Index-Card Tribute to Jack Kirby

May 23, 2015
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There’s a group on Facebook that is revving up for a two-month stretch of daily artwork on an index card. This is known as the I.C.A.D. Challenge, and it runs June 1st through July 31st. Meanwhile, group members, including me who just joined, are warming up, some with one of the ten prompts the group leader has provided.

I got my feet wet yesterday with one of those prompts: “Make a doodle of your own name.” Today I did a prompt of my own inclinative devising: “Draw one of your personal heroes.” I drew Jack Kirby, using as photo source one of the photographs in the book KIRBY: KING OF THE COMICS by Mark Evanier. This book was loaned to me by Russ Kazmierczak, Jr., who, when he saw my index-carded Jack Kirby, urged me to post it. So here we are.

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Day Vid LETTER Man

May 21, 2015
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001

The last Letterman aired tonight. Most of this page was done during the show, but I wasn’t quite done when the show was, so I kept going till 11:59 PM. So it’s all DAY OF the show, anyway.

Day Vid LETTER Man

Daffy hijink’s revels–hey, let’s check the Monkey-Cam
Distribution’s vetted till he has a Big Ass Ham
And at last the nightmare’s done for both Dubya and Bubba
As he’d won the kiss of Julia Roberts–Hubba Hubba
Yes to pairs of World Wide Pants–enough to clothe a nation
Yet we’ll daydream–of a Dave returning to his station

Mad Men: the Punchline

May 18, 2015
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I just finished watching the climactic conclusion to MAD MEN, which has been hyped to pieces and made the capstone to a binge-watching marathon. I trust it won’t spoil things for those who haven’t yet viewed it to say that I hope that the Coca-Cola Company paid through the nose for what must be the ultimate Product Placement. I also wonder if the series was conceived with this punchline in mind. I note the precise timing of the ending with one of the most famous happenings in advertising history.

Remember the scene in WAYNE’S WORLD where Wayne and Garth scoff at “selling out,” all the while holding up blatant product-placement products? Pepsi was one of those products. I wonder if this whole series was Coke’s revenge.

001

Mad (brought to you by Coca-Cola?) Men

Merchandising brought this dream
M I N E D to order per a scheme
AVARICE, you weave your lace
And you net by product’s place
Does this coca-chewing clan
Deal in…cola? That’s the plan

All-Caps ART–and It’s Mine All Mine!

May 17, 2015
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10426275_10203751842664959_6033008096862755325_n (1)

Here, as Paul Harvey used to say, is The Rest of the Story regarding my transaction with Rachelle Olsen (see last post). Rachelle and I got together at the Clarendon Hotel in central Phoenix, where she was displaying at a phenomenal exhibition called ARTELPHX 2015. She had my painting, but it was not the painting she’d initially offered (see last post). Instead, it was “Koi III,” a painting I had publicly expressed a particular fondness for. It had been on display at the Fair Trade Cafe with a price tag of $275–and believe me, that’s a bargain. Even at the price it represents the highest payment-in-kind per hour I’ve ever made writing. (Previous record $26.00/hr. Nice work when I could get it!)

Ownership of this magnificent painting has its perks. The image makes a fine screen saver and can be photoedited to suit a mood or occasion. And doing so aptly demonstrates that there is nothing like the real thing.

10426275_10203751842664959_6033008096862755325_n (1)~2IMG_20150516_211348
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Synaesthesia &&&& Rachelle

May 16, 2015
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Valley artist Rachelle Olsen, mentioned previously in this blog, made me an offer I could not refuse. If I would write her “Artist’s Biography,” a succinct crystallization of her artistic focus, career and philosophy, she would pay me either in cash or a painting of hers. No fool I, I chose the painting. This evening I go to pick it up. It looks like this:

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Here is what she got in return:

“Rachelle Olsen is the artistic force behind the Phoenix, Arizona gallery

Impossible Blue Studios, which showcases her paintings in acrylics on wood and

canvas. Born in American Fork, Utah, her upbringing was in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Though she is mostly self-taught, she has benefited from the tutelage of Burdell

Moody of the Belleza Gallery in Bisbee, Arizona. Her signature work is the

depiction of realistic subject matter in a geometrically expressionistic manner,

uniting pictorial elements with pixelesque vibrance. There is speculation that her

work partakes of her unique synaesthetic sense, which occurs in about one in 25

people and which transfers sensory input from one sense to another. She may, for

instance, hear a sound and have her brain ‘translate’ it to sight.

“Ms. Olsen’s work has been showcased in such diverse Phoenix venues as the

Firestage Theatre, the Fair Trade Cafe, and “Equinox” on the Art Detour. Her work

is in the collections of Jobeth Jamison, Eric Shelley, and James Wannerton in the

United Kingdom.”

After we agreed on the deal I asked Rachelle if I could feature her in one of my blog posts, and double-acrosticize her and Synthaesthesia. She readily agreed, and here is what I did.

 synaesthesia n rachelle 051615

And here is what it says, synaes-synthesizing all over the place:

Synaesthesia & Rachelle

Sensoria draw lines across the [sand]
You C a sound to freeze U where you [stand]
Nor ought we give the C a [reprimand]
A [beaten] C [delineates] what’s [grand]
Effective photons hit us in the kisser
Salacious tactiles tickle aural viscera
Then translate them into a textual [or textile] doc
Hot contrails stream their vids from Mock to Mach
Essential oils taste green as mink we stole
So fletch that arrow & make William tell
Intentionally odd hues bright & droll
Avail her of a oeuvre si si belle [work so so beautiful]

cthulhuku

May 13, 2015
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Most of us have heard of Edgar Allan Poe, but H. P. Lovecraft was a greater influence on the fledgling horror writer Stephen King. Lovecraft’s TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS (Kindle-downloadable, by the way) gave me the willies about 35 years ago. This is a long-delayed paying-it-forward.

