Here are a handful of roadside sights that I witnessed over the past year; most of which were snapped on semi-local day trips...
Springdale, AR
This is one of those signs I've passed a thousand times, and every time I think, "I need to take a picture of that." Now that I've invested the 30 seconds that it took to pull in and snap the thing, I must say that I feel surprisingly accomplished.
Van Buren, AR
I cupped my eyes and peered through the glass to see what sad fate had befallen upon Emmert's Domino Room and so help me, I witnessed a room of old men crowded around tables, playing dominoes on a Thursday morning. It seems that our world is not entirely broken.
A monument to tragic decision making, the outcome of which is an off-the-strip freestanding Segway rental shop amid Branson, Missouri. I'm guessing investors figured that the Segway would provide a welcome alternative to gridlocked highway 76. In reality the majority of Branson tourists seem to prefer to "feel the excitement" from the comfort of a Golden Years tour bus.
Another Branson venture gone awry. The angular rock structure set against the treelined hillside is quite appealing to me. Are we to assume the musical ducks swam in the silver fountain? Now I'm sort of wishing I'd stayed there and found out.
When booking a room at the Branson Welk Resort (as in Lawrence Welk), one might expect to be greeted with lavish interiors bathed in thousands of bubbles. Well, I did and I was sorely disappointed. I've seen more glamorous Best Westerns, no exhaggeration. They really missed out on some major decorating opportunities. One of the few measly attempts at Welk-ness is the statue seen above. However, I will give kudos to the staff for not batting an eye when we requested clubs, balls, and scorecards at 3 AM for use on their on-campus miniature golf course. (And I was thinking the same thing, but no, the statue does not come to life in the middle of the night.)
Tulsa, Oklahoma is still a good town for the modern roadside enthusiast. Thanks to the oil industry, it seems to be one of the few places in the Midwest that had enough cash to really boom in the mid nineteen hundreds, and a good deal of mid-century aesthetic remains. Plus, old Route 66 runs directly through the city. The famous Blue Whale (above) of nearby Catoosa is a worthy landmark of the Mother Road and it's very well kept and totally free. Swimming is no longer allowed (note the slide going out the side), but it's a great place for a picnic.
The giant Golden Driller guards the fairgrounds which is appropriate being that it is the most valuable part of Tulsa. (okay, to me anyway.)
Miss Jackson's of Utica Square is the only thing on earth that makes me actually wish I were a rich older lady. Petty's Fine Foods, located on the same block, is where I would shop for cold cuts for my weekly Bridge club. Visit during December for pure retro Christmas magic.
Another Tulsan beauty.
More lovely googie signage in Huntsville, Arkansas.
And skipping all the way to San Diego, California we find this hodge podge of a sign that I liked looking at.
Dear Joy Motel of Eureka Springs, Arkansas: please never change. Seriously, don't.
Also in Eureka Springs we find the grand Crescent Hotel, ablaze in the afternoon sun. Those tree shadows on the wall are so great.
Well, I think I've definitely proven one thing: if you take a picture it really does last you longer.
Computers are sort of like magicians' top hats, capable of producing magical wonders galore. Aren't they? Sort of? If you agree with this statement, then it makes perfect sense to put this magic themed desktop wallpaper to use. Click on the above image to grab the widescreen 1600 x 1000 version, or see below for 1024 x 768. Ta-da!
Just showing off the new paint job on my workbench and storage area in my garage. As long as we've owned the place the entire thing has been coated with a displeasing red brick-like color (which can still be seen on the door at the top). My friend Jon and I utilized leftover paint from a half dozen other projects and ended up with what you see here. I was happy that it turned out so fun and even a bit mid-century-ish.
As you may have noticed, it's also a haven for my ancient electronics. I think that every garage could use a beat up old radio, a tv that picks up two channels (at least until everything goes digital next year), and a turntable for playing flea market LPs. So I've got the cool workspace; now I just need to learn how to fix something.
Reality finally set in again when I arrived home to discover that lightning had struck my computer. Oh, wait, that should have been the last line of this post. Well, at least it explains why I've been silent for so many weeks, and why I'm wallowing in old news here. But I'm back on the grid now, and it's high time for some hardcore blogging...
