slowly, but its happening

random scans and also some things from today.

we got these promo postcards in the mail for a photographer. i doodled all over the Moby one in the same way I would a People magazine. This is a worm fighting a blob guy.



Was looking at a site online today where a guy writes a 101 word short story each day. They were recently collected in a book, and this was the supposed definition of the title of the book/site. all of these things, it turns out, are links to specific stories, but the word choices and ideas and visuals were too much to not screencapture.



really really rough comp for the next in the 40 series. I'm thinking about buying a screen or two while I am still here in NC and screenprinting some stuff. I would want to print + overprint this. But if that never happens, than it will be digital for sure. The peeking fella is from the first (comic strip) piece in the series, of which there will be another. book ends of graphic narrative.



moleskin scan. still thinking about redesigned Invisibles covers. For what reason? None, but I like to imagine and what not. Also some studies of Elliott Smith. Been wanting to re-do this haggered Elliott piece I did in college for like, ever. Saw a really good book of photos of him (hard to find pics of him, I've found..) while in DC. So I bought it off Amazon because I hate full price. Been drawing a little from it. Not going so well so far, as you can see.



Some more Elliott. Also: Tonight, the Gnome and this bearded cat I randomly drew on our whiteboard here at work and have been drawing quite a bit since. I call him Cat Beard, but he is going to have to get a better name than that. At first he was just a head, but when I hit the sketchbook he gained scale mail armor and a cat of nine tails/sword/shield. I like fantasy because I have glasses. Also, Elliott with a city head. I dunno. I think thats from the Hellboy 2 trailer or something.



This is an older Elliott from a rolling stone magazine. I dunno if I threw it out or not. Crap, I hope not. Anyways, this is from like the 2nd page of this sketchbook. So it's probably from the middle of last year. Also with Elliott are a mountain range and a hyperbolic shape. Back then I was really obsessed with doing a pop-up book of these mountain range drawings, and I still think it would be cool. I also liked hyperbolic shapes but its really hard to get reference for things that are impossible to see in three dimensions. Plus a line from a Joanna Newsom song, "These lives do never end" which played over the ipod while drawing this and I thought it fit with Elliott and these mountains of ghosted memories/dashed dreams.

less defined

I just ate a cupcake and it was a totally sugar filled bad idea. Something about sugar really doesn't sit well with my stomach.

Drawing dolphins and lightbulbs for two separate projects which I hope come to fruition. They could both be cool things to show in NYC.

Anyways, while sitting here, I thought I'd like to listen to the newest Official Lost Podcast if it was online. Hoped on iTunes and found a much better surprise.

remix.nin.com is a cool site, but what if you forget to check it on the regular? Well..

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=280145429

the remix.nin.com best of the day podcast. This is one of the greatest things I've come upon in recent memory. Remixes of old favorites fit better into my heart than newer songs that I don't know just yet. Besides, I'm home on my PC and don't have the newer albums downloaded here.

turns out I heard from a source that I should no longer trust -- The Fall isn't actually playing in Greenville this weekend. Next weekend, maybe.

Happy Mother's day, all you mommas out there.

Surfwise

The current HD movement in both TV and Movies is something I care nothing about. It doesn't bother me to see Ben Linus slightly pixelated or not crisp or anything like this. But tonight, an HD only channel finally made an appealing claim. The channel was HD Movies, which I don't have as I don't have cable or an HD TV -- but Hani does. Tonight they were doing a "Sneak Peek" of the documentary "Surfwise" which I have been very interested in seeing. As far as I know it hasn't even come out in theaters, let alone DVD or premium cable channels. So, this was a plus.

I should just look it up real fast on Amazon or something to see when it drops, but my kettle is whistling. Anyways, however you can see this movie, you really should. The idea and premise are both very interesting and I think that Doc Paskowitz has the perfect mindset on his life. Maybe not so much on his children in the current world, but still.

Anyways.

Barton

I've been on something of a movie kick lately. For a person that enjoys movies and likes the idea of a movie, I really find it hard to sit through a movie. In the past couple of weeks I have watched a couple. I watched Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It was alright. I'll never watch it again, but alright. Then I watched The Savages. Not bad. Kind of slow. Won't ever watch again. Watched Fur, the Imaginary Bio of Diane Arbus. I enjoyed that. Strange and seemingly taking place in a day dream. Then, Iron Man. This was fun. I didn't stay til' the bonus scene after the credits, but I caught it online. Interesting to see where that goes. Theres a trend here I just noticed. The first two movies star Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and the later two star Robert Downey Jr. Those two guys need shorter names. Phil Hoffman and Robbie Jr. Today I finished up Barton Fink, and early Coen Bros movie. It was enjoyable, as their pictures normally are.

