A Sorry State of Affairs

Apologize [from The Unreasonable Triptych] » 20"x30"

I'd managed to work out one set of demons with Doomed when immediately another crept in. In starting to work on a third piece, I realized I was already starting to think about this new creative endeavor like a marketer – something I decidedly do not want to. At least not yet.

Apologize, is admittedly the most contrived in that I'd begun to think of the "King" featured in the previous two pieces as a "brand". A nagging – and slightly annoying – vestige of my recently exited career. So to exorcise that demon (or at least to placate it), I decided to face it, to embrace it, and give the "King" his own piece (ultimately the centerpiece). As for expressing regrets, I'm not sure who deserves the apology. Or why exactly.

Having at least temporarily subdued the notion of creating to create "product", what I found was that there were creative tropes of marketing consumer goods that when mutated and obscured a bit (or possibly beyond recognition) were actually liberating. Embracing this notion early has serendipitously proven invaluable in developing an evolving vernacular that I've continued mix and remix in subsequent pieces.

Anyway, the first three pieces weren't really intended to be a triptych but retroactively organized as such. That the individual declarations formed a somehow disconcerting directive when combined confirmed the decision.

The Unreasonable Triptych] » 60"x30"

—————

While, I'm pretty sure writing a blog means never (or is it "always"?) having to say you're sorry, here's a different apology: I realize that for some of my limited readership, the new direction of WTF may be a bit tedious. A bit too self-serving. Sorry.

I wasn't really doing much with WTF anyway and my Twitter feed is better suited to post the cool/funny/clever/arty videos I'd been posting here (Join Twitter people. I'll be more than happy to discuss how to get the most out of it – with very little effort on your part.)

So, for the foreseeable future, this is what's going to happen here. I'm going to post stuff I've been designing and talk about it. These first tentative efforts may seem a bit awkward – they certainly feel awkward – and not particularly "artful" but you're seeing a process – not a product. I'm hoping that over time I demonstrate progress and growth in both the visual and verbal efforts here. But, you'll have to wait and see. Or not.


Next: Curiouser and curioser...

A "History" Lesson

Doomed [from The Unreasonable Triptych] » 20"x30"

It’s a particularly daunting task setting out to create solely for the sake of creating – with no real purpose in mind. Particularly when if you allow yourself to be distracted by a lack of any obviously remunerative purpose. Purpose can be a significant deterrent to progress.

Having found the process (and result) of working on The Unreasonable Man so gratifying, I found myself briefly paralyzed by an irrational fear that I couldn’t do it again – that I wouldn’t find the tabula rasa from which to work again. The sensation of channeling something, rather than composing it was one I didn't realized I'd missed until I'd experienced it again. I very much want the work I do to be imbued with meaning I just don't want to be guilty of consciously producing something that might be viewed as precious or contrived – I don't want to be too sure of what I'm trying to say.

So, simply to keep working the “muscles” I was using I decided to use another artist’s work as inspiration. To "do an homage". So, I spent a morning looking for inspiration both online and off until ultimately finding it right in front of me (behind me, actually). I found my inspiration in a 7"x10" ink and marker "portrait" of stoic rooster incongruously dressed in a tuxedo and possessed of a gaze as cryptic and iconic for me as La Giaconda's smile. A 28 year-old piece by my Dad (an accomplished and prolific artist himself), Hol and I have a print of it framed and hanging in our kitchen. “Doomed” is a reinterpretation, a repurposing – if it was a movie it might fairly be considered a remake. So, while I tried to keep any real intent from creeping in as I worked, stealing quick glances over my shoulder to be sure I was doing the source material justice, I found myself thinking of the oft-misquoted George Santayana quote,

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Next... an apology.

The Unreasonable Man

The Unreasonable Man [Panel 1 of The Unreasonable Triptych] » 20x30 inches

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." — George Bernard Shaw

Though I'm ashamed to admit I know next to nothing about GBS, the above quote has been a favorite of mine for sometime. Some might say argue that I fancy myself the Unreasonable Man. Some might say I'm just unreasonable.

Regardless, the quote has recently inspired me to be at the very least a bit headstrong. Having recently lost a position doing something I've done reasonably well for over a decade, I found myself with no desire to pursue doing it any longer. Arguably an unreasonable attitude. Particularly when one considers that I haven't known with any certainty what I am going to do. The inspiration I found in the quote – and it is certainly a self-serving reading – is to embrace this lack of reason in the interest of progress. And on a very gratifying personal level it's paid off. Over the past month and a half I've found myself gradually pulled, almost imperceptibly at first, (back) towards a desire to produce art. Not necessarily to create Art with a capital "A" mind you (I wouldn't be that presumptuous), but simply to create solely for my own gratification and edification. And that's progress.

