Man, I Cannot Wait Until This Semester Is OVER

Is this semester over yet? I am so burned out, school-wise. I've been going, full-time, for about two years now. I really need a break. I am so looking forward to taking a bit of time off this summer, just relaxing, recharging my batteries, making some money working, spending time with my family, working on my BFA and another couple of projects I'd like to do just for fun.

Speaking of my BFA final project, I decided what I'm doing finally - which is kind of a theme this week, as I also decided that I wasn't going to do an internship, as it was just too much of a financial hurdle, and, most importantly, it just didn't feel right for us, now. After a few weeks of solid prayer on the issue, it just made a lot more sense to stay here, make some money from working a lot at Gap, and finishing my BFA project with Brother Franson, whose direction I prefer, and working on said project with minimal distraction.

But yeah, I decided. I went back and forth on what I wanted to do, thinking that I needed to do something 180 degrees from what I usually do and was finding that none of that seemed like it would sustain me for a whole semester of work. So I'm doing - what else? - a comic book store. A store concept from a retail chain actually. Everything from soup to nuts: website, store environment, signage, anything and everything that it could possibly need. After wracking my brain, trying to find some kind of community service or public service announcement type of thing, but not being able to find anything that could either sustain me or was not a totally confrontational issue, I decided to go with this idea I had a long time ago. A cool place that treats comics like the cool, fun medium they are. No role-playing games, no action figures, no collectible cards, just comics as books. It's something I'm passionate about and something that can sustain a semester of work, so that's that, I guess. I'm actually pretty excited about it. I'll post my progress here, so check back now and then.

Well, I've got to get in the shower. I have to make up a math test that I missed last week. Did I mention I am burned out on school?

My Girls

Had a great evening with my little girl. We went to Wal-Mart for some essentials (Polaroid film and a My Little Pony), drove through an abandoned old drive-in theatre, saw some horses, saw the same horses out the other side of the, van yelled loudly while sort of dancing and ended our lovely evening at the park where we went down the slide more than a few times, rode on the swings, picked up sticks from the ground and ran around a little. All in all, it succeeded in wearing that little girl down so that once she was ready for bed, she went down soundlessly. Just a fun little night with one of my favorite people. Love her.

Candace is at work tonight. I'm missing her a little bit. We had a great talk this afternoon, about little things here and there. I love talking to that lady of mine. She's my best friend, my inspiration, my support and the love of my life. And that's all there is to it, really.

Rocking My World Right Now

Flaming Lips. At War With the Mystics. Loving it. It might seem a little lightweight when held up to the cosmic heaviness of their intensely personal masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, or the rampant experimentalism of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but it's a fun, kaliedoscopic head trip, not out of place next to their criminally underrated Clouds Taste Metallic album.

Stand-out tracks for me (I'll spare you the full titles, with all their brillaint weirdness) are "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," "Free Radicals," "Vein of Stars," "It Overtakes Me," "The W.A.N.D.," "Pompeii AM Gotterdammerung," as well as their version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," which is possibly the most gloriously deranged thing I've ever heard in recent memory. Possibly a little underwhelming when taken in full view of their entire discography, but taken on its own, it's a fun little psychedelic album.

Speaking of psychedeila, I also downloaded the Swedish band Dungen's latest album Ta Det Lungt, which I guess translates to Subliminal Sounds. It's a fitting title, a mish-mash of head-tripping tunes that meander along at a brisk pace, all multi-colored and burning. The opening track, "Panda," never fails to make me want to burn stuff, which is, as I was telling my cousin Jesse, my new standard of quality. (FYI, previous songs attaining the "Burn Stuff Mark of Quality," include Mando Diao's "Sheepdog," and the Walkmen's "the Rat." Hmmm, all animal related. Methinks I've just struck upon something huge.) Anyway, a little tiresome when taken in its fullness, but a more-than-decent album and, as an added bonus, allows you to name-drop a Swedish psychedelic band, which does wonders for your indie cred, believe-you-me.

Man, I Love This Book

I've already published my love for Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's utterly fantastically explosionary masterpiece, Nextwave, Agents ofH.A.T.E, but I just had to share this little blurb from Newsarama.com:

Do you love Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.? An avid fan of coloring books? Boxers or briefs? Well, you’re in luck because you the reader get to be the colorist for a very special Variant issue of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.
For Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #5, Marvel is releasing both a regular version as well as a Crayon Butchery Variant. Now you can not only read but COLOR Monica, the Captain, Boom Boom, Machine Man and all your favorite Nextwave characters. Be careful with Dirk Anger. He’ll get mad (angry?) if you mess up. Plus, you can make the myriad of explosions drawn by Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger all sorts of pretty colors. Like magenta. Mmmmm…magenta.
Tell your local comic retailer that you want your Crayon Butchery Variant! Yes, CRAYON BUTCHERY VARIANT!!!

