This interview (like Jon) is very candid. Even though it is brief, I think it's a great tool for new illustrators, because Jon is very honest about the ins and outs of getting work, marketing it, and selling it.
You can take a look at some of the prints and originals Jon has for sale and give him some love at his Etsy site.
Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of congress to vote "No" on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted overly-broad powers to wage war to the president at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear.
I am so proud to have Congresswoman Lee represent my district. What a true public servant, and an amazing woman.
(BTW, check out the background painting by my good friend, the inimitable Jon Stich)
Artist and friend Jon Stich, of "portrait of me and my sweetie as circus freaks" fame, is on fire and will not be denied. If you just can't get enough of his work, or of me and the hubby, catch his cover for Hyphen next month on the political Asian invasion.
And if that isn't enough to make you a Stich groupie, remember to pick up Vibe magazine this month for his take on Lenny Kravitz.
Nice article in The Economist about the major-label record industry finally waking up to the fact that they are a dying breed, and what they're doing to ensure that they're around until the last dog's dead. Surprising statistics, but stranger still is how this article takes a tone sympathetic to the big bads. I guess big business is the business.
And in the far flung future: my favorite Oakland bookshop, wee Diesel, A Bookstore, has secured the beloved David Sedaris to read, be bizarre and charming, and get hand cramps signing books on June 28th. I have marked my calendar and dusted off my Santaland Diaries.
Already sorta started with a bang -- as I ran down the steps of the YMCA in downtown Oakland on the eve of 2008, an impeccably dressed older gentleman stopped in his tracks and remarked how much I look like Cher. Yep, 2008 is definitely attempting to bring it.
Soooo, on that note, let's take a look back on 2007 for the moment, shall we?
First off, a big shout out to Rod at b(oot)log for: 1) posting the best Canadian Pride bootleg site around, and 2) hosting contests for CDs and other schwag -- that people actually win! Just got the Buck 65 CD that I won in the mail. Cheers Rod!
Onward...I like lists. And I really like tops-for-the-year lists. But because of my status as out of touch in 2007, or maybe my shame for past list-making (or is that curmudgeonly respect?), I have decided to go a little light this year. But a list shall go on!
1) Shows
Xiu Xiu, April 22, 2007 at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, hands down. Best. Show. Ever. Ever ever. My long and rambling review may help you see why.
2) Reads
Most of what I read in 2007 was released pre-2007, so heaven help me, the landslide winner is Ken Follett's World Without End. I ate that book alive.
3) Records
Hmmmm. I didn't pick up a whole hell of a lot of new! right! now! in 2007, but Grinderman's self-titled debut album (but can you call it a debut, really?) got a lot of rotation, as did Kanye's decadently addictive single and video and British/Sri Lankan artist M.I.A's second album, Kala.
Check the sociopolitics and amazing use of samples that make up my favorite M.I.A. song, 'Paper Planes' (from Kala):
4) Films
Nothing absolutely made me hyperventilate, but as far as blockbusters go, Summer '07 was good to me: I liked The Bourne Ultimatum, Rescue Dawn and Stardust. The recently released film version of Philip Pullman's book The Golden Compass was a surprise winner for me too. Still want to see La Vie En Rose, Eastern Promises (mmmm, Russian mobster-muscle Viggo), and No Country For Old Men. But I think my local video store creating a whole section for The Criterion Collection is probably my best film related news all year.
5) Tee-Vee
I don't have a TV, but for what it's worth Dexter almost makes me want to buy one, and Project Runway gets my ass to the gym and on a cardio machine with an idiot box. Love these two shows.
6) Weird News
I got a lot of mileage out of hater Larry Craig's meltdown, as did a lot of late night talk show hosts...
Senator Larry Craig is now saying that his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested in an airport's men's room. Craig was furious. He said, 'When I got to a men's room, I do the violating. --Conan O'Brien
Early looking forward tos for 2008: the talented Mr. Stich's portrait of Lenny Kravitz for Vibe magazine (hopefully this will be the first of many illustrations!), another trip to Japan (?), meeting a good online friend from London in the flesh in February, my honey finishing school, The Dark Knight (and Christian Bale in black rubber once again), and a possible move into a house with yard, and therefore, more BBQs and parties. Whee!
I’ve blogged aplenty in the past about my good friend Jon Stich and his mad illustration skills. But lately the boy’s really been working it. Jon took his portfolio to Chronicle Books, where the folks in the design department were so impressed with his work (apparently they were especially impressed with his portrait of me and my sweetie-pie) that they contracted with him on the spot. Check out this story from Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle Magazine for his first piece!
Doing what you love and making a living is a blessed existence indeed.
Speaking of magazines, design, and things I love, anyone check out the new Harper’s Bazaar and their fashion spread in conjunction with the Simpsons film? A big bunch of fashion design heavy-hitters – Donatella Versace, Marc Jacobs (for Louis Vuitton), and Victor&Rolf, just to name a few – are Simpsonized and pieces from their latest collections are modeled by Marge, her sisters, and Linda Evangelista.
