Guardian Challenge 2008

I know a few people who have been waiting a couple of weeks for some of these photos to be posted. The problem being, that between German class, side projects and my full time job it has been difficult to find the time needed to go through the 3000 or so photos. I hope that those interested in these photos understand. Mostly because I have seen what these people can do at the event. Seriously though it was a great event and all competitors did an outstanding job..
See some of the other photos at my flickr page here.

From The Man That Brought You Peace Train

Wow it's been two weeks since my last posting . That is the longest break since I started the blog therapy blog. I guess it's because I've been pretty busy as of late. Yesterday I wrote my German level 3 test and other projects are wrapping up so I should be posting more regularly. In the mean time, I found this interesting video of everyone's favorite Muslim, Cat Stevens . I can't believe that this is from the same guy who wrote "Peace Train".


Also, I've been reaquainting myself with one of my favorite late eighties, indy band, the pixies. If you're not familliar with them, check em out.
Enjoy.

3 Months and Counting

I celebrated 3 months smoke free this past weekend by attending the Guardian Dojo Challange . There I took about 2000 photos and some video with the help of Rae and my brother. I have two friends from college who are members of the Guardian Dojo who performed very well in thier fights. I have the upmost respect for anyone who competes in these tournaments. In sadder news, Debby the Polar Bear was euthanized today. Debby was the oldest polar bear on record. Video of Debby can be seen on youtube here.

Mitch Mitchell 1947 - 2008

Rock and Roll lost another great drummer. Mitch Mitchell, one of the few drummers that could keep up with Jimi Hendrix, passed away last Wednesday of natural causes following an 18 date tour called Experience Hendrix. Mitch represented the last living member of the trio, "The Jimi Hendrix Experience", R.I.P.
Above is Mitch performing a drum solo in Sweden in 1969 and below one of my personal favorite drum tracks from Mitch, "Catfish Blues" as seen on youtube.

Mona Marley

I found another fun thing to do from creativepro's wackey website of the week. This week it was for a site called megamonalisa.com where you get to redesign the mona lisa. There are many good and some really bad ones. I had fun whipping this one out. See it posted with the frame on the website here.

All Thumbs

I have been working on computers in school and as my occupation for over 5 years now and I still have to look at the keyboard to type with any kind of speed. although I am up to using 6 fingers, one thing that I kind of regret is never learing the proper way to type. Now, with the help of the internet, I have decided to take action towards correcting this and hope to be typing without looking at the keyboard instead of pecking at the keyboard with my head down, then proof reading to look for typos in the begining of document/Email/blog entry. Here is a site that I have been playing with so far.
good luck to me.

Happy First Snow

Well it's been a while since my last post. I've been pretty busy between work, personal projects, and trying to win the Stanley Cup on my Xbox. Anyway I've kinda been waiting for this day to share this video to give us a little hope on a cold snowy day.

Warning: there is at least one swear in this video and violence against snowmen.



This song is from the greatest "C" movie ever, "Cannibal the Musical". I highly recomend it to any South Park and Matt Stone / Trey Parker Fan.
Have a shpadoinkle day!

Helena Sophia

This past weekend Rae and I had the pleasure of meeting Helena Sophia, our German instructor's new daughter.
Viel Glückwünsche auf Ihrer neuen Tochter.

Happy Halloween Everyone

For Halloween I thought I'd share a video from the one celebrity whom I would like to invite me to his halloween party, Mr. Rob Zombie.

My First Flickr Group

I finally joined my first Flickr group. It has taken a while but I hadn't seen a group that suited me (hadn't looked for one either to be honest). Then I came across the Rusty and Crusty group and it seemed a perfect fit. See some of the great pictures from this group here. This group is one of Flickr's largest (over 16,000 members) and has some really interesting photos as corroded subjects usually have such amazing character.

Happy Halloween

Here is my halloween photo for this year. The photoshop work makes this old pup look a little more menacing than he was. I guess I thought it looked creepy because his stance looked a little suspicious of the camera. All this picture needs is a full moon photoshopped into the sky behind the trees and blood dripping from the dogs mouth. Okay, I may have went a little over board with the blood idea.
Anyway, have a happy halloween and make sure your parents check your candy.

