Note: I wrote this for my Grandfather (Bampa) for Christmas to go with a photo of our growing family.
I never had much use for math.
Numbers tell you one thing today
That’s entirely different tomorrow.
I used to believe one minus one equaled zero
But then we lost someone dear to us
And here we are,
at minus one.
When my wife and I met,
It was as two halves of the same whole
And together we became one
Following that math, adding one more
Should have made us two, or maybe three
but it didn’t.
It made us infinite.
Time marches past us, individually
But no matter how fast the hands run,
They can never out lap us as a unit.
Forever is in the palm
Of her tiny outstretched hands
As she reaches for stars
that are already hers.
If a picture speaks a thousand words…
…Then this one is an encyclopedia series on mental health issues.
I’m tired of yelling at people. You want to know why what George Lucas is doing to the original Star Wars trilogy is un-fucking-acceptable? I give up. Here.
Imagine telling someone you admire the Mona Lisa and this is what they see.
It’s just a movie, Brian! Sure, it’s just a movie that was adored by millions everywhere and was part of our shared cultural heritage on this planet earth. On that note the Mona Lisa is just a painting and the Bible is just a book. A good book… but a book nonetheless.
On a side note Mona Snooki is kinda smokin’.
We went for a stroll with Maya and it turned into one of the most adorkable videos I’ve ever cut. I used to love this Amuro Namie song when I was a younger man… but it was always missing something. Suffice to say, I’ve fixed it with the addition of Maya.
The Stewarts at Yanticaw Park from F is for Film on Vimeo.
This will be fantastic material to embarrass her with when she’s twenty.
Your life isn’t complete… but it could be. My childhood friend, Derek Mayhew, has that thing you need. You may not have known that you need it but trust me you do. Wood solves and heals all. Derek’s always been artistically inclined but I never saw much of his work outside of some carpentry work he did building a bar and a dragon he painted when we were teens. That all changed today when he sent me the link to his new website for his Turned Wood Sculpture.
I am awestruck.
That is way better than a dragon. If you know of anyone carrying around heavy money bags that they’d like to lighten, these beauts are a steal at hundreds of dollars. Seriously, tell the people whose feet you are the stool of, like I’m doing.
My friend Megan Crispini recently started a flickr page for her photographs
I know the temptation is to be a jaded asshole and say, “I’ve seen enough pretty pictures, thank you,” but I like Megan’s compositions and her excitement behind the camera translates into her work. I especially like the above photo. It’s like the beautiful blue sky is locked in the reflection.
Self reflection doesn’t cut it.
We look at ourselves in the mirror every day and we’re none the wiser come bedtime. If anything staring at yourself only leads you to doubt and/or cherish everything about your life. It’s too much. It’s too broad and it avoids confrontation. The problem with reflection is that the process can only show us what we bring to it. When I’m feeling vain, I see my face aging. When I’m feeling slighted at work, I will see the reflection of a victim.
That’s not helpful and it leads to “venting” and “self pity.”
Our goal should be to see ourselves for who we are in that moment, and in that context. From both the best seats in the house and from the cheap seats in the nosebleeds.
(more…)
I recently made a card for my boss Al’s birthday in which I drew a poor man’s Bugs Bunny. I had such a good time doing it that I figured I would explore the realms of bunny art further. Perhaps mine its depths of bunny treasure and leave a slurry of badly drawn rabbits in my wake. The result is this lyrics card for Cocco’s Raining. I decided to illustrate the part of the song where she sings, “with my hair gone, next I tried cutting my arms. I cut until I couldn’t cut any more. Feeling the warmth, I danced with bloodied arms.”
I started with a pen drawing (Bic!) I scanned it into the computer and opened it in Photoshop.
Next I began painting it using a graphics tab and wet media brushes of varying opacity. 40% was my go to number.
Following that I did the shading and detail, by using the same color and adding a second layer of paint.
Then I added blood. At first I had a lot of it swirling all around her but it was indelicate and took away from the prettiness so I settled for one wide arc. Perhaps if I had the patience for more fine lines I might consider the original idea.
Finally, I added the lyrics with anything blood related in red and I did a kind of paper sliding door thing with the background. Almost as if our bunny girl is dancing away from the bright sun in that moment and into the darkness.
