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March 26, 2007
Okay, OK GO, Okay
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
I know I'm 31 years old, and I really shouldn't be listening to ANYONE who gets any kind of obsessive airplay on TRL (Hilary Duff co-hosts this week guys! I can't wait!!!) (eek!!!!) but I friggin' love the poppy schlockiness of OK GO. Actually, mostly I love their videos. I want to wrap myself in wallpaper, hop on my segway and learn to play the drums. That whole vintage pattern stuff really gets me. I just love love love how it looks.
I also love the video that's like in the basement/rec room of the church (Get Over It) and the one where they blow up all kinds of shit, like haybales and stuff (Invincible). And, of course, my most favorite piece of brilliant choreography ever, the treadmills (Here it Goes Again) (oh, and the backyard dancing too! (A Million Ways)).
So, now i sound like a total teenager, but OHMYGODILOVEYOUOKGO!!!!!
I am only reminded of this because, apparently, this sort of thing qualifies as "news" these days.
So. I admit it. I love you, OK GO, okay?
You had me at OK GO.
(ahem, this isn't to say I've been reduced to actually buying an album. I mostly just watch the videos again and again on their website. Which, I think, is really pathetic of me.)
Posted by ribbu at 08:36 PM | Comments (4)
March 25, 2007
Celebrities
Though I might be alright at drawing in general, I continually find myself flummoxed by having to draw things that actually LOOK like things, people that look like people, etc. My penchant for pointy boobies and googly hands, nubby teeth and bags under the eyes, big ears and noodly arms makes it hard for me to do much in the way of caricature. It's a real weakness of mine. And, if I get a caricature right once, there's no guarantee that I'll get it right ever again. I've even gone to the library and gotten out books on how to caricature (turn out I'm not so good at that book learnin') (and, the big problem is that people who really know how to to caricature the way I like it aren't going around writing how-to books... I'm a big fan of this guy, who somehow manages to really capture what someone looks like with just a few little identifying features - favorites are Woody Allen (though, he's practically a caricature already), Yoko Ono (somehow you can tell she's all Japanesey, even though she's got sunglasses on - even from across the room!), and Barbara Bush (holy shit! he didn't even have to put a face on her and I know who she is!!)). There's some real magic in that, in being able to pick out the most defining characteristics in a face and character. Because it's not like those are particularly technically skilled renderings (I mean, it's not like they're highly nuanced oil paintings or anything). Anyway. I'm always impressed by caricature, even though everyone else considers it such a low art. You try it, ya jerks!
Anyway - so, the exciting news (is it news? I can't remember...) is that we're doing a custom book for Artiste Locale, a store down in St. Michaels. It's going to be a professionally printed, hardcover book - similar to a children's book but still with some pointy boobs and googly hands in it (what can I say, I can't get away from them!). So - not as totally weird as the Idiots'Books, but not as saccharine as your average children's book. It's called, "Saint Michaels, The Town the Fooled the British". It is chock full of historical inaccuracies and blatant fabrications. I think, as far as we know, there is only one sentence in the whole book that actually has any truth to it. Just the kind of book we like to write. Anyway, part of the story is riffing on some local celebrities, which means I had to actually draw some people who looked like who they are. See them below:
Now, the first person to correctly identify all three celebrities will win a free softcover Idiots'Book of his choice (or, any other item I have in my house worth $12 or less). And please know that my feelings will be hurt if:
1. No one enters this fabulous contest
2. Everyone guesses "Robin Williams in that crazy hat in The Fisher King", "Your Dad, but with a little more hair and a clothing budget", and "That pasty dude from 'The Office' (who, incidentally and offensively, someone suggested reminds them of Matthew)"
and 3. Anyone else suggests that Matthew reminds them of that pasty dude in The Office. I mean, even I have my standards.
Posted by ribbu at 06:16 PM | Comments (10)
March 18, 2007
Sucker for Humanity
I have these moments where I look at life and really feel in my gut how tragic and beautiful it is. They aren't the moments you would really expect - as much as I'll cry like a baby when someone tells me something wonderful (baby, wedding, lottery) or horrible (car crash, cancer, lottery) has happened to them, I think pretty much everyone can get teary-eyed over the highs and lows. I, on the other hand, get teary-eyed over the everyday. The things that reveal how vulnerable we are, how human we are, how flawed and yet full of grace we are, how we just keep going in spite of it all. Like when I see plastic slipcovers in someone's house, or a guy with bad hairplugs, or an old man mowing his lawn, or a woman in a nice dress with sweaty armpits, or kids at the library, or Castro slipping and falling (and I don't even like Castro, not even a little bit).
I am reminded of this today because I saw this Ben Kweller video (I don't know how I found it, to be honest I have no idea who Ben Kweller is) - he's got his grandmother in a leotard dancing to his song Penny on the Train Track and it was just so human it killed me. Especially at the end when he says, "That was DAMN good!" and she goes, "Can I see it?"
Sometimes we'll be walking along and I'll see or hear something like that, and matthew just goes, "Humanity?" and I'm like, "Yep. Just need a moment."
Posted by ribbu at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)
March 17, 2007
Fish Eye
I finally got the film back from my first experiment with my new fisheye camera. This whole reversion-to-film thing was a real hurdle, apparently, because at the end of every day I would go, "Oh shit! I forgot to pick up my pictures!" So, that's why it's been so long. Anyway, I discovered that #1 the film speed I used was probably too slow (all I had in the bottom of a drawer was 200, from who knows how long ago, so probably too old, too) and #2 that I probably should have read the "Tips" section to know that in order for the pictures to really come out distorted, you have to get right up in the face of whatever you're taking pictures of. Most of mine were from too far away, and the distortion isn't quite so dramatic, or, really, even all that evident. This is the only one that came out to my satisfaction, and, really, I only like it relatively speaking. It's way too dark in the foreground, light in the background.
Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I did some photoshopping to vignette the sky a little bit stronger and make the darks a little less grainy.
BUT - this isn't to say I'm not excited to keep shooting. I am! And next time, they will be better! Like this, or this, or - mmmm! THIS!
Posted by ribbu at 01:14 PM