Austin Realities

This move is a lot different than the move to California. I feel like I have a long tale to tell, not a tall tell, just a lengthy discussion, and as is typical, I was about to let that get in the way of blogging. I'm such a control freak/perfectionist in that regard, thinking everything has to be staged and timed and calculated perfectly for maximum effect. So I end up procrastinating.

But instead of attempting to tell the lengthy tale and thereby not telling it, I'll just shut up and write.

Today my sofa and coffee table arrived. Yesterday I went on an all-out sofa hunt, determined not to leave some furniture store in Austin unless a sofa of some type, preferably one I loved, was going to be on the way for delivery soon. So I went to a place called Urban Living, very nice store, lots of sofa options, and it was also in a strip mall with four or so other furniture places. I checked out Urban Living for a while, and settled on a couple of couch ideas there, then went to another place and found another option (though the supposed selling feature of "any fabric you want on this sofa--in 5 to 6 weeks" was never going to work considering my determination to get one by this week).

Before I made the final choice I decided I'd drive to a place called motif furniture, which is off of I-35 just a little north of the San Marcus factory outlets. I'd been there once before and had a particular couch fixed in my head, and maybe even a coffee table. So I thought, since it was a mission, I'd use the gas and see about it once more. I checked out the couch again, and really liked it again, pulled out my paint chips (based on the colors of purple sage in bloom) and wouldn't you know it, this couch fit nicely with the two greens I had on hand. It seemed to be a sign. Plus I went to check out the coffee table, and I think I love it as much or almost more than the couch now that I get to live with them. At first it looked like that coffee table might not be in stock for delivery with the sofa, which was (yay!) available for next day delivery. But Stephen the co-manager pulled some strings and made it happen so I bought the couch and table, and indeed as you might guess, they are sitting out in the living room right now, just begging to be accessorized!

The sofa is both modern and mid-century to me, with a textured fabric I just love. The table is very modern but also a bit zen. (The photo kind of creates an optical illusion, as the table's not just a piece of wood on the floor, but has an edge and a base, though it is low to the ground, which I loved about it, even if it might cause me to trip should I be making cross-room jaunts in the middle of the night.)

Which brings us to why this move is different than LA. Well, lots of reasons, one being that I have signed a year lease, and won't be subject to and admittedly untethered by the whims of a lipstick lesbian whose pit bull tendencies exceed the dear Gov. Sarah Palin, even if both are really just that yapping shitzu you want to kick quiet but are too genteel to do so.

Oh man, I really just wrote that, and I mean it, haha.

Also I'm in full "urban outfitter" mode (not just that store, mind you, but you better believe it's well represented in my bedroom!). In just under a month I have almost finished the bedroom, (including paint and a West Elm platform bed), the dining area, part of the "red room" (my creative and computing space) and now I have the couch and table. Since I just unpacked my surround sound system and TV (and thus the definite need for a couch) I'm pretty close to having the major stuff taken care of, and now I can focus on the little details that will make my corner of Austin space my home, until I find a house and really settle down, and yeah, that's the plan.

Look!

Wow, February 1st 2008 seems like another world, another place, another lifetime. Well, it was another place, seemed like a different world, and might as well have been another lifetime. Sometimes, especially in my life, getting to point B involves going through point C first, which maybe I thought was point B, but was indeed point C, and thus life moves in that non-linear fashion of which I am so fond.



It's September 28, 2008, and I am no longer in Los Angeles, California. I left there on May 2, 2008 and had been marking time in Midland for a while, regrouping. Those closest to me know this already. It's a long story, which starts where that trip out West begins, and ends with someone who looks a lot like Dr. Zaius. At least, I'll give him credit as the final straw, such as that cliche goes. To read through this blog, at least the LA part, is probably to realize that there was a downhill trajectory most of the way. Too much rain, not enough sun, to chilly for me, that's not sea mist over the ocean it's smog, no one says hello, oh yes and there were a few atomic lipstick bomb droppings along the way--well they all conspired to make me unhappy in LA. I do love the beach, still, but the trade off is not worth it, being too far from family and even, dare I say it, yes I do, Texas. For, though I might try to be something else for a while, I readily admit now, I am a Texan. I am, of course, a Blue Texan. I think there are more of us than maybe we think, just not in Midland.



I think that, therefore, I am in Austin, Texas.



Weird? Haha.



More later.

Contest

So I left it up all through January. I got a whopping one reply from Becky, which I greatly appreciate. Looks like I'll just load up a bunch of goodies to send her way.

