Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Frustration!


Does anyone else ever feel like what they are talented at is not necessarily what they want to do? Sometimes I feel that instead of writing I'd like to just move out into the woods and build a cabin and learn to do things like track animals, fire a bolt-action rifle, make thinks out of wood, and navigate by the stars...but then I have all of these stories that just wanna pop out of my head. Is this frustration merely part of being creative? Whatever the reason, it sucks.

Percervering with Resilient Diligence Into the Winter Waste land


PICT0104, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this snowy rubbish? Son of noman, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only a heap of broken teeth, where there is no sun, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cigarette no relief, And the dry cold concrete no sound of laughter. Only There is shadow under this snow, Come in under the shadow of this snow, And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of snow.

(adaptation)

Magical Bean Plant


PICT0105, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

When I went to Guatamala I spent some time with an old lady witch who gave me a red bean and told me to take it home and plant it for protection. So I did and it grew into a very intelligent plant. It seems as if the plant's growth is directly related to my own. Hence today I noticed this little colony of spider mites builing a city on it's new growth. Damn you spider mites.

Pain


PICT0106, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

Ow, I got 4 wisdom teeth pulled today. Adding tylonol 3 to my arsenal of painkillers. The sound of the drill, the acrid smell of my teeth and teeth dust blood on the dentist's mask. The dentist leaning into my face, getting leverage with his sharp device. long needles in my mouth. lond needle in my knee, draining my blood. stitches inside me. Pain. Lonelyness. Inability to walk. Inability to talk. Falling in the snow. Awake at night. Asleep during the day. Not enough sunlight. Running out of money. Year of the Fire Boar. March 2007. War. Empty sockets.

KGB maps discovered in Jesus's coffin


Man, you gotta love spam (it's either that or hate it, and who wants to hate?) I just got one with the above title - how timely and yet anachronistic.

Now, what was Jesus doing with KGB maps??

Speaking of maps, I just love this one I found of glacial Lake Agassiz, the large lake that once covered most of Manitoba and was larger than any extant lake, or even the Caspian Sea. It is thought that, near the end of it's short life (geologically speaking), most of the water may have drained out rapidly, in as short a time as a single year, and contributed to a great cooling trend in the earth's climate due to the massive influx of freshwater into the ocean. Talk about climate change! We humans have nothing on mother earth...

As I do a lot of driving throughout Manitoba, I love to notice the way this province in particular has been shaped by the forces of the water. As you drive west on the Trans-Canada or Yellowhead highways, you literally drive right out of the old lakebed. It's quite humbling to realize it, and how small us and all of our creations and inventions are.

Of course, the great lakes of this province are the remnants of Lake Agassiz. In the wikipedia entry on Lake Manitoba, the third-largest, there is a fantastic circular sentence: "The lake contains a large island with a lake in it; in that lake, there are also a few islands." Such is the world we live in.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Earth (off centre)








the kissy lips


Saturday Morning


Saturday morning

Friday night blues

I`m just a fool

watching cartoons


She left me for a cowboy

with snakeskin boots

I`m just a fool

watching cartoons


I told her she was fat

she said "So are you!"

I kicked my stool

cowboy did too


Saturday morning

Friday night blues

I`m just a fool

watching cartoons


He punched me in the head

and laughed like a mule

I began to cry

cowboy did too


Saturday morning...

Sunday Morning


he sat down
and bit a cracker
he let the crumbs
rain on his lap
in the darkness of the living room floor
he played a record
rye in his glass
and he drifted in to
the vinyl set mood
while the ceiling fan
dragged smoke from his face
he pulled a clump of loose sitting
hair from his scalp
and dropped it in
the loaded ashtray
he inhaled
blew out the candle
he let the wax
spill on his hands
in the darkness of the living room floor
he pictured life as a photograph
and he drifted out of the vinyl set mood
while the ceiling fan annoyed him again
and he turned to his
sleeping beauty
and to her this is what he said
"That scum-sucking sun will be here anytime.
Draining me of my life-giving night.
When I was a boy, everything was alright.
But now the morning, brings tears to my eyes."
(Saturday morning, Friday night blues.
I`m just a fool, watching cartoons).

Monday, February 26, 2007

Garbage Pail Kids


I found an un-opened pack of Garbage Pail Kids cards in the rafters of my basement. 1986. I wonder if this would be allowed as children`s entertainment today.
The gum was a little hard, but made me hallucinate.

Energy


Flare


Trou


Trou



Saturday, February 24, 2007

R.I.P

The Great Melee is now dead.

