b-a-n-a-n-a-s
I have a friend in the produce industry. Okay, I hate love to brag – but she’s pret-ty important in the produce industry.
I’m talking inspecting her product, business trips to Hong Kong and making more money in a decade than I will have made in a life time. (assuming I work until I am 100)
I’m pretty proud of her. Ooo! She’s also bi or tri-lingual. And I know we’re really friends, because I don’t envy any of it … I brag about her like she’s my kid.
I try not to play the BFF card too much – but I did need her advice the other day. These are her expertise and I had a fruit issue!
I only had a fruit issue because my grocery store had a whole bunch of organic bananas on sale for 99 cents. I usually don’t buy them since they do NOT last. But I can’t pass up a bargain.
No shocker here, my bananas are turning brown and not looking happy at all.
So we’re on the phone, picking apart the worlds problems, when my banana problem came to mind.
Me: “Alright, I’ve googled and I’m not finding a solution to my banana problem – how to keep them fresh longer?!”
Her: Have you separated them?
Me: No … google didn’t say that
Her: Who are you going to believe?
I believed her.
But I still haven’t separated them – mostly due to the fact that they’re dying a fast, painful death and I thought they should have company?
Next bananas I buy will be immediately separated for their own safety. I’ll let them stay on the same shelf though – at least they won’t get lonely then.
Today she was very busy. Apparently it’s ‘Gala’ time and EVERYONE who’s anyone wants those apples.
I wasn’t deterred by her very important, very busy status.
Me: How’s the produce biz?
Her: It’s crazy busy ….. Washington galas just started and everyone wants them…
Me: Nice. I would like to be a gala apple please.
Her: You would be a premium apple!
Me: *blush* (Now I’m a red apple) Can I be a Grapple?
Her: Yuk. No you would be better off as a Honey Crisp.
Me: That sounds like cereal. I don’t want to be cereal.
Her: But it’s the most expensive and tasty apple.
Me: I’m hungry.
These interactions keep me sane during the day. We both have jobs that require attention to detail and a specific set of skills that we’ve honed over the years.
And while sitting in our swivel chairs, miles apart, acting all ‘grown up and important’ – it’s so necessary to be silly.
I mean, this grown up shite – is BANANAS!
Musings from the laundromat: Sleep deprived edition
I am exhausted. I am sitting here at the laundromat in mismatched clothes, (partly due to the fact that I didn’t come here last weekend) grainy eyeballs and no coherent thoughts meandering through my head.
I don’t know what’s going on at night – but it’s not restful and it’s not … I can’t even think of another word to describe what is not going on at night. THAT is how tired I am. I kid you not.
I posted about my rotten night ‘sleep’ on my FB page – and my friend offered ‘Melatonin’ to which I responded, ‘sounds like a Hogwarts spell’. Which, it did to me. I could just imagine Hermione waving her wand and then with a deft flick, “Mel-a-ton-in!”
The person at the receiving end of that wand, falling immediately into a blissful slumber. *sigh*
Okay, now I AM dreaming.
So, I have been tossing and turning, waking and thinking, catching snippets of sleep only to have nightmares. It’s bonkers.
The good news is, I took tomorrow off. No glancing at the clock all day, measuring out how much time I have available for resting or enjoying a movie. After I get home, I don’t have to leave the house again until Tuesday morning.
The day is mine – and THAT – is dreamy.
Chalk Bear and Dragonfly
Sharing a couple of photos taken last week, while I think about what I want to ‘Muse’ about here at the laundromat.
I think I’ve decided the cloud photo will be the test I use to make sure people in my life are on my wave length.
If you see a bear awkwardly holding a piece of chalk in the photograph below, you’re in the right place.
And Friday, oddly enough, I had been discussing dragonflies with a friend at work. I came out of the office and right next to my car, saw this poor little beauty. Strange though – one of those coincidences that gives me pause.
A Wider Shade of Pale
It’s no secret I’ve been what I called ‘comfort eating’, but what I’ve come to realize is that I eat when I’m bored.
I did not know this.
For the last 18 years, I haven’t really been bored.
Since my son has been in England, I’ve found myself with extra time on my hands – that translated into eating utensils in my hands.
I’ll get the annoying ‘thin person bitching about gaining weight’ part out of the way – because I’ve had a few eye rolls when I’ve mentioned the 8 pounds I gained. I know that I am not overweight and can usually be seen roaming the office with various food items in my clutches.
But, I’m NOT overweight as a result of effort on my part!
I lost over 40 pounds on purpose – over time, sensibly. (Alright, and it probably helped when I stopped drinking a thousand or so calories a day too.)
So those extra 8 pounds in (blush) two weeks bother me.
