Visit from Aaron

This weekend saw a rare departure from Denver by one Aaron Taylor. We had a great time. He seems to be doing well. Not drinking or smoking, and he looks really fit. Due to Jason and Jennifer's stupidity, he had to be picked up by Jen's step-dad, and subjected to his company. Norm is awesome, but a bit of a shock for the uninitiated. Cody joined us on our weekend outing as well. I took Friday off and we hung out in Stilly. We hung out at the house, went to the coffeeshop, Jen and Aaron got hair cuts, then Aaron bought an Eskimo Joe's hat as well as this hat. He tortured the poor sales girl for over an hour, talking about spinny rims and headless chickens. She was awfully cute, but couldn't tell if Aaron was hitting on her or not. Neither could I. Neither could Aaron for that matter.
Cody joined us, and we went to get Chinese food, where Aaron and Cody had a little Oprah session about the state of "Denver Girls" while I ate lo mien. Back to the house for beers and patio conversation till the wee hours of late evening. Cody crashed there and in since the Powers pantry was poorly stocked due to a moderately successful attempt by Jason to lose weight( I'm down to 225 from 240 when Jack was born, and have 30 to go), we decided to hit Shortcakes. Shortcakes is a 24 hour greasy spoon with cramped quarters and no high chairs. They put American cheese (pasturized processed cheese-food product) on everything, and I was happy. Jen was not, as she ordered a cheese omelet (they had no mushrooms, that would be healthy) and she hates that fake cheese shit. We then went back to the coffeeshop, where Jackson flirted with all the cute girls on staff. Boy, if there is a cute girl or a camera around, that kid turns into the biggest ham. Cody departed to Enid for a birthday party, and we soon departed for Tulsa to see the grandparents. More accurately, for them to watch the boy so we could go to the bar. I cooked steaks that tasted yummy but were a wee bit undercooked.

The bar was fun. Jen made a new friend in the form of a drunk fucker who would hit on anything that moved.

witness--->

There were drunk girls and I smacked Jessie the bartender's ass, much to his delight. Jen was on a mission to find Cody a "nice Oklahoma girl so he won't leave" but was unsuccessful. The closest we got was a goth chick who decided to hit on me instead. Too bad. Who doesn't want to get with this?

Sunday was spent sight-seeing. -->

What a sight. The less said about that the better. I think people in OK are gonna think every guy from Denver has short dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses. We did hit woodward park. There were attractive Earth Day girls that Aaron and Cody failed to hit on. We ate Pepper's. Our car battery died, and we had to get a new one.

More patio partying back at Casa del Powers and then we went to bed, tired from all day in the sun. Monday I went back to work and Aaron went back to Denver. But not before Jackson was introduced to Greek food. The tabuli was a hit. We were then hit with rain, hail, and tornados that lasted all night. A fun weekend.

Things my wife has made up about fictional animals

I had a good weekend. I had Friday off, so I did a bunch of yardwork and chores and stuff. Saturday Jack and Cody and I went to the coffeeshop and then I cooked us all some fillets wrapped in bacon that kicked bottom. Jen made mashed potatos and they were equally bottom kicking. We drank some adult beverages and killed parasitic bugs. (one did not lead to the other)
At some point, Jen and I started talking about how I will eventually take Jackson camping and she will not attend. Partly because camping is a very father-son bonding thing, but mostly because she's really girly and doesn't like dirt. Then this happened:

Jen: Well, if you go, you need to watch out for the Oklahoma Grizzly Beast.

Jason: The Oklahoma Grizzly Beast?

Jen: Yep. It looks like a bobcat... but it has the face of a lion.

Jason: Really?

Jen: Yeah, and there's longer fur down the middle of it's back.

Jason: Like a mohawk?

Jen: Yes. And... (motioning to her mouth ala the Holy Grail Bunny scene) It has those big teeth.

Jason: Saber-teeth?

Jen: Yeah.

Jason: Oooo... Kay. Does it have stripes or cheetah spots or...

Jen: NO! It has cow spots! (Jason spits out his beer swig)

Jason: Well, does it have cat eyes or those black cow eyes that look like they have no soul?

