Things I do or feel like talking about around town.
It has just been brought to my attention that today is No Pants Day: the day we protest against the tyranny that is pants by not wearing any. I’m not going to to work in my underwear, so I decided to wear a skirt. Downtown should be fun tonight.
Courtesy: Gabriel N.
I took these two cellphone photos at AVAA‘s Life Drawing session last Sunday during one of the breaks.
It’s cool to see the different drawings/paintings by different artists using different techniques, all of them from slightly different angles. It’s also impressive: everyone is very, very talented (and better than me).
All of the artwork is unfinished, shown after only 30 minutes or so of work. Click to enlarge and try to guess which one is mine.
Yesterday I did something I haven’t done since right around the time Superman died: I went to a comic book convention.
Unlike in previous occasions, this time I did not wear my Spider-Man tighties. Not because I don’t look good in them anymore, but because Staple! is an event for independent media (read: not Marvel nor DC Comics nor any of the other big boys).
Some cool stuff there. Lots of comics I’ve never heard of before and lots of local talent.
Similar to videogames, I never stopped liking comic books. I simply all but stopped reading them because I don’t have the time, or because I’d rather do other things with my time (like work). Maybe I should win the lottery so I can spend more time reading comic books again.
More photos in Flickr.
They released the (subject to changes) list of concerts for the yearly Film, Interactive and Music Festival South By Soutwhest (SXSW).
The list seems huge to me, and there are more international (especially Mexican) bands than I can recall ever being.
Here are the bands from Latin American countries. Some I’ve seen, some I’d like to see, some I’ve never heard of:
On Saturday I went attended for the first time the Austin Chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School.It combines two of my favorite things: drawing and beer (on this occasion, new local favorite Fireman’s #4). The only thing missing was the game, but then again, given how embarrasingly poorly we’re doing, maybe not.This session was held downtown at Beerland, and of course was Halloween themed. It featured Midwest Monster‘s bassist and The Search For the Next Elvira finalist Kitty Korvette (who also happens to be both very nice and very good looking). What can I say, some people like them scary. Which reminds me:
CALL 1-888-SCARY-02 NOW (before 2 PM)!!!
To my surprise, my drawing actually improved after a few beers, It’s just like my dancing! (Disclaimer: I couldn’t find scientific proof backing my claims- nor have I seen videos of myself dancing at weddings).
In any case, it was a blast. The guy on the microphone was hilarious (name?), Kitty Korvette was amazing, I had an awesome second row table, the beer was refreshing, the crowd was fun, and the contests at the end were great. Some really good looking sketches were drawn, some of which Miss Korvette will post eventually on her MySpace profile (I will update this post when/if that happens). Also, photos and drawings will surely start popping up in the Austin Sketchy Flickr group.
And remember:
CALL 1-888-SCARY-02 NOW (before 2 PM)!!!
[Update 10/23/2007] For the few hundreds of you that don’t check this website compulsively every 10 minutes, I have good news: I’ve been informed through the comments that you can vote up until October 28th. If you’re in the U.S., it’s free and it takes only 10 seconds… vote now and help fight war, poverty, corruption and global warming.
As promised before:
Photo by Jeff Taff.
Through a series of random events, I ended up kayaking in Town Lake yesterday with Mr. Levinson. I think I hadn’t done it since my CYJ days almost ten years ago. I’m happy to report that I can fully move my arms today with no pain despite all the paddling.[Update 5/21/2007]: Ok, I’m in a little bit of pain. Also, I’m not sure kayaking is even a word.
Keep Austin Weird, my frieds. Among many other activities I was engaged in today I went to Eeyore’s annual birthday party (Wikipedia) (a.k.a. Igor el Burrito) at Pease Park.First time I’ve been to this festival, which is embarrasing since I’ve lived in Austin for so long. It’s full of hippies, people in costumes, drums, egg-tossing contests, music, beer, and topless women. What’s not to like?Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, so I leave you with a few photos I found in Flickr:
For the first time I signed up for one of the informal classes at UT: Portraiture I with Chad Cole.
My first class was last Wednesday and already they leave me homework: select from a bunch of pictures and draw one of them using charcoal. After about 1.5 hours and two large cups of coffee at the Flightpath this is what I came up with:
Head of David – Detail from Plate (click to enlarge)
While far from perfect, I’m pretty satisfied with the result, given that I had never drawn using charcoal. One of the eyes is a little bit off, and he has this look like he’s ready to beat the shit out of Darkseid (old habits die hard… I’ve drawn Superman way too many times).It was fun too and I didn’t make too much of a mess on myself. I also learned what a kneaded eraser is and that willow charcoal tastes better than crayons yet it makes you thirstier.If I do anything worth showing in this class I will post here. If you are desperate for blogger art and can’t wait then I recommend you visit BRNR.
Bad blogger, bad blogger. Here I am, posting about something that happened almost a month ago. Shame on me.On the 27th of October, Maya mentioned to me that there was a hot sauce festival the next day.As a man who grew up eating tostadas prepared by that artisan who diligently stood by the Campo Halcones (now Troyanos); that man who mysteriously dissappeared on a faithful day of 1995; that man simply known as “El Maestro de las Tostadas” I could not resist the lure of the fire in my mouth, the runny nose, the tearfull eyes; the ringing ears; the happiness. I had to go. (of interest, I think “El Maestro de las Tostadas” may have crossed over to this side of the pond to become Don Filemon… judge for yourself).So I searched and indeed, The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival 2006 was the next day, on a Sunday. Since we were in between seasons on the City League, the day was completely open to see what this whole thing was about.It was about standing in line for 20 minutes in 40 degrees heat just to taste a tortilla chip with hot sauce on it. Repeat for each of the tens of stands. I did it three times and it was pretty good but not worth the wait under the scorching sun. However something worth telling about happened. I will do that on Part II of this story. In the meantime, satisfy your vouyeurism and look at a few photos I took (and notice how many links I put throughout the text of this post. Good blogger. Good blogger):