THE DAILY ADVENTURES OF NOVILLERO


two page comic i did for novillero which is going into
some sort of fancy mint records zine thingy. enjoy!

go



Friday, February 23, 2007

Winter Landscape, Sesshu


Here's another Japanese work by the artist Sesshu (1420-1506). This is one of my favorite images from the textbook for the East Asian Civilizations course I took while doing my B.A. Here, too, there is a real separation between the foreground and the background, though here it is the background that is highly abstracted.

Revision: I updated my original scan to a version I found on the internet (what would we do without google??), which is not only in colour and of better quality than my version, but also includes a very nice border.
Not to hog the blog, but I just saw the following comment on the New York Times, and really liked it (as well, it alludes to a previous discussion we had here):

James Brown’s been dead six weeks, and he’s still the hardest working man in show business.

— Posted by Leo Marvin

Sea of Clouds...

Got this image from Art Knowledge News. It's a website with pretty much global coverage of the arts-- short articles about what's happening in every major gallery from Winnipeg to Mumbai.

I love Japanese print-making in general-- this one's newer than the big names of Japanese printmaking, though-- guys like Hiroshige and Hokusai, artists who van Gogh and Monet and others were hugely inspired by.

This one's from 1928 but is darn nice. "Sea of Clouds", it's called.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ozymandias


I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.


- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

From the BBC. Note the last paragraph...


Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates.

"There were hints that this behavior might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US.

"While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual."

Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.

The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.

Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.

Pruetz and Bertolani made the discovery at their research site in Fongoli, Senegal, between March 2005 and July 2006.

"There were hints that this behavior might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US.

"While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual."

Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.

In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.

In one case, Pruetz and Bertolani witnessed a chimpanzee extract a bushbaby with a spear.

In most cases, the Fongoli chimpanzees carried out four or more steps to manufacture spears for hunting.

In all but one of the cases, chimps broke off a living branch to make their tool. They would then trim the side branches and leaves.

Adult males have long been regarded as the hunters in chimp groups.

But the authors of the paper in Current Biology said females, particularly adolescent females, and young chimps in general were seen exhibiting this behaviour more frequently than adult males.

"It's classic in primates that when there is a new innovation, particularly in terms of tool use, the younger generations pick it up very quickly. The last ones to pick up are adults, mainly the males", said Dr Pruetz.

Winter in Winnipeg


from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6383833.stm

Sex attacks blamed on bat demon
Bat
Some believe a bat turns into a man at night
Men in parts of Tanzania's main city, Dar es Salaam, are living in fear of a night-time sex attacker.

A BBC correspondent says the attacks are being blamed by some on a demon called "Popo Bawa" meaning winged bat.

Some men are staying awake or sleeping in groups outside their homes. Others are smearing themselves with pig's oil, believing this repels attacks.

Reports of the demon's existence have been common for many years in Zanzibar, where locals claim it originated.

The BBC's John Ngahyoma in Dar es Salaam says not many people actually believe that the demon exists and there have been no sightings.

But Mbaruku Ibrahim, who hails from Zanzibar, says the story of the demon is common there and people in his village on Pemba island sleep beside a huge fire outside their houses whenever it is said to appear.

The story goes that the bat is able to transform itself into a man at night and it has also been blamed for rapes of women.

Sheikh Yahya Hussein, a prominent astrologer in Tanzania, claims that the demon is a spirit that is unleashed by witches to torment their opponents.

Belief in witchcraft and superstitions is widespread in Tanzania, especially in rural areas.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

For your viewing pleasure...


...if you want to see some of the worst French ever spoken (w/ the possible exception of Jean Cretien), tune in to the CBC french news at 6 tonight. i may be on there stuttering out something about how the youth shelter i work at is imporant b/c it keeps kids safe. Or at least I think that's what I said. Perhaps I was actually saying something about how the pen of my aunt is on the desk of my sister.


image from www.hickerphoto.com

What is love?

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Back in the day



The New 7 Wonders

There is a campaign underway at new7wonders.com to create a modern list of the seven wonders of the world (only Egypt's pyramids still remain from the original list of seven). And, you can vote for them yourself! Pictured above is a temple in Petra, Jordan, one of the contenders.

Monday, February 19, 2007

sketch for a music flyer...






















pen on paper. 2005.
LOVE PENS!!!

Yukdugu


PICT0103, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.


Just testing the new blogger

Everyone please switch over to the new blogger. According to blogger, everyone must switch before the blog can switch.

This will help ALL OF US resolve recent posting issues.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Shakira Shakira!



And now, to follow up my last post, here's this gem. Begging the question: Is it art??

