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the ramblings of an artist, musician, poet and fool...

5/18/12 06:04 am




FIVE for FRIDAY

1. Monday
Monday starts the theme of the week: freekin' BUSY!



2. Tuesday
"Tuesday's just the same..." And even though it's "all too much" I find I'm addicted to MAD MEN -- streaming seasons one through three on Netflix.


3. Wednesday
Music gets canceled. But that's OK. 'Means I could spend more time at Jo Knowles' book signing. GOOD TIMES!


4. Thursday
"A PLACE I DON'T BELONG" is a place I don't belong! I mean, I've got commitments and priorities which equal 'no time for this project' at the moment. But I can't seem to turn it off. And another verse comes to me in the shower. And another bank statement envelope becomes another page of this manuscript.


5. Friday
So, here we are at Friday and everything is still 90 MPH and due yesterday. And that means busy week equals busy weekend. Among my usual chores is a freelance drawing assignment, too. Regardless, I won't forget to draw myself a draught!


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5/11/12 06:37 am




FIVE for FRIDAY


1. Monday
A week ago or so, I posted this "last spread." The copy was lorem ipsum FPO stuff, so I needed something to go there and I decided I would write more verses for this song as a book. On Monday, I wrote what I thought would be a great last verse. Then I changed. Now, it's a great last verse.



2. Tuesday
I once wrote a line for a song that went like this:
"Sometimes I think
In congested traffic
With cellphones and harmonicas
Life ain't so tragic."

I find I think A LOT in congested traffic. Tuesday was no exception. I thought up a new verse on my way back to work from a press check about "what happened to Billie the nightclub singer."



3. Wednesday
Along with a number of other tunes, Sonia, Jim -- our new drummer, Tony -- and I played a funky version of the original (three-verse) A Place I don't Belong


4. Thursday
I put on a shirt I hadn't worn since last Thursday. I found an envelope in the pocket. Some bit a junk mail. But there was something scribbled on the back. It was a verse I had written about "the red Cadillac parked outside the packy."


5. Friday
Today is Salvador Dali's 108th birthday-anniversary. I'm going to do my best to be surreal!


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5/7/12 07:00 am






The last line might go something like this:

Nine stories, here, suggesting how FATE can play its hand in painting situations we can't understand. The moral of this story and the moral of this song is 'Anyone can end up in a place I don't belong.'"

At least that's what I thought at 6:45 am.

But the line about "situations we can't understand" seemed a bit negative. I mean, I don't wanna tell a story that no one can get. So, before I left the house at 7:35, it went something like this:

Nine stories, here, suggesting how quickly things can change, like pieces in a puzzle you must rearrange. So, the moral of this story, the moral of this song is 'Anyone can end up in a place I don't belong.'"




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5/5/12 07:02 am






NOW, I'm truly in A Place I Don't Belong!
Or maybe it's not that bad.

After my decision to add more lyrics I found myself with this desire to create something more magazine-like. And that needed text.



See. Here's what I shared the other day. It's another verse. It's laid out like headline text on a magazine spread. It needs body text.



So, I added it. Here in prose. But later that day, I found myself writing more but this time in the rhymed meter of the original song. I'll need to decide if I'll mix them or just write it all in rhyme. If I go with the latter, Dylan truly would be proud. In doing so, I would have taken a three verse song and quadrupled it.




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5/3/12 06:15 am





A Place I Don't Belong is my latest graphic-novel magazine project. You may already know this. It includes the same nine characters I used in my first project, "Ain't gonna hang no pixel." You may already know that, as well. In PIXEL, the story is about two people -- the artist and the girl who works at the frame shop. The included 'celebrities' -- Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson, Jack Kerouac, Paul McCartney, Marilyn Monroe, Edgar Allan Poe, Billie Holiday, Bette Davis and Alfred Hitchcock -- illustrate analogies like "I stood as still as Kerouac," or references like (Paul McCartney illustrating)"a Beatles' song" or 'themselves' as Bob Dylan does as the 'inspiration' behind the artist's decision to "stop painting with paint."

In PLACE, these nine characters play roles in my script. And my script is based on the lyrics of an original song with the same title.

You may already know that.

This song has three verses.

My problem has been in creating the "story" that isn't covered in these lyrics. I saw it as visual story-telling challenge. But that challenge has become quite daunting. On the way into work yesterday, I came up with a solution.

I think Bob Dylan would be proud!

MORE lyrics!

Yes, so I set out at lunchtime to create another verse (I think I will need at least three more in total). This verse takes Jack and Norma from the coffee shop to the nightclub where they hear Billie and her band. I think the verse came out quite nice.

It inspired this quick spread design.




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5/2/12 06:57 am



















every picture tells a story -- don't it?


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4/30/12 04:10 pm





Billie came home early. Only cuz I had the day off today. But it's only a day early.



I hung May's show.
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4/27/12 05:33 am



I GUESS YOU COULD CALL THIS MY FIVE (+1) FOR FRIDAY


HOW TO BE AN ARTIST
It's simple! Follow these steps:








Then go write a book and use this as your cover.



This step-by-step will be part of my multi-media display at Northfield Coffee and Books for my May show.

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4/24/12 06:55 am



Tuesday Walk
is the name of an online community on my blog home of Live-Journal that I use on random Tuesdays to catch-up and/or update the blogesphere with pictures from my walks, hikes or otherwise outside adventures.

Today's post is simply to illustrate how the weather of late in my neck of the woods can go from something where you might leave foot prints in the snow like we found on our March hike through the woods around the Quabbin Reservoir...



...to something where you might leave the same in the mud, like we found in the woods of Northfield a couple of weeks ago.



One minute, it's "Open the window!" Next, it's "bring some wood in for the fire."

Ah, Spring in New England!



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4/22/12 03:36 pm




The DVAA Show...
Lee Remick and Jerry Garcia will be hanging as my entries in the next DVAA show at the Greenfield Community College downtown campus. I once had a solo show on these walls.




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