Merry Unemployment!

To celebrate the Christmas season as well as my first day of joblessness, I present to you this little ditty!

God Rest Ye Merry Gentledudes by wheresboo

Another Insider Analogy

Say you had an evil stepmother who offered you chocolate cake and you were really excited because everyone loves chocolate cake, but then it turned out to be sugar free chocolate cake made in 1993 and she forced you to eat it for twelve to thirteen hours a day for six weeks.

Now say that after the whole ordeal your stepmother tells you that for the last two weeks that you live in her house she wants you to eat more seventeen year old sugar free chocolate cake, but it will be much better because there wont be any pressure and you can eat it at your own pace.

Would you eat the cake?
I didn't think so.

Faces of a nameless boy

I stumbled upon some free time last week and used it to push a pencil around and work on some designs for a possible short film. The design ended up evolving out of the style that I was imagining for this particular film idea, but I was still happy with the fact that I was not only drawing, but actually designing something, as opposed to just scribbling random nonsense like I usually do.
What you see here is a cleaned up version of some expressions I originally did in light blue pencil that seemed way more expressive, but were too hard to see when I scanned them. So, while they prove I will never make it as a clean up artist, I was still happy enough with them to show you. And by "You", I guess I mean the three people who read my blog.

This one's for Robbin

I present to you, by special request, The Koala One.
Yes, another sleeping animal, this one done in ball point pen at the San Diego zoo, some time last year.

A Kangaroo

Grey Kangaroo, drawn at the Erie Zoo a few months ago.
Animals are so much easier to draw when they sit still.
Unfortunately that also results in static, boring art.
But boring or not, I still liked this one so I thought I'd share it.

First Impressions of Fifty Gourmet Root Beers

A few years ago I discovered a soda shop close to work that carried a variety of gourmet root beers. After trying three or four varieties I realized that for the most part each one had a unique flavor and I decided to keep a log of my thoughts for each one. This turned into a little game, which turned into a minor quest, which turned into a slight obsession with root beer. The only rule was that it had to come in a bottle, and I decided not to order any online, because that would be too easy. I ended up bringing root beer home from San Clemente, San Luis Obispo, Temecula, Idyllwild, and even Erie PA, and now, three years and fifty bottles later, I present my findings to you.


JACKSON HOLE'S BUCKIN' ROOT BEER: Very sweet, almost a spearmint flavor to it. Sweet like candy, fresh like scope. But not in a weird way, if that's possible.

SPARKY'S: Dark and smokey. Kind of earthy. Hint of mint. Mint and ginger. And cigars.

FAYGO: Very mild flavor, like root beer for beginners. Metallic overtones, reminiscent of blood.

IBC: Very sweet,a lot of licorice, a little cinnamon- a gentleman's root beer. High collars and twisty mustaches.

SIOUX CITY: Pretty standard flavor, maybe a hint of vanilla. Or is that vinegar? For some reason I feel like this one would be a good salad dressing...

GALE'S: Very, very fruity. Kind of sour, almost fermented. Like apple cider made by accident. Not the best flavor, but I give it good marks for not being boring.

BENNETT'S BIG BEAR: This root beer tastes like Styrofoam soaked in pond water.

ABITA: On the bold end of standard. Like, standard plus. Tastes warm for some reason, like if burnt umber was a flavor.

JACK BLACK'S DEAD RED ROOT BEER: Just really good root beer. Hint of black pepper hiding in the back there. Not at all as flashy as the label makes it out to be, but I'd rather it be disappointingly mild but good than frighteningly ruckus and disgusting.

D-N-A: Very, very sweet. If all root beer was supposed to have one dominant flavor, this one would be sugar. They say it's extra vanilla, but it didn't taste to vanilla-y to me, just sugary.

OLD TOWN: Also a very good, but very standard root beer. Advertised to have extra cinnamon but it just tasted like root beer to me. Good root beer, yes, but not the cinnamon-y madness that I would expect from something promoting extra cinnamon.

DOG N SUDS: In a word: Cinnamon. Not ironic until I read the last entry.

