February 28, 2005

DIY Handbag in Ocilla

Last fall, I was hired to draw the cover for the special football edition of The Ocilla Star, a small weekly newspaper in Irwin County, GA. Recently, that newspaper ran a small photo with this cutline...

indianpurse.jpgWhitney Chambless, a senior at Irwin County High School and co-captain of the drill team, received this unique ICHS Indians purse at her 18th birthday party. The purse was made by a friend using two laminated front pages of The Ocilla Star’s 2004 football preview section. Of her purse, Whitney said: “I love it. This is my senior year, and this will be a memento for me.” ...Whitney is the daughter of Erick and Barbi Shouse.

First of all, I think the bag is awesome (It features my artwork!) and is another great example of the hand crafted revolution at work.

But what's up with that article? The artist who actually made the bag is only mentioned once, and not even by name, while not only does the recipient get her name in the newspaper, it even tells us who her parents are! Seems like an odd editorial choice to me, considering the fact that the bag was hand made from an old copy of the paper is the whole point of the story. Disclosure: My dad, Robert Williams, is the publisher of The Ocilla Star.

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February 25, 2005

Drive-By Trucker

Zip CityLast night at The EARL, Mike Cooley played an incredible solo acoustic set. Cooley is one of the three singer/songwriters in The Drive-By Truckers, my current favorite band. He played all his great Truckers songs, plus some really great non-Truckers stuff. Don Chambers, who I hadn't heard before, opened the show. He was really impressive too. I definitely felt that I'd gotten my money's worth by the end of the night. 4 out of 5 cans of SPAM...

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UPDATE: You can now download a torrent of Cooley's set from Digital Panic.

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Behind the Lightning

The Silly Spider Monkey Fiasco's second episode of Lightning Brains is just around the corner. Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures to whet your appetite for next week's Channel 102 premiere.

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February 22, 2005

Idiots Bad, Vandals Good

vandals.gifOne of my absolute favorite bands, The Vandals, went to Athens, Greece recently to play a concert. Unfortunately a group of idiot protesters managed to shut down the show. The protesters, were apparently anarchists (irony!) upset that The Vandals had recently played a series of shows in Iraq to entertain American troops. It's not the first time the band has had a run in with European poitical activists. Read all about it on Vandals bassist/Kung Fu Records owner/music video director/amateur bull fighter Joe Escalante's tour blog. I won't get into politics too much here. Whether you support the war in Iraq or not, I think we would all agree that the majority of the soldiers fighting it would rather be home. What impresses me so much about the Vandals is that they are willing to risk their own safety, not for a political agenda, but just to entertain these troops. In my opinion, that deserves respect.

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Employee of the Moment

Go check out Adult Swim for a Q&A with me about my work on Sealab.

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February 21, 2005

Love attacks from the rear

If any of you were watching Adult Swim last night, you may have seen a very special appearance by yours truly. Check out the Up With Sealab Singers in Quicktime (via) or Real media (via).

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February 19, 2005

Free Playstation 2

Free Playstation 2This is the free PS2 I got from Gratis Internet. I wasn't totally convinced that I was ever going to get my free PS2, despite all of LHB's luck. But then, I got home and this was sitting on my door step. Absolutely free. Does anyone have any good game suggestions?

Get your own free PS2, Xbox or Game Cube here. Other free stuff: free iPods, free iPod shuffle, free iPod photo, free PSP, free Mini Mac, free flat screen tv, free desktop PC.

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February 17, 2005

Painting

So, somehow, I managed to graduate from art school without ever taking a single painting class. Weird, huh? I'll let you decide how/if that reflects on my alma mater. Anyway, recently, I decided I would like to paint. What I learned: Painting is much harder than it looks. Here's my finished product. I think I am going to make this part of a triptych with a couple more dinosaur skulls. Maybe, I'll even have it done in time for the next Oakhurst Art Show.

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February 14, 2005

This really is the 21st Century

I don't always have my digital camera with me when I see something I want to take a picture of. But I do, almost always, have my cell phone. Now, thanks to flickr, I can take pictures with my camera phone and they are instantly uploaded here to my website. Check it out... I only have one picture there now... I took it on October 30, 2004, a day that I'd been looking forward to for seven years.

