new school old school

some say you should only write blogs when you have worthwhile something to say. i suppose i agree with that.

some say you should always kinda aim for the middle ground when you try to create some sort of serialized art, so when you create something that really rocks, you really get to shine. not sure if i agree with that, although i think about it a lot. haven’t written too many haikus / drawn too many drawings that i’ve felt like sharing recently.. but this one was fun to draw. we were discussing who would win a fight.

there has never been a more appropriate time in my life to write a tribute to en vogue. yous gals rock. hope all is well kthxbai

it was probably close to a month ago now that i randomly met a published writer at one of my favorite coffeeshops in town. i was writing in a notebook (read: diary) outside, before it was six thousand degrees outside. went inside once it started hitting the one thousand degrees mark.

the guy said “excuse me, are you a writer?” . he had seen me writing outside.
i basically said in so many words, “uhhhhh no not really but ok maybe yea kinda”

i mentioned how i write really just for fun and hobby-like, and that i enjoy writing and publishing crappy 3 panel comic strips too. we started talking about writing.

he said he tells aspiring writers this advice: get as much psychotherapy as you possibly can, then go outside and smash your head against the curb a few times, and if you still want to write, then you should.

honestly, this made writing sound even more appealing to me. i’ve been getting better at getting in the habit of taking time to write every day, and it’s been a bit too much fun posting daily drawings over the past two weeks.

in conclusion, a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to anyone and everyone who reads this thing, and for the encouraging comments too. heal the world

today on my bike
got stopped by cops because i
looked like a suspect.

there are so many
albums i can’t listen to
no more cos of you.

sometimes the people
in real life who are fear-less
need to shut their face.

back in the old days
they didn’t have exercise
or no computers

he’s a cold hearted
snake (oh) look into his eyes
he’s been telling lies.

hey, these stale water
crackers taste like the chinese
noodles that i like.

robots can’t make art
because they have no nat-u
-ral emotionses.

you had the nicest
laugh today when i almost
hit you with my bike

a sketch i did of a girl who was eating her breakfast this past saturday. i would assume she did not know i was drawing her. i’ve been thinking a lot about the notions of “walls”. not physical walls as much as the walls we put up. or that i put up. what we’re allowed to share and what we’re not allowed to share. here i am posting on the internet and it’s fascinating to me to think about what is “okay” to post and what is not “okay” to post. is this ok to post? maybe someone will find it and yell at me via comments. like “yo take down that drawing of me that no one knows is me”. some dude at the restaurant i was drawing at was wearing a fraternity shirt for “hoots and halos”. the “hoots” looked like it was maybe for an owl, but kinda weird for a school with methodist in the name, i thought.

above is the cup i drank coffee from, and i am jack’s wasted moments in which he should be catching up on the sleeps.

on april 21 i saw spoon play at the scoot inn in atx. which was a special place to see them play because it was a small little venue, and i was real close to the stage. they put on a pretty sweet show.

i got there pretty early and went to the show by myself. i didn’t really feel like going up to people and trying to make friends with strangers, so i decided to just sit there and draw them and then post the drawings on the internet, because that’s way less creepy. and that joke is sort of stolen from a picturesforsadchildren.com strip but i have no idea how to find the strip. here’s the drawings:

this is kind of an experiment in SEO to see if any of these people actually find this post in real life. the sketchbook i was drawing in has very thin paper… so when i scanned these, the drawings from the next page would show up behind the drawings i was scanning.

#1 – a girl who is from chicago who i think lives in austin. was there with a dude. you can see #3 in the background, who was at the table adjacent to #1 but they didn’t go to the show together.

#2 – very pretty girl who kept talking about dogs, like for a long time. to some dude. she would rescue dogs in college and she was really good at guessing their names. like they found some lost dog, and the name that she was calling it was really similar to the name it had, so it would automatically respond (by looking up or whatever, however dogs respond) when she called it by the name she gave it. you can see a sneak preview of a future newschool webcomic behind her.

#3 – asked #1 and her dudefriend , hey i don’t mean to be eavesdropping on your conversation but are you guys from chicago? and they were and #3 and her friend were from there too so then they started talking about chicago for a little while. i wondered if they knew i was drawing them but probably not.

#4 – was far away but man, this outfit is so texas-gurl to me. makeup, earrings, high heels, and shorts. i feel like i wouldn’t see that very often in the promised land (jersey). in the background you can see some ideas i was sketching on the next page for buttons / labels for this here webcomic artblog website thing.

i sure do use the words “chicks” and “dudes” a lot. i think it’s funny using them in art-land.
next month at the museum of modern art
a new school old school exhibition
“my drawings of naked chicks”

you spoke, and we listened. by we, i mean me. the royal we. aldos’s comment was going to keep me up at night if i didn’t draw it.

i definitely lost an hour this weekend once i stumbled across these internets of ricky gervais interviewing larry david. i do a bit of time thinking about the purpose of comedy / humor.. and what people find funny.. what i find funny.. and i liked watching these guys talk about all that. i’m always if/when intrigued when people say they can’t watch curb your enthusiasm because it makes them feel too uncomfortable.

i did not draw the drawings below. the guest artist on this post is chris chappell.

no life drawings this week from me because i ended up being the model tonight at AFG. it was pretty neat to see yourself drawn / painted by other people. especially since we have such kickass artists in our group.

i told some stories while i was “on stage.” it’s weird because it was almost hard for me not to. i’d just think of these dumb things while it was all quiet and then i’d start smirking and then just have to twist my arm why don’t you go into my standup routine. not really though, i was just chattin it up speakin ma mind. but it made me realize our models don’t really change facial expressions and it hadn’t occured to me that could be a challenge. that had NOT occurred to us dude.

a reason i feel some need to post this nonsense is that i thought of that great scene in i heart huckabees, when they replay the tape of shaina twain story for hey jude. i heart that scene.

today was friday the 13th, and there was a friday the 13th last month too. i feel like that can only happen when once in a blue moon when it goes from feb -> march

i don’t have any beef with the watchmen movie except for some of the song choices they made. the song they used for the opening scene, i thought was really awesome and possibly perfect. but the song they picked for the comedian’s funeral i thought was just wack. played out. and the hendrix that appears later could only remind of forrest gump (although oddly enough, forrest is the last person i think of when i hear that song sans epic flying vehicles on movie screens)

if i had made it, i would have put this song somewhere good.

cos its due back at the video store tomorrow. gonna watch the watchmen tomorrow too, not at the video store. it just came out this weekend and i see ppl on the interwebz freakin over it. in 4 years from now, this paragraph will seem so 4 years ago. (video stores??)

spaced has been a lot of fun to watch. i’ve realized i really like shows/movies when the characters are kinda losers. i also love it when they talk about brian doing art (his influences are pain, anger, fear) or when that raver guy starts jammin out anytime something makes a repeating noise.

on these drawings, i made an effort to start out by drawing lightly for longer. the last 2 are on masonite, which has been really fun to draw on.

i went out to dinner with a friend and i think he’s one of the only people i’ve ever been to restaurants with (as a human over the age of 10) who actually asked for the kids menu and crayons before i did. they have individualized (self serving jack) packs of 4 crayons which were a red-violet, purple, blue, and yellow. i was a bad kid!!! and colored my kids menu like this:

btw this website is not ok for kids