Holy shit, I almost forgot this!
I almost feel like I’m repeating myself here because Katy Perry kind of looks familiar, no? Maybe, kinda, sorta.
Browsing Posts published by Ratan X
This song sounds so weird out of context. Really, to get the full effect you should listen to Bad Moon Rising. The first seven songs are one long suite and make for great nighttime listening. Though rarely considered as such, this is some of my favorite ambient guitar music.
As if I could choose anything else. The new She & Him album came out today, and Amazon delivered (as usual) the day of the release. I am giving it my first listen right now (I was good and didn’t download it illegally even though I pre-ordered it a few months ago), and it’s really, really good. Better than the first one so far. They pumped up the Phil Spector influence (but without the insanity) and Zooey is in great voice as always.
The first single, “In The Sun,” has one of my favorite videos ever.
At the very least it’s the cutest video I’ve ever seen.
And fans of Zooey, rejoice. Her next project is for HBO’s production of I’m With the Band. Lots of new projects coming along for Ms. Deschanel.
Let’s see… a hot, brainy redhead who loves to blow up shit? I think Kari Byron is a great candidate for Mrs. Ratan X.
In an attempt to artificially inflate my post count (and avoid angry political blogging), I want to start two new features. This one, called “Song of the Day” and maybe a second one called “Eye Candy of the Day.” Tomorrow the two will overlap, and if you look at tomorrow’s new release schedule, you will know why.
Today I will post two songs. The first one is Crocodiles “I Wanna Kill” I think we’ve all been there a time or two.
This song has been compared to Jesus and Mary Chain’s Head On more times than I can count. Honestly, I still don’t hear it. The drum machine has a similar pattern to it, but the melody of this song feels a lot stronger to me. Yes, I love the Mary Chain but most of Automatic left me cold, Head On included.
Instead, the song reminds me a lot of the classic Crystals track “Then He Kissed Me,” even moreso after I heard this excellent version by Asobi Seksu
[click image to imbiggen]
The real kicker is I’ve had that book for about 5 or 6 years now. I tried (unsuccessfully) to create a Las Almejas comic strip way back when, but I’m kinda glad that installment never took off. I shall try it again. That book is the “Getting Started” volume in the How to Draw Manga collection. This means you’ll find a lot of tutorials that say things like “Draw a circle here, a triangle there, a square here, fill in a few small details and VOILA! Instant catgirl!”
That sketchbook is a few years old as well, but mostly empty. I bought it originally for journaling, but the paper was so scratchy that I filed it away in my drawer “just in case…” Now it will be known as the “Manga Monstrosities” sketchbook since I’m pretty sure most of my creations will be pretty far from kawaii, at least initially.
Not to sound too much like Patrick Bateman, but the pencil is a Pentel Drafting Pencil in 0.5mm lead size. I’d imagine this would be the perfect diameter of lead to use. 0.7 or 0.9 would probably be too thick (though I have those models of that pencil as well).
The pen is a Sakura Micro Pigma pen in the 0.25mm line width. I’ve used many of these in different colors and line widths over the years. That one is black. It’s extremely permanent (as in, if you get that ink in your clothing it is never coming out, no matter what you put on it), so that is obviously for tracing over the pencil sketch.
Of course, before I can do that, I have to sketch something first.
Oh, and maybe in the next day or so I’ll post a rough draft of the LA story I’m writing at the moment. It’s coming together pretty well, just slow.
Because I spend too much time reading webcomics. Yes, it’s true. Here are two very funny entries in the sexy comedy genre that I recently discovered:
I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space
And another lesbian pirate adventure called Boobs Ahoy.
Both are as campy and funny as you’d expect. Neither are porn, but Boobs Ahoy is often NSFW. Unless you work in a fun office that isn’t uptight about this sort of thing.
Of course, if you want all out cartoon porn, and kinda freaky cartoon porn at that, you can’t go wrong with the classic strip Sexy Losers. There is even a suicide girl lurking around there. Bonus!
OK, leaving computer for pen and composition book….
Now!
NOW…
No…. maybe…..
NOW?
Should Obama and Grandma Botox get their way, this is what we’re headed for.
Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.
Death panels? What death panels? I ain’t see no death panels here, no sir.
But wait, there is more!
I’m lazy. Plain and simple. Often times I get great pleasure out of creative writing, but I hate to do it. I can’t really explain it. Trying to rip myself away from the computer, a good book/manga, the PS3, whatever to write down words often seems like too great a burden. As if after working all day the last thing I want to do is write. And because of this laziness I often find my stories about 95% snappy dialogue and 5% boring, stilted descriptions of their surroundings.
