This is another bit I did of an old character from my sketchbooks I named Helicopter Hal.
21 September 2009
Observatory
So I found this site courtesy of Abduzeedo and fell in love over the weekend. It's basically a stripped down paint/sketch program. The really cool thing about this though is that not only does the site save the sketch for you, it also creates a little video playback of your process. My first one is right here:
...pretty cool, even if the final result is pretty rough. I like this for two reasons (I mean beyond the obvious Holy Sh@t!! this is so COOL! factor). 1) It's extremely helpful to be able to go back and see how your process worked like this and be able to edit the process itself. And 2) it's really cool to be able to go in and check out other artist's processes. Learn from their mistakes and successes.
Fun stuff. Expect to see more of these.
...pretty cool, even if the final result is pretty rough. I like this for two reasons (I mean beyond the obvious Holy Sh@t!! this is so COOL! factor). 1) It's extremely helpful to be able to go back and see how your process worked like this and be able to edit the process itself. And 2) it's really cool to be able to go in and check out other artist's processes. Learn from their mistakes and successes.
Fun stuff. Expect to see more of these.
16 September 2009
um...separation of church and state anyone?
Ok...so watching the morning news with my flakes and berries this AM, I'm accosted by this ad talking about "Vote Yes on 1" ... I should back up and give some perspective here:
For those of you not living in the Great Up North and not paying attention to the gay marriage debate, here's the scoop: this year, the Maine legislature passed a bill making same-sex marriage legal and equal to so-called traditional marriage. YAY! Another step for civil rights and equality in a supposedly just and liberal society!
But, wait, there's more! The reactionary right came out of the woodwork with support from lobby groups out of state in order to "protect" marriage and managed to collect enough signatures to file a "people's veto" so that the bill was suspended pending a popular vote in November.
So now, both sides are digging in as the state of Maine has become the next battleground for this fight for equality.
And that's the short story. So this morning I'm eating my cereal and I see the first of what is sure to be a barrage of anti-Question 1 ads between now and November. And the jist of this is--Vote yes on question 1 to ban same-sex marriage. Why? Because otherwise our poor, innocent children will be subjected to education on same-sex marriage in school and our sacrosanct institute will somehow be diminished. Protect traditional values. Protect traditional definitions of marriage as one-man-one-woman.
...where to start, where to start? OK, first off--since when do we teach Marriage in school? Maybe things have changed since I was a kid and I don't have kids in the system, so maybe I missed something here, but I certainly don't remember Marriage Class after Gym and before lunch or whatever. So really, why would we suddenly start teaching marriage if same-sex marriage was legal? Um...two-plus-two-equals-twenty-two, anybody?
Next up--how about separation of church and state? Anyone remember this one? At all? I remember this being one of the core foundational elements of our country and our Constitution. Here's a little news flash--"marriage" is not one umbrella status. "Marriage" is both a legal status and a religious sacrament (and you'll have to forgive the Catholic-centric term here, I was raised Catholic and though I know the term is not the same across all religions, I do know the concept is universal. Let's just make the contextual jump here and keep moving...). I think there's a huge confusion in this debate among the folks trying to "save marriage". Legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage does nothing to diminish what you believe. While I don't agree with religions that forbids this, it's religion and you're free to believe what you want. The recognition of same-sex marriage does nothing to force you or your religion to recognize it as a valid spiritual union. It is strictly legal and speaks only to the legal definition of and institution and rights of marriage. Let's try to be adults about this and recognize that there are two separate institutions of "marriage", one legal, one governed by the church and, per our constitution, ne'er the two shall meet.
Or, and here's another solution: let's abolish marriage altogether for everyone. Gay, straight, bi, tri, whatever. No more marriage, just Civil Union for everyone. Everyone gets the same rights, it's a new name so there's no such thing as a "traditional" Civil Union and there'll be no more semantic confusion about marriage. If you want to get married in a church or other religious edifice, by all means--find one that will sanction your particular preference and get married there. But that marriage alone will not afford you the benefits now associated with "marriage"; for that you need a Civil Union. Same rights and benefits and protections as everyone else. Simple.
(*I actually have to give credit to Brian K. Vaughn, creator and writer of Ex Machina for this concept. Volume 1 or 2, I think--good read, go check it out.)
Finally, "marriage" is something else beyond the legal and the religious. Well, it's actually several other somethings beyond those two, but I want to talk about "marriage" as a cultural more. Marriage as we understand it now is a cultural institution among whatever else it may be. It shapes the way we think of ourselves as a society as well as the image the rest of the world has of us. We like to posture about being a progressive nation, and pride ourselves on being accepting and a melting pot and socially just and champions of equality. However, despite our wars and our propaganda and the lies we tell ourselves and our children about the nature of this country, we are rarely any of these things anymore. We have lost sight of Reason and Justice as guiding principles in our thoughts and actions. We have largely become so immersed with our quabbles with the people we disagree with, that we have forgotten the things that once made this country great--Truth, Justice, the American Way; Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness; these promises afforded to EVERY American. It is written into the very foundation of this country. And yet, what many of us want to do is restrict a significant segment of our population from achieving that promise. And it is shaping our cultural landscape and poisoning the foundations of what we once understood to matter most to the human condition--freedom from persecution.