Jen: No, listen. That's the thing. That's how they get you! It has big blue human eyes and these long eyelashes! So when you see one, it looks at you like a puppy and you go 'awww..' and when you go to pet it, it GETS you! Rawr!

Jason: Well you be sure to tell Jack about that before we leave. So I gotta deal with nightmares.


Here is what popped into my head:

Careful out there, kiddies!

Sketchbook #7

Bunch o' monsters. I really like the rotten orange monster. No one likes a rotten orange. Not even other rotten oranges. It is sad, really. I think I need more colors of highlighters. I could really branch out and waste time at work more effectively. Anybody who buys me a cool colored highlighter will receive a JP original piece of ball-point-pen-and-highlighter art in the mail.

Act now!

Litigation

This is not a real product-->

Are you confused? Brian at Doubleshot Coffee Co. in Tulsa has received a cease and desist order from Starbucks. He is to remove all mentions of the name "Doubleshot", because the company feels that it is a copyright infringement on their trademarked drink, the doubleshot. The thing is, how can one a) trademark a universal drink, made by anyone who has a espresso machine, and b) confuse the name of a business with the name of said drink?

I can understand if his store was called "Dr. Pepper's", but if Dr. pepper tried to sue him because his store was called "Soda", that would be extremely stupid.

from an email sent by Brian:

"I received a letter last week informing me that I am infringing on a trademark that Starbucks has had since 2001, "Starbuck's Doubleshot." The lawyers advised me to cease using the DoubleShot Coffee Company name, to shut down my website (http://www.DoubleShotCoffee.com), and to destroy everything I have which bears the "DoubleShot" name. Come read the letter yourself-- it's framed and hanging on the wall, over the garbage can.

"Please tell as many people as you can about this outrageous Starbucks chicanery. We figure that the more publicity and public indignation we stir up, the better chance we will have at standing up against this evil corporate empire.
Find out more information about this on the latest episode of AA Cafe (and learn how to get a 15% discount on web orders): http://www.DoubleShotCoffee.com/aacafe or on iTunes (search for "AA Cafe" in the music store).

You should listen to the podcast. This is a simple case of a big corporation stomping on the little guy. It will serve them no purpose other than to eliminate a competing smaller businesses that happes to offer a better product. A lot of people don't like Brian and would frankly love to see his store replaced by a starbucks, but regardless of your feelings, this is just not right. Fight the man!

March calender

Here it is----->
I like the little deep sea diver. This month also sees dig-dug, a space chick and the grim reaper.
Also, I was very excited to see the return of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi channel. As latchkey kids, my brother and I were big fans, watching every sunday morning on PBS as we stayed at our dad's house on the weekends, waiting for him to get up and out of bed. This was at least until we discovered Teletunes, but even then Jeff would tape it, and we'd watch it later.
The new Who, on the heels of the Hitchhiker's movie, has awakened a dormant uber-nerd in me. I'm extremely nerdy, I know, but this is a super form that had been surpressed by good music and fashion sense. I find my self back in the comic shop a little more, and lurking around on a few message boards that maybe I shouldn't. Old favs like Robotech and Star Trek: TNG are finding their way onto my TV. I am especially excited for Star Trek 2.0, and I even watched a couple of X-Files episodes last week. I don't know if I should resist (futile) or just give in. All I know is that I'd better see a hipster/indy rock/emo concert soon or there will be tape on my glasses before I know it.

Sketchbook #6

This week we have a wrench. I don't know why.
That's a lie, yes I do. I had a professor in college who was really into Jim Dine, and I became a fan as well. Partly because my sketches were similar in style, and partly because I really respected the professor, though most students hated him.

Jim Dine did a whole series of drawings involving tools and paintbrushes and the like. He later moved into a really pop-art inspired period where he did hearts and bathrobes and boots. Unfortunately, these are what he's best remembered for, when he's a much deeper and significant artist, doing sculpture and instillation as well, sometimes all at once. I have a certain affinity with Dine, I think because we both have recurring themes in our art. I tend to put swirls and arrows and matches in most of my stuff, and he has hearts and the Venus de milo. We also like to use nontraditional media and we both have a very textural feel to our stuff.
And of course, we're both better known for more goofy stuff.

