Another Quick One

Just a quick post. Had a great breakthrough with my BFA today. I think I have the mark/logo/logotype pretty much nailed down. just need to keep the forward momentum going, though. Also, got some positive feedback on my poster from the AIGA President. Maybe I'll get a AIGA Medal Of Honor or something. Or a pardon. That'd be cool.

The Man With the Golden Longbox

Okay. One more. I am jonesing for comics. It's been a while since I picked up my holds at my LCS (Local Comic Shop for you non-nerds), but I'm waiting until at least this Wednesday (All-Star Superman's supposed to be out...mmmm) to pick them up. I am in coltrol. I can quit at any time.

I Also [heart] Grilling

Grilled hamburgers tonight. I really love dong that. It took me a while (lots of "pracitce," i.e. "burning stuff") to get the hang of it, but I feel pretty comfortable with it now. I'd even use the word "pro," but I'm far too humble for that.

After dinner we had a fun little FHE (well, as fun as FHE with a 20-month-old can be) and then went to the park and walked around the path a couple of times and let Sades play on the slide and swings. No carousel (Rexburg has this great little carousel at Porter park) as it closed at 7pm and we were there a half-hour or so after that.

A beautiful evening outside. Everybody's out and about in the summer here - one of the rare positive aspects of living somewhere that is just bitterly cold for half of the year is that the summers are amazing, at least amazing compared to the sweltering hell that is Las Vegas in the summer - and there were a lot of singles ward FHE events, which meant there was some great people-watching to be had. Rexburg isn't the worst place in the world, though ask me in December and I might give you a radically different answer. It's a beautiful, simple town with a little special "something" in the air at times. I've enjoyed the time we're having here and will be sad (and excited) when we move on at the end of the year.

Just a quick aside - P. Funk's "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)" just came up on shuffle. This song is amazing. That is all.

AIGA Poster

So I've been working all weekend on a poster for the semester's AIGA events. I started with a word list, moved onto a few concepts and pitched them to the board. They went with the concept of "joining the conversation," but they weren't crazy about my quickly-sketched idea of mouths talking. Frankly, neither was I, but it got me thinking. I ended up with this solution, of having little hand-puppet-type characters joining in the conversation. I figured as artosts we talk with out mouths as well a sour hands and the idea of talking to yourself with this marker-made friwnd fit in with the concept of talking to other people instead of just yourself. The image below, when you click on it, is signifigantly scaled-down. The original is 18" by 36". Yeah. I had to print it in three panels which I then taped to gether and displayed in the computer lab and the design classroom. I think it turned out pretty dang well and the copy is pretty funny, too. Enjoy.

I [heart] Being A Dad

Okay, so yesterday was Father's Day. It was rad. I got a sweet tie (it's blue and gold - Cub Scout colors, baby!), a subscription to Communication Arts (which means I am officially a graphic designer) and a delicious breakfast (bacon, eggs, an english muffin and orange-tangerine juice).

Y'know, being a dad has been something I've just always wanted to do. I have this old elementary school "This Is Me"-type book with all of these questionairres in it and stuff. "My favorite color is______" or "My favorite food is _____." Stuff like that. I remember looking at one of these recently when coming aross it and seeing a question that said something like "When I grow up I want to be __________." And in that little space I had scrawled in pencil "a police detective or an actor and a dad."

A family is just something I've always wanted to have in my life and I feel really grateful that I have such a great one. It sounds corny but it's great to have dreams come true. I'm a dad. I'm an artist. I'm married to a beautiful, hip and fun girl and have a crazy, adorable and, at this moment, running around stark-naked daughter, with more beautiful and crazy children to come in the future.

Life, as they say, is good.

A Quick One

Went to the park as a family. I sat on a blanket in the shade and worked on my BFA. Kept glancing over and seeing Candace pushing Sadie on the swings and was struck with how lucky of a man I am. I love my beautiful girls, my wonderful family.

Here's a picture from First Creek Canyon out at Red Rock from our Vegas trip. Candace will probably find some reason to hate this picture, but I think it's gorgeous. My pretty ladies. A slight smile just crossed my lips and when I realized it was there, I tried to supress it but then just let it sit there.

