As you can see I’m trying out new “skins” for my blog again. The last one was good because it was straightforward, but I decided I wanted a sort of banner with my artwork on it. Which I’m still working on, by the way. Thanks to Joe for his he’p.
Bad Actors
Pursuant to my previous post about starting up a Vancouver chapter of Improv Everywhere, I had a couple of ideas.
If we can get about 30 people, dressed up like homeless people, and if we can find a suitable spot, we could lay down and spell out the words “spare change” in human bodies. Maybe even ‘snore talk’ “spare change.”
This second idea I like even better. You know how you can go to Stanley Park or to fairs and whatnot and you’ll find someone who will either draw your caricature or do a portrait of you in charcoal or conte or whatever? Well we could gather a half dozen or more people to do that. Only our portraits and caricatures would be bad. As in, grotesquely bad. The beauty of the idea is that the “artists” don’t have to know how to draw – in fact it’s better if they don’t. But we wouldn’t be drawing stick men; I mean it should look like we’re trying to do our best. And it should seem that we think we’ve done a great job and are proud of our work, even though it’s clearly terrible. And NEVER BREAK CHARACTER. I have lots of drawing materials (charcoal, pastels, pencil crayons) but participants would have to supply their own paper, stools, drawing board/easel. I think we could have a lot of fun with this! It is more of a summer thing, though.
Art at V-Con
So tomorrow is V-Con and I’m trying to figure out what to bring for the art show. I had some grand schemes of getting things framed but my heart just wasn’t in it. Frames! Frames are for suckers. So anyway I’m this very moment going through my files of original art that has been sitting in my file folder stagnating. I really have no idea what to charge for these things. I guess if nothing sells it means either I’m charging too much or it just plain sucks. At the very least people will see my stuff and I’ll have a whack of business cards. Oh yeah, self-promo, I forgot about you! AGAIN!
Here’s a really old one (’99 as you can see) that I dug up out of the files. Feng Shui the RPG is weird, I’m sure you’ll agree!
Chili Con Crazy
Today I was interviewed for the Victoria music magazine/paper Absolute Underground. When Kevin asked me earlier in the week where and when I would like to do the interview, I decided it would be serendipity to schedule it alongside the City of Vancouver/United Way Chili Cook-Off which took place today at noon at City Hall. It was kind of surreal–especially team “Detroit Rock Chili” (I wish I had my camera to capture the KISS costumes)–but not inappropriate for a Thickets interview. A lot of fun actually!
For those looking for a night of entertainment, may we recommend…? Scarface and/or The Illusionist at The Rio Theatre. It is after all my duty to plug the best theater in town. I watched The Illusionist with Joyce the other night and it really got me thinking about some interesting stories. I always liked the idea of a guy who gets his rocks doing inappropriate impersonations. Like an actor who is studying for a role as a spy, so he starts doing things like dressing up as maintenance staff to get into secure buildings for no other reason to see if he can do it. He goes too far, gets caught, and then the government hires him to be a real spy. Maybe this story has already been done…a few times. Anyway I digress. The Illusionist reminded me of this sort of thing and it also reminded me of Call of Cthulhu (the game). The period and atmosphere were excellent. I was suprised by Rufus Sewell’s performance, it was good. Paul Giamatti is always good. Edward Norton actually didn’t have much to do in terms of acting. But, a strong film, especially the first 3/4. I’d give it 7.4/10.
So I made made the comments require registration because of all the spam I was getting. Now I’m getting complaints about the registration so I’ll take it down for now and see what happens.
My 15 Milliseconds of Fame
You can see me in this clip from X-Men 3 at the 47 second mark, on the right.
Lani's Looking Out For All of Us
You are receiving this mail because you seem likely to be interested in signing on for wacky and questionable enterprises. Improv Everywhere is a group that does stunts/pranks/performance art in public places in New York, like staging a repeating time loop in starbucks. See their mission page: http://www.improveverywhere.com/missions.php . I recommend starting with Moebius and Slo-Mo Home Depot.
Chapters are springing up in other cities, and there are some people interested in starting up one for Vancouver. There is a board that you can sign on to in order to get more info here: http://www.improveverywhere.com/mb/index.php
If you are interested, and also if you know people who might be interested, a meetup is being organized for Saturday Oct 21st at the Starbucks in Station Square BBY near the Red Robin at 2pm.
My favourites are Anton Chekov and the Cell Phone Symphony, not to mention No Pants.
