Harajuku, cat vacations, and deadline non-anxiety

I wish I could age the paper on these things, so that it looked as old as the page in the last post. I know there are things to do with instant coffee, and such. I once poured acid on a Shakespeare book in university by accident, and that dissolved big holes in the book. There's also Photoshop, but that's so boring.

This is a sketch of girls who hang around a part of Tokyo called Harajuku (I think that's spelled right). They call themselves "gothic lolitas," because that's their style, and they seem to be there simply to be photographed by tourists, and freaks. There's lots of photos here on flikr, if you want to do a tag search. Somebody has made an interesting link that lets you do that very easily, and assemble a photo mosaic with your search terms. [link]. I hope they keep that up, it's pretty neat.

The drawing wasn't researched at all, just out of my head. These girls wear lots of crinolines, and like old-fashioned tall boots.

My cat took a vacation today. He never goes out beyond the front terrace, except for one day, every spring, where he vanishes for the entire day, and only returns after nightfall. I try not to freak, but now that I've seen it's a yearly occurrence, try to get used to it. The strange thing is, this is not a complex neighbourhood, but he manages to completely vanish, if I go looking for him.

Met another deadline today. Strangely, it was without stress. That makes me worry that possibly the thing I wrote was complete garbage, but I guess the worry has to come in somewhere. It was pleasant writing it, however, by hand on scrap computer paper out on my deck, waiting for the cat to come back.

Beckett

More paper ephemera today. this time even more ephemeral. My photocopied picture of Samuel Beckett that I got from a magazine twelve or so years ago finally fell off the fridge. the front of my fridge is a repository for all kinds of stickers and photos and clippings. That's a theme I use for my web page.

The cat has clawed off the bottom, stretching up and trying to get to food in the fridge. The rest of it is just the paper working on itself, with whatever I've spilled on it during that time. I like how the paper looks, though it will be crumbled away soon. There's a watercolour picture of my kitchen which I painted when I moved in here, which is on the wall, but also yellow and brittle. Looks like some medieval document. I can scan it and preserve it that way.

Science Ficshun

Ralph 1241#C was making important calculations for the jump to lightspeed, when Mary 1138-X confronted him again about their silly hats, and the fact that she was still wearing Ms. Incredible's old boots. Feisty little 11-2D continued to spin around, beeping. One of his three casters was stuck.

Party, and Antonio Le Grand

The Yulblog party last night was a nice affair. Everybody smart and friendly. I didn't feel as frozen up as I usually do at parties. The thing to do at this one which was different was to ask people their name, and then the name of their blog. Practically everyone there had one.

Unfortunately, I didn't take notes, relying on my sieve-like, and at the time drink-addled, memory to retain everything. Some of them are in links to the right. I have to surf around, and find out the rest of them, and will add them as they appear.

As well I'll be surfing to see what other people thought of the party, and whether there are pictures. Probably they will all be doing the same thing.

The Great Antonio


This is my version of the late Great Antonio, a local homeless guy/celebrity, who worked occasionally in movies (Quest for Fire), and performed strong man stunts. He died in 2003, but he came to my mind this morning because his postcard below fell out of my bookcase as I was getting something.

I had actually worked with him years ago, in the late 1980s, on a short film of a friend of mine's. My job was make sure he showed up for his shots, and didn't wander off.

The weather was lousy outside, so Antonio and I sat in a coffee shop across the street (the film was being shot at the train station which is now the Park Avenue metro stop). He told me stories of his exploits in show business. He had been on the Merv Griffith show with his bus stunt, he had met Michael Jackson, and had the photos to prove it.

This is his calling card, which he sold for years, sitting on his bench at the McGill Metro:

recto:


verso:

YULBlog Party Article

It's not as much fun as seeing the pile of fresh newspapers, and paging to your article (that Brain illo below was more of a treat). The thing on YULBlog is up on HOUR's site.

Cut out much ramblng from this post. Now the questions I really should have asked are:
1. Why is Blork Blog called that? Some sort of Swedish Chef reference?
2. If YULBlog is so meta and keeps track of all the new posts of those members, why do only a few posters show up there, again and again?

Oh yes, thanks to Meb, and Lightspeed Chick, and Vincent for putting up with my questioning. Sorry you didn't get into the article, but I had to cut a lot of stuff to put in those definitions of what a blog was. See you at the party!

The Genius

"Eheuh! I both love him and hate him!"

Another Week

All that work I did last week is finished. I've got one deadline, and made a list of things I have to get done. But there's much less that's urgent to do, and my old devils are sneaking up. Worried about stuff, but realising the worry is just something of itself, and does not really apply to externals. I'm sure it will all work out.

Started beginning to explain this, but it just sounded uncomfortable. Really, my interpretation of it is as valid as yours.

Hey, hey, hey! It's Mr. Happy Brain!

So, the illustration is out! And they printed it in colour twice, even letting it cover up some of the masthead! Pretty good for an anthropomorphized internal organ.

Actually, I think he looks like a new McDonald's-land character. Call him the Spungiform Encephalofagus. For those who like to eat dangerously! (Probably Albertans.)

Originally, I had the kid on the right poking him in the Medulla Oblongata with a stick. But that's too cruel. Happy Brain Awareness Week! Better give them a link, so you know what events to attend.

Yes, and my News Brief on Yulblog's 5th Anniversary is coming out in HOUR next week. Had to cut out all the interesting anecdotal stuff to make room for explaining what a blog was. Of course, I know people reading this would be happy if I printed a list with their name and their blog on it, but that's the awesome power of being a journalist. Where would Mr. Happy Brain be if I wasn't out there getting his face in the papers?

