Dec 20, 2006

new shirt

not sure how this one is going to end up...

Dec 18, 2006

xmas card 2006



may the new year bring us all awesome and unexpected new experiences.
The Christmas Tree

Dec 14, 2006

The Peanut Vendor - Len Lye 1933

this is what's going on in my head pretty much nonstop.

Dec 5, 2006

Excellent Cartoon from Ecuador

Nov 17, 2006

the best thing

going on on radio right now:

Radio Lab


It's like Thanksgiving dinner for the curious brain.

Oct 31, 2006

creepy girl costumes

Oct 30, 2006

new stuff

got a lot of new things going on, hopefully be able to post 'em soon...

Aug 28, 2006

more and more...

bunch of stuff i wanted to wrap up. i was hoping to get some giclee prints made for these, but i can barely afford ramen, let alone $100 a sheet art prints...

more new stuff...



Aug 27, 2006

MICKEY_BAD

just came across some random site looking for artists' takes on mickey...here's mine.






















kind of a cheesy site, but there were a lot of submissions and some of them were pretty cool.

Aug 21, 2006

FIRE_BACK

hey hey, as everyone probably knows, we are back from europe. the computers were few and far between (esp in France), so making reservations for travel and lodging took precedence over updating the blog. i have set up a photo gallery from the trip, it needs some explanations, but i will get to that this week (i promise)(haha, yeah right).

Jun 30, 2006

London

hey everyone, we are here in london, safe and sound. london is expensive as fuck and we both agree, the people could be nicer. let's translate cost: beer £4-5 = $8-9. you get the idea. we signed in on a library computer for this and the library help couldn't have been nicer. we've passed the time walking the tangled streets of london and napping and picnicking in the royal gardens. the gardens and parks really are beautiful. gotta run. cheers, y'all!

Jun 22, 2006

Yerrip

Hi there, in case anyone is following this page, we are leaving for england in less than a week, June 28 we get on the plane. I see that many of the hostels we'll be using have internet acces, so I will attempt to update and use this as a travel-log. Wish us luck.

Jun 15, 2006

24x36 blowups

i'll probably be doing this from now on when people ask for flyers...

























printed out 3 of these last flyers at 24x36, handpainted them, and i'll be attempting to sell them to raise cash for the europe trip (2 weeks till liftoff). sold 1 of 3 a few minutes ago... not sure how to offer up the last two. probably auction it somehow, maybe a silent auction, or on ebay or something. though i'm generally happy with the color on these hand-painted copies, i'd like to start doing some silkscreening, to keep the process clean, smooth out the colors. finding colors that behave well with the toner is a little hokey.

May 23, 2006

new flyer...





























a little more coop-like than i usually do, but it still looks ok. i have three 24x36-ish prints of this that i am hand-coloring, and probably be selling shortly...

May 22, 2006

new stuff...







48x11"

so much new crap going on, no time to post much of it...

Apr 14, 2006

moving day


we were up at about 6:30 this morning, the last morning in seneca falls. watched the sun rise up over the lake for the last time. no sunset last night, we had a pretty big storm that interrupted the last of our packing. the cat is running psycho circles around the room, she knows what's up. 40 months behind us, a 16 foot truck and 350 miles ahead. it's been an interesting 3 years, i'll probably write more about it, but now i have to go before i get yelled at for being on the computer.

Apr 8, 2006

last week

yup, this is our last week here in seneca fuckin' falls. been an insane last few weeks, packing, partying, saying goodbyes, &c. i'll hopefully have my studio set up again soon enough. anyone interested, we'll be living in worcester for at least a few months, unless/until we find someplace where we'd prefer to set up our businesses. we shall see.

Mar 28, 2006

apologies

this has been moving slow...so much other stuff going on.

