Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  It was a pretty good one this year.  I got 3 cases of beer which i drank in 3 days.  mmmm.  Flight of the Conchords season one, a new tuner pedal for my guitar, some great cups, a ceramic tree, a kick ass print, and a great dinner from uncle jesse (the roommate and not the "Stamos").

  Charlotte spoiled me like always.  She took me to Richmond for the weekend to hang out with all the cool peps.  I drank my worth in beer and liquor thanks to Matt and Michelle Spahr.  They also were kind enough to put us up for two nights.  We spent our first night (friday) going to the always interesting Mulligan for some wild karaoke and PBR's.  I finally got my chance to sing Loverboy's "working for the weekend" .  For some reason i've always wanted to sing that one but never have, and now i know why.  I drive old ladies wild.  They wet their diapers when they hear me sing.  its quite disgusting.  One lady was dancing and stared a whole through my chest.  Other than the brisk whole through me, It was great to see everyone again and have fun like we use to.  

Saturday we spent a lovely dinner with Sarah Mizer and her huggable man John Bladder. We went to cuba cuba to devour some tasty treats and drink some cuban coffee.  Jacky Chan kicking at full speed couldn't of kept me from this amazing display of delicious.  

We had a great time and came home on sunday. We even made good time on 95.  it was a birthday miracle.  

Today I completed my second day of teaching Drawing 1.  I'm trying to send myself back to the day where the tables were turned and I was the young uninspired student rolling my eyes at the instructor.  Well, it didn't go exactly like that.  I don't think I rolled my eyes until class was over at least.  I've come to the terms that teaching the class so far can be almost as boring as taking the class.  I will admit, the fundamentals of drawing are not an intense game of dodge ball by most people's standards.  My class is currently doing contour line drawings. For any of you that have never taken a drawing course, this means your are drawing the outline, and the negative space of an object.  Important stuff, really.  The thing that I don't get is the look of absolute boredom (and I can not stress enough how absolute) on some of my student's faces.  I'm not teaching math, history, economics, ect... (no offense anyone, those are boring).  I teach a class that lets you master in the art of doodles.  I have a student who was turned in the complete opposite direction of the drawing subject today.  Unless she has an evolved skull with two (hell, even one) functional eye in the back of her head,  she was just being rude.  Even if she had this mutation, she was wearing a hat.  I thought to myself, "do i really have to tell someone to look at the thing they are drawing?" the answer was yes.  Is this how today's youngins' are going to be? really?  I wouldn't be surprised if someone comes in next class to remind her to breath.  "you might want to take a couple of breaths there,  you are dying,"  as she rolls her eyes in disgust.  I hate to give a lecture to individuals that are not that much younger than I am.  Like I'm some all knowing wizard from the lord of the rings.  I should make them draw my hat, staff, and beard next time.  I guess what I'm saying is,  who kicked common sense to the curb and let the bums shit on it?  If anyone figures this out, let me know.  In the mean time, I'm going to make a drawing video game and make millions.  Dammit, i just remembered the game mario paint!!!

Are you kidding me fantastic four movie?

There is a certain scene that happens in movies every once in awhile that I find annoying.  Personally I didn't think any self respecting screen writer or director, or who ever the hell puts those moving pictures on the screen, would put a over used scene in a movie today.  Let me back up a hair.  I decided to watch (on TV) The Fantastic Four movie.  I never read the comic, I actually thought the characters were a little sissy growing up, but I never saw the movie so I wanted to give it a chance.  Well it sucked.  Why is it that when you are watching a movie, and its bad, you keep watching it.  You don't start drinking bad milk and see it out til the end, no.  I know everyone else does this as well.  Anyway, the very last shot was they captured the bad guy who was frozen or some shit( i was making dinner at the same time, so i missed some parts) and the authorities take him away and put him in a crate.  The camera pans out as a dramatic orchestra plays some epic song.  As the shot keeps going, it shows the stacks and stacks of other crates that are piled all together as if it goes on forever.  As if there is a never ending room out there and the only thing we can store in it is our collectables, our trinkets.  I thought to myself.  Is this just a last resort for movie makers?  Not sure how to end your movie?  UMMM,  just put that one scene in there and it will be fine and a DON DON DAAA on there for some sass.  Doesn't anyone ever wonder why they are storing this stuff. The U.S. government apparently is running some kind of a pack rat warehouse somewhere.  I wonder if there are some red coats shoved in some boxes way in the back?  Then there are just some random crates like broken shovels, a giant rubber band ball, a Jimmy Carter fart in a jar,  a bunch of those twisty ties (how do people acquire so man of those? do your hands get tired from all that tying?) and some abba tapes that got to close to a magnet so don't really work.  There should be a big old garage sale or something.  The rental space alone would free up some funds.  Anyways, I hope that movies will stop using this particular scene.  I'm giving Indiana Jones the only exempt on this subject.   

