have it. Lets call this the dark ages. I then found it in Best Buy on sale and knowing that I loved it and that it was so unknown that it would be out of print soon, I had to ask to buy it. It was OK'd and I rejoiced. This game along with Final Fantasy Tactics was the reason I never did anything with peers in High School. If you could track the hours that Eric Peterson, Mike Love, Gabe Fowlkes, Matt and I logged into this game, I'm sure it would suprise you. We seriously played it a lot.
A side note: A neighbor later bought a Playstation and asked to borrow cool games. I lent him this and he lost the instructions. I love Capcom art so this really depressed me.
When it came time to move to college, I could find a single person that had ever played this game. And once I showed them how, they would try, but my high school years of training were pretty brutal so no one played more then one evening. I even tried this experiment a few months ago with similar results. But now it is on XBOX Live and I have a hard time putting it down. In public matches I was 14-2 before my xbox crashed (wtf!). In ranked I am 5-0. There are a lot of people online that have never played this game (it also came out later for the Sega Saturn and the GBA, so they have no excuse). They hop into games and it's over in under a minute. I had the standard guy who logs in and calls you gay and tries to shock you into hating him but he lost so fast it wasn't even funny.
And his reason for losing, but what he didn't realize, was that he picked Dan of all people. Here's a breif rundown of Dan that I wish I had to look up on Wikipedia but I am infact lame enough to know this. Dan, a Street Fighter character with similar fireballs/hurricane kicks to Ryu/Ken/Akuma was originally introduced as a joke. His backstory and character design along with his tiny fireball attacks were an attempt to make fun of SNK/NeoGeo fighting games (King of Fighters mainly). He is this joke that they kept around for a long time.
In Puzzle Fighter, the object of the game is to put like colored gems together and once you have a large "power gem" you place these circular "crash gems" of the same color onto them and they vanish from your side of the screen. This is like completeing a line in Tetris. The "Fighter' part of Puzzle Fighter tho comes into play when you use the crash gem. Depending on the size of your power gems your opponent will suddenly get a bunch of gems dropped onto his screen. The pattern of the drops (Drop Pattern) is dependant on your character. So Ryu drops columns of the same colors while better characters drop seemingly random bunches of mess.
Anyways, Dan being the joke that he is has a drop pattern of all red gems. So no matter what you do with him your opponent will have tons of red all over his screen. This is nice because you end up with massive red power gems that you crash and kill dan easily. A good Dan player uses one of two strategies neither of which is guaranteed to win: You either bombard them with so much red that it clogs their screen and they lose, or you don't destroy much and amass power gems of your own to unleash all at once in a massive chain combo. Dan vs. Dan matches are a lot of fun.
Long story short, this game is a lot of fun and had it not been for the lag I had and the 2 crashes while playing, I would have attempted to take the current #1 leaderboard position (40-1) through the night. That's ok tho. I did some nice achievements like finishing the game on Hard with Dan (took a lot of tries), finishing the game without losing, etc.
They have added all the Saturn modes (Y - match 3 colors and they vanish, like puyo pop; and Z - rotate 4 gems at once to clear portions of the screen, like tetris attack/puzzle league/warios woods/etc) and also a new X' mode which has rebalanced characters (much needed as high level play was always between Ken and Donovan. Now more people stand a chance). I love this game. I think you should play it if you really just read that long ass post.
I could write another 10 paragraphs about this game but I'd rather go play it or read comic books.
3. I am headed to NYC Friday morning. I will be attending a free Battle concert. I will be seeing SuperBad again (first time paying for it tho). I will hopefully run into my High School hero and friend (and recent Drawn front page link) Kymia Nawabi. I will hopefully see my "sister" Leah. I will hopefully see Clay. It should be a lot of fun.
4. I grind my teeth when I type these things. Ouch.
5. My evening, post toothbrushing but presleeping, brown belt sudoku has been replaced with Picross DS. I love Picross and Nintendo has finally seen fit to release an american version of the game. The last Picross game they brought over to the US was Mario's Picross on the original white-brick Gameboy. That was 12 years ago. And it was one of those rare sleeper hits like puzzle fighter. I have finished about 70 of the 15x15 grids and they just started giving me 20x20. These are getting tough but it's so fun. I need to break out my graph paper again and make some more of my own. I have a self portrait one I made but haven't broght over to the digital realm yet. And a couple PFS ones as well.
6. In the new Print magazine they have this article about a new Nickelodeon kid's show called "Yo Gabba Gabba". It has Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and what appear to be giant kid's version of the Wonder Showzen puppets. It looks really strange and great. I saw an episode on at lunch the other day (according to TiVO) but when i flipped to it it was actually...something else. I don't remember what. Spongebob probably. I bring this up only because kids shows are sometimes reallly strange/interesting (ie. Lazy Town!) and this looks like another one of those. I'll bet it's cool.
7. While in Aurora, Brantley gave me some really interesting ideas for the superhero comic threads that are building in my mind. My memory being what it is tho, I can't recall them. I'll have to have another round table discussion with him over Frank's pizza's cheese steak.
8. I think that'll be it. This was long and I am going to check the TiVO and read about mice with swords.
nothing
nothing much to blog about.
Went to the pamlico river last weekend. That was a fun trip. Going to NYC this weekend. I hope that's fun. We'll see.
Finished Invincible volume 7 yesterday. I can now see why this comic is so loved. It's getting more awesome with each new storyline that is introduced. Same with Transmetropolitan volume 2. Really cool stuff in there.
I have eaten at the "new" (re-vamped and twice as big...same location) Tokyo 3 times in like 7 days. I think it's starting to hit me. Blech.
I don't really remember what else I was going to type. Been pretty much just working and sleeping, neither of which have resulted in anything interesting.
