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).

Best of the Blogosphere

Northern Hotel
Originally uploaded by bryanscott

I thought I'd take this chance to blog about my links in the Best of the Blogosphere in no particular order. Starting with Bryan Scott and his amazing talent for photography at "Winnipeg: Love & Hate".

Then there's Alan Lorde at "The place Where Al Dwells". Who offers entertaining insite on design, hiphop, pop culture and best of all... wrestling.

Next is James Gillespie, who tenacity for scketching makes "Kalamafraz" one of the most interesting blogs out there.

"The Adventures of J.E. Daniels" has some of the best animation and cartooning stories on the web. Also check out "Daniels Doodles" to see some of his original works.

As well I have "Muhsashum". Friend and fellow designer Adrian J.K. Shum provides a vast resourse of links pertaining to everything, graphic design.

Finally on the Best of the Blogosphere is Robert L. Peters blog. This blog is a platform of views and oppinions from one of Manitoba's most prominent members of the global design community.

Deutschkurs

Nineteen days until Rae and I take level 3 German lessons. After a long summer with little practice, we are cramming to get back in shape. Between trying to enjoy the summer, learning a bit of Spanish for our Costa Rica trip and just being lazy students, our only exposure to German has been a monthly slow German podcast and a couple of pavilions at Folklorama. Above is a picture I took with my cell phone at the Alpine pavilion of the wonderful oompah band, The BMWs.

My New Favorite Cartoon

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is probably the best cartoon in the world today. Well it's my favorite right now. You can see it on Teletoon Saturdays at 1:00 pm CST. This cartoon is about a wide eyed boy named Flapjack who lives in his mothering whale, Bubby, with his adventuring mentor, Captain K'Nuckles, and their ongoing search for Candied Island. Rae sent me a link to a great blog called "Frederator Blogs". It is a great resource for all kinds of animation news. I will add it to my links. Any way checkit out because it hads a great interview with Flapjack's creator Thurop Van Orman. Here is an excerpt of the interview.

What do you think makes for a great cartoon?
If a cartoon can make me uncomfortable, then I’ll be tuning in again. If it can make me uncomfortable while I’m laughing my ass off then I’ll never miss it. If I get misty eyed, because it’s so sweet or heartfelt, I get uncomfortable. Because it’s a cartoon. If while I’m uncomfortable about the irony of crying during a cartoon, they hit me with the hilarious kind of irony, well I reckon thats hollywood gold.

Read the Animag interview here.

Meet My New Pal Abby

This is Abby, my buddy from Rae's family farm. The only one willing to get up at 6:30 to go around taking pictures. When we were walking through some wheat I noticed that if I was too quite, she didn't know where I was. So I caught this picture as she bounded through the wheat to get her bearings.

Zack Kim, Guitar Hero

Off To Saskatchewan

Well, I am off to Saskatchewan for the weekend. Birthplace of both of my parents. A while back I did some photo restoration of my grandparents as a Christmas present for my mother. Here is a before and after of the job that I did. You can see more on my Flickr.

Day 4, Dreams of Tobacco Sticks, Dancing in My Head

Well it's day four without a Butt and no breakdowns yet. However I had my first smoking dream, which is always weird. I've quit smoking before and eventually you begin dreaming about it every other night. It always leaves you waking up with a little guilt, and a little satisfaction. I found a posting that explains the "Smoking Dream" pretty well.

The smoking dreams are common if not universal among ex-smokers. It is especially common when a person is off a short time period, and if it occurs within days or weeks of a quit, it is likely to be extremely disturbing and very realistic. Realistic enough in fact that the ex-smoker will wake up smelling and tasting a cigarette, convinced that he or she has actually smoked.

See full article here.

Campbells Soup Dude

Here is a muppet of some sort that I found in the Atlanta Airport along with a bunch other marionettes. This guy was apparently used in a Campbells soup commercial in the 70s.


I'm afraid they were under glass, so there was no way around all of the reflections.

If you really like muppets I suggest you see Peter Jackson's take here.

Everyone Should Have a Pair of Elvis Shades

I picked up these beauties at the Elvis Store in the Memphis airport en route back form my Costa Rica trip. I've come to realize that as tacky as Elvis shades are, everyone that tries them on looks good in them. They also start to talk differently.
Thank you very much!

This pic begins my Miscellaneous set on my Flickr page. I've also started an Airports set because I plan to see many more of those in future travel.

New Flickr Album

Here is the new Flickr page. Not much up there yet but more to come.

Enjoy

Day 2 So Far So Good

Aside from my new chewing gum tasting like I picked it out of a dirty ash-tray, I haven't had any weak moments. I know it's only been 2 days but no terrible urges so far. one thing I've done to occupy my time was to start a Flickr account. So far it only has a few pictures but I only started it this morning.

Day 1

Well, it's been over 24 hours since I last had a smoke so I guess this is day one as a non-smoker. It's not the first time that I've tried to quit but hopefully the last. This time I am going to use this blog to hopefully help with the process. I figure that every time I feel the urge, I will either post something or work on something to post. So I expect to have plenty to blog about in the next little while.