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cthulhuku

h. p. lovecraft had
issues. one of them was a
big fat hairy deal.

TurTle

May 12, 2015
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Turtle or tortoise? I ran into this alliterative answer this afternoon: “Totally terrestrial Testudines are tortoises.” (The source for this 5-worder is http://www.ncaquariums.com.)

Today I drew a “turtle” based on a friend’s photo found on Facebook. (Alliteration is contagious…) Then I halved “Turtle” to bookend a double acrostic, and having warmed up with halving mayhem, I inflicted impending insidious impact. (Vowel sounds are assonance, not alliteration.)

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Tortoises misnomered meet
Tarryingly in the street
Under streetlamps they compel
Undercarriages to dwell
Run down they won’t praise nor blame
Rather ask you not misname

The All-Cliché Revue Review

May 11, 2015
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2012-06-26_11-39-47_983

“The new social media have created a self-awareness and self-absorption that puts the 70s–the so-called ‘Me Decade’–to shame.” –Public Domain

*****

the all-cliché revue

BOOM shakalakalaka BOOM shakalakalaka

DRINK the KOOL-AID
Kum Ba Yah.
DRINK the KOOL-AID
Kum Ba Yah.

I know you are, but what am I?
DRINK the KOOL-AID/Kum Ba Yah.
I cross my heart and hope to die.
DRINK the KOOL-AID/Kum Ba Yah.
And those who don’t can go to hell!
DRINK the KOOL-AID/Kum Ba Yah.
IMHO ROFL.
DRINK the KOOL-AID/Kum Ba Yah.

Now look what you made me do.
NOW look what you made me do.
NOW LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO:
DRINK the KOOL-AID.
Kum Ba Yah.

*****

Review. To view again. First we view with our senses, then we view with our thoughts. It is possible to keep up one end of a conversation using nothing but cliché, quotation, and clichéd quotation. In this century the terms meme and trope have become linguistic common coin. In this century no one need wonder what meme and trope mean: here is what happens when they are searched for.

meme
mēm/
noun
noun: meme; plural noun: memes
  1. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
    • a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
      trope
      trōp/
      noun
      noun: trope; plural noun: tropes
      1. 1.
        a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression.
        “he used the two-Americas trope to explain how a nation free and democratic at home could act wantonly abroad”
        • a significant or recurrent theme; a motif.
          “she uses the Eucharist as a pictorial trope”
      verb
      verb: trope; 3rd person present: tropes; gerund or present participle: troping; past tense: troped; past participle: troped
      1. 1.
        create a trope.

We have been deluged with cute kitty-cats and pithy words-to-live-by. We group-mind ourselves into nonselves. The shorthand of our thoughts becomes ever more semantically empty. Have some Kool-Aid. BOOM shakalakalaka. Kum Ba Yah.

Investigation, using 21st-century search techniques, reveals that “Drink the Kool-Aid” refers to a mass suicide of a religious cult; that “Kum Ba Yah” is an entreaty to the Lord to “Come by here;” and that “Boom shaka-laka-laka” is a chorus lyric in the song “I Want To Take You Higher.”

Have a nice day.

butterflight

May 10, 2015
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It is Mother’s Day as this is being written. Jane Stoneman, my mother, was camera-shy when I asked to take a picture. But she had no objection to my sketching butterflies. The Butterfly is my mother’s totem creature. So this is an odd portrait of my mother, not from life, not psychological, but metaphysical.

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And here is another image. This one combines image and text, some hidden.

001-10Here are the words, hidden or not:

Balanced on a thermal puff
Undulant in gardens floral
Tethered to migration’s taxi
Thinned unto endangering
Extralocal through & through
Roving through this continent

Inimitable Socorro

May 6, 2015
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My last blog post, “A Ten-Poem Day,” included a scrambled-up version of the above portrait. i’d originally planned to switch images if and when Socorro gave me the go-ahead to post. now, though, I’m inclined to give Socorro a post of her own.

About eight years ago I saw an Internet ad for a social website that said “Under 50 Need Not Apply.” I was 52, and a site for over-50 folks sounded good. That site was the late, lamented eons.com. It was my first experience with social media. I didn’t do Facebook till much later.

One of the first things I found was a poetry group called Callling All Poets, which Socorro had created. I joined it and loved it, participating enthusiastically.

Her username on Eons was Pajarito. We called her PJ. She was, and is, encouraging, uplifting, and motherly. Not for her was the deconstructive critique, nor putdowns of any kind. Anyone wanting input on their writing need only ask; it would come by private message if potentially embarrassing.

Of course, a few times people joined who didn’t subscribe to the ethic of encouragement and uplift. I  remember two in particular. One was scathingly sarcastic; the other one was a legend in his own mind who wanted us all to benefit from his superior approach to poetry, and no other approach would do. Socorro dealt with them both with honest directness, first with a warning and then with the classic heave-ho. She has always stayed a nurturing course.

And when Eons foundered, Socorro took us to Facebook. Now we are Poets All Call, 70 members strong.

I’ve written hundreds of poems expressly for Socorro’s group. It is a nice nesty poet’s haven. And she is a wonderful leader and friend. I’ll always be grateful to her.