I think today I may have realized that my glasses are a bit huge for my face. I bet they've been that way for a long time.
Not feeling to hot right now. Gonna go ahead and end this before it gets any more boring.
Went to the pamlico river last weekend. That was a fun trip. Going to NYC this weekend. I hope that's fun. We'll see.
Finished Invincible volume 7 yesterday. I can now see why this comic is so loved. It's getting more awesome with each new storyline that is introduced. Same with Transmetropolitan volume 2. Really cool stuff in there.
I have eaten at the "new" (re-vamped and twice as big...same location) Tokyo 3 times in like 7 days. I think it's starting to hit me. Blech.
I don't really remember what else I was going to type. Been pretty much just working and sleeping, neither of which have resulted in anything interesting.
I think today I may have realized that my glasses are a bit huge for my face. I bet they've been that way for a long time.
Not feeling to hot right now. Gonna go ahead and end this before it gets any more boring.
PsyCow Killa, Norman Bates
1. Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindleoff have optioned the Dark Tower movie. While this isn't a guarantee that it will be made, it is still a really good sign. In case you are in the dark about Carlton & Damon, they write Lost & run the Lost Podcast. They are Dark Tower fans bigtime and I think they would do it a bit of justice. Dan, I can see the face you are making so quit it.
2. Leaving home from lunch today I almost stepped on a Cow Killer "ant". I've never seen one of these before and it blew my mind how large and red it was. And furry. Spooky, to me.
3. Bought BioShock yesterday. Wish I would have price matched it because Circuit City had it for $10 less then anyone else. Of course they didn't have any copies, but I coulda brought the flier to Best Buy and gotten the deal. My bad. Anyways, if the demo to me was just "OK" then this (the full game) is worthy of all those 10/10 reviews it is getting.
4. Designed a DVD for Mel Stanforth (former ECU Professor and very odd dude). I think it looks pretty cool and hopefully it will be approved and I can see it in production.
5. Ol' dirty fans, how awesome is the title to today's blog? I know, right?
2. Leaving home from lunch today I almost stepped on a Cow Killer "ant". I've never seen one of these before and it blew my mind how large and red it was. And furry. Spooky, to me.
3. Bought BioShock yesterday. Wish I would have price matched it because Circuit City had it for $10 less then anyone else. Of course they didn't have any copies, but I coulda brought the flier to Best Buy and gotten the deal. My bad. Anyways, if the demo to me was just "OK" then this (the full game) is worthy of all those 10/10 reviews it is getting.
4. Designed a DVD for Mel Stanforth (former ECU Professor and very odd dude). I think it looks pretty cool and hopefully it will be approved and I can see it in production.
5. Ol' dirty fans, how awesome is the title to today's blog? I know, right?
Smell that?
1. skate - the demo. On XBOX Live. Completely fun. The camera is kinda lame, but it's really cool to learn to skateboard and then do sick tricks.
2. In the grocery store on sunday waiting on some turkey and chee for my sammys. It is taking awhile because the lunchmeatgirl is using all these scrap turkeys from through out the day. So it takes 3 different turks to get me 1 lb. Anyways, while waiting this little lady comes over to get meat and stops, sniffing. She looks up at me and asks if I smell bug spray. I feign a sniff and say I don't and she asks me "You know what it smells like, right? Kinda sweet?" I said yes and then sniffed around again and said, I smelled it, Barely. I was lying. She said "good I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me" and then just kind of stood there awkwardly. 30 seconds of awkward silence (awkward for her, clearly. I was looking at the cakes) pass and she looks up again and asks "So...What kind of cheese you gettin'". What a good coversation starter. As I pointed to Provelone, another Harris Teeter meatgirl came up and asked what she needed. Her reply was "6 slices of turkey and 6 slices of swiss". I wish you could have seen the look on the meatgirls face.
3. Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) will be on Heroes season 2. This is good that she is getting work on another show I like. She should be on more shows that I like.
4. Driving to work this morning, bright and early, I come to a stop light. Next to me pulls a huge truck blasting rap as loud as it can go with as much bass as his subwoofer can handle. I think that 9am is too early for rap as loud as it can go.
2. In the grocery store on sunday waiting on some turkey and chee for my sammys. It is taking awhile because the lunchmeatgirl is using all these scrap turkeys from through out the day. So it takes 3 different turks to get me 1 lb. Anyways, while waiting this little lady comes over to get meat and stops, sniffing. She looks up at me and asks if I smell bug spray. I feign a sniff and say I don't and she asks me "You know what it smells like, right? Kinda sweet?" I said yes and then sniffed around again and said, I smelled it, Barely. I was lying. She said "good I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me" and then just kind of stood there awkwardly. 30 seconds of awkward silence (awkward for her, clearly. I was looking at the cakes) pass and she looks up again and asks "So...What kind of cheese you gettin'". What a good coversation starter. As I pointed to Provelone, another Harris Teeter meatgirl came up and asked what she needed. Her reply was "6 slices of turkey and 6 slices of swiss". I wish you could have seen the look on the meatgirls face.
3. Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) will be on Heroes season 2. This is good that she is getting work on another show I like. She should be on more shows that I like.
4. Driving to work this morning, bright and early, I come to a stop light. Next to me pulls a huge truck blasting rap as loud as it can go with as much bass as his subwoofer can handle. I think that 9am is too early for rap as loud as it can go.
Bernies.
Caught the tail end of Weekend @ Bernies 2 earlier. I pretty much forgot I owned that...and I forgot how good it wasn't. The only good thing about W@B's2 is the Bret Atkins version of the voodoo walk/shake. I'm laughing right now picturing it.
Did I mention that I am near done with the first in the Lorna/Billy collab thingie? I hope to have it inked/ready by the weekend along with 1 other. Maybe.