New Streetheart Double Disc Set

Yesterday I bought my copy of the new Streetheart double disc set "The Hits / Anthology". Since I started working here at Polar Bear Productions, I went from being aware of Streetheart to becoming a fan. This double disc set is for both casual listener and fan. Designed by my talented co-worker Loren Stevenson, this package includes one disc of Streethearts hits and a second disc of the bands favorite gems. It also comes with a sixteen page booklet containing personal insights on the songs written by the band. It is available for purchase at their shows or by ordering it off of their website, www.kennyshieldsandstreetheart.com.

Fat Elvis

Rob Peters of Circle Design in Winnipeg recently blogged today about this cool Japanese site called Fontpark 2.0 on robertlpeters.com under the news section. You can follow my link to Rob's blog under Best of the Blogosphere in the column to the right. Here is my attempt below titles "Fat Elvis" or see its creation here.

Lower Fort Garry

This past weekend, Rae, K-Jin, and I went to Lower Fort Garry. It was my first time there and I'm sure not the last. I'd really like to go in the summer to take photos when they have all of the period actors there living in the time of the fur trade. Above is a photo that I took of a York Boat.


It started as a blustery day, as you can see by K-Jin's headscarf, but turned out to be pretty nice by afternoon.

Hydro Tour

Late last September, Rae and I took a tour of the new Mainitoba Hydro building. Here is a photo of the main entrance of the building that I have recently posted on my flickr page from this, our second tour of the building. I like the way my wide angle lens skews the people in the photo below.


When I get some time I will post the first tour pictures form last year and some more of the ones from this tour.
You can see the building on this live camera that is updated every two minutes here.

Neil Young at the MTS Centre

Last night the show was more than any Neil Young fan could ask for. Neil was in top form and played a wide variety of electric favorites like Cinnimon Girl, Cortez the Killer, and of course Rockin' in the Free World, and acoustic greats like Heart of gold, Old Man and Needle and the Damage Done. He then topped it off with a great rendition of the Beatles, A Day in the Life. All the while he had an artist painting canvases behind the drummer and backup singers.
Above is a picture of his gear taken with my cell phone.

Read a review on this show from canoe.ca here.

60 Days Without A Smoke

Ich bin stark. To use todays German word of the day. It's been 2 months, no butts, and doing alright. This months reward is tonight. I am celebrating by going to Neil Young at the MTS Centre. I have been at this point before in an attempt to quit smoking before, so I'm not taking anything for granted.

Old One Room School Houses

Hope Everybody had a great Thanksgiving. This past year I have been trying to take HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) photographs. I was initially inspired by a friend and fellow designer Bryan Scott who has a blog devoted to capturing Winnipeg in this photographic treatment. You can find his blog in the best of the blogosphere in the column to the right or by clicking here.
These are my most recent attempts, taken this past long weekend, on a trip to Raelene's family farm in Saskatchewan.


This is the Hope School that Rae's dad attended near her family farm. It was constructed in 1903 and closed in 1961 and now sits in a cow pasture. Rae has an interesting story on how, after her great grandfather first arrived in Canada, he spent his first night in Saskatchewan in this building during a snow storm with only a small jacket and a coal stove to keep him warm.


This old school house was opened in 1920 and closed in 1961 and seemed sturdy enough to survive an earthquake.


This old yellow farm house shows the cool effect that the HDRI treatment has on clouds. I will keep trying to improve my ability in HDR and post more of the ones that turn out on my flickr page. You can find more of the talented Mr. Scott's photos on his flickr page here.

It's Pool Season

The weather may be getting a little colder out there but many Canadians are jumping into pools. Hockey pools that is. Last night I entered my regular pool that I have misses only once in the last seven years. Sidney Crosby wast the first to go and then Alexander Ovechkin but I had no such luck being that I had the tenth pick. Here is a list of the 13 players that I ended up drafting.

