Going Deep...Again

Some strange things have occurred as of late. By this I am referring to my artistic pursuits. For as long as I had been making art (a good chunk of my life), I had been pooped on by various instructors and developed a pretty good sized inferiority complex regarding my work, themes, and general abilities. Not that I have over come all of that stuff, even though it's easy to say "hey get over it". BUT a few months ago, I passed with flying colors my Midpoint Presentation; which is me pitching my thesis to a panel of instructors. Then I entered a shit ton of prints and one of my books into the spring show. None of my prints got in and I was super bummed (only like 3 people got a total of 8 pieces in which was fucked up if you ask me), but my book got in! Not only did it get in, but I won my category and got a nice prize for it as well.

Fast forward about 1 month later...

I display my work on a ton of internet sites, some you can buy reproductions others the originals (if anyone who reads this is interested feel free to inquire!) Well, low and behold I am at work and I get a notification that someone bought one of my pieces as a greeting card. That blew my god damn mind! Granted I got like no money from it, but still. A few weeks later, I get a notification that someone was (and might still be) interested in acquiring some of my work. That was awesome as well.
The most recent event occurred when I again signed up for some site to display my work. I had to have my work/profile approved and I hadn't heard back for a few days. Out of the blue I get a phone call from the woman (who was super cool) runs the organization; she tells me how much she loves my work and offers me to be in a show. That again, was super awesome!
I could be jinxing myself here, but to me it feels like I have turned a corner almost. I'm getting respect from peers, and those above me regarding my work. It's a great feeling and it makes me want to bigger and better pieces; prints and books.

P.S. This is like the one time a year I go serious and deep with this blog. For reals, cause this is One Terrible Blog after all.

Stay tuned for more terribleness...

Going Deep?

It's not often that I find a book, movie, song, or piece of art that "speaks" to me. I don't know why, maybe I'm just not one of those people. But not too long ago (again, as usual, as of me writing this) I read a book for a class called If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, by Italo Calvino and experienced this. By the way it is a very....um...interesting story.
I think the reason why this happened was because of the fact that he wrote large chunks of it in the second person narrative. The section in question is one where he states "...you don't reread books, you can't. You commit them to memory and they become associated with events in your life..." That is totally me in a nut shell! Of all the books I own I have reread maybe, maybe three of them (Suck It Wonder Woman, 13 Bullets, and The Great Gatsby), yet I can recall most of what happens in the books even if it has been years since I read it; the same goes for music. I can go months sometimes years without playing a song then suddenly decide to play it, and without pulling out the sheet music, I can play it nearly flawlessly within three tries!
Anyways about the other part of that statement, I tend to associate what I read with where I was, who I was with, what was going on in my life at the time. For example (and don't judge me here) Jose Canseco's second book, Vindicated, I got that when I first moved to San Francisco in July 2009. I remember who I got it with (my fiance), where I got it from (Books Inc. in the marina), where I was living at, what I was doing, where I finished it, what I did the day I finished it, etc... It's like this with most books I read.
It's not that I don't want to reread them, I flirt with the idea all the time. It's just that when I want to, they get buried in the depth chart of my reading list. And I'm one of those people who doesn't like to read multiple books at the same time. It's not a focus thing, because I think people who say that are full of shit, it's more a case of me giving the book my full attention.
So I guess the lesson here is to read a book in the second person and see if it "speaks" to you. By the way in case you stumble upon this and do not know the differences of the P.O.V.'s here they are: 1st (me, I) 2nd (you) 3rd (he,she).

...also this switched between 1st and 2nd P.O.V.

Books from My Childhood Part II

...and now, for another exciting installment in this thing I wrote a few weeks ago...part II!

Boogity Boo you little bastard!

So in the first installment of Books From My Childhood, I looked at the Boxcar Children and all the messed up things in that train car of crazy. Now, I'll examine one set of books I LOVED as a kid, until they got ridiculously stupid; Goosebumps.

First off, my very first one that I got was Say Cheese and Die, scared the shit out of me. Actually all the early ones did. Maybe R.L. Stein was like a kids version of Stephen King? But those books scared the shit out of me. I mean who would write stuff like that for a kid? Books about cameras that will show your death, parents who turn into crazy plant scientists, dummy's that come to life in the middle of the god damn night, or Halloween masks that become part of your face?! Seriously what the shit? Probably what was more messed up was the fact that I was in a stupid competition with kids in my class to see who could read as many of this child sized versions of It as fast as they could without getting admitting how much of a puss you were. Another messed up one was the classic Attack of the Mutant. That god damn book made me not want to read comics, for fear of becoming made of ink.
 But then all of a sudden something happened with this books, they jumped the shark (that would have been a crazy one!). Every kid in Murrica started to read them, they became super popular to the point where one was coming out like every month! They started making "chose your own adventure" books. But probably the most damning thing was that TV show. It took the scare right out because of the shitty acting and props. I guess they were going for a children's version of Tales From the Crypt (good idea?). I guess as these things became more popular R.L. Stein started to make them less scary to rake in the dough. I mean seriously, how many Night of the Living Dummy's did he write? 15? 59?
Looking back on those books now, it makes you wonder; "why did my parents let me read this shit?".

