i'm not a geek.
i just play one in the comics.
in my life so far, i've owned five computers, three laptops and three personal mp3 players.
all five computers have been macintosh, all three laptops have been macintosh and the three mp3 players...? yep, ipods.
the first computer i ever touched as a child was an apple IIe. 1983. i think i was pretty much hooked from that moment on. sure, through the years i've worked on other people's computers... but when it came time for me to get my very own... it had to be an apple.
maybe i liked the fact that not everyone had them, that you couldn't just get them at any store... they were rebellious. they're sexy. the people who had macs, no matter what their personal politics may have been, had an immediate connection...kinda like when you're driving down the highway behind a dude or dude-ette riding a motorcycle... when another motorcyclist comes from the other way you see them do that wave thing to each other.
that's what mac users do!
not the people who have ipods or iphones...that plug those devices into HP, gateway or vaios... not the same thing. i'm talking about those people that have the apple icon tatooed onto their arms. those people just know.
i just got a new mac this past week. and i'm doing the wave.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
rechargeable frank
i'm writing this while listening to a song that i listened to in 1999--- 10 long and tumultuous years ago. it's the next to last song on an album that was with me everywhere i went. it was purchased when mp3s were in their infancy.
the first time i heard the first single from this disc was on a sunny april morning, 6:30am. My clock radio went off and i heard it. just like that. it was new music from my favorite band. it was on the radio! the first time i heard it was on the radio. can anyone say that today? today you hear everything on the net. stuff just doesn't happen. you're not surprised. you go to look for it or it's emailed to you. you don't wake up to it. hearing something for the first time like this is special, exciting. you can't hit the back button again, you can't reload the page, you can't take it with you wherever you go---you have one shot, one specific moment to get it. after that, you just wait for the radio to play it again.
in fact, i specifically remember driving across town to a mom and pop music shop (remember those?) to get this cd on my 25 minute lunch break.
i put the over priced disc (i think it was $16.99) on the sticker covered counter, ready to fork over what was the equivalent of about two hours pay (after taxes, maybe three), hoping that what was on that light blue and pink disc would do something to me... if not increase my consciousness of my oneness of the universe at least let me bob my head to a familiar, yet unfamiliar beat.
the clerk said, "wow, i didn't know we had more than one of these..."
not sure what he meant by that. but whatever.
i didn't have a disc player in my car at the time. hell, i didn't even have a horn--- and the floors in the back seat area were completely rotted out... the only thing between my passengers feet and 55mph asphalt was a thin, red, dirty, factory installed piece of carpet. good times.
my friend dave and i listened to that entire cd that night... from beginning to end. never skipped a track...in fact, i think i may have recorded a copy of the album on audio tape for him. no burning, no file transfer--- just some not-so-hi-speed dubbing.
that was a time where i thought i wanted to be a musician...that the art thing would be a side thing to my spotlight aspirations. we learned how to play at least half the songs on that album. just acoustic guitar, bass and voice. it felt good to play those songs... even if we weren't the best or even average...it made us feel good.
my friend and i ended up seeing this band play three times that year. drove 100 miles to see them in a smoky dive in albany, were willing to streak down a busy street to get tickets to see them a second time, and paid way too much for tickets to see them in a showroom. they were the band we'd form if we were to ever form a band.
i think about all that stuff when i listen to this music... of course that cd i bought that april day is missing...lost in the moving boxes that constituted the last two years of my life...i've mentioned this before but it's worth saying again... earbuds pumping electronic files from a laptop will never be the same as listening to an audio tape in your car stereo, driving with all your windows down on a sunny, 65 degree late spring day. the quality of the sound is not audiophile level, but the experience is uplifting---wind blowing through the car, the smell of fresh cut grass, every cloud in the sky is fluffy white and following you down the highway.
it's ten years later and i don't do that nearly as much as i used to. i pick up my guitars every now and then to play those songs we learned that summer of 1999, but lately all i seem to pick up is a pen. or a pencil.
ten years is a long time. i wish it was 65 degrees out today... i think i need to drive.
the first time i heard the first single from this disc was on a sunny april morning, 6:30am. My clock radio went off and i heard it. just like that. it was new music from my favorite band. it was on the radio! the first time i heard it was on the radio. can anyone say that today? today you hear everything on the net. stuff just doesn't happen. you're not surprised. you go to look for it or it's emailed to you. you don't wake up to it. hearing something for the first time like this is special, exciting. you can't hit the back button again, you can't reload the page, you can't take it with you wherever you go---you have one shot, one specific moment to get it. after that, you just wait for the radio to play it again.
in fact, i specifically remember driving across town to a mom and pop music shop (remember those?) to get this cd on my 25 minute lunch break.
i put the over priced disc (i think it was $16.99) on the sticker covered counter, ready to fork over what was the equivalent of about two hours pay (after taxes, maybe three), hoping that what was on that light blue and pink disc would do something to me... if not increase my consciousness of my oneness of the universe at least let me bob my head to a familiar, yet unfamiliar beat.
the clerk said, "wow, i didn't know we had more than one of these..."
not sure what he meant by that. but whatever.
i didn't have a disc player in my car at the time. hell, i didn't even have a horn--- and the floors in the back seat area were completely rotted out... the only thing between my passengers feet and 55mph asphalt was a thin, red, dirty, factory installed piece of carpet. good times.
my friend dave and i listened to that entire cd that night... from beginning to end. never skipped a track...in fact, i think i may have recorded a copy of the album on audio tape for him. no burning, no file transfer--- just some not-so-hi-speed dubbing.
that was a time where i thought i wanted to be a musician...that the art thing would be a side thing to my spotlight aspirations. we learned how to play at least half the songs on that album. just acoustic guitar, bass and voice. it felt good to play those songs... even if we weren't the best or even average...it made us feel good.