As I mentioned in my last post, I had four pieces of colored pencil art in my first art show, Crazy 4 Cult: 2. The show was, to quote Wil Wheaton of all people, "Fuh. Nuh. Muh. Nul!" But I need to rewind a bit because the good times started 24 hours before the event.
One of the great side effects of my visit to Los Angeles was that I got to stay with my friend Henry whom I've known since preschool. This was my first chance to observe him in his Californian habitat, and I was delighted to discover that his house is like a living Shag painting...
He led me to wonderful pizza and we inevitably talked until an unhealthy hour of the night. Throughout the evening I had the distinct feeling that we were existing in the future we had pondered so many times during our youth. We sat there as heads of our own households, surrounded with miraculous technology, discussing our web based careers (he works for Google, but his building isn't the one with the slide or tiki bar). Amazingly, this future turned out just as we might have jokingly fantasized in high school. "...yeah Hen, someday you'll be living in a swank retro pad up on a hillside in LA, and I'll come out to visit when my work is in some art gallery."
His place was a pleasant jaunt from Ventura Boulevard, so the next morning I strolled on down, absentmindedly singing that one line about vampires from the Tom Petty song Free Fallin'. As I hoofed down the avenue, I recognized the Sheman Oaks Galleria Mall from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and I got a gander at Mel's Drive-in from American Graffitti fame...
That afternoon I had the pleasure of hanging out in the home of fellow contributing C4C artist and Mr. Toast creator, Dan Goodsell. I've been an admirer of his since the mid 1990s when he contributed to a vintage cereal zine called Freakie Magnet. It felt like some sort of life achievement to have somehow made it into his living room. Speaking of which, he and his wife surround themselves with some really fun stuff...
I immediately recognized "Birdopolis" from the early days of Dan's Imaginary World web site.
Yes, that's the very computer where it all happens!
The stuff on the left makes the stuff on the right.
As the evening crept up we ventured to Gallery 1988 where we encountered a line of hundreds of art admirers stretching down the sidewalk and out of sight. By the end of the evening the gallery would see a record 3,000 visitors.
This was my big chance to do like in the movies and stroll past the suckers standing in line and smugly announce my name to the bouncer who would smile and motion me through the door after checking his clipboard of destiny. "Not on the list." turned out to be his exact words. I found consolation in the fact that Dan, a real artist, was absent from the list as well. But before things got ugly (like it does in the movies) we were vouched for by the kindly wife of Oldmanmusing's webmaster, Andrew Speers.
Two guys who made the evening even better: Dan Goodsell and Andrew "Savage" Speers
I stepped inside the muggy building and nearly bumped into Superbad's Jonah Hill, but before I could produce my camera Andrew pointed out Wil Wheaton who was attempting to exit the show with his wife. I annoyingly asked him if he would permit a snapshot and he graciously suggested that we forge our way back to a painting that featured him. I only wish my photography had turned out worthy of such a task...
With this, the show had already gone from zero to awesome. Nary a month prior I was grabbing the beloved Stand by Me from the Wal-Mart DVD shelf, and somehow here I had found myself chatting with former Gordie Lachance, the kid who pointed a gun a Kiefer Sutherland and survived leeches in his underpants.
After our Kodak moment Andrew, who seemed completely at home, stepped in and introduced me as the "family portraits" guy. (The fact that Wheaton was already willing to interrupt his exit for an anonymous schmoe with a camera reveals genuine super coolness.) This is when Wil said some wonderful things about the Griswolds piece and told me that he'd even tried to get there early to buy my Torrances piece, but both of them had already sold! This double whammy of info kicked me into a euphoric stupor. Not only did this mean that I could pay off my plane ticket, but with a single Wil Wheaton-uttered sentence this self-proclaimed "artist" can no longer be preceded by the word "amateur."
Locating my work in the gallery seemed like the next logical step. I spotted it across the room in a sweet position right next to the excellent handiwork of Scott Campbell. I squeezed in for a closer look and noticed a line of text printed on the respective title cards of my pieces— "Print set to be released on Crazy4cult.com soon!" I hadn't even permitted my mind to dream about the possibility of being picked for prints (only a handful of works are selected from each show) so this news left me absolutely stunned; literally, my face could not even produce a grin for a short time. Unbelievable. (And in case you're wondering, the prints should be available in 3-4 months. Believe me, I'll announce it here when they go up for sale.)
