May 27, 2011 Taxing

Cerebus.
Original.
Art.
activity.
is.
doornail.
dead.

In memory of Jeffrey Catherine Jones I shot a donation in the direction of the outfit working on the documentary that was being produced when she died.

http://macabfilms.wordpress.com/

They're offering up a s/n print in exchange.

http://www.glimmergraphicsprints.com/NativeSon.html

I'm a true sycophant for Wiley's Non-Sequitur (I think I have mentioned this before). This strip, from a couple of weeks ago, is just brilliant. Brilliant enough that this here is the original art. You definitely need to click on it to see it!

May 22, 2011 Robots & Monsters

I have posted here before about Joe Alterio's "Robots and Monsters" project. They select a cause. They offer to do original color drawings of your monster or robot of choice (size is about 6x6 inches) for $50. You specify whether you want a robot or a monster, and you give them 3 words that describe what you want your creature to embody. Any 3 words - this ain't played by Scrabble rules. Joe started it, but he has a group of artists in the bullpen, now. I think they split this $50 about 50:50; artists got to eat. Their causes have been Doctors without Borders, water.org, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the SF AIDS Foundation. Fifty bucks for a cool custom art piece with a charity ping... make good gifts. Imagine those hard to shop for nieces and nephews who have interests you know... just send the interests and get a robot or a monster that depicts these.

http://robotsandmonsters.org

Just as with my requests to DVS, I like to ask for a series. Why get one piece when you can get 12 in a theme?

This time around, I decided to see what Joe could do with the signs of the Chinese zodiac. Although these are usually associated with our Western years, you should probably go by the Lunar calendar. And there are variations depending on the translation (sheep vs goat, mouse vs rat). Here are the lunar years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac

I'll put in one main Western calendar year and you can go in multiples of 12 to figure out any others. I'll cluster these in groups of three, for the signs that are meant to be compatible with one another. For my 3 words I used the animal, and a couple of the main descriptors of the character.

1960: rat, friendly, greedy


1964: dragon, leader, lover


1968: monkey, unrestrained, immoral




1961: ox, protective, introverted


1957: rooster, analytical, meticulous


1965: snake, seductive, intelligent




1962: tiger, charming, authortative


1966: horse, energetic, impatient


1958: dog, moody, dishonest




1963: rabbit, popular, entertaining


1967: goat, high-strung, disorganized


1959: pig, perfectionist, vengeful

May 20, 2011 Jeffrey Catherine Jones (1944-2011)

Legendary fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones passed away today, Thursday May 19, 2011 at 4:00 am surrounded by family. Jeffrey suffered from severe emphysema and bronchitis as well as hardening of the arteries around the heart. Jeffrey’s dear friend Robert Wiener reported that there was a no resuscitation order as Jeffrey was weak from being severely under weight and had no reserves with which to fight. - Facebook posting

I am happy to have a few paintings and drawings from Jones in my collection. This one, in particular, is definitely in my top 20 list. I was lucky to get it, and even luckier to have a nice email exchange with Jones about it. It was painted quite a while ago, back when she was a he, and on his honeymoon. I liked this, in particular, because of how ambiguous it is: is it a serene sunset, or is it a nuclear holocaust?


Jeffrey Catherine Jones (1944-2011)

May 1, 2011 Public Service Announcement

We interrupt this program for a Public Service Announcement.

Three days ago, I washed my iPhone. I did not check carefully enough in all the pockets of my jeans when I was putting them in the wash, apparently.

Damp phone in hand, and dashing to the computer, I googled "I washed my iPhone" ... and, of course, there is an entire culture that exists around washing your iPhone.

Apple, as it turns out, knows that dunking your phone is an inevitable hazard, so they built them with this in mind - including a couple of color-changing sensor strips inside the phone that change color upon soaking, so you cannot bamboozle the Apple Store Geniuses.

The standard cure:

Step One: resist turning on the power (this is the hard step).

Step Two: sit your phone in a closed up bag of desiccant (and while I almost went over to the chemistry building to nab some silica gel or magnesium sulfate, I took the on-line advice and just used a bag of rice).

Step Three: let it sit for 3 days, then plug it in as usual for power/synching.

That was 3 days ago.

SCORE:

iPhone : 1
washing machine : 0

We now resume our regular programming, already in progress.