SPRING FLOWERS
Posted April 11th, 2013 in Uncategorized, art, photos, Current Events
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VISUALS
Posted November 1st, 2012 in Animation, sports, art, music, Culture, entertainment, Blink Kitty Love, photos
For a quick break, I think I’ll post some art.
Finished a 30 second animated clip for a Blackheart Brigade make a music video for Girl In A Coma’s “Cemetery Baby” contest. Here’s a detail from the pastels that provided the visuals. Haven’t pastelled in a long time and really enjoyed it. Very happy with how the fog along the gravestones rolls.
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Been thinking more about
| soccer and voting than Halloween so didn’t get to a Blink Kitty Love fun with costumes episode this year, but I did have some fun making digital Jack O’Lanterns. Enjoy!
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CLIFFHANGERS
Posted October 17th, 2012 in Comics, Animation, Comedy, sports, TV, rant, Disney, Culture, entertainment, Adventure, poetry, insomnia, Reading, acting, gay, photos, Current Events, weekend plans
AARRGGHHHH…
| Bomb Girls ends on three different cliffhangers…Reelz is having another marathon tomorrow if you haven’t seen it or want to catch an episode. Season 2 filming is happening now, but I don’t know when it will play here.
My Babysitter’s A Vampire ended on a did half of our main characters get blasted cliffhanger. Disney show so I’m betting not, but still CLIFFHANGER. Excellent second season though, really hit the scary funny sweet zone. Much Twilight spoofing comedy to be had. There was a third cliffhanger I’m grumpy about, but I can’t recall it. 2 a.m. has clouded my mental blog post draft. As consolation, here’s last night’s 2 a.m. haiku: Insomnia Haiku N + 1 Path to sleep tempting, Reading Bellwether (get copy, read now, thank me later). Want to see Argo. And ParaNorman again. New fan of Laika. Have been working on character designs and posting to the Blink Kitty Love iApocalypso Tumblr and developing animation/comic possibilities. USWNT aka USA Women’s Soccer playing Germany on Saturday to be broadcast on Fox Soccer. I don’t have Fox Soccer. Hmmmmmm. Australia W-League is also starting Saturday with their first round of games and they’ve been having a pretty impressive marketing push. And some photos from an afternoon walk. I love the light in the Fall. Cheers!
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THIS IS NOT A BLOG POST
Posted August 19th, 2012 in Comics, sports, books, art, TV, rant, music, Culture, entertainment, Adventure, movie, poetry, insomnia, Reading, performance, gay, mulling, Twitter, meandering, photos, Current Events, weekend plans
Actually, it is but the lovely PIL “
| This Is Not A Love Song” just popped into my head so we’ll go from there.
Enjoyed the Olympics. Favorite events: women’s soccer, beach volleyball, diving, what they showed of the modern pentathlon, fencing, team rhythmic gymnastics (actually pretty cool), the way the USA Women’s sprint relay teams just flew, field hockey, water polo, gymnastics, white water kayak…pretty much all of it I saw except the Bob Costas parts. The daytime anchors on the alt networks were fun to listen to. Olympic inspiration: Megan Rapinoe not only saved the game against Canada with some very impressive skills, she came out as gay before the Olympics. Lots of articles out there about it (and pictures of her and Australian soccer playing girlfriend Sarah Walsh) but Sports Illustrated did an excellent one titled “The Unquiet American.” But there’s a problem. See, when I get inspired, I can usually turn the energy into something creative. Get inspired by Buffy and/or the episode where Willow and Kennedy get together, I watch the DVDs, channel my inspiration into art*, write a novel (really, it’s fun — Oz, Tara and Kennedy — and I needed a way to get through the end of the 7th season and no more Buffy (or Kennedy). Get inspired by Joan Jett, read her book, see her in concert, BLAST her music, blog about it, take pictures at the concert, start sketching ideas, write at least one kick ass haiku**, repeat diving into mood: Jett with some frequency for continued inspiration. Get inspired by a couple (and yes, I do mean couple) of soccer players, well, what the heck do I do with that? Win?!?!?!?!?! But what’s my gold medal event? Hmmmm. And now, I’m going through soccer and Olympic withdrawal, although I do need to watch the rest of the USA-Canada game while it’s still available On Demand. And there was more to catch up on, but that about covers where I am. Quick hits: The Dollyrots are releasing a new album, Bunheads is very entertaining, took a stack of books out of the library but none are compelling so far, I’m on a search for a copy of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith that I don’t have to buy, Baudelaire and John Singer Sargent (this is the painting for me) have come up recently on Twitter. And Captain Marvel continues well, as do Demon Knights, Night Force and Kevin Keller. Thanks for stopping by; good night all. *Alyson Hannigan inspired (sort of) artwork
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**Joan Jett Album Cover Meditation Haiku:
Naked Fetish Skin
Challenge Truth Raw Desire Sin
Joan Jett rocks me in
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OPENING EVE
Posted July 20th, 2012 in Comics, Animation, Comedy, family, books, art, TV, rant, music, Disney, Culture, entertainment, Adventure, movie, insomnia, Reading, acting, gay, theatre, meandering, photos, Current Events, t-shirts, #3dreams
Started this yesterday and an internet crash prevented posting but since a slippery stage delayed our Opening Night, the title is still accurate. So read on, barring further internet shenanigans:
Tomorrow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens. A thunderstorm interrupted rehearsal at the very end tonight, I’d really like the weather to get that out of its system now. Here’s
| one of two articles about this year’s Theatre Under The Trees. The reporter only mashed up a quote or two.