Mar 27, 2006

spoiler alert

i've started writing Monster again. i had some ideas that i found interesting and have decided to wrench the story in a different direction. the one i'd painted myself into a corner with, quite frankly sucked. it felt forced, it wasn't interesting to me. at that point, how could it be interesting to anyone else? i stopped writing, and started thinking. i'm happy with the new ideas i have, and plus i draw better now. so we'll give it another go.

don't click on this intentionally bad photo of some visual notes i've been making.

Mar 24, 2006

more...

still just getting the scarecrow in. he won't be quite so glaringly bright when i'm done. probably even dimmer than the second zombie. haven't had a lot of time to work on it in the past few days, with the site update and regular work...on top of the scarecrow, i still need to finish his clothes, the corn in the background which needs to be more defined, and a few other small things...
































22 days.

Mar 20, 2006

more...


having some glare issues with the black area. open to any suggestions as to fixing that, but i imagine i'll just do an overall matte varnish afterwards.




















this would be scarecrow idea number 17, counting all the faces and bodies i sketched until this one, which i'm mostly happy with.

Fuck all you magnet people. Yes, YOU.



Get yours here.

you've seen those stupid magnets that dildos at checkout lines buy for their SUV's. they say "Support Our Troops". ever read what else it says on there? real small.

Made in China.

Mar 14, 2006

zombies

i like zombies as a subject. there's a lot going on there.

Marvel Comics has come out with a series called Marvel Zombies which takes their heroes and turns them into zombies. they still have sentience, when not hungry, and essentially behave like slacker twentysomethings. Kevin Smith's cheap writing gimmick is going to take a long time to die. the idea is essentially, since we're writing comics for 20something slackers who buy action figures and eat taco bell, let's give them heroes and monsters who mirror their nerdiness and social retardation. it is fiction as flattery. and flattering only to the lowest common denominator (a common denominator, which i fully recognize will drop $100/week just on funnybooks). but to me, this gimmick is as wrong as it is tired.

the more i think about creating images of them, more and more parallels between the undead and ourselves emerge. not as say, in an argument between two zombie roommates over the last box of mac & cheese, but as consuming wanderers, hungry, greedy and destructive, consuming even each other. it seems to me that only a very few of us create any more, the rest seek to conquer and consume. and with what ultimate goal? the only goal is the next meal. the next sexual meat, the next cigarette, next whiskey, next episode of a TV show.

plus, all the wrinkles and teeth are fun to draw.

Mar 7, 2006

ouch

well. the last thing didn't go as well as expected. i was working and working at it, but in a way i'm not comfortable with. not comfortable, but feel like i "should" be doing it that way. my experience knows that's a mindfuck, and i need to do it the way i know how to make stuff look good. i'm putting that on hold while i practice on some other stuff.




























40 days left...

Mar 1, 2006

Can't wait to be out of here.

having a hard time putting paint down lately. lots of starts. lots of half-done pieces. borrowed an overhead to blow up this sketch to 25x60 inches:


i think it's the place. i don't cook anymore either. just don't wanna be here.

about a month and a half left...












not sure how i want to wrap this up. it might be come 2 different pieces. i liked the fun of the original thumbnail sketch a lot. it was intended to be a silver figure on black velvet:

Feb 23, 2006

Henceforth

So, henceforth and from this day on, no more MySpace. Don't request to be my friend, you already are. I hate MySpace. Can't think of a positive aspect of it. It's owned by Rupert Murduch (owner of Fox News). There's no way to opt out once you have an account. Rupert owns that shit you put up there. Owns it 4-eva. And because of that shit you post up there, it looks like the messiest piece of shit on the internet. An infinitely downward-scrolling piece of shit spiraling around the toilet bowl that is MySpace.
I hate the skanky ass shots. Also, rumors abound of sexual predators. Which I become should I ever surf onto a page of some 13-year-old posting skanky ass-shots.
And the peer pressure! Why the peer pressure? One cannot quit MySpace without receiving constant friends-requests, from good people who just want to play the MySpace game of getting the biggest list of 'friends'. But because I want out, I risk pissing them off. Yes, approve. Yes, approve. Yes Yes Yes. No. Sorry, but it's not you. I love my real three-dimensional friends, but MySpace can go fuck itself.
No more friends-requests will be answered and I won't be visiting the goddamn MySpace unless I absolutely fucking have to.
Sincerely,
An Old Grump

Feb 16, 2006

Conspiracy Theories

I was studying photos from the recent news story about Vice-President Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a fellow hunter and I think the mainstream media is not asking enough questions.