For anybody who wants to become a writer this is bad. Really bad. Most professionals will tell you that a good writer will spend hours a day honing his or her craft. Of course, anybody with a real job is not able to do this. Hell, even college professors often have to take time off to finish a book project, and they only work 12 hours a week, 8 months a year. For us 40 hour a week Joes and Janes, the profession of writing is probably not meant to be. Not that it’s impossible, just not always feasible.
These days even reading is becoming less and less of a sure thing. I still read blogs and the newspaper, but actual books? Short stories are OK, but sometimes a real, honest-to-God book is hard to read. I blame the emergence of image boards and a rapidly increasing love for manga for my brain turning to mush. But what a fun mush it is.
How does this tie in with my lack of writing motivation? Simple. My main characters I have been working on now for X number of years, Las Almejas, have many interesting stories to tell. Yes, I’ll break everybody’s heart and admit they don’t actually exist. I am not the manager of a hot, all girl grindcore band. Not now or ever. I’ve had many ideas go down the memory hole because I didn’t write them down when they were still fresh. And many more are going down the memory hole because I cannot draw.
The truth is, I always imagined a Las Almejas cartoon. Kind of like an R-rated Josie and the Pussycats. I also imagined a comic book, a movie and probably a line of figurines that will poke your eye out. The original series, circa early 2001, would have been heavy on the shock value and light on the humor. The characters circa 2010 would be darkly humorous, slice-of-life type stuff, with lots of “fan service” elements. Ands lots of godless grindcore music. Maybe even a bit of political satire if the story calls for it.
So, why post this here and now? This is me thinking out loud. Probably unknowingly making a call of sorts to anybody who might want to help draw a few stories of these girls. Their design isn’t 100% finished yet, though I obviously can picture them in my mind. I’m cheap, so the pay will probably be shit. No, not really. Stories will most likely get posted to the main site on this domain. I’d rather keep it local than put it on KeenSpot, or a service like that. I can’t imagine most stories lasting more than 5 or 6 pages. 4 panels each. I’m minimalist, yo.
continue reading…
Weather here has been crazy today. I’ve never seen snow as early as October, and neither has my mother. Trees are down on the road, it’s still snowing outside, and the power keeps going off, but thankfully only for a few seconds.
I was supposed to have a meeting with my advisor about classes next semester, but not in this weather. I’m staying in at least until state road does their job.
Last night I dreamt I was staying at a hotel in a foreign city. In the distance I could see an amusement park, the pirate ship to be exact. Except it was one of those that went all the way upside down.
Anyway, the strange thing about it was before the ride ended, one random person would be ejected from their seat, to fly across the park.
I was terrified of this, being a smart man, but my idiot cousin was there and just HAD to ride it. He called me a pussy and a pansy along with a few other words because I’d not ride it, but I didn’t want to take the chance I’d fly across the park, only to land on concrete.
But as I watched close up from the sidelines, I noticed that the people flying through the air was only a projected image. In reality the rider would “only” fall from the ride onto mats below the ride.
Of course, this could still kill you, so I didn’t get on, and sadly my cousin wasn’t the one to fall. After the ride he seemed more upset than I did.
Ann Coulter/Janeane Garofalo slash!
Actually, I’m shocked somebody hasn’t done this yet. You’d think that with the thousands of porn page online, SOMEBODY out there would write this. It’d certainly be better and more interesting than Britney/Xtina slash. And even though I was once an avid reader, the whole Buffy/Faith slash thing is getting old in a hurry as well. Actually, it was old five years ago, but I digress.
Since I either bought or downloaded (legit, of course) a lot of good music this year, I thought I would let you kids know what I have been digging this year.
Here are the ten best, in alphabetical order, albums that I heard this year.
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Take Them On On Your Own
- Broken Social Scene – You Lost It In People
- Dressy Bessy
- New Pornographers – Electric Version
- Pretty Girls Make Graves – The New Romance
- Raveonettes – Chain Gang Of Love
- Spiritualized – Amazing Grace
- Starflyer 59 – Old
- Strokes – Room On Fire
- White Stripes – Elephant
A few other things I bought or downloaded (again, legit downloads only! ha ha) that was damn cool too:
- Blur – Think Tank
- Cat Power – You Are Free
- Kathleen Edwards – Failer
- Guided By Voices – Earthquake Glue
- Libertines – Up The Bracket
And although the album it was on kinda sucked, “Restraining Order Blues” by the eels is the best love song of this year, or any year.