Saints and Stars

Well, I thought I'd try something different with a new contest, given all the newness rampant this time of "year." This contest will require little effort, not a great deal of artistic skill really, no drawing or anything other than contemplation and maybe a little research.

So, since I'm in Los Angeles, and Hollywood is just a 20 minute or so drive away from where I'm at right now, I thought the new contest would involve Saints and Stars. Thus your task, should you choose to accept it, is simple: come up with a star whose voice or something about them you think would match any of the Super Saints or Infidels.

(We'll leave the Balloteers out, because I don't like them enough, given their subject matter.)

If you want to get creative and use the Left Wing Liberators, then you should come up with 40s and 50s stars to voice them, they need not be alive. But, for the Saints and Infidels, they should be living stars. Don't know the Saints or Infidels well enough to make a match? Well, go here and find out:

League of Super Saints and Infidels Inc.
Index

There are no real rules, and you can post as many stars with characters as you like. Each separate star/character combo you post will enter you in a random drawing I will conduct. The prize will be something cool, and if you're unsure what that might be like, just ask the Halloween 2007 contest winners.

I'll start off with one of my own, the very leader of the League of Super Saints...

Saint Catherine of Siena...Emma Thompson

Ok, easy enough, right? Post 'em in the comments section, and the deadline will be the end of January. Plenty of time for you to think of a few suggestions.

FINE TUNING EDITS: Ok, if you read the suggestions and someone already posted a character you wanted to use, don't worry, post your ideas. Even if they are/were the same. I'm just interested in seeing how people perceive a character and which voices they think would go with them, so for example, if you had an idea for St. Catherine of Siena go ahead and post that idea.

You can post once or many times, too, with a long list or just one at a time over numerous comments.

The Flea

Not saying what it's for, I'll show it eventually, but I spent a large part of today designing a "cartoonish" yet still gross, but kind of cute, but not, flea.

Usually I'd sketch first, then use Trace to make it a vector in CorelDraw, but for some reason this time I just executed the whole thing on the computer. He/She/It, and where I put He/She/It, reminds me of John Donne.

Gatchaman and Battle of the Planets

I have been on a nostalgia trip for the past few days. Blame it, partially on YouTube, but largely on my incessant memory.

When I was a kid I used to love watching the old Looney Tunes cartoons that came on at around 2:30 or 3:30. Maybe 4:30. I can't remember if they were after school, or if I wasn't in school yet. In any event, one day they replaced Porky and gang (well, Bugs and gang, but Porky Pig was my favorite back then) with something I had never heard of. Starblazers. Where, I thought, are my regular cartoons?

But, I got hooked on Starblazers. It was Japanese Animation, early anime, taken and "softened" for American kids, and obviously dubbed in English. The dubbing and editing allowed the "softened" tone. Still, it was really interesting, Space Opera type stuff.



That opening sort of sums up the subject of the show. Earth was doomed if the crew of the Argo didn't finish its mission in a year, to stop the Gamilon Empire, which had been bombarding Earth with radioactive meteors, which had decimated the surface of Earth and forced humans to live underground. Pretty heavy stuff for a kid. Never mind that they sanitized some aspects...revenge, etc.,...and that the Argo was originally named Yamato, after the WWII Japanese warship.

Here's the opening and another brief summation of the show, the original Space Battleship Yamato subtitled, and an introduction to Leader Desslok (or Desler here, it's confusing). He's a complicated character. By U.S. "W" standards he should be pure evil, dark as night. But he seems to have an odd honor code, and a refreshing lack of appreciation for vulgarity. What? On a world where everything is black and white?



The Argo had a Wave Motion Cannon, which, if it could get in range, would decimate most things in its path. This video on YouTube demonstrates:



"...we used too much power...such power is a great responsibility."

I have no way of knowing if those sentiments were changed or not. Certainly interesting to think about in light of the Atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and still definitely part of any US policy discussion currently. I often think it goes like this...we drop the bombs on Japan, they develop Godzilla, anime and some really amazing toys. But a lot of this stuff, if not most, I think directly deals with the psychology of what happened. For a more "adult" account of this idea, watch Akira Kurasawa's Dreams.

So I'm digressing from childhood, though perhaps not, since I remember as a child, for some period of time, thinking every low flying plane was the end of the world. I am, after all, the generation of The Day After and, more horrifying though thank God, seriously, I never watched the whole thing as a kid, Threads.

Anyhow...Wave Motion Gun...very powerful. Leader Desslok was the blue skinned megalomaniac (seemingly) in charge of the forces trying to obliterate Earth. He was terribly dramatic, partly, I'm sure, his voiceover, but also his personality. But apparently (and I don't remember this) there was a legitimate reason the Gamilon Empire did what it did.

