Adios 2014

You will be missed.

Really really really this

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Empathy Chainsaws

"A shark with chainsaws for hands is attacking one of your classmates. How would that classmate respond? What strengths and weaknesses do they have? Will they survive? Who would likely be with that classmate? What strategies would they employ?

Leave a comment and I'll answer the prompt for somebody of your choosing! Or not!

Think Stuff

Should probably write and make stuff too....

English Teacher

Arnst Dartklin

Anybody can create.

GOOD!

Ghosty Mans OR Crimblas Trees OR Ooze or Poos

Back by demand!

Erin's descriptions of pictures!

"Is this showing a progression or a procession? (pause) Are you going to tell me?"

"No response."

"Okay, a sparsely sparse room and a sparsely sparse Christmas tree in the corner. And there are two presents and towards the foreground is an open box with ghostly men...4 ghostly mans overlapping each other coming closely to you. And, there's either a trail or just one ghost man we see moving over time. On the floor is what looks like a trail of ectoplasm and then a pair shoes thrown asunder."

"Is that all?"

"Um...the window's weird looking?"

Ported Plarnt

Drew a thing today. I had my sister describe it as if she was on the radio and had to tell people what it was.

So, first you can read that and then see what it is.

"Alright, so I'll start at the top and work my way down. So, there's a head with what looks like a man's face but with long, shoulder-length hair and a flower above its right ear. Where the neck should be...um...(long silence)...I don't know how to describe it...*deep breath*...I don't know-....not sure how to describe it...It looks like it screws the head into whatever the head is floating above. An open ring. And below that ring are little tentacles all around it--ringed with tubules--and that's the start of another head and then...two rolls of fat where the tubules are. And on the rounded body/head are a pair of glass and a thick Tom Selleck mustache."

Good job, little sister.

When asked what country/state of origin the two heads belonged to:

top: Midwest in the 1930s. Looks weathered.

bottom: like a...Polish...grandfather. Or like Grandpa Lou from the Rugrats.

So here you go then.

Karate Kick Friendship

These colors were brighter when I found them.

Dentist

Outside it's cold and raining but I'm numbed up in this future green chair like an ancient king!

Only the perfectest teeth are good enough for my mouth! Every one of us sovereign of each other, for each other.

Build me, magic man. The petty money son of a god needs chompers like the giraffe needs a scarf.

  These pods we increasingly dwell grow curiouser and curiouser.

Paper CarHopper In Wonderful Color!

The new ethos of this blog is DEMOCRACY!

Democracy. Awe-inspiring. Like a froggish cat with a hand for a tail grasping at the radio antennae on the interstate. Unreachable. Unseeable. Weird. It is an ongoing quest to nab it.

How the WoO Should Have Gone

How the Wizard of Oz should have gone:

The Tinman, a heartless automaton bent on acquiring human organs marches ceaselessly through Oz. He disregards all apple trees, poppies, the gates of the city, horses, everything. He receives his mission from the talking head, kills the witch with his mighty ax, returns the broom, rules Oz.

Meanwhile, Dorothy and Toto are left trying to coax the cowardly lion out of his paralyzing anxiety and trying to keep the brain-dead Scarecrow from eating himself and climbing back on his post.

ALL HAIL THE IRON MAN! 

Dance On Vamps

Dance dance dance!
Don't let vampires fight vampires!
Unite! Unite!
Dance dance dance!

Shaping

A lonesome quest
climbing the edge of a foggy mountain.
In the distance,
a screaming eagle is enveloped by a swarm of thirsty flies.
Small things must be feared
in rare air.

A post about dream thinks.

The Mother of Invention: Birth of a Holiday

So, my "cohort" in English Education had a Secret Santa gift-give-a-ma-jig. And, being a boy assigned to give a gift to a woman--I went to Goodwill and bought a gingerbread man wobble sundancer thing and a Halloween tote-bag to put it in. Now, on their own, those are pretty terrible gifts. And together they are confusing terrible gifts.

BUT! To justify my choices I wrote a poem the morning of the gift exchange that was presented with the gift. My take on Decemberween.

A New Hope

Has Santa gone mad?
It must be true.
Why else would he give
this mixed up present to you?

A Halloween bag
and a gingerbread wobble--
there's only one thought Santa could've had,
"Man, oh man! Christmas is in TROBBLE!"

But then he thought out an idea,
and he thought it out quick.
"What if I combine the two holidays?"
mused wily ol' Saint Nick.

"They're 55-ish days apart,
but that doesn't mean they can't be a team.
I'll take the best of both days
and call it DECEMBERWEEN!"

And all throughout the land the people made merry as they shook their 'spook-bells' and coated their Decemberween pines in velvety chocolate sauce. Lights were hung and Monster Mashes were sung. And the Rudolphs and the Zombie and the shepherds and the Frankensteins and the drummer boys and the Weremen and the Mouse Kings marveled at at the wonders Decemberween had brung...

I mean, brought.

Merry Everyone!

Afraid To Touch 5EVER!

They call me "grem". I call them...friends.

Randy Newman "Burn On"

Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted in my last post a reference to the great American musician Randy Newman. If you didn't catch it, it was the part at the bottom where I scream-typed that I was like Randy Newman. 