Actually, I dig the French title, La Cerveau en Tete. Where would it be if it wasn't? Probably being tossed about by a lot of schoolchildren! Wish I could post the pictures, but I'm not gonna. They look like a lot of beaming, uniformed Hannibal Lecters at work.

Look out for Mr. Angry Brain!

This isn't the brain illustration I did for McGill. It's just me "finishing" a test I did for colour, and it made me laugh. I seem to like drawing these emotional and overwrought characters. This was a busy week for me, with some intense meetings, plus I did a "serious" brain illustration, and I wrote the HOUR article about blogs. When that comes out next week, maybe the bloggers will take it apart, or maybe I flatter myself that people will pay attention.

So, I still have work, but it's a longer deadline, and I can relax for a day or so. Won't have to deal with Mr. Angry Brain. I don't know: brains are generally funny, aren't they? Thinking of all of those brain horror films people like. And "Brain Awareness Week" just sounds uncomfortable, doesn't it? I don't want to be aware of my brain! Oh oh, here it comes again....

Scratch Cats

Scratch cats are coming. They're the scratchiest, hissingest cats ever. Better hide. But read the comic first.

More comics, and deadline anxiety

So terribly busy at the moment, but only in fits and starts. Wrote four of my proposals for documentaries last week. Today I had a meeting with a director and his subjects of yet another documentary, who had come in from Calgary. Very tough meeting them all for the first time, with my feeling I had to appeal to them as someone they wanted to work with. It went well, I think, but I was anxious before the meeting, and plain tired afterward, from the energy I had put into it. Yesterday, as well as preparing for that, I drew a "brain" character for an event called "Brain Awareness Week" at McGill University, where children are introduced to the workings of actual brains. For reference, the editors sent me a series of photos of smiling children holding up various brains (I don't know if the brains are human or not, some look human). These shots are delightfully macabre, but I can't put them up here, because I didn't take them, and don't know whose children these are. Still, the charming boys and girls with these messy-looking objects put me in mind of some missing chapter of a "Harry Potter" book. No brain or thinking puns come to mind, though.

Still, for the article about the event in the McGill Reporter I had to draw a brain-based character who looked funny and appealing, and not just wrinkled and grotesque. I think I succeeded. In the rough draft I had one of the children in my drawing poking at him with a stick, but now he's just politely pointing. The first idea had me chuckling to myself as I thought of it while walking home in the cold, but McGill people are fairly serious, and might not see the humour. I'll post the drawing later, after it comes out.

I'm also cobbling together my 300-word HOUR news article about bloggers, and YULBlog's 5th anniversary party. Will write the final version tomorrow: deadline is Thursday. Wasn't fun coming back to my notes written last Wednesday and seeing all the gobbledy-gook scribbles, and names all over the place. Note to journalists: don't work while tired, or while drinking beer, and always type up your notes as soon as possible after making them. Unfortunately, it's been a while between articles, and I had lost my discipline. Still, I think it will all work out.

In the meantime, here's a link to another comic, which I think I may have put up before, but I worked so hard on it, it's worth drawing attention to, I think.
[The Haunted Theatre]

Links to Jack's Comics

I feel guilty about pushing Rosie's picture down in the queue, but that's the nature of blogs, and they must roll on. Today is comics day. Click on the pictures below to read:

The Adventures of James McGill

This is a recent freelance job. A comic that was supposed to go out in a mailing to McGill University Alumni. It was written by Daniel McCabe of McGill Alumni affairs. Unfortunately, it had to go through a lot of bureaucracy to be approved, and one level decided it was too flippant. Hence, it never came out (however, I did get paid). But I've got permission to put it up here.

It was a pleasure researching all of the university backgrounds. Also, working with someone who had not written a comic before, but was flexible, and had a sense of humour. Though there were a lot of words to fit in, the writer had a good visual imagination, so it worked pretty well. I can't say the same about all the writers I've tried to collaborate with!

Some Buildings Breathe History

This is old, but something a friend of mine, Drew, wanted to see. It was published in the 1994 edition of "Statik," which was a tabloid-size zine (long defunct, only a couple of issues, it seemed) put out by CKUT, the McGill campus radio station (I've not actually gone to McGill, but I seem to be having a lot to do with them).

I did this way before I had heard of Ben Katchor's "Julius Knipl" comics in the Village Voice, but it was also a kick to research the history of this building in Montreal.

I talked to the Super of the Belgo Building, and got a chance to visit the bowling lanes in the basement, which still exist, but in a dilapidated state. The pool tables are long gone, but you can see the bare rectangular spaces on the floor where the legs went. I wish I had recorded the mosiac in the floor, also still there, proclaiming this to be the "Windsor Lanes." The Super told me to mention there are no rats there, absolutely no rats.

A French version of this (helpfully translated by Richard Gagnon) is appearing in an anthology published by Jimmy Beaulieu's Mechanique Generale imprint. I don't know when.

The version here is a little hard to read, thanks mainly to my spidery lettering, but the original went over two pages in the middle section of a tabloid newspaper, so there you go.

Rosie Pic

Above is a photo of the late Rosie, as she often appeared, sleeping in the bookstore window. Most pics have her sleeping, one of her major occupations. Here, she's dreaming of torching the bookstore, something I often considered during my tenure there. But I limited myself to a few oblique comments in the log-book. Pic courtesy of Karl at La-Grange.