The piece above represents the initial expression of that desire. The first piece of "design for art's sake" I've produced in years, it is maybe rather obvious, maybe not. The first panel of the first of two triptychs I've completed so far, it was effectively produced out of a stream of consciousness sort of state with the whole never predetermined. So too much shouldn't be read on the surface. However, anyone looking at it – and familiar with Shepard Fairey's iconic and ubiquitous Barack Obama "Hope" poster – would be forgiven for reading it as an obscure homage or – in a less sympathetic reading – a clumsy rip-off. It's neither. And, as much as I like the man, Obama – contrary to popular belief – does not own "hope". However, if it is either, it is only through a surreptitious act of my sub-conscious. And, I'd hate to dismiss all the other influences that seem to have informed – some more sublty than others – the piece as a whole.

In the recent past, when I've been inspired to design with "art" as the intent (in the last twelve years, an act typically undertaken with keyboard and mouse), the work has generally gone unproduced – destined to spend it's life as a series of 1s and 0s on some harddrive or another. This time I've decided to change that and have vowed to myself to produce work – to bring the work to life in a tangible form.

So, with no expectations of what may ultimately come of it, I'm talking with a former co-worker, designer, print-maker extraordinaire, Billy Baumann of Delicious Design League to help me begin by producing the above as an edition of 20"x30" silk screened posters. Panels 2 and 3 of The Unreasonable Triptych – Apologize and Doomed, respectively – to be produced soon thereafter followed by The Substantial Triptych.

Here's to being unreasonable...

Yes Weed Can!

Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu! To Me.

We spent today in and around Roppongi Hills. An area of Tokyo I first became aware of years ago through it's graphic identity – a brilliant typographic system developed by British designer/typographer, Jonathan Barnbrook .

Like each day before it, today was a long day packed from one end to the other with blog-worthy stuff. Today also shares the problem of the last few in there's been either no time or I'm too tired at the end to craft a post that would do justice to the day. So, here are the three highlights among highlights.


The astounding show, The Messengers, by French artist Annette Messager at the Mori Art Museum on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower. A show we missed at the Pompidou by a couple of weeks on our honeymoon.


The Tokyo City View on the top of Mori Tower. Absolutely spectacular views of the whole of Tokyo. You get one view from my iPhone.



Dinner at Gonpachi in Nishi-Azabu, just West of Roppongi Hills. (Gonpachi served as the inspiration for the set in the Crazy 88s fight scene in Kill Bill: Vol. 1.)

Oh, I almost forgot. At lunch Hol – for the first time ever – surprised me by asking for the smoking section and we ended up sitting in what was basically the coat room with another (smoking) couple. Seriously. It was absurdly hilarious. I can barely stop laughing as I write this. It was truly absurd and slightly surreal. This view just gives you the "hilarity" of Hol getting smoked out in the "hotboxed " coatroom – but behind me is a coatrack and to my right is a closet. Maybe you had to be there.

Reading May Be Fundamental, But Smoking Is Cool.

Now reading can be cool too! TANK Books – classic books in cigarette packs (with foil!).

Is It Over?

Evidently, it's not over.

Your Brain On Drugs

So, I've managed to avoid this fate... only to be confronted with this possibility.

I'll explain. Montel Williams was diagnosed with MS in 1999. That same year, he established a foundation to support those that suffer from MS and the effort to find a cure. His symptoms have included some significant pain. He has used – and been a vocal proponent of – medicinal marijuana to alleviate some of those symptoms.

So, depending on how this thing plays out, circumstance may dictate that I kick it all 'Montel Chilliams'.

I'm jus' sayin'.

N.b.:
1. I've now seen my brain – off drugs at the time – and it really looks more like scrambled eggs.
2. As a recovering alcoholic (10+ years! w00T!) I feel for the Hoff. I really do. But, then I realized he's a do*chebag when he's sober too.
3. Thanx to Diego for the Montel MS Foundation link.

Blowing Smoke?

"I smoke for my mental health."

When I say it in WTF, I don't necessarily expect my smoke to start a fire. But when David Hockney says it in the Guardian maybe it's worth contemplating – over a cup of coffee and a cigarette.

[Thanx to Mom for the article.]

Image © FreeFoto.com

Mad* Good!

Just finished watching the premiere of Mad Men, AMC's well-reviewed new show about a 60's Madison Avenue agency, and I've got to add my endorsement.

Very good. Some great, smart writing. Surprisingly complex characters realized by a convincing cast of 'little knowns'. A great period-nailing look. And a very cool way of integrating the commercials into the show.

And if you're looking for a show with mad* smoking... this is your show. Watch it.

*[From UrbanDictionary.com: mad adj. 1: really or extremely 2: alot: That kid's mad cool., I got mad money. – Ed.]

What I’m Reading.

A gift from Mom – Kurt Vonnegut’s final contribution to his oeuvre (barring any posthumous releases), A Man Without a Country. As I understand it, the slim volume is a collection of essays originally published in In These Times, a publication dedicated to ‘...informing and analyzing popular movements for social, environmental and economic justice...’. I’d never heard of the publication before beginning the book and you’ll be at least as informed as I am if you simply click the link.