Love the Jean Paul Gaultier panel, with Maggie in a Birkin:
And here's the real deal:
So well done, and really fun. This is what gets me to buy fashion mags and not regret it later.
My good friend and one of my favorite local illustrators, Jon Stich, has updated his website. Check out some of his new works, like the phenomenal piece he did for another local fave, Diesel, a Bookstore (it's the fourth piece in under "Painting").
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Good lord, I broke like a sucker and got a frikken MySpace. Still cellphone-less though, by god *shakes fist*
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Okay, I'm not an atheist, nor a religious person, but this is quite interesting, as are the photopinions included. To wit:
People of "faith" scare the bejeezus out of me. They are liable to do any irrational thing they are told to do. I think it would be extremely refreshing and comforting to have people in charge who do not operate on faith. Atheism is a big plus in my book.
Oh boy. I dislike dualistic "us and them" thinking like this, though I, like most, am guilty of it. But I suppose that's how we define the grey and what is best all-around, and how we come to realizations about complex ideas. Sadly though, many just get on the ride for the black and white bits and get off before the thinking in shades starts. Anyway, I've always felt like rabid atheism has its own set of problems, like not just NOT operating on faith but actively campaigning against it (flipside, same as religious fundamentalism treats atheism), and that has more than a little to do with sensationalism of private religious beliefs by media, and things like this that promote a link between religious beliefs and what a person's character should be.
But yes, I'll admit too, I still take glee when pols who bash gay marriage as detrimental to sanctities or who wear their religions on their sleeves as proof they are "moral" get caught up in sex scandals and the like. All the more reason for politicians to drop the ideas of what's right by your god for what's right by your humanity.
Truly separating church and state may never happen, but maybe we're on our way to realizing someone's adherence to a religion (or not) is a non-issue and that lawmakers should make decisions based on what is best for us as humans -- not what their religion says is best for humans.
That's not atheism, that's good governance. And that is difficult, but that is why not everyone should be a pol.
But that Rudy Rivers should look into running for office:
[a lawmaker] doesn't have to be my clone to do a good job
My friend Jon Stich is not only a kickass human being/bookselling god with the quirkiest selection of t-shirtery on this planet, but a mighty fine artist as well. Currently on his website he is showing what can only be described as political porn portraiture. Here's a taste of one of my favorite subhuman pin-ups:
Jon does some really top-notch work. And he's from La Canada in SoCal, which means he has suffered for his art. From what Jon says about La Canada there are probably no worse places in SoCal other than the IE (sorry Bartletts!) or Bakersfield (no apologies -- everyone I know from there says it sucks). I never knew how to pronounce La Canada until recently, when Jon told me how. Which I felt bad about, until Jon told me that he used to get out of country residency forms regularly when he was in college in California. LOL, I'm not that bad.
By the way, did I tell y'all that I finally got a turntable? I have been searching for a proper one, and decent speakers, for months (after moronically selling my old one when I moved to Japan -- while keeping my vinyl, duh...). I really wanted to get a late 1970s or early 80s model, but I really wasn't ready to drop enough for two tickets to Japan at The Soundwell, as badass as they are. So yesterday, my honey-pie was surfing Craigslist and found a post for a "record player with speakers" for $60. In Mountain View. He calls and the guy is like, yeah sure, it plays perfect. Nothing wrong with it.
Now, I am a big old suspicious skeptic. I wasn't about to drive to Mountain View (a sweaty 45 minutes on the worst freeway in California, the 880, and then a crawl through the joy that is the endless downtown Peninsula ) for a "perfect" record player for $60. But lured by my man's insistence that this guy sounded really nice, and the promise of a trip to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz should it be bunk, I acquiesced.
So, we drove to Mountain View. Go to this guy's house, and we find a pristine, yet behemoth, SoundDesign system circa 1985 with turntable, amplifier, and tape deck encased in a ginormous "wood grain vinyl veneer" fibreboard box with a glass cabinet. It was the size of an efficiency apartment refrigerator! Oh, and ginormous speakers. For $60. The guy bought the system new after he moved out of his parents' house 20 years ago, and he said he pretty much just used the tape deck and the radio. It was no Sony, but there was no way we were going to pass it up.
I don't know how we fit it all in our little Civic, but we managed. When we got home, we pulled all the components out of the narsty fibreboard shell, chucked the shell, and set up the guts in the far side of our studio. Cranked that sucker only up to 3 and did a hallway check -- yep, Trevor could hear In Fear of Fear and make out David J's bass and Peter Murphy's voice in the hallways below and above our apartment. Oh beautiful ginormous speakers! Oh lovely equalizer! But also...boo. So, until we move into a house again, it looks like we're keeping the dial at 2 or lower.
I was lost in a valley of pleasure
I was lost in the infinite sea
I was lost and measure for measure
love spilled from the heart of me
I was lost and the cost
and the cost didn't matter to me
I was lost and the cost
was to be outside society