About that time, Andrew made another introduction; this time it was Plasticgod, an artist who's work I've enjoyed since I saw it at my first ever Comic Con. This was my one big artist-to-artist moment of the evening, in which he brought up how it's harder to recreate likenesses of lesser known celebrities. Most of his work is pop culture centric, like this lineup of Johnny Depp incarnations...
After calling my wife and reporting this series of thrills I calmed down and got a chance to settle in and soak up the atmosphere. Here's how it worked: the line came in through the front door and snaked around the gallery in a nearly fixed pattern...
(Note the banner that announced that Weird Al is going to be hosting next year!)
Then after patrons got their fill, they either went to the sales desk...
Gallery owner Jensen Karp (right) and his girlfriend Chrissy (middle) take care of business.
or they pushed through the exit and headed into Golden Apple Comics next door...
...where they wove through the aisles and made their way out the back door...
...which emptied into a parking lot where they sold drinks and projected old Japanese Sci-Fi films onto the wall...
After I stood by myself in that crowd for a while, I figured it was time to do some looking at art. (Oh, while I was out there someone approached me and asked if I was Lost writer, Damon Lindelof.) The majority of work was truly amazing, and if I would have had the cash these would have got my money...
Kiersten Essenpreis "After the Fire" One of my favorite movies and probably my fave piece of the whole show. I love how odd the subject is when taken out of context, and how it makes a really funny movie moment appear so sullen.
Camilla D'Errico "The Little Dress Up Doll" Just gorgeous. It sold quick.
Casey Weldon "Zissou Route" Great concept; I like it when art can almost automatically get a chuckle out of viewers.
Dennis Larkins "The Nine Plans of Outer Space" Really nice execution on this Ed Wood tribute. It's even more impressive in real life because it's made up of 3-D layers.
Brandon Bird "I Am the Night"
This one caught me off guard in a great way.
So what else? Let's see. When you hang out at any party long enough Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy is bound to show up...
I've always enjoyed it when people lean in real tight while their picture is taken but as the shot turns out, there's actually tons of room left in the frame.
Anyway, things finally started winding down as the clock neared 10 PM which was about the time my pal Henry showed up having just got off work (Google, remember?). On our last lap of the show Jensen stopped me and revealed who bought what of my work...
Michael Rapaport will be able to place the Torrances on his fireplace mantel, and...
I certainly think it's awesome that these Hollywood inspired works were enveloped by Hollywood. Suddenly I am like the toenail of a cultural beast that is eating itself.
So yeah, the experience was simply off-the-charts phenomenal; a surreal blessing beyond what I even dared to imagine a few months ago as I sweat over those waxy portraits, covered in pencil shavings, hunched in front of my screen door at four in the morning on a weeknight. Reality finally set in again when I arrived home to discover that lightning had struck my computer.
Being an artist, I make it a personal rule to only appear in black and white photos.
Hey folks! I'm sad to report that I've opted out of doing a Halloween countdown this year. If you like excuses I've got: computer woes that I'm recovering from, and a desire to soak in this season of spooks as opposed to the usual frenzy of October bloggery. But there's no call to completely abandon the Fun Blog this month as I do have a number of better-than-average posts in the hopper that I'm hoping to roll out soon. So despite this undoubtedly devastating news, I still wish you all the happiest of Halloweens!
Alas, here are my contributions to this year's Crazy 4 Cult art show. I'll be blabbing about them soon. at the bottom of this post.
UPDATE: Hey, these were chosen to be made into a set of prints! I'll announce it here when they're ready to order, or you can keep your eye onwww.stuff88.com or crazy4cult.com for details.
UPDATE #2: Rather than tastefully allowing this art to speak for itself I've opted to prattle on about the creative process behind these, starting....now.
My wife was my muse for the concept. As I pondered aloud potential Crazy 4 Cult ideas she reminded me of an awesome old family portrait we'd recently seen for sale and I immediately connected the dots between cult films and the family portrait format. I'd already been thinking in terms of Fargo since I love the flick and it seemed underrepresented in last year's show, so I first envisioned William H. Macey's dopey grin in front of a Sears-style backdrop, and the thought delighted me. Moments later when the mental image of The Shining's Torrance family hit my brain, I grew extremely excited and knew I had to try to bring it to life.
