Thoughts are like fishes

On spirituality

The other day I asked Who made God? and when I answered I didn't really finish my view of the subject, mostly because it was a four-panel comic inspired by some Japanese manga I've been reading:

(It helps if you read it in the Japanese style, right to left.) Anyway, the train of thought started earlier, as you can see in my sketchbook diary entry on 13 January.

When I shared my entry around the topic got a couple of responses on the Ninja Tune Forum, a corner of the internet I've been frequenting for more than a decade now.

George Lazenby wrote "God exists outside of space and time so the question doesn't really make any sense."

Erg responded to this that "That's just the same as saying God doesn't exist, IMO."

To which Lazenby replied quoting Einstein that "The difference between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

My own opinion is that God is inside us and only exists through belief -- literally within a person's head.

Maybe I should see if MRI scans show particular parts of the brain are stimulated when thinking about God? Because I'd be happy to point to that region and see religion.

There are some very persuasive views for supernatural powers but I'm happy to let people power their own religious discourse. This is an idea that allows me to reconcile my Quaker upbringing with my atheism because I believe God is a little corner in my consciousness. Quaker meetings are pretty cool and I really like their focus on reflection. Sometimes I like to visit there but usually I nurture my spiritual self in other ways.

Edit: My view seems similar to one just put forward by Y Front: "I think faith is the upward emotion that stems from a kind of schizophrenia. Proof of his existence denies faith and therefore is a paradox. God is not just a singularity but a collective expression of many consciences and hope."

Depression

Ghosts

There's some wicked dancing in this video and the overblown excess of it is something else to behold but, ultimately, it's a testimony to the vision of one of the 20th century's most successful musicians.

When Jackson's death was announced it occurred to me that for many this meant he could be remembered for his work rather than the later controversies. At that time I was thinking more of the following though and up until recently it had also been Thriller -- and this is a cute version -- but Ghosts outdoes that and one wonders if that wasn't the intent.

The miming is ordinary but that's another great step for modern dance.

Who made God?

"Dad, who made the universe?"
"Some people say it was made by God."
"Then who made God?"
"Some people made God."

Edit: Don't miss the discussion on spirituality this started.

Joke from my son

My eldest told me this joke he's developed, though it seems I've written it differently above.

His version goes:

A guy goes to his doctor and says "I think I need a new bum".
The doctor asks why and the guy says "Because it's got a crack in it".

Brown trousers

Horsing around

Scott McCloud on comics

Lost Dogs

Among the graphic novels I've read this morning was Jeff Lemire's Lost Dogs. Lemire has recently been getting rave reviews for The Underwater Welder, which I read yesterday and am thinking the reviews might've hindered my appreciation of it because I preferred this story.

Lost Dogs has a story that reminded me a bit of the film Gladiator but the setting is Edwardian or Victorian. The thick ink brushstrokes have a kinetic energy and I really liked the minimal colour palette too.

The foreword by Timothy Callahan has stimulated a bit of thought for me. He cites Steven Soderbergh as saying "audiences will put up with poor picture quality as long as the sound is clear, but a crisp picture and problematic audio will turn off even the most eager viewers."

As an audio nut who hopes to work on video productions this pleases me but it was employed to suggest that for comics, the role of lettering "can help even the most chaotic sequence of images seem readable" and Lemire goes on to write that the lettering was redone for this re-release of Lost Dogs.

It's something of an issue in the sketchbook diary I've been keeping because my handwriting is usually sloppily inscribed and then the speech bubbles often clip the words too.

Seems keeping this diary is becoming a great way to appreciate the work that goes into creating a comic. When I started reading Kochalka's sketchbook diaries I was often critical of how uninteresting some of the panels were to me, but now I've started my own I know that some days just don't provide interesting material.

And I'm also realising the necessity for activity in the panels I sketch because my most recent entry has a series of scribbles showing my head while I relayed some thoughts I'd been having. Maybe I need to keep a diary and a sketchbook diary?

Dumb jokes

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: To get to the other side

My son observed this is a dumb joke just now and it led me to muse that an equivalent 'knock knock' joke would be:

Knock knock
Who's there?
Somebody
Somebody who?
Somebody who is knocking on your door

Melting

Here's my sketchbook diary from Saturday when I recorded and manipulated an ice cube in a few cups to create a short song.