So, in closing, what I saw on TV this morning just pissed me right off, and since I don't have the ear of the legislature or even those ont he other side of the fence, I figured I'd just spout off about it here. Feel free to comment and leave your opinions, I'd love hear what you have to say.
For those of you not living in the Great Up North and not paying attention to the gay marriage debate, here's the scoop: this year, the Maine legislature passed a bill making same-sex marriage legal and equal to so-called traditional marriage. YAY! Another step for civil rights and equality in a supposedly just and liberal society!
But, wait, there's more! The reactionary right came out of the woodwork with support from lobby groups out of state in order to "protect" marriage and managed to collect enough signatures to file a "people's veto" so that the bill was suspended pending a popular vote in November.
So now, both sides are digging in as the state of Maine has become the next battleground for this fight for equality.
And that's the short story. So this morning I'm eating my cereal and I see the first of what is sure to be a barrage of anti-Question 1 ads between now and November. And the jist of this is--Vote yes on question 1 to ban same-sex marriage. Why? Because otherwise our poor, innocent children will be subjected to education on same-sex marriage in school and our sacrosanct institute will somehow be diminished. Protect traditional values. Protect traditional definitions of marriage as one-man-one-woman.
...where to start, where to start? OK, first off--since when do we teach Marriage in school? Maybe things have changed since I was a kid and I don't have kids in the system, so maybe I missed something here, but I certainly don't remember Marriage Class after Gym and before lunch or whatever. So really, why would we suddenly start teaching marriage if same-sex marriage was legal? Um...two-plus-two-equals-twenty-two, anybody?
Next up--how about separation of church and state? Anyone remember this one? At all? I remember this being one of the core foundational elements of our country and our Constitution. Here's a little news flash--"marriage" is not one umbrella status. "Marriage" is both a legal status and a religious sacrament (and you'll have to forgive the Catholic-centric term here, I was raised Catholic and though I know the term is not the same across all religions, I do know the concept is universal. Let's just make the contextual jump here and keep moving...). I think there's a huge confusion in this debate among the folks trying to "save marriage". Legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage does nothing to diminish what you believe. While I don't agree with religions that forbids this, it's religion and you're free to believe what you want. The recognition of same-sex marriage does nothing to force you or your religion to recognize it as a valid spiritual union. It is strictly legal and speaks only to the legal definition of and institution and rights of marriage. Let's try to be adults about this and recognize that there are two separate institutions of "marriage", one legal, one governed by the church and, per our constitution, ne'er the two shall meet.
Or, and here's another solution: let's abolish marriage altogether for everyone. Gay, straight, bi, tri, whatever. No more marriage, just Civil Union for everyone. Everyone gets the same rights, it's a new name so there's no such thing as a "traditional" Civil Union and there'll be no more semantic confusion about marriage. If you want to get married in a church or other religious edifice, by all means--find one that will sanction your particular preference and get married there. But that marriage alone will not afford you the benefits now associated with "marriage"; for that you need a Civil Union. Same rights and benefits and protections as everyone else. Simple.
(*I actually have to give credit to Brian K. Vaughn, creator and writer of Ex Machina for this concept. Volume 1 or 2, I think--good read, go check it out.)
Finally, "marriage" is something else beyond the legal and the religious. Well, it's actually several other somethings beyond those two, but I want to talk about "marriage" as a cultural more. Marriage as we understand it now is a cultural institution among whatever else it may be. It shapes the way we think of ourselves as a society as well as the image the rest of the world has of us. We like to posture about being a progressive nation, and pride ourselves on being accepting and a melting pot and socially just and champions of equality. However, despite our wars and our propaganda and the lies we tell ourselves and our children about the nature of this country, we are rarely any of these things anymore. We have lost sight of Reason and Justice as guiding principles in our thoughts and actions. We have largely become so immersed with our quabbles with the people we disagree with, that we have forgotten the things that once made this country great--Truth, Justice, the American Way; Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness; these promises afforded to EVERY American. It is written into the very foundation of this country. And yet, what many of us want to do is restrict a significant segment of our population from achieving that promise. And it is shaping our cultural landscape and poisoning the foundations of what we once understood to matter most to the human condition--freedom from persecution.
So, in closing, what I saw on TV this morning just pissed me right off, and since I don't have the ear of the legislature or even those ont he other side of the fence, I figured I'd just spout off about it here. Feel free to comment and leave your opinions, I'd love hear what you have to say.
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