Nostalgia

I am in such a nostalgic mood! It's quite specific actually, and hearkens back to my childhood of watching awesome PBS shows. I, of course, loved Wishbone and Long Ago & Far Away, which is probably partially why I'm hyper literate now. Seriously if you want your kid to be the one who sneaks their light back on after bedtime so they can stay up until 1 am reading then breed them on those shows. Sadly they are now gone and we are left with Barney, Dora the Explorer, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Looking back I would definitely say that the early nineties were great for kid's television. There's nothing on PBS that's even close to the amazingness of Wishbone and Long Ago & Far Away now.

I actually re watched Wishbone not that long ago. I think that it's one of those shows better left in the past. It's so cool when you're a little kid, but when you're 18 you suddenly realize that the protagonist (Joe) was like, 12 years old and seems super young which is a bit disappointing because I remember him as all old and cool. It's also funny watching renditions of classic novels with a dog as the main character now, too. I seriously wonder how the actors were with that. It must have been the oddest experience ever to pretend that a silent dog was selling his soul to the devil or was their husband or something. Anyway, it lost a little of it's magic but is still super cool. Anyway I found the opening credits to it on youtube: Wishbone Opening.

Long Ago & Far Away holds up though. I re watched some of the taped videos recently and I'm still completely struck by the animation Svatohor. Svatohor may possibly be my favorite aside from The Wind in the Willows that they showed. It's so magical and dark but still beautiful and so completely Russian. The opening credits that I found on youtube feature it at the beginning: Long Ago & Far Away Opening. I wonder if there is anyway that Alex can capture the video from the video tape and put it onto a DVD-R. That would be so cool. Videotape doesn't last forever, after all and I'm always afraid that Mom will suddenly decide to throw it out in some mad cleaning spree.

Oh and the Wind in the Willows!! I absolutely love the claymation rendition of that story! There's nothing quite like it, and it really actually has no moral compass that I can see which makes it kind of bad ass. My favorite part is when Mr. Toad buys cars and keeps crashing them so they eventually put him in jail because he's a hazard to society in general and he has to break out to reclaim his mansion from the weasels who have taken it as their own. And then he, Badger, Molelie, and Rattie totally win and there are no further repercussions for old Mr. Toad. He learns no lesson and he is still the same incorrigible Mr. Toad.

And then there is what spurred all this memory. I was watching the second DVD of the Masters of Russian Animation series that I picked up at the Undergrad because I'm kind of a nerd. There where two that really struck me. I loved Hedgehog in the Fog and Crane Feathers. Crane Feathers was based on the old Japanese folk tale about the crane who was saved by a poor man and then she came back to be his wife and made silk for him to sell. She told him never to look in on her while she was weaving but one night he did only to find that she was a crane and to make the silk she was taking feathers from her own body. After finding his betrayal the crane left him. The end.

They both utilize old school animation methods because they were made in the '70's and I think it is so much more lush and seductive really than most animation you see today, particularly CGI which is so overused. I think that this is also why I'm such a fan of Michel Gondry's films. He does everything old school so it just seems to have more depth to me. I love computers, but they can never replace the old methods for me. There is something to be said for the hand drawn line, for layer upon layer of paint, for hand cut screens. This is probably why I'm not in graphic arts or industrial design. I am a studio artists, through and through. I don't think I could ever be anything else.

listening to: Emiliana Torrini--Fisherman's Woman

Not Enough Room for These!!

Six more days of Class!

Whew. Okay. Busy time. I'm kind of glad we're done with self portraits in life drawing; I'm so sick of charcoal right now. We're doing ink which is oodles of fun . . . once you add the wash. The basla wood stick to draw with straight ink by itself is not so fun. The self portrait is in charcoal, I call it "You Bastard" because I guess it looks like I'm pissed or like I'm calling someone a nasty name. Five agonizing hours, but it was worth it because Ros (My proff) LOVED it and it totally makes up for my kind of crummy in class work. I don't, my hand betrays me all time. It just goes all funky and I can't get a nice line or the right shape right away. Everyone one else's work looks better than mine. But if you give me a few hours I can hammer out something beautiful. It's just the way I work.