#1 Eric Staal (CAR)

#2 Patrick Kane (CHI)

#3 Alex Tanguay (MTL)

#4 Miroslav Satan (PIT)

#5 R.J. Umberger (CBJ)

#6 Alexander Steen (TOR)

#7 Claude Giroux (PHI)

#8 Tuomo Ruutu (CAR)

#9 Milan Lucic (BOS)

#10 Mason Raymond (VAN)

#11 Mattais Ohlund (VAN)

#12 Fredrick Modin (CBJ)

#13 Christian Ehrhoff (SJ)

New Widget Added

I have a new widget added to the bottom of this blog. It's a German word of the day widget made by Transparent Language, I added it to help me increase my vocabulary for German class.

And now... a snake regurgitating a Hippo.
Enjoy

Insecta: Hemiptera: Belostomatidae.

Upon arriving home from German class last night Rae and I came across this large bug and had to exclaim, what the hell is that!


Thanks to the internet I am confident that I found out precisely what kind of insect it is. It is a giant aquatic bug of the Lethocerus genus. These guys are predators who eat other insects, tadpoles, small fish,and even frogs. It injects an enzyme into its prey that liquifies its insides into a soup that it sucks out. They are said to have one of the most painful bites of any insect.


They are also know as Toe-biters, Giant water bugs, or Electric light bugs. They can be found on most continents and are considered a delicacy in Thailand.


This one in particular, was so large it had another bug living on it. It was found in almost the exact spot that friend and fellow designer, Adrian Shum, caught a picture of a large moth, blogged about here.

St. Norbert Trappist Monastery, Fenced In

This past weekend I went to the St. Norbert Trappist Monastery to take some autumn photos only to find it trapped (no pun intended) behind a chain-linked fence. This is unfortunate for photographers who like to take pictures of these old structures without modern clutter like telephone lines, firehydrants or chain-linked fences showing up in the background. That said, I realise that it is a necessary evil. Just last year, while taking there pictures with Rae, there was a couple in the ruins with two small children. The children were in amongst the ruins, throwing rock around and hitting the old stone structure with sticks. The parents really should have taken this opportunity to teach there kids a little about respect for such a historical site rather than use the ruins as a babysitter. Children aren't the only culprits destroying the ruins. Years of being a popular drinking spot for St. Norbert's youth has also taken its toll. Safety to the Monastery's visitors is also a motive for fencing in this historical landmark.


On this visit I also made a friend with this dog that, I believe, lives at the St. Norbert Arts Centre near the ruins.
See more pictures of this outing at my Flickr page.

My 3-D Birthday

I celebrated a birthday last weekend and for it, my girlfriend took me to a presentation by Frantic Films at the Silver City theater near Polo Park. Frantic displayed some of the process behind the work they did for "Journey to the Center of the Earth", a new film in a list of 3-D releases in an attempt to get people back in theaters, starring Brendan Fraser. Then we watched the film after the presentation. The work that Frantic did was amazing and the presentation by Kert Gartner of Frantic was interesting and well presented. One of my favorite parts of the screening (besides watching Fraser suck in 3-D) was in the previews. They showed a trailer for an upcoming 3-D film called "Coraline" which is directed by Henry Selick (directer of The Nightmare Before Christmas ) and it looks visually stunning.
See the preview in the embedded video below.

It Finally Arrived

Yes the DVD I ordered in early September has finally arrived. The long awaited "The Animation Show, Volume 3" came in the mail yesterday after a good 3 weeks, which I know isn't a long time to wait, I just live in a generetion of instant gratification. The era of download. I had ordered the "Sombrio" video even earlier from Manly Media in Vancouver and to my surprise, The Amination show arrived before it and the Animation Show came from the states. One cool thing was that the Animation Show came with a discounted T-shirt that has become an instant favorite. See below.