Sounds like a good reason to talk about Randy Newman. Here's a song I heard yesterday about the river in Cleveland that caught on fire. It's called 'Burn On'

There’s a red moon rising

On the Cuyahoga River

Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There’s a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There’s an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There’s an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

Cleveland, city of light, city of magic
Cleveland, city of light, you’re calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
‘Cause the Cuyahoga River
goes smokin’ through my dreams

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on

Now the Lord can make you tumble
Lord can make you turn
The Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can’t make you burn

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on

Listen here 

Why? Why should we care about this Randy Newman song? Is it because he's making a statement about pollution and our detachment from nature? Not just our detachment but our antagonistic relationship with it? Or should we care because he's being ironic, or witty, or sarcastic? Writing a song about a burning river the way people sing about normal rivers. 

No. Those are reasons. But they aren't real reasons.

I don't think there is a good reason for everyone to care about this song. I don't think Randy Newman is for everyone.

But what are the qualities of things made for everyone? It's a style of its own. It's formulaic. And that's not to say that it's lesser or not a worthy pursuit but I think there's something to be said for being unapologetically idiosyncratic. For being undramatic and small and personal and a modest, limited individual. There can be a lot of joy in that.

The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption. 

Tall Space Answers

I'M THE RANDY NEWMAN OF PHOTOGRAPHED PEN AND PAPER CARTOONS!

Make Your Own Space!

Sometimes, you don't have any sprace to stretch a leg. Stuck in a table for thrifty minutes with nothing put baper and you gotta get outta there!

Don't worry. Take a priece of paper and make a whole world wide window into a planet with space slegs and beautiful mountain ranges. It'll all be wonderfully okay.

Wasn't as productive today as I should have been

Guess that means I'll have to be double productive tomorrow...

Double cooking, double writing, double leg walking, double EVERYTHING.

Never mind. I can only do one day's work in one day's time. I'll just be one day down...forever. 

Comic for real

After defeating the rogue clones with its self-destruct-but-not-actually-destruct-the-self-explosion, the circle wanders the barren loam. Did any of the clones survive the blast? He fears the thought of a lone vengeful clone. But as panels turn to panels, a different fear creeps in. Loneliness. O Circle! Tragedy! Action! Clones!

Final Section from First Draft of Watchmen Paper

Rorschach’s ability to find order in chaos is further represented in the relationship between his speech and the images shown in the panel. The text-to-image relationship can be used create an implied, synthesized message between the image and text. This meaning is crucial for understanding how Rorschach’s actions are heroic rather than psychotic. After Rorschach has burned the murderer he describes the thoughts that occur to him as he stares at the flames. Behind the large box of text is a wall of flame and smoke for three or four (I forget) panels. The simplicity of the image makes the text-heavy panel easier to read and this could be described as a word-dependent panel but there is also a relationship between Rorschach’s eloquence and the chaos around him. He is able to articulate his thoughts best at this moment because the destructive, indiscriminate nature of fire makes sense to him. The kind of order that Dr. Long subscribes to and works to instill in his patients is founded on the idea that chaos can be overcome. However, as Dr. Long’s marriage crumbles and his wife reveals that she has been cheating on him after he has been consumed by working with Rorschach, he realizes that all of his attempts to live a decent life have led him to misery. This is an ever-present idea in the entire Watchmen novel. From Ozymandias, to the Tales of the Black Freighter, to the Minutemen, all attempts to act with best intentions and deliver the world from evil only further the problems they set out to solve. Only Rorschach and the Comedian are able to act honestly. They fight evil but never under the context of achieving good. They destroy because to act in any other way would inevitably breed more corruption and injustice under false pretenses. The honesty with which Rorschach can view disorder is conveyed in his speech about the flames delivered over the flames.
In conclusion, a graphic novel is not a textual novel with pictures included to aid in reading. Reading a graphic novel requires understanding how images, color, panels, and text relate to one another to create larger ideas. The conflict between Dr. Long and Walter Kovacs, between order and chaos, between authority and subversion, is continuously evident both in the devices that make up the chapter and the larger work of which it is a part. Formal terms for conventions aid in focusing the reader’s attention. The crucial skill all readers must develop is analyzing how patterns in the work’s elements create meaning. Like Kovacs says, the world only has the meanings we choose to impose on it. What at first appears to be a nihilist statement can also be seen as a call for active participation. Armed with the tools to understand how graphic novels are created, the reader completes their interaction with the text by recreating the story. Each element discussed demands the involvement of the reader. Cartooning asks the reader to place themselves within iconic characters. Transitions ask the reader to complete the hidden story between panels. The text and images are placed together for the reader to decide how they must be read in conjunction. Without a hero, without someone who responds to the world and text, the story cannot exist.

On the Couchtar

How can I fight the patriarchy?

Cheer up Erin

Riding two hours down the interstate with your face next to a window that will not go up. It will only to continue to fall down, slowly but surely--fall down.

The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity, is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century. I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately in the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feel good about life. Existentialism is often discussed as if it's, a philosophy of despair, but I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre, once interviewed, said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. One thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as, a real kind of exuberance, of feeling on top of it, it's like your life is yours to create. I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration, but when I read them I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as fragmented of marginalised, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when Sartre talks about responsibility, he's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It's something very concrete, it's you and me talking, making decisions, doing things, and taking the consequences. It might be true that there are six billion people in this world, and counting, but nevertheless -what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms, it makes a difference to other people, and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off or see each other as a victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are.

-Waking Life