Endangered Species

I've only ever seen them in the zoo or on TV, with the exception of a Bald Eagle I once saw in the desert. *
But last night, one of these---->
got stuck between the screen and the sliding glass door. I thought it was a bat at first because it was almost 5 inches across! We took some pics and googled it, to find out that it was a rare endangered moth called a Luna Moth. Good thing we didn't smush it, because that would have been a federal offence. We gingerly took the screen door off it's runner and coaxed it onto the end of my pocket knife. We then released it back into the wild that is our back yard.
They are really beautiful. Mostly green with eye spots and purple edges, a white body, and huge, furry antennae.


In other news, we got Jackson a little floaty thing for use in the hot tub. He LOVES it! He kicks his little feet and splashes in the netting between the first and second inflatable rings. He seems to have a good time. And he looks really cute in it.


*I may have been halucinating

Sketchbook #5

Here is a doodle from my book:

It's a bomb. I thought about making the sticker read "Ishtar", but decided against it. If it could be printed accurately, I would love to do an entire comic in just ball-point pens and highlighters.

This past weekend, Jen's cousin Preston got married. We had a good time. The reception was at a place called Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse, and 'tis a magical place. The reception hall, which was above the main area, looked like any other reception, only with heraldic flags covering the windows.
outside was a giant wooden castle called Adventure Quest, offering:

Outwit mazes, beat obstacle courses, zoom down slides, and splash away at the water stream table in this enchanting three-story playland brimming with extraordinary outdoor activities. Built by the hands of more than 11,000 local volunteers, this impressive structure is sure to be your favorite outdoor activity.

We totally would have gone, had it not been for the torrential downpour occurring at the time.
I can't wait to take Jackson there once he gives a shit. Although it would involve actually going to Enid on purpose. I don't know if I could handle that.

boy howdee

So I watched my boy all day yesterday while Jenn went to a funeral. I had a great time. I didn't get to see him all last week, so it was good to have a whole day just to play. We baught him shoes and he went with me to the comic book store and the coffeeshop. The extremely attractive staff of Aspen Coffee Company were all a twitter about him, so (listen up here, Cody) I'm thinking of renting him out as girl bait. He's the in, you see. Then you can chat up the cute ladies, and you look like the type of responsible guy that people trust their kids with, even though I'll only be a half a block away with a pair of binoculars.

In other news, SXSW Media announced their blog awards last monday. I am really happy that postsecret won a huge heap of awards, because it is a truely awesome site.
I didn't win anything. I know you were all pulling for me, and I thank you all for your support, but I didn't win.

Have a look:

Schmatrix

I work with more that a few really overweight guys who like to wear leather trenchcoats and wear sunglasses with really small lenses. I know this is the norm in places like Germany, but around here it looks silly. Especially when you have just a t-shirt and grubby jeans on underneith. None of you are Keanu. None of you are even Lawrence Fishburn, though his physique is certainally closer to your own.

The Life Pursuit

A record review

If you listen to the entire catalog of Belle & Sebastian as I have done many times thanks to the ipod, no song sounds like the one next to it, though the band has a very distinct sound. The Life Pursuit is no exception. If they want to throw in a Blues song, or a bunch of techno beeps and boops, even nods to '70s AM radio, they feel free to do so with out any concern or care that they are straying from their "sound". They have become less cryptic and less morose as the years and constant line-up changes have gone by, but the music has not suffered for it. It has only gotten better. This is only the second album produced by an outsider, and you can tell that Tony Hoffer is letting others in the band besides Stuart Murdoch have a say in what gets done. The songs are more polished without sounding over-mixed. Unlike past albums, when a track starts off not as wonderful as I would like, it soon proves me wrong. Nothing is worth skipping over.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress heralded their exit from shy, reclusive melodrama to extroverted pop sensations, and this change worried some of the die-hards like myself. DCW tested the waters with one toe, but refused to jump all the way in, and I thought they might pull a Smiths on us, and languish in the shallows, flopping around until they finally died, only to be re-born as an over-cooked dinner. Was Morrissey great? Yes. As great as the Smiths? No fucking way. The Life Persuit has not only jumped in, but set up an undersea bio-dome ala Sealab, where they can live forever. This new found confidence has come with everything associated with it, including touring, radio appearances, and actually allowing interviews and public appearances, something that they rarely did in the past, adding to their mystique. This was a main reason why some of the fans cried foul, but the long awaited release doesn't justify the nail-biting. Every track can trace it's roots to an earlier incarnation, cementing the B&S "sound", but adding a lot as well. "Another Sunny Day" is a series of lyrical snapshots, and "Sukie in the Graveyard" is another in a long line of character studies. There are the standard meandering guitars and organ solos, poppy, happy drums, and backing vocals, along with the lyrics that always make your ears perk up, think: Did I really just hear that? All with Stuart's wonderful not-quite-whiney vocals that Colin Meloy hasn't yet mastered.