So...Podcasts

Lemme try that one again. So!? PODCASTS!!!

Yeah, that's more like it.

I am now addicted to podcasts. It's like a personal AM radio, only, well, without all the crappy and creepy stuff you'd find on AM radio.

Now, keep in mind we here at the Bigredrobot keep it real. We kick it old school. Unlike all you playa haytahs with your DSL and cable and whatnot, we roll with "the dial-up." Which means that podcasts are something that I should not be addicted to, but I am, cuz I'm crazy like that. Y'know, like a nonconformist and stuff.

Anyway, so here's a list of the podcasts I currently attempt to keep up on:

Ask A Ninja (video podcast): Basically, it's exactly what it says it is: you e-mail a question to askaninja@gmail.com and a man in a ninja suit answers your questions. This is a podcast that deals with the issues, like "Are there midget ninjas?" (Yes. They're called Minjas) "Can ninjas love?" (Yes. They love killing.) "Do ninjas have any conventions?" (Yes. It's called Killacon and it's secret and deadly, thankyouverymuch.) Anyway, it's hilarious. Check out the site or search it on iTunes. It's gold.

iFanboy.com Pick of the Week Podcast: Three college buddies meet each week and discuss the state of that weeks's comics. Intelligent and funny, this is far and away the best comic's podcast out there. As research for my BFA project, I decided to check out a couple of comics podcasts and after a horrible experience with another podcast (Comic Geek Speak, I think it was called) which turned out to be everything I had hoped it wouldn't be: basically the nerdy geeks that work in comic stores sitting around for an hour and a half (!) revelling in their own geekiness. Not my bag. Luckily, the other one I sampled was this one. These guys are smart, funny and professional and though they have an obvious proclivity for "street level" or "realistic" superhero books (i.e.: Identity Crisis, anything Bendis or Bendis-like) and a sort-or anti-Morrison bent (most notably his X-Men run, which, despite its shortcomings is still amazing superhero comics), I admire their ability to look past hype and preconception and give honest reactions in an intelligent manner. Here's the site.

Jack Black's Nacho Libre Confessional (video podcast): Yeah, I am totally owned by this movie. You had me at Jared Hess, y'know? You didn't have to go and add Jack Black and Mike White, co-writer of School Of Rock to it, too. This is a bunch of short video diary clips of new daddy Black's experience on the set of a film that I am sure is going to be, if nothing else, very funny. My favorite on is #13 where Jack bemoans the fact that his manhood looks too small in his tights. Here's the official movie site. Not as brillaint as the Napoleon Dynamite site was, but still quite good.

LOSTCasts: Their motto is "We read the forums so you don't have to," which is fairly accurate as a big portion of it is (retrospectively) off-the-mark speculation, but that's half of the fun of Lost, right? A bit long, but still a decent little filler that's more a help than a hinderance in unlocking the secretsof the Island. The site's here.

NPR: All Songs Considered: A weekly show that sheds some light on music worth listening to. If you can get past the fact thet Bob Boilen's an fairly dorky NPR deejay with a serious love for female singers, you can find some cool stuff on here. Plus, they do a monthly free concert that they then podcast. Last time was the Walkmen and before that Mogwai, with Sonic Youth on deck. There's at least one band you hadn't heard of that's pretty decent in each half-hour or so episode. The site.

The Official LOST Podcast: Yeah, so I'm addicted to Lost. This is ABC's podcast and while the fluff pieces on the cast and crew are entirely disposable, the Q&A with producers Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse are always entertaining (though never as entertaining as Damon and Carlton think they are) and interesting. The official Lost site's riiiiight here.

A special nod goes out for the Ricky Gervais Podcast which my cousin Jesse tipped me off to when I was out in NYC. It's wrapped up and is now an "audiobook," which means it's not free, which sucks.

And that's it for now, I guess.

Dude, Where's My Blog?

Okay, so it's been a while. In my defense we went out of town for a week and a half and I've been trying to get my BFA project off of the ground and I really have started like three different entries but, for one reason or another, have been less than successful in actually posting anything.

That is about to change.

Yes, that's right, folks, I am going to do the impossible - I am going to post.



Aaaaaand done.