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do they know it's pancake day? Today California and the US is celebrating the quadrennial feast of Super Tuesday. It follows Superbowl Sunday (described by a daytime TV presenter last week as the ‘second-most important eating day in the US after Thanksgiving’ – Christmas must be a miserly affair in that house). I don’t know whether you are supposed to say ‘Happy Super Tuesday’ or ‘Merry Super Tuesday’, or whether it’s politically correct to say either: should I just say ‘Happy Second Weekday’, or ‘Super Pagan-War-God Feast’? Are we supposed to give cards? Either way, Monday was actually described on KCRA3 as ‘Super Tuesday Eve’. Never mind Shrove Tuesday. I suppose tomorrow, being Ash Wednesday, will be appropriately if not wittily rechristened ‘Fall-out Wednesday’. Or perhaps it will be the opposite, ‘Make-up Wednesday’, because that’s what these candidates all seem to do once they stop running against each other for office. ‘Commitment 2008’, that is how the current wave of primaries and caucuses is being sold on the news channels. I don’t know what exactly that means but it sounds serious and brow-furrowing. It’s Democuhcy an’ we mean it, man. In the Democrat corner it’s officially the first black (African-American) candidate against the first woman (Female-American) candidate, and though the media makes a lot of this, I’m glad that most ordinary people I overhear do not (rather, one good candidate against a better candidate, you decide which). For the Republicans it’s Old-White-American against Mormon-White-American, oh and that other guy Huckabee, who is a tabloid headline waiting to be overused. Ah, good luck to them all. None of them are called Bush, which is a massive bonus. And so the boys and girls of 24 states are out today voting, talking, arguing, getting involved. In so many ways, this sort of election is so much more exciting than the Presidential Race itself, which is a bit like a world cup final, tired and depleted, ending in tears or penalties, although without Zidane to headbutt the cocky guy. It’s like the FA Cup round three: there are more candidates, always a chance a minnow could kill a giant, the debates are more varied, they actually address issues before sniping (oh who am I kidding), and…actually now I think about it, it’s none of those things. What am I going on about, it’s Pancake Day. Give me some eggs and flour, some Jif lemon (or is it Cif now, I forget), some sugar and a nice hot pan. I can’t vote here anyway, I’m not a citizen. Last night, the newsreader did offer a number to call if anyone has election problems. I was going to call and ask if I should call my doctor if I’ve had an election lasting more than four hours. |
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6.2.08 00:59 |
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looks like the northern line again lunchtime today (february 6), sketched in cool but nice sunshine in the arboretum, behind the mondavi centre. A welcme break from sitting in front of a computer screen looking at names, GPAs, GRE scores and so on. Listened to music (the boo radleys). The last day of being 31. I turn 32 tomorrow. I had almost completely forgotten. |
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7.2.08 07:53 |
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the self-hinder section
more you see, davis installments, below at a railroad crossing, don't lnow what the words mean, above some trees in f street on my birthday, with some words of doscouragement. I want to write a book to counter all those self-help do-it-my-way trashy publications by pretend phds, i want it to go into the 'self-hinder' section of the bookshop, start a new trend, or an old one if you include school textbooks from the 1980s.
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9.2.08 17:07 |
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le bébé dormant
The boy, asleep in daddy's arms, and painted while he slept; i've discovered that i can indeed paint and draw and make orange juice and use the computer, all one-handed, while le petit sleeps comfortably on my left arm. Gives me an opportunity to practice sketching baby. Shhh, lukey's asleep. |
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11.2.08 19:19 |
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among these dark satanic mills another "pen & ink" fountain pen test, and I liked drawing tree branch silhouettes with it, very real trees on f street, near the record shop. Again the lines stayed fast but the ink still bled into the wash giving the sunset a greyish quality i actually expected and so don't mind. Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow, folks |
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14.2.08 04:04 |
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animationals
A few years ago (2005), on a computer far far away (in hornsey lane), i created several extremely short animated gifs based on revenge of the sith (before it came out) using photoshop and image-ready and a simplistic cartoon technique. It was my first foray into animation since school, and my last, and I always intended to continue and improve, but alas did not. I've suddenly become inspired again, and hope to find some way to create some more, this time with my own stories, my own characters. But in the meantime, I've made a page on this blog where you can see all thirteen of my starwarsian animationals. |
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17.2.08 06:44 |
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i think i'm in heaven, I must be in heaven, with you
Two more from You See, Davis. Nineteen (below) and Twenty (above) respectively. Of a possible 24, when the series will very likely end. I might do prequels after that, or go in with photoshop and digitally alter the originals, take out this tree or that tree, put in the extra window that the original budget and technology of the day could not allow for, insert jabba the hutt by that one of the phonebox. Above: don't you feel like that, you know, life is pretty bloody good, it could be a whole lot worse if you had gone down that leg of the trousers of time instead of this one? Yeah. Below: I found a nice quiet spot during lunchtime, away from la foule, whereas the words were an observation of someone i saw on the bus smiling at an invisible person through the window (or maybe it was her reflection? ) in the cold morning sunshine.
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20.2.08 07:31 |
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to wash the black mark clean, and to thaw the frost of years
Another tree, UC Davis, near the library. If you are quick you may still catch it like this, but buds started appearing today everywhere, and the beautiful fleshless winter is going to very soon give way to freshly painted spring. In other news: Kosovo, oh we thought that had gone away didn't we, well it's back and really biting everyone in the bum. Russia's none too pleased. Hey remember last time, when we 'accidentally' blew up the chinese embassy in Belgrade? Never mind the Balkans. Then there is the satellite thing, shooting that momma out the sky. Russia and China are none too pleased, America's weaponification of space. And the global economy! We're in recession, which means we won't be able to buy so much stuff from China, they won't be happy about that. World's feeling a little shakier today. There will always be trees. Oh, except if we chop them all down. |
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22.2.08 06:38 |
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it's enough to make your heart go whoo-oo-oo-ooh
I wanted to post this drawing on Sunday, after my beloved (and oft belittled) team finally won a trophy (9 years since we last won the same cup)! I was celebrating with my son Lucky Luke (his month-old birthday too) whose favourite song is "Lukey's Going To Wembley", and wanted to blog, but for some reason 20six has been going AWOL, and forcing me yet again to consider the long-expected move (I've stuck around because i'm sentimental - or is it slightly mental - and reluctant to drop the uk bit, like it anchors me to britain or something). Sadly, I missed the actual game - never saw any of it. It was all played out on tv screens on a different planet, at a time before I wake up anyway, and I had to get up and watch the scores roll in on the bbc website. But it meant I got a whole day to celebrate (and change nappies). And Wembley! The new Wembley! I'm from fairly near Wembley, and remember the arch being hoisted up. I wish I could've been there. I'll take my son there one day. |
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29.2.08 06:28 |
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future artist sleeps, and burps
I said this blog would probably become a proud-dad sketchblog, and here are more attempts at drawing baby. The one on the right is the first attempt with eyes open - cheating, from a photo - but the eyes are a bit too big. you can't tell how blue they are, well they're dark grey blue in reality. |
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29.2.08 06:39 |
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