Look at this photo closely. Notice anything? That's right! Charles Whittington has the largest right hand you have ever seen. I understand that in Texas, they're famous for makin' em big, but why SO big? Why so much larger than his normal, 3-fingered left hand? Wouldn't this right hand seem ideal for blocking several hundred bird-shot pellets?

Several theories emerge:

Uncanny Tex-man: Due to relaxed* EPA regulations, public water supplies near to Mr. Whittington's home have become polluted, causing Whittington to slowly develop a genetic mutation. After spending an afternoon together, Mr. Cheney decided that Whittington's mutant powers were not psychic, psionic, telekinetic nor any type of biologically generated laser. However, the hand could potentially point attention (via 12-inch index finger) to the current EPA's innefective state. Some say that Cheney decided then and there, that this republican lawyer had to disappear. And quietly.

Heavy Palm and her Five Sisters: Was Whittington simply too weak to lift up and block his face with this enormous hand? Had Cheney used the hunting trip as a ruse to drug or hypnotize Whittington in the same fashion as he had with Justice Scalia years earlier? What reason would there be for slipping Whittington a 'roophie'? Is there evidence to indicate that Whittington had rebuffed Cheney's romantic advances?

Elephantitus! : Why has the hospital been so secretive about releasing photos or video of the accident victim? It is possible, some say, that as large as Whittington's right hand appears, his right foot and testicle are substantially larger, and therefore more difficult to move. As Cheney turned to take the shot, was Whittington simply too overwhelmed by his ballooning limbs and privates to safely clear the area of danger?

Birdman, Attorney At Law: Some believe Whittington's thin, nordic nose and enormous flapping hand caused Cheney to mistake him for a quail. This theory seems unlikely until one considers that most of the birds that the VP were hunting are often less lively than a frozen oven-stuffer rooster. In such a hunting situation, any "moving" object is considered a grave threat and is aggressively pursued.

*relaxed is a newsy word which means 'unconscious', 'neutered'; in the case of a business, agency or other organization it can also mean 'staffed entirely by employees who spend all day looking at ebay'.

Feb 3, 2006

Steve Martin 2

I'm not exactly sure why this is bothering me so much, but on that new pile of dogshit Pink Panther movie with Steve Martin... I was wondering about it. Maybe, I thought, maybe Blake Edwards was directing or writing for it? By no means would I ever consider any of the original Sellers-Panther films a masterpiece. Worthy of a few chuckles, sure.

One of the funniest things in any film was in a Sellers-Panther film. Sellers is fighting his butler Kato, and he karate-jumps through the air in slow motion, realizing too late that he has over-jumped and is going through the wall. The sound for the scene is also slowed down.

So maybe Blake Edwards was involved in this new one? IMDB says sorta/no. According to Edwards' IMDB profile, Edwards had a writing credit for the 2006 film. Listed as 'The Pink Panther (2006) (characters)', I think referring to the origination of the characters and nothing else. The new film's IMDB page shows no mention of Edwards. So who wrote and directed it?

Director: Shaun Levy, most famously directed Cheaper by the Dozen (1 and 2), and Big Fat Liar, the film where Malcom in the Middle paints Paul 'Pig Vomit' Giamatti dark blue to look like a smurf. He also did a bunch of crap for tv.

Writer: Steve Martin, and Len Blum, most famously known for rewriting Private Parts into a screenplay, Stripes, and 2 of the Meatballs films (Me...Ted, Me...Ted, Meathead).

This is who we trust with Peter Sellers' most famous persona?

