Okay, I don’t write about much.  and I certainly don’t write about music a whole lot. But here we go.  I saw a great parody video this morning called “Take a Nerdy Picture“, which is a spoof of a Taio Cruz track called “Dirty Picture” that features Kesha on vocals.

Great video, very funny, and boobs everywhere (disclaimer and actual plot point: I like boobs).  While listening though, I thought to myself “Hey, I recognize this bassline, don’t I?”  So I took a trip down Grooveshark lane to find the original to see if it had the same thumping bassline.  Sure enough, yeah, there it was.  It took me a second, but I remembered where I had heard it before.  Never one to let a wrong go unnoticed, I dug a little deeper.  The Wikipedia article on Mr. Cruz’s “Dirty Picture” had this to say about the bassline that I recognized:

Cruz described the creation of the song in an interview: “Funnily enough, it came outta nowhere really. I basically just wanted to create a song that had a fun, electro-sounding beat. So I started producing a track with Fraser T. Smith, and it came out with this really cool, dirty bass-line.”

Really, Taio?  Just sorta, pooped popped out of a random orifice, did it?  Maybe it was more of a regurgitation than an epiphany:  the bassline is originally from a great Benny Benassi track called “Satisfaction“.

And I’m not the only one who’s noticed, either.  Check out the 5th and 6th paragraph.

Anyway, The Benny Benassi song is the clearly superior track here.  Those of you who’ve stuck with me so far, here’s the high point of this story’s plot arc:  “Satisfaction” also has some mind-boggling boobs.

Now, if only I could figure out how I managed to remember that Benny Benassi song so easily.

a while back i designed my own marquee for my MAME cabinet at home.  i really liked the design, and for my birthday this year, i had it printed up and shipped to me.  it arrived in the mail today, and it looks glorious.  i mean, wow.  i wish you could see it.  i guess i could take a picture.

oh wait, i did.

it’s a picture of the giant, sad crack in the plexiglas all the way across the corner.  i emailed this pathetic picture to the printers and i hope desperately that they’ll be able to help me out.  it’s a sad thing to have happened.  and i waited so patiently!  oh well.

at least we all can rest assured that the effectiveness of “FRAGILE: DO NOT BEND” labels hasn’t changed dramatically in the past 235 years.

edit:  the marquee image.

i’m drawing more.  i went to ICON6 this past week, and man, that was crazy.  i went on the advice of a good friend, and it was very educational.  probably in ways that the board of directors hadn’t even intended.  i drew more in those 4 days than i had in weeks.  probably longer.  i learned that i probably don’t want to do commercial illustration — i already have a job that isn’t too dissimilar.  i learned that instead, telling stories is what i want to do.  i also learned that i’m afraid of not having any.

most importantly, i accidentally let go of my fear and wound up drawing people as they talked on stage.  drawing likenesses has always been a hang-up for me.  it feels good to have overcome that.

so i’ve been working with sara on some ideas for a book collaboration, where she would write and i would illustrate.  i’ve turned to my folklore resources for inspiration on certain aspects (yes, i’m being deliberately vague about the project, as it is itself quite ephemeral), and in my research, i have come across some weird-ass folk tales.

and now i hear that 24-hour comic day approacheth.  this saturday, in fact.  on my way back to work from lunch today, it struck me that one tale in particular would make an amazing and humorous translation to comic form.  i won’t reveal much, but in one part, the Virgin Mary herself is stealing babies.  i don’t think it gets much better than that.

and this weekend, it could be translated to a comic in no less than twenty four hours.  mind you, i’m harboring no illusions about the quality of the work that would be produced in such a compressed time frame, but the idea of it is tantalizing.  almost palpable.

so.

i was going to brew a new batch of beer, but now i’m waffling — do i continue with my original plan, or do i knuckle down and draw?  i guess we’ll just have to see what happens.