Oh Yeah, I Took Down the X-Men Art
Kind of bad form to ask permission AFTER I post his artwork, but here’s the response:
Toren, I’m afraid I cannot condone or support anyone downloading material or images from my site (which is declared on the homepage)– because there are those who print off and ink the pencil pages to use as art samples– Or worse still attempt to sell their inked copies as originals. I have actually stated elsewhere that if the problem persists I will have to discontinue my site. I realise you are not trying to make profit and I am sorry I cannot be more accommodating but there are those who use any compromise as the ‘thin end of the wedge’.Alan
Naturally I took down the post, and I was happy to do so, and I understand his reasoning completely. It’s amazing to me that there are people who are bold (and pricks) enough to pretend someone else’s artwork is theirs, and to try to SELL it as originals! They’re ruining it for the rest of us! At any rate, here is Alan’s site again. It’s a valuable resource for someone studying to do comic art, like me, because he talks about how he works, and shows his work, including stuff he wasn’t happy with and why. Such as his work on Justice League: Another Nail – http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/NAIL-TPB.html
Musicology
My good friend Stephane will be teaching a one night “Slackademics” class on Music Theory/How to Read Music on Wednesday, Oct 11 @ 7pm. Venue will be either his place (cats) or my place (cat) depending on the number of respondents (me= Oak & 13th Ave, Stephane = 12th Ave & Glen). Right now we have the following interested parties:
John M
Michael B
Toren
Chris G
I know there are other interested parties (David, Amanda) but I haven’t heard from them on availability for the date/time.
Note that this is also a potluck! Stephane says:
I don’t have any specific food requests for the potluck. I’m sure there’ll be food I like there. (I don’t like onions and funny mayonnaise-based dishes)
and
Here are possible topics I could cover. If anybody feels any of this is redundant or not interesting,
1) Explain the two main musical clefs/staffs
2) Run through all the types of notes and rests for those that don’t remember from elementary school music (it’s all simple math)
3) Go through the note value of each note on the staff.
4) A brief run-through of the history and evolution of musical theory, both in the West and in the East.
5) A brief run-through of the ‘periods of music’ in the West (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 1900s) and its main contributors, along with interesting facts about their lives/music.
6) Talk about the differences and correlations between Major/Minor keys
7) Go through the key chart explaining how to figure out how many sharps/flats are in each key, and what the corresponding Major/Minor keys are.
8) Run through some scales in both Major and Minor keys.
Those are all the basics, so depending on every one’s level we could just skim that and go into more advanced. Let me know if you have any comments or requests.
Please contact me if you or anyone you know is interested in attending!
Slackademics – BSing our way to higher education
Slightly Dull Weekend Wrap-up
This weekend was full of frisky frolics. I went into Chilliwack on Friday to hang out with Mr Woods and to practice with the band one last time before the show. I’ll put up some photos courtesy Amanda soon enough.
We played some Destroy All Humans for the XBox. It was a lot of fun, destroying tanks in a flying saucer and whatnot. Reminded me a little of the Invader Zim cartoon. And I totally pigged out on the worst kind of junk food, it was liberating (dark chocolate almond bark, peanut M&Ms, Black Pepper Jack Doritos, and licorice allsorts). We hit the Value Village and waited in a long line. We had lunch at the Airport Cafe and the waitress was surly AND screwed up my order. She tried to invoke the “no substitutions” clause on the Daily Special stand-up (I’m sure there’s a name for those plastic things, but I have no idea what to call it) but they forgot to put it on. At least the pie was delicious, as usual.
The rock show at The Vault went well, despite 3/4 of the band being sick with cold (including me). We played six new songs and they went over pretty well I think. I had to use cheat sheets for some of the lyrics. Merrick stuck me at the door taking people’s money, which was a pain, asking for $5 from disinterested old farts and people who didn’t have to pay because “we are friends with the owner” but at least we sold a goodly amount of merchandise. Clearly I should have brought more Big Robot Dinosaur and Sendak Cthulhu pins as they were all the rage.
Regardless, lots of fun in goat legs.
I got home in the wee hours of Sunday morning thanks to Peet and Amanda, listening to Zombina & the Skeletones (“Nobody Likes You When You’re Dead” is a good one) on the trip.
On Sunday it was a bit of Call of Cthulhu with Caleb & the Gang and then hanging out with Joyce getting a good workout trying to explain how roleplaying games work. Also watched the comedic wuxia film White Dragon which was weird but pretty fun.
Cellulater
Now I have to completely retool my pocket filing system. You see, my keys go in my front left, my change in my right. Wallet’s in the right back and sunglasses, directions, etc go in the left back. Now that I have a cell phone I’m just not sure what to do with it. Oh I know! I’ll keep it at home on a shelf!
ps – anyone have an extra mouse pad lying around? My optical mouse goes wonky so often that I’m sure I’m burning my retinas away looking into the beam to see if there’s a hair or something in it. I figure maybe a mouse pad might help.