About Face

Yesterday morning I went to About Face with some of my friends. About Face is a group that meets in the Columbia Museum of Art's Basement where they draw/paint/sculpt nude models. It was pretty fun although I found the other artists overly clingy as they would not leave us alone. I personally find that when I'm drawing naked people I like to be left alone but I guess that's just me.
I did a mixed media kind of a thing with watercolor and color pencil. To her credit, the model was actually not that chunky. Anyone's stomach folds like that when they are sitting down. She also had a bigger rack.

Lo Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag [*UNCENSORED*]

Ashley usually puts up lyrics of the day, well here is Tony's video of the day. Each day I will put up a music video I find particularly awesome or otherwise find interesting. To start things off we have Lo Fidelity Allstars with their track from 1999 Battleflag. Warning as the video is uncensored and thus is NSFW.

Artist Of The Day: Belinda Del Pesco

Belinda Del Pesco is an awesome artist who specializes in watercolor, drawing, and printmaking. I'm particularly drawn to her work because of her use of color and her collograph prints. I definately think that her website is worth a look.

Happy Canada Day!

In honor of Canada Day I would like to recommend a short novel, "Mrs.Mike: The Story Of Katherine Mary Flannigan." "Mrs.Mike..." is a coming of age novel where a young woman moves up north and falls in love with a mounty named Mike. Together they help aid a small province of Canada. The book takes place circa 1907.


Have a happy Canada Day but keep in mind: "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind." (Einstein)

In defense of 'funny internet videos'

Evidently the other day (see this post) Ashley seemed to decry the fact that all I have posted, other than my introductory post, has been an extremely hilarious Internet video. She felt that the reason I had done this was because this blog didn't really have 'direction'. But this is not so. This blog does have a direction, much like any other blog, it is a living breathing organism that will be defined as time goes on. I think one of the biggest attractors to blogs, as a medium, is that they offer both the reader and the poster to dictate the content as time goes on. If, for example, we wish to show off funny Internet videos, we can. And that's ok, because really this blog is ultimately about Ashley and I having a journal of sorts of our relationship. And really I can't think of a better example of our relationship than random art stuff, with just a little bit of funny videos thrown in for good measure.

Speaking of which:

Until next time, stay classy Internet!

Nice

If you happen to frequent Radio Misterioso then you may notice a new link under the Likeable Linkable column.

lyrics of the day #2

lyrics of the day from Goodbye Tomorrow's "A Vespertine Haunting"

"I never fall asleep til
Dark divorces the sky
When i lie still
My thoughts crawl back to your side.
I'll share your ghost tonight"

For the Photoshop fiends

If you are a Photoshop newbie (like myself) you may find this site helpful.

F.Y.I

Tony has brought it to my attention that our blog has no common theme so he has no idea what to post. I guess that's how he's explaining that unfortunate SNL video he posted yesterday.
For future reference I plan on posting about:

• Art (art I'm doing, art I like, art that you should probably check out because it's awesome)
• Anything I find particularly entertaining
• Craft crap
• (As I type this there's a child screaming in the background) Uh, oh, graphic design stuff that you might find helpful
• Crap about Tony's blog
  

Yeah, this is what's on the syllabus. I'm having trouble posting pictures which is why I can't upload my post about the collage frame yet. It's coming. Keep your pants on.

I convinced Tony to take the day off so we are currently camped out at Barnes & Noble. Good day.

Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)

This is one of the funnier videos I have watched in quite some time!

Cheap/Amateur Graphic Designers Unite!

So I'm trying to make a banner for my blog and possibly Tony's Forteania (barring any future arguments over our creative differences). During the course of my creating I discovered a site that I definitely wish I had known about forever ago. If you make this kind of stuff you should probably check it out too, or maybe you already knew about it and just didn't tell me-either way, shame.

CG Textures

*the only problem that I have with this site is that they listed frogs under the reptile category. If "Muppet Treasure Island" taught me anything it is that frogs are indeed amphibians.

I also recommend this site (especially if you have a font fetish). The only thing about Da Font is I'm pretty sure you have to email whoever created the font to use it on something public, like a website.

Can you tell me what's wrong with this photo?

One of these things is not like the other.

I think I need to try this.

Coming Soon...

I realize that our blog ranges on a variety of topics but coming soon (hopefully by tomorrow) I'll be posting a blog on how to create your own collage frame. You've probably seen collage frames before while window shopping.