Of course, It's a bit different with these ink wash drawings. I think it's because I start out with something on the page (the light wash) which lets me know the mass of the figure and lets me wrap my brain around where the lines should go. It's terribly helpful and I really like the way these turned out. I love ink!!

Also, yesterday I went to this lecture on comic book arts in the Krannert by Scott McCloud. He was a total textbook comic book nerd. Black clothes, glasses, hair falling into his eyes, wife who has purple highlights and is wearing an Inuyasha t-shirt. It was really interesting and I'm more pumped than ever to get started on my yet-to-be-named graphic novel. I might rework the plot a little too to make it more about the new woman--the new female hero--which is what I think I want my art/writing to focus on right now. It was fun too because he talked about comics that I read as a child and teenager (holy shit I'm not a teenager anymore!!) and loved like Tintin and Ranma 1/2. I totally want to reread them now but they're in DeKalb. I claim them! My brothers will not get Tintin and Ranma! They probably won't either because Nick is all into living with as little material junk as possible these days which makes sense because he's moving all over the place and Alex is mostly into fishing books.

Anyway, he introduced me to a new comic which is totally fawesome. It's called Scott Pilgrim and it's by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The art isn't amazing or anything, but it really works for the style. It's kind of modeled on Manga and you can totally tell that the writer is into both video games and japanese comics. Basically the premise is that Scott Pilgrim is this slacker/dork/nerd who is in a crappy band called Sex Bob-omb, lives with a gay man who he shares a bed with only because neither of them can afford another bed, and has met this girl Ramona Flowers who he is totally into. However, before he can date her in peace he has to defeat her seven evil ex boyfriends. Whenever he defeats one they burst into a pile of coins and an object appears out of thin air. It's pretty hilarious and everyone in the Scott Pilgrim universe acts as though this is totally normal. Anyway, it's only up to book three right now and the fourth one should come out this summer. It's nice to have something else to look forward to once Harry Potter will be finished.

Okay. That was a long ass post. Oh, and apparently we shouldn't buy Coke anymore because they deplete the water of impoverished communities. So don't buy Coke.

Heat

This heat hovers
Like a mother hen
This heat sinks under skin
Languid layered thin
Veil of sweat
This heat radiates
Off micro metal plates
Housed by
Perspiring plastic shells
This heat saturates
Steeped cinderblocks inflate
Silky strands deflate
Enlightened eyes become dead weight
Glass begs to give way to fresh
Glass begs to give way to mesh
Coquettish cracks promise
Cool clear darkness
But
Shadows shroud
Stingers proud
The wasp shall remain
Penned in the plane
Between stifling and supple.

© Sophie Loubere, 2007


There is a stupid wasp trapped in between the screen of my window and the glass so I can't open my window. Woe is me.

Thank God for The Office and the internets

Okay so today was a little depressing. But I can always count on The Office for a pick me up.

Safety Training

The latest episode over at daily motion. Once again, tried to embed it but blogger was being weird. Maybe they suddenly only have a deal with youtube or something . . . oh wait, don't they own youtube now? Whatever. Youtube doesn't feature full eps of The Office so they are way less cool at the moment.

Memorable quotation:

Dwight : Jim, could you please inform Andy Bernard that he is being shunned?
Jim : Andy, Dwight says welcome back, and he could use a hug.
Dwight : Okay, tell him that that’s not true.
Jim : Dwight says that he actually doesn’t know one single fact about bear attacks.
Dwight : Okay, no, Jim, tell him bears can climb faster than they can run. Jim! Tell him!
Jim : [weakly] Andy… nah, that’s too far.
Dwight : Damn you.

Don't you dare forget that bears are soulless killing machines, Dwight. Don't you dare.

