PS22- “Joga” by Bjork

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This Is Why I Love Basketball

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Redemption and Forgiveness

Words fail:

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Russ Nicholson’s Organic Penwork Destroyed by Hack

I was trying out my new Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen the other night (Righteous, BTW), and drew and inked a study of Russ Nicholson’s fantastic front illustration to the original Fiend Folio (seen here, pencil marks and all). You know, the one with the great black and white illustrations, rather than the full color, super-hero-y bullshit that TSR started putting out after the First Editions.

Man, I’m old school about my monster drawings. I loved Russ Nicholson- he was part Gahan Wilson, part Gerald Scarfe, part Shel Silverstein. His creatures always had a comic menace to them, as if they would crack wise whilst slitting your throat. His ink work is so organic, and although there’s so much mark-making, it never feels busy to me.

I also loved Dave Trampier, Erol Otus, Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof (at times), and Bill Willingham (also at times). Trampier’s Wormy was amazing, and Otus’ stuff was weird to me as a kid, but I find it stuck with me in an odd way. I’d love to see a collection of this stuff, besides the horrible scans from old, dying websites.

So Russ, if you’re out there, you should really put up an official website. I’d love to see either an online collection of your work, or a book (which I’d most definitely buy). And Erol, you’re website has been promising to come into view “in the near future” for far too long. Come ON, man!

(If anyone has any leads where I can find any of these collections, I’d appreciate it.)

UPDATE: By the way, I do commissions. If anyone wants me to either draw and ink them an illustration, let me know. We’ll work out the price.

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Damn you, Spike Jonze. Damn you.

Damn you and your cinematic wizardry, you whimsical creative vagabond.

Alright, I must concede this looks beautiful. I’m still not sure what the point is of making a 48 page piece-of-genius book into a hour and a half film (I’m assuming), but it looks just gorgeous. I was really on the Howard Berger side of “horrible idea,” but I might be coming around. Although, I’m pretty sure you could throw Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” behind some footage of a decaying roadside bullhead (that’s Minnesotan for “catfish”) and I would be moved.

If the film is 1/4 as interesting as the trailer, I’ll consider it a huge success. And I think Spike Jonze moves the bar up for fantasy films with his combination of animatronics, CGI, and handheld. There are ways to make fantasy believable, when CGI is used with restraint, as a spice. You can’t enjoy a meal that’s made of salt. Don’t believe me? Gentlemen, I give you… The Star Wars Prequels.

(I love James Gandolfini. What a complete actor. May he continue to get interesting roles offered to him. His “Inside the Actors Studio” is one of the best out there, along with Chappelle’s.)

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American Surrealism

George Tooker. Gilliamesque? Kafkaesque? Brilliant.

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One of My Favorite Paintings of All Time

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl – James McNeill Whistler

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CLOONEY!!!

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Dan Clowes Interview on McSweeney’s

Excerpt from Mike Sack’s interview with Eightball and Ghost World creator Dan Clowes:

Do you think that the generation who grew up with the Internet will find this connection in other, less creative methods?

You mean, to write a banjo blog instead of actually learning how to play a banjo? You would think that there would be no good artists or writers or musicians anymore, but there are plenty out there who are just as good as anyone from any other generation.

And yet there was something to be said for the learning process in the pre-Internet era. If you were really interested in an obscure movie or a little-known artist, you would go out and research on your own, and every little tidbit of information had such power and weight. Nowadays, you can just click on Wikipedia and learn everything in five minutes. The thrill of discovery is greatly lessened.

Point taken, Dano. Back to drawing and writing.

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Picasso’s Guernica in 3-D

Fantastic:

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Sloganeering, or, How Bono Is Rock’s Yogi Berra

A friend gave me U2’s latest album, No Line On The Horizon, which, I have to admit, is growing on me (after I had sort of decided I was done with them). What’s struck me most is Bono singing with the abandon he used to have, while his lyrics have taken on a somewhat trite, Tony Robbins “You-can-do-it”-type cheerleading vibe.

We knew this was coming, of course. From the “A woman needs a man/like a fish needs a bicycle” from Actung Baby and the Jenny Holzer-esque truisms of The Fly, this sort of sloganeering was inevitable. I think Bono is truly surprised when a gem comes falling out of his mouth during an interview, and he’s absolutely unafraid to scoop these saliva gems and shoehorn ’em into a song.

And when you never stop talking, there’s bound to be more than a few lyrical keepers. From the wordy-ass titled I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight:

Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot

The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear

I’ll be shocked if those don’t end up on Tour t-shirts. It’s redeemed by the best chorus they’ve written since Pride, as well as an amazing bridge.

Then there’s the religious-salvation-as-sensuality vein:

You can hear the universe in her sea shells

Not sure if I can defend that one. Not sure he’d want me to.

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Paul Westerberg Thursdays

Stain Yer Blood:

According to the Interwebs, the lyric is supposedly:

It’s okay,
Stained and not for fun
I won’t stain your blood
I won’t stain love

But I think that’s bullshit lazy Interweb cut ‘n pasting. I think the lyrics are:

It’s okay,
Stay the night for fun
I won’t stain your blood
I won’t stay in love

As in, “I won’t stain yer blood with demands for a commitment.” That’s my take. The first version seems a little pretentious for Paul.

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It’s Not Texali

But this is the only time I’ve ever really wanted to buy wine just because of the label.

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G-Spek Fridays

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