After the Gamilon business, there was a Comet Empire for the Earth and the Argo to battle. Seems like the trouble never ended. Also the show had a Star Queen/Princess type, Trelena, who was mysterious and mystical. I don't remember all this stuff, but I'm sure it would be acceptable to use Wikipedia to find out. Fans of comics, anime, etc., are usually more diligent about making sure information is correct there than those who patrol the "real world" stuff.

Another show I loved got the same treatment, or actually, a little worse treatment. Battle of the Planets was originally Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, another bit of anime scaled down and toned down for American kiddos. Basically the American producers made cuts and added new animation with a dorky R2-D2 rip off, to assure viewers that, despite huge blasts, lots of razor sharp objects and guns, and even cities decimated, NO ONE was harmed.



To further confuse things, in the 90s (I think) the program was re-re-done, as G-Force, and 7-Zark-7 was removed. While the tone of the original Gatchaman was apparently restored, the dumb names, bad dubbing, and droning music really weren't appealing (at least to me). It was only a few years ago that I even found out all this remake stuff had been done, and I bought a couple of Rhino releases with the original Gatchaman and the Battle of the Planets, so I could compare. (Also had G-Force, but I never bothered to watch that). Here's the original Gatchaman opening, with a really catchy theme song!



From the couple of episodes I watched, basically the changes were lots of deaths; mass destruction; the fact that this stuff was all happening on a very Earth-like place; the kid was a kid and not a speech impaired robot; the bad guys really didn't care about anyone's life, not even little kids; and assorted other such things. Also apparently the original series had episodes dealing with some dark aspects of Condor Joe and the fact that Zoltar was transgender, or switched gender. I do remember a hint of that in the American version, because he (or she) was unmasked and looked very feminine, at least as far as the long blond hair revealed, I don't think we ever saw his or her face.

What this is all about, if I have a point other than having fun with my memory, is, aren't we all glad we were protected from complex themes and violence like that as kids? Nothing bad ever happens in the world, so why reflect that in your art or entertainment? I just find it slightly amusing or maybe a little scary. It reminds me of my art, always trying to find that innocent peace of childhood and realizing it didn't exactly exist like that.

Meanwhile...I ordered a large number of the Gatchaman original series with subtitles and redubs, to watch and research. Eventually I hope to have the whole series...it was a big part of my childhood, because if we weren't doing Logan's Run or Star Wars, we were playing Battle of the Planets. Transmute!

Memory Stick Purge

I have about 6 months of photos on my memory stick right now, so, I thought I'd go through and post some of the random images while I decide which ones I'm keeping and which I don't need. Appropriately enough, given my last post, they start from the most recent and travel backwards.

Here is the computer desk I finally bought from IKEA, after stalking them for a couple of weeks. That's how I tend to make purchases, and while this wasn't a high end purchase (in fact, for the most part, I love IKEA for that reason) it still takes up room. I was sold on the fact that the white space was magnetic and is a dry erase board. So I have Saint stuff, in various planning stages, posted there.

Here's the first birthday gift I've given someone in Los Angeles. Pretty neat little package, huh? (not talking about Saint Sebastian!). It was well received...more on those developments later. ;) I printed the paper by using my Saint and Sinner symbols, from their monitor board and seen on their info cards on my website.

Here's Benny snoozing on my bed one afternoon. He's such a cute little dog, he really sometimes reminds me of Shaz, our first "dog" but really first adopted four legged furry family member. He particularly reminds me of her when he looks at me and remains immobile if I ask him to move. He loves the warmth and tracks the sunlight across the bed all the day. If I open the garage door, he gets very excited and basks in that sun as much as he can. But then again, so do I.
I took this picture as proof that iTunes offered this Cher song as a ringtone (hmm...there's a theme with Cher and songs going here), even though it disappeared when I bought it. Rather silly of me--I could have printed the screen I guess, but I was just mad because of the whole ringtones debacle. This image doesn't even prove my point, but it does go to my mental state, your honor.

Finally, this wasn't a photo, but I had put the file on the memory stick for some reason. It's a Joker card I made with Jack, which is a pun on his origin, since he was to be a totally insane character like the Joker, but, putting a homicidal madman in Infidels Inc. was antithetical to the overall arc, since no one member was or would be a "big time" villain. His name was always Jack though, and if he ended up more Virginia Woolf than Red Hood, it was a far better thing I had done. Haha.