There's a good chance, due to age-difference that I will outlive Steve Martin. As soon as he dies, I am going to start raising funds to get Urkel into his own tv show. Urkel will wear a white suit with bunny ears and say over and over: "Excuuuuuse me! Did I do that?" Then Urkel will do a series of passable Cheaper by the Dozen remakes and sequels where he plays almost all of the characters. We will hammer the public with cereal, fruit rollup and cheez-it box cross-promotions, action figures, Urkel light-sabers, arrows-thru-the-head and video-games promoting Urkel by the Dozen. Shop Gurkel. Bowfingurkel. Urkel Scared Stupid. Planes, Trains & Automobiles, starring Steve Urkel and that kid who played fat albert. My Blue Urkel. Urky Rotten Scoundrels. The Jurkel, about a guy who invents glasses or something and he's a dad who has a dozen kids and falls off a dock. When he falls off the dock, he gets wet and that's very funny. Also, I think we can use a big bicycle horn to make it even funnier. Maybe Len Blum can write it.

Feb 2, 2006

Not my intention to create a political site, however some shit is just, um.

Recently, attention has come to the idea that our current president and his administration have authorized unwarranted mass-wiretapping to listen in on domestic activity. Whether this listening-in has to do with terrorism or simple disagreement or disgust with the current shitty poiliticial powers is of little difference. People who communicate with computers and telephones after the year 2001 have had the vague idea, feeling that their conversations are no longer private. Someone is keeping track. Someone wants to know what us motherfuckers're saying. And how to make us shut the fuck up and fulfill our corporate-consumer responsibilty. Do what Viacom and Philip Morris ExxonMart asks us to do. Independently of all that, we still wish to get drunk, laid and heard. Too bad. You wear your yellow fadey sunglasses and tight pants and post your party photos for all your popular crowd internet hangers-on to see. Never mind that MySpace is owned by Fox News. Ever try to close a MySpace account? You can't. Owned (pwned) forever by Rupert Murdoch. Paypal? Same crap. Circuit City. GoDaddy.com. Wendy's. Etc, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Yeah.
You don't own shit.
Corporations own your info.
Government employees look at it.
Anything that passes over your IM, cell phone, or internet browser. So, you think, 'I haven't done anything wrong, why do I care? I'm not affiliated with Al-Kayder.' Guess what? Do you use internet banking? Pay your credit card online? Pay your car insurance? They sure as fuck tell you that you should, don't they? Well, guess what? Need me to say it? Need me to spell it out for you? Yeah. Your numbers. People seen them. Every time you cover your fingers when you punch em in at the market, protecting your numbers against Mrs. Catfood-buyer-could-give-a-shit standing behind you in line. Every time you make an Amazon purchase at work, and you quickly close that window lest Brian-in-the-next-cube sees your precious last 4 social security numbers.
Stop wasting your fucking time.
It's been this way since 01. Changing your habits doesn't make a goddamn difference. Your info is free for the taking. Your identity is free for the taking. Your banking. Your soche. Your debit cards. Your credit cards. 5 years worth. All of it, downloaded and copied. Backed up, transferred to a new disk or server downloaded and copied all over again. Each time at new risk of interception by our completely trustworthy civil servants. People just like us. Downloading piles and piles of info. More than (they admit!) they can even keep track of. Conversations, files, photos, emails, transactions, financials, credit card numbers...Thousands, millions of them. What's the big deal if one or two or ten get copied down? What's the big deal if someone you don't know has access to your online banking? You have 'nothing to hide,' right? Fraud? Identity theft? Myths! Never happen to me!

We all have something to hide. It's why we keep our cash in our wallets or the bank instead of scotchtaped to our fucking foreheads. Privacy is a basic human right in a capitalist society. Privacy is a basic human right, period. Shit, why else do they put doors on bathroom stalls?