All in all a big Thumbs up from Jason.

Feb at my Job

So this---------->
Is how my calandar looked last month. As you can see, there is very little actual work penciled in there. If I had more work, I couldn't have done all these doodles, now could I? I like the Kong part. This month I'm thinking Dig Dug.
My mom came to visit and I had a birthday. Jackson turned 7 mo. old. Time flys, well sorta.
"The years go fast but the days go so slow," to quote Modest Mouse.
Here is something I noticed about how this society is a little weird. We all know about the ads during the Super Bowl, and many people tune in just for them, and that's fine. We all love witty ads, and sometimes we download them and watch them over and over, and then sometimes the ad takes on a life of it's own, and people forget what the ad was for in the first place. I saw the Superfriends version of the wassup ad before I saw the ad itself. But last night I kept seeing ads about a new X-Men 3 trailor that is going to be shown during 24 next week. And ad for an ad. That's taking it a little far. Do we really need commercials telling us when a commercial is going to be on? I guess it isn't that different from a press release about a product launch, just a little more blatant.
The really sad part about it is that I was really excited about the new trailor when I saw the ad for the trailor. I watch the old one every few days, anong with the Superman one.
I am a sad little nerd.

A Fine Weekend

So this past weekend I turned 31. Not a monumental birthday by any stretch. Not a milestone or anything. But I had a lovely weekend. My mom came down from DCD to hang out. She's mellowed out a lot, so that has eased the stress on us a lot.
On Friday we went to Benali's and ate some awesome Italian food. I was even serenaded by a very strange couple who were providing the live entertainment that night. Usually the chick from Rook is there with her violin(a crappy band, but she's a good violin player when roaming an eatery). They were called The Tempest Duo and I'm not sure they realized that a tempest is a sudden, destructive storm. Although that could be an accurate description of the music. An even more accurate description would be Trainwreak. The Guitar player was about 100 years old, and looked like the cardigan wearing art teacher you had back in grade school. The violin player was much younger and was clad in a pink double breasted suit coat from 1983. To set the mood of Italian-ness, (please pronounce in your head: EYE-tal-EE-an-ness) they stuck to traditional Irish folk with a few Sting covers thrown in. Between each song, they over-praised each other for several minutes in these low, monotone, smooth and smarmy NPR voices*. The food was really good, and Jackson flirted with the wait staff all night so we got really good service.
Saturday Cody came down and met us at the coffeeshop, where Jackson sucked in the caffeine by osmosis, and went crazy. He also flirted with all the girls, one-upping our poor, single Cody.

I then took Cody to see the Driller, Tulsa's only landmark, since he had already seen Six Flags Over Jesus. We ate yummy Indian food.
Sunday was spent in Stillwater. More coffee and baby activities for mom. Cody came down and we sat around yapping and ate barbecue.
Monday I took mom to the OKC, narrowly missing a giant accident on I-35, a brush fire, and weirdness at the airport.


On the way down there, we saw an SUV with a stencil on the side advertising Praise Moves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga.
Really? Is Yoga that much of a threat to Christianity? Laurette Willis explains that she was really into yoga and fitness until she gave herself to Christ in 1987. People usually don't go born-again until they hit rock bottom, but I have never heard of hitting it with exercise. Getting in shape by stress-relieving stretching is apparently warping the minds of Americans everywhere into believing in Hinduism and it's teachings of reincarnation.
"Sadly, this false teaching leads people away from the necessity for a Savior."
Whew! and I thought I was loosing fat, not my soul. Thank goodness for you, Laurette Willis!