Theres a scene in Barton Fink where John Goodman's character feels saddened by the fact that (paraphrased) a man can work his whole life and fit all the things he owns and cares about in one small box. While un-pack-ratting my house, I feel a similar way. Except, I'm fairly excited to live out of a small box. I have three piles growing: Things I want to take with me, Things I want to have once my life settles down there and Things I don't really care if I ever see again. The things in the third pile will either end up in the dump or on a yard sale blanket/ebay auction block. Lots of just...accumulated stuff. Also some comic books that I've read and either don't care about or would rather have in a collected format. Theres really no need for almost every issue of Fables or 100 bullets or Preacher or anything. The collections are easier to store, read, handle, etc. If only they would collect Flex Mentallo I would be able to start to trim down the Grant Morrison stuff.

Threadless finally accepted/put up my 1st Submission today. You can see it by following the link below. If you aren't a member and want to vote on it, you'll have to sign up. But I plan on having a few more up there soon, so go ahead and join. Quite a few people have already voted, and I hope they are all positive. Can't find out for a week.



Tomorrow I pick up a new book from the post office that I hopefully will gush about tomorrow or the next. Good bye.

speaking of heroes...

doodled while watching this week's Lost. this came out. digitally recreated it and submitted it for crit on threadless. probably will never be anything. would it be lame to admit that the color scheme is based off some shoes i have? a shirt to match them would be nice.



headed home to watch Fur and Battlestar Galactica now. enjoy your saturday.

the calm

sneak peek at my new site with work I haven't posted here or anywhere yet.

http://www.wburkert.com/test/

i'm sitting right on the brink of two pieces that i'm pretty excited about -- if they turn out how i picture them. i think they will. before or after that i will be drawing and submitting a handful of shirts to threadless. would like to have one picked and use the money for a new laptop as mine is a brick with a hard drive attached. i'm thinking this could happen. as long as i think it, than it can. it's like thought sigils.

the collaboration that the previous post was apart of is done. only 1 of the pieces got finished. there is a chance the others will get done in the future. until that time, i have an increased interest in coloring/finishing them myself. they are last in the queue.

hellboy library edition vol. 1 came in the mail this afternoon. pretty amped to reread those trades in a larger format + new sketch books and junk. i hope it includes the extra stuff from the trades as well so that i don't have to buy trades to go with my issues and hardcover. that would just be silly.

also: started clearing out my pack rat den of goodies. many things are getting thrown out. magazines i was keeping for some future rereading. junk. etc. for the big move i would like to have a small bundle of clothes, a new laptop, some drawing supplies, some comics and a little pile of cash.

i was going to say more tomorrow, but Lost is finally back. so, probably not.

Day 3

The colors were getting to be too much for me on the previous version. I played with it some more today. Then I decided I would try a 3-color approach like I used on the Gocco prints. Then, if it calls for it, I may add a 4th. I'm still just toying with this. Currently uninspired, and this is what happens.

objects

process day 1:



process day 2:



i was using pink to block in shadows on the clouds and when i finally zoomed out i really liked the way it looked... so this will probably end up looking way different than it does in these two shots.

that's it.

"objects of importance: dear sister" graphite + digi '08

like a shifting shape when your glasses are off

coloring my woot word-bubble/sonar guy for a possible threadless submission. here is the very very early work in progress:



practicing coloring this without using the wacom cintiq monitor/tablet i have here at work, because when i move away, i don't see myself having access to one again for a long while. or, until i save $1000 for the small portable one and feel like i could actually need it. so, lots of pen tooling and careful mouse work. i think it will turn out alright, which is comforting. one less thing i would need to save for.

i gave up on those post-its for now. not really happy with how they are looking. i have about 7-9 total that i will put together and post here soon, probably in the next couple days. i have an idea for a possibly weekly set of drawing which i actually care to do and continue with. something i didn't have with the post-its yet.

friday, the birthday party with fellow march 26er + redhead, will goodyear, went off pretty well. cake and a pinata and cowboy outfits. pics when i can have lorna email me them from her iphone. thanks to ryan and ryan and lorna for coming out.

Post-B+C

Was too rushed to upload yesterday, but I kept the dream alive and got a drawing done. Yay. Here is yeterday's + today's (b + c)

b


c


if you can't tell, these connect. i'll put them all together here in time. maybe over the weekend (this is a during the week thing only. my weekends are too all over the place).

Post-A

Going to try a little post-it note drawing every day. Keep busy. Do stuff. You know. That kind of thing.

Here's today, Monday's:



Off to a good start. Or, a start, at least.

Woot II

I've entered another Woot competition. The theme is Lines. 1 color only. No fills. All the way up my alley, so I did two.

A. Vampire Cactus


Click here to view/comment/vote

B. It's kind of like sonar...


Click here to view/comment/vote

'dats it.

go go gocco

quick process shots from the front of the first real print off of my gocco pg-11

the blue run (i forgot to photograph this run the other day) sitting ready to print


registration plate to make sure everything will go in the right place


pulled print + my thumb


a "good" print


a "bad" print


prints that didn't make the cut of the 40 pulled for the series


the 40 winners drying


and that's it! going to add a back tomorrow and this will be finished.