the inconvenient nude

What better way to spend a lazy hung over saturday than to submerge yourself in a movie marathon. This is exactly what charlotte and I did this saturday.  I woke up around 10 a.m. because I was expecting a early birthday delivery from my sister and brother in law that was suppose to arrive at 11 a.m.  I stumbled down the stairs in search for the coffee maker.  As I fumble around the kitchen, every bump, clank, and crash is amplified to a unpleasant decibel.  I remember each and every beer I drank the night before as I struggle to do this simple task.  I think to myself, this coffee is the only cure to this uncontrollable headache.  After settling in with my wife and coffee.  We pop in The Royal Tenenbaums (which is my favorite movie) and sit back to watch the magic.  After we finished the movie, My sister calls checking in on her packages' arrival. I let her know that it has not shown up yet and she contacts the deliverer.  So as we waited, we decided to put in a documentary of Mark "gator" Rokowski that our roommate Jesse let us borrow.  This was about one of the great 80's skateboarding heros that became overwhelmed with fame and crazy with his decent from stardom.  during the film there was a particular part that was talking about how Gator would randomly become nude.  Who of coarse would knock on the door at this time, my delivery of 3 cases of beer.  A glorious present that I was so grateful for and my liver cursed the names of Sabyn and Matt.  Well, as I ask the delivery man to come inside as I signed his official papers, a scene of a nude, wild skateboarder lays on a filthy hotel bed screaming obscenities.   Charlotte scrambles for the remote to turn what looks like gay porn on the tv.  This is one of those moments that it is impossible to dodge.  Its funny that life just kind of kicks you in the crotch every once in a while.  A real swift one.  I don't know if there is any moral to this story or even a resolution but it was kind of funny or awkward, or dumb, or confusing.  some  thing to these affects, or effects which ever one is the proper grammatically .

Do you lose funny?

I've always considered myself a funny guy but lately I've wondered if i'm still funny.  Who knows, I laugh at my own jokes and recognize the hilarity but I'm not sure if anyone else does.   I've had this happen to me several times where you meet some people that are not friends with your friends, and all the sudden its like you are carrot top telling jokes to deaf people.  Other times its like the planets aline and an astroid of hilarious is plummeted to earth crashing into your cerebral causing an explosion of your funny glands which sends signals to your vocal chords and mouth delivering amazing.  I've been trying to tell jokes to my dog and room mate's cat but they don't get my humor.  They are very critical and stuck up and i don't need that right now. Damn bums do nothing but sleep all day.  

I would have to say my biggest problem is that I sound funny in my own head.  I woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago (like in the previous bloggins)  and I immediately was thinking of American Gladiators.  I'm not sure if this was funny or insane due to the lack of sleep. (does anyone else do this? i'll wake up with an idea embedded in my head, but nothing really about it. its like an awkward conversation with someone you don't want to talk to and they say something like, "I saw a baby calf being born". and you just go, what? in your head )  I continued to write about it and then posted a bulletin on myspace saying "I blog now".  When i tried to go to bed, I couldn't fall back asleep because i was laughing about my phrasing.  Ok this was probably me being delirious, but  I feel I do some of my best work under these conditions.  I've came to the conclusion that I am funny but there isn't any body around to absorb the funny. I guess thats when friends become sponges or mops, they are around to clean up the sopping mess of hilarious to that others don't slip and fall in it, because that would be an entirely different type of funny. 

My reason for a blog

So the main reason for my bloggings is to keep everyone informed of my artwork, up coming shows, life, tv shows i'm annoyed with, random thoughts (hang in there for those), and alittle bit of whining.  I'll try my hardest to keep the whining down to a minimum.  I've gave alittle insight on my artwork, art shows, life so i'll tell you something new because its 5:20 a.m. and for some reason I am not sleeping.  

So I hope someone else out there has the same guilty pleasure as I do watching American Gladiators.  This revised 90's hit has been sweeping my household by storm, and it may be the only one.  As i hope you can recall, the old show was filled with a dozen muscle headed bad asses just laying waste to average Joes and Janes that probably only jogged on the weekends while pushing their kids in a stroller (you know that couple) and lift a few weights here and there but were really into it at the beginning  of the year, trying to keep their new years resolution .  Well, thats pretty much the same in the newer version but the muscles are bigger (i think), the constants are whimpier,  Hulk Hogan is the host and its the funniest comedy on TV.  Since the writers strikes we have not been blessed with our favorite shows to guide us in our weekly conversations with aquantinses and awkward silences with who ever you are having a boring chat with.  American gladiators is filling my heart with hilarious nonsense violence that is a humor like America's funniest home videos is funny with the crotch kicking and such.  I've almost pissed myself multiple times.  So I salute you American Gladiators for making me laugh so much, I almost wet my self.  This is an act that not even some brilliant comedies have done.  

Living in Philadelphia

Since August 2007 I have been living in Philadelphia, PA.  The reason for this move was due to my wife getting in to Graduate Painting program at the Tyler school of Art.  I have been trying to find a job in the arts ever since our arrival.  Up until recently, I have been unemployed, working small jobs here and there for various people to earn money.  Finally after a long dry spell, a friend of mine hooked me up with a job in NJ teaching a Intro to Drawing coarse at a community college.  Drawing is something I have never taught before, but I am very excited about it.  In the past I have been a very avid drawer and I kind of fell out of the habit of sketching entirely.  This will give me a chance to get those much need skills back.