I swear to god...

that this was not staged. I put Jack down on the bed while I folded laundry, and the animals just all showed up.
Notice how the cat, who came up there on her own, looks totally pissed about that decision. Yes Maggie is wearing a sweater. It was cold. Also not how Sadie is looking with extreme envy at said sweater.

Marie Antoinette

Weirdest trailer ever: ------>

I guess Marie Antoinette is partly responsible for a New Order, but it seems odd. Does contemporary music work in period pieces? Sometimes. A Knight's Tale? Yes, but that was essentially a comedy and the music was fun, no matter how bad the movie was(or how much I love it). Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Sure. The "raindrops" scene was one of the best in the movie, and it was only used that once. But then there's Orlando. DID NOT WORK. The scene at the end of a floating cherub singing Euro-synth pop just ruined what could have been a great adaptation of a Virginia Wolfe book. I guess it depends on the director. In the case of Marie Antoinette, it is Sophia Coppola, and I have to say that I like her as a Director. Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides were surprisingly well made. She has a great sense of pacing, taking her time getting to the point, and not beating you over the head like her father does. She's also great with awkward silences, making the viewer just as uncomfortable as the characters. But those two were small indy films, and more often than not, when you hand a really good indy director a big-budget Hollywood movie, they can get a little lost (Dune, anyone?). Sometimes they pull it off, like Robert Rodriguez and Quinten Tarantino did, although it took each of them a few tires. Jackie Brown was just plain horrible, and Soderburg did a much better job with the same Author's source material with Out of Sight, just a year later.
And I have to say that I am on the fence about Dunst. Mostly she's cardboard, but then Bring It On comes around and you have to give her props. (You know you love that movie, so shut up) But for every Bring It On, there is a The Cat's Meow, which got horrible performances out of the entire cast(Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin: great casting, bad performance), so it might not be her fault. Spider-Man if fine because all she has to do is look mopey and scream. Who knows. Sophia got good work out of her before, so maybe she can do it again. Schwartzman is in it so it can't be all bad. I love that guy. How he snuck into Hitchhiker's guide is beyond me.

Victory!

I know all of you have been waiting anxiously, and it finally happened. I beat X-Men Legends. I got Magma to do her little thing and I got Wolverine to beat up a bunch of robots. I do have to say that Magneto went down a bit like a bitch for my taste, but it was 4 against 1.
Now I can spend time with my family again. Or start on one of the other games I got for Christmas, or go buy X-men Legends II. Though I think that purchase would have to come with a divorce lawyer.
Now onto the Olympics: I think 24 hour coverage both helps and hinders the Olympics. Back in the day, they were a prime time event only, and only the REALLY cool ones were shown. The rest you had to listed to on the radio, which you can't do now. There isn't even a webcast that I can find. If I want to know how the Hockey games are going from work, I have to check the website every 10 minutes instead of just listening to it live. When I get home, I have to watch a tape, and I usually already know the score, and that takes all the fun and energy out of it. Everybody loves the figure skating, I guess.
BTW (and this will make me sound sooo gay) did anybody see Sarah Hughes? I know she was only like 16 at the last Olympics, but man she put on some pounds! (she's still cute, tho!)
Not like I can talk. 2002.... I think I was just under 200 lbs. Now I am well above. Though I am working on that. I started a new regiment of more stimulants and less food and switching to whiskey instead of beer. Oh, and I joined the Stillwater Y, and it is exactly what you would think a small town Y would be like. I am also consciously eating a third less food. I hope all of this will get me to my target weight by the summer time. Not like I'm one for the beach or anything like that, I just realized one day that I'd like to be around for Jack's High school graduation, and to show up not looking like Gilbert Grape's mother.

