I had a fantastic weekend.

Things were busy, as always, but time opened up for some strange reason. There wasn't any looming immediate deadline, things at the college were rolling along well... I actually had time to hang back a bit and socialize. It was great.

Friday night we went out for Korean food down the street, engaged in great conversation and then dragged people back to Zub Haus for cocktails and video games. Street Fighter IV and LittleBigPlanet playing ensued. I can't remember the last time we just spontaneously hung out without needing an event, birthday or holiday to serve as the reason. It was great just hanging out because we could. Using the house as our headquarters was comfy and way cheaper than partying it up at a bar. Everyone had a ball.

Saturday morning I woke up and joked to Stacy that I had so much fun on Friday that I wanted to do it all again.

"Well, why don't you? We don't have anything planned for tonight" said the wise Stacy.

And so we did! We invited more people, pulled together a greater variety of wine and spirits, people brought amazing snacks and we all chilled out, chatted, laughed, played Apples To Apples, competed at video games and enjoyed cheeses, cookies, chocolate, crackers, fruit, dips, Halloween candy and much more. I finally shooed people out the door at 4am but I honestly could have kept going until dawn.

Today Stacy, Chris, Eric, Derek and I ventured up to Pacific Mall for shopping, wandering and more good food. We just got in the door a little while ago and I'm feeling completely satisfied about our weekend. A burst of social goodness that was much needed and appreciated.

Our friends kick ass.

Hi there,

So Halloween has come and gone and I'm full of posts to post again. We will start here with these shenanigans. Truth be told I think my costume rubbed off on me a bit and I got a little emo and sleepy and whatnot. So I wasn't exactly in party mode. Sad state I know- I promise to make it up later in life.

I dressed as an emo/hipster mime. I know cop out. But I added the whole "well now that I've talked to you- I'm also an oxymoron" portion. I think maybe that helped...


I met up with Andrew Wheeler at his place where him and Eric Kim were getting ready.

Andrew went as Ancient Roman Polanski = AMAZING!!!


Eric... well he's not in costume yet- He just drew on his beard


We went and picked up Jim and Stacy to head over to the Silver Snail party.
Jim was dressed up as the Keymaster from the Ghostbuster and Stacy as the Gatekeeper




At the Silver Snail bash


Eric in full costume as Randy Macho Man Savage


From The Tick Arthur with Jim


Someone I know probably knows this broad and I shouldn't post this... but um... we were AMAZED at, well... her costume is ... really up there no?


Next up was Skullfest which was organized by Andy B and Steve Manale and it was AMAZING!


Kalman as Donald Draper


Manale, Diana, Alex, Rob etc went as Alpha Flight. eeee! So awesome!


Next up was Christopher Butcher and Andrew's Halloween Bacchanalia. Tasty cheese and personalized cookies à la Stacy om nom nom
I know the photos are kind of dark but Shoshana killed me with her Garden of Eden costume with Barbie Adam and Eve and her sock pucket hand with the snake.. it was my fave of the night I think


Chris in his garb


Chris and Jim


Hard to see again but Brooke and Mitch went as Florida and Idaho (Simpsons goodies)


THE END!

K

Current Mood: drunk

I was planning to post about Halloween: costumes (keymaster & gatekeeper from GHOSTBUSTERS), pumpkins, parties and comic book treats, but the week started busy and then Maine voted against same-sex marriage rights and I was back to my usual misanthropic self, which is generally a Not Good place from which to blog.

And then mid-week got even more busy and I didn’t have time to post and now it’s Friday and I still don’t have time, darnit, because I spent most of today trying to find out why other people haven’t gotten their work done and now I’m seriously behind on my daily word-count, argh!

So this isn’t a real post either. This is the blog equivalent of wiping off the sink with a rag and shoving the dirty socks under the sofa, lest your guests think you have no sense of cleanliness and decorum at all.

Ahem. In the meantime, here’s a picture of the thing that made me laugh the hardest today:

Sweater shorts.

No, really.
SWEATER SHORTS.
A steal at just 15,000 yen! (about $150 US)

Originally published at Stacy King. You can comment here or there.

Remember the strong bad clip where he figures his imagination's broke 'cause the best thing he can imagine is "beef... stew"?

My meal at M+B Yummy tonight reveals that he was not so much unimaginative as he was prescient; connected, in a Childhood's End kind of way, to a future that had not yet been clear to him.