That's it really. I'm tired.
Did I mention that I am near done with the first in the Lorna/Billy collab thingie? I hope to have it inked/ready by the weekend along with 1 other. Maybe.
That's it really. I'm tired.
Sunday Sunday Sunday
1. Uploaded tons of new images to wburkert.com. Updated the Lightbox to the newest version which now offers arrow key navigation. Very cool. If you have been keeping up with my work through other sites (deviant/flickr/whatev) then a lot of this may be old for you. But there are some newbies in there too.
2. Coded the site using Coda from Panic. Not only do they make awesome Katamari Shirts but they also make great mac apps. I think I may buy the full version of Coda. I really love it. And it beats the crap out of saving html docs to my desktop and dragging them into fetch everytime I want to see live changes. It was love at first type. Trademark that. I want it on a shirt that will sell at Veer.
3. Saw Superbad today with my brother. Was pretty funny. Not the comedy changing film I felt like it was hyped up to being, but still pretty funny. I love the intro/007 dancing thing. Micheal Cera's moves were on point.
4. Watched Do The Right Thing over the weekend. Everyone should do the right thing. I'm not really sure that Spike Lee's character Mookie did the right thing. But that's ok. Da Mayor did, and that's all that matters.
5. Saw some pretty awesome bands this weekend. Cup 'n' String from Chicago were the first act of the evening. They were great live. Lead singer on acoustic guitar, girl on cello, girl on floor w/ back-up vocals. no mics. Their voices carried. Reminded me of Daniel Johnston meets Joanna Newsome (milk eyed mender) meets Violent Femmes. Kinda. Also caught Mega Mega. They were math-rocky-metal-stuff with their drums recorded on an ipod. I guess the drummer was sick.
6. The best portion of the evening was probably The Subliminator. Go ahead and take a second to read the little bio there on his site. I'll wait.
Done? Pretty awesome right? Here's pretty much exactly what he looked like:
His shirt was blue this night tho. Anyways, he plays noise with some sort of beats sometimes. His lyrics were like a mix of monk chanting meets fast-forward vhs movies. Strange. I did catch a snippet of lyrics tho -- "You are so digital. You are such a microwave." Mind blowing.
2. Coded the site using Coda from Panic. Not only do they make awesome Katamari Shirts but they also make great mac apps. I think I may buy the full version of Coda. I really love it. And it beats the crap out of saving html docs to my desktop and dragging them into fetch everytime I want to see live changes. It was love at first type. Trademark that. I want it on a shirt that will sell at Veer.
3. Saw Superbad today with my brother. Was pretty funny. Not the comedy changing film I felt like it was hyped up to being, but still pretty funny. I love the intro/007 dancing thing. Micheal Cera's moves were on point.
4. Watched Do The Right Thing over the weekend. Everyone should do the right thing. I'm not really sure that Spike Lee's character Mookie did the right thing. But that's ok. Da Mayor did, and that's all that matters.
5. Saw some pretty awesome bands this weekend. Cup 'n' String from Chicago were the first act of the evening. They were great live. Lead singer on acoustic guitar, girl on cello, girl on floor w/ back-up vocals. no mics. Their voices carried. Reminded me of Daniel Johnston meets Joanna Newsome (milk eyed mender) meets Violent Femmes. Kinda. Also caught Mega Mega. They were math-rocky-metal-stuff with their drums recorded on an ipod. I guess the drummer was sick.
6. The best portion of the evening was probably The Subliminator. Go ahead and take a second to read the little bio there on his site. I'll wait.
Done? Pretty awesome right? Here's pretty much exactly what he looked like:
His shirt was blue this night tho. Anyways, he plays noise with some sort of beats sometimes. His lyrics were like a mix of monk chanting meets fast-forward vhs movies. Strange. I did catch a snippet of lyrics tho -- "You are so digital. You are such a microwave." Mind blowing.
cricket noises.
1. No one around. Kinda creepy quiet in town right now.
2. What about this: A team of Army trained mercs. One is a Paralegal, One is a set of conjoined twins, one is a paraplegic and one is a master of the umbrella/parasol as a weapon. Together they would be called the Paratroopers. (Conjoined twins: Pair of Troopers). Thanks to KLM and BEN for making this one possible.
3. I'll bet everyone is seeing Superbad right now except for me. I'll bet they are laughing and eating popcorn and spilling the popcorn because of how hard they are laughing. I'll bet you can't even really hear the movie over all the laughter, so it's probably a big waste of 8 bucks.
4. I ran into some people I knew on Wednesday and they yelled to me (instead of Hello) NEW STARBUCKS! FREE COFFEE! What's the big deal. Just say Hi.
5. I woke up late for work this morning because I was having some sort of dream about Batman. He was going by a new name and had a silver mask/cowl on. Someone else in the dream was telling him that he could no longer wear Batman garb or Bruce Wayne stuff because there was some sort of system in place (see: The Voldemort Jinx) where (evilpeople) would be there in an instant to pacify him. When I was waking up I was thinking "what a good idea" but that's why waking up is stupid because when you wake up you are stupid for awhile. I normally have these dreams about interesting superpowers or groups of superhumans. Ask Dan. I email them all to him. Actually, don't ask him. Because they are secret until I do something with them(nothing).
2. What about this: A team of Army trained mercs. One is a Paralegal, One is a set of conjoined twins, one is a paraplegic and one is a master of the umbrella/parasol as a weapon. Together they would be called the Paratroopers. (Conjoined twins: Pair of Troopers). Thanks to KLM and BEN for making this one possible.
3. I'll bet everyone is seeing Superbad right now except for me. I'll bet they are laughing and eating popcorn and spilling the popcorn because of how hard they are laughing. I'll bet you can't even really hear the movie over all the laughter, so it's probably a big waste of 8 bucks.
