Scout...

Yeah, the Stranger is a pretty great newspaper. And Seattle's a pretty great town. I will fix that link once I'm not on a cell phone...

As promised...

As promised, here are more images from the Cthulhu game I mentioned earlier. Check out the game, available from Looney Labs. They're great people, a small, smart, family-owned company. Available August 17th, so check your local comics or gaming shop!

And in Cthulhu news...

Looks like I can finally blabber about this one...A few months back I illustrated the new version of Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx. In the process, I got a full education on the subject matter. I have to admit though, it's a challenge to draw universe-spanning, tentacled space gods in an area that's two inches square...

I'll post some more of the art soon. I'll have to dig through, I think I finished it in March, which seems like forever ago...

StART is NOT this weekend!

UPDATE! Just found out that StART is going to be postponed to next weekend, due to imminent inclement weather.
Also, here's a better pic of the new shirt...click to enlarge.

Just finished some new shirts for StART this NEXT Sunday...12-5 Green Street, in sunny beautiful Worcester, Mass.

I will be bringing lots of other pretty things as well. See you there.
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Art... haven't shown any in a while

I haven't posted much art on here in a while... and this blog has gotten a little heavy on my local municipal adventures. Here's some art from the past few months...

I never posted a final copy of this one...those who have a copy of the calendar, this month is coming up...

Here's a version of the comic book cover from Creepshow, for the packaging for the new toys from my buddy Brian at Shrunken Head Studios:

More to come...a lot of the things I've been working on for the past few months are still under wraps. I'll show more as I can...

All clear!

National Grid came by this morning and in about a half hour, the whole contraption was gone. Here's some pics, and I want to say thanks to National Grid and Mr Henderson, for getting it done.

Awesome!

Yes Progress from National Grid

Missed a call from Mr. Henderson yesterday, but he called me again to tell me that NatGrid would be on site today. While we were talking, I looked out the window and there they are. They are doing some testing on the line today and if all goes well, it will be replaced tomorrow (Thursday). If all does not go well, repairs will need to be made before the line will be replaced/removed. Might be a week or so, but it will happen. I also have Mr Henderson's phone number now, and I agreed to call him on Friday if it didn't look like progress had been made.

Awesome!

No progress from National Grid?

Apparently not. Here's today's photo of the tree. Still no leaves, it's definitely dead, and obviously not "safe".

Mr. Henderson, where'd you go?

Mr. Ring


UPDATE: As I said, if you need to bury cables, now would be the time. Instead we let a week go by. This is happening now:

Update on the cable

Every day the difference between a living and a dead tree grows more obvious.

I've received a call from National Grid as well as a few tweets. 'Mr Henderson' called me two mornings ago to describe that it was described as something called a 'twin' and that it was a safe solution when burying wires was not an option. The tweet that I received back from NatGrid described was similar:

My response was similar on both the phone and twitter: This may have been deemed safe when it was implemented, but it is clearly not safe now. The street below is beginning to be resurfaced, now and into the next few weeks. It appears that the DPW are doing utility work now.

In other news, I have a friend on the inside at NatGrid who saw my repost of this on facebook. He is looking into it on his end. I haven't yet heard back.

The facts right now.
• I have repeatedly called attention to it.
• The reasons for this contraption are quickly disappearing as now is an ideal time to bury cables.
• NatGrid keeps using the term 'safe' in their discussion of the contraption.
• Anyone who just looks at it can see that it's not safe.
• We live underneath it.

MORE Pre-tragedy photos!

I've posted about this before, but I decided to take a few more photos today, since spring is springing and there is such a stark contrast between a living and a dead tree.

Here we have a living and a dead tree side-by-side. Click to enlarge.

Notice that, in the dead tree, there is an industrial grade cable strung on some kind of pulley. I've contacted many of the local utilities, and the city, but I was told repeatedly it's someone else's responsibility. Click to enlarge.

Let's have a closer look at that. It's an industrial sized pulley, exerting a lot of tension on that wire, attached by a piece of fucking rope to a dead branch of a dead tree. Click to enlarge.

And in case you thought that the wire was just hanging straight downward, no sir. That's some serious sideways-tension. Click to enlarge:

The cable strings across the street, above our parked cars, and above the front yard where children play all afternoon. When someone is injured or dies from this, here is proof that it could have been avoided. Plantation Street, Worcester, MA.

UPDATE: Here is where the cable eventually connects to a pole. It goes through two more pulleys attached to trees. 

UPDATE 2: Here's a map of the whole situation.