Octobromance

 FatBeatsRecords Published on Oct 6, 2013

October 15, 2013 Tues

On a whim I purchase Sam Alden's Household after reading a tweet from Dustin Harbin.  I find the online tumblr post and read it ahead of delivery.  It's poignant, heart-breaking, intense.  I feel like I need something to cheer me up afterward, but I'm very grateful for its existence.

Yesterday Steve Niles tweeted about his house getting flooded so today people gathered to help with his expenses. 

People were still tweeting non-stop about Pokemon X/Y.  Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan's Demo came out 10 years ago!  Becky's NYCC recap got around, and some people were talking about the levels of harassment women at the show were experiencing.  It was Ada Lovelace Day and my pal Jenny went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and took some choice photos.  Today Frederator announced a Bee & Puppycat kickstarter and everybody went crazy!

I didn't accomplish much because shortly after lunch I fell asleep until just before dusk.  I took a ride around and ran errands, and the evening air was nice.  I made fish, rice, & steamed vegetables and had some PBR micheladas.

October 16, 2013 Wed

It's 12:30 and I've been fumbling again.  The nice thing is I glanced at some tutorials after looking around at Jessie Estrada's dA.  I found her abandoned webcomic Demonspawn.  I think I'm gonna cut my hair today and buy some pants.  Maybe a powerball ticket.  Retirement still hasn't come in.  I read Batman Earth 1 in it's entirety.  It was okay.  I still like Gary Frank even though he draws women like ornaments.  Bluh.

Got reintroduced to Rachel Deering and Anathema.  Hung around the house until about 2pm then rode around eventually to Starbucks.  Bought jeans, gave myself a haircut.  At Starbucks worked on Eurydice and at some point remembered Madame Blavatsky.  Listened to The Mysterious Universe podcast ep 821 and looked through twitter archive.

Bravest Warriors season 2 countdown began today.  I think the gov't shutdown ended.

October 17, 2013 Thurs

I got up around 10:30 this day.  Read about Onyx & Slam.  Learned about Edmund Dulac from Jess Fink.  I started my bboy mix and compiled a bunch of research for The Survivalist.  And then I took off to go hang out with Vince, but he and Daniel found me first as I careened past the cafe.  We holed up there for hours drinking Ancient Organic tea talking comics and what-not.  Then Daniel took off as it got dark.  He and Ian were chatting on FB as Vince and I got into a more personal conversation, and then Ian came and met us.  We walked down and had a couple of good beers, then tried to go find a pizza place, but ended up going to Denny's. 

On Friday (Oct 18) I must have slept in until about noon.  I got into the newest story in House of Orr: Petals around the Rose.  Jessi posted a link to Emily Broso's fantastic sketchdump.  I had a great healthy lunch that afternoon and doinked around with Newt & Jenny.  Later on I started writing a post-apocalyptic short called No Women.  My free copic came in the mail that day. I spent a good amount of time going back & forth with Ian on picking out a race & class type for my D&D character.  I eventually ended up going with a Svirfneblin Alchemist, though I considered a Vanara Rogue, and also a really neat Warforged based on Rom the Spaceknight, Alphonse Elric, North No. 2, and the Guyver.  I actually wanted to do a guyver piece for the Vinces.  I did start a Rom the Spaceknight illo, though.  We actually didn't even get into D&D Friday night on account of all the Angry Ball drinking.  On Saturday  (Oct 19) we eventually rolled out to this cosplay thing in the park.  Vince & Daniel & I put ourselves out there and had a lot of the fun while the others kind of faded to the background.  I tore it up in comic book trivia.  Went back to Ian's for recoop & drinking and then went to a birthday party in the evening where I met somebody.  That was unexpected.  Wow. Most of Sunday was spent talking with twitter family about nerd budding romance.

Sprung

May 27 - June, 2013;  May is over and following close behind Spring gives way to Summer.

It was my first week back at work.  I had a lot of things backed up:  uploading memorial day weekend pictures, reading a bunch of comics online and in print, doing laundry, cleaning my room etc.getting my haircut.

On Monday (5/27) I was recovering from the weekend in L.A.  It was Jordyn Bochon's birthday.  I crept along reading Soldiers of Victory v1 and started reading Sam Alden's Eighth Grade.  Tuesday (5/28) was kind of a bust for me since I hadn't had much sleep.  Work fed us and I came home fairly early and slept till Wednesday morning (5/29).  I had "Fine China" playing on loop in the back of my mind so I watched the video and cackled at the ridiculousness.   I watched the Escapist ep w/ Team AmErika.  I also bought Rachel an AIO printer after I read she broke hers.  Victoria got us all riled up about cookie pizzas.  Rachel opened up orders for her Ink Sport Zine.  Tumblr changed the orientation of posts.  Amber had a late night draw stream. 


