Rinse And Repeat

Here's a background scene that I've been able to re-employ for a number of different visual assist projects that were NOT related to its originally intended purpose. It may be bland and 'uneventful' but it gets the message across to the viewer - we see a quiet, normal neighborhood. This is obviously not a Greyhound Bus station.

The drawing may have had its first life as a backdrop to a simple gag about receiving unexpected bills in the mail, but it has since gone on to be used for CD lyrics (plenty of open sky for clear verse reading) a party invitation card, a notice sheet for my strata council, and the cover of a comic book; allowing large graphics to be placed across the sky.

I've also been able to re-use selected PORTIONS of this arched street scene to eliminate the chore of starting from scratch to create SIMILAR street scenes for new cartoons dealing with the same topics. "Why bother churning out more of the same thing" I recall myself saying to myself. Also; simply reversing the image (for yet another project) helped deliver a fresh look at what was slowly becoming for me, a very tired, familiar looking image. But again - that saved me oodles of 'prep' time.

I have no doubt that another job will arise in the near future where this backdrop will once again present itself as the best choice for a quick setting - saving me time, energy and paint - and so, until I completely tire of seeing the same painful reaction from the poor homeowner standing out on the sidewalk frozen in shock, I'll continue to abuse him in this manner. That's just life in the cartoon world. Not to worry, he feels no real pain.

Curious Homemade Music

I suppose the following accomplishments could be filed under the heading: 'Too much time on our hands'.  The constant urge to "create" (something/anything) and then give that creation nice artsy packaging (a daily burden for me) extends to the production of curious homemade musical efforts alongside like-minded cohorts.

This nonsense has been going on since high school. In fact, it all began with the fella in the photo above these words (left head) Jonny D; my old schoolmate and partner in the two-man band we called Ralph Inc. for no particular reason. That's HIS artistic design housing our album called "It's Not Me, It's Him" which was a collection of 'touristy' tracks we pumped out back in the 80's. Jon was visiting from England at the time and we both agreed later that the recording session at Riffle Studios and the resulting CD was the best souvenir of the entire vacation.  But we were both just being kind.

However, nowadays Harry (cuz he lives so much closer to me) is usually the cohort that joins me on these song writing journeys. And on even more rare occasions, it'll be Steve, Jim, Rob, or Don in the cohort role instead. (Ultra rare for Don these days - what with him dying and all.) The end result of these experimental ditties are probably NOT ready for the AM or FM dial, but heck - they're perfectly fine for tossing into low hit blogs like this.

This random sample from our official CD back catalog should be enough to clear out any casual blog visitors who may have been most unfortunate to happen upon this corner of the internet. You're in the wrong blog at the wrong time, mate.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85d8bM0eRzE

Everything Old Is New Again

This is a project I've been meaning to 'git goin' with for years. However, the colossal immensity of what the project entails has always placed it in the 'someday but not now' category. I'd begun to think it was something for my retirement years; so skyscraper-ish the task seemed.

I refer to the act of transferring my old super 8 films (and I made a TON of them in the 1970s) from the curiously quaint world of darkened rooms and glowing projector bulbs (ah, but they were simpler times) into the modern and convenient era of digital discs and 40-inch LCD TVs. Only a small portion of my library has had the transfer process attempted, and a few of those results are currently riding the trendy Youtube wave.

I used to enlist all my friends as actors for an endless parade of hairbrained big budget cinematic productions (under the name: Sanguine Films). And now with mostly positive feedback from those same people, I'm determined to rescue ALL my sleeping films from their decades of hibernation - a rescue I've estimated will take about 14 years to complete.

There's two ways of getting something like this done. I could hire someone to do all the work at a rather steep price (and presumably receive a satisfying result) or I could try to do it all on me own using the most basic of set-ups: projecting the films onto the wall, and mounting a video camera on a tripod to aim and shoot the displayed images and HOPE to achieve a satisfying result.

There's pros and cons for each decision. I could be ultra selective with my OWN transferring, capturing only those scenes I wanted and not paying for miles of poor footage that should probably never be viewed again anyway. However, the DIY style is a risk and product quality might suffer. Plus, I'd also have peace of mind knowing that my priceless memories were in my possession at all times and not being tossed around by uninterested employees at the 'Film Transfer & Adult Book Store'. But again... DIY style is a risk and product quality might suffer.

In the end, I've decided on both proposals. I'll go ahead and make a full archiving record here on my own as best I can, and then pass the films off to the supposed 'professionals' to see just how well their bread is buttered. (I dunno what that means.) At least with this approach, if the masterworks are lost or destroyed (or used in commercials without my consent) while in the hands of some uncaring workerbee at 'Super-8-Transfers-R-Us', I won't be left holding an empty bag.