( n i g h t s w i m )

so, after a full day of writing, sweating balls and taking Mr. Bucket to the dog park I put out some music and did some night swimmin'. now my eyes are red and my hands are prune-y. the sky's purple, the clouds are pink and the waters' turquoise. happy Labor Day everybody.



ps - how th'fuck is anybody at Burning Man right now?!

MAD MEN

Ok, so having some time off has afforded me some TV watching luxuries lately but this has been the most rewarding. Literally pulled up my Tivo and watched 6 1-hour episodes in one sit. The show's called, MAD MEN (Thu 10PM AMC) and it's the best character writing I've seen since 6 Feet Under. SO f'n good! It's about advertising execs in Manhatten in 1960. It's art direction is superb and watching people drink hard and smoke in every-single-scene made me need to go out last night and do the same (amazingly found a spot last night that let you do both inside ?!).
Anyways, watch it and thank me later...



The bigger news is I got two development jobs today (when it rains it pours, right?) that I'll start freelancing on next week but will soon be turning into jagurnauts if all goes well. So here's the list people, try to keep me honest... 1) Finish script before the writer's strike 2) Start on 20 paintings (roughly all of them will be atleast 5-footers) to be done by June 3) Start writing and drawing on two shows in development. And a couple o' other things I don't like to share with the internet.

Other than that I've been told by my gallery I'm no longer aloud to post images for my gallery show (which makes total sense, whoops) so if anybody that knows me ever wants to come by the space to see them in person you're more than welcome!

Super psyched and ready to get th'fuck back to work...

one down...

got the first piece done for my '08 show. just 21 to go?! Um, planned out the entire show today. color roughs for every single piece and determined all sizes. guess this one's really got me excited to work and I'm finding myself suspiciously organized.
next, buy plane tickets and maybe a new digital camera hmmm...

*ouch*

so, woke up with horrrrible hang-over and vague memories. BUT had the best bloody mary (maybe ever) made for me this morning. I'd be lying if I said my head feels better for it. did'na matter. headed to downtown and spent the day doing some serious research. it's going so good! the ideas are-a-poppin'.

!!!!!!!!!!AND IT RAINED!!!!!!!!!!! (the absolute best part of the day) walked into the museum wet and smiling.



oh, and look what I found. at the Science Museum they had the original chimp-flown NASA cockpit from the Florida launch in the 60's. spent so long drooling over it. how did that monkey know how to work the 'Yaw' controls...?

here's a shot of the Mr. Teeny-sized cockpit.



so, that's it reader. I'm gonna take a nap then go see my friends in Great Northern play tonight at the 'Fuck Yeah Fest'. If you see me don't touch my aching head...

King of Kong!

Holy crap! Saw this today. I haven't been this stressed while laughing my sack off in a movie ever. SO amazing. A true tale of good vs. supreme evil in the form of Billy Mitchell, the world's classic video game champ. This documentary left me exhausted.

check it...!



...but before that saw a trailer for this, 'Manda Bala'. I think I'm more excited about seeing this right now than anything else. Every year documentaries are getting better and better and scripted films really feel like poo. Watch the trailer and you'll know what I'm talkin' about.



aside from that going on some awesome museum excursions tommorow in prep for my gallery show. I have alot of homework to do and part of that means literally getting on planes and checking various museums out. SO excited.

It's a good time to be alive me thinks.

shark blood

heckovahday! almost done with Mr. Shark who'll be attempting to eat Mr. Seal (life can be so cruel). AND got myself a (slight) job offer today that looks to be really fun. hope. hope.

BUT th'big news is that at about 3AM last night the theme of my gallery show next year came to me and I am so the fuck ready to do this thing! it's gonna be a good one people. promise. Thanks insomnia!

(ps - still hate the sea)

GH '07!

So, ended up at the Hyperion Tavern last nite for some Wednesday night Guitar Hero rockin' and ended up seeing these two guys who blew-the-room-ay-way. Choreography, jumps, playing behind their heads, switching playing hands...?!
About as good as Daft Punk. Ok maybe that comment was too strong.