The truth of the matter is, I know next to nothing about the author – I am certainly no Vonnegut afficionado. With the exception of the interview cited in an earlier WTF post, the only work of his I’ve read is Slaughterhouse Five. That was twenty-plus years ago and I really have no recollection nor opinion of what is, by many accounts, considered a classic. I did find his cynical, old-bastardy position on smoking humourous, refreshing and completely worth co-opting – but other than that impression of the man, as opposed to the author, I went in to this book with few preconceptions.

Well, the few preconceptions I had – cynical, old, bastardy – held up. In each of the essays Vonnegut holds forth on a variety of topics – politics, sex, war, life, etc – in the unmistakable tone of a grumpy, skeptical pessimist. From the Chicago Tribune review, "Vonnegut...is either the world's most optimistic pessimist or its most pessimistic optimist." Either way it wore thin. Some might say, and on occasion it would be fair, that I am grumpy and/or skeptical but I’m certainly not a pessimist. And, in small doses – e.g. the ‘smoker interview’ – his tone resonates. However, in essay after essay, with few exceptions, it became tedious. Particularly when delivering prophecies of imminent doom.

On America’s ‘fossil fuel addiction’:

All lights are about to go out. No more electricity. All forms of transportation are about to stop, and the planet Earth will soon have a crust of skull and bones and dead machinery.

Now, I understand the significance of our global issues w/r/t oil, global warming, war, famine, plague, famine, pestilence, etc. But. Come on. That’s not socio-enviro-economic commentary – it’s the pitch for the third Matrix.

To be fair, that’s about as pessimistic as he gets. There are nuances to his pessimism. The most notable exceptions are the handwritten aphorisms (often poetic) that precede each essay. These, by contrast are often witty, elegant, thought-provoking and occasionally quite moving:

I wanted all things to seem to make some sense, so we could all be happy, yes, instead of tense. And I made up lies, so they all fit nice, and I made this sad world a paradise.

USA Today’s blurb, featured on the back cover, states, "For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations... this is what he is like in person." Well, now that I’ve ‘lived with him’, I think I’m ready to get my own place.

Note: Before any LitCops give me any sh*t vis Slaughterhouse Five – I plan to reread it. Soon.

Tuckered Out

It was crazy to think I’d get anything posted until the wedding has past. Hol and I had been sitting at the kitchen counter chipping away at the final details – I, the program and invite menu [Of course the invite was done long ago. That's what happens when you post tired. – Ed.], she, seating, ceremony, etc – when she decided to step outside for a break. After about a half an hour, I got up to go out to join her and have a smoke. I found her like this – passed out on the patio table. Planning a wedding is fookin’ hard!

[I’ve never been much of a photographer, if for no other reason than I’ve never really liked carrying a camera. However, I’ve recently started getting into taking photos with my phone cam – it takes surprisingly good photos. – Ed.]

Hump Day

Once again, it just ain’t happenin’ on Wednesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with something. Now I’m gonna go have a smoke.

I'll leave you with this:
“Experts say that Iraq may have nuclear weapons. That's bad news. Now the good news is that they have to drop it with a camel.” – David Letterman

I'm a Smoker/Vonnegut on Smoking

Okay, I just wanted to get this out there – I'm a smoker.

I'm an unrepentant smoker. I have little to no interest in quitting and I believe, despite hysteria to the contrary, that smoking can be as good for one's mental health as it is purportedly bad for your physical health.

I'm also a relatively considerate smoker. I don't smoke inside my own house or my car. Even when the option is offered, I don't smoke inside anyone else's house or car. If I'm smoking – say, outside at a restaurant – and someone asks me to move or stop – I move or stop. I smoke because (in addition to the admitedly raging addiction) I really, really enjoy it. I enjoy the ritual of it. I enjoy flipping up the top of the pack... actually, it starts further back than that. I enjoy getting a new pack, removing the cellophane, flipping up the top , removing the foil, and drawing a cigarette out of the pack. I enjoy pulling my Zippo™ out of my pocket and flipping its lid to draw the wheel against the flint. I enjoy raising the flame to the tip of the cigarette. I enjoy inhaling (not necessarily deeply but I do enjoy inhaling). And I enjoy exhaling (In a sort of hybrid Ameri-Franco exhale I'm told).

I particularly enjoy smoking with a cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

Anyway, in reading a couple of Vonnegut obits I came across an interview from 2004 where he references his life-long smoking habit and I have to think he felt how I feel about smoking (and maybe life in general):

Vonnegut “Well, I smoke a lot, you know.”

Interviewer: Pall Malls?

Vonnegut “I’ve got a lawsuit against Brown & Willliamson now. Because I have been chain-smoking Pall Malls since I was 11. And on their package they promised to kill me.” (laughs)

Interviewer: They’ve done a very poor job of it.

That's it.