women are heroes

JR just won the TedPrize.

This, from such a simple idea, is heartbreaking and wonderful.

TRAILER " WOMEN ARE HEROES" from SOCIAL ANIMALS on Vimeo.

I posted about JR's work just over a year ago.

angels

Receiving these angels and a bus print from the absolutely lovely Si Smith made me very very very happy. Click the picture to see them more clearly.

a king

Was not at all happy with this picture - bears only a faint resemblance to King Zero - but decided to mess it up a wee bit and commit to posting. Even if my drawings are unrecognizable it is a way to keep from freezing.

Most of what I know about Burma comes from Guy DeLisle's Burma Chronicles. He has a fun mash up of his book on Pyongyang here.

Generally the news is that I am feeling very energized and up at the moment. A commute with long reading times helps. Surprisingly structured pattern to my reading ways to and fro. And I find that the transition to a new job has been helped greatly by a different perspective that developed while I was out of employment. I summed up some of that here (thanks again Pip!). I'll look for a way to express the rest.

fragments

The disciples are stolen from Si Smith's wondrous Bus Trip series of prints.

And you can see the King Creosote sing his song here:

King Creosote - Rims from Bandstand Busking on Vimeo.

'a state as much as a pursuit'

This drawing is a copy. An artist friend says copying is a legitimate way of learning. I certainly accept this for baking, exercise, friendship, conversation, writing - I mean that I copy people who do things well and from that starting point spring off into something that is my own. Maybe that's my blend of "realism and magic".

ordinary victories

I think this is the best book I have read so far this year.

A quick stream of conscious response: Some of my opinion formed out of the sheer surprise of Ordinary Victories (I did not know who Manu Larcenet was this time two weeks ago) but most of it comes from the fact that the story is just that good. It captures a person trying to heal himself - and learn what being forgiving might mean and understand what his art means - better than just about anything else I have ever read.There is a life and vividness to all of the characters that has stayed with me and wandered around with me as I go about my days since first finishing. (After a day's rest I decided to read it all again.) And it has helped me think a lot about art and relationships and energized my drawing all over again.

Wow.



"Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic... Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself."
Zadie Smith

this chap

Mixed feeling posting this chap. He is a very handsome fellow but I don't really know who he is.
Thoughts?

cryptic

Episode #23.2: James Yorkston & Adrian Crowley - "Take The Skinheads Bowling" (by Camper Van Beethoven) from Off The Beaten Tracks on Vimeo.

2 videos in a row but I think it is worth it.

I just have not been making the time I need to draw. This means I have not been taking the time to think, reflect, prayer, gin myself up around the business of living. I am working on this but not so you'd know. In the meantime there are all these grace notes - in the songs, in some stretching at and away from work, in learning what I subconsciously learned in the recesses over the past year. Most all of this is delightful and more than anything else I am dippily grateful.

happiest stumble of the year

I stumbled across this here, while learning about ukuleles.
Happiest stumble of the year.

super sad true love story

I really wanted to write more than, 'I really liked this book, which thrillingly lives up to its title' and I will, but not yet and probably not on this book. Here's the NYT instead.