It was a hot day, just 0.4C short of the highest temperature I've experienced (back in February 2009 when there was a fortnight of maximums over 40).

Back to work

Another panel that grabbed my attention today, this one from Boy in my Pocket.

Most of me is very grateful that I won't be returning to an office tomorrow but a small part, probably some part of my consciousness that has been colonised with the morals of our society, does feel that I should be working full-time as that's expected of me.

Gingerbread Girl

Read Gingerbread Girl this morning and I really like this panel above. It reminds me of a line Sharon Stone told Rolling Stone (no relation!) that you shouldn't sleep with anyone with more problems than yourself.

The graphic novel itself was engaging, beautifully drawn and a clever twist on the mystery format. One of those narratives that take the familiar path of genre fiction and use it to tell a new story. As usual, I don't want to give away anything so I'll stop here and say READ IT!

Tales of Woodsman Pete

Just been reading Tales of Woodsman Pete with Full Particulars by Lilli Carre this morning. It's full of whimsical short stories about Pete and Paul Bunyan and it's the first comic I've read by a woman this year!

This detail has been one I've returned to a few times and giggled. Reminds me of a girlfriend I once had who stole a pair of my underwear and I wish I'd mounted her.

First day of school

Whistle not to be blown after 8.30pm

There's something of a circuit bent style to the dashboard of the Leeton Lions train.

Sketchbook diaries

Previously I mentioned my eldest likes James Kochalka's work -- well, now Oscar is joining me in keeping a sketchbook diary.

When I was reading the Sketchbook Diary volumes I thought I noticed some improvement in the style of visual storytelling and that's what I'd like for both of us.

Sketchbook diary

James Kochalka is a name that seems to jump off my bookshelves at present, which seems appropriate as I can imagine it as the sound of a spring-loaded leaping toy.

Through my patronage of Top Shelf Comics' annual sale I've amassed a small collection of Kochalka's work without realising it. It wasn't until I started reading his Sketchbook Diaries that I noticed he also wrote the graphic novels my son has been raving about.

Now I've read four volumes of Sketchbook Diaries and I'm inspired to start penning a small comic each day too. I'll see how I go in 2013 and might share here if I come up with something good.

P.S. I'm surprised to discover Kochalka has just finished his sketchbook diary.

Sounds of 2012

One of the highlights of 2012 has been getting involved with the Disquiet Junto project, who this week posed an interesting exercise.

I've selected 12 five-second segments of recordings from throughout the year based on when different files were exported (which seems to be a bit different to some of the links below).

Here's some context for each section:

January
The year opened with me procrastinating on finishing my album For 100 Years, which ended up being released in July. On the day of internet protests about the SOPA I remixed a video which Google had alerted me to because it had something resembling Bassling in the title. It gave me a big buzz when the guy I remixed saw it.

February
This track was my third attempt at remixing Waipukurau Park and had been mostly completed in December when I edited the video but my files show I worked on it around this time although it probably wasn't finished until closer to July.

March
It's been maybe three years since my cousin Chris died but I still think about him often and this track is one example. Early in 2012 I had the idea of recording an EP of solo bass and I'd been thinking about Chris because he helped me buy my first bass and encouraged me to play it.

April
This comes from a short mix of Skunkhour tracks I put together around the time I posted about the mix of INXS tracks I made for the project, which is cooler so I'll post the video I made for it here.

May
A recording of a jam on circuit bent gear and guitar pedals that I titled as an Outkast cover on Youtube.

June
Another jam with circuit bent gear and guitar pedals, as well as bass and theremin.

July
2012 was a milestone year as a musician for me and this was a great month with the release of my fourth, fifth and sixth albums.

As well as a great article on my album in a national magazine, I was invited to improvise with some great Wagga Wagga musicians.

August
Finally able to distribute the mammoth three-hour immersive audio recording of 'the wires' I'd finished in 2010. Dunno what people will make of it, I deliberately didn't master it so that it'd be background noise but that's probably part of how I experienced this otherworldly instrument.

September
A recording of a Fisher Price clock using my new contact mic.

October
This Dinosaur Park remix was one I mastered for...