The Cosa Nostra Provides My Cellular Service

Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs, when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion (definition from Wikipedia). Recently I had to complain to my cellular provider about my $80 phone bill because of extra text charges and browsing, when, since I've owned my phone, I had the idea that my texts were unlimited and never intentionally did any browsing. Whatever, I made the texts, so I paid it and had an extra $2 a month added to up my texting allowance. The next bill came and there was an extra $20 charge for browsing and this time I knew I hadn't done any. Well it turns out that I have a $20 button on my phone and if I accidentally push it, it connects to my providers server costing me $20. So I called to have browsing disabled to avoid such problems in the future because I don't browse with my cell phone. Apparently they can't do that so their solution was to charge me an extra $3 a month for unlimited browsing. I know that three dollars isn't a lot of money, it's just the fact that I have to pay for a service that I don't use. It reminds me of the Mafia's practice of collecting protection money from businesses to "protect" them from the Mafia's own thugs. Also, it bothers me that every time I call to complain about an extra charge, their solution is to upsell me a more expensive package.
Bastards!

Best 80s Cover Ever

I think everybody remembers the short success of the 80s band Europe and their hit "The Final Countdown" but I don't think anyones heard it quite like this. Complete with the early 80s (bottom of the line) keyboard, Deep Sunshine's multifaceted singer who actually handles both vocals and backup vocals, and the mastery in which the lead guitarist nails that solo. It's a wonder why there appears to be no audience. That said, it's better than I could do, but that's why I don't. Thought this was good for a chuckle.

Most Important Post of the Year

Yesterday I neglected to post the most important post of the year to wish my girl, Raelene a happy birthday. Happy Birthday babe.

Vintage Toons

My cartoon collection has been growing quite nicely. The most recent aquisition was a 12 DVD, 600 episode boxset, made up of 60 hours of, (I think), 12 different vintage cartoon titles. The DVDs include Betty Boop, Heckle and Jeckle, The Three Stooges, one of my favorites, Popeye the sailor man, and many more. Some of these old Fleischer Studios cartoons have so much character to the animation and are so well done, it's amazing to see what they were capable of back in the 40s and 50s.
Here is one of the Popeyes that I watched last night. Olive Oyl was a nut case in these early ones.



Watching all of this Popeye takes me back to the 1980 live action film. This film had some of the best casting, IMO, of any movie I've seen to date. Robin Williams (in his first film role no less) and Shelly Duvall (right after her role in The Shining) are the only people I can picture actually pulling off the roles of Popeye and Olive.


Enjoy

Chained To A Bunkbed With A Velociraptor

I missed blogging yesterday, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace that I have been. I knew between German class starting, some fun side projects that I am involved with, work and just general me time (I bought Madden 2009 for the Xbox 360), that I wouldn't blog each weekday for long. Also I didn't want this to become a pointless blog for blogging sake blog. Too many blogs in that last sentence. This blog started out as an alternative to smoking for me. So far it seems to have helped. I quit the gum sometime last week. Anyway I found this today from Creative pro's "Wacky Website of the Week". I lasted 1 minute and 3 seconds., how long can you survive, chained to a bunkbed with a velociraptor?

I could survive for 1 minute, 3 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

A Little Pirate Humor

A pirate walks into a bar with a ships wheel down his pants.
The bartender says, "Did you know that you have a ships wheel down the front of yer pants?"
To which the pirate replied, "Aye, it's drivin' me nuts."

YARRR!

Avast YE, in honour of International Talk Like A pirate Day, I did up this very quick sketch of Capn' Red Beard.


Check out this video to learn the five A's of "Talk Like A Pirate Day".

One of John Kricfalusi's early works

One of my favorite animators of all times is Jonhn Kricafalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame. I stumbled across this eighties movie intro for that terrible movie "Troop Beverly Hills" starring Shelley Long. I have vague memories of watching this movie on VHS (wikipedia link for those of you who might not remember this format) in 1989. I remember how I lost interest in the film shortly after the opening credits. It wasn't until recent that I learned that it was done by the great John K. Now when I see it, it's kinda obvious by the rendering of the dogs, busty ladies and his trademark animation style. Check out more of his great stuff on youtube here. The Björk video is great and, his take on Yogi Bear and The Jetsons is a little disturbing.
Enjoy,
YOU EEEDIOTS!