Now a quick run through my recent ventures into things non Shakespeare. Season Two of My Babysitter’s A Vampire amps up the good clean goofy fun. Good for laughter. Aardman’s The Pirates!: A Band of Misfits was solidly animated, quite clever + had a story that lacks heart. Aardman has yet to crack long form narrative for me. I think there’s some Shaun The Sheep Olympic tie in episodes though. Yes, there are: Championsheeps. Brave: Merida great character, story excellent, better than Pixar usual standard I think. Was surprised to find myself disappointed in the animation. The bear didn’t work for me as a transformed character. Much of the movie seemed done in a cut rate fashion. Would have preferred to see animation more in the style of Tangled. Amazing Spiderman: wasn’t planning to see it, but I enjoyed it. Loved the humor they managed to work in. Dennis Leary and Martin Sheen excelled, leading a cast that brought the Spiderman story vividly to life. Bunheads: still continues charming. Have been on an Eddie Campbell kick. Own the entire run of his Bacchus. I have a weakness for well done modern takes on mythology. Purchased his latest, The Lovely Horrible Stuff, a autobiographical meditation on money in the Campbell style. Enjoyed its curmudgeonly charm so had the library track down Alec: The Years Have Pants. Still working my way through it. Too much Alec tends to darken my mood. Met Campbell at SPX once, he signed a Bacchus poster for me and was concerned that the ink didn’t smear. A meticulous man. Captain Marvel: why yes, I do have a comic crush on Captain Marvel, ace fearless pilot and newly recostumed superhero. I suggest you develop one too. Batwoman: dropping the book from my monthly pull list as the fragmented story line went on too long and Gotham is too grim a locale for me. I’ll miss Maggie Sawyer though. Legend of Bold Riley: Yes. Thank you Leia Weathington. Gay swashbuckling hero legend fun. Read it. Legend of Korra: caught the season finale accidentally tonight, didn’t raise my opinion much. Rush job, too little Avatar character development, too many tears. Hitting bottom took 30 seconds, big problem fixed in 10. Nope. Then they played the last two episodes of the orginal Avatar: The Last Airbender series finale. So amazing. Fights were gorgeous martial arts mastery + swirls of colors, characters were so fully developed the world paused on a point of principle. Where did this level of excellence go? It’s the same darn guys doing Korra. Where’s the greatness you put in Katara and Toph and Suki? Boo. Did I say that already? Ok, enough ranting. I probably need to try sleep. Did I miss anything? Archie comics still keeping me entertained. I did get to see Joan Jett in concert (picture below). Great set list, some of my favorite songs + some new ones as well. Seventh Ink is doing a Kickstarter with kick ass art that I want a Belligerent Bengal shirt from. So check it out. And catch Midsummer if you’re in the area. It might be amazing. Cheers.
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JOAN JETT QUICK HITS
Posted September 22nd, 2011 in family, art, music, Culture, entertainment, performance, Blink Kitty Love, photos
Here’s my favorite photo from the Joan Jett concert at the York Fair (9/13/11). I was trying for a shot of guitar + hands + mastery, discovered shooting from the front is not conducive to that and ended up catching this shot while Jett was taking a break to talk to the rest of the band.