my friend and i ended up seeing this band play three times that year. drove 100 miles to see them in a smoky dive in albany, were willing to streak down a busy street to get tickets to see them a second time, and paid way too much for tickets to see them in a showroom. they were the band we'd form if we were to ever form a band.
i think about all that stuff when i listen to this music... of course that cd i bought that april day is missing...lost in the moving boxes that constituted the last two years of my life...i've mentioned this before but it's worth saying again... earbuds pumping electronic files from a laptop will never be the same as listening to an audio tape in your car stereo, driving with all your windows down on a sunny, 65 degree late spring day. the quality of the sound is not audiophile level, but the experience is uplifting---wind blowing through the car, the smell of fresh cut grass, every cloud in the sky is fluffy white and following you down the highway.
it's ten years later and i don't do that nearly as much as i used to. i pick up my guitars every now and then to play those songs we learned that summer of 1999, but lately all i seem to pick up is a pen. or a pencil.
ten years is a long time. i wish it was 65 degrees out today... i think i need to drive.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
new untitled graphic novel
here it is... in the rawest of raw forms... the next project that will throw some more grey in my hair and make that hole in my stomach just a little bit more annoying.
i've never really storyboarded a book like this... not this methodically...
after seeing this sea of post-it notes, my non-religious, talking squirrel drawing butt felt the need to say a prayer... the shepard's prayer... astronaut alan b. shepard to be more precise:
"please, dear God, don't let me screw up..."
it has been noted, in various sources, that shepard in reality substituted "screw" for that four letter swear word that rhymes with "truck". still other sources suggest that he never said that. either way, it's attributed to him and, in this situation, completely appropriate...
i'm not sitting on top of a rocket... but it sure feels like it.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
mary...part 2...
i've decided that instead of putting up a page one at a time for you to just make the whole short graphic novel available for purchase.
to recap, mary is a book that i put together to fulfill the studio project aspect of my first semester MFA work.
i have to warn you, mary is NOT FOR YOUNG READERS! it contains images of a somewhat graphic nature.
click here to purchase mary
to recap, mary is a book that i put together to fulfill the studio project aspect of my first semester MFA work.
i have to warn you, mary is NOT FOR YOUNG READERS! it contains images of a somewhat graphic nature.
click here to purchase mary
Sunday, March 1, 2009
happy birthday to them...
so i'm sitting here in a denny's parkinglot waiting for my aunt, grandmother, mother and little 11 year old cousin to get here. march is a busy month for the clan in that there are three birthdays that happen within about two weeks of each other. i admit that my maleness comes out around this thime... i don't usually buy cards and always ask what they want... as opposed to going out and trying to find an item or items that will surprise and astonish.
seems that i never have enough time to suprise, yet alone astonish.
in a few short minutes we will all converge upon a well worn, sanitized from drunken breakfast eaters from a few hours ago and make small talk about what's going on in our respective worlds. we will exchange our trinkets, eat overly salted, high fat, low health breakfast food, argue over how much should be left for the tip, hug, kiss and split.
remember when you looked forward to your birthdays? by and large my childhood birthdays consisted of just close family--- usually at my aunt gracie's house or my grandparents. sometimes my aunt lucy would show up. that was all i needed. there were two years i had my birthday at mcdonalds...where i had some of my boys come over... we ate happy meals and tore up a corner of the restaurant for 35 minutes. honestly, those weren't as fun for me. the pictures take there are funny... but that's pretty much it.
as i've gotten older birthdays mean less and less to me. hell, my in my freshman year of college, i was so sick from over work at school that i literally slept through my birthday. all i remember of that day is being shaken awake by my family, opening my eyelids that weighted 1258 lbs. a piece, seeing aunt, mom and grandmom say "happy birthday frank!" then waking up the next day.
nowadays, i just treat my birthday like any other day really. i go to work, go home, hit the drawing board and maybe watch some tv. we ight go out to dinner if the schedule allows...if it's really open i might go to a movie. that's it.
so, if you're under the age of 14 and are reading this... cherish the birthdays now. because unless you're puff daddy, they don't get any better.
if you excuse me, i'm off to eat a grand slam.
seems that i never have enough time to suprise, yet alone astonish.
in a few short minutes we will all converge upon a well worn, sanitized from drunken breakfast eaters from a few hours ago and make small talk about what's going on in our respective worlds. we will exchange our trinkets, eat overly salted, high fat, low health breakfast food, argue over how much should be left for the tip, hug, kiss and split.
remember when you looked forward to your birthdays? by and large my childhood birthdays consisted of just close family--- usually at my aunt gracie's house or my grandparents. sometimes my aunt lucy would show up. that was all i needed. there were two years i had my birthday at mcdonalds...where i had some of my boys come over... we ate happy meals and tore up a corner of the restaurant for 35 minutes. honestly, those weren't as fun for me. the pictures take there are funny... but that's pretty much it.
as i've gotten older birthdays mean less and less to me. hell, my in my freshman year of college, i was so sick from over work at school that i literally slept through my birthday. all i remember of that day is being shaken awake by my family, opening my eyelids that weighted 1258 lbs. a piece, seeing aunt, mom and grandmom say "happy birthday frank!" then waking up the next day.
nowadays, i just treat my birthday like any other day really. i go to work, go home, hit the drawing board and maybe watch some tv. we ight go out to dinner if the schedule allows...if it's really open i might go to a movie. that's it.
so, if you're under the age of 14 and are reading this... cherish the birthdays now. because unless you're puff daddy, they don't get any better.
if you excuse me, i'm off to eat a grand slam.
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