Eric Epstein is a Baddass

Don’t know Eric; for some reason, I scribbled his website on a bar napkin. Maybe I met him in LA. But his reel is here, and it’s pretty stunning. Hire him and pay him lots of money. I know I will someday soon.

Gotta project for him already. Wait ’til I get ludicrous amounts of cash, Epstein!

(Or, if you ever wanna work pro-bono on something…)

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I’m at the Pizza Hut. I’m at the Taco Bell.

I’m at the combination-Pizza Hut-and-Taco Bell:

And now, you will have this song stuck in your head as I do.

It’s an odd little ditty: a fun novelty that I can’t decide whether it’s actually good, or some repetitive pop-culture hell-spawn in the vein of “Barbi Girl.” It did make me laugh in my car, a la Tom Green-effect: amuse, annoy, repeat, amuse, annoy, repeat, annoy, repeat, finally laugh at the sheer endurance of it all. (Extra points for the Pac Man sample.)

“You’re just gonna keep going, huh?”

Alright, you wore me down.

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21 Days to Develop a New Habit

Hmmm.

We are what we repeatedly do. – Aristotle

UPDATE 09.29.09: Apparently, 21 days is a myth. It’s actually more like 30, and some say as long as 66 days (Leo at Zen Habits suggests 30- great post on it here). Regardless, pretty exiting that you can get your neurons to create new pathways in as little as two months.

Perhaps the reason you can’t teach a old dog new tricks is that very few people are interested in small, incremental concerted efforts to change. That’d be my theory. Fo sho.

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How People Like Brian Eno Come Into Existence

Wired has a great little article from March about Brian Eno’s art school days here. A couple of things struck me about the article:

• The deliberate introduction of randomness in Brian Eno’s life, and the idea of changing artistic and social roles to facilitate new and interesting art. Eno’s art professors would have the students assume characters that were out of their comfort zone, to elicit reactions that were of them “playing a role.” Much like the old Oscar Wilde quote (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth”), if you give students a mask or role to play, they’ll create new, “true” art, that is, true to the role they’re playing.
  Reminds me of Prince and Tom Waits adopting characters to get themselves out of their rote songwriting modes. Also reminds me of long-form improv training, of getting yourself “out of your head” and comfort zone to spur yourself to new risk taking.

• How much this pointed Eno in the direction of Oblique Strategies, which is a great tool for breaking yourself out of artistic ruts. (Great PDF of printable cards here.)

I had a great instructor in art school (“You want fries with that?”) who used to tell us, “You’re only doing your job as a creative if you are constantly on the verge of getting fired.” Which seemed imminently true to me at the time- the profs who were safe, and needed their jobs had the worst work. The ones who were devil-make-care were actually  selling work and working at ad agencies, rather than writing bullshit artspeak proposals for federal grants.

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Kenwoode Update: First day of Fall

Just a quick note on progress: I’m about 5 pages from finishing the first draft of the Kenwoode II screenplay. Got some illustrating done this weekend, and I’ll have a few panels to post this week.

Just saw Kung Fu Panda. The opening dream sequence with the cut-out paper style is staggering. Dreamworks really stepped up their game. I could make a snarky reference to Sharktale here, but- well, you know. Overall, really solid.

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Illustrator Spotlight: Stephane Tartelin

Simply my favorite illustrator working right now. Love, love, love his work. His site is here.

I have a t-shirt with this design that I’ve got more compliments than any other thing I’ve ever worn, period. (I dress poorly.)

Viva la Tartelin, brother!

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Illustrator Spotlight: Stuntkid

Checked out a comic/collection of Tori Amos illustrated songs from the library, and the front cover was this beautiful little illo:

Pretty nice. Stuntkid, aka Jason Levesque has some pretty great stuff on his site here. (Some is NSFW, so just a warning.) A bit steampunk, a bit photo-realist, a bit surreal. Really nice stuff with an organic, Illustrator feel ‘n’ depth.

He just released a 82-page book of his prints. He’s got his own skateboards, too!

Great work, Sir Kid of Stunt.

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Oh, Onion, Must You Be So Terrifyingly Prescient?

Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’

Yes, all eight years of Bush were this tragically predictable. Check the date.

I can’t think of a better day to post this reminder of what happens when a childish incompetent is elected to the highest office in the land, and is forced to handle an extreme crisis. May we never forget.

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Protect Your Chicken From Dokken

The Greatest Commercial since “Where’s the Beef”:

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I’d Like to Ask for Sinead’s Hand in Marriage, Please?

“Brilliant.”

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