The family portrait format felt perfect since this type of photography is basically a study in pure affectation. And what's great about them is that the veneer of smiles is always too transparent to disguise the strain, the physical discomfort, the uneasiness, and often the volatile emotions bubbling beneath. Amazing how we don our most painful clothes and stand under all-illuminating heat lamps in a vain attempt to appear natural, happy, and "at our best." Then we send this piece of fiction to everyone we know. I vividly recall the agony of being forced to rest my hand on my sister's shoulder for literally minutes at a time!
So when you drop these familiar movie families into the equation you've got a double layer of irony. Anyone who's seen these films gets flashes of the horrors each tribe is destined for. I also liked the idea of creating would-be movie props that could be at home in the families' respective fictional dwellings.
Visual reference was the first order of business. I grabbed The Shining off my DVD shelf and headed for my computer. This part was more tricky than I expected. I needed to grab images of each of the three stars that met the following criteria... 1. They need to be smiling (or something close) 2. They need to be smiling while facing the general direction of the camera 3. They need to be in decent light (finding images with matching light sources would have been impossible) 4. They need to be wearing something they might wear to a family photo shoot
I took dozens of different screen grabs from scenes throughout the film. I soon realized that I'd need to create head/body composites in some cases since the right head and the right body didn't usually share the screen. In the case of the Freelings (Poltergeist) the process was extremely difficult. The family only appears normal during a small sliver of time at the beginning before the ghosts kidnap Carol Anne and the reign of terror ensues. I also noticed that in both Fargo and The Shining, the boys practically never smile (which stands to reason considering the heads of those households.)
So I took my best screen captures and digitally cut them up and pasted them into family portrait-ish compositions (following examples of vintage Olan Mills photos via flickr.) I printed these out and using an old grade school grid technique (you draw a grid on the source material and another on the blank paper and use it as a general placement guide) I transferred and scaled my printout onto the larger 10 x 14 page.
My first thought was to try to create these with acrylic paint, but at some point I remembered a colored pencil piece I did in college of Jeffrey Katzenberg, and I liked the effect.
I used a regular pencil to draw a base layer of details before coming in with the Prismacolor pencils. The process was a long one since I did a lot of layering so as not to let any of the paper show through. The biggest challenges were... 1. Trying to recreate recognizable faces based on low resolution screen grabs 2. Trying to somewhat match the lighting even though the subjects were lit by a wide variety of sources, from sunlight to office fluorescents 3. Surviving the sleep deprivation (I have a career and a family life too.)
I could have made it easier on myself by tracing, but I chose not to; I wanted to allow more of myself to show through, for better or for worse, and I actually like the semi-primitive look and cartoonishness that naturally emerged. The final outcome is a nice mixture of artistic choices and pure inexperience.
I tried to vary the styles somewhat from piece to piece based on each film and family. For instance, I figured the Torrances' photo would come from a K-Mart type store so it's slightly misframed and the lighting is severe in an attempt to match Kubrick's. In contrast, National Lampoon's Vacation was shot using very direct and saturated lighting, so when it translated into my colored pencils it made the piece feel flat and really cartoony from the very beginning. Since this look seemed to match the characters I decided not to fight it and I let the kitsch flow.
I also carefully considered the frames for each, trying to match the eras and families' income. For example, the Freelings from Poltergeist seemed like they might have a more glamorous silver frame in their large suburban Californian home of the '80s, while the Lundegaards seemed a good fit with the dark wood.
So why these families? Well, they all have the following in common... 1. The films they come from are all among my favorites. 2. They're all-American and "traditional" in that both parents are together (Well, at the time of the photo). 3. They all go though purely hellish experiences.
The Griswolds seemed out of place to me until I realized that I'd rather survive a vicious haunting with Steve Freeling (Craig T. Nelson) than travel cross country to Wally World under Clark W. Griswold's supervision.
All in all, it's been great to take a break from the mouse pad to illustrate traditionally again. And being a part of Crazy 4 Cult was a purely wonderful experience. (I'll post my recap of the show soon.) Anyway, I hope you got a kick, a laugh, or a nightmare out of my art.