We maybe suspected someone was watching us, archiving everything we do, judging everything we do. Thankfully, the New York Times discovered it, and called attention to it. It didn't just sit, as a dopey conspiracy theory on the pages of some paranoid blog. It's actually getting investigated by Congress. We have this one preliminary chance to enforce our privacy. After that, who knows?

Jan 31, 2006

Possible eBay

























as much as i hate the eBay, I am considering putting some stuff up before we move. I did this painting in oil, about 2x3 feet, back in 2003...we'd only been living in Jason Voorheesville for about a year. it's as rough and textural as it looks, but the actual color is a bit richer than it looks here. i don't really care for oil. i need a little more immediate gratification, so i'ma stick with acrylic for now. not sure if there will be any interest in it...but i've posted it here to give friends any first dibs. dibbies. i don't even know what the F 'dibs' means. but if anyone's interested, lemme know.

Jan 26, 2006

FRIEND_GOOD PART 2


















there's still something real good about the very first. i'm just noodling it to death i guess:

FRIEND_GOOD

this thing has gone thru about 5 incarnations, thought i'd start documenting it...useda be a boy devil. nicole doesn't like the girl. more on this later...

Jan 19, 2006

Steve Martin


I grew up a HUGE Steve Martin fan. I could recite all of his comedy records from the 70s. I had a bright orange license plate that said I AM A WILD AND CRAZY GUY. It was silly. He was silly. He was brilliant. The Jerk. Three Amigos. Planes Trains and Automobiles. Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels! MY BLUE GODDAMN HEAVEN!!! Even stepping into the serious with the Spanish Prisoner, brilliant!

So, maybe saying this goes against the popular belief in highbrow culture, but let me just say that Shop Girl was stupid. Insipid even. A jerk-off tale for midlife-crisis rich-businessman jerkoffs. Then we have crap like Bringing Down the House, Cheaper by the Dozen...all a waste of time, money and effort. And now this.

Who the hell does Steve Martin think he is?
My opinion of Steve Martin has gone straight through the floor, sub-basement, and into the circle of hell reserved for hubris-encrusted hasbeens.

And stop saying "min"! The word is "men" with a 'E'!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Jan 9, 2006

Janruary Ninth 2Thousand6

Nothing super major going on right now. Here's a sketch I was working on for something I'd like to paint...i really like the 2:1 ratio, making tall images. Even if you don't like it, please refrain from making mean or annoying comments anonymously on my blog or I will have you sent to jail for 2 years. Thanks, internet friends!

Jan 6, 2006

Listen

Now that I've figured out where the gas and clutch are on this thing, I'd like to add some links to other blogs. If anyone has one, send it along. derek@abnormalbrain.com, or add a comment here...

Jan 5, 2006

Back on Track

Well, I can begin attempting to make money and pay my bills again. Computer is up to speed with replacement software etc. I got a lot of sketching and a little bit of painting done in the last few days. Here's a small color study I did yesterday...about life-size...

...and now DHL

Welp, we're done with the Apple repair and the DHL status has said that the computer is "With Courier for Delivery" since 8:36 AM yesterday. I bobbed my goofy face in the window like an attention-starved puppy all day yesterday until about 7pm when I decided to hope, not for the thing to arrive, but that the courier hadn't lost the fucking thing.

OH OH! here we are! as we speak...

Jan 3, 2006

iFeel Better

Looks like "Repair is in Progress." If this all goes smoothly, I'm prepared to eat my words. I will see if i can eat them in either cake- or candy-format.

Jan 2, 2006

Apple continues...

Mr. Compaq Armada here again, with an update on my Apple repair. The update is that there's no update. When I dropped it off Thursday night, they said 10 days. Tick-tock, guys. I understand that it was a holiday weekend and all but my Genius* said it would ship out on Friday night. Well, here's Monday and I've been checking the Apple Support Status Website I Peruse Everyday. It says shipment is still pending.

*The Geniuses wear a black t-shirt that reads in small, white letters "Genius" across the front. This white lettered Genius text should also have an asterisk that refers you to the bottom of the shirt, where it should say "Please, PLEASE don't kick my ass."