The Alternative

Those of you who grew up in Denver in the late '80s/early '90s and were of the counter-culture subculture will remember Teletunes, a now defunct music video show that aired on PBS channel 12 on Sunday mornings. Sunday was a big day for us. For me, Teletunes replaced Dr. Who as the Sunday morning pajama viewing show once I figured out that cool music existed and that there were videos to go along with it. It later became a regular weekly hangover cure once I discovered drugs and alcohol. It was where I saw new videos that MTV just wouldn't play until 120 minutes came along, and 120 minutes only focused on bands that gained national popularity, thus defeating the purpose. Every once in a while they had a cool guest host or interview, as when Robert Smith hosted 120 minutes of Pure Cure on the eve of Wish's debut, but that was about it. Teletunes was local. Local VJs that you might see at Wax Trax, or better yet, knew personally, as was the case with Sean. Local bands and local music featured prominately, and they were the only ones to interview cool bands that came through town, as no good radio was ever around (KTCL and The Peak tried, but failed over time and were eventually bought out, and 1190 was barely audible most of the time due to low band width).
A Sunday morning spent on the couch in my undies working on that 3rd pot of coffee, smoking obscene amounts of cigarettes with no windows open, introducing my self to my roommate's one-night stand as they fled the apartment still in the goth dress from the night before, all while watching Peter Murphy run blindly through the woods or Morrissey run blindly through London are some of my fondest memories.
Now, I finally have a replacement. VH1 Classic (I feel so old) now offers a Sunday morning show entitled "The Alternative" that shows most of the vids I loved during my late teens and early 20s, when I had shitty apartments, 2nd hand furniture, a crappy job, died black hair, a leather jacket, and disposable income that went mostly to comics, concerts, illicit pharmaceuticals, and punk rock t-shirts. Now I watch while playing with my kid and cooking breakfast for my wife, but the feeling is the same. I still drink 3 pots of coffee, I still smoke too much(though out on the deck of my awesome house that I own, and has decent furniture), I still have weird T-Shirts.
And although Morrissey and Peter Murphy are now too old to run blindly anywhere, at least I know that they once could.


PS- Jackson seems to be fond of Renegade Soundwave and Thrill Kill Kult. I still don't know if that is good or bad.

Re-envisioning

So I made this ----->
As an ad for my silly job. I make these all day long, and this one was on a pretty obscure portion of our site. I thought nothing of it after I sent it off to the programmer like my second week here.



The other day, I notice this---->
On the Chinese version of our site. They got this product months after we did, which means they made their little image way later. It is possible that there are only so many ways that one can show visually the concept of sound coming out of a little speaker thing, and it should come as no surprise when similar ways come about. But I'd like to think that since this is the same product from the same company, whoever made the Chinese version was poking around our site to see what we did and followed suit. This means that something I have made has been taken, reinterpreted, expanded upon and remade. That fills me with an enormous sense of pride as an artist. Intellectually, however, I am filled with pity for myself that a silly web image on a Chinese website blew my skirt up so much.

Such it is to be an artist.

Spider Monkey

I made this for my comics page, though I'm not sure where to put it. Maybe in the header. I swiped the idea from R Stevens and his awesome Diesel Sweeties web comic. It you haven't read it, you should. He's funny and there are lots of jokes about pron stars getting it on with robots. That sounds a lot less tasteful that it actually is. His site also got me into Scary go Round as well. SGR is a little bit all over the place but the eventual jokes and witty one-liners more than make up for it.
I added something to NGV5 today that I have never added before: color. I shall use it sparingly, so don't worry. Steve will still be steve, though he and Tonto are getting new outfits. If there is a music performer you'd like to see included in there some where, let me know, and I'll work 'em in. There will be a few spots where I'll need it.
Enjoy.

Then I just sorta zone out..

This----->

Is how I spend at least part of my day. Constantly doodling on either my calandar or in my sketch book. This one isn't very full because HR didn't pass them out until halfway through the month. It's nice because it looks like I'm writing something really deep, or actually working, but then I just have a little drawing of a guy biting a hang nail when I'm done. The rest of the time I'm on the computer blogging or reading web-comics. I'm not lazy. When there's work to be done, I'm doing it. I actually hate it when I have an unfinished project just sitting there. But when I clear my projects, I go back to doodling. It's sad in a way.. I think I must think in doodles... A doodlegraphic memory ala Strong Bad.

Bob Slydell: If you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?

Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door--that way Lumberg can't see me, heh--after that I sorta space out for an hour.

Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.