November
Another 100 Years, an EP of remixes I released to coincide with my exhibition, which followed on from the album. The track heard here is actually the first park remix I made at Waipukurau Park in 2011.

December
Seems I'm back in a slump again but hope to finish my For 100 Years DVD. The audio here comes from one of the remixes I'm working on using the DVD cover/instrument developed for the release.

'90s Anecdote Generator

I was

trying to get away from a scientologist
eating at a Hare Krishna joint
having a dinner party
reading about lipstick lesbianism
drinking chai at a warehouse party

with

that early raver
that sometime corporate lawyer
that drug dealer in school
that 'wigga' kid
that grunge band

who I haven't seen since they joined a

church
defence force
university
public service
gym

when

a porno got stuck in the VCR
they found a heavy metal t-shirt in the couch
we heard Kurt Cobain had died and started crying
'heroin chic' was fashion
I saw a laserdisc

and they said

"Eat my shorts"
"I'd buy that for a dollar"
"Not that there's anything wrong with that"
"The Truth is out there"
"Not!"

Then

they dropped their video store card
they told me they rollerbladed
a nearby payphone rang
I found a $2 note
my floppy broke

IT Crowd piracy warning

Ai Weiwei in a Manger

From B3ta.com

More passion for music

Clever clip, kinda picks up on an earlier post about the passion of musicians.

The Blue Nun in Piskor's Wizzywig

Had a chuckle while nearing the end of Ed Piskor's Wizzywig last night when I spotted this quote from a sample used on the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head -- my favourite of their albums for the way it mixes up their interests in punk, hiphop, Buddhism, etc.

The quote appears in the interlude track The Blue Nun, which samples On Wine: How To Select and Serve by Peter M. F. Sichel and Sondra Bianca. Found this short interview with Sichel while looking for the track on Youtube just now.

Ed Piskor is currently preparing a comic on the history of hiphop.

Craig Thompson's Blankets

Having been impressed with Habibi, I moved straight onto Thompson's earlier work Blankets.

It's a sentimental story about young love but I found it interesting as a way to get a sense of what motivated Thompson to create Habibi, assuming it's semi-autobiographical. There's a similar story of unrequited love, references to a religious text and many wry observations beautifully drawn.

The style of the drawing is a bit different than Habibi, a bit more Charles Burns maybe. Dunno, that's not really a fair comparison since Burns has a very different aesthetic, like the dreaminess in the following panel would probably involve insects.

Work Nude Day

Today is Work Nude Day, which is great because it's supposed to get to 30C degrees.

Craig Thompson's Habibi

Just finished reading Craig Thompson's book Habibi and I think it might be the best book I've read this year. It's one of the few where I wished it wouldn't finish and there was a richness to it that really elevated the graphic novel form.

The story follows the lives of two former slaves, one a girl forced into marriage and the other a boy. Their relationship becomes complicated, they're torn apart and find each other again -- yeah, I'm trying to avoid spoilers here so let's settle on it being an epic love story of sorts.

It's set somewhere in a timeless Middle East and I was quite conscious of the 'orientalism' in the representation of Arabian culture but in many ways the book seems a response to 9/11 and the fear of Muslims which followed and it's written by an American who is trying to help others understand an old culture. The book isn't really about any of these themes but that's the context in which it appears I guess.

This interview with Thompson is a great read after the book because he faces orientalism and other arguments while explaining his motivations and interest in the story.

The storytelling is great, particularly the way Thompson develops the lead female character Dodola, and the discussion of the Qur’an and calligraphy. All of these threads are woven together with the most awesome artwork and it reminded me of this panel from another great graphic novel Alice In Sunderland about the way that comics are actually richer than many texts through using multiple forms of representation.

Do yourself a favour and buy a copy of the book. I'm surprised to find it can be delivered worldwide for less than $30AUD and am resisting the urge to buy a heap of copies for friends and family this month.

Floppy mail

One of my banks has started sending out entertaining direct mail marketing, which isn't normally the sort of thing I condone but I've started opening their envelopes to see what they're up to.

Today this package made to look like a floppy disk arrived and I marveled at the embossing used to create the look of the disk. Shame to see them waste so much money posting this crap out to people but I guess it succeeded in interesting me for a few minutes.