Beasts! (process)

Beasts! was an anthology from Fantagraphics Books put out last year featuring ~90 current illustrators doing their takes on classic beasts/monsters/etc. This year a spot was open and they put out a call -- submit your beast and they will choose 1 from the masses to fill the spot. So I figured what the heck. I don't think I could be selected, but what harm is there in trying?

Anyways, I started today and here is the process/progress so far. My beast is the Brocken Bow. As soon as I read about it, I knew it was the one I wanted due to a couple of elements: clouds, mountains and fog. What better way to break out of my current drawing obsessions than to draw them some more? I know, right? Also as soon as I read about it I pictured the final drawing. Here's the first couple of doodles, drawn on the lower portion of the list of beasts already being used.



I had two ideas for the Brocken. Either horizontal hatching or this clockwise continuous line scribble thing I have been drawing for gocco prints.





Then I read another post about him and they were saying that in most cases his head appears as a "halo" of lights. So I had to decapitate the poor guy. I really was enjoying the way his head looked too. So I scratched out a tiny rough of the thing again.



And here's one of the scribbly-ones that was a final drawing but I didn't like how he looked so I have since redrawn him.



The current working version of the illustration has both variations of the monster (lines or curls) but I am leaning more towards the curly one. I may redraw the horizontal line one to see if I can get it closer to what I want, but I think it's a bit boring and less of a shadow monster thing than its curly brother is.

Here's the little mountaineer guy with the file's base purple color on top of him. Trying some minor differences in the way things are colored here.

Alas,

Well, there it is. The end of Y: The Last Man. It now rests, upside down in the pile of comics I have recently read. It has been a long journey, and it is very sad to see things like this end. I looked forward to every month for this comic. This was my introduction to Brian K Vaughn and I will read anything he writes from here on out. Now I get to re-read this story for the (roughly) 5th time, but the beauty here is that I can finally read it all the way to the end.

60 issues. Collected in 10 volumes. Do yourself a favor and read (or re-read) this soon.

wburkert '08

working on a new design for my personal site. trying to cut down on the cluttered look of the current one as much as possible. this is a constant thing. one day this site will be 1x1 pixel thumbnails with no text and portfolio pieces that will scale as big as your monitor will allow. i just want a simple way to navigate work, and lightbox is not it anymore. also, having unique URLs for each page will help linking to pieces and sending URLs to friends/artdirectors/enemies.

here are a couple screen caps of the design as it stands now.



professional work category. simple nav. simple titles & info.



personal work category. stopped after 3 pieces, so the thumbnails on the left are all in their comp placeholder state.

and also...



all i can show (because this is all i have done!) of a sister site that will be designed/launched after my own is finished. pretty excited about it.

behance :: wow

was flipping around drawn earlier and came across this creative-oriented social networking site called behance.net.

I quickly stumbled upon this page and was completely in awe of how awesome these things are.

the best and the second best:

i can't breathe with these words in my mouth

Decided that a way to produce more work would be to join in on these online competition things. A couple for shirts, one for skate decks. Plus working on some stickers/submissions for a local skate zine.

Sketched this at work the other day while the 24x36 inch poster I was finishing was saving. Came back in to work this morning and drew and colored it. This is for the shirt.woot weekly competition, this week's theme being "dreams". So I pieced together some of the usual suspects and floated them as I so typically do. They are always supposed to be dreamy, so I guess it fits.

Here it is along with how it would look on the shirt.



If you have ever bought anything from woot! (and you should check it daily), you can vote on this shirt. If it wins, you'll be able to buy it for $10 next week some time.

Here's a link to it on the site.

http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=9364

As of this posting, it is in 103rd place!

Also, since it has been sitting here incomplete forever, I decided to "finish" this in the spirit of dreams.



That is Martian Luther King. It's like Martin, but from Mars.

For today, that is all!

The Same Words, COMP

Here's a quick comp of a 2-Color Gocco Print I hope to be running this weekend. Just need to cut down a bunch of paper. Planned edition of 40. Black & Blue on Reeves BFK (or whatever I have in my studio). Roughly 5x7.

still going strong; xo, mom.

dear elliott,

at all times i wish you were still here.

xo to you.

Yo part 2

Scored a whole box of yopurplehearts shirts today. 44 in all.

2 quick pics, with my camera + its horrendous flash.





As my mac comes closer and closer to death, I wonder: a new macbook pro or an 8 core big daddy mac pro? oh computers.

the horse

finally getting back into productivity mode. here is another piece in a series of fog covered objects. i'm not sure if i'll do more. maybe if more objects present themselves as important. this piece has 5 titles. or, will have 5 titles once i pick the ones i want from this ever growing list.



we'll always have paris / debris / new achilles' heel

Yo

Buy yours today

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

post-its / you should be working 002

love space man. yellow post-it & ink.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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.

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).

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.