Why I Hate Guns

Okay, so now I feel like a douche bag for complaining about cramps and also for not being more up on the news. This is just awful. I think about how they were students set up in a situation a lot like the one I'm in now and how something like that would be so sudden. This is why guns are so awful. What else could lay such devastation so quickly? It's frightening.

Pain and Groaning in Urbana

What's up God? Thanks for the period+cramps on the day of studying+test. Seriously, you couldn't wait one day?

Three Weeks

I am SO done with charcoal. 7 hours on that stupid drawing. I didn't have my camera so will post later.

Charcoal=giant mess. Three weeks of school left. I can make it.

My company stamp!!

My company stamp!! I'm going to ink it up and put it on the herringbone ribbon for tags.

No, that is not my painting. It was in the studio in the room that is full of paintings (where they go to dry and chill until final crit) and I actually don't know who did it. But I love it. I love the color scheme, I love the composition and I love the style that it is painted in. So kudos to whoever did it. You have inspired me, and that doesn't happen a whole lot in the downstairs studios because lets be honest: most of the paintings are pretty shitty. When I first saw this I was immediatly drawn to it and then I think of the things I really like is the beads because they make me think that the character is a corrupted priest.

Photos of my dirty window painting in progress later.

listening to: Brandi Carlile--The Story

Wow

I'm only on the first 12 pages of this book and I can already tell that it is going to be mind blowingly amazing.

I'm crazy . . .

Okay . . . so guess who spent her whole weekend watching the entire sequence of the Lord of the Rings movies extended edition DVDs instead of reading for class and studying for her test on Tuesday? Guess who is still watching The Return of the King at 4:30 in the morning?

Oh well. At least now it'll be out of my system.

Two Decades

Two decades ago a starry eyed dreamer came into the world. That starry eyed dreamer would quickly turn into a smart mouthed cynic. Happy birthday to me. You beat teen pregnancy. Go me. Evidently I do well at grammar, too.


In other news my mommy and daddy got me to coolest present. Okay, so I told mom what serger to get me and even sent her the link on amazon.com. But still. I can't want to use it. An look at all the pretty, pretty turquoise bowls! I totally didn't tell her to get me those. Anyway all that makes me wish I was back in DeKalb right now sewing up a storm. I would also like to send a shout out to all my grandparents who made a donation to the Sophie Doin' Stuff Foundation. It will certainly help me continue to do stuff, especially when I don't have a job this summer. Stupid Interlochen. They STILL haven't emailed me back.

listening too: Common--Be

I'm not sure I can take much more

of people throwing up on a plane in this episode of House. For serious.

Also, I really hope that in real life that planes on long flights store antibiotics. And Cuddy? Seriously you didn't have a meningitis vaccine? Yeah right. I'm sure every doctor's had that one.

Dear American Idol,

Just because a "singer" (see Jennifer Lopez, Mark Anthony, Rob Thomas??) comes from a Latin country or has a Latin heritage it does not mean that they are actually creating Latin Music.

Why oh why did Gilmore Girls have to be a repeat?

Everyone here is very gruntled

Okay, so it's no secret that I love The Office. After Arrested Development got cancelled (damn you Rupert Murdoch! Yet I still love flickr . . .) it is definitely the best comedy on television. So of course when there was an interview with Mindy Kaling--the woman who plays the truly irritating Kelly Kapoor and who also has written some of my favorite episodes (see The Injury)--on the A.V. Club I read it. It's actually a really good interview and gives a lot insight as to how they write characters, particularly Michael who I imagine is really hard to write just because you have to find a certain level with him so that he's not TOO stupid but he's also still pretty damn stupid. I think that this season they've done an especially good job because while Michael is still a moron, he's getting a bit better. Well, except for in the episode "Phyllis's Wedding". That was just an irritating episode overall, though. Stupid Pam hooking back up with Roy . . .