On Thursday (5/30) I came home from work and had a spectacular nap, and then piddled away on the internet.  I got caught up in Shoomlah's Asheron's Call heckler chronicles. Everybody was wishing Gigi and Geneva happy birthday early on Friday (5/31).  I read Sam Alden's Eighth Grade almost in one sitting.  On Saturday (6/1) I was up early and watched the new Sanjay & Craig and loved it.  There was also an ep of Fairly Odd Parents that had a quasi-racist and then homoerotic joke in it.  I did some organizing in my room and unearthed my Video Girl Ai vhs tapes & some dvd's.  People were chattering about Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who and who would be the next Doctor.  I found out about Unlocking the Truth the most brutal sixth grade band.  Later on I cut my hair, and then we had a pool party.  I finished Drama, Global Frequency, and read a little AVX.  I also caught up with the 2 episodes of Strip Search I hadn't yet seen.  I was pretty lazy on Sunday (6/2).  Julie finished her poster for Station Zero!  I created King of Siam My Bad Comics tumblr.  Victoria was warming up on some Amelie drawings.  Megan Brennan did another first angel comic.  I learned about the Koh I Noor thanks to Jill Thompson.  I created a pretty good playlist with Bastille, Justin Timberlake & Samurai Champloo.  The Red Wedding happened on Game of Thrones and the whole internet went insane.  I started reading Diana Thung's August Moon.  This was the week of the 2nd tornado in Oklahoma, Justin Bieber's trouble with Keyshawn Johnson, and much agonizing over my broken backbeat 906's.  A lot of people were doing drawings based on Pokemon Fusion.  

Molly Stanard's The Boy with the Heart Condition | Escape from Burgertown by Zac Gorman | Ladybird's Requiem by Akino Kondoh

Sketchy At Best

Dear diary.  Lol.

I took a walk this afternoon and it was super peaceful and quiet.  I like those late afternoons where I mostly hear birds and the shush of leaves and branches shaking in the breeze.  My eyes have lately been drawn to studying figures and doing a sort of mental sketching that I heard somebody talk about earlier today on tumblr.



I had a very productive thought journey about the types of moods conducive for creation, and the type of content I feel inspired to write about.  This particular afternoon I felt inspired to explore a wanderer's narrative, something focused on the study of fine and obscure details, like discrete lines of poetry: a small square of canary yellow sunlight burning on a beige wall just beyond some shrubbery, the rounded roof tiles on the eaves of buildings reminiscent of pagodas, a newly installed set of park benches underneath an overpass.  I remembered a feeling of being drawn to foreign and private spaces;  a secret garden path, a small clearing in a grassy knoll just beyond the highway.  And I was also able to traverse old story ideas and recall their emotional inspiration:  the giddy anticipation of some night time event, the somber desperation of the waning afternoon and the drudgery of the day to day routine, the sudden magic of an uncertain romantic entanglement.  These things, the lifeblood of ideas and stories, and hopes for a life still unwritten.  I've locked these things in my heart for years and struggled to emerge an artist and a craftsmen for having felt these things, and for having discovered the importance and tenderness of these experiences.

Linkydinks of the week:
Make a Good Art, a comic based on Neil Gaiman's speech at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, by Gavin Aung Than @ Zen Pencils
Jordie Bellaire's interview @ Loikamania
The Makey Makey Kickstarter
Celine Choo, Aimee Major, and Betty Breitweiser
Garden Spectre @ Gingerland by Sam Alden
Corey Godbey's Menagerie
Rebecca Mock

I watched both Hulk movies this weekend. They were terrible in their own separate ways. On one hand the Ang Lee one was interesting for its ambitiousness, but it was hopelessly disjointed and dissatisfying. The other one was more on the nose for the superhero genre, but the characters and performances were wooden and it devolved into a dumb ole slug fest. They both start as vaguely interesting movies. I just don't get why people have had such a hard time making a good Hulk film.

I also started sketching a Migret story but it kinda sucks.  I did some Regular Show sketches that also kinda suck.  Next week I'll show you an ink doodle I started that actually does not suck as much.