4. I ran into some people I knew on Wednesday and they yelled to me (instead of Hello) NEW STARBUCKS! FREE COFFEE! What's the big deal. Just say Hi.
5. I woke up late for work this morning because I was having some sort of dream about Batman. He was going by a new name and had a silver mask/cowl on. Someone else in the dream was telling him that he could no longer wear Batman garb or Bruce Wayne stuff because there was some sort of system in place (see: The Voldemort Jinx) where (evilpeople) would be there in an instant to pacify him. When I was waking up I was thinking "what a good idea" but that's why waking up is stupid because when you wake up you are stupid for awhile. I normally have these dreams about interesting superpowers or groups of superhumans. Ask Dan. I email them all to him. Actually, don't ask him. Because they are secret until I do something with them(nothing).
It's Over.
1. John from Cincinnati was cancelled. David Milch is cursed.
2. No matter how many seasons/episodes I watch, there is no TV worse then "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" It is awful. The "CGI" (made with mario paint) is straight out of Hackers or Bibleman. I want to be on this show because all they have are complete idiots. I killed brain cells watching that.
3. Played Bomberman Live tonight with 8 french people. This was similar to the show mentioned above. Their language is like wiping my ears with razor blades. And they kept saying "blahblahbalhblahAmerican!" I was getting picked on in french. Then some other American guy (sounded gangsta' so he was probably a 12 year old white dude) logged in and they picked on him pretty hard. Mostly because he was talking and sounded like an idiot. These 9 guys pretty much set back the USA/French relationship by another 1,000 years.
4. There wasn't a single comic out that I read this week. I have never gone to the store and not spent any money. This is the first week I can think of where I didn't go at all. This isn't the end of the habit, but it is an odd feeling.
5. I think B's BBQ might have made me sick. Or B's + Chili. Something. I feel like death right now.
6. There is no 6.
2. No matter how many seasons/episodes I watch, there is no TV worse then "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" It is awful. The "CGI" (made with mario paint) is straight out of Hackers or Bibleman. I want to be on this show because all they have are complete idiots. I killed brain cells watching that.
3. Played Bomberman Live tonight with 8 french people. This was similar to the show mentioned above. Their language is like wiping my ears with razor blades. And they kept saying "blahblahbalhblahAmerican!" I was getting picked on in french. Then some other American guy (sounded gangsta' so he was probably a 12 year old white dude) logged in and they picked on him pretty hard. Mostly because he was talking and sounded like an idiot. These 9 guys pretty much set back the USA/French relationship by another 1,000 years.
4. There wasn't a single comic out that I read this week. I have never gone to the store and not spent any money. This is the first week I can think of where I didn't go at all. This isn't the end of the habit, but it is an odd feeling.
5. I think B's BBQ might have made me sick. Or B's + Chili. Something. I feel like death right now.
6. There is no 6.
Blades of Boring
That's a good pun, right?
1. Just finished watching Blades of Glory so I won't even have time to think this one through: (Doing my best Adrian impression) Not Impressed. Will Arnett had some funny lines and looked awesome as Kennedy (esp. when he limbos during the chase scene) but even his greatness couldn't clear the stench of Jon Heder. Too bad for this movie.
2. Bioshock a second time through: I like it a bit more now. Hacked some bots, found some other areas I missed, etc. May pick this one up.
3. Hexic 2 on xblive. Why is the game board zoomed out so much. I know there isn't much to see in a puzzle game of hexagons from the creator of Tetris, but come on. I loved Hexic HD and I had high hopes for this one. Maybe it's just the demo's fault.
4. Picross DS. This is the reason to own a DS. Nintendo finally comes to their senses and releases a Picross game in the US of A. We haven't had one since Mario's Picross on the regular brick-sized gameboy. I love Picross and some of these puzzles are the devil. It's great. Makes me want to finish up my PFS Picross puzzles I was making. I have 2 in the bag. The puzzle bag.
5. Speaking of PFS... I think it's over. I have no real desire to spend half of my week pumping out a sub-par comic strip. I'd rather take time and make something more long form. I will start on that and it will be better then the 3 weeks of junk I rushed out the door.
6. Started gathering reference for the first piece in the Lorna Wang/Me collab. This one isn't part of the bigger series but I still want to have her hands and brushes in painting over it. I think that if it turns out how I picture it in my head then I would like to get the others done quickly and try and get some freelance work in this style. I love to draw and color isn't my thing whereas it is really her thing. I think that a group of samples of encaustic paintings over top of pen/ink drawings would really stand out in a world full of my heroes.
7. New Harvest Moon out for DS. I know that Dan McRae is jealous of all my farming and cooking games.
8. Good night.
1. Just finished watching Blades of Glory so I won't even have time to think this one through: (Doing my best Adrian impression) Not Impressed. Will Arnett had some funny lines and looked awesome as Kennedy (esp. when he limbos during the chase scene) but even his greatness couldn't clear the stench of Jon Heder. Too bad for this movie.
2. Bioshock a second time through: I like it a bit more now. Hacked some bots, found some other areas I missed, etc. May pick this one up.
3. Hexic 2 on xblive. Why is the game board zoomed out so much. I know there isn't much to see in a puzzle game of hexagons from the creator of Tetris, but come on. I loved Hexic HD and I had high hopes for this one. Maybe it's just the demo's fault.
4. Picross DS. This is the reason to own a DS. Nintendo finally comes to their senses and releases a Picross game in the US of A. We haven't had one since Mario's Picross on the regular brick-sized gameboy. I love Picross and some of these puzzles are the devil. It's great. Makes me want to finish up my PFS Picross puzzles I was making. I have 2 in the bag. The puzzle bag.