Anyhoo, you can read the interview here: Mindy Kaling Interview

I also have been looking at The Very Secret Diaries by Cassandra Claire again. I read them way back in 2002 when the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out and they were hilarious then and they're still hilarious. They're just the very secret diaries of the characters of The Lord of the Rings, and they're exactly as you would expect their diaries to be. Here is an excerpt from the diary of Legolas, son of Weenus:


Day Eleven: Bumped into Gandalf who is all sparkly white now. Asked him, "Who do you have to blow to get last bottle of bleach in Middle Earth anyway?" Gandalf said, "The Balrog." So not worth it.

Am rethinking, though. Roots are showing.

Still prettiest although at this rate for how long?

Day Twelve: Asked Gandalf for Balrog's number. Gandalf said I couldn't call him. I told him not to be jealous and posessive. He said he wasn't, it was just that he killed Balrog last week.

Note to self: never date Gandalf.

Day Fifteen: Arrived in Edoras. V. upset. Suspect Eowyn may be prettier than me. Most unexpected as always thought shield-maidens were more hefty, pear-shaped types.

Not the prettiest! V. bitter.


Everyone's a gay pervy hobbit fancier, obviously. They don't make a whole lot of sense unless you've seen the movies, but if you haven't seen LOTR yet you're pretty much a loser anyway.

listening to: Spoon--Gimme Fiction

The most hated family in America and Montmartre

What do they have in common? Not a whole lot other than that the most hated family in America would loathe Toulouse Lautrec's Montmartre. I say these two because I saw videos on both today. I was looking at The A.V. Club's Videocracy when I found a video that BBC did on America's most hated family. Basically they go to soldier's funerals and heckle people for "worshiping the dead" and supporting a country that permits homosexuality. According to them America is doomed because it permits sin and blah blah blah bullshit. Anyway the report involved an hour long in depth look at the family where a BBC reporter (Louis Theroux) goes and basically hangs out with them a lot. It's interesting but also very sad.

The Most Hated Family in America

I tried to insert the video straight in but youtube was being weird and I had no idea what the frack it was doing when I tried to upload the blogger account so whatever. Anyway I think that Theroux does a very good job considering how disastrous this could have been. He is calm and logical even in the face of hostility and contention. I think the saddest thing is watching the young children being indoctrinated and watching them say the most horrid words even if they don't really understand what they mean. Some of the most interesting interviews are the ones that Theroux does with the twenty-one year old daughter who, despite her words, still seems very mixed up inside. I think that the part that was most upsetting for me was when a young child (seven or eight) got a drink chucked at him from a passing car during one of their picketings on the side of the road. The mother gets very angry with the driver, who was obviously wrong to chuck a drink at a child. The thing that upsets me is that the mother completely negates her own wrong doing in putting the child in that position in the first place. She is even more wrong for giving her child that horribly hateful sign that says something that he doesn't even understand and to expect him to grow up well despite all the hostility he must face on a daily basis due to the hateful beliefs of his parents and church. However, Theroux's commentary and reactions add humor and this is a very interesting watch in my opinion. There are seven parts all of which should be on youtube.

Okay. So onto Toulouse Lautrec. My grandmother sent me a DVD of a documentary that was done on BBC not too long ago on the artist and it was really interesting. While watching these I actually felt a little upset that we don't get BBC here. It seems to be chock full of crazy personalities. I guess the guy who was narrating the Toulouse Lautrec is an art critic I guess and he was a total weirdo. He wore and earring in one ear and said that Toulouse Lautrec was lucky to have slept with Jane Avril and was shown nursing a drink more than once. It was incredibly amusing and nothing like a documentary you would see here on PBS or something unless you count the Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese where the Irishman's beer mug kept going up and down in his interviews. That was pretty cool. Anyway I've always loved Toulouse Lautrec so it was quite interesting to watch. Evidently he was a penis on legs and was so short and weird looking due to the fact that his parents were the children of first cousins and were first cousins themselves, something that I totally called and something the narrator got very mad about and blamed entirely on the father for some reason. Also his father liked to do fancy dress 24/7. Fancy dress. I've got to remember to say that from now on instead of costume. It always makes me think of Tintin and Captain Haddock ranting.

Anyhow, I'm exhausted for no apparent reason. I think I'm conking out.