Been a While Since I Looked Like This

Yesterday marked a month since I had a smoke in my mouth. I'd be lying if I said that I haven't had the urge and I know that I've been at this point before. I gotta say though, that the blogging has helped. To have something to divert your attention to and just taking a pause to post something or work on something to blog about helps to get past the cravings. I,m still waiting to receive my first month reward in the mail. So far I've ordered about three months of rewards so I guess I'll just have to keep it up.

Deutchkurs beginnt wieder

Yesterday, Rae and I began our Level III German class. Most of our class members are coming back as well as a few new faces. It seems that most of the new students who just jumped into level three are way more advanced than us but it seemed like that was the case at the beginning of level two. In honor of the start of level III, here is some squirrel porn put to Faith No More's "Das Schützenfest".
Enjoy.

Housewarming party

This past Saturday I was invited to attend my brother's housewarming party. I decided that I wanted to paint a canvas for his new pad. The hardest part was deciding what to paint. I tried to force myself to come up with something classy and music inspired. After passing on a bunch of ideas I decided to get the drunk clowns out of my system and came up with these quick sketches.


After sketching the final picture on the 24"x30" canvas I lined it in blue acrylic.


Then I built up the shadows in washes of the blue acrylic.


Then I started knocking in some colour.


Finally, I filled in the rest of the colour and built up the shadows.



I think it went over pretty well. I also like how the subject of clowns yields a wide range of reactions. My brother said he couldn't help but smile when looking at it while others found it quite disturbing.

Yearbook Photo

Here is a photo of me when I graduated in 1978. Actually I was only 4 in 1978 and this is a picture generated from a clever site called Yearbook Yourself. There you can see how you would look through the ages by superimposing your face over old school yearbook pictures. It spans from the 50s' right up to the year 2000. I thought that this one turned out the best for me. Try it out and send me a link so I can see how silly you would look in a different era.

Freecycling

Here is an interesting concept that a friend from Vancouver turned me on to. She was telling me about one that was in Vancouver and was wondering if someone was doing it in Winnipeg and wouldn't you know, someone was. It's called Winnipeg Freecycle and it is a Yahoo group that offers a place to post stuff that you don't want anymore and find stuff you may need, that other people are throwing out. You know what they say, "One man's junk is another man's treasure." Anyway you got to be quick to call for items you may want because people just post things and it's first come first serve. It seems to me that it's a win, win situation in that you can get rid of your junk and it's not going to some landfill. Best of all, everything is free.
You can see more details and sign up for it here.

Exciting new link added!

A co-worker turned me onto this new site from San Fransisco called Fecal Face. It features art and artists of the bay area. This weeks Free Fridayz prize on their website is a copy of "The Animation Show" (of which I own the first two volumes) presented by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt. I've always been a fan of Mr. Judge, from Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill and Office Space, and Mr. Hertzfeldt (even before I knew who he was) from Liquid Television's "Stick Figure Theater", Rejected Cartoons and his many commercials.
Below is the intro to "The Animation Show" found on youtube.

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Cruise Night Book

I've recently uploaded some pictures from a book I made for an assignment in third year graphic design. The assignment was to create a photographic book on the subject of collections. Having worked in autobody, I appreciate a well restored car so I collected a bunch of photos of classic cars for my book titled "Cruise Night".
Check kout my Flickr page to see some of the photos in the book.

Drunk Clown #2

Yesterday while tidying up I found a sketch book that I thought was lost forever. There wasn't a lot of pages filled which was all the more reason to find it. It did have this sketch done in it, another drunk clown. You can see the first drunk clown I sketched here.
Friend and fellow designer Paul Kietke has started a blog to document his adventures as he gives living over seas a shot. He departed yesterday so he should be arriving in England today. Good Luck Paul and keep us posted.

3 Smokefree Weeks

Well it's been three weeks and with the advice of most of the "quit smoking" I've read, I plan to reward myself each month. No plans for this month but on the 16th of October, I have already bought my reward, Neil Young tickets. You can hear some of Neils new stuff and see clips of a new Neil young video at his home site, Neil's Garage. Not the best made website in my opinion but still worth checking out.
Otherwise this weekend was pretty uneventful. Had friends visiting from up north, watched the Bombers loose to rival Saskatchewan, and saw Spain's Rafa Nadal get eliminated from the US Open by the Scottish player, Andy Murray. So tonight it will be Swiss tennis phenom, Roger Federer.

