A Banjo Pig

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THIN9S of January 2013

In an effort to blog more, I'm going to attempt a monthly list of 9 THINGS I discovered over the past month.
A tip of the ol' top hat goes to my pal, Matthew Cordell, for allowing me to borrow his monthly list idea. I promise to feed it monthly and clean up after it.

So here it goes, in no particular order ...

1. MODERN FAMILY, SEASON ONE. I've been a fan of MODERN FAMILY since I found it while channel surfing. I never saw the first season and got it on DVD for Christmas. We dove into it and didn't stop until we finished Disc #4. Good stuff. Highly recommended!

Funny quote: "Phil: Ordinarily I'm a rule follower, but when someone tells me I can't bring my own snacks into their stadium? That's when I get a little... nuts. It's a free country right? Let's just say it Ruffles me when some Goobers tell me I have to spend my half my PayDay on their hot dogs."

 

2. WHAT CAN A CRANE PICK UP? Written by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and illustrated by Mike Lowery. This is a great book. It rhymes. It has great illustrations. And it's FUNNY! Pick it up. (Get it? Ha!)

 

3. BIG EASY EXPRESS (Mumford & Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros). It's a 1 hour and 7 minute movie about 3 fantastic bands, 6 cities, 1 train and thousands of miles of track. The music is great and the behind-the-scenes footage is terrific. We saw the film at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, but you can now buy it online at Amazon.com among other places. Enjoy the trailer below.

 

4. HELLO! HELLO! by Matthew Cordell. One of my pet peeves is going to a restaurant and seeing members of a family sitting at the table looking at their phones, tablets and other electronic devices. When we were kids, we were not allowed to bring anything to the dinner table. That's where we all sat and talked about our day. This book has an important message. Now get off my lawn and go buy this book!

 

5. HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY. Do you know who Ray Johnson is? I didn't either. He's been described as "New York's most famous unknown artist." I found this documentary living in my Netflix queue and watched it on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I loved it! There are interviews with Christo, Chuck Close, Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein among others about the life of Ray Johnson. Do yourself a favor and check it out. I am now a Ray Johnson fan.

 

6. CREEPY CARROTS Written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown. My pal, Peter Brown, recently won a Caldecott Honor for this book. I bought this book on its release date because I love the illustrations. Now I own a copy without the Caldecott Honor sticker on it. Woot! It is a great read and I recently found out Aaron lives in Chicago!

 

7. BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING. Another documentary about another artist. This time it's Wayne White. All I'm going to say is it's damn good. My favorite quote: "Just leave the awards on the kitchen table, I'm back here painting a fucking masterpiece."

 

8. THE BOOK OF MORMON. We saw this musical recently in Chicago. It's extremely vulgar. It's satire. And it has won 9 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, because it's good. And there is a reason you don't see Mormons protesting the musical. You'll have to see why for yourself.
At the risk of posting ANOTHER video ....

 

And last, but not least....

9. TOM LICHTENHELD'S BLOG. My pal Tom is an awesome author and illustrator! He illustrated Sherri Duskey Rinker's GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE book and it's been on the New York Times Best Sellers List for over a year! If you're on Facebook, you should head over to TOM'S FACEBOOK PAGE and click LIKE.

(Greatest promotional photo ever!)

 

This concludes my very first 9 THINGS list. Put your shoes back on and get out now while traffic is light.
If you enjoyed it and you think it's a feature worth repeating every month, please let me know.

Cheers!

Illustration Friday Topic: Wings

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Happy New Year!

Mark Kiesling Owes Me a Pair of Pants

My friend, Mark Kiesling, who I met while working for The Times of NW Indiana had a seizure and died yesterday.
Mark was a straight-shooter. He told it like it is. He told great stories. And he was the funniest person I've ever known. Mark told stories that caused me to laugh so hard I had trouble breathing. And when I got calmed down, I would look at Mark and the laughter would start all over again. He was that damn funny.
I want to share one of my favorite Mark stories with you.

One day while I was at my desk inking an editorial cartoon at the newspaper, Mark told me a story that made me laugh so hard, I knocked over my bottle of ink. My first instinct was to quickly move under the bottle to keep the ink from hitting the carpet in our office. The result was my shirt and pants covered in ink.
It made Mark laugh.
Mostly because I was confined to my office chair until I started and finished a new cartoon.
I wasn't about to go anywhere. It looked like, as one of our co-workers put it, "A squid exploded in your pocket." When it came time later that day for me to show my cartoon to my editor for approval, I asked Mark if he would do it since I was embarrassingly covered in ink.
He simply said, "No."
And then erupted in crazy laughter.
Those shirt and pants hang in my closet because I will never forget that day.
And I will never forget Mark Kiesling.

Illustration Friday: Tree

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Going, Going, Gone.

The print for sale during October (the post below) is officially sold out.
Thanks to everyone who bought one. Enjoy!