I ate the special tonight, a vegan beef and pumpkin tibs-stew, along with vegan lasagna and salad, accompanied by the habitual sublime injera.

It also came with a cupcake.

It transported me out of my day, out of my body. It made me realize that food can, indeed, make one truly happy and that one should not accept less from their meals. It opened my eyes and my heart for a time, and lifted me into a state of contented celebration of who I was, what I was eating, and how I was able to experience it.

It was ridiculously delicious.

I am very happy.

Some friends of mine have been working extremely hard on an anthology called Solipsistic Pop that will be launching this Sunday at the ICA and I really wanted to draw some attention to it. I've already been privileged enough to have a peek at the artwork and it's going to be such a fantastic and beautiful book. If you're in the London area I would *highly* recommend attending.

(Please feel free to chit chat about this sucker on Twitter, or if you'd like to re-post on your blog I'll send you the HTML code *wink*)



Book one of Solipsistic Pop will be officially launched at the Comica Comiket at the ICA on November 8th.

The stall will feature copies of the book and a selection of work by the contributors. Most contributors will be there on the day to sign books. The Comiket will be open between 1pm and 6pm.

A post-launch party will take place in the ICA bar from 7.30pm until closing. There will be live drawing and DJ sets from contributors during the night.

News on how you can pick up copies of Solipsistic Pop after the launch will be available here later that week.


You can preview the book here and download a press release here.

A few weeks ago Alex Fitch, presenter of Panel Borders, interviewed four of the Solipsistic Pop contributors for London’s Resonance FM the podcast is available here.

Stephen Collins, Matthew Sheret, Julia Scheele and Tom Humberstone talk about the origins of the anthology, the reasons for writing a manifesto, the state of the British comics scene, the difference between the alternative comic scene in North America compared to the UK, mainstream acceptance (or lack thereof) of the comicbook artform, and the future of print.

Here's a flyer that Tom created for Comica Comiket



Also of potential interest here are some photos of the book being printed.

-K

Current Mood: creative

Clearly, I need to do more for charity-- particularly for causes that are personally important to me.

So, as a result, I've decided on growing a moustache for charity. Hopefully I can hit up my family for a few pledges and throw a few dollars towards Prostate Cancer Canada.

Matt got me a jar of Buckyballs.

Highly addictive. Must do work. Must stop making 3D shapes on desk.

Oddly, I've got better things to do with my time than pray over someone else's candy.

Man I did a lot this past weekend, let's go for point form!

- had really tasty tapas and really good scotch at The Academy of Spherical Arts for my friend Mike's birthday.

- Saw the Zombie Short Film Festival, which included Curling Zombies, Barbies doing a home invasion, Keggers with dead people and some actual scary ones too.

- Closed out a pub in the Junction w/ Matt, Steve and Ben, while talking about a possible spring road trip to New Orleans.

- Made 3am grilled cheese (its always better at 3am y'know).

- Saw Wade Davis do a talk at Massey Hall

- Went to the Tranzac where the costumes were seriously top notch. Including a sack boy from little big planet (nice!).

- Enjoyed the comapny of Buchacas and friends while having a delicious cocktail.

- Had some serious brunch at Yasis's Place on Sunday.

- Went down to Canzine to check out the Torontron game machine meme project that I helped out on.

- Made a really good pot of Leek and Potato Soup

In short...awesome weekend.

Bevan and I followed up our La Roux concert experience with Bishop Allen this Friday.
We had a bit of an adventure- the doors weren't open until 9pm and the bands weren't going to start until 10pm. Didn't really feel up for openers so we decided to gallivant and chit chat.

Bevan is a bit of a "strange stranger" magnet. You have to somewhat prepare yourself for an evening with her as they seem to seek her out from all corners of the city.
We had a few run-ins but most were just weird men trying to compliment us while completely high/intoxicated. Easily handled with a "Thanks. Taken".

The LCBO that we went to had a MASSIVE line up just to get in- New Years-like. This photo really doesn't do it justice, but there were two lines from the cash to the very back of the store.


And of course we decided to be Rockstars.




Anyone familiar with Toronto knows Sneaky Dee's and I hadn't been in ages so Bevan and I decided to consume what they call the "King's Crown" which could feed a family of four.

