Garfield Minus Garield

So, going back to the thread I started a few weeks ago, I bring up Garfield Minus Garfield. This strip is relatively new (February of ought 8) and relatively spectacularly hilarious. There's not much else to say other than look at this and experience it. Trying it out on your own is equally powerful.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

What ever happened to the mix-cd?

I wasn't really a huge part of the "Mix CD Movement" when I was a kid. I sort of caught the tail end of it, but by the time I was of an age to appreciate it, everyone had moved into the ultra-digital age. Recently, though, I swapped CDs with a good friend of mine. I gave her some excellent music and she gave me some excellent music. It was awesome. We rock out to each other's music now. But this swapping only happens once in a long while. Back in the day though, it was like a greeting card, and I guess people passed them out like crazy. I can see how they phased out, actually. The digital music phenomenon (at least with iTunes music copyright crazyness) makes it less convenient to swap bits of music. I suppose then that it makes these occurrences all the more special. Ah well. Maybe next phenomenon I'll be all-up-ons.

Perfect Stars

This comic is a part of Koala Wallop, a congrgate of comics that all kind of like each other. Actually, I don't understand those sorts of comic aggregates, but the point is that Perfect Stars is a part of it.

Perfect Stars has a very whimiscal quality to it. There is a general narative that the comics follow (kinda) and the flow is emphasized more top to bottom than left to right. I feel like the comic is up its own ass with its arty-ness, but generally I love it.

More than anything else this comic is unique. The art style is as bizzare as the words, and it all comes together into a very sick package.

(first comic NSFW)

http://www.perfectstars.com/

Dresden Codak

The most specialized of all the comics, Dresden Codak is vying for my favorite-favorite comic. It is currently in the throes of an epic series, titled simply "hob," which follows the recurring protagonist of most of his comics, Kimiko Ross. I hate giving stories away so I won't say anything about the plot, but it deals with trans-humanism and other pretty geeky things. Aaron Diaz, the creator, is a very talented caroon artist. His work is done mostly on the computer and.. well, it's really exciting if you're into that kind of thing.

http://www.dresdencodak.com/

Dinosaur Comics

Click on over to www.qwantz.com and you will be greeted to Dinosaur Comics. This site uses the same clipart for every comic with different words every day. Sounds awful, right? Well, not if it's done correctly, and this is definately done correctly. I don't know how it works, but the creator (who's name escapes me) is very funny. This comic is actually in some sort of co-op with the two previous comics, and they have a collected forum called "Truth and Beauty Bombs" (as inspired by this comic from asw http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=26). Very witty, very silly, dinosuar comics is sure to get a laugh at least once in a while. It is the most frequently updated of all the comics I frequent, so I fall behind pretty regularly. But good stuff, generally.

A Softer World

I don't remember how I stumbled upon A softer World but I did.. and it's wonderful. There are two authors. One, Emily, takes a photograph (or several) and Joey, her friend, puts up text that goes with them. Sometimes it's a story, sometime just poignant thoughts, but it's almost always high quality. This site is best left explored by the adventerous, so sally forth and deal.

http://www.asofterworld.com/

It's also a really good idea to read the little blurbs that the authors post underneath the comics. Joey updates about four times as regularly than Emily, and he has a lot of interesting things to say. So go there. Now.

XKCD

Today marks a day where each post deals with a web-comic-favorite of mine. I went through a phase last summer (the summer leading up to senior year of highschool) where I just wanted to find a bunch of things on the internet (in their relative infancy) that I could continually check up on and, of course, thought were amazing. These are the ones I check as often

To start things off, I mention "xkcd." The word itself is meaningless, as an unpronoucable word made by the creator in his youth. But the comic itself is inspiring (sometimes). It's "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language." It also pretty much speaks for itself. Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.xkcd.com/385/

http://www.xkcd.com/374/

http://www.xkcd.com/150/

http://xkcd.com/96/

This site is really good so explore it and.. well, read them all. You won't regret it.

Facebook

I was going to type up a long drawn-out post about how dependent I am on Facebook and how disapponted I am with that fact, but I decided this song would be better:

Tim and Eric

Okay, so, I'm kind of obsessed with Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job, a 15 minute show featured on Adult Swim. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are geniuses. I'll just say that.


First, Dr. Steve Brule.





Casey Tatum

Alternative Art

As if it were an omen, I went to YouTube not thirty seconds after I posted my last note and saw this:




And don't forget the 1957 German film by the same name:

Pennies

So, for those of you who don’t know, I cut pennies. There’s no hidden meaning there or anything, it’s just my hobby. I use magic to separate various copper particles from a penny, and in the process make them look like… well… I haven’t really decided what they look like. The point is that I started doing it this summer and I’m getting better at it. Over the course of this ‘project,’ I’ve undergone a few of what I like to call paradigm shifts. I mean that I discover something that revolutionizes the art form in some way. The first paradigm shift was that the copper curls in different degrees depending on how much you were cutting, and the most recent is that I can attach them to one another. Actually, I can attach them in two ways (this is exciting). But the reason I mention this is because of the class that this entry is for. Digital Art and Design (Art 213). On the surface, this class looks like it’s about Photoshop, but in reality it’s about looking at things in a different way and saying, “well, what if it was this way?” Or, “is this really the truth?” So this alternative art form that is becoming a passion of mine (and the cause of carpal tunnel syndrome), seems like the perfect way to open the blog assignment for this class (almost two weeks late, but hey, I’m very particular about what I put on the internet for the world to see)

Everyone sees pennies every day, and most people are willing to discard them without a second thought. But there’s something hidden underneath the surface of the penny that makes them incredibly cool. I only cut pennies made from 1982 or earlier because that’s the last year they were made completely out of copper. The oldest penny I’ve split is from 1959. That’s older than probably half of my friends’ parents. I digress; the outside is a little faded and worn, but when you open them up, that is, cut them, the shine like they just came from the mint. This formation of the copper is older than I am, but with a simple movement of my hand, I expose something that’s been locked away for almost fifty years, that looks like it did the day it was cast. And, oh yeah, these things look stunning.

The sculptures are growing. I have three sculptures made with two or three pennies “tied” together, and three sculptures made with at least six. I also have around thirty that are just single pennies, from before I could connect them. There are also ones spread throughout my extended family, I’m not sure how many. None of them look much like anything concrete, but they flow in a way that makes them look like abstract ideas. I have one that looks like celebration, one that looks like growth, etc. I have accumulated around 85 uncut pennies in my possession that should double my collection. Barring a crippling muscle stupidity, they will all get cut. But, as is probably evident in my jumping around from topic to topic, I have currently exhausted my thoughts in this right now. I’ll post some pictures once I gain access to a digital camera and am 100% certain this isn’t illegal (I’m hoping this is no different than those smooshed pennies you pay fifty cents for at Six Flags or something). Let’s see if this doesn’t get interesting.