I'm a Big Boy...

Do I look 26?
Weeellll, I've got a few quiet moments to myself to finally post about the weekend.
I had to make it a birth-weekend, because it lasted so long. We didn't do anything overly fancy, but we did pretty much everything I wanted, and that made it the most fun I had in about 4 years or so.
To start, Karissa & I went to Paradiso with Kevin, April, Larissa, Tony, Blake, and Amber. I blew my free dinner on Chicken (because I CAN), and ordered a Mexican beer called Bohemia, which wasn't all that bad.
Afterward, the party--or should I say, part-ay. It was a kick ass party, exactly what I wanted to do for my birthday. Kevin & I cracked open the special Jack Daniel's 1915 "Lem Motlow" recipe that he got me for Christmas, and took down a few shots. I also experimented with a couple more imported beers, and got the right kind of drunk, the kind that's not too drunk. Unfortunately, I forgot to drink water before bedtime, and got a little hung over.
Karissa made lil' Smokies & dried beef dip for appetizers, and baked me a Russian chocolate kahlua cake. She says she fucked it up, but the cake was yummy regardless, which proves that even when Karissa fucks up food, she still makes it good--she's a keeper, I tell you what!
Saturday (after the nausea subsided somewhat) we stopped by Kevin & April's, then made our way through the snow storm to various electronic stores to help them look for a TV stand for Kevin's awe-inspiring high-def toy.
After that, I was feeling a little better, so Karissa & I went to Qdoba's, where I took a risk and tried their Tortilla soup.
Bad Tortilla soup list--Applebee's, Bronze Boot
Good Torilla Soup List--Tabula, Ground Round, Qdoba's. Enough said.
After Qdoba's, I was feeling much better, so we went to the mall and screwed around for a bit, and I got a graphic novel just for me. Then to Pier One for more of the same.
After all that nonsense, we decided it was time to get to the theater. I was going to spend some of my hard-earned gift certificates at the matinee showing of Hostel. Unfortunately, Karissa and I were very unimpressed with the level of violence in the movie, as we found we had seen most of it already in the previews. The sex stuff was okay, but again, I've seen better. But I did get to see the previews for V For Vendetta, which I hope will be as good as it looks so far. The book kicked ass. Overall, I still had a good time at the theater because I love going to the movies (even the bad ones), and even though the concession chick was a bitch, she gave me tons o'butter on my popcorn. At some point that evening, we went back to Kevin & April's where I surprised her with the uneaten portion of my popcorn (still very buttery), and we played video games until 2 a.m. I was very tired and only got 4 hours sleep before going to work breakfast at the motel, but it was a great night, and I haven't just sat up playing video games in forever. Kevin and Blake kicked my ass at Mario Cart. Oh yeah, and Blake broke Kevin's DVD player, and Kevin & I broke my Playstation, and just tonight Kevin couldn't get his computer to work right. I think their living room is electronically cursed. Good thing the tv is tough...
Today Karissa's mom brought Isabella back. It was nice having a weekend of no schedules and going anywhere we wanted for as late as we wanted, but we both missed our baby. She waited until about 5 minutes after grandma left, then dropped the "good girl" act. But, she was adorable nonetheless. I took a 2 hour nap, then got up to the smell of none other than Mike's Chicken Alfredo pizza.
I want to thank everyone that was able to make it to my party, I had a helluva good time. The whole weekend was nothing but fun and oddly enough, stress-free (for me, anyway). I'm totally glad I decided to celebrate my birthday this year.

BIRTHDAY ANNOUNCEMENT *IMPORTANT*

Happy Birthday to ME! Everyone take a moment for quiet reflection, then get your quiet reflected asses over to my house. That is all. Resume regularily scheduled programming.
Birthday!

The "Dean" 

The "Dean" Returns, and Too Much Information About Movies...

