Today is one of those special number days, so I thought I would celebrate.  It’s November 11th, 2011, and I post this blog entry at 11:11AM, but that’s not all.  Today is Nigel Tufnel day. He was the lead guitarist of the (fictional) rock band Spinal Tap featured in the 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. He was played by actor Christopher Guest.  Here’s a clip explaining one of their many advantages over other bands.

To help to celebrate this momentous occasion, I started to do an illustration of one of Nigel’s signature guitar solos with the amps cranked up to ELEVEN, but then I thought that everyone else would be doing that.  So I decided to go one better (because 11 is one better than 10).

As I mentioned earlier, Nigel Tufnel was portrayed by the actor Christopher Guest.  He also portrayed the character of Count Rugen in The Princess Bride (both Spinaltap and The Princess Bride were Rob Reiner films).  A unique feature of Count Rugen was that he had SIX fingers on his right hand.  Do you know what that means?  He had ELEVEN fingers!  Here’s a quick little Photoshop image just for fun!

I found out yesterday that the month of November has been renamed to Movember.  Here’s some info from the Site Movember.com.  “During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.”

There seems to be two different events for the same cause.  The “No-shave” camp is all about, well, not shaving your face, while the Movember team is all about cultivating the perfect moustache.   I thought it sounded like a good excuse to not shave for a bit and helps me feel a little more Winterly.

I’ve only grown out a beard a couple of times, so we’ll see how this goes.  Moustache season is officially opened.

With the introduction of low cost, high speed cameras, it’s really no surprise to see so many people creating fantastic slow motion videos.  I came across this music video on Gizmodo, but I just had to know more about it. So here’s the video and then the research below.

The video was commissioned by Diesel:U:Music and directed by Tomas Mankovsky for the band Dancing Pigeons. Wait… what? The video was “commissioned”? by who?  Diesel used to make clothes, but sometime when I wasn’t looking, they began to identify themselves as, “DIESEL - the jeans, clothes, shoes and distraction company, not the fuel.”  They have expanded their brand name and worked to create a culture around their products by being involved in more than clothes.  So while looking into this video, I learned from their music site that Diesel:U:Music (D:U:M) launched 10 years ago (I am soooo clueless).  It’s a yearly (unsigned) music talent awards and a worldwide support network built to promote new artists, labels, radio stations, and journalists across most countries.  As D:U:M evolved and grew they began connecting fans to the bands, and in 2009 went on tour with two lucky winning bands.

To celebrate Diesel’s first decade in music, they’ve created a music contest.  Here’s more from their site about the contest.  ”In line with our prodigal Be Stupid philosophy we’ve screwed with the classic branded music contest, here’s the idea - now you the fan take centre stage and commit ’stupid’ acts to win gigs, recording fees and global infamy for your favourite bands, and thousands worth of actually amazing prizes for you. Easy…Through a series of heats and knockout rounds we will find the most obsessively followed new band in the world. It’s the ultimate battle of the fans, it’s survival of the stupidest and it’s online now.”

They have a “Be Stupid” philosophy?  That sounds dumb.  I guess to their targeted demographic the term “Be Stupid” could also mean, “Be daring, be spontaneous, be original, take risks, live life to it’s fullest, and have fun”, but that doesn’t grab your attention like being stupid.  So to help bring attention to the contest, it looks like D:U:M made a music video for the band Dancing Pigeons.

From the band’s MySpace page, I learned that their ”bedroom-recorded electro pop songs” really started to gather attention in spring of 2008. Within in a few months they began to support international acts and traveled around the world without even releasing any records.  Now as they work to make their first Studio-recorded album, they’ll be getting even more attention from this D:U:M contest.  :D

Some of you may recall ALL THE WAY BACK to 2001 when Burger King launched the Subservient Chicken. This interactive advertising program was created to promote some new BK sandwich as part of their “Have it Your Way” campaign. It was a pretty advanced application at the time. When you went to the site you would find somebody in a dressed in a chicken suit, standing in their living room, and waiting to take direction from you. You can type in commands such as “lay an egg”, “dance”, or “die” and the chicken would do it!  The video looked like it was a live web cam, so it was this AMAZING piece of technology.

Fastforward to 2010 when live streaming video content can happen from your phone and reality TV is a anchor of the broadcast networks and we find “ControlTV“. I got a Facebook invite from series co-creator Matthew Senriech to join the Facebook group and help the show’s star Tristan get a little direction in his life. So ControlTV is a live-streamed, online reality experiment that gives viewers control over Tristan. Subservient TRISTAN! The camera crew will start to document Tristan’s every move on Wednesday October 6th and will allow the online audience to vote on every major aspect of his life. Pick out his clothes, tell him what to eat, or who he should date (insert lyrics to AQUA’s “Barbie Girl”). The show will fun for six weeks. So it’s Subservient Chicken meets the Truman Show meets social networking. The show is presented by Ford and Sprint but that doesn’t mean that Burger King can’t swamp the voting and have him eat one of their Chicken Sandwiches!