5. Speaking of PFS... I think it's over. I have no real desire to spend half of my week pumping out a sub-par comic strip. I'd rather take time and make something more long form. I will start on that and it will be better then the 3 weeks of junk I rushed out the door.
6. Started gathering reference for the first piece in the Lorna Wang/Me collab. This one isn't part of the bigger series but I still want to have her hands and brushes in painting over it. I think that if it turns out how I picture it in my head then I would like to get the others done quickly and try and get some freelance work in this style. I love to draw and color isn't my thing whereas it is really her thing. I think that a group of samples of encaustic paintings over top of pen/ink drawings would really stand out in a world full of my heroes.
7. New Harvest Moon out for DS. I know that Dan McRae is jealous of all my farming and cooking games.
8. Good night.
Beaut.
1. For some reason, the newest Wii Update (I haven't turned on the Wii in at least 5 months, so there may be multiple) is taking longer than the Bioshock demo -- and that took 8 hours! I saw the progress bar move a small amount...maybe it's alright. I just wanted to check out the new videos for Metroid Prime 3. I'm sure they were beautiful.
2. Speaking of beautiful -- Beautiful Katamari demo on xblive! It's only 3 minutes long but boy is it great to have more objects and people to roll into stars. Sadly, it seems that Dokaka is gone from the soundtrack. Maybe he just does a couple songs. I dunno, but he really added a lot to the game for me. I'm not one of the super "otaku" that listens to gaming soundtracks except for in the case of Katamari. What a game.
3. The Pick Up Artist on VH1. Did I mention this yet? It's a really interesting show. Originally I thought they were using this show to pick on geeky/shy guys (ie. Beauty and the Geek) but I really feel like "Mystery" and his Wingmen care about these dudes. It is a shame that they are racked with fear and panic attacks. I know how they feel. But making them dye their hair or guage their ears seems to be counter productive. If they gave the guys new clothes and taught them how to talk then I think they would do fine being themselves around people. But sending them out and making them think that gauging their ears or something of the sort is going to help them rake in the ladies...I just don't buy it. Whatever tho. It's interesting to watch.
4. Really stumped on the recoloring of my postcard image. I kind of feel like it's hopeless and that I should just scrap the whole thing... I may just chuck all the color I have and start fresh. See if that helps. It's bogging me down from starting on a new drawing which I am eager to get to the coloring/recoloring/discouraged/bogged down part of.
2. Speaking of beautiful -- Beautiful Katamari demo on xblive! It's only 3 minutes long but boy is it great to have more objects and people to roll into stars. Sadly, it seems that Dokaka is gone from the soundtrack. Maybe he just does a couple songs. I dunno, but he really added a lot to the game for me. I'm not one of the super "otaku" that listens to gaming soundtracks except for in the case of Katamari. What a game.
3. The Pick Up Artist on VH1. Did I mention this yet? It's a really interesting show. Originally I thought they were using this show to pick on geeky/shy guys (ie. Beauty and the Geek) but I really feel like "Mystery" and his Wingmen care about these dudes. It is a shame that they are racked with fear and panic attacks. I know how they feel. But making them dye their hair or guage their ears seems to be counter productive. If they gave the guys new clothes and taught them how to talk then I think they would do fine being themselves around people. But sending them out and making them think that gauging their ears or something of the sort is going to help them rake in the ladies...I just don't buy it. Whatever tho. It's interesting to watch.
4. Really stumped on the recoloring of my postcard image. I kind of feel like it's hopeless and that I should just scrap the whole thing... I may just chuck all the color I have and start fresh. See if that helps. It's bogging me down from starting on a new drawing which I am eager to get to the coloring/recoloring/discouraged/bogged down part of.
otn, movies and the end of shows.
1. Back and slightly recovered from "OTN" 07. It was sort of otn and it was sort of not at the same time. No matter tho, as it was still a blast. I think I may have gotten a minor sickness out in the mountains of VA...We'll see.
Images from my camera. 80 loading all at once, so it will be slow.
2. Pre-OTN I caught Stardust in theaters and Benchwarmers on DVD as a joke. Stardust was awesome and Benchwarmers was actually not that bad. Tivo'd Mean Girls off of TV today. Never seen it before but it was also pretty good. The Mathlete/DJ Kid was awesome.
3. John From Cincinnati ended last night. I'm not really sure what I thought of the season. I can't tell if there will be a second season, so this may be the entire message of John in 10 episodes. There was a lot of cool imagery and interesting phrases turned, but they weren't clarified all that well. I like to read into things as much as the next person, but the resolution to all of this stuff was just kinda regular. Maybe on a second watching it'll be better. Who knows.
4. Bioshock Demo came out last night for Xbox360. It's a gorgeous game and really creepy/scary/spooky but there was something a little off about it for me. I think the character may have been a little too sluggish. I think I'll like it better on the PC due to mouse and keyboard being far superior to anything thus far (metroid for wii may break this rule -- metroid for DS dented it).
That's it.
Images from my camera. 80 loading all at once, so it will be slow.
2. Pre-OTN I caught Stardust in theaters and Benchwarmers on DVD as a joke. Stardust was awesome and Benchwarmers was actually not that bad. Tivo'd Mean Girls off of TV today. Never seen it before but it was also pretty good. The Mathlete/DJ Kid was awesome.
3. John From Cincinnati ended last night. I'm not really sure what I thought of the season. I can't tell if there will be a second season, so this may be the entire message of John in 10 episodes. There was a lot of cool imagery and interesting phrases turned, but they weren't clarified all that well. I like to read into things as much as the next person, but the resolution to all of this stuff was just kinda regular. Maybe on a second watching it'll be better. Who knows.