Hey folks! It is with a gleeful heart that I tell you that I'm a contributing artist in this year's Crazy 4 Cult show at the wonderful Gallery 1988 in glamorous Los Angeles, USA. For those unfamiliar, it's an amazing art show where artists reinterpret classic cult films. I'll be there this Friday for the opening reception (hosted by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier). Last year thousands of people came through, but if you can spot me among the other thirty-something, black-rimmed-glasses-wearing, hairless men, then by all means say hello. I will reward you with a hearty handshake and some painful smalltalk.
I've got a series of four pieces in the show which I'll post here later this week. But if you care enough to want a sneak peek then I invite you over to Kevin Smith's blog to see one of them! (Hint: it's a family portrait of sorts, and you'll have to scroll down a bit.) And yes, that was just an excuse to point out that a well known filmmaker posted my work. Thankfully, he's keeping me humble by leaving it uncredited. Anyway, here's the info... Opening Reception: FREE ADMISSION Hosted again by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier Friday, August 22nd, 7-11PM Gallery1988 7020 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 (South East corner of Melrose & LaBrea)
Hey there retro-fun loving literates, start preparing your minds for the upcoming Wham-O Super-Book: Celebrating 60 Years Inside the Fun Factory by Tim Walsh of the popular Timeless Toys book. It will be out on October 1st, but it's up for pre-order now. I'm predicting greatness. This is the formerly secret WHAM-O project that I mentioned last year. So some of the items in the book are there entirely due to the existence of secret fun blog readers! I realize I just gave you the brain boggling of a lifetime there, but you simply must accept this fact, and alter your life accordingly.
Well, if you can't wait until October for some bookish pleasure then I recommend the incredible Wacky Packages book that came out a few months ago...
The book itself is a work of art. The wax paper dust jacket triggers the same joys as holding an unopened pack of Wacky cards. The design and layout are practically perfect, (Ok, except that I wish the horizontal Wacky Packs weren't scaled down to fit on the pages.) and this volume (as well as the WHAM-O book) costs less than 14 bucks! I'm ever grateful to Matthew Guest for making it known to me.
Springdale, AR
Van Buren, AR
A monument to tragic decision making, the outcome of which is an off-the-strip freestanding Segway rental shop amid Branson, Missouri. I'm guessing investors figured that the Segway would provide a welcome alternative to gridlocked highway 76. In reality the majority of Branson tourists seem to prefer to "feel the excitement" from the comfort of a Golden Years tour bus.
Another Branson venture gone awry. The angular rock structure set against the treelined hillside is quite appealing to me. Are we to assume the musical ducks swam in the silver fountain? Now I'm sort of wishing I'd stayed there and found out.
When booking a room at the Branson Welk Resort (as in Lawrence Welk), one might expect to be greeted with lavish interiors bathed in thousands of bubbles. Well, I did and I was sorely disappointed. I've seen more glamorous Best Westerns, no exhaggeration. They really missed out on some major decorating opportunities. One of the few measly attempts at Welk-ness is the statue seen above.
Tulsa, Oklahoma is still a good town for the modern roadside enthusiast. Thanks to the oil industry, it seems to be one of the few places in the Midwest that had enough cash to really boom in the mid nineteen hundreds, and a good deal of mid-century aesthetic remains. Plus, old Route 66 runs directly through the city. The famous Blue Whale (above) of nearby Catoosa is a worthy landmark of the Mother Road and it's very well kept and totally free. Swimming is no longer allowed (note the slide going out the side), but it's a great place for a picnic.
The giant Golden Driller guards the fairgrounds which is appropriate being that it is the most valuable part of Tulsa. (okay, to me anyway.)
Miss Jackson's of Utica Square is the only thing on earth that makes me actually wish I were a rich older lady. Petty's Fine Foods, located on the same block, is where I would shop for cold cuts for my weekly Bridge club. Visit during December for pure retro Christmas magic.
Another Tulsan beauty.
More lovely googie signage in Huntsville, Arkansas.
And skipping all the way to San Diego, California we find this hodge podge of a sign that I liked looking at.
Dear Joy Motel of Eureka Springs, Arkansas: please never change. Seriously, don't.
Also in Eureka Springs we find the grand Crescent Hotel, ablaze in the afternoon sun. Those tree shadows on the wall are so great.
by Tim Walsh of the popular 
book that came out a few months ago...
