(not) Cleaning

I'd planned to do some housecleaning this evening but didn't get much done. Been so tired the past week or so after work. Probably staying late every single night isn't so good for me. Anyhow, I made udon for dinner and did the dishes. Settled down to watch a depressing documentary 'Methodonia' about methadone addicts, followed by two editions of Art 21 (PBS program about modern art) While these were running, Stacey was sorting one of her boxes of stuff and came across the first collected book of Girl Genius, which I decided to read (since people keep comparing me to that character) It was also a good excuse to look at some art. While I was reading that, she dug out two more books that I pinched to read. A book on the artwork of Michael Kaluta (which I read part of, but mostly just looked at the pictures) and a manga remake of Alice in Wonderland, albiet slightly more sexy from the looks of it.

Girl Genius (so far) is fun to look at but I found some of the characters a little borish and the plot is really predictable though I get the feeling you aren't exactly supposed to understand what's going on. The Kaluta art was good but left me resenting my family again. You know, bad enough they discouraged me from doing art or reading comics but it woulda been fucking nice to have gone to ONE art museum before I was 18. Oh sure, we went to the fucking Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, the Graceland Museum of all things Elvis, and repeated trips to the Gun Museum in... Whatever the fuck that town is past Catoosa, but not once did we go to one single freakin' art museum. *sigh* Anyhow, where was I?

So.. switched from reading the book about Kaluta's art to just looking at the pictures. Reminds me I want more Drulliet and Moebius and inspiring things to read and look at. I liked Kaluta's work and a quick google search reveals he actually has a pretty cool website. http://www.kaluta.com/ Nifty. more things to look at when I have time.

Anyhow, evntually I folded the laundry and did some basic cleanup. Now I'm late to bed (as if that were anything new)

Tomorrow night at Midnight, Pink Floyd's The Wall is playing at the Aquarius in Palo Alto. I think we're going to have a pretty big gang going so I set beans soaking and will make red beans and rice with cornbread for dinner and then we can head up there as a group tomorrow evening. Heehee. Random trivia. The Wall is the only thing I know of that was in part animated on a Nielson Hordell animation stand (the type I have) what that says, I dunno. I just thought it was interesting.

Speaking of my own art.. I'm not sure quite what it is yet but something interesting is happening with it. In the last few weeks it's become a lot more expressive of my mood, it's developing a rhythm, and I'm starting to work more with expressing in abstracted and stylized ways (not a particular style, just experimenting with different ideas) I think I've maybe finally reached a point where I know forms well enough that I can start doing something with them. It's not producing much in the way of wow-factor art to show other people but it's producing stuff that's interesting to me and appeals to me and I can see that there's some good stuff happening in it. Lots of things in flux right now so it's always hard to tell what triggered a change. I've been people-watching a lot more lately, and doodling at the train station and when I take a few minutes for lunch. I also started listening to more jazz and the beat is definetely giving me something. I've been reading a lot more lately, and looking at pictures a lot more, and lastly, I seem to be getting over a prejudice about 'cartoony' things not being a serious artistic study. I'm working with more simplified characters but my strokes are much more confident and I've been doing a lot of this sort of 'take an idea and draw it in a bunch of different ways' thing.

So. Something is going on but I'm not sure where it's taking me.

Anyhow, to bed now.

WWII, the Wireless War

So, in looking for old sci-fi programs, I came across this channel: World War II: The Wireless war.

It's a stream of newscasts from WWII. Mostly NBC and BBS but there's some other stuff too. Chilling. Currently playing newscasts from 1938-09-27. I missed Hitler's speech on claims to the Sudetenlan. Now it's on the allies dealing with the situation. Fascinating listening to the news from the day without revisionism. What people knew, what the mainstream was told. This station even throws in stuff from Tokyo Rose and Lord Hawhaw. I'm not much of a history buff. I'm sorta using this as a way to get background about the culture of the day because I find it adds interest to my reading of old books and watching old cartoons. I admit it also fascinates me to hear the voices of people long dead. Although, some of the descriptions of events are pretty horrific. :/ A couple days ago, I was in May of 1945 and they were interviewing soldiers who were entering the concentration camps and describing the things they saw there. People so utterly and heartwrenchingly broken. One soldier spoke of being assigned to give milk to the infants in a prison camp. A woman brought her baby, dead and black and demanded milk for it. She was so badly broken, he finally gave milk to the dead baby, pouring some into it's mouth. After that the woman lay down, hugged her child, and died. Haunting. Horrifying... And that was just one moment, one day there for the solider. Imagine how much worse it must have been for the people who suffered through that place.

So, tonight I'm going to go watch 'The Wall' but I think I might understand the headspace a bit better.

*shudder* Now starting: 1939-02-20 German-American Bund Rally Madison Square... If I listen close, I'll probably hear George Bush's grandfather cheering wildly. they're going on about how god-fearing and patriotic they are. I'd better go before I start ranting.