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I let Blink Kitty Love (for those not in the know, this refers to the crazy crushing cartoon/comic band that shares/represents several aspects of my personality) review the concert (w/ more and different photos). Here’s the start:
| Joan Jett (Happy Birthday!) is trying to reclaim the verb “to rock” for rock and rollers*. This is a cause we can support. So we’ve stopped using it as a general description of cool things and begun using it as a very specific description of the wonder of Joan Jett. She so capital R-O-C-K-S rocks, her concert was awesome and now we have a lot of songs to look up, listen to and download. And a t-shirt and maybe a hoodie to buy.
Joan Jett at the York Fair, September 13th, 2011. Jett made us laugh, sing, shout, smile and dance. And looked like she was having a blast the whole time. One of the best parties we’ve been to: we had a great time, everyone around us had fun and the music continued excellent all night. Joan Jett rocks enough to personify the verb and can do it again in our vicinity any time she wants. Please. And my Flickr set with some of the night’s highlights. Good night! I wish you something you enjoy as much as I did the Joan Jett concert.
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P.S. Excellent recent Joan Jett interview from the Morton Report.
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DINNER AT 7:30
Posted July 23rd, 2011 in Comics, Comedy, art, robots, Culture, entertainment, Adventure, movie, acting, performance, mulling, theatre, Shakespeare, meandering, photos, Current Events, web, t-shirts, #abouting
Directing a Shakespearean comedy every summer is a wonderful thing in many many ways for me. The language, the adventure and the camaraderie are often a joy. But this is the point, halfway through opening weekend, when exhaustion and the lack of the little things creeps in.
So, today we took a scouting trip to the location, decided it would be cool enough if we pushed the show to 7 p.m and found some shade. Texted/called everyone in the cast, pushed back call time to 6 p.m. 6:05 pm intermittent rain arrives with lightning off to the northwest. Radar on several peoples’ smartphones insists storm will blow through quickly. And yet by the time we left at 6:58, there had been hail, sideways rain, loud thunder, near lightning, freaked out crew members. Advantage: cooler but score one for weather picking the exact wrong time; too late to move the show. So we called it.
Then some of us headed to a diner since we had sudden free time. And I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had sat down to a non rushed meal at an hour before 9:30 p.m. So I ate pork chops, salad and a baked potato with quiet contentment as the chatter wandered. Food orders ranged from milkshake + fries, to french onion soup to two eggs + toast, but leaned toward desserts, including a half waffle sundae that might have fit in a mop bucket (the waitress apparently enjoys the sundae making process.) Much of the talk was of all things Potter, some of the talk was storms we’d been visited by in past summers mixed with tales of backstage experiences in other places. It was nice. I don’t actually talk to the actors about personal stuff a lot while directing, but at this point I can relax and listen to a few stories — and the actor playing Don Pedro singing “Severus Snape” over and over again. There seem to be Harry Potter musicals I need to watch.
Not seeing Captain America this weekend because as much as I’ve been looking forward to Cap, I’ve been looking forward to seeing how Much Ado turns out so much more. And the box office seems to be doing just fine without my $8. #SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) tweets are making me want to pick up my comics, but they are not causing convention envy. I prefer less of a scene.
The picture of
| Kristen Stewart as Snow White with a shield and sword as well as descriptions of the #SDCC panel have piqued my interest. DC’s long running Fables comic is having a spin off called Fairest with covers by Adam Hughes, one of my favorite cover artists. I may actually have to try it out; the stories always intrigued me. Suggestions for a place to start welcome. Fairy tales are surging in the pop culture derby; maybe DreamWrights had their princess season two seasons too early. Shirt.woot has a fairy tale derby this week; this Golden Fish entry is amazing.
Speaking of comics, an Elizabeth Watasin reference popped up in my Twitter stream. Very excited to see it. I loved her Charm School and A Girl comics, actually met her at SPX several years ago. So I’m hoping for new content. What else new? Added Girls With Slingshots to my webcomic reading, although I’m beginning to think that success in the online comic business requires not only robots (or talking plants) but sex toys being mentioned at varying levels of frequency — those are the weeks I skip… Scrounged up on the internet recently: @StarkRavingMe with her Girls Who Grind (change of subject to skateboards, people) project, a documentary following five female skateboarders. This is the time of year I get ticked off at the Summer X Games for having so few events for women (3 this year and women’s vert cancelled). Good news, while we’re on things with Kickstarter/IndieGoGo projects that might actually get me to break my no kick in cash habit: BJ Fletcher, the oh so funny oh so gay oh so great Canadian detective web series announced a third season. Yippee!!! Must rewatch + get Gayle to watch. And acquire a cool detective hat. Although every time I go down to Hats in The Belfry with intent, the only hats I like that fit trigger a laugh response in my target audience. I’ve been hat shopping without acquiring an actual hat for too many a season. Sad about Borders closing (minor compared to many sorrows, I know) but it did make an excellent alternate office and it will be difficult to replace my afternoon meanders through current magazines. The library’s selection is smaller and Harrisburg and Lancaster aren’t a quick afternoon stop. The view tonight:
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Good night; I wish you ranging conversations and weather that suits you.