Marvel is putting the crayon in your hands with this very special Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E #5 Crayon Butchery Variant. Just remember to try to stay inside the lines, or it’s your head. Oooga booga.

Now if that isn't entertainment worth wallowing in, I really don't know what is.

I'm Sorry, But Myspace Gives Me the Creeps

I talked to my brother Bryan last night and he's trying to persuade me to get all up in Myspace. Honestly, does this site creep anybody else out? It's like some weird personal ad/chat room that I just don't understand how to work. There's certain things that just baffle and confound me, despite the fact that I consider myself a fairly bright person; things like pyramid schemes or Paris Hilton or the appeal of Friends. I just don't get it. Myspace falls into this category.

There are a few things that jump out at me when broaching the idea of drinking the Myspace Kool-Aid. First off, the pictures. Is there a Myspace law that you have to be semi-naked, or at least flash your best "I'm sexy and cool" look, in order to post a picture on your homepage? I mean, how am I supposed to feel comfortable on this site when everybody's trying to seduce me? Everybody! And as long as we're talking about the homepages, why are they all in that really cheesy HTML that just makes me die inside? Have they no aesthetic feelings whatsoever? I mean, Blogger's nothing to write home about, but they at least have a sensetivity to typography and try their best to make their layouts visually pleasing. Am I becoming a design snob? Oh well, I guess there are worse things to be called.

So, willI be getting a Myspace page? I don't know. It woudl be great to be able to keep up with my brother and some old friends I haven't been close with in a while, but the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. So, probably not. Sorry.

All-Star Superman Is the Bee's Knees

Nothing particularly clever withthis post, other than to say that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, who together form some amazing cosmically-powered Voltron of comics goodness, are really knocking my socks off with All-Star Superman. That is all.

Easter Is Almost Here!

I'm way excited for Easter this year. Sadie's just getting old enough for the whole Easter egg thing to be viable, so we're looking forward to that. It's nice to have another reason to be excited about this holiday besides the copious amounts of candy. We went to Broulim's last night to look at bunnies and Candace took Sades to an Easter egg hunt at at the church last night while I went to the student AIGA meeting (which was excellent, by the way). I guess she and the other smaller kids got a head start over the bigger kids and Sades still only got one egg. Funny. We're going over to my uncle and aunt's house Sunday afternoon for another one. Should be fun.

This Movie Is Good

Wong Kar-Wai autered one of my favorite films of all time, 1994's Chungking Express, a bittersweet, Altman-esque tale of intertwining lives and loves, so it was a no-brainer that I'd be interested in more of his work. I put this one in the Netflix queue a while back and was a bit surprised when it shipped this early. It sat around for a while before we got around to watching it, mainly because of lack of time, but also because I was a little scared of it. I knew I'd most likely love it, but I also know that my tastes are a little eclectic and didn't want to make Candace sit through some boring Chinese movie when she could be resting or scrapbooking. Well, folks, I had nothing to worry about, In the Mood For Love is a beautiful film. It's heartbreaking. It's sweet. It's beautiful. It's sad. It's perfect.

Some More Work

Here's a couple of Comic Frenzy posters I've done recently. The first one's my favorite of the bunch from this semester.

This one's a fun one, too. It's for a workshop the troupe's putting on next week. And yes, that's me on the left in the suh-weet shirt.

It's been a ton of fun to work on these this last few months. Hopefully, I can connive my way into the job again before I'm done here.

It's April, Man. April.

Rexburg drives me crazy some days. It's April the 6th and I look outside this morning and what am I greeted with? Snow. I know, I know, what the heck?!

Anyway, I interview with Bryan Peterson today (for an internship in Dallas - no pressure there. By the way, his website is peterson.com if you want to check his firm's work out) and get my portfolio review by both him and McRae Magleby (a design legend, named by HOW magazine as on of "the World's 12 Most Influential Designers," in 1993 - no pressure there). Just finishing up some touch-ups to some of my pieces then off to school, all rested and ready. I'm not too nervous, to be honest, at least not yet. I'm sur ethat will come. Candace and I decided that if I don't get this internship, that I'll start looking for another one in Austin. Right now I'm looking at possibly the Decoder Ring Design Concern or Action Figure, but I just started ppoking around yeasterday, so we'll see. In any case, we're seriously thinking about an internship this summer.

Anyway, I'm going to hop in the shower and get going. Wish me luck.

My Dad, Most Handsome DJ In the World.

Was googling family members while bored at work and found this little thing. Dad, how come you never told us you were the "most handsome DJ in the world?"

The FIrst Step Is Admitting You Have A Problem...

Look at this. I got home from Salt Lake after 1 a.m. and began emptying my hands and pockets, and halfway through, realized I was laying the stuff out like this.

I am crazy.

That is all.