They especially bothered me the other night when I stripped down to put my pajamas on and it still looked like I had my underwear on.
The elastic left impressions where impressions haven’t been in a while. I gain weight, it goes straight to my arse. And stomach. My little arms stay little – and my boobs. Dammit.
Anyway, the private shame was soothed by some garlic cheese bread, so that was a relief.
This weekend was going to be the LAST of my eating debauchery. (I love how I gave myself one more weekend though – very kind of me.)
Started out well on my way when my boss brought me a muffin from one of his restaurants. Ok, I don’t know if ‘muffin’ is accurate. It was more like an unfrosted chocolate cake. But, for the sake of feeling okay about eating it before 9 am, we’ll call it ‘muffin’.
Then I couldn’t possibly NOT eat my sandwich I’d made for lunch … or my sweet potato Triscuits. Have you tried these things yet?? Try them. Do it.
Anyway, fast forward through the sandwich and the Triscuits – (which pretty much sums up how I consumed them funnily enough) something odd happened. I was chatting to a friend and we made lunch plans for tomorrow. AND I am excited about it because I get to see my friend and NOT because I will be in close proximity to food.
Who AM I??
I’m not only voluntarily leaving the house, but I’m doing it to be sociable AND I’m not concerned about the food??
I think my feeding frenzy is over. As suddenly as it began … the desire to feed seems to be over.
Nic returns at the end of the month, and I might just shed these ‘bored’ pounds before he arrives back on US soil. He’ll not have to see me waddling around the house with residual ‘bored bloat’. He’ll be spared that.
Which is a good thing – because I’m not buying larger underwear!
‘Drawing the invisible’ My interview with James D. Foster
I am a proud comic book fan. (Okay, I’m a total nerd)
I am a member of The Mystic Order of Arachnid Vigilance (AKA: The Tick fan club) True story. Here I am with the Cypher Matic Decoder Wheel!
I am also a fan of artists, of finding out what inspires them. And I am in complete awe of natural talent.
So, it’s only fitting that I asked my long-lost/recently found talented friend if I could interview him. Because he has natural talent in the art department.
In spades.
I’ll start with sharing what he labeled as his ‘nerdy’ stuff. *Cough* bullshit *Cough*
For instance, this ‘nerdy’ drawing. Because we all know, hands are SO easy to draw. Not.
This is my favorite – amazing grasp of lighting and shading and … just everything!
Now a little gratuitous moment – we played around with a short story I wrote, and these were some characters that were going to appear in the comic version.
She’s the love child of Vanna White and Pat Sajak (in my story)
The main character – and I cannot for the life of me remember his name?? Arnold?? Anyway, the bananas had disappeared, but he’s holding one.
And I have to assume this guy was the antagonist – that, or Jim got fixated on bananas – notice the one on his lapel.
Yeah, Jim. Such ‘nerdy’ stuff. Early works – and amazing. Just amazing. Then he really found his stride.
Let’s chat with Jim shall we?
Me: So, you’ve handed your mom your first drawing as a child – it goes on the fridge?
Jim: Yep. That’s remembering pretty far back. But, I drew like any other kid in those days. Family members with pig feet; houses with smoking twirls from crayola chimneys; cavemen riding around saber tooth brontosaurus. I drew like any average kid back then.
Me: That was my next question (talented AND psychic) when do you first recall drawing something, looking at it – and realizing. Oh … that’s GOOD
Jim: 1981. I was bedridden with pneumonia for two weeks when I was 13. My Father had bought me this amazing book on the art of the ‘Dark Crystal.’ Somehow it all just came together, and I realized I was way better at drawing than I had thought. Plus, I was 13, I’m sure what ever hormones I was dealing with didn’t hurt either.
Me: So would you say that being exposed to a certain genre of art made something ‘click’ in your head? Like ‘Ah, there’s this other amazing way to have smoke curling out of a chimney’ The hormones I’m sure didn’t hurt, did drawing become an outlet for frustrations and expressing yourself at that time?
Jim: Like any kid dealing with all of that craziness . . . you gotta have an outlet, an escape. I had whole worlds living in my head, but never could quite express them in any meaningful way. So, that’s when I got my first sketchbook, pen and quill, and started to draw whatever influenced that escape.
Me: I love that you had whole worlds living in your head – only a few are able to translate them into something they can effectively share with others … what was the response of ‘others’ once you found your groove?
Jim: It helped that my first art teacher saw something in what I was doing, and at that age, someone seeing potential in what you’re doing is a tremendous push. All the other kids saw it too. But, it no way put an end to getting pushed around. I always had some kid bug the heck out of me, to draw some girl they had a crush on naked. Pretty much, I was just a kid who drew better than most of the other kids. But, it never won me any popularity contests.