More pictures from Sombrio

One of my most memorable moments on Sombrio was the first morning I spent there. We had arrived the night before in total darkness and made our way through a hard to follow path, even in the daylight, to a makeshift tent made by my friend Mike in an earlier visit. The next morning I woke up earlier than my friends and walked down the rock beach where I found a large piece of driftwood. There I sat front of the Pacific Ocean, for the first time in my life, and enjoyed the sounds of the surf. Then I heard the sound of some kind of bell. I turned my head to find Nina, the goat pictured above. I thought that a little strange until about half a minute later , when a crow landed on the driftwood beside me and then hopped on to my lap. This was when I met Crowie, the crow that I am sharing a Drum cigarette with in the picture below.


See these pictures and more on my Flickr page here.

Sombrio Documentary

Today I finally did something that I've been meaning to do for a few months now. I sent away for my "Sombrio" documentary, made by Canadian film maker Paul Manly. What seems like a lifetime ago, I made three trips to Sombrio Beach in the summers of 94' and 95'. I met the residents and lived for short periods on the beach, so I greatly anticipate watching Mr. Manly's film. Sombrio was a popular surf spot on the west coast of Vancouver Island and home to many people including the Oke family who had been there for around 20 years (at the time that I visited). There is some debate as to whether the peacefull families that called Sombrio there home were treated fairly in their eviction to make way for the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, so I am eager to hear what the film has to say.
Above is a photo of my fishing buddy Isaiah Oke and Crowie (on the table) on Sombrio beach, Summer 1995.
More on the Oke family here.
I will be uploading more pictures to my Flickr page here, as I scan them in.

The Hockey Song

I haven't been using this blog to rant but something about this Hockey Night In Canada song contest isn't sitting right with me. In case you don't know, the CBC is judging a contest they are holding for the new HNIC theme song.On one hand I think that these competitions are entertaining by the good and especially bad songs produced. In the same way that I can handle watching the first week of those Idol shows, I like to watch the train wrecks. On the other hand I feel that there are many musicians out there that do this for a living and this competition are taking a livelyhood away from them just so the CBC can save a dime. As a graphic designer, I had these same feelings toward the 2010 Vancouver Olympic committee for holding a similar logo contest. If the CBC is so concerned about saving money, why then did they use some of the most sought after commercial air time, during the 2008 Bejing Olympics, to promote the CBC National News, Sophie, Little Mosque on the Prairie, and other CBC shows? I guess its because they know that the Canadian taxpayer will pay top dollar for these commercial spots to promote shows that nobody really watches anyway. In my oppinion they should have just given Stompin' Tom Connors a bag full of money for permission to use "The Good Ol' Hockey Game".

September Long

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the long Weekend. Rae and I took in the Assiniboine Park Zoo on Saturday.


On Sunday, we went to the to the Leo Mol Sculpture garden. Surrounding the Leo Mol sculpture garden is a large variety of flowers and a pond that was home to this guy...


You can see more photos of my weekend on my Flickr page here.

Drunk Clown #1

One of the hardest places to stop smoking is at work. A regular smoke with a co-worker was a good excuse to stop staring at my computer screen. I've begun to take a sketchbook to work in order to do more drawing when I would normally step out for a butt. Here is the first sketch that I (regretfully) coloured with pencil crayon which doesn't really scan very well. Ever since I saw the movie "Shakes the Clown" starring Bobcat Goldthwait, I've found drunk clowns funny. The drawing was also inspired by Dave Louapre and Dan Sweetman's series "Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children" specifically "A Cotton Candy Autopsy". I first came across these guys from their work featured in the self titled "Mr. Bungle" album, co-produced by the great John Zorn(see Mr. Zorn's work here). It takes a little digging, but you can find the album artwork at Mr. Bungle's website, "Bungle Fever". It is a flash site so I can't provide a direct link. Check out one of my favorite Bungle songs, "Stubb (a dub)" under Audio > Live/Rare > Stubb(a dub).