Donation...

So I'm participating in and donating artwork for a fundraiser for the Arts in Kansas City. And after much toil and sweat I give you my contribution to the silent auction.

Enjoy!

ashamed.

I don't know where to begin.

I guess I can leave it at in the last 48 hours I have been terribly irresponsible. And my shame is how it's effected my responsibilities in life, mainly because I know I am better then that.

I guess that's it. And I just wanted to say it. Now I just gotta pick myself back up.

Oh Wow, Part 2.

Just saw a commercial which stated, "Have a happy period".

All I have to say is "Whoa".

Oh wow.

Is it bad I want this?

Source: BoingBoing

My Brother and New Sister...

Been a little behind in blogging some photos. But I recently went to see family in Maryland. Why? Cause my brother is getting married. I know, AWESOME. Anyway, here's some photos. Enjoy!


Big brother and new sister.


Me and big brother.


More new sibs.


More fam. Old and new.

Have you ever noticed...

...there just [doesn't] seem to be enough time in the day?

My First List...

So I have people in my life who enjoy lists. I have one who always has a list of movies she wants to see with her. I have another friend who seems to have a list for just about every occaision, so I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and offer my first list, "Revelations So Far of 2008":

- "Crushes" are probably the most deceiving thing imaginable for the Crusher, not really the Crushee
- As much as I love cooking, I don't think I will ever be good enough to consider using Truffle Oil
- I think I am ready to start dating again
- Drama bugs the hell out of me
- Good people are hard to find
- Politics of any kind exhaust me mentally and emotionally
- I think I am realizing I am at the age that I need to put things into focus emotionally, personally, professional, all of it. Need to get my shit together.
- Honesty is probably the sexist thing in a person...
- ...that and knowing you can talk to someone without fear of it spreading...
- ...I guess they call that trust. So yes, trust is probably the sexist thing to find in a person.
- I'm really annoyed that every time I fly now there seems to be a delay
- I turn 30 next month, I'm told I need to get a prostate exam at 30...
- ...I'm not looking forward to my first prostate exam.

So I'm still stuck in the airport, but my plane just landed. Hopefully I will get back to KC soon. But yeah, that's it for the first list, until "Revelations So Far of 2008 part Deux", I remain your faithful blogger Ben.

Still waiting.

Still waiting to get home. Did I mention I am an impatient man?

Stuck.

The weekend is done. So incredibly happy for my brother (he's engaged you know). And I'm eager to get back home to Kansas City, get to the airport, ready to check my shit only to read:

YOUR FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED!

And my heart drops. I guess it's snowing something fierce back in the Heartland. I don't know. I just want to get home, get back to my routine, and get things moving again.

Here's hoping they line me up on something soon.

ugh.

Kicking it with the Fam.

So I'm in Maryland right now. Why you ask? Well, my older brother proposed to his girl. That response you're looking for is awesome. And I'm in town for an engagement dinner.

That's pretty much it. Just wanted to share.

Everybody I know in KC going to the ADDYS, sorry I'm not gonna be there, have a awesome time, and kick everyone else's ass!

Seriously.

So if you're gonna get mad at someone, be sure you're mad for the right reason. Or at the very least, a justified one.

Take today for example. I discover someone to whom I consider a friend is going through something heavy. Don't know what, but it's enough to know it's heavy. I call to see if she's okay. After the call, a co-worker of mine is asking me who I was talking to, what was up. And I politely explained I didn't feel it appropriate to discuss it. The co-worker looked disgruntled, frustrated, and sort of gave me the "Are you serious? We talk about everything!" kind of look. And she pretty much gave me the cold shoulder the rest of the day.

Now let's examine this for a moment. She may know of my friend, but by no means knows my friend. So if I told my co-worker what was up, there would be no effort to try and give support or cheer the person up, I very much took her curiousity as to know some gossip.

And that's really never a good reason to give something up.

But yea, cold shoulder given. And all I can think is, "seriously?". I can appreciate feeling like you were left out of the loop, but it wasn't my place to share, and if things were explained politely and not, "none of your fucking business", really, are you seriously mad? But yea, not gonna give someone I care about to the gossip train.

But the co-worker will get over it, and I hope my friend will be okay. And things will be back to normal.

But yea, if you're gonna get mad, be sure you got a good reason.

Charity and Emo, a Match Made in Heaven?

So I find myself doing a lot of volunteer/charity work lately. Next thing on deck? Donate my time and art to a fundraiser for the Arts in Kansas City. It's something I feel very passionate about, but for the moment I'm... I don't know how to explain it... I don't want to make another "pretty" picture, I want the work to have substance. I always told my friends that the greatest art was art that had narrative. So as long as a piece of art spoke to you in some way, shape, or form, that dialog is just as valid form of a appreciate of art as any. And you can tell any houtie-toutie Art History Major that says otherwise to fuck off.