Call me a geek if you will, but I like fanfilms. What are fanfilms? Well, if you're into comics, a fanfilm is an independent movie made about a comic character by a fan. Don't get confused by big-budget movies you see in theaters--these are NOT considered fanfilms. Fanfilms are typically limited in funding--so much so, that often times the only thing other fans will see of the film are previews. Most guys my age like Star Wars (Who the fuck knows why?), but I'm all for Batman. I've seen so many bat-movies that I think I can consider myself a good judge. This is the website I usually check out:
www.batmanfanfilms.com
So far, the two best films I've ever seen were done by a guy named Sandy Collora, who usually does commercials. One is a preview for a movie that might never come, called World's Finest. It's also probably the only Batman/Superman team-up you'll ever see. The other one, a 7-minute short called Batman: Dead End, is about Batman put up against aliens (as in from the movie Alien) and predators (as in from Predator). Yeah, it sounds cheesy, but these guys did an amazing job on costumes and cinematography.
The last film I saw was one I finally got from numerous download attempts called Patient J. Aside from the fact that the quality of filming resembles an old Dr. Who episode, it was extremely well shot, and the scripting was dead-on. Nobody can get that quick-rolling Joker laugh right in movies, not even Jack Nicholson, but this guy did pretty good under the circumstances. Also, although I applaud the effort in trying to create the grotesquely long face of the Joker, the prosthetics left something to be desired. What I really liked, though, is how they took scenes right out of milestone issues of Batman comics, and the costume design used to make one recognize them. The first enounter withj Batman showed a cowl with the ears that stuck out to the side, then the blue cowl from the Neal Adams era, even a little taste of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns.
Anyway, if you're willing to take a half hour and be ashamed of yourself for dropping to my level, here's the link to download the movie. You'll need the newest version of Quicktime, blah blah blah.
http://files.filefront.com/Patient_J/;4304841;;/fileinfo.html


So on with the rest. We had a pretty fun weekend. On Friday, we helped Kevin & April with some moving stuff, we got our band equipment out of Amadon's Store basement. While we were clearing everything of ours out, I noticed a guitar case leaning against the wall. I opened it, and found the old Dean guitar inside. What's the "Dean" you ask? It's only the very first guitar Amadon ever bought, back when we thought our new band would amount to something. He bought it off of one of the members of Alien Underground, a grunge/punkish outfit from our school that went on to...I don't know, probably Fargo. Anyway, Amadon and I learned to play on it. Then, when he got his Epiphone SG, he let me play on the Dean fulltime. At one point, I bought a cheap Rogue guitar off our old bassist, and Amadon frankensteined it for me. Eventually the Dean was put back to its original self, sans two single-coil pickups. Come to think of it, I think it was without those pickups the entire time I had it in my possession. Amadon took them for his other guitar. We had an agreement back then, that the Dean was officially his, but I just played it and kept it at my house the whole time. this agreement worked fine until we got into a fight with Raina (the ex-wife), and she demanded it back in exchange for the rest of the band equipment in his shed.
So there I was, looking at it all lonely in its case. I asked Kevin if he thought Amadon would mind if I borrowed it again, and he thought it'd be fine (of course I let Amadon know later on).
I plugged it in last night, tuned it, and stayed in the basement for 2 hours playing whatever came to mind. I can not believe how good it sounds--it's a little more metallic than my other guitars, sustain is a little better, and the action is just as familiar as if we'd practiced in my dad's basement last week. Kevin & Amadon, I'll probably have to plug it in for you guys sometime to show you how it sounds.

On Saturday, we saw Kevin April & Butto for a little bit before they headed out to GF, then rented a couple movies. We rented Bad News Bears (Billy Bob Thornton version), and I was reminded of why I like movies that let kids swear. It was a little like Bad Santa, only with Baseball, and with less MSG.
We also rented The Devil's Rejects, the Rob Zombie sequel to House of 1,000 Corpses. It kicked very much ass, and I don't want to take away from that, but I still like 1,000 Corpses better. Despite the "Dr. Satan" storyline which set the mood for the movie then went absolutely nowhere, it was way more psychotic, and had more Zombie songs than 70's originals--although I loved the Otis & Deputy execution scene with Slim Whitman playing over it. I think that's my favorite in the movie. That one and the "Pussy Liquors" scene with the G. Ober, who I think looked a lot like a fat version of Derek Arnoud.
But, The Devil's Rejects was still an awesome movie with the 3 standout characters from the first movie. The only thing I missed is Capt. Spaulding's clown makeup, which comes off pretty early on. There are details about the characters which reallly made the story better, but which I won't go into, for the benefit of those who haven't seen the movie.
My birthday is coming up, and I'm getting excited. Friday we crack open the 1915 recipe Jack's, and on Sat, Karissa & I and anyone else that wants to come are going to see Hostel. I cannot wait, I want to see a good violent gore slasher movie, and I want to see it Saturday. Warning to those who don't want to see it--I'm not watching any chick-flick, and I don't want to hear about how touching Tristen & Isolde is. I dont care if there's fighting in it--there were fight scenes in First Knight, and it turned out to be a huge chick flick. It's January, I'm bored, I want to man it up with some extreme R-rated horror that might have a social comentary.