Cracker Ass White Bread Honkies

I'm not going to lie. I'm as white as the day is long, always have been. What does that have to do with anything? Well, I started to read an excellent book called Whiter Shades of Pale by Christian Lander (I know it's the second book, I have the first one coming) and in it he points out the "finer" points of us crackers. I always thought that white people were some of the dumbest people and this book reaffirms it. I would have to say that since I moved to San Francisco, every type of white person, trait, and interest I have spotted. From the obscene love of Trader Joes, camping, Whole Foods, trivia,  the World Cup, etc... it's here. I certainly have seen it in every teacher I had in Graphic Design along with almost everyone I knew from that department, and it has definitely carried over to Printmaking. It's not as bad where I come from but it's there. I think that white people as a whole are douches and we love to be smug, elitist, or ironic. Need proof? How many people do you see wearing v neck shirts, skinny jeans, or listening to shitty music?
So if anyone I know reads this, it's not that I think you're a tool, it's just that you are a caricature of a person. You live to be hip and "cutting edge" instead of an individual. And no by listening to an album by some shitty band who recorded it in their basement using a $50 keyboard doesn't make you an individual, or buying clothes at the thrift store, or wearing douchey Italian leather shoes. It just makes a fake person and one who is described to a T in Christian Landers books. So CHEERS! (that folks is intended irony)

Brains, Brains, Brains!!!!!

This post is more of a me thinking out loud (on a blog, otherwise this would sound crazy) so just go with me on this one. So...I love zombies. Movies, books, whatever; I find them fascinating. I like the various takes that authors can have with it. You can focus on the survival aspects of it or the overwhelming numbers you'd face, and the list just goes on and on. There is one thing that puzzles me though: how the fuck are they alive if they are dead? I mean seriously. Can someone explain that to me. Because the thought is that a virus or whatever element the author chooses, brings them back to "life"; that's fine, I get it. But without trying to get to sciencey here and breaking out my internet PHD (coughs), from what I gather is that your brain controls everything in your body. It tells you when to breathe, move the joint in your pinky, or when to fart. So you die and everything is shutdown never to come back. But a zombie is able to reanimate and do everything a living person can do. How the hell does that work? If the central piece of equipment needed to live is turned off, how can you eat, stumble, or move your hands? I mean yeah it's fiction, and just like vampires every author has their own interpretation (which is good), but that little piece has always made me think.


P.S. Sunlight was never fatal to vampires until Nosferatu; again they took creative liberties, since it was an illegal version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. In that book it, just annoyed him.

Are You Ready To Read? I Said Are You Ready To Read?!

In 2001, an excellent book about excess came out, that book was called The Dirt. To say the least it was crazy. Much like anything that is successful, it spawned other books similar to it. Like when Metallica did S&M and everyone and their mom made a "symphonic rock album", or when Survivor became a hit it spawned "reality TV" (these are GAME SHOWS!, that's a different story), or how Toy Story became popular and other 3-D films were released; okay that's enough examples. ANYWAYS, it lead to more rock stars than you can shake a cocaine covered stick at "writing" their autobiographies. Here is a short list that have been release since The Dirt came out in 2001:

Kiss and Make Up - Gene Simmons
The Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx
This Is Gonna Hurt - Nikki Sixx
Tommyland - Tommy Lee
Clapton - Eric Clapton
Slash - Slash
Tattoos & Tequila - Vince Neil
Mustaine - Dave Mustaine
My Appetite For Destruction - Steven Adler
Life - Keith Richards

Obviously this is not all of them, I mean Bobby Blotzer from Ratt wrote one, Steven Adler's mom wrote one (for reals?), Steven Tyler is writing one, Tom Hamilton is writing one, Duff McKagen is writing one, and I've heard that Ace Frehley and Peter Criss are both writing one. The real kicker is that they ALL say that "...this isn't going to be about backstage drama; who did what drugs, who slept with who..." yeah and that sitcom Emeril Lagasse had was great. BAM!
Not that I am one to say that people shouldn't do this but for reals, when multiple people in the same band write an autobiography what is the point? Also this is directed to Motley Crue; yes The Dirt came out ten years ago but do we really need FOUR more books from you guys? Half of it is going to be a recap of the main book while you catch us up on recent things and bitch about your band (that's how all of these go btw).
I know I just complained about these things but I do like to read them. They tell me some combination of these things: 1) save your money 2) do drugs in moderation 3) don't get AIDS 4) casually document your life so you can throw people under the bus later and in a public setting.
I guess what I'm saying with all of this is that I love reading! Unless it's brail, that shit is hard. And also I want to check out DLR's book Crazy From the Heat, I heard is awesome!