But for the moment I am not concerned with the viewer, but more with myself. I want this to have some greater substance for me. To tell a story, rather then just have one interpreted when sometimes there was no story to be told.

Outside of my sequential work (read: comics), I've never really had this thought process before when it came to my personal work. And for better or for worse, I can say that I haven't been happy in my life as of late... not upset or sad either. So I guess that leaves me in some strange middle limbo. But that leaves some indulgent emo boogie behind... And I don't know how much I'm a fan of that. But when it comes to the task to producing work... might be useful... probably not.

Anyway, this is me, venting, sharing, probably at a time when I should be drawing or painting. I don't know.

Anyway, if you're in KC, I'll post when the art appreciation goes down, and you can tell me if I'm a art communicating failure. (nice huh?)

My Great Shame...

Now, my exposure to music is not as wide as some of my friends. Of them, some are self-proclaimed "Music Snobs". My personal appreciation of music is definitely not one where I feel like I can contribute anything meaningful to a conversation on music, then say I conversation on movies.

Enter tonight.

I'm watching the CW, I won't tell you what I was watching, I mean, come on, the Writer's Strike isn't giving much to work with. In anycase, as in many CW shows, at the end you get, "music from tonight's episode was brought to you buy..."

Yes, I felt the urgent need to buy a song featured in the episode of the unnamed show I was watching.

So ashamed.

But of course, Lionel Richie's "Hello" just came up in my iTunes queue...

drops

When it rains, it really does pour, doesn't it?

Hyper Island

So I'm an Art Director at an advertising agency. The agency itself specializes in technology and the web. So you can say I'm an Interactive Art Director. That said, it's always a great pleasure to see engaging work on the web.

Enter the Hyper Island.

This site is for a school in Sweden, who actually has a course in Interactive Design, of which the site I'm talking about is made for. What I really like about this site, the intro to the site and all the subsequent sections are little short animations that are a completely throwback to the Golden Age of Industrial films. They're absolutely charming, artful, and being in the industry, at times hilarious clips.

Even if you see it for nostalgoia alone, it's well worth the visit.

Check it out.

And I can't sleep...

You know I definitely hate when you can't get to sleep. You lie in bed, teeth are brushed, and you're ready to hit REM. But it's just not coming together for you. And more often then not it's because certain memories of the day, or stray thoughts creep in, and just stop you from getting a blissful nights sleep.

For me, it's the former and not the latter.

I wish I could elaborate as to the hows or whys, but I really can't. I guess what I can say is that I friend of mine at work, she expressed once to me that she worries for me. She said, "Ben you're such a nice guy, always willing to help, I just worry that people will take advantage of that..."

And I guess I wonder if that is happening now. Again not going to comment as to what aspect of my life I am feeling this in... But yea, those of you closest to me know that I tend over-analyze, and over-think things a lot, I mean A LOT. Credit that to an overactive imagination or my fantasical powers of deduction :-), you choose. That said, it's entirely possible that all this is all in my head. But that's the rub, right? Imagination or not, it can be a little daunting, you know, the whole idea of "what if?"

So there it is. As ambiguous as that is. I sit here, unable to sleep, wondering. Wondering if I am being taken advantage of, wondering others are benefiting from my efforts in life. I sit and wonder what that "next" step is.

But as I sit in disarray I find myself REALLY wanting this:



Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is a Spice Gun, you literally load spice bullets in the chamber, and blast your food by pulling the trigger. But sadly it's the great pain of my life knowing I will never own this, as it's merely the result of a entry into a concept design competition in Asia... sigh.

Source: Engadget

Revelation...

...when you're frustrated, or angry, you know, that bad boogie. One thing you don't need is to have "Sinner Man" by Nina Simone come up in your iTunes queue. That jam makes you more angry... well, angry is the wrong word... but it definitely exacerbates the bad boogie.

I don't know what it is. It's hard for me to hear lyrics through Nina's voice on some songs... but her tone in Sinner Man, and the music to accompany her voice... yea, awesome song, but makes things worse to be sure.

Crazy.

MONSTERS

So there's this guys "COOP", and he has put together an incredible collection of photos depicting vintage Japanese monster/robot toys. Looking at all these toys in their vinyl splendor is really surreal. I caught the post on BoingBoing, and there's a link to his Blogger blog, and finally a link to his Flickr page.

But now, if you're interested in seeing the photos, and well worth the effort, the big treasure trove of photos is on Flickr... but here's the thing, it came up fine for me, but when I forwarded the link to friends... yea, they got naked ladies.

So, be warned you might get some ladies, and not toys.

Dammit.

I lost my favorite hat... that troubles me.

Shepard Fairey's Obama poster

Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the Andre the Giant posters, created this poster to show his support of Barack Obama. It was a limited run of 350 and apparently sold out in moments.

Whatever your political views maybe, this is just a spectacular piece of, well shit I'll say it, art. So kudos Shepard on another wonderful piece.

Source: BoingBoing

Is it any wonder why I enjoy KARAOKE!