HANK'S: Tastes like A&W, looks like MGD.

BOYLAN: Says "sweetened with pure cane sugar" and it tastes like it. Tastes like rock candy.

VIRGIL'S: Puts the root in root beer. Strong flavor, but of what I can't tell. Ingredients say "sugar, herbs and spices." I believe it. I would say "Sugar, Licorice, Red, and Spicy. And Root"

BARREL BROTHERS CREAMY VANILLA: Lives up to it's name. Tastes like the float after you've eaten all the ice cream out. Not sure if it actually qualifies since it's flavored, but oh well.

AMERICANA: Dark? Probably. Woody? Possibly. Very good? Positively.

TRIPLE XXX: Blood. Straight up, carbonated, blood in a bottle. The bottles says "Tastes like root beer used to taste"... Apparently that was when they used to make it out of the hide of
Native Americans.

BULLDOG: Great taste, with a flavor I can't put my finger on. Brown sugar? Yeah. Maybe. Really good anyway.

BUCKIN': Very licorice, but very good.

FRITZ'S: Other than the mysterious flavor of Pepto Bismol, this one's very bland. Sorry, Fritz.

MASON'S: Tastes like nature. Leafy, dusty, but not in a bad way, if that's possible. "Mason's- It's what Big Foot would drink." ... Yeah, maybe not.

BEERGHOFF: Tastes like a really good root beer... after all the ice has melted into it. So close!

WAIALUA: Vanilla and... Curry. Not as bad as it sounds, but still not that good.

BRIAR'S: Pretty average. Tastes like something you pour on a snow cone.

FROSTIE: Standard, I'd say. The only odd flavor that creeps out is kind of a waxiness, like crayons or lipstick. It's subtle though. Like if you hated crayons, you would sense that this root beer was evil. But if you didn't hate crayons, you be like "Hey, there's nothing wrong with this root beer."

SPRECHER: Really good, especially for something called "Rood Beer Soda". There's a really nice hint of honey.

HENRY REINHARD'S: Really nice flavor, once you get through all the foam. Kind of a smokey, crayony aftertaste. Still haven't decided if that's bad.

IRON HORSE: Very sweet and sugary, with a really subtle bite at the end. Tastes just like one of those huge, twisty, lollipops. And the burps taste like bell pepper.

KUTZTOWN: Over all the word that comes to mind is clean. Fresh. Like pine. But the kind in the forest, not the kind you clean wood floors with.

ROOT BEER 101: Traditional, unassuming, and really sweet, but in a nonthreatening way. Comforting even. If root beer was a flashback to childhood, this one would be a soft crib on a warm summer night. And there are fireflies. And a friendly but firm St. Bernard who picks up after me.

ROOT 66 BEER: Good enough. Like the last root beer, this one is also named after a freeway. So to stick with the road of life analogy, this root beer is kind of like third grade. Do you remember third grade? I don't either. Get it?

AJ STEPHANS: Decent. There's a weird flavor that I can only describe as "Valentine's heart candy" and unfortunately for AJ Stephans, I don't like heart candy. Sorry, AJ.

DAD'S: I feel like this is what "classic" root beer tastes like. There's no real outstanding flavor, just sweet. And there's a creaminess to it that's really nice. Yeah, Dad. Yeah.

NATURAL BREW: There's a fruity, almost citrus taste to this one, but it hides behind a really nice, sweet, minty, woodsy kind of taste. The bottle describes it as being "complex" and I'm going to agree. In fact, I'll see its "complex" and raise it a "really good".

PEARSON BROS.: Is good. Sorry, that's all I got.

OLD TOWN ROOTBEER COMPANY: There's an immediate honeyness that's a really nice surprise. The official root beer of the Hundred Acre Wood.

CAPT'N ELI'S: I might say this had a "deep, rich flavour with molasses and licorice overtones", but I won't because it sounds snooty. And anyway, here in America it's spelled "flavor".

RAT BASTARD: The bottle claims it "tastes like a son of a bitch" but to me it just tastes like really good root beer.

