Something, Something, Something, Dark Side

Holy crap! New Adidas x Star Wars kicks! The Superstar 2 Star Wars, Game Mid Princess Leia (for my sister Leia), and Superstar 2 Darth Vader are my favorites. I also really like the Stormtrooper Hooded Flock Track Top. Alright, I want them all. Well, maybe just the more subtle designs. I know I'm a huge nerd, whatever. A better colab, there has never been.

Obaaamaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!1!

I just got word about this Baruch Obama toy from Jailbreak Toys in an e-mail from Turntable Lab. I haven't given props to Turntable Lab in a while, but I like this toy. I have decided to start calling Barack Obama Baruch Obama. It makes him sound Jewish. Here's what TTL has to say about it:

I'm going to restrain myself from writing my longest review ever for this toy. I will simply transcribe the conversation that Ak Boogs and I had when it came in. These were my first reactions, I am not claiming any accuracy for my belligerent statements. Real talk.

Me: "I don't know... His features are a little too Curious George (The skin tone is accurate, but strangely the product shots that Snack looked up online were mad suspect in the skin-lightening department. Had a brother looking like Nat King Cole on television in the 50s and shit). I'm not feeling the fact that his campaign probably isn't seeing any of this money, either (it's since been confirmed that $1 goes to his campaign for every figure sold online). Why does he have the ill Arsenio finger? I bet these toy-making motherfuckers are a bunch of white boys trying to cash in on one of the most amazing moments in the history of the United States."
Ak: "I bet you're still going to buy one, aren't you?"
Me: "Two. One for my desk and one for the crib."

Anyway, I am tired from a long night last night at the art walk and a long day of work today. I am working on another piece for Billy Dee Williams. This one is a composite of two paintings that will be used for the cover of a magazine that goes along with the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz 2008 Saxophone & Composers Competition. Billy Dee Williams really likes my work. Then I had to scan some images and print out some super high quality prints the same size as the originals for Igor Kovalyov, the director of The Rugrats Movie and an episode of one of my favorite cartoons of all time, Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, and a very close friend of the gallery. I was getting ready to leave when a guy came in wanting to print an image five feet by twelve feet on linen. My boss was out, so I had to show him around the studio, show him our printers and that we had the capacity to print that large. I don't know prices or anything, I'm a production designer, so I was trying to get him to come back in the morning when my boss would be there. It was after five. I wanted to leave, but stayed and helped him as much as I could. He is coming back in the morning. I hope he has deep pockets!

The Ballad Of Lando Calrissian

Alright, I have been pretty bad about posting recently, but I have been very busy and very tired. I am working 7 am to 4 pm at Art Territory, but usually stay until five, then when I get home I have been busy working on stuff for the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina. I am too exhausted by the time I am done with that to type anything else, so Anne and I have been watching TV on Seth's HD projector through my computer.

It has been an interesting week, though. On Wednesday, I got to work with one of my heroes, the great Lando Calrissian... I mean Billy Dee Williams [pictured above]. I am working on putting together a series of prints for him based on a painting that he did. He is a really good artist and a very nice guy. He has soft hands and he smells wonderful. And he is an impeccable dresser. I will be working with him more this coming week. He really liked what I did with his piece. Did that last paragraph sound a little gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anyway, last weekend, last Friday night, Anne and I went to an 80's singalong at the Los Angeles Music Center, which is right next to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is one of my favorite pieces of architecture ever. Designed by Frank Gehry, it is an amazingly shiny, curvy building which probably causes a lot of traffice accidents from people gawking at it and from the gleam that comes off of it in the morning when the sun hits it just right. How could you not love a building that kills people? Like the Stephen King story Christine, but with a building.

Saturday night, we went to the gallery opening for Buried Beneath Me at project:gallery. It was pretty fun, free beer, good art, lots of friendly hipsters. I forgot my camera, otherwise I would show y'all some pictures. There was another gallery open that night, two doors down from project:gallery, called The Lab 101 which was really fun. It was smaller that project:gallery, which isn't very big to begin with, but that just made it cozier, and after a couple of beers, easier to meet people. Anne met a couple of young turk artist type ladies named Andrea Shear and Sara Brum down there who do some interesting artwork. They were fun to hang out with, too. Y'all should check them out.

We have been looking around for apartments in West Hollywood and have seen some nice places down there, in our price range and close to where we work. I can't wait to get out of Seth's place and into somewhere that has air conditioning and a little more space. Kallie the Kat will appreciate it too. Also, she will probably be able to go outside, which she will love!


This weekend is the Sunset Junction Street Festival [pictured above], which we will be going to later this afternoon and tomorrow. Like Apple Chill, but more chill. Broken Social Scene is playing tonight and Black Keys are playing tomorrow night. In all, 36 bands and nine DJ's. Isaac Hayes was supposed to play, but we all know what happened there. Anyway, it should be a lot of fun!

Well, that's all that is going on for now. I'll let y'all know how the street fest was.