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June 11, 2007
The Curse of Infatuation
As I was walking to work this morning I saw a small piece of folded paper laying in the grass. From what I could see it appeared to be a drawing of some sort. I debated picking it up, ultimately deciding not to because it was all wet from overnight rain. I walked on.
Later, my wife called to ask if I wanted her to drop off the car so I could drive home. Boy am I glad I decided to walk. Not only was it a beautiful day, the drawing was still there, now dried by the sun!
I've found an number of interesting things on the street in the last few years, including a romantic letter from prison that referenced fart jokes, but this drawing is by far the best:
Part of why I love this drawing so much is because it reminds me of drawings I made as a dreamy prepubescent. But even more than that I like it because it seems to be a character sheet from a roleplaying game of some sort. I play roleplaying games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons. I'm fascinated by the whole idea of a roleplaying game, and the culture that surrounds it. I'm particularly interested in the status the "character sheet" has in such games. It's a record of an imagined identity which is labored over so much that it becomes an artifact of sorts. For this reason I've saved several retired character sheets from past campaigns. My favorite is this one created by my friend Adam for a half-elf he played named Roland:
(The large yellow stain is that garlic butter they give you with Papa John's pizza.)
I also play World of Warcraft, which is a roleplaying game of sorts, albeit one that exists in the digital realm. It has a window which functions as a character sheet, but something about the handmade quality of the pen-and-paper RGP character sheet is definitely lost. Here's what the character sheet for the avatar I'm currently playing looks like:
Back to the found drawing. As far as I can tell, the stats for "Chelsea the Non-Micronian Time Traveler" were not made using any existing roleplaying system. What could the unit of measure be considering: "Speed: Max, Strength: 400, telecaneses (sic): 1275," and "summoning: 10/1"?
But that's only one small bit of the mystery contained in this drawing. Another question is: Was this drawn by a girl fantasizing herself, or by a boy fantasizing a girl? Let's weigh the clues:
Drawn by a Boy:
*cleavage
*handwriting
*the phrase "curse of infatuation"
Drawn by a Girl
*sympathetic facial expressions
*handwriting (a small section toward the bottom contains handwriting that's clearly different from the rest that looks like it was written by a girl. It says, "profile Angelic/alian," I assume she meant "alien")
The inclusion of the "Angelic/alian" passage leads me to consider a third possibility: that a girl and boy made the drawing together. I'm not sure how likely that is, but it does make imagining the artist's state of emotional well-being considerably more bearable.
Posted by kevinb at 6:10 PM | Comments (7)
June 8, 2007
Spout.com Gives 4 Eyed Monsters Some Love
I'm sure many of you are aware of the film/internet phenomenon know as Four Eyed Monsters. Many of you are probably also aware that the pioneering filmmakers responsible for Four Eyed Monsters, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, went deep into dept while making the film and running a pretty amazing DIY distribution effort. Well, Grand Rapids based Spout.com decided to help. Spout is presenting Four Eyed Monsters on Youtube, which is the first full length film to be uploaded to Youtube. I suppose it's not a surprise they'd be the first.
I work for Spout producing their weekly podcast called Spout Filmcouch. This week's episode, appropriately enough, is devoted to Four Eyed Monsters. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Also, Spout's sponsorship of the Youtube presentation of the film has an interesting catch: For every person who registers for Spout (it's free), at the page spout.com/foureyedmonsters, Spout will donate a dollar to Arin and Susan's credit card bills, and hopefully, their next film. It's a little weird, I know. But let's face it, if people only gave money to filmmakers who make movies that return many millions of dollars on opening weekend, great little indie gems like Four Eyed Monsters couldn't exist. So, if you haven't signed up for Spout yet, now is the time. It's a great website (and I thought that before I started working there).
Posted by kevinb at 1:39 PM | Comments (3)
June 6, 2007
Hybrid Animal Flickr Set
I got a new scanner. So I figured it was high time to scan some of the little characters I make for use in collages. I've been making these for a few years now. Cutting pictures out of books, usually Golden Nature Guides, and combining them together. Typically they end up as elements in a larger collage/drawing, but sometimes I just can't bring myself to glue them down. I've had a few for over a year now, and I don't know when they'll find a home.
I decided that in the meantime I should scan them, and share them on flickr. I feel weird about scanning. It's very important to me that these are real paper, not Photoshop creations. Maybe that's part of why it's hard to glue them down, I like to hold them, to know that while they are images, they're also paper, which is a tactile object. Anyway, for better or worse, I scanned them. You can look at the flickr photo set here. I've also included a few below:
Posted by kevinb at 5:04 PM | Comments (5)