While creating your own is probably comparable to purchasing one, customizing your own is more beneficial (to the orientation of your photos/art and your brain). If you have a collection of photos that you want to hang together it would be difficult to find a collage frame at a store that would match your specific needs-creating your own would be to your benefit (especially if you like this kind of DIY crap like I do). So tune in tomorrow.


Also, for your viewing pleasure, check out this link that I found particularly entertaining today.

http://listverse.com/2009/07/20/top-10-gruesome-medieval-torture-devices/

I Dream of Framing

I'm having nightmares about messing up at work now. Nightmares. Of all the things that I want to dream about my mind has chosen for me to worry that I will go into work only to discover that I have messed up a framing order. I told Tony about this and he was not pleased. He reminded me that if anything this job was just a hobby so I should feel free to quit but that's not how I roll.
On a brighter note, a few nights ago I did have a dream where I was driving a flying car. The steering wheel (yes, this flying car had a steering wheel, doubtful) was very sensitive so it took some getting used to. I would rather go back to dreaming about that-or zombies. I love a good zombie dream.

Greyhound Rescue-BAM!

Every weekend I work at a chain art & craft supply store named after one of the archangels. (I'm pretty sure I signed a waiver stating I wouldn't say anything bad about my place of work, this is my way of circumnavigating that) I work in custom framing which means I help the customer pick out, you know, it's actually quite boring and a description of it even more so.

I also had an Indian couple try to haggle with me over the price of a fake tree-a fake tree.

Of course there is an upside to me working. In exchange for work I get money-pretty snazzy. Maybe now we actually might be able to move to Canada-I'm thinking New Scotland.

I also forced Tony to go into Pet Smart with me today before I had to go to work and the greyhound rescue was there!!! Greyhounds are kind of like dog slaves, they are forced into running for human entertainment and between the ages of two and five they are typically retired. You can adopt these sweet beasts through the Greyhound rescue. They are tall, have short hair, and are the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. They sleep about twenty hours a day and only need a daily walk-plus they are good with little people. Don't hesitate to adopt if you don't have a house, they make great apartment dogs being as they sleep all day. I hope we get one at some point in our life. I do love big furry things that cuddle.

I am currently in the process of writing the second draft of a short story I started on Friday-Tony was a good first reader. I think having Tony read my raw creative endeavors is more intimate than...other intimate activities that we engage in.

Lyrics of the day

"I'd like to think that this is love-lost in second chances without end, and this is romance."

-As Cities Burn, "Of Want and Misery: The Nothing that Kills"

I spent the majority of my sophomore year of high school blasting that song repeatedly.

100 Years by Mac Tonnies

I stumbled across one of Mac Tonnies' short stories titled "100 Years."

http://www.flurb.net/3/3tonnies.htm

Things that make my day

1. My Reptar key-chain acquired from a thrift store for a mere forty-five cents.
2. Tony doing...anything.


And now Paul Kimball's Mac Thoughts.

Such Great Heights

To those of you who do not know (which should be everyone being as only Tony and my Aunt know) I have a strange fascination with heights. I love them. I also have a mild obsession with hot air balloons. I have done some research as to how I can ride in a hot air balloon and one day, assuming I survive the hot air balloon ride, pilot one. For the mere cost of two hundred dollars (basically two weeks worth of pay) I can drive two hours away and ride in a hour long hot air balloon ride with five strangers and the pilot. Two. Hundred. Dollars. Give me a break.

AND while I love heights, Tony on the other hand, does not. The man wants to be freaking Spider Man but he's afraid of a little tiny roller-coaster or a hot air balloon ride. I guess when they say opposites attract it's true. Tony luckily gets out of me dragging him onto roller-coaster rides and such as he's had spinal fusion surgery and cannot: go skydiving, go bungee jumping, or go on roller-coasters. What a bum.

Mac Tonnies-"The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us"

Amongst my Mac Tonnies' craze I have begun reading "The Cryptoterrestrials." Tony had been begging me to read the book since he purchased it but I just kinda shrugged it off.

One day when I fork up the dough I'll be able to buy his short stories collection which is what I particularly want to read. I mean, it's not that I don't enjoy his theories and research and what not, but he was also a really good fiction writer from the blurbs I've read from his blog. I was listening to the first memorial on (I definitely forgot the name of the podcast, I'll add it in later) and Paul Kimball had talked about turning one of Mac Tonnies' stories into a play. I wonder if he's done that yet.

Tony is making it happen.