Listening to: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins--Rabbit Fur Coat

Huzzah!

Huzzah! I fixed my knitting by going to the knitting shop and green st. and throwing at an old lady who was like, this is your problem. Evidently I was forgetting to bring my yarn back and forth whilst doing the ribbing, which really screwed up the top bit. Anyway after that I had a few more minor catastrophes (dropped stitch, accidentally purled when I meant to knit) all of which I fixed all on my lonesome with a book for instructions. It was very independent like. Anyway this is a finished side of the athletic sock bag. It's not exactly what I was picturing but the colors look kickass and I'm hoping it will stretch out a bit more when all put together. Oh, and the stupid roll-y bottom won't be there. I've found the perfect fabric for the inside, I just have to get it off ebay cause purlsoho stopped carrying it.

Listening to: Brigitte Bardot--Un Jour Comme Un Autre

Happy Zombie Jesus Day Eve!

Ginormous painting

So this was my conversation this morning with my father:

Me: Hey dad. So how easy would it be to transport a 6'x3' canvas from say, Champaign to DeKalb?
Dad: Not easy.

So there you have it. But eventually figured out something that might work so I'm going ahead and making two giant canvas stretchers tomorrow for my *dum dum dum* final painting of the semester!! Jeff totally only assigned us three paintings all semester and gave us like, five weeks for each one. It was kind of ridiculous but I'm not too hot on painting assignments now so I was fine with it. I'm so psyched for next year when i get to do my own thing.

Anyway the photos above are the inspiration for what I'm doing. They were both old and dirty and created by man and probably wouldn't even be looked at twice by normal people. But I'm a weirdo so of course I noticed. Now, I don't boast to be any good at photography but I think the staple pic is pretty damn good. I'm fairly proud of it mainly because I DO suck at photography and that photo doesn't suck. The other one . . . not so much. I mean, I can look at it and get what I need from it for the painting, but I showed it to my roommate and she was like, what? What is so exciting about that dirty window? And I know what I'm going to do. Not exactly, mind you, which is why the process is going to be so fun. But I know that it's going to be beautiful and full of depth. And I want to show that these layers of dirt that we create show the build up of the way we live. And sometimes we're too lazy to clean it up. I can relate to that. It's going to loose and about color and texture. I'm going to take some canvas and cut it up and run it through the sewing machine to create seams and maybe do some stitching into it by hand and be liberal with the gesso. I want that gesso texture in there this time which is why I'm not going to use the pre gessoed stuff. I'm going to honest: I love that that canvas is so cheap (aurora bleachery sells it for two bucks a pound) but it's harder to stretch and i LIKE the texture of the gesso brush in my paintings because it's all part of the process. I just wish that the aurora bleachery sold ungessoed canvas. That is literally the only thing that is making me use the gessoed stuff. The fact that it is so cheap.

Anyway I'm excited and inspired. I'm going to take a lot of pictures throughout the process to chronicle the process so it should be cool.

listening to: Josh Ritter--The Animal Years

Back into painting

Well I am officially back into painting and drawing. I have some really cool ideas for painting that I'm planning on getting started with tonight (always make several stretchers at once, folks. Then you're done for awhile!!) and I had to do a self portrait for my life drawing class last night. I totally didn't want to do it because I was just NOT in that mood and was planning on spending only an hour or so on it but an hour turned into 4 and I ended up staying at the studio until 2 am and actually really enjoyed myself. I was in a zone. It turned out really well I think and my teacher who scares the living daylights out of me and is super critical really liked it too so yay! I didn't want to do the glasses but I actually think that they add a lot of balance to the composition because they're so dark and are on the lighter face. I'm getting better at glasses I think after having done like, five portraits where people are wearing them.
Anyway I'm pretty psyched and happy that I haven't really got much homework tonight so I can work on stuff that I want to work on. But now it's time for a nap. I only got four hours last night. 9 ams are harsh.

listening to: Belle & Sebastian--The Boy with the Arab Strab