Actually, I have to correct myself. I won ‘Most Artistic’ my Senior year. It did actually win me a popularity contest.
Me: You must realize now as an adult, that ‘pushing around’ stemmed from envy right?
Jim: The girls always liked it. So that always helped. And they always had me drawing something for them. I played two years of high school football, and two years a pole vaulting and track. So sports was not really my problem. I suppose any kid at that age is envious of everybody else. I think it just helped me more or less break out my shyness. It was kinda my ice breaker.
Me: Other than grades K-12, did you have any formal instruction with regards to art, or are you self-taught?
Jim: Mrs. Spann was my first art teacher in High School. She was an incredible influence my first year. Sadly she had a heart attack, and had to retire. The next three years were all subs. So Mrs. Spann was the only formal training I had. In Jr. College I took a painting course and hated it. So that pretty much sums up all my art schooling.
Me: Natural talent. That’s huge Jim. Seriously. Okay – fast forward. When were you drawn to comics? (No pun intended)
Jim: Actually I always wanted to be a writer, Lol. So it just kinda made sense one day. Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns,’ was a big eye-opener when I was 18. The art was great, but the story blew me out of the water. Up to that point, I had always figured that comics were just kid stuff.
Me: They’re definitely not kid stuff – and they’re a lot of work! And, you do it all, Concept, writing – then you’re the penciller, inker, colorist, letterer AND editor. What are your tools of choice?
Jim: A good pencil, a good pen, and blank piece of paper. That’s pretty much it. I love Photoshop, but it always feels like I’m cheating. But, it works, so I go with it.
Me: What kind of pen? Doesn’t look like any ink that’s come out of any of my pens lol
Jim: I used to use Rapidographs. But, i find that they’re too scratchy, and a pain to keep clean. Anything that has a smooth feel to it, and you can just throw away and not feel bad about it.
Me: Then I guess the key is to be wicked talented – not so much the tool. What medium do you use for the coloring process? You mentioned photo shop – I have no clue how that works, but I know you’ve colored by hand too
Jim: Photoshop, that’s it. I really need to get away from that too. Nobody wants to buy stuff you’ve Photoshopped. They want something real and original to hang on their walls. I’ve always wanted to check out silk-screening. Printing your own posters and all. But, for a long time it’s just been on the computer.
Me: Digital inking/coloring. I guess that’s a good thing – if you had spent a lot of time doing it by hand, then screwing up a section – starting over would have to be frustrating as hell. Ever do that? Finish a frame and not like the lettering or something and have to start over?
Jim: More times than not. That’s why I love the computer. It saved me a lot of good pieces. If I had actually gone to art college, maybe I would have a better grasp at doing it all by hand. Raw talent will only get you so far.
Me: Speaking of ‘starting over’ – you lost 6 years worth of art and sketch books in a fire. I can’t imagine how that must have felt.
Jim: Felt like hell. What the fire didn’t get, the fire hose did.
Me: I’m so sorry. So much work. Almost like losing years worth of diaries and photos …
Jim: That was right around the time the whole ‘Capzowski’ storyline really began to seed in my head. That was my first attempt at doing real comic pages. 11 x 14 bristol board. It was a real pain trying to figure out what I was doing. There’s more that goes into a page then one tends to think. Like 6-8 separate drawings that all have to flow and mesh like some weird dance on a page. I got about twenty something pages worth out of that year. Left them all on the drawing table. Got home the next day, it was all gone.
Starsky (on the phone)
Jim: When I stop asking questions at to what they like and hate and what not. That’s something I love to capture when i draw each of these character. I don’t need thought bubbles to explain their ego’s and personalities. You can look at them and see their thought process. That’s my favorite thing about art. Not just drawing cool characters, but drawing what you can’t see. But, it’s there none the less. Like drawing gravity. It’s invisible, but in the manner that you illustrate an individual, you can feel their body weight. That’s what I get a kick out of art. Drawing the invisible.
Me: One character that has a misleading look would be Francis … he’s so menacing, yet Sissy is the heavy?
Francisco (Francis) Wolfgang Capzowski
Francis ‘looking’ tough
Meet ‘Sissy’
Sissy colored
Sissy before color
Sissy after color
Sweet family table time?
Me: I love the feel of Neo Pompeii – I might even be convinced to move my Tick comic books over to make room for the first Capzowski issue. Okay, so the big question – I know your life is in transition – but, let’s say the your Art Fairy Godmother floats down from wherever they float down from … what would be your art related wish?
Jim: Lol. To write a novel.
Me: A graphic novel?
Jim: A novel first. Then a graphic novel. A combo piece let’s say. One would feed into the other.
Debauchery Soup 