(shark)

Yeah, so I'm back on track with painting (and writing) today. Lost an entire week due to the summer flu that everyone seems to have right now. Nothin' like sweating while blowing your nose and sweating. ug. But it's really my fault. It's my body telling me that the smoke that filled my lungs all summer are no longer welcomed and to cut it (the fuck) out...! 'k body. Sorry 'bout that one. Back to jogging and good food today. But I DID get to spend the week valuably and watched all the Battlestar Galactica DVD's! Frackin' hell it's pretty great. Fascinating, huh reader?!
Anyways, here's the next stage of the shark painting. Don't know how to feel about her yet.

(sorry, bad photo)

SUPERBAAAAAD...

SO good! I haven't laughed that hard since anything ('k maybe Borat). Went to the midnight screening tonight at the Mann's in Hollywood.
Now I've got a splitting fracking headache from laughing so hard and drinking long island iced teas at the Roosevelt before the flick. Run like your life depended on it to the theatres this weekend to see this gem. Fer seriously.
But seriously, who has asprin 'cause I'm fresh out *ouch*...

6-8-8

Just got the date for my solo show next year. Which gives me LESS than a year to get an entite gallery of art done. I love it. I seem to always work my best once the pressure is on. Hope that tradition continues. Looks like all-nighters in Eagle Rock are in order till next June - stoked!
So, mark your 2008 calanders people...

Literartistry'd

Super fun opening last nite. Line went down the street -whoa!
I just have to say something. Jan and Bruce (the gallery owners) are the raddest people ever. For this opening they asked us to do a piece on our favorite books. 50 artists participated and so they opened a small library in the gallery to check out any book you wanted from the show. 150 books. I picked up a copy of Geek Love to read after The Road. So classy. It's just nice to work with people that really love what they're doing with their lives and share it.
I have to admit there were a couple of people last night I really wanted to talk to who ended up wanting to talk to me.
So, other than that feelin' pretty good about this painting thing these days. Really thank you all for coming!

The Aftermath

So got home last night 'round 4AM to this...

The Road.

This book's kicking my ass. The end of the world n' such. Here's a passage from the only two characters in the book. Father and son:

Can I ask you something?
Yes. Ofcourse you can.
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay.

Everyone read this one now!

thank you.

for getting a hold of me today. It really meant alot.

Facin' M'Fears.

So, here's the next stage on the giant shark painting. I'm kinda going loosey-goosy on this one and not trying to do color studies or plan too much. Hopefully that doesn't bite me in the ass down the line.

Psyched about the Literartistry show tomorrow night. Should be a good party.

Funnest F*ckin' Thing I'll Do All Week.

So, I was at Swains today buying paint and found something that could give me limitless joy (OK, maybe an hour of joy tops before it becomes 10 ft. squared of clean-up cotton mess) for a measily $30. Brought home a doll to be sacrificed to the almighty Bucket!
I'll post the aftermath soon...

All Nighters in the Deep Sea

So, after the film I pulled an all-nighter in the studio. Felt inspired and started to tackle the biggest piece I've ever done. 4 ft. by 4 ft. It's super intimidating but soon there will be a Great White and a liitle boy swimming on the canvas. Hope this is a good one...

'This Is England'

Saw an amazing film last night at the Nuart with Josh. This Is England directed by Shane Meadows. It's about the rise of the skinhead movement in England in 1983. Really funny, really harsh and really sad. Great, great 80's music and style. But more importantly some of the best acting I've ever seen out of a child actor. Little Thomas Turgoose turns in a really, real real performance as the small mascot for this group of lost souls.
See it!

The Road begins today...

One last thing. To all of my 2 readers - sorry for being such a whiney bitch last week. I'm thinking of just deleting all whiney posts I put up but whatever...

Start writing today. Bucky and I had some major talks last night but seriously it's time to just get writing. As part of this plan it's also a day to get reading. Went and bought 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy to get myself in a post apocalyptic headspace.

Angeleno-los

Um, so I'm in the new issue of Angeleno Magazing (Ethan Hawke cover - Page 22). It's a piece I did for this Saturday night's 'Literartistry' show at Corey Helford - 8522 Washington Blvd. Culver City
Hope y'all can come!

(click below to read the article)

Artsy Fartsy!