4. Bioshock Demo came out last night for Xbox360. It's a gorgeous game and really creepy/scary/spooky but there was something a little off about it for me. I think the character may have been a little too sluggish. I think I'll like it better on the PC due to mouse and keyboard being far superior to anything thus far (metroid for wii may break this rule -- metroid for DS dented it).
That's it.
Hopefully out the door...
Just some quick tids and bits so that it doesn't appear that I am dead.
1. Internet is screwed at home. Crap.
2. The postcard image is getting 100% new colors and color palettes. Great.
3. Disturbia wasn't good. Bad.
4. First episode of LA Ink w/ Kat Von D was alright but it needs more tattoos. Was only the first ep tho so it'll get better.
5. First episode of The Pick Up Artist was awesome. Funny awesome.
6. OTN @ Mt. Airy this weekend. I'm sure there will be pics galore come mon/tues.
7. Stranglehold Demo on XBLive is pretty cool. I've unlocked Hard Boiled but didn't finish it yet.
8. Puzzle Fighter HD is very soon to be on XBLArcade. I can't wait. Everyone buy it and lose to me playing as Dan! Red!
That's it. Work time.
B
1. Internet is screwed at home. Crap.
2. The postcard image is getting 100% new colors and color palettes. Great.
3. Disturbia wasn't good. Bad.
4. First episode of LA Ink w/ Kat Von D was alright but it needs more tattoos. Was only the first ep tho so it'll get better.
5. First episode of The Pick Up Artist was awesome. Funny awesome.
6. OTN @ Mt. Airy this weekend. I'm sure there will be pics galore come mon/tues.
7. Stranglehold Demo on XBLive is pretty cool. I've unlocked Hard Boiled but didn't finish it yet.
8. Puzzle Fighter HD is very soon to be on XBLArcade. I can't wait. Everyone buy it and lose to me playing as Dan! Red!
That's it. Work time.
B
The Simpsons & The City
1. Finally caught the Simpsons Movie yesterday. I loved it. It was like an episode of the Simpsons from the earlier seasons (3-9). I did have some minor problems with the fact that they tried to make it more PG-13 by making Marge "cuss" at the end, and by having Homer flip the bird. Plus, the eskimo lady and the jokes relating to her seemed out of place to me. That stuff aside - it was still great. I'd pay to watch it again if that says anything.
2. Putting up the finishing touches on the postcard as I type this. There are some minor ends to tie up and the back to be designed, but here it is at the moment. The main fix right now is masking out the lit windows so that they don't overlap the mountains.
I am working on a series of images with Lorna Wang and each of the 6-8 images is going to have multiple titles. This is because of the multitude of things they will be referencing and the people they will be about and things like that. One title wouldn't do. The same holds true with this postcard. 1 of 5 titles: "Oh, Those City Lights II". The rest will be printed on the back somewhere.
3. Joanna Newsom is going on a U.S. Orchestral Tour and coming to Atlanta in November. I really need to be at that.
4. The John From Cincinnati season finale is next weekend. They claim that everything will be answered. I hope there is a season 2 and I hope they answer things with questions (ie. LOST).
2. Putting up the finishing touches on the postcard as I type this. There are some minor ends to tie up and the back to be designed, but here it is at the moment. The main fix right now is masking out the lit windows so that they don't overlap the mountains.
I am working on a series of images with Lorna Wang and each of the 6-8 images is going to have multiple titles. This is because of the multitude of things they will be referencing and the people they will be about and things like that. One title wouldn't do. The same holds true with this postcard. 1 of 5 titles: "Oh, Those City Lights II". The rest will be printed on the back somewhere.
3. Joanna Newsom is going on a U.S. Orchestral Tour and coming to Atlanta in November. I really need to be at that.
4. The John From Cincinnati season finale is next weekend. They claim that everything will be answered. I hope there is a season 2 and I hope they answer things with questions (ie. LOST).
SDCC
Sent off PFS003 this afternoon. It'll be hot off the internet and ready to read this Saturday. Headed out to a birthday party in a few, so I only have a moment to rant.
If I had know about some of the things that would be exclusive to this years San Diego Comic Con, I would have scraped together the cash in a second. This alone is worth my ticket:
God. There are a few of these on EBay in the 20-50$ range. There were only 2008 released. I am hoping that means only 2008 that were signed and numbered because I don't care about that, I just want one. That is the sickest poster I have ever seen for a movie. Doesn't hurt that I love Mike Mignola.
Other than that, there were also some very awesome figures from Jamungo(a duo of which 1/2 lives here in town). I would have like to pick up those as well.
Finished 5 of the 6 episodes of Season 2 of HBO's "Extras" series yesterday. Very uncomfy and very funny. On the platter for tonight: Hot Fuzz. Hopefully it's Hot Funn-y...that sucked. Never mind.
-
If I had know about some of the things that would be exclusive to this years San Diego Comic Con, I would have scraped together the cash in a second. This alone is worth my ticket:
God. There are a few of these on EBay in the 20-50$ range. There were only 2008 released. I am hoping that means only 2008 that were signed and numbered because I don't care about that, I just want one. That is the sickest poster I have ever seen for a movie. Doesn't hurt that I love Mike Mignola.
Other than that, there were also some very awesome figures from Jamungo(a duo of which 1/2 lives here in town). I would have like to pick up those as well.
Finished 5 of the 6 episodes of Season 2 of HBO's "Extras" series yesterday. Very uncomfy and very funny. On the platter for tonight: Hot Fuzz. Hopefully it's Hot Funn-y...that sucked. Never mind.
-
Pick-Ups and Peek-Ups
Picked up Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein: A Novel today from Amazon. I saw it in person at the comic shop, but I hate paying full price for stuff. So I found it for $14 on Amazon. That's a deal I'll take. Hope to start it next week, after Perfume.
I'm still at work right now, 12 hours of sitting here, so there isn't too much to say. But! I did get some colorin' done, so take a gander at these sneak peeks.
PFS003:
and the Postcard / New personal piece:
That's it.
Headed home now to eat and maybe watch a movie or play Rainbow Six. Or sleep.
I'm still at work right now, 12 hours of sitting here, so there isn't too much to say. But! I did get some colorin' done, so take a gander at these sneak peeks.
PFS003:
and the Postcard / New personal piece:
That's it.
Headed home now to eat and maybe watch a movie or play Rainbow Six. Or sleep.
Sneaker Peeks
Whew Buddy,
Knocked out the writing and inking of PFS003 as well as the writing for 004. I should say writing very loosely because it's not shakespeare or anything. But still. I'm most excited about this saturdays (003). It has the highest joke to panel ratio yet.
Best Buy was having a sale today - Buy Hot Fuzz and get Shaun of the Dead for free. This is a deal I wanted. Seems everyone else did too -- every copy (save 1) of Shaun of the Dead was sold and all but 10ish Hot Fuzzes. I found a copy of Shaun on the Dead sitting on a random shelf but you could tell that the DVD had been dislodged from the little DVD holding thingie. Customer Service opened it for me to see if it was scratched all the hell or not. It had some minor scuffs but I think it will play just fine.
Best Buy also had a Pi/Requiem for a Dream 2-Disc/Value DVD kind of thing for a whopping $9. So I had to pick that up as well. I've been wanting to watch Requiem again and here's my chance.
Finished up the really basic color layers for the postcard. Once the PFS is colored tomorrow I'm going to try and add some wacom layers over top. Nothing fancy, but not something I've done on anything of mine before.
Here's a glimpse at one section of the postcard.
Your guess is as good as mine on to whom that beard belongs.
Also - I ate pizza today. That is always pleasent (with enough left for lunch ^_^).
P.S. XBOX Live Marketplace has some free tv shows available, one of which is called "Clark and Michael" It stars Clark Duke (Never heard of him and don't much care for him -- Sorry) and my favorite and yours, Michael Cera. They have 6 on Live and 7-9 on their website. They are only about 5-10 minutes and the last couple I watched had some amusing parts. I really love it when Mikey Cera flips out in anger and knocks things over (at the video store). Check it out. It's kinda funny.
Knocked out the writing and inking of PFS003 as well as the writing for 004. I should say writing very loosely because it's not shakespeare or anything. But still. I'm most excited about this saturdays (003). It has the highest joke to panel ratio yet.
Best Buy was having a sale today - Buy Hot Fuzz and get Shaun of the Dead for free. This is a deal I wanted. Seems everyone else did too -- every copy (save 1) of Shaun of the Dead was sold and all but 10ish Hot Fuzzes. I found a copy of Shaun on the Dead sitting on a random shelf but you could tell that the DVD had been dislodged from the little DVD holding thingie. Customer Service opened it for me to see if it was scratched all the hell or not. It had some minor scuffs but I think it will play just fine.
Best Buy also had a Pi/Requiem for a Dream 2-Disc/Value DVD kind of thing for a whopping $9. So I had to pick that up as well. I've been wanting to watch Requiem again and here's my chance.
Finished up the really basic color layers for the postcard. Once the PFS is colored tomorrow I'm going to try and add some wacom layers over top. Nothing fancy, but not something I've done on anything of mine before.
Here's a glimpse at one section of the postcard.
Your guess is as good as mine on to whom that beard belongs.
Also - I ate pizza today. That is always pleasent (with enough left for lunch ^_^).
P.S. XBOX Live Marketplace has some free tv shows available, one of which is called "Clark and Michael" It stars Clark Duke (Never heard of him and don't much care for him -- Sorry) and my favorite and yours, Michael Cera. They have 6 on Live and 7-9 on their website. They are only about 5-10 minutes and the last couple I watched had some amusing parts. I really love it when Mikey Cera flips out in anger and knocks things over (at the video store). Check it out. It's kinda funny.
Phase Two
1. Tonight I began what I will call "Phase Two" of my attempt at getting freelance work. This phase consists of creating a postcard image and making postcards to mail out. Some magazines don't like envelopes. So they just want postcards. Well, I can bend to that. The image has been sitting around my "studio" waiting to be drawn and tonight was the night. I worked out all the kinks I could catch and finished the drawing/inking portions. Next will be color and back design...I'll hopefully have it to the printers a week from today. I've got to finish Prettyfishessatellite003 before I work on this card. I seem to have lost all of my square grids I printed tho. Rats.
2. Finished up Harry Potter on Saturday. It wasn't the ending I was hoping for but it was an ending all right. Now we sit and wait for 2 more movies and the Harry Potter chapter of the boring book of my life can be finished. Sadly upon finishing the book I no longer care about the Harry Potter blog I was going to start/run. If you are unfamiliar with Harry Potter (shame on you) then know this: Harry Potter is called "The Boy Who Lived" because he lived through a direct attack from the super villian Voldemort. The 7 books chronicle Harry's time in Wizard school, ending at the age when he would enter Muggle (regular dude) college if he were a muggle (or real). So the idea for the blog was as follows: Harry Potter now finished with wizarding school decides to go to Muggle college where no one knows about him. The blog would be written by his roommate. It would be called "The boy who lived with The Boy Who Lived". Posts would describe Harry ordering a Whopper but when he sit down to eat he has a double Whopper. But the roommate shrugs it off constantly. There it is. HardeeHarHar.