Cheetahs on the Edge

Cheetahs on the Edge--Director's Cut from Gregory Wilson on Vimeo.

Cool self-portrait

Jimmy's End

As a fan of Alan Moore I feel obligated to share this new work. It's very Lynchian but features many of Moore's preoccupations, like the tarot. Great design and lighting, it's moody and menacing.

Another self-congratulatory blog post

Wow, seems like only earlier this year I was posting about my 500th entry here. This is the 600th.

Goatse hairstyle

Freaky Japanese girl with a Goatse haircut.

facebook.com/us

FACEBOOK - just stop it. Stop it.
We've been through enough: Facebook ads, Timeline, an overhaul of the DM system, friends with endless streams of baby and CrossFit updates.
And now this - the Facebook couples page.
Before you start pointing the finger at your loved-up friends, it's happened already. It's not a choice, it just is.
If you a) have a Facebook account and b) are listed in a relationship with your Facebook-account-owning paramour then you have a c) Facebook couples page.
Don't believe us? Log into Facebook, then type 'facebook.com/us ' into your browser.
The horrifying result is a scrapbook of every status, photo, interest and mutual friend you share.

How ~~cute~~ disgusting.

This News Limited article was my introduction to Facebook's new 'us' pages for couples and at first I thought it was a bit much to have the leading social media site collecting my correspondence with my partner.

Then I remembered how incensed I used to feel about every new feature they introduced. So I got over it.

Because once I'm over the fact something is new and therefore different -- like 'How dare they change?'! -- it isn't a big deal and sometimes it's even helpful.

Just last night I found myself typing in facebook.com/us to find a link I'd left for my better half and it made me realise this is actually going to be very useful. I won't have to trawl through the posts on my partner's page, feeling like a cyberstalker, everytime I want to find something we've shared online.

And, of course I should've remembered, News Limited love attacking Facebook because they hate social networks after losing squillions on MySpace.

Foley style

Another great pop single this year is PSY's Gangnam Style and, while my kids have been crazy about it, I much prefer this interpretation of the video by a foley artist.

My kids like this Sponge Bob version:

Call me maybe

Beaut unofficial filmclip using chat roulette for Carly Rae Jepsen's pop tune, which some are picking as the single of the year.

Mixed response

'Tis nearing the season and -- WOW! -- I'm surprised at the mixed response to Christmas in my Facebook feed this morning.

One second a day

One of my TV Production alumni put this video he's developing on Facebook earlier today and I think it's cool.

For 100 Years in The Irrigator

My local newspaper The Irrigator has a great pic with their article on my exhibition at The Roxy Art Space this month. Read about the For 100 Years multimedia exhibition at their site.

I seem to have given the newspaper the wrong link to the album For 100 Years and the EP of remixes And Another 100 Years, click on these titles to find them.

WeiZen Ho at Uncovered

Recently I've been working on the video I shot at Uncovered:uncovered, the night of short performance curated by The CAD Factory at Wagga Art Gallery in September. One of many highlights was WeiZen Ho and you can see a couple of her contributions in this video.

Son of the Southern Cross

My partner has had this flier on the fridge for most of the year. I think it arrived a week or so after this Ned Kelly replica knife flier.

It only came down because I was sick of people asking if I was buying one.

She likes the copywriting and phrases like "authentic reproduction" are quite funny when you think about them. The notion that this ring is "one symbol a man can rely on" is also silly -- I think I'd prefer to rely on my debit card!

Galactic mash-up

Thinking of stars here's a mash-up made using a video by NASA and a tune by Antonio Sanciolo, who tells me this was the imagery he had in mind when he wrote the song. The idea to merge the two was a direction from BoingBoing.net

Horoscopes

While I had a laugh at the above graphic when I first saw it appear in my Facebook feed, I actually quite enjoy horoscopes.

It's not so much that I believe in them as being accurate predictions of what the future holds, although there have been many times when I've found them to present details that eventuated.

And it's not the idea that the movement of astral bodies moves our own bodies because the moon moves the ocean and we're mostly made of water.

What I like about horoscopes is the short-hand they provide for talking about personalities, character traits and generally providing a sense of narrative in my life.

Yeah, it can be silly but so can life and I like the way it'll sometimes force me to reconsider my views or offer an alternate way of interpreting an event.