Observe its majesty:


The concert was amazing- got to talk to Justin Rice when we first walked in and also got a good spot although we showed up past 11pm




















I also took a few short videos- the camera's batteries were dying :(
Click, Click, Click, Click:


Middle Management:


The end of Flight 180- easily one of my favorite songs by them- shame I couldn't get the whole thing


And of course, autographed discs:




K

Current Mood: busy

Two parties last night for Halloween. Good times!

Stacy and I went as the Gate Keeper and Key Master from Ghostbusters.


Click on the photo below for the full spread of pics from the festivities.



PS: Eric Kim BECAME Macho Man Randy Savage. Don't Believe me? Check this video I shot of him ranting old school WWF style.

Some offshoot of H.P. Lovecraft's big'un I call a Thoolie and a tentacled stranger.

"Don' know where that masked tentacled stranger dun came from... but he sat inna corner of the bar, mindin' his own business..."

It seems I'm having fun with the monster stuff lately. Experimenting with tools and textures a bit.

Happy Halloween!

Although New York tempts me with its cinematic offerings, London is the city that really knows how to lure me in: the bookstores. Oh, oh, the London bookstores. Specifically, the London esoteric bookstores, with their pedigrees and their events and their shelves stacked high with obscure grimoires and dusty alchemical texts. Oh! It sets my bibliophile heart aflutter, just thinking of it!

Treadwell’s is top of my personal list, if only for the delightfully tempting list of titles and events listed on their webpage. They’re the newest of the lot, open less than six years now, but the owner has an academic background in medieval history and their selection seems both interesting and reasonably-priced (well, as far as antiquarian book collecting goes). Their lectures series is absolutely fascinating to me, and I’m likely to make Jim batty when we visit London by trying to plan our trip to accommodate some upcoming Treadwell’s speaker or event.

Next on the tour is Atlantis Bookshop, one of London’s oldest occult bookshops. It should probably be first, given it was founded in 1922 by a group of magicians that included Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley, and they do run another impressive series of events, lectures and pub nights. Chalk it up to nostalgia: Treadwell’s was the first bookstore I fell in love with online, and I’m still a bit sweet on them as a result.

Finally, there’s Watkins Books, who almost got the top billing when I spotted the A.O. Spare book on the top of their Antiquarian page. (Then I spotted the price, which may well be reasonable for Spare’s extraordinarily rare works, but still!) Watkins was actually founded before Atlantis Bookshop, issuing their first catalog in 1987 and opening doors on their current location in 1901. W.B. Yeats used to shop here, and the original owner was a friend (and printer) for H P. Blavatsky, a key figure in the Victorian occult revival. Like I said, pedigree!

Londonist.com has some lovely photos of all three shops in their Biblio-Text series: Treadwell’s, Watkins and Atlantis.

Ah me. In lieu of an overseas trip, I’ll have to make time this weekend for a stop-in at The Monkey’s Paw, one of my favorite browsing spots in Toronto. They may not have a specific focus in esoteric/occult texts, but there’s always one or two books in their little glass shelf to make my heart go pit-a-pat.

Originally published at Stacy King. You can comment here or there.

I've mentioned how awsome this guy is, haven't I?

Last Friday I attended the La Roux concert at the Guvernment with my friend Bevan and her lover Paul.
Like responsible adults we began our evening drinking Rockstar Energy drinks + vodka on the way to the venue. Très dangereux.



The opening act was Diamond Rings and he surely knows how to rock. I highly advise, if his sweet outfit isn't enough ammo for worship, that you click on the link and enjoy a tune.









La Roux took the stage next and I was immediately impressed. She's fantastic live.
She wasn't feeling so hot so the set was pretty short but she rocked every song. I couldn't help dancing and the lovely people I met beside me were groovin' along too.
(Insert high fives to Brad, Robbie, Mitch and Shane here)

The Set List
Tigerlily
Quicksand
Saviour
Cover My Eyes
Colourless Colour
I'm Not Your Toy
In For The Kill
Bulletproof
(the set list below says Fascination but she never played it- I assume health-related)

It was really hard to get some decent shots of her because she moves around a ton- but here are the best few.









I also managed to take two videos. The first is In For The Kill:



The second is Bulletproof but I'm not sure what I was thinking- the camera is tilted all wrong here and there throughout- but overall it's kiiiinnnda decent:



After the show, which ended incredibly early - think 10:30ish or so, Bevan, Paul and I decided to stand by the bus to try and get autographs and whatnot but it was pouring rain and we lacked an umbrella. They left after a good hour or so wait- I decided to make some more friends and be a die hard as usual. *insert Kayla fangirl here*

By the end there was just three of us: two guys Dennis and Kevin + myself waiting huddled under their umbrellas.