Jan 1, 2006

Out with the old...

Well, as I round out the old year and welcome in the new, I do it on a Compaq Armada built during the Great Depression. An historical note: the buttons on this keyboard are actually buttons. From coats. The mouse is made from a used bean-can, apparently. Ba-Klinka! I have to stop writing soon because as the house fills with diesel fumes, I get less cogerent. Slong tory shtort. The Apple maptop that I usually stare at all day is now doing its computing and data storage somewhere in hell. It was a good system and I was able to backup all my crap. But the TRUE crux of the story is... F the Apple Store, or as people now call it, the iPod store. Or as I now call it, the Apple Puts People Last Ever Since the Underrated Computer King Started Selling Ipod Toys store.

I am an AppleCare member. And Apple no longer sells AppleCare, it now be called ProCare. Am I ProCare? Who the fuck knows. I know that since I'm not "officially" a ProCare member (reserved only for Apple newbies), I'm not allowed the courtesy of a human being answering a phone when I call the APPLESUCKSSIT store. Their AppleCare phone lady (I refuse to refer to her as "support") gave me the phone number of the Syracuse store, a phone number which stonewalled me and and referred me to a web-site. A web-site I can easily access from a computer. A broken-ass, fried hard-drive, question-mark-flashing computer. I know this logic stinks like a hog-fart to the ordinary joe off the street, but we're talking about a corporation that has finally begun its race to the bottom. Due, miserably, to the goddamned iPod.

Don't get me wrong, the goddamned iPod has it's uses. The one I bought for Nicole for Xmas (holy damn, that "X" saves time!), was actually quite useful since I was able to back up all my music, art, sketches, ideas and writing on it quickly, a mere 12 hours before the death of the thing. But still -- should I be pleased to have to go to a mall where the dopey store is crammed with sweaty iPod nonafforders? Remember computing? It was what Apple did before they started making what is basically an accessory for the mullets with $329 Dells.

I'm less than pleased that the AppleCare phone number got me through to a woman who had no idea what my computer was outfitted with, even with my serial number (shouldn't that be a simple matter of inventory?), and had no idea what to say without relaying my questions senile-style to some other Genius*...

Me: The computer is flashing a question-mark now.
Her: OK, please hold. [phone is clumsily muffled] He says it's flashing a question-mark.
Unidentified Tech Support Superior: Mee-froo-freefoo moo-moo. Me-me.
Her: OK, shut it down by holding the startup button.
Me: God, you're a stupid dumb ass.
Her: OK, please hold. [phone is clumsily muffled] He says I'm a stupid dumb ass.
Unidentified Tech Support Superior: MEE-MEE! MOO MOO!
Her: OK, I think your computer is dead, I sentence you to the Mall. Shoulda been nicer, dick.

*Genius- (jeen-yus), corporate proper noun. The new name of the Apple support people. In order to compete with equally-insipid corporate dipshit outfits such as Geek Squad, Apple has renamed their formerly-competent tech support team. This name is vigorously arrogant and will soon backfire into a joke among others in the trade.

Also, once you have an appointment at the APPLESUCKSSIT store, you don't check in, or have your name called. You wait until your name comes up on a small screen above the counter. The screen runs demos for the new version of OSX while you stare at it, pathetically waiting for your name to come up on it. When my 15 minutes of fame finally came I was out on a bench in the mall, sick of being sardined by giant-assed, lollipop-mouthed shoppers intent on greasing up the on-display iPods. Those earpieces get very full of ear-dandruff.

A Genius (man, that name sounds sarcastic and insulting, even when used kindly), named Simon who helped me out was fast and helpful, and I have only kind words for him, but man, Apple corporate is really doing its best to ruin a good thing.

End of rant, but only because I only got enough coal at christmas to keep this grinding, beeping monstrosity going for a few more minutes. So, to sum up:

Dear Mr. Jobs,
You're fucking this up.
Sincerely,
Your base