Livin’ on a prayer

Shot with a Mamiya C220f

Just two items today;

1- I’ve selflessly thrown this here blog into the nomination pool for several categories in the 2009 Weblog Awards. Here’s their logo;

I’m assuming me suggesting that, should the mood strike you, you go to the list of nominees in Best Asian Blog, and Best Photo Blog, scrolling down until you see my name, and clicking the green plus sign next to it, isn’t against the rules. It’s just the nomination round anyway, and your vote just helps me make the final cut.

Then I assume the nominees will be taken to a small room to be carefully examined by old men with long beards and waistcoats. All smoking on their pipes and uttering things like “Egad!”, “Good show, sah! Good show!” and “I bid you good day!”

At least that’s how it should be!

2- Yes You Can! is going on hiatus for re-tooling after today’s update…Which posts in a few hours from this writing. Instead of me re-writing the reasons here, I’ll cut and paste from the comic’s blog.

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Before I tell you more, let me explain something:

It is generally accepted that, in webcomics, the more frequent the posting, the better. This works great. That is, assuming you’re posting a full “Idea Unit” with each update.

To be clear- An idea unit is something that offers full communication of itself. A four panel gag strip with a punchline at the end is one idea unit. A sentence is one idea unit. An episode of your favorite TV show is (in most cases) one idea unit.

90% of webcomics present a full idea unit with each update. If you were to take a look back at what has been posted thus far, you will notice that the chapters are the idea units for this comic. Not the updates. The updates are only a partial idea unit. What I have been presenting is akin to offering a part of a sentence in a novel.

Monday: “It was…”

Wednesday: “…a dark and…”

Friday: “…stormy night.”

I’m not doing that any more. It’s a crap presentation method for this sort of comic.

When all is said and done, the only thing that matters in a comic is the final result. This work is what will potentially live on past me. It will be all that I’m remembered for… if remembered at all. Thus I have to take care to present the best work I can.

These past two chapters are not the best work I can. The reasons are many, including a lot of rust and lack of proper pre-designing. But since we’re taking a long view here, no one will care about those things. They will only care about the final result. Pages need redrawing.

So;

1. From this point on, the comic will be updating on a per chapter basis… as the chapters get done. I will be presenting the idea unit. But since I can’t guarantee a regular posting day, I won’t promise one.

2. There will be a, hopefully short, hiatus as I redo some of the art. I’m aiming for a January re-launch

3. That re-launch will be on its own site (Starting the knocking on wood… NOW!) There will be some visual changes as well. I have a plan, you see.

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I’m not going to tell you what that plan is right now since I may totally flake out and fail to see that plan through. Keeping mum on it allows me the ability to have whatever Plan B I fall back on look like it was what I intended to do all along.

Now, now… This is a widely accepted, if rarely mentioned, practice in the art field. Just about everything is a Plan B. DID YOU KNOW that R&B singer Chris Brown was originally going to go under the stage name of Ike Turner?

How’s that for your topical humor, kids?!

Anyway, I do hope that you readers of the comic are willing to go along with this. Besides, who am I to deny the clarion call of Freddy Mercury?

Any and all further announcements will be made here, FaceBook and Twitter.

Thanks for your support today, my lovelies.

“Dammit! Are you people blind!?” or: “Maybe I’m just weird”

Shot with a Olympus Pen EE2

There are many things that are popular and/or considered very good that leave me scratching my head at the poor taste to be found in my fellows.

In my photography, when I have what I consider a strong image, it tends to be little-viewed on my Flickr photostream. Images I don’t think too much of tend to get favorited and widely viewed.

I am not yet ready to assume it’s me. Look at this image full size and agree with me on it’s awesomeness.

Light

Shot with an Olympus Pen EE2

Today, while looking over Yes You Can!, and comparing the most recent pages to the first few pages, something went click in my head.

Not, “click”. More like these guys showed up and sang in my head;

Yes, Freddy Mercury came down from mustache heaven and touched my brain. I now have an idea about the comic. I shall follow the light.

My Six Favorite Songs I Heard This Century

As with the comic list, not everything was made this decade. Six because it’s a pain in the ass to find decent versions of the videos on YouTube that still have the embedding enabled. Being YouTube, these embeds will probably be dead links within a week. I have no deeper reason for liking them other than liking them. Posted in the order of which I think of them.

6: The Influence – Jurassic 5
The video;

Why I liked it: Hip Hop based on mic skills and not on dirty words. Also, the loop sticks in my head. I like a hip hop song with a good loop.

5: Tighten Up – Archie Bell and the Drells
The video;

Why I liked it:This is a case of me hearing a remake (By Yellow Magic Orchestra, which I still like) and later on discovering a far superior original, and going, “Cool!”. The same thing had happened when I discovered that Dennis Coffey was the source of all hip-hop from the 90s.

4: Hurt – Johnny Cash
The video;

Why I liked it: Dude. It’s Johnny Cash. If you need to have this explained to you, maybe listening to music isn’t really your thing.

3: Complication – The Monks
The video;

Why I liked it: We have here a war protest song two years before the summer of love mixed with an UR garage band/punk band sound. Also, a guy with a six string banjo is playing rhythm. I deem that to be cool.

2: Going On – Gnarls Barkley
The video;

Why I liked it: I won’t lie, I loved “Crazy” as much as all of you did before it got overplayed and then you all decided that you always hated it all along. But for me, this is the better song. I think it’s mostly because I love songs about traveling. You know, that old Hank Williams style “I love you miss, but I gotta move on down that road” type of sentiment that pretty much IS my life.

That’s right ladies. Don’t get attached to me. I’ll just break your heart.

1: Seven Nation Army – White Stripes
The video;

Why I liked it: The best rock songs are the ones that make you want to pick up an instrument and rock the fuck out in front of your mirror. And every decade has at least one or two songs that will launch a million teens on the path of rocking out because the song is both simple to learn, and so mighty in it’s execution that it would take a special kind of suck to make a bad cover of it. This, I feel, is one of those songs.

And yes, I have rocked with my guitar with this song. And one day I may just let you hear me rocking your face the hell off with it.

Now, what’s my next decade list? Movies? Or maybe I’ll challenge myself with a list about things I liked about Korea since I’ve been slamming the place pretty hard lately and there needs to be balance…

G-Nib

G-Nib.

The G-Nib.

Nib Model G.

Not bad. Turns out it’s the same sort of nibs I used to use for It’s About Girls and the first chapter of Bang Barstal. It’s a bit hard to control, so that’s why I stopped using it. I just want to squiggle all over the page when I use it.

But today’s pages seem to show a lot more control than I had back then. Assuming I can avoid slipping into bad art habits, things should rock muchly.

The guy up above, I’m thinking that I may be using him for something later on.

This is why I hate lists

Because almost immediately after hitting the “publish” button I remembered about a dozen other titles that had slipped my mind but were much better than many of the ones I listed below.

Being a pop-culture-know-it-all sure is hard. I wonder how so many can keep it up on a daily basis?