BUNDABERG: Surprising ginger flavor with a sweet, almost lemony taste. Tastes more like ginger ale than root beer, actually. A+ for unique flavor, but kind of pushes the boundary of tasting like root beer so it almost feels like cheating.

SEA DOG: Another standard, but good tasting root beer. For some reason I feel like this one would go really well with steak. Or maybe I just want steak...

COOL MOUNTAIN: Flat and anise.

JONES: This one has a really nice sweet, spicy flavor. Like during Christmas time when you put cloves in an apple, but instead of an apple it's a giant one of those little cinnamon candy hearts.

OLDE RHODE ISLAND MOLASSES ROOT BEER: Fruity and dark. The molasses is more subtle than you'd think, and there's almost a cherry flavor to it. If an evil witch in the forest made a brew to lure children with, I think it would taste like this. Note to self- don't accept root beer from strangers in Rhode Island.

JOHN BARLEYCORN: Along with being totally flat, this one tasted like a Ritz cracker soaked in melted popsicle. That's two strikes, Mr. Barleycorn.

FILBERT'S: This one was almost too sweet. It tasted like one of those huge, spiral lollipops, melted down into a syrup and then added to water in a root beer flavored bottle. Like root beer flavored hummingbird food. Do hummingbirds like root beer? I smell an experiment...

RIVER CITY: This one started out with a nice minty zing, but the more I had, the more it tasted like I was drinking toothpaste, until by the end of the bottle I felt like I was going to die from fluoride overdose.

OLDE BROOKLYN: Necco Wafers.

EMPIRE: There's a nice bubbly bite to it, but hardly any flavor at all. Kind of like the Rice Crispies of root beer.

JUDGE WAPNER: There's a nice flavor, with a subtle hint of spearmint as well as something that I want to call fresh sawdust. I know how that sounds, but to me it's a good thing. Yeah. Definitely, definitely a good flavor. Yeah. Uh oh, underwear on the road!!!!

One Year!!!

The Mrs and I celebrated our first anniversary this weekend and it was, as she would say, Super Awesome!  We took Friday off of work spent the weekend in Idyllwild and it was a great time of relaxing and being with my favorite person in the world.  The highlights included:

-Our very own creekside cabin, complete with resident grey squirrel we named Smudge.

-Looking out the window and being about a foot away from two young raccoons who were fighting over crumbs on the porch table (and my poor wife of one year nearly having a heart attack when she realized that they were not way over in the creek where she was looking, but directly in front of her face.)

-A 3.4 earthquake that scared my wife half to death once again, as she lay in bed wondering if raccoons could open screen doors.

-Walking with hand in hand with my wife, surrounded by the smell of rain and redwoods, and the sound of thunder and woodpeckers.

-The best scrambled eggs I've ever had from a little restaurant called Cafe Aroma. 

-Finding a rootbeer that I haven't had yet (Filbert's; not that great) and perfect thrift shop shoes for Jenette to wear at an upcoming costume party.

-Stopping on the way home at the giant dinosaur statues from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  How did I make it to 29 years old and not know that they were so close?

-Spending an uninterrupted 74 hours with the love of my life!  I love you Jenette!  Thank you for an unbelievably great first year of husbandhood.  

Feel Good Film Festival

The Furtissimo premier at Tosti Studios was a big success if you ask me. It was great to see so many friends there and be able to share this project with them. We also made way too many peanutbutter and marshmallow sandwiches. Apparently we should have labeled them because most people thought the marshmallow cream was mayo. Those brave enough to try them were pleasantly surprised.

So what's next, you ask? Well apparently the next step is to show it to a theater full of complete strangers. *gulp*

I'm happy to announce that Furtissimo was not only accepted into the Feel Good Film Festival in Hollywood, but will actually be featured during the opening night ceremony. This means that everyone that comes to the red carpet hooplah to celebrate the opening of the weekend and take pictures of pretty people will all see Furtissimo in an actual theater in actual Hollywood.

I'm officially terrified. This also means the 250 promotional post cards that I had printed out to advertize during the festival are completely obsolete now. Go figure.

Click here for more on the Feel Good Film Festival.

Just so you know...

