Sunshine

Took this photo out of Zac's sunroof... I like it quite lots.

Always Look on The Brighter Side of Life

I was feeling royally bummed and rather depressed today (probably a result of listening to too much grunge yesterday) when I stumbled across a video of the end of Monty Python's "Life of Brian" which cheered me up instantly:



I am currently considering going to a show at FWMoA that Metavari is playing Wednesday at 9. They are an amazing post rock electronic band (http://www.myspace.com/metavari) There's another group headlining from Austin and it's 6 bucks to get it.

Listener Project

A rough digitally painted self portrait... I kind of dig it:

Earlier this month I saw an amazing band live called "Listener Project". Their music is based around incredible poetry. They're lyrics aren't available online so I decided to transcribe one of my favorite songs by them so I could reflect on it a bit more. It is called "It's Time for Drastic Measures" and you can listen along as you read the lyrics here:

And when the music stops
All we have are words merely
So listen up
They're not taking you seriously

And I'd write the words
If I only knew what you needed
Touch you in the heart
Try and stop the bleeding

All I want is for you to be ok
I'll do anything for you
Just say the word
and I'll write the words

And tell everyone our story
Try and find their hearts
Hope that I'll nick an artery

All I want is for us to be ok
Give my life for you
Just say the word
And I'll say the words

It's what I do
It's not my choice
They touch me in my heart
And I try to give them all a voice

And hey

I don't want it if it's easy
I can't have it until I've really worked freely
Cuz all you'll have is this singing

But I'll write the words
And if you'll give me five minutes
I might break your heart
But we're just beginning

All I want is for you to be ok
I'll do anything for you
Just say the word
And I'll spread the word.

As far as this body can reach
Try to find their hearts
No matter how deep
and I'll die for you

I'll love you all with all I am
I'll do anything for you just say the words

Hey...

When I stop believing
I hope you'll pick up all these pieces that I'm leaving
Cuz you don't want me
If i'm cutting all these corners
These corners

And when the music stops
All we have are words merely
So listen up
They're not taking you seriously

They don't respect you
It might be your managing style
And they neglect you
You might try not being kind

But no one likes you
It's time to start docking the pay
But if they hurt you
You might try filing a complaint

But remember
Sticks and stones
And stick those stones
Where you can use them again
Make them bruise where you send them
That they'll lose in the end
When they feel your revenge

But, right nows the time and it's got to be drastic
Trying to hold it all together
with a prayer and some plastic
ties
No matter what the size
I try and try
and die
A little death every time I close my eyes
And ressurect and pass right by
Another day another chance another window

But they're not taking you seriously
But, hey,
we're downsizing your accounts
We're all hoping things will bounce
We gotta do what's right for the economy
We have to let you go because we have no more money

They're not taking you seriously
You're oblivious and can't feel shame
It must be how you carry yourself
You're the only one to blame

So listen up
Well, listen up

When I stop believing
I hope you'll pick up all these pieces that I'm leaving
Cuz you don't want me
If i'm cutting all these corners
I've been cutting all these corners
these corners

Listener Project, "It's Time For Drastic Measures"

Song of Myself Finished

I finally got around to finishing Song of Myself. It is an amazing poem and definitely worth the long read. The last bits were excellent.

There is that in me - I do not know what it is - but I know it is in
me.

Wrench'd and sweaty - calm and cool then my body becomes,
I sleep - I sleep long.

I do not know it - it is without name - it is a word unsaid,
It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol.

Something it swings on more than the earth I swing on,
To it the creation is the friend whose embracing awakes me.

Perhaps I might tell more. Outlines! I plead for my brothers and
sisters.

Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
It is not chaos or death - it is form, union, plan - it is eternal
life - it is Happiness.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" Section 50

Colliding Galaxies

Pictures of colliding galaxies taken by the Hubble Telescope. I find these inspiring both visually and conceptually, in their beauty and the reminding of just how minuscule I am in this universe:
SciAM Article

Female Face Studies

Yeah so I decided my new goal for the next couple of months is to hone my skills at drawing the female face which means doing study after study after study after study. Direct photo reference:

First one I struggled hard core with the makeup and my colors were very dirty. Second was a little better but the skin far too rough. Third and fourth I feel I got to the proper intensity and fixed a lot of problems so I decided to do a no reference version to solidify what I had learned:
Left is purely no reference. Right is a revision after sitting on it for a bit and comparing it to my references (mostly just punched up some more dark tones)

Even More Whitman...

Art activities kind of getting put off a bit while working on my senior paper this month:

Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly
different from myself,
On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,
Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,
Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and
pasture-fields,
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
They bribed to swap off with touch and go and graze at the edges of
me,
No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger,
Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while,
Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.

The sentries desert every other part of me,
They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
They all come to the headland to witness and assist against me.

I am given up by traitors,
I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the
greatest traitor,
I went myself first to the headland, my own hands carried me there.

You villain touch! what are you doing? my breath is tight in its
throat,
Unclench your floodgates, you are too much for me.

Walt Whitman - "Song of Myself" (Part 28)