3. Warren Ellis is taking all of my money. More on that as time and money permits.
2. Finished up Harry Potter on Saturday. It wasn't the ending I was hoping for but it was an ending all right. Now we sit and wait for 2 more movies and the Harry Potter chapter of the boring book of my life can be finished. Sadly upon finishing the book I no longer care about the Harry Potter blog I was going to start/run. If you are unfamiliar with Harry Potter (shame on you) then know this: Harry Potter is called "The Boy Who Lived" because he lived through a direct attack from the super villian Voldemort. The 7 books chronicle Harry's time in Wizard school, ending at the age when he would enter Muggle (regular dude) college if he were a muggle (or real). So the idea for the blog was as follows: Harry Potter now finished with wizarding school decides to go to Muggle college where no one knows about him. The blog would be written by his roommate. It would be called "The boy who lived with The Boy Who Lived". Posts would describe Harry ordering a Whopper but when he sit down to eat he has a double Whopper. But the roommate shrugs it off constantly. There it is. HardeeHarHar.
3. Warren Ellis is taking all of my money. More on that as time and money permits.
nothing.
Nothing all that great to talk about. That's why I didn't post yesterday and I probably won't tomorrow.
The new PFS (#002) is finished and ready to be posted this saturday morning. Make sure you check it out, maybe you'll like it.
Finished Undeclared last week. I loved it. Freaks and Geeks hit a bit closer to home for me, but Undeclared was still great.
Still not done with Harry Potter. What's my deal?
The new PFS (#002) is finished and ready to be posted this saturday morning. Make sure you check it out, maybe you'll like it.
Finished Undeclared last week. I loved it. Freaks and Geeks hit a bit closer to home for me, but Undeclared was still great.
Still not done with Harry Potter. What's my deal?
Ninja.
Yesterday I came home from work and "wrote", drew, inked and lettered the second strip in the grande adventures of the prettyfishessatellite gang. Tonight I laid down the colors for about 60% of it. I like saying laid down the colors because it makes it sound like I'm doing a lot more then simple masks in photoshop. And I also use " " around wrote because I would never really call what I do for this strip "writing." It is barely planned in advance, which is the way I have always done pfs/mzt* (*what pfs was a few years ago...maybe i'll post those wretched strips here some time). Anyways. Whatever. I may or may not put the second one up here earlier then saturday...I like that they have a set release date but I also kind of need more stuff to blog about.
I read this article before leaving work today. It is really really interesting. I wish I could eat these guys' brains and know what they know.
Also read that Alan Moore will be on an upcoming episode of the Simpsons. That's exciting.
I'm am about 230 pages away from the end of Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows. It has been great thus far, and hopefully the spoiled ending I was told isn't actually the real ending.
It's dark and hell is hot.
I read this article before leaving work today. It is really really interesting. I wish I could eat these guys' brains and know what they know.
Also read that Alan Moore will be on an upcoming episode of the Simpsons. That's exciting.
I'm am about 230 pages away from the end of Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows. It has been great thus far, and hopefully the spoiled ending I was told isn't actually the real ending.
It's dark and hell is hot.
A Quick One aka. PFS001
Just a quick post as I have a lot of Harry Potter to finish and Guitar Hero: 80s to play.
I have decided that the weekends will be for doing the majority of the things that will populate this blog. So I will only be updating during the week.
For today we have the very first in a weekly series of comics taking place in the PFS(PrettyFishesSatellite) universe. Without further adoo-doo:
Further ado, you have to click this as I am too rushed to make thumbnails and upload things and such. Sorry.
B
I have decided that the weekends will be for doing the majority of the things that will populate this blog. So I will only be updating during the week.
For today we have the very first in a weekly series of comics taking place in the PFS(PrettyFishesSatellite) universe. Without further adoo-doo:
Further ado, you have to click this as I am too rushed to make thumbnails and upload things and such. Sorry.
B
Alphabet Post-Its
I missed out on posting yesterday because I was watching Lord of the Rings with Ben from Masked Bandits. A thousand pardons.
Nothing too exciting to post about -- New Harry Potter book tomorrow as well as the first in a hopefully weekly series of comic strips taking place in the PFS universe. It will be a part of the "Saturday Morning Revival" by my pal Deric (link) so watch for it tomorrow. I'll post it here too, but there may be some other good strips on there to read. Not to spoil anything, but I'm excited for the first handful of strips.
I am also working on some Nonogram/Picross puzzles to go along with the comics. The first one won't be ready for tomorrow because I still have to type out all the rules for poeple that don't know how to do them. But there will be the 1st in a series next week and probably one every saturday after that. Hopefully.
Anyways, here are some PFS post-it notes that I did at work while bored. While scanning these I thought that a PFS Alphabet book would be interesting. We'll see if I do 26 of these.
1. A is for Avast (Random PFS Pirate)
2. B is for Bite (The Vampire Cactus)
3. P is for Pwn (The star of the show, Tonight the Gnome Wizard)
A-blee-a-blee-a-bleee; That's all folks.
Nothing too exciting to post about -- New Harry Potter book tomorrow as well as the first in a hopefully weekly series of comic strips taking place in the PFS universe. It will be a part of the "Saturday Morning Revival" by my pal Deric (link) so watch for it tomorrow. I'll post it here too, but there may be some other good strips on there to read. Not to spoil anything, but I'm excited for the first handful of strips.
I am also working on some Nonogram/Picross puzzles to go along with the comics. The first one won't be ready for tomorrow because I still have to type out all the rules for poeple that don't know how to do them. But there will be the 1st in a series next week and probably one every saturday after that. Hopefully.
Anyways, here are some PFS post-it notes that I did at work while bored. While scanning these I thought that a PFS Alphabet book would be interesting. We'll see if I do 26 of these.
1. A is for Avast (Random PFS Pirate)
2. B is for Bite (The Vampire Cactus)
3. P is for Pwn (The star of the show, Tonight the Gnome Wizard)
A-blee-a-blee-a-bleee; That's all folks.