One More Picture and Goodbye!

We're off to Devils Lake in just a little bit, but here's belated X-Mas gift #2! It's a shot of the Gillespie hotel when it stood on the corner of 3rd & Appleton in Crytal, ND, about 100 years ago. It was owned & operated at the time by David and Anna Hunter, my great great grand parents.

This Could BeYou...

http://www.bofunk.com/video/2281/swedish_chef.html

Naughty Tinkerbells...

I finally got my old faery pics scanned! Yes, I spelled it faery, just like I spell it magick, so make you jokes and shaddap!
Karissa asked me years ago (2002) if I would do some faery pics for her living room, because she wanted a "naked faery" theme. For some reason, this is not nearly as weird as if I'd wanted something like a "naked fireman" theme, but I either way, I wasn't gonna complain.
Pandora was the first I ever drew. After that came Isabelle, Camille, Lily and Marguerite. I managed to complete everything but the scenic background of a large faery pic, but I stopped Winter 2002, and never really got back to it. Someday, I'll have to finally finish it. I wouldn't even let Karissa look at it for a year.
These were all done when I was still drawing with mechanical graphite pencils, pre-charcoal, so they look a little lighter than my new stuff. I found my other pictures that were packed away, so when I get the ambition, they'll be up, too.

Not a lot has happened to me since last post, and everyrthing interesting has already been covered. Kevin and April got a house for rent, it looks awesome, I played tour guide for Josie & Amadon while they were looking for a place in GF. They found an apartment, but eventually decided against it, and it sounds like they might be getting one in Legacy. Janelle had her baby, which really has nothing to do with me, but is still a huge event and bears some honorable mention. Go Janelle! Birth the hell out of that hospital!
My birthday is in 11 days. Mark your calendars, and come to my party dammit!! Call your bosses, tell them you can't work Friday night...or Saturday morning. Go on!

Pandora: The very first one I did. She's also the only one with a slightly elfin face. She and Isabelle have about the same size wings, but hers aren't littered with symbols. I was especially proud of the fact that I didn't use a female model for reference. Signature: bottom of page, was not scanned. 

Isabelle: I liked how I did her, too. I'm not sure why I made her hairless down there, but chatgeeks used to argue about whether or not faeries should have nipples, so debate away. Also, I tried to place her nipples a little lower. Despite what you guys might think, I really tried to make realistic breasts, not just "comic book" breasts. Signature: bottom of sheet. 

Camille: I wasn't happy with this one. I'm still not. But, she's part of the family, so I can't just throw her out. Yes, I purposely drew her off center. Signature: right on the side, dumbass. 

Lily: I started on her before some of my other ones, but other stuff came up, and I put her aside for the longest time. But, I did get it finished eventually. She's supposed to be asleep. Signature: snake's spine 

Marguerite: This was one of the last ones I did. She's also one of my favorites. I thought I'd crumple some construction paper to make it look like seeing through an old metal keyhole. The finished result wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I liked how it made the rest of the picture look nonetheless. Also, I slipped a red sheet behind the picture to add the barest hint of crimson, which you may or may not even see. Signature: in the mirror and backwards.  

Late Gift #1, and a B-Day Update...

This is the first of my two belated X-Mas gifts to my parents. This one is for my mom, it's my granpa Tony, to go with the younger version I made for her last Christmas. I got the reference photo from the funeral pamphlet.
Anyway, I'm ammending my Birthday invitation. I've never taken advantage of the "Free meal" business at Paradiso, so on I'm having a birthday dinner. All are welcome to join us, and afterwards, it's off to my place for a little par-tay. That's right, this one time, I'm using the word par-tay. And we're not going to have any of this "letting poor people in so they can steal our stuff" like last time. The focus will be on me here, people.

A FORMAL INVITE FROM THE GRAND POOBAH: PLEASE READ.

January 27 comes on a Friday this year, and I am turning the magickal 2-6. I have, in my eminent wisdom, decided that I am going to celebrate it. There will be food. There will be fun. There will be drinks, and more fun, and a magician! Okay, nobody I know knows any tricks. But so help me, if you people come and don't have any fun, I WILL RAIN HE FIRES OF HELL DOWN ON YOUR ASSES! So everyone, hurry the hell up, recover from Josie's birthday, and drag your sorry asses over to my place the 27th. Mark your calendars. Do it! Oh, and I don't want anyone singing "Happy Birthday" to me unless they're planning on doing it naked (On second thought, I want the men to just not do it at all).
That is all.