I bought some Bic Cristal 1.6mm ball point pens of a few different colors at CVS recently. They are pretty fun to doodle with.
Astronauts
Out of Season
For a while Audrey was going through a lot of vernacular photographs at estate sales and flea markets looking for references for her paintings. I’d sort of dig with her and when I found a photo of non-professional baseball stuff I’d pick it up. I don’t have a ton of these. Just the stuff here.
Experiment 27
I’ve had sometime off work; American Thanksgiving plus a few days of vacation. One of my projects for the break was to record some music. I wanted to work on a multitrack recording. What I’ve got here is still just an experiment and doesn’t achieve the status of song. But, it was fun to work on here and there over the last week.
Bob Pepper
I recently received a copy of Morton Subotnick's album "The Wild Bull" in the mail and was admiring the artwork and reading the information on the back. I noticed that the cover art was created by artist Bob Pepper, and upon looking him up, I realized that he was also the cover artist for several paperback books I own. Additionally, he created the artwork for my all-time favorite board game, Dark Tower, which my family and I played frequently when I was growing up. It's fascinating to realize that I've been surrounded by Bob Pepper's work my entire life without even knowing it. For more information on this topic, please refer to the following link:
Further reading can be found here:
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2007/07/12/the-art-of-bob-pepper/
Work Doodling
Spy Vs Spy
When I was a kid, I used to hang out a lot at my friend Tim's house. His two older brothers had left behind a bunch of cool stuff that Tim had claimed as his own. One of my favorite things that Tim had were these little Spy vs Spy paperbacks. They were so neat! I can't remember exactly how many he had, but I know there were at least a few of them.
Tim and I were really into Get Smart, which had just started airing on Nick-at-Nite. Plus, it seemed like the old James Bond movies were always on cable TV. So, spy stuff was totally our jam. What I loved about Spy vs Spy was the crazy contraptions the spies used to try and outdo each other. It was so funny to see them constantly foiling each other's plans.
At the time, I didn't really understand the references to nuclear destruction and the Cold War. To me, these comics were just cool and funny. I had never even seen an actual Spy vs Spy comic in Mad magazine - I was more of a Cracked magazine fan myself (because Cracked wasn't as popular as Mad). I remember spending hours reading those comics while Tim played Nintendo or messed around on his Amiga.
Over the years, I've managed to collect five of the Spy vs Spy paperbacks for myself. I think there are a few later ones that I'm still missing, but I've been able to find most of them at thrift stores and garage sales.
Rock and Roll Music
I'm not exactly a musical prodigy, but I've always had a soft spot for playing music. Back in high school, I was part of a few bands, but it's been a while since I've played in one. Sometimes, though, I still daydream about putting up an ad on Craigslist.
I'm in my mid-30s, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm a terrible guitar player. So, if you're an equally terrible bass player or drummer, let's start a band! Bonus points if you're into the Ramones, power chords, and don't like to play too late, since I have work in the morning and I don't want to annoy my neighbors.
Over the years, I've played around with Garage Band a few times, using toy instruments and whatever else I had lying around. Recently, though, I've been wanting to get more serious about it. I bought a USB audio interface for my computer and a new (to me) electric guitar. I even bought a guitar kit and I'm in the process of putting it together. I'm sure I'll dive even deeper into this stuff soon enough.
Anyway, I booted up Garage Band for the first time in ages and found some of my early experiments. Granted, it's just me goofing around with the built-in mic on my computer and whatever instruments I had lying around, but whether you're a virtuoso or a total newbie like me, there's something incredibly fun about making music. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll finally put up that Craigslist ad.