P.S. (Dave) If you're unable to view the video here, click here to go to YouTube.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Black Sabbath


Salutations Ladies and Gentlemen,

You are invited to the Godkings Pizza feast and Rock Show tommorrow night Sunday 18 of February,

pizza feast-6:00
Rock show-8:00

We will be celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Pig, the discovery of Pluto and the day that Lord Krisjna left the planet in 3102 BC. (with a possible surprise appearance by Knick Knackerson and the Mingler(s))

Come one come all,
bring your closest friends for laughter and fun.
Bring musical instruments and cameras and sketchbooks etc byob

Friday, February 16, 2007

Drawing 3

Drawing 2

Drawing 1

Testing....


ok, I`m back :)

iTunes and the Killers

So, C-doggie has gotten me into iTunes. It's a way of buying music cheaply and ethically. I figure that if I like a song, it's worth .99, no?

The Killers is one of my latest purchases. They're an interesting mix of retro and neo. Unabashedly romantic and hopeful.

read these lyrics, from "When You Were Young"



You sit there in your heartache
waiting on some beautiful boy, to,
to save you from your old ways
you play forgiveness, watch it now
here he comes
he doesn't look a thing like Jesus but he
talks a gentleman

like you imagined

when you were young.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Amid The Woe...


Taken from the New York Times article "Amid the Woe, a Haitian Paradise Beckons" by Marc Lacey (photo by Ruth Fremson):

LABADIE, Haiti — There is Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere.

"Haiti is a place that is in the news, and it’s always bad news."

On a recent morning, Labadie was filled with several thousand people just off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship frolicking in the waves, bartering in the craft market and taking in the voodoo show.

None of them would experience Haiti’s rail-thin children, the mounds of garbage and open sewage dumps or the heavily armed peacekeeping troops struggling to keep a lid on the sprawling urban slums.

“But you could sleep on the beach in Jacmel and you’d be safe.”

Although Royal Caribbean hires hundreds of local residents, many feel left out.

Although passengers who sign a waiver and present a passport can leave the Labadie compound, most seem perfectly content to remain on their isolated cove.

“I don’t want to see poverty.”

“I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think that these people don’t have enough to eat.”

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

New House


No this ain't art, this
is a house Shawna and I bought with a possession date of March 1st. I'm looking(begging) for volunteers experienced(or inexperienced) in patching, painting, and pulling carpets. Who's with me? First couple of weeks of March, mostly nights and week-ends. 148 Horace in good old ST.Boniface. You will be compensated (food, fun, etc.)

Spider Cat Contemplates Eating a Paper Bird

A Valentine's Cheerio to you!

Monday, February 12, 2007

5 Star News Items of Note

1. Vikings may have used a special crystal called a sunstone to help navigate the seas even when the sun was obscured by fog or cloud, a study has suggested. Researchers from Hungary ran a test with sunstones in the Arctic ocean, and found that the crystals can reveal the sun's position even in bad weather. This would have allowed the Vikings to navigate successfully, they say.

2. Iran's scientists have produced a herbal medicine that boosts the human's body immunity system against the HIV/ AIDS virus. "The herbal-based medication, called IMOD, serves to control the AIDS virus and increases the body's immunity," Baqeri Lankarani was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

3. New Delhi - A suspected meteorite killed two nomads and injured five others on Thursday in the northern Indian desert state of Rajasthan, a report said. Police told the Press Trust of India news agency that the group of nomads were sitting in a field in Rajasthan's Bundi district when an "unknown flying object", thought to be a meteorite, hit the ground and exploded, leaving behind a crater.

4. Village residents from the Rostov region of Russia caught a weird creature two weeks ago after a strong storm in the Sea of Azov. The shark-looking creature was producing strange squeaky sounds. The fishermen originally believed that they had caught an alien and decided to film the monster with the help of a cell phone camera. The footage clearly shows the creatures’ head, body and long tail. The bizarre catch weighed almost 100 kilograms. Scientists were greatly disappointed when they found out that the fishermen had eaten the monster. They said that they were not scared of the creature so they decided to use it as food. One of the men said that it was the most delicious dish he had ever eaten.

5. The GODKINGS are performing at the Label gallery next Sunday evening.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb



This is the panel that inspired my "Snip Snap Snip!" This was a German children`s story from the book "Shock Headed Peter" of the danger of thumb sucking. It worked on me. the book is full of terrifying but effective tales of bad eating, and hygene habits.

from Oiseau (glum) by Denis Prieur




These are some pics I took recently at a show by a local artist. He's very talented and creative. I suspect he won't mind me posting these pics.

He makes his work out of plywood, and uses felt markers, paint, and other stuff.

Very fun. Very fresh.

The owl is Oiseau (froid). The other is Oiseau (change). I'm not sure what kind of bird he is.

Saving the world: Norway



Who would have thought that Norway hold sthe key to the future of the human race?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6335899.stm