RSVP

After much toiling and troubling I've finally finished the wedding invitation that I've eluded to in so many posts. I was initially nervous about taking on the task since a Wedding invite obviously has a lot more weight attached to it than a show flier, but the bride had a pretty clear image of what she wanted and that help tremendously. I'm actually not used to looking at it as a whole since I've been cleaning it up in photoshop on such a minute scale for the past month, but I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the outcome. It's more or less exactly as I envisioned the final product. I'd never really thought about doing anything as formal as this, but more and more people from my generation are getting married these days and unique invitation designs are definitely sought after. It's definitely something I should put some thought into.

*Sigh*... and much as it pains me to say, considering how much work went into it, I kind of like the silhouetted version better. What do you think? I guess I could always make a flashing GIF file.

Storytime

A few days ago I babysat my younger cousin and took her to "storytime" at the local library branch. Here I discovered that hanging out with kids is very strange and it makes sense why people become so weird when they become parents. What do you think would happen to you if you spent nearly every moment you had with an infant trying to communicate things to them ... and failing most of the time? Then think about how weird you have to be to be a preschool or kindergarten teacher. Anyhow, I drew some of the kids at storytime and I think it made some of the other parents uncomfortable. I wonder why?

Swoops

Reading The Wizard of Oz at the park on Ainsworth with some couchsurfers and eating gummi pears.

"Have you ever seen a turtle get down?"

Pix Patisserie, a fancy dessert cafe near my house, sometimes projects old childhood favorites in the hope that you will order more food the longer you are there. Their latest showing was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze" and yes, this movie is nearly as bad as its title. I was a HUGE ninja turtles fan in my youth and even though I enjoyed this movie immensely I think there was always a feeling just under the surface that the turtles just weren't performing up to my expectations. Notably, TMNT II: tSotO has a decent plot for a sequel (aside from Shredder somehow coming back from the dead). We find out more about the origin of our beloved foursome and new mutants are introduced in an effort to fight "freak with freak." The twist of course comes much to Shredder's dismay when he finds out that his secret weapons have the intelligence of a two year old. Tokka and Razor (a poor substitute for Rocksteady and Bebop) were cool ideas, but looked ridiculous and are pretty much too embarassing to watch. They did however inspire me to draw this guy from a movie still I found on the internet.



I've just about given up hope on them ever making a movie version of the turtles that's as gritty and dark as the comic was instead of shamelessly pandering to children. Let's get rid of the snappy remarks, cool dude attitude, and rainbow colored masks (in the comic they all wear red). It seems that people are getting tired of the hyper realistic portrayals of super-heroes that the X-Men movies and Christopher Nolan's Batman has given us, but I think one more round wouldn't hurt anybody.


.... and could someone please tell me why the mutagen Shredder uses at the end of the movie affects his body armor too? That just doesn't make sense. Oh and Super Shredder was way too tough to die from a pier collapsing on him. 'Nuff said.

Obama Unmasked!

Over the weekend there was an article in the Oregonian about a young boy who wasn't allowed to perform at his school's talent show because some teachers, including the principal, thought some people would be offended by his act. The boy mimicked a famous youtube video of a man dancing around wearing a Halloween Obama mask, and according to his two gay fathers "he had been practicing for weeks." I understand the history of black face and minstrel shows in this country but the fact is ALL Halloween masks make their impersonator look cartoonish and ridiculous. It's kind of hard not to when you're sculpting something out of rubber, plus that's kind of the point. If this was George Bush or Bill Clinton nobody would have said a thing, but because our new president is black there's an air of hypersensitivity in the country. The boy was upset about not being able to perform, but was even more upset that someone would think he intended to mock the new president, whom he admired, in any way. He also thought it was cool that Obama has a Wii hooked up to a big screen TV in the white house, which it is. So there.

I guess what I'm saying is people should be sensitive about things that actually matter instead of taking it out on kids who want to impersonate the president, which they have every right to do, no matter what color their skin is. The end.

Dr. Furious

Some of you know from experience and some of you don't but one thing I like to do in my free time is send postcards to people with drawings instead of writing. The problem with that is I can't post them on my blog until that person gets it in the mail, lest I spoil the surprise (assuming they even read this blog on a regular basis). Yes, I'm also vain and scan the postcards into my computer for my own records since I enjoy my work so much. I've been assured that the recipient of this piece of mail has received it.

The front of the postcard has an image of Darth Vader invading the rebels from the first scene in "A New Hope," where Leia tries to convince Vader that they're on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan. It was cut out from the record sleeve of the Star Wars soundtrack I found at the Bins. I still have some left and no idea who to send them to so if you'd like one you better speak up now and hope I have your address.

Tomorrow I start my first day of work wrapping burritos and I have to be there at eight am so I better get some shuteye. Goodnight!

E.T.

E.T. has been rather prevalent in my life lately, which is strange considering the movie is 27 years old.

Over 5 years ago I bought some ridiculous "E.T. Ultimate Gift Set" at Costco which includes a book on the making of E.T., two versions of the film, the soundtrack, a certificate of authenticity, and a frame from the film. Now, why I felt I needed to own the "Ultimate Gift Set" is beyond me. Especially considering that I never once watched the movie after I bought it until very recently. I also now have a thrift store E.T. puzzle (2 pieces missing), and a vintage E.T. pillowcase given to me for Valentine's Day (thanks Swoops).

For one reason or another this alien has stuck around and continued to have an impact on people throughout the years. A few things I've noticed upon the latest viewing:

- the added CG to the 2002 version is lame and completely unnecessary.
- Reese's Pieces should be forever grateful to the film for keeping them alive. Sales went up 65% after the movie came out. Do you ever think of the candy without thinking of the movie? I didn't think so. That's great marketing.
- E.T. is a lot of fun to draw and surprisingly easy.
- All the kids in the movie dress fucking awesomely and make me want to only dress like cast members of E.T. from now on. Following are the only pictures I could find that even partially illustrate my point.






I'm still working on that wedding invitation and will hopefully have something to post shortly.

Hey, they can't all be pretty...

I honestly have no idea where this came from, so don't ask.

Asher sits pensively in a Communist pizza parlor in Budapest on a rainy April day.

W is for Wistful Walrus

Aside from Bears, Walruses have always been a favorite of mine. Here's a Walrus looking wistfully into the distance as "Wanted for Life" by David Byrne and Brian Eno plays. Another animal whose appearance fascinates me: the Moose (no visual accompaniment... yet).

I'm currently making headway on the invitation illustration for the wedding of Erin Ferns and Andrew Lee which is pretty exciting, but aside from that I have no concrete projects lined up. I guess it'll be a good time to work on my own projects which I haven't done in a while. I went to "Last Thursday" in the Alberta art district last night and as always I saw some cool stuff, some terrible stuff, and a lot of stuff that made me think "I can do better than that." I've always shied away from studio art, but a lot of the stuff being shown over there isn't typical of how we think of studio art. It's actually more akin to band art, or something you might find at Giant Robot. My favorite gallery over there is the Together Gallery and Last night marked the opening of their new show, "Journey Through Bookland" which had some excellent pieces. Selections from the exhibition can be viewed on their website.

I also recently constructed a makeshift light table using an old frame+glass that I found in my basement, propped up on my speakers with my bedside reading lamp shined under it. Who needs a functional and well equipped studio?? *Sigh* I'm like the hobo version of a real artist.