Yeah, I dunno neither. Some of the guys on the drawing board are kuh-ray-zee. But anyway, I decided to go along with the ‘cows’ part. I swear, I tried to fit ‘legible’ in there any way I could, but aside from drawing the cow with words instead of lines, I came up with nuthin’. So this is what you get from me. For more legible cows, you should hit The Drawing Board. Would you believe me if I told you I hit up a tutorial on anime eyes in order to get an idea of how to give the cow eyes a little more life? For reals. It helped, though, which is all good. Enjoy!

and i’m starting to get my confidence back. i even joined a ‘drawing board’, where some co-workers and i pick a new topic every week and everyone waits until the night before it’s due to draw anything. the site is called, strangely enough, the drawing board, and while it’s not quite the at the same level as some of the guys at drawergeeks, we do more topics (once a week instead of once every two weeks). anyway. this week’s topic was ‘my favorite fat superhero’, and i’m glad i did it (i missed out last week). here’s my result, and make sure that once you get to the gallery, you click on the image to see the full(er) sized version. the small one doesn’t do justice to the inking, if i may say so myself. :)

yeah, there’s been a lull. i don’t post as often as i used to. mostly because i haven’t had anything to impart. that, and it’s been pretty busy here at work. i’m involved on the R&D team for the work we’re doing on an unnamed movie, and that’s taken up a LOT of my time. i’ve moved to a bigger and better office, though, and that’s nice. i likes a bigger space fo’ sho. the sad thing is that my MAME cabinet got the axe, and i had to take it home with me. on the downside, there’s a lot of people who played on it that are sad because now they’ve got to do something else on late nights or during lunch. it was a fun service to provide for people, and it wasn’t distracting (we had pretty strict rules about use in order to keep from bothering people nearby). on the upside, i have a nice MAME cabinet in my apartment now, that i can play on whenever the hell i feel like it. :)

also, i’ve been teaching myself some php and mysql, which has been challenging but very rewarding. it’s for my own project for myself and some friends, so it’s nothing huge, but it’s a good experiment. speaking of my friends, i’ve made a bunch of new ones. i’m going to be an enforcer for PAX’07 this coming august, and i’ve been chatting a lot with other enforcers, both new and veteran. they’re a great bunch of people, and i’m stoked about volunteering at yet another awesome convention.

i’ve still been drawing, but not as often. the drawing level has dropped since i’ve been involved in this more technical project, but once it’s done, i expect the pendulum to swing the other way again. i’ve read scott mccloud’s books and i bought myself a giant awesome volume of facial expressions (one of my weaknesses), and i’m excited about drawing more soon. maybe when i scan in some of this fun stuff i’ll share it up.

thanks for listening/reading.

nuthin’ to see here, folks.  sara didn’t write nuthin’ and i didn’t draw nuthin’.  we did, however, manage to save a young girl’s life, twice.  turns out she was an unwitting victim of the man-made GUILT virus *gasp*!  after scrubbing up in post-op, we sat down and watched spiderman, something we hadn’t seen in at least a couple years.  wheee!
yes, we’re playing Trauma Center: Second Opinion on the Wii.  you should be, too!

i plan on (emphasis on ‘plan’) making a larger, more complex drawing over the weekend.  i hope.  wish me luck!

sara’s story about the elephant was awesome.  it turns out to be an idea for a picture book that’s also a mystery.  again, i’m not at liberty to illuminate you, but when it hits the shelves at your local bookstore, i’ll call you and let you know about it.this is a very fast sketch i did for sara this morning.  i was already late for work, and i should have drawn it last night, but i didn’t, and so i was slightly later than already anticipated.  meh.  the scale of the plate of cheese is slightly off, but i like the way this one turned out anyway.  i don’t know how ‘open’ this pic is to interpretation, but i have no doubt that sara will surprise me, as she always does.

sara’s out for the night, and you’d think i’d be playing zelda. but NO, my brain wants to draw something. *sigh*.so i thought about sara’s second line that she had given me:

Sometimes she’d remember her old life and she’d forget to smile.

and i knew i wanted to try my hand at a more detailed face. this sketch (maybe an hour or so?) is the result. a friend had lent me his old ‘mode drawing’ books, and man, were they helpful. though i drew her arm wrong twice. :)

i’m going to go rescue zelda now.