This is WonderCon wrap-up post #1.
Normally with my convention visits I try to arrange to stay with a fellow artist (or three) in one hotel room to save some money.  Last year was my first trip to the San Francisco convention.  It was a last minute decision to tag along with Matt Busch, Paul Michael Kane, Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez.  We all stayed in one room and it got so loud from the snoring that Matt tried to get away and sleep in the bathtub!  Sorry Matt!

This year I struck out on my own and at the suggestion of my friend Otto Dieffenbach, I stayed at the Mosser Hotel and really loved it.  It’s a block or so to the convention center, in the middle of some great restaurants, and I didn’t have to worry about walking back late at night through the high crime Tenderloin neighborhood like we did last year.

One of the things that I really liked about the Mosser (besides the price) was that they were active about saving money too.  When I first walked onto my floor I saw a sign for a bathroom and a shower in the hallway and I started to wonder if I had booked a room in a hostel and would find myself waiting in line to use the toilet.  Fortunately, my neatly designed but tiny room had it’s own toilet and shower.  There was a note on the bed suggesting that I save water by not having my sheets washed every day.  Another note prompted me to reuse my towel and leave the dirty ones on the floor.  But the best cost saving device of them all was the soap.

The first thing I noticed was the HOLE in the box.  I laughed out loud remembering that I’d seen some silly invention for a hollow bar of soap that eliminated all those little bits and pieces of soap you get when its wearing down.  So I called my wife to tell her about the soap and about the joke soap I’d seen before.  Then I opened it and read the back of the box.

Here’s what it says on the box, “This innovative ergonomically shaped “waste reducing” soap has been designed to eliminate the unused center of traditional soap bars.”  Fantastic!  I’ll be staying at the Mosser again!

The butterfly effect is a metaphor that simply states that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events like a domino effect. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. (Thank you Wikipedia).

I have children.  SIX of them.  Then there are cousins that come over and friends etc.  So there are few things that startle me these days.  HOWEVER, I was walking to the office to start my day when I stepped on a small plastic thingy.  When I first picked it up I thought it was a button, but the back had two little posts on it and then written across the front it said, “DO NOT REMOVE”.  ummm, well, uh oh.  I have NO idea what this came from, but it’s got to be bad. *flap, flap, flap*

In the first of what could be a video series, I share with all of you the treasure of a book that I found over the weekend.  I’m afraid that I didn’t actually read the book, I, well, I just looked at the pictures. I did a quick web search and found 19 copies on Amazon starting at $0.01, and this summary, “When a curious little fish leaves the safety of the family circle to find out what else is in the ocean, he learns an important lesson.” Published in 1995 by Little Simon Merchandise and authored by Carla Dijs.  Enjoy the video review below.

Ok, so you get the Star Wars reference, and no, I don’t really think that Obama is my only hope, I just wanted to let you all know that I DO need some help. I don’t know how the blog stats work, but last month I had over 25,000 unique visits to this site. So I want to hear from some of you on the work that you’re doing and whether or not you have openings for me at your job. If that doesn’t work, I’d like you all to send me my $2.00!

So here I am now looking for a job again that will support me and my family while allowing me to continue to grow as an artist. I sometimes have a hard time describing what I do because I really do a wide variety of things. I illustrate, animate, shoot and edit video, market, advertise, problem solve, sculpt, and in short, I create. I’ve got 10 years of experience building online training courses in Flash. I can effectively communicate my ideas even if I need to do so in Japanese. I’m a quick wit and a pleasure to have around the office.

Even with all this going for me, I’m having a hard time finding employment. Without a steady job, I’m not making what I used to, but my expenses are all the same. I’d like to save some money with President Obama’s Mortgage refinance plan, but I need to prove that I have steady income to do it. We’ve never been late on our mortgage, we have super credit, but that doesn’t seem to matter. So help me Obama-Wan Kenobi! Bail me out long enough to restructure my business and get back on the path to profitability. Just Kidding, I know that I can’t sit around and wait for a stimulus package to save me. I’ve got to do something about it myself. So, I’m asking you all to let me know of job openings that you’ve heard of that you think I would be perfect for. Tell your friends and family. thank you for reading, and thank you for your help.

“give me my two dollars.”

Just a quick post to say how wonderful it is that today is 09.09.09 and the current time if 9:09 AM.

I got a box from one of my fellow Star Wars Fans the other day.  It was a gift to thank me for the free sketch card contest that I ran a little while back.  I was THRILLED to find a perfect Easter surprise.

DOMO KUN!!  Like an Easter egg, Domo was waiting for me to find him in the grass.

 Then when I did find him, he lept out at me, and the chase was afoot!

I thought being chased by a monster with Bunny ears on was bad enough, but things REALLY took a turn for the worse when he transformed into DARTH DOMO!  heheh Thanks Ian for the thoughtful gift.