For whatever reason, Blogger didn't like the attachment on the last post and since I'm a paranoid artist and don't want that to be the only reference people have of my film, I'm reposting the image only, which seems to be less of a problem.

Orange County, meet my film.

After many years of working and waiting, I'm proud to announce the official Orange County premier of my student film, Furtissimo. Click on the image for details and come say hi!

(For some reason Blogger makes the image quality less than satisfactory. The actual film looks a little better than this. At least I like to think it does...)

I did some stuff presents: Stuff.

This is in no way the kind of material I hoped to be sharing with the world via this blog, but it's been over a year since I started the thing and I still haven't done any real art. Sad. Anyway, I drew these at work and figured I'd share them. Like I said, they're not necessarily portfolio material, but I like them for some reason. Enjoy.

Music +Technology = Great Big Smile

I've recently come across a couple of websites that affected me in two ways: they were both absolutely inspiring and also gave me a medium sized amount of reassurance that the internet is not completely full of rot.

The first is Thru-YOU
This is a project by a guy named Kutiman who decided to remix YouTube videos. The idea is simple enough. People have been remixing music for decades, using bits and pieces of other songs, riffs, even live recorded "noise" to create new songs. Kutiman took the next step (which I find simultaneously brilliant and obvious) and looked to the internet for musical ingredients. The outcome is mind blowing in two ways- the first is that the end result of his cutting and pasting is so good. The level of quality that Kutiman achieved through endless assemblage of home videos is unbelievable, in sound quality and listenability. This isn't just a gimmick or some sort of cute, "look what I did with the internet" kind of thing, these are songs that I would actually listen to.
And that leads me to the second way that Thru-YOU blows my mind- even though I would listen to the music in my car or while making dinner, I can't because this is music that must be watched. Each song stands alone as a piece of music, but the beauty of the project is that the music is only half of the fun. The real Thru-YOU experience is seeing exactly where every element that you hear is coming from, and the resulting shock after you realize that the bass is just some guy in his garage, the horn blast is coming from a jr. high band recital and vocals are coming from a young mom on her webcam... with her baby on her lap. Gives me goosebumps every time.

The second discovery is Playing For Change
This project is similar to Thru-YOU in that it unites musicians around the world by involving them all in the same song. The difference is that the musicians know what they're getting themselves into. Playing For Change creators Mark Johnson and Whitney Burditt and their team traveled around the globe to record street musicians performing a set of songs. They then edited the performances together to create a group of songs being sung simultaneously in Israel, Africa, Ireland and many other countries around the world. The resulting sounds and images are as beautiful as the idea behind Playing For Change, that music is the best way to unite the human race. It sounds cheesy, I know. But check it out. Cheese done this well is worth looking into.

Can I ask you an honest question?

Why do children stare at me? Seriously.

My wife says it's because I'm so handsome.
I think it's because of the man boobs.

A Thinly Veiled Metaphor

All my life I've loved golf. I loved it so much that I eventually went to golf school to learn all about the game with hopes to some day be a pro. After graduation I got a job at a small country club, in no way the big leagues, but definitely a step in the right direction. I started out doing paper work and was soon promoted to caddy. This was pretty exciting because it got me out on the green, handling the golf clubs, learning the course and getting advice from rich men on their lunch breaks. But pretty soon I realized that while I was getting a lot of millage on the course, I wasn't actually playing golf and because of this my game was starting to suffer. This wasn't that big a deal since I knew that plenty of people played golf as a hobby. It was probably more relaxing and more fulfilling that way anyway. The problem for me was that after a full day of caddying I had no energy left to work on my own game since my back hurt so much from carrying other peoples clubs around all day.
Now don't get me wrong- I've learned so much about the game of golf from everyone here at the studio, I mean, country club and I know that if I ever get to play again I'll know exactly what kind of club to use in any situation. That's a good thing. And I definitely appreciate the atmosphere and all the friends I've made at this particular club, let alone the fact that I am able to pay the bills because of all this. It's just that some times I feel like my golf game would be better if I worked at a grocery store. That's the part that makes me sad.