Last night Tony called to inform me that he was given a shout-out by Paul Kimball. Awesome! Tony has been blogging every day now for about two months and I am very proud of his networking skills, his dedication, etc. I'm also beginning to find his open-mindedness to be one of his most attractive qualities that for the past three years I have somehow overlooked. To commemorate Tony's awesome day I took a screen shot of the shout-out to save.

Within the shout-out Tony was compared to none other than the late Mac Tonnies (that's a huge compliment). Mac Tonnies was creative, very intelligent, as well as handsome. I unfortunately missed the Mac Tonnies train but am catching up by rereading his blog over and over again (Posthuman Blues), listening to any podcast/youtube video I can get my hands on, and slowly reading one of his books that my boyfriend ingeniously ordered. One day I would like to get my hands on a hard-copy of his short stories but I can't fork up a hundred dollars yet (it's out of print which is why it costs so much). I have been finding myself thinking and speculating about Mac Tonnies a lot lately and I'm not sure why-the catalyst was a blurb from the memorial podcast where Kimball talked about Mac Tonnies sleeping in the nude.

Anyways, Tony is awesome for:
-his dedication
-his networking skills
-his humor and wide range of topics within his blog posts
-AND his rising skill with grammar.

SO you should most definitely hit up http://forteania.blogspot.com/

Introdocutions are in order.

Hey there blogoshpere, my name is Tony. That's right the guy that urinated outside of the Books-A-Million a few posts back. If you like you can imagine that this act was some kind of political or social statement. In reality I just really had to pee. Yep, no glamour here from this guy. Perhaps some of you may know me from my other wildly popular blog (in my imagination) Forteania. That is where I write about all kinds of weird, crazy, or bizarre things.

Here however I will be helping Ashley with telling our story; past, present, and future. Hopefully you will come along with us on this crazy, sometimes fascinating, but certainly never boring journey that we had decided to undertake together. The journey that some call life. Well you can look forward to more silly shenanigans from me, less so from Ashley [ :) ], in the future. Until then, stay classy Internet!

Canned? Chicken

Over the past two days three of the Polly Pockets that I have ordered have arrived! I am extremely giddy and excited. After ignoring the urge to have them framed in a shadowbox, I plopped down on the floor and played. I'm twenty years old and I played with toys today. After I got the initial shock of having Polly Pockets out of my system, I cleaned them, and placed them decoratively on my bookcase.
On another moronic note, I also had to restart my computer five times today. I would turn my computer back on only to have my mouse not move. I called it quits until my boyfriend asked to hold my laptop. His first comment was, "are you sure you don't have the keypad turned off?" I didn't even know that I could turn that off, but, somehow out of all of the numerous key combinations I managed to turn off my keypad. Nice. He makes all of my mountainous problems back into molehills. When did he get to be so smart?
I also discovered the wonders of canned chicken, in fact, that's really what this blog post should be about. A dedication to the majesty of chicken out of a tin can. A ballad for twelve ounces of Hormel chicken floating around in water. Until about a week ago I was not aware that chicken could be purchased in a can. While shopping for tuna (which I did know came in a can) I noticed other canned meats. I was aware of spam, having lived in Hawaii and with a grandfather who believed in spam casserole, but then I saw the chicken. Mind blowing. I bought two cans!!! After putting the canned chicken in my cart I though to myself, "now what?" So I scurried over to the Pick A Meat Helper section of the grocery store and bought two different styles of Tuna Helper. I figured if it works with canned tuna, why not canned chicken? After leaving work and awaiting Tony's arrival home, I began my experiment. I cooked the Fettuccine Alfredo Tuna Helper according to the package directions, only instead of tuna I added a can of chicken. It was magnificent and tasted as good as Olive Garden's Fettuccine Alfredo. One day I'll buy organic chicken from some hippy commune I'll become apart of, but until then, I will partake in the wonder, mystery, and adventure that is canned chicken.

The Day Tony Urinated on Books A' Million

The first time I met Tony he urinated outside of a Books A' Million with one of the current managers. I'm not quite sure why, I think it was in protest to something-knowing him now, probably the "discount cards." Anyway, here we are, almost four birthdays later, attempting to build a life together while finishing up things like school, and beginning new things like masters degrees and dreams to teach overseas.
Tony came up with the idea for me to create this blog about us, but I think I'm going to make it primarily about myself. However since our lives are so intertwined now, he will obviously be making appearances and even guest-posting if he's up to it.