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THURSDAY AGAIN
Posted July 7th, 2011 in Comics, Animation, Comedy, family, art, TV, design, music, Disney, robots, Culture, entertainment, Adventure, movie, insomnia, acting, performance, Blink Kitty Love, theatre, Shakespeare, science, meandering, photos, Eureka, Current Events, Warehouse 13, web, weekend plans, t-shirts, #abouting
I was commenting last week that it seemed like it was taking a year and Gayle pointed out that during the show, every week seems like a year. Might be true.
Other people’s vacations are impacting my life yet again. I have been racing around at rehearsals
like something that bounds in great leaps, playing two or more parts at a time. Mostly Claudio. Claudio is not a part I’d really like to play. Dogberry yes; Beatrice, yes; Benedict, yes, but I’d much rather be the director guiding the actors playing Hero and Claudio (most days anyway, when we’re not working on the wedding scene.) So it has been a bounding riot of Shakespeare, with me doing the riotous bounding. 7 more rehearsals left. It’s a little crazy. On the schedule Sunday is run the whole show, work with the set for the first time and try out costumes on the cast when they’re offstage. Busy. And an afternoon rehearsal. I am not, you may be surprised to hear, a morning person, which sometimes continues into afternoons. So there is much Sunday fun to be had.
What is happening other places than rehearsals for Theatre Under The Trees Much Ado About Nothing?
Joan Jett and Girl in A Coma are giving a
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Warehouse 13, Eureka and a new show called Alphas are premiering Monday, July 11th on SyFy. Might watch Alphas as I am a David Strathairn fan. Warehouse 13 is also posting webisodes with Claudia and Artie on a comic book adventure. The Robot Film Festival is happening the weekend (July 16-17) we tech so I’m hoping someone takes good notes (if it’s you, how about a guest blog post with the details?). Working on a fall robot movie idea with a couple of friends (including a jeweler so I’m thinking at least a couple of cool robot sculptures for more stop motion fun. I miss stop motion fun.) T-shirt news: Tilteed revamped their website (very bold) and is switching to a shirt a day. Regan SmithClarke and Cavata Clothing are launching their summer lines + looking cool; I’m tempted by a couple of shirts. I don’t like the tri blend trend though; 100% cotton for me. TV: Disney’s My Babysitter’s A Vampire is goofy vampy campy well acted fluff + fun. All the leads have charm and it’s a nice quick rip through all the TV vampire/monster/magic standards. And the boys have the “soft” powers while the girls bring the muscles. Yes, I have been watching My Three Sons with breakfast. Fred MacMurray is a master of wry as well as understated dignity and humor. It’s slyly funny. Movies: Monte Carlo was a different movie than I expected. Selena Gomez did an excellent job (especially as the snarky heiress, very very funny tied to a chair fits of pique), but Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester really took the movie over. It reminded me of the ensemble charms of How To Marry A Millionaire. And have you seen Selena Gomez’s “Love You Like A Love Song video. Bad karaoke, light saber wielding mariachis, 80’s shout outs galore. Just right for me. Had the Joan Rivers documentary in the red envelope but switched it out (not up to lacerating humor at the moment) for X-Men 2, then probably the Fantastic Fours and Push in preparation for Chris Evans’ Captain America, which opens the same night as Much Ado so Cap will have to do without my opening weekend dollars. Ok, that’s a wrap. There’s Google+ and turntable.fm, which I’ve been playing around with and a Blink Kitty Love webcomic halfway done. But I’ve been working on the Much Ado logo, my first official vector design (colors are purple shirt, shiny silver text, brightish blue flower.) One of the ideas I tossed around was a wedding bouquet with some flowers scattered so it was interesting to see it develop into this, with a split flower and the balance between Much and Nothing. More fun than frustrating, the printer didn’t grumble much (he never likes our fonts) and I think I might be learning something about Inkscape (and design).
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And I’ll leave you with what’s currently in the “bottomless bowl” (artist
| David Walsh has a sense of humor; it’s beautifully smooth wood: I love turning it in my hands) of inspiration on my desk.
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