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February 11, 2005

Flickr is awsom!

flickr.gifSome of you may have noticed the addition of My flickr photos to the "More Mack" section of my blogroll. Flickr is an awesome online community where you can host all your digital pictures, separate them into albums, tag them with relevant search topics, share them with your friends and a so much more. If any of you are really into photography or have your own blog, I highly recommend Flickr.

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Him write funny

I've finished David Sedaris's book Me Talk Pretty One Day... I felt that the last half of the book, about his experiences in France, was much stronger than the material on his childhood. Overall, it was an enjoyable read. That was number four on my list. Now I am moving on to number five, George Carlin's new book When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?. Carlin is one of my favorite comedians of all time and I have read his other two books. Like many people my age, my first exposure to Carlin was through his breakthrough performance as Rufus, in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

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February 10, 2005

TKO

I recently designed the ticket artwork for the Georgia Press Association's 42nd Annual Cracker Crumble. What is a Cracker Crumble? Well, according to the GA Press website, it's "a memorable evening of biting political satire written and performed by Georgia's funniest media and PR executives." OK.

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February 7, 2005

Channel 102

102.gifChannel 102 has put the top 6 pilots from their January screening online. Only 5 of them are coming back next month, but they are all pretty good. It looks like "Lightning Brains" is going to face some tough competition next month. Especially since we only made the cut by one vote!

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I Wanna Be Your Dog

beyourdog.jpgMy good friend, John the Ninja, goes to NYU film school. When he was visiting Atlanta a while back, he shot some black and white footage of my dog, Sue, to finish up a reel of film. It's just one (blurry) unedited shot, but the music he added is good. It's very artsy. Check it out. (17.5 MB Quicktime)

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February 6, 2005

That Irresistible Cookie Crunch

lb.jpgLightning Brains, the new short from The Silly Spider Monkey Fiasco, has been selected as a Prime Time show at New York's Channel 102. Watch the first episode(28 MB Quicktime) and read more about it here.

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Born for a Life at The Bar

lifeatthebar.jpgThis weekend, my good friends in The Bearfoot Hookers had a CD Release party for their brand new album, Life at the Bar. Here are some pictures of them rocking people's faces off at Tasty World in Athens. During their show, there were also trapeze girls swinging around over the crowd. Crazy stuff, and a great show as always... I give this concert 5 out of 5 cans of Spam.

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February 2, 2005

You write such pretty words...

brighteyes.jpgSo I went and saw Bright Eyes tonight, and it was pretty good. Not quite as thrilling as The Arcade Fire last week, though. Connor Oberst seemed pretty wasted, and it really seemed like his back-up band was just phoning it in. Also, I think all but 3 or 4 songs he played were off his new album, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, I was expecting a few more old songs. "When the President Talks to God" and the final song, "Road to Joy" were definitely the highlights of the show for me. For that last song, there were thirteen people on the stage, all playing various instruments, (including one guy beatboxing!) The energy the band put into it was really great. If they could have maintained that throughout the show, it would have been a lot better. Connor even smashed his guitar. How very rock n' roll of him. I give this concert 3 out of 5 cans of spam.

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February 1, 2005

Sea Dragons & Angry Youth

During the Great Atlanta Ice Storm of '05, I found time to finish two more books. First, Sea Dragons, which was a really interesting read. I would recommend it for any non-scientist types who are interested in prehistoric reptiles of the sea. It was super informative, without getting too overly technical. I found the chapter on Pliosaurs especially interesting, as I didn't know much about them before. After reading this book, I definitely plan to add a couple of Ellis's other books to my list.
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Next, I cruised through Portajohnny, a collection of the best stuff from Johnny Ryan's self-published issues of Angry Youth Comics. This book was hilarious, though not for the politically correct or easily offended. As you might expect, a lot of Ryan's early artwork isn't quite as polished as what you'll find in What're You Lookin' At?, but it is cool to watch as his technique improves and his style develops.

UPDATE: G4 TechTV just did an interview with Johnny Ryan. (Via Boing Boing)

Book 4 of my 52 book challenge is going to be Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris. This book has been on my shelf for about a year, and I have continually picked it up and put it down. This time I'm going to finish it, I swear!

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