So, we had ourselves a lil' artspace party last weekend. It's kind of a business party in that my space mates see it as an opportunity to have fun but also seek out potential buyers and business connects. This really made me nervous 'cause clearly I'm the weak link in the building because everybody in there pays their mortgage with their art and I'm just a paint baby still trying to figure out how to be an honest for goodness paint person. Also everyone in the space is so goddamn prolific and I barely had any pieces up and most of them were old.
Anyways ...that was all bullshit 'cause it ended up being such a blast and alot of people had some really nice stuff to say about my art. We all had such a good time. So thanks all for showin' up!
BUT the greatest part of all was this lil' guy (see below). The most beautiful dog I've ever seen. Almost crowbarred his owners outside and was ready to steal him into the night and bring him home to Bucket.

today...

ahhhh. so great. I'm drinkin' Shandy's all day and aside from this Peaches cover I need to get done I'm takin' it smooove.
What's a 'Shandy' you ask? 3/4 beer (I prefer a light beer) and 1/4 lemonade (from concentrate). Best summah drink ever!
Playing GH 80's and am starting to eyeball my pool. Bucket's being rad and I'm feelin' Irie (spelling?).
Anyways, hope you work drones are having a good day too.

and so it goes...

been having alot of things rattling around in my head all day and figured I'd do some typing.

It's my first coup'la days of uneployment. I just got done co-directing a commercial for Fruity Pebbles which proved to be a real challenge, Not to mention the daily commute to and from Santa Monica which tested my sanity daily as did the job at times. Funny, the whole time I was working I fantasized about getting some time off and now that I have it I feel anxious and a little worried about what happens next. This really sums up where I'm at right now. Grass is always greener I guess.
I have so much work to do personally right now. Let's run down the list shall we?

-This week I'm designing the new 'Peaches' album single. It has been a blast and it looks like I might get to work on the video as well (can you say, "Prague") but who th'fuck knows?
-Um, I have a gallery show in less than a year at Corey Hellford I need to get started.
-Me and my writing partner, Bucky are writing a script for Paramount that is looking to be something really fucking amazing in my humble opinion.
-I'm developing a few shows at Disney.
-I'm back at the drawing board developing shows for Disney and Comedy Central. This is a looong road from being done.

...and personal goal of the week is to learn Illustrator - ag. Lemme just get on my soapbox for a sec. It really pisses me off in the past when people have approached me about selling shows or paintings or scripts or whatever. They always act like it comes easy and that I've been 'lucky'. Fuck that. Those people are never around at times like these -when the script pages and canvases are blank and the ideas aren't coming. This is hard work and isn't just luck and fun. It's work. It's no sleep. It's feeling like you'll never create something great again. It's just hard.

All together it's a volatile time personally and professionally. Really anything can happen and that's so fucking exciting and terrifying. I've met and hung out with some amazing people in my personal and professional life this summer so far and to be honest I really have nothing to bitch about but here goes... I talked to somebody last weekend at Comic Con and they filled my head with so much poison (not to mention the booze on top of that) over what other people think of me that it really sucked. But I woke up the next morning resolved to one thing I need to get tattooed on my forehead... 'My happiness can not depend on people I like liking me back' ...sucks to write this but I've been pretty depressed all day and this is what I'm clinging to.

Whatever, more drama so far this summer -my Mini. Bought a '69 Mini Cooper this summer and on the first day I took it to work it got hit while parked and I was inside. A moving truck smashed into it and took off. Luckily there was an eyewitness and I tracked the driver and now their insurance is lowballing me but the car should be fixed good as new in a coupl'a weeks -whew. It's been a nightmare.

Other than that I had a great lunch with my friends Vince and Seonna who have the amazing ability to always impart grand wisdom onto me and really understand what I'm going thru. When it comes down to it I really only have around five friends but I know we'll always be there for one-another and really who needs more than five, right?

Spent tonight at the art space, had dinner with Seonna and helped move her stuff around and drew for a bit and got back to playin' Guitar Hero 80's and drawing at home. Watching 'Zodiac' while typing and Bucket is asleep at my feet. Shit, wait a sec. Life is good. Scratch all that bitching I just did 'kay?

Anyways hope my 2 readers liked this one,
me

ps - who else is unemployed? Wanna grab some lunch?!