Saturday, May 17, 2008

Recent pics by Nate that I like

Here's some images from Nate Walkner from the past several days that I really like. Nate is a quite a photographer, as you can see. Click on them to enlarge.
Here's a cool one of Nate's dad, Bill, from outside the shop. I like the curved angles.

This one of Bill I like because Bill's in the middle of talking to the audience. He often has some interesting or humorous intro to his tunes.

Great color and composition in this one of John Will Balsley...plus, with the hair John looks like a young Doc Brown, from Back to the Future.

One of the nicest inside shots of the Stump yet.

Cool outside shot after the gig. The only thing I'd change in this one is that the Stumpjack neon needs to be visible. Shewt, you can see the dentist's sign and he wasn't even there (thanks a lot Jerry!). Might have to do this one over again to get the sign in...but I like the vibe.

A really fine pic of Kim and I...love the lighting and softness of this one. Plus, we both look pretty damn good.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The easy way out.

Blogging advice: When in need of an update but with little time to do anything lengthy one can occasionally turn to the trusty "Top 10" list (or "Top 5" if you're really pressed for time). You don't want to do this too often (unless your blog concept is, in fact, all about Top 10 lists, in which case yeah, it would be a good idea to do Top 10 lists often). In any event, I am short on time today and am thus relying on my own advice with this little cheat. Plus, Top 10's are usually fun and kind of interesting (and if the one you post happens to not be fun or interesting you still come out ahead because they're generally so brief that people forget about how not fun or not interesting they were as soon as they leave your blog). Actually, I just thought of another good bit of blogging advice (I know it's good advice because I'm going to start doing it from now on): Do a Top 10 or Top 5 list once a week, on the same day each week. What a great idea! (I'm sure some blogging expert somewhere has said the same thing before I just thought of it, but so what! It's coming from me now, so you know it's sound wisdom).


Today's TOP 5 (because I am, in fact, pressed for time):

My Top 5 List of Things that Lately Crack Me Up


1.The butts on Tina Kugler's self portraits. They're all monstrously big and gelatinous and dimply and totally hilarious. This morning Kim looked at
Tina's latest drawing of herself on her illustration site (Tina Kugler Illustration) and was giggling, I swear, for 20 minutes. But if you want to take the full-on $3 tour of big buttdom you need to go to her post-it theatre site (The Tina Show), where the drawings appear more spontaneous, urgent and frenzied.

2. Flight of the Conchords. Google and find any YouTube video of these guys and you'll end up "wasting" at least an hour watching every short video of them on the list. "When I'm down to my socks you know it's time for business... They're business socks..." Have to thank my pal, Don, for pointing me to these cats (see Don's own weird stream of consciousness at Mind of Seiler).

3. Our friend Amy doing a slightly drunken impersonation (not that she was giving an impersonation of being slightly drunk, but rather that she was actually slightly drunk when giving the impersonation) of her 5 year old boy, Brady, who, when taking his bath, pretends he is Buzz Lightyear by standing, naked, at the edge of the bathtub, arms extended like Superman, and shouts a misunderstood version of Buzz's tagline as only children can misunderstand things, before jumping into the bath water. In Brady's translation, Buzz's "To infinity...and beyond!" has become "Into me! And beyond!"

The other night we went out with Amy and Adam, and Brady's pre-launch pose and declaration became Amy's repeated battlecry with each succeeding chocolate martini.

4.
Steve Wolfhard's Monstro-Draw! journal. Wolfhard's drawing is great and his sense of humor is on precisely the same wavelength as my own. Great stuff.

5.
Graham Roumieu's Bigfoot books:
Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir and In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot. Saw these at B&N on Sunday and had to share with my daughters while in the store. We were all laughing so hard that we made a scene and I think one of us might have pee'd her pants a little. The funniest books I've seen in some time...do yourself a favor and see if your library has copies. Just don't read them while actually in the library or they may ask you to leave for making too much noise.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The best comic book super hero movie ever?

Ok, we just got back from seeing Iron Man! If this isn't the best comic book super hero movie ever it's pretty close. My daughter Jesse looked at me after the show and said very matter-of-factly, "This is now my favorite movie." Of course all the girls (Kim, Cheyenne and Jesse) thought Robert Downey was "hot" in the film...fine, I'll even agree with that, but Jeff Bridges looked strikingly gnarly as bad guy Obadiah Stane (Is there any character Bridges does not play extremely well? No, there's not).

The comic book Obadiah Stane and Jeff Bridges

So the question is, is Iron Man the best comics superhero film ever? I hear that they're prepping for the sequel, as well as movie plans for the Thor, Captain America and The Avengers.