Some of the crew/management guys (not really sure who they were actually- kind of sad as we talked for a good while and I have no names) kept us company talking about London, music, the tour and the like- incredibly awesome people.
Eventually edging on 1am we got to meet Mickey and William:





Then Elly came out and we were told that Ben (her co-writer/ producer) was actually hanging out on this tour which was a bit of rare thing, so we got to meet him as well.





Not exactly the sauciest photos but considering I was soaked and I'd been waiting for 2.5ish hours meeeh.

Annnnd zee autographs + set list:

Mickey and Will


Elly


Ben


The end.

K

Current Mood: weird

As much as I adore my adopted hometown of Toronto, there are times when I wish I lived elsewhere. Usually New York, and usually because of some film-related event. Like right now, when I’m staring at the schedule for the upcoming MOMA To Save and Project film festival. Newly restored versions of NANOOK OF THE NORTH and Frank Capra’s FORBIDDEN on the big screen? A showing of HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES, a 1922 silent Swedish film that’s been on my want-to-see list since I missed out on the last Toronto screening years ago due to schedule conflicts*? And – gem of gems – a restored print of Lotte Reiniger’s THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED? What a feast of old-timey cinematic glee!

I’ve seen a few of Lotte Reiniger’s shorts, and outtakes from an unrestored version of ACHMED, but never the full film; hopefully, this new restoration will merit a DVD release (there’s one currently available, but I’ve been a bit hesitant about the transfer quality). Her life story is pretty interesting, and her influence resonates clearly among modern directors such as the Brothers Quay and Guy Maddin (in particular, the silhouette sequences in ARCHANGEL).

“I love working for children, because they are a very critical and very thankful public.” – Lotte Reiniger

(links via the Dangerous Minds blog)

* – oh, and it turns out HAXAN is public domain and thus available online; the quality won’t be as nice as a print, of course, but I’ll have to give it a try this weekend, just to see.

Originally published at Stacy King. You can comment here or there.

(click on the thumbnail pics to see larger versions)

Here's the piece I put together for the Labyrinth's ambitious Iron Giant Project. Have you submitted your Iron Giant-inspired art yet?

I can't believe it's been 10 years since the film was released. I remember exactly where I was when I went to see it in theatres and the effect it had on me was substantial. The quality of the animation, direction, pacing, characters, emotion... it has it all.

This piece is all digital, done on the Cintiq. Here's the process steps:
Step 1: Brainstormed the composition in Photoshop with this ultra loose blue line sketch. Normally I mess around more with multiple ideas but this piece was pretty solidly in my head, so it came together quickly.

Step 2: Looked up actual ref of the Giant to make sure my construction/proportion was accurate and then revised it in Photoshop on a new layer. Took a broader brush and laid down some rough environment planes and ideas for composition.

Step 3: Digitally inked the piece in Manga Studio Ex. From there I exported the vector solid line art as a 600 dpi TIF and laid in the subdued tones in Photoshop.

More cintiq inking, this one over top of a monster sketch I did a couple weeks ago at a Toronto Drink & Draw get together.

I've never felt confident dropping blacks on my traditionally inked pieces, so having the ability to try an area and then wipe it out if it doesn't work is exciting. Strangely, even though I had the ability to back things up, I barely used it... just knowing it's there gave me confidence to place the black areas better.

Here's the original rough sketch:


I have a few other monster sketches from that night, so I may ink more of them soon. This was a fun exercise.

(click on any of the images for a larger version)

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted up any artwork. Job(s) have been really busy and I've been juggling all kinds of crazy stuff.

I finally bought a new tablet. My old one, an original Intuos, started dying after 9 faithful years of service. So, I finally retired it and took a dive into the Cintiq 12WX to go along with my new desktop machine. It's taken me a few days to get the hang of it, but now I'm starting to feel comfortable and am enjoying the new challenge.

Here's a little doodle I digitally inked up as a way to practice working with the new tablet. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The freedom of inking with confidence and no mess with the saving grace of an undo key is quite amazing.

Here's the original rough sketch:


And a zoom in on some detail of the little astronaut: