Progression

Last Crow

2012-01-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

This is closer to what I was trying to achieve with the other two, though still not what I saw in my head. I think what I'm trying for is actually not really possible with a bird that is essentially all black.

"Life"

2012-01-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

These are the last two sketches I did in the life drawing class I took over fall quarter. It was a really fun class even though it totally ate up my Thursday nights. I would, and probably will do it again sometime.

Bot Input

2011-12-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

Crows

2011-12-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get a particular look to this piece. Neither of these versions quite does it. In any case, forst time I've used scratchboard in almost a decade. Fun.

Real Change Vendor Guidelines

2011-12-07T11:23:00.001-08:00

Following is a series of fifteen illustrations I did for Real Change News. The project was a pamphlet for their vendors. Each year they give out a guidelines/rulebook to new (and old I suppose) vendors, but this year they wanted something that semi-literate vendors could also understand and use. Hence, the illustrated guidelines.

Lost Video Archive Banner

2011-11-29T22:07:00.001-08:00

It's been a good couple of months since I drew this for my lunatic-fringe film criticism blog Lost Video Archive. Every once ina while I remembered it, but then forgot to post...

I suppose it demonstrates well why I am a passable illustrator, but not a good artist. There are a lot of great things about it, namely tone and shadow, and I particularly aimed at raw line quality (non-straightness.) There are some flaws.
The best I can say is that I will not give up, were I a hack till my own death (which I would like to be preserved on VHS), I will persist!

Nephila clavipes at Bonampak

2011-11-28T09:42:00.001-08:00

When Amanda and I were at Bonampak this September, we ran across this Nephila clavipes. It was in a web on the side of one of the buildings at the top of the temple structure in the bottom photo. With it's legs spread out like that, it was bigger than my hand. It is a female, there was a much smaller spider below it on the web which I'm pretty sure was the male.

The famous murals of Bonampak are found in the building to the middle-right.

Godz

2011-11-18T17:39:00.001-08:00

Susie Taylor

2011-11-15T21:44:00.001-08:00

SUSIE TAYLOR

Sketchbook Extravaganza

2011-11-15T21:32:00.001-08:00

I've been taking a life drawing class and also obsessing about learning to draw hands really well.

The Woman: Neither, Nor

2011-11-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

Those of you familiar with my cinematic interests may be surprised to discover that I actually watch contemporary films, but this should not be the case. Despite my affection for the magnetic formats I enjoy all film, regardless of age or era and I attend the theater as often as the economy and my schedule permit.

I've been writing my usual about old VHS films for Paracinema magazine for quite some time now but I've been wanting to expand my criticism to contemporary films. As such I'm happy to submit for your reading pleasure my analysis of Lucky McKee's 2011 film The Woman at the Paracinema website.

Yes it's true, this is just a mildly shameless self promotion, but at the very least it's an excuse why I don't write here as much as I might like.

The Steal

2011-10-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

For a review of a book on shoplifting. Went through a bunch of ideas and drafts before ariving at this serviceable but not totally satisfying piece.

Saint Cachexia

2011-10-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

The last of the medical saints and perhaps all the saints for now anyway.

Night of Terrors 6 Poster

2011-10-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Originally for this poster I was thinking of some kind of exploded view of a zombie

It evolved into a strange eyeball thing because I was getting frustrated by the lack of progress with the exploded view. After all, there's not a whole lot of stuff you can explode out unless you go fully anatomical and that would have been to complex for the application.

And it finally turned into Mr.T because I wanted something different for hair.

Nebulous

2011-10-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

Mexico Sketches

2011-10-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Stranger and The Occupation

2011-10-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

This weeks Stranger is to be commended for it's coverage of the Occupy Seattle protests and the Occupy movement in general as well as Mayor Mike McGinn's fairly bone-headed response to it. Within the context of a story about Occupy Seattle's early days The Stranger also lobbed a few subtle compliments to local traditional labor unions who have endorsed Occupy and encouraged their members to join the protests whenever they could.

While the article probably has its heart in the right place, it chafes a little bit under a lack of foresight and vision.

In commending the unions who endorsed Occupy Seattle, The Stranger criticizes in a rather backhanded and dismissive way the collective leadership of Occupy. They go on to suggest that lacking their own, Occupy should look to those same unions for leadership. True, labor unions have a tried and tested leadership and they have done some good work in protecting the quality of life of their members. But what form does the business union take, and is that the model that best suits the idea of Occupy Seattle? The problem lies in the construction of modern business unionism and its thoroughgoing commitment to the service of capitalism. A business union is just that a business, like a business it is concerned with it's bottom line, advertising, and political influence. Economic success and growth are good for the business union just as they are for the capitalist and the corporation. Modern business unions fail to question the capitalist paradigm, it operates within and as a part of it. Their goal is merely to secure a share of the profits. Thus the success of capitalism, which is essentially the success of power and exploitation, is the success of business unions.

In The Stranger article, Labor Council executive secretary David Freiboth is quoted as saying the unions "intend to organize [Occupy] a little more", while SEIU 775 president David Rolf says "we can lend our support, but this is not ours." The titles of these two men offer evidence of the traditional union approach to power structures. Admittedly somewhat out of context as they are, these quotes offer some evidence of traditional unions "unity" of purpose. Hopefully Occupy will remain too radical for the Labor Council to co-opt, but it is important that the unions endorse and encourage vocally, vigorously and in person what Occupy is doing. If there was a union to which Occupy should look for organizing power and non-heirarchical leadership structure, it would be the Industrial Workers of the World if their membership weren't already involved.

A cursory glance at the list of demands issued by Occupy Wall Street, demands which were adopted and ratified by the Occupy Seattle General Assembly (I was there and voted) will show that Occupy fundamentally represents a rejection of capitalism, its predatory amorality, its deadly relationship with political power and destruction of public and communal life. The concrete evidence is literally in the very architecture and atmosphere of Westlake Center.

Simply put, Occupy can use union support, but does not need union "leadership. I encourage the writers of The Stranger article, and local business union leaders and members (and everyone else) to go occupy Westlake Center.

The Stranger Article
Occupy Seattle
Black Orchid Collective post about Occupy

Occupy Seattle

2011-10-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thirty arrests were made yesterday at the OCCUPY SEATTLE downtown and the tents and shelters the protesters were using were removed by city officials and police. Six people are still being held.The protesters continue to occupy Westlake in the cold drizzling rain.

If you live in Seattle, support these brave people in whatever way you can.
Call Mayor Mike McGinn at 206.684.4000 and state your support of Occupy Seattle and oppose his use of police to forcibly remove and arrest protesters.
Occupy Seattle HERE

Occupy Seattle has adopted the list of demands issued by Occupy Wall Street:

Since the occupation of Wall Street first began on September 17th, the mainstream media has criticized the general assembly for its lack of a cohesive list of complaints or demands.

Not to be rushed by expectations of corporations and the elite they serve, the Occupy Wall Street action took its time fulfilling this demand.

On Thursday night, Occupy Wall Street participants voted on and approved the first official “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City.” It it reprinted in its entirety below.

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-issues-first-official-declaration.html#ixzz1a1mMhXu0

Dear Customers

2011-10-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

This letter (in slightly longer form) is presently dispalyed on the Amazon website:

"Dear Customers,

There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.

We are excited to announce four new products: the all-new Kindle for only $79, two new touch Kindles – Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G – for $99 and $149, and a new class of Kindle – Kindle Fire – a beautiful full color Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only $199.

We are building premium products and offering them at non-premium prices."

How is it that Amazon can charge such low prices for such "high" technology? Simple. By keeping labor standards a low as possible. The Kindle is primarily manufactured in China, Taiwan and Korea, all of which have records of lousy treatment of employees (especially for export goods) and of course, low pay that is primarily why the U.S. outsources most manufacturing. But before you blame it all on foreigners, consider Amazon's own record of employee mistreatment. Like most private for profit companies Amazon has a long history of union busting in both the U.S. and U.K. and predictably low wages, and dangerous working conditions.
Amazon may put on a good show of being caring and compassionate (that's called 'marketing'), and individual employees may very well be nice people, but corporations don't care about anything but taking as much as they can and giving as little as possible.
And it works!

Harvard Business Review
The Morning Call
New York Times 1
New York Times 2
New York Times 3
Seattle PI

Eating Our Way Through Mexico

2011-09-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Pollo Mole and something else in San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas

Papadzules in Campeche, Campeche

Merida, Yucatan

Pozole in Valladolid, Yucatan

Tamal colado, Valladolid, Yucatan

Panuchos, Valladolid, Yucatan

Laziness or Busyness?

2011-08-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true. It's been almost a year since I went to Vietnam and I have failed to post even half the pictures that I took while I was there. While I know there are just a few people who actually read this, I would have liked to have shared more of them. Perhaps I still will. Now that I'm about to head to Mexico for a couple of weeks, I thought I might as well post some artwork that I did in Vietnam.

It's not what you would expect maybe, but it's something I'm proud of. While I was in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) I volunteered for two weeks. Initially it was to be at an orphanage/Buddhist temple where they have very little money and subsist primarily on donations. I thought I would take a bunch of toothbrushes for the kids to use. Instead it turned out that we worked at a state school for the children of the very poor. As it was explained to me, these were the kids who would otherwise not have access to any education at all. It was our task to help construct a shelter for motorbikes and to teach some English, real basic stuff. I worked with the volunteer coordinator, "Mr." Thanh to come up with a fun page of food items that the kids could color and learn.

At the end of the two week program, the Finnish volunteer Lauri and I got the other volunteers (about 19 total) to kick in some money for a whole slew of toothbrushes and toothpaste and we gave them out to the kids and did a little presentation with this cartoon I did with the help of Trang, one of the other Vietnamese volunteers.

I like drawing big teeth, so it worked out well.

Stencil Screens

2011-08-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me to screen some shirts as a wedding present for his two friends. He needed it in a week so I told him maybe I had time if he had the design ready to go, (right). Yet, I felt (no offense bro) that we could do better (especially since I was charging him money)so I used the original photo to come up with the stencil below.

The shirts turned out pretty fuckin' nice.

The Idi Amin Dada Shirts are Finally Done

2011-08-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

A pretty straightforward image with the skulls I mentioned back HERE. This shirt is sortof my response to the Mao and Che shirts although a coworker and I are currently in negotiations for a new project involving multiple tyrannical dictators. I was thinking of buying a case of black aprons and screening them and then applying a splatter of red paint.

Band Shirts

2011-08-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Recently I was comissioned to print a bunch of shirts for two local bands in which my friend plays drums. The designs were already done by someone else. Front and back prints turned out pretty good I think. I forgot to take pictures of the other design.

SS Debt Relief

2011-08-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Another piece for Real Change that is set to come out next week. I ended up not liking this result much so I did some tone adjustment and cropping of the final submitted version.

Oh no! Not another learning experience!

Cruzob and Maize

2011-08-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Cruzob Background

2011-07-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

This background has been done for a while, I just don't have a big scanner so my friend had to photograph it for me. The original sketch can be seen HERE, the pencils HERE, and the central figure is on the drawing table right now.

Solo Mujeres

2011-07-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

A Word of Advice

2011-07-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

Sploosh

2011-07-04T21:02:00.001-07:00

Hello!

2011-07-04T21:01:00.001-07:00

Liquor In Private or: Why the Fuck isn't The Stranger Making Sense?

2011-06-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Once again Costco is on the warpath to privatize liquor sales in Washington State less than a year after their last (and not first) failed attempt. As reported in The Stranger's own news-heavy pages, this time Costco has a plan that just might work, having ostensibly "solved" many of the issues that caused voters, Unions and even the beer producer's lobby to balk last time around.

The Stranger is no stranger to pro-privatization agitation. They are apparently so bent on privatization of liquor that they will come up with any reason to argue against the WSLCB. Last December David Frizelle wrote an article which rightly berated WSLCB enforcement officers for allegedly discriminating against gay bars in their "enforcement". He further pointed out that during the snowstorm in November, a number of WSLCB stores failed to open. Again both legitimate complaints, but hardly grounds for privatization.
For some reason Frizelle assumes that privately owned stores that sold liquor would adhere strictly to their hours and that the people enforcing legal liquor sales in a privatized world would be entirely unbiased and fair. It's a stretch at best Dave. Secondly, if Frizelle wanted booze that bad during the snowstorm, why not go to a bar, or did he forget what the first part of his rant was about? If you need to get drunk at home that bad, buy some beer or wine prom a private retailer.

It seems clear that Frizelle's and The Stranger's insistence on buying hard liquor on a whim is based more on personal convenience and a failure to plan than any bizarre sense of fairness.

But now, as Costco revs up another campaign, The Stranger is changing it's tune, a little bit. Columnist Cienna Madrid points out quite commendably that if SB 5942 passes it will essentially be a handout to the major grogery retailers like QFC, Safeway and yes Costco. Some smaller stores like one that I am familiar with, simply do not have the space to add liquor. What Madrid does however is to use entirely misleading language to undermine her anti-corporate message with pro-privatization rhetoric. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I'll throw out a wild guess that Ms. Madrid is too young and American to have experienced East Berlin (as am I). But the name does conjure an image doesn't it. Furthermore, the majority of WSLCB stores don't close, as they allegedly did in the DDR at 6:00pm, but at 8 or 9 by which time any serious drinker should have already engaged. Comparisons to Prohibition (as Costco's SVP is quoted in Madrid's article) are just ludicrous. Prohibition meant none at all, ever.
Again, while Madrid argues against corporatization, she still supports privatization.

The usual arguments against loss of State revenue and increased availability to underage drinkers aside, there are some things which a supposedly liberal paper like The Stranger ought to consider before advocating privatization.
The reason Unions are pushing back against privatization is not because they want to protect high paid jobs. WSLCB jobs are not highly paid I assure you. These unionized jobs, with health care and "benefits", both of which The Stranger has expressed support, would, in the event of privatization go to non-unionized, that is "at-will" employees (including Costco), or in the best case scenario to unionized grocery workers at national retail chains notorious for worker harassment and intimidation.

So again, it appears that The Stranger's advocacy for alcohol privatization is based on a desire for personal convenience rather than any serious consideration of the implications. If the later were true the use of provocative and ultimately misleading language wouldn't be necessary. An easier solution seems plausible. If the State doesn't want to give up control of liquor, but the public wants more access a compromise must be reached. The Seattle Police have to go through a cultural diversity course, if WSLCB enforcement officers appear to be discriminating they should do the same. Officers who continue to discriminate should be discharged. The Stranger has advocated this for the SPD, why not here? Second, why not extend WSLCB store hours?
I'm sure there are arguments against both of these, primarily from the notoriously recalcitrant WSLCB, resistance to change tends to ossify in any institution, but there is no reason other than stubbornness that a compromise can't be reached. And it must if anyone but Corporate Capital is to win. The Stranger and other papers of similarly objective content could get behind positive WSLCB reforms, the State wouldn't have to lose it's liquor revenue and workers wouldn't have to be trampled under the Corporate foot yet again.

Department of Right Wing Security

2011-06-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

An interesting article slated to appear in the next issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report magazine includes information from a former DHS investigator stating that under pressure from conservative politicians, DHS no longer investigates domestic extremist groups despite their increasing activity and violence. Check out more HERE.

Bleeding Hearts

2011-06-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

I try and contribute to the causes I believe in despite my modest income. I suppose some people might try and focus their efforts on one organization or issue in particular in order to concentrate their energies instead of doling them out bit by bit like pissing a little in lots of different oceans. Maybe it would do more good that way, I don't know because that's not how I do it. I'm a sucker for just about any cause that I find compelling or important and as a result I've ended up where I am now, thinking I should have chosen my battles more surgically.

Since any program, foundation or organization even remotely resembling social or moral responsibility is getting a very crocodilian and hand wringing evisceration from State and Federal Democrapitalists and even wealthy donors, every cause I've even looked at longingly is knocking on my wallet asking for help. Even the Seattle Public Library is now soliciting for donations through the mail. As my room mate put it "All Microsoft would have to do if they truly stood by their professed commitment to fostering education, would be to wave at the Library and their financial woes could be solved."

Maybe they will, maybe they wont, but public education and public space, (libraries are one of the last non-commercial public places in this country) however are not terribly high on the plutocracy's love-child list these days. In any case, I'll be paying of my fines and then some in the next few days, but in some ways I wish I hadn't been so philanthropic (and believe me I really haven't been) so I wouldn't be persistently harassed with need. Jeeze, I'm starting to sound like a politician.

Brush Pen Fun

2011-05-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Biological Clock

2011-05-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard the saying over and over throughout my life as an explanation or justification why some women decide to have children; “The biological clock was ticking.” There are of course reasons, good and bad for a woman to decide to have a child, but let’s get things perfectly clear, though there is a biological reason women are capable of having children, there is no biological reason that they should. Now, I fully understand that there are powerful physiological and hormonal factors that can strongly urge women to reproduce, but these do not preclude her free will. To suggest otherwise is to fall into a familiar but mistaken pattern of calling social behaviors “natural”. Merely blanketing the entire process with a tired euphemism implies that the act of having a child is not a conscious choice on the woman’s part, but merely an inevitable compulsion of time and anatomy.

Making this argument may seem absurd because I am a male and because it would appear on the surface to do little in addressing patriarchy. But I would like to point out that language is very much a part of the system. The way we talk about things reinforces and reifies ways of thinking because words conceal political and social meaning. Even a single word like “woman” or “mother” carries with it layers of assumed meaning, different perhaps for different groups or individuals, but meaning which nonetheless is conjured in the mind without having to explicitly vocalize anything but that single word. So my argument isn’t entirely superfluous, what I’m trying to say is that our language regarding women and childbearing can carry a lot of weight, either positive or subtly (and that is the worst kind) negative. I’m not trying to claim that people shouldn’t reproduce, or to deny the biological realities of women’s bodies. I have written this (with input from some of my female friends) to illustrate that we should choose our language carefully lest we carelessly perpetuate systems of domination.

Doing something because you can neglects reflection on the social, political, economic, environmental or moral consequences of one’s actions. When retail stores sell items for a limited time, or while supplies last, they are using a false notion of scarcity to compel people to purchase something. The appeal is not to a sense of necessity, but to one of fear and selfishness. If I don’t have it, someone else will get it and there won’t be any left for me. If you consume something because of the threat of scarcity, you often neglect to analyze the utility of the product, that is why the appeal is so fundamental to consumerism; it subverts, skips, or evades one’s sense of logic by appealing to a sense of danger and selfishness.

The biological clock statement does the same thing by denying women agency over their bodies in much the same way that Anti-Choice advocates attempt to deny it; by pretending there are no other reasons. As if free-will or rationality are not a traits that women possess. Certainly there are very real biological “deadlines’ like menopause and increased health risk that prevent or discourage late life childbearing. But the Biological Clock posits these as the only reason and thus makes childbearing strictly a function of time and anatomy rather than choice. The fact is that there are many reasons a woman might choose to (or not to) bear children. Failing to mention them is just lazy communication and reinforces patriarchal gender norms by glossing it with a patina of inevitability and integrality (rather than optionality) to the identity of womanhood. Simply, it conflates the “can” with the “should”. Claims that one cannot be a woman, or identify as a woman without bearing children, instantly create heirarchies of social acceptability and denies women, especially lesbians and transgender women the “privilege” to identify as women. By blaming the “Biological Clock” we invoke the same tired patriarchal claim that heterosexist-fundamentalists the world over continue to make for keeping women barefoot and pregnant and persecuting those that don’t conform; nature intended it.

Taking the biological clock stance in fact denies a woman agency over her own body in the same way that anti-abortion advocates seek to deny a woman the choice to control her own body, but it does so in a much more insidious way because it makes it without overt dogma and thus appears secular, avoiding the red-flag usually raised by religious fanaticism or extremism and thus the Biological Clock appears to be “safe” or benign.

Soyuz 11 Cosmonauts

2011-04-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the final version of the cosmonaut cameos for the Soyuz 11 project.

Soyuz Floater

2011-04-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

The final layout of the Soyuz 11 project. Initially the three cameos of the astronauts were going to be on there as well, but it crowded the space too much and made it feel less infinite if you will. Plus I really liked the result of that nebula painting and didn't want to cover any more of it up. The cameos will be framed separately on another starfield.
For the record, the astronauts on that particular mission did not leave the capsule on a spacewalk.

Cruzob Background pencils

2011-04-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

The pencils were not quite complete when my friend Larry helped me take this picture of the Cruzob background, but you get the general idea. The inks are in progress now.

Splat Flash

2011-04-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not a graffiti writer but I have an appreciation for it and sometimes it comes out of me in strange ways, usually involving gore and/or zombies. I've also been looking at some old tattoo designs as I work on a sleeve for myself.
The stretchy burned-skin/swirling fire thing is interesting and in this case reminded me of rubber-cement or latex.

Cooked

2011-04-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

A skull graphic I worked up for a t-shirt design. In the last year or so I've seen a lot of Mao graphics around Seattle. They remind me a lot of the Che Guevara graphic in that the image is stripped of any context and becomes an icon, with meaning applied in the mind of the observer. It's like history completely stripped of fact and reimagined as a product. Medal of Honor is what we get for a World War II history lesson. But people eat that shit up, the iconic, the graphically interesting, the visceral, it's what United Statesian politics are all about. Screw the facts.
Anyway, the shirt is going to be an image of Idi Amin.

Brain Brawl

2011-04-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

2011-04-21T10:17:00.002-07:00

Cruzob background sketch plan

2011-04-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

A plan for the background of the Cruzob saint painting I've been mulling over for almost a year. It is now moving very rapidly forward.

Struggle

2011-03-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hue Skyline

2011-03-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

Not really a skyline per-se, but the view out the front door of my hotel in Hue City.

And out the window on the other side.

The Boot

2011-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

I didn't get much lead time on this one and received the specifications and story right as I was beginning my work week. As a result I'm not completely satisfied with it, but it turned out alright. In the future I want to really fill the space more.

St Marvin Ascends to Valhalla

2011-03-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

The final version of the St. Marvin project.

Vietnamese Beer Labels pt. 2, Hue City Edition

2011-03-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Another little factoid about Hue City. It is the site of a number of national breweries, some of them financed by foreign investors, but nevertheless the root of a new microbrew tradition in the 'Nam. As far as I can tell, it is all still lager style beer, nothing really remarkable, although Huda ain't bad or expensive (relatively speaking). But hey, the labels are nice. I also included another watery lager beer named after the capitol.

Of course, another thing I did in Hue was to eat a lot of food. As with many, many parts of the world that are really hot climatically, there is something of a tradition of spicy food. Possibly the best known is Bun Bo Hue, or beef noodle soup, Hue style. It was the first thing I ate the day I got there.

Thick, soba-like noodles, thin sliced tender beef, sliced onions, lettuce and a rich spicy broth. I can almost taste it again.But wait, what is this?

It is also Bun Bo Hue, but it looks totally different. So what you're saying is that "Hue style" doesn't really mean much? Well, yes and no, you can get it in Saigon too, so......

Then again, as with Pho in Vietnam, you never know what you're going to get. This guy was right around the corner from my hotel and didn't speak a word of English, nor did I speak a word of Vietnamese, so I pointed and smiled and got something delicious.

Pho Ga, or chicken Pho. Look at all those little chilies I put on top.

Yum

Necronaut with Ink

2011-03-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

So technically this isn't finished, but this phase of it certainly is, next on to the color, gouache and water. Part of the Soyuz 11 project.

Savage

2011-03-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Y'know, I just kinda got bored of drawing the people, plus I am running out of good old photos, so I just decided to go for the hardware. Interesting change of pace.

My Hat Became A Black Hole

2011-03-11T22:42:00.000-08:00

Smoking Typewritwers

2011-03-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

Real Change book-review illustration. I'm getting bored of doing book review stuff, but it's still entertaining if that makes any sense. I just want to do an editorial or something. The book was called Smoking Typewriters and was about the underground press (not comics) of the 1960's. I had some other ideas that had richer historical content, but these seemed too specific for the review which was not specific.

Fragments of a Casualty in Progress

2011-03-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

I was trying to figure out a good position for the Soyuz 11 astronaut to be floating in. Realistically anything would work, but visually it has to be "right". Plus he's mummified and frozen, so there's that too. I think you can see where this is going. Also, an early version of the Smoking Typewriters piece I did for Real Change.

Hue City - The Citadel

2011-03-05T22:49:00.000-08:00

From Hoi An I was able to catch a bus straight to Hue, and almost literally from hotel to hotel.

Of all the places I had wanted to go in Vietnam before I ever thought I would actually get the chance, Hue City was at the top of the list for several reasons. First, it was the site of some of the heaviest most intense fighting of the Tet Offensive of 1968, it was also the imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen Dynastic period, and the central portion of the city consists of a walled fortress city surrounded by moats and the Perfume River.

I've never been a particularly big fan of architecture, or Asian architecture, but it is nevertheless interesting to visit the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It is as one might imagine, the primary tourist destination in Hue. And it's pretty hard to miss, it's right in the center of town. My hotel was only a few blocks away so I walked over the bridge on the Perfume and through the gate. Within the outer walls is more Hue City, and a smaller Palace Compound.

The main entrance gate.

Various buildings just inside the main entrance all of them on the main courtyard. Originally the columns would have supported covered roofs so that you could walk between the buildings without getting rained on.

Beyond the first courtyard many of the buildings were in various states of restoration, at times you could smell the heavy paint fumes.

Inside the Palace behind all the audience halls were a number of residences for the royal family. As recently as the French Indochina War the Emperor Bao Dai lived here and had tennis courts installed.

These dragon banisters flanked almost every stairway in the Palace. At one point if I recall correctly, they were painted.

The Citadel was the site of some of the most severe and brutal house to house fighting of the battle for Hue, and some of the damage is still visible on the inside face of the walls.

For a while the U.S. forces attempted to retake the Citadel without the use of heavy weapons in order to prevent it's destruction. The occupying NLF forces proved to be so tenacious however that the U.S. Air Force was called in to napalm pockets of resistance. Naturally, some other stuff got burned, like this building above, still in ruins.

I spent the better part of three hours wandering around the palace grounds, mostly by myself. I'm not sure if the lack of people was due to the heat, which was intense at midday, or because it was off-season for tourists. Either way it was nice to see it by myself without the bother of other people. Eventually I left through the North-ish gate on the opposite side from where I entered. I wanted to go to the Northernmost corner of the Citadel where the fighting had been fiercest at the beginning of the battle in 1968. As you can see from the map below, there are lots of lagoons inside the walls, these were mostly choked with weeds. I drew a line on the map tracing my route out of the Palace grounds. When I got to Le Trung Dinh and Dinh Tien Hoang I encountered a military gate and checkpoint past which I could not pass and was enthusiastically reminded that I was not allowed to take pictures of the checkpoint or anything nearby.

At this point it was so damn hot I just decided to head home. I was hungry too and strangely enough a guy on a motorbike with his wife and kid offered to take me to his house for lunch. He was really nice, was an English teacher and I was a bit curious, but I felt really awkward about accepting, so I graciously didn't. Walked for almost another hour and ended up at a tiny coffee stand by the same gate I had entered. From the opposite direction I noticed something that had escaped me before: rocket damage. Also notice that there is no sidewalk through the gate which was about wide enough for a small car and a motorbike to pass.

By the time I got back to the hotel I had been in the Citadel for over four hours and was a little bit sunburned, but totally satisfied.

Nebula Three - Died In Space

2011-03-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

The background for the forgoing cosmonauts. There are still two more pieces of this puzzle, a Soyuz 7K-OK orbital spacecraft and a dead astronaut in a Strizh Spacesuit. This was probably the hardest part of the Soyuz 11 project.

Died In Space

2011-02-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Part one of the Soyuz 11 project. Each of these is actually assembled from three different pieces of paper to give it a three dimensional "medallion" look.

Security

2011-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

For a Real Change article that wasn't really about anything except a bored security guard.

Nebula 2

2011-02-15T10:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, somehow I forgot to enrich the black after scanning this one.

Ethiopian

2011-02-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

Nebula

2011-02-09T11:03:00.001-08:00

Postage Hero 2

2011-02-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

Postage Hero

2011-02-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

Confederation

2011-02-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Catbox

2011-02-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Bang!

2011-02-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

Attack!

2011-02-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

Experience

2011-02-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

Have a Powerful Rainforest Experience. I love marketing and sloganeering. Not from a practical standpoint, as in "I love (engaging in) marketing". But I do love observing its myriad manifestations. I wonder what the hell the marketing departments of these companies are thinking when they come up with this ridiculous transcendental shit for glorified sugar. They're likely thinking that it works because it more or less seems to.

The problem I see with this is that it blurs the line between reality and fantasy in such a way that logic becomes less urgent, less integral to the daily experience for the consumer. This is nothing new of course, the 1920's advertising campaign for cigarettes which asserted them as "torches of freedom" for women. The experience of something, be it "liberation and equality" with men, "Cokeness", or a "Rainforest Experience" does not exist outside the actual experience, except as a memory of the experience. By conflating the purchase and consumption of the product with an experience the consumer is encouraged to think of their purchase as having accomplished something, having expressed or asserted something other than a financial transaction.

I think very few of us see the things we buy as part of the formation of our identity, or as an integral part of who we are. We don't make these mental calculations when we are deciding which energy drink to buy, or whether to buy one at all. When we do purchase things it of course generates profit for the manufacturer which is their ultimate goal regardless of the slogan, but it also serves as further advertisement for the product. Hence the use of distinctive and recognizable packaging and logos. But somehow it becomes this way, many of us in a search for identity in a society full of sensationalist individualist promise, yet little delivery, we're seeking something to be. One of the few things we have power over is ourselves and our purchases, hence the one becomes the other, branding.

And we don't have to consider what we stand for.

Saint Marvin Unadorned

2011-01-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

Polish Malt Liquor

2011-01-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

Chewy

2011-01-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Ant Noggin

2011-01-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

After the last thing I did for Real Change, I didn't want to bust my ass over a spot illustration for a book review. Quick and easy, that's the way I like it.

Empire of Eights

2010-12-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

Yet another illustration inspired by thoughts of the sci-fi demise of humankind leading to a global dictatorship of cephalopods. Think Imperial Russia with a hearty dose of pervasive Orwellian paranoia. Or just think of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, it is literally both.

Se also Cephalopod Plutocracy

Chucksmas 5 Shirt

2010-12-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

In honor of our fifth year of Chucksmas fun we came up with a limited edition t-shirt which we used to raise money for Equality Texas, an LGBT organization that we figured Chuck would hate. We sold out in about 10 minutes.
When I came up with this I was trying to mimic, in a crude way, the look of the original Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen" graphic.

My Son

2010-12-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

The last place of significance that I visited from Hoi An was My Son, the major Cham site of My Son. It reminded me of the Maya sites in Mexico for several reasons. First, I had to get up really early in the morning, around 5 I think, to catch the van that took us first to the rendezvous point, another hotel where all the rest of the round-eyes were waiting to go on the trip. (part of the cost of the trip, 8 dollars, was breakfast. Because I was the penultimate pickup that morning, all the other people at the rendezvous had already eaten and we were already late so all myself and the last couple got was the leftovers which we ate in the van.) Second, when we got there it was a place with a nice entryway with an expansive visitors center. Closed of course. The site itself was in the middle of the woods and partially overgrown. Restoration was slow, minimal and to be perfectly honest without, I hope, sounding like a cultural imperialist, shoddy.

Some restoration had taken place during the French occupation, during the United States war, several bombs fell very close to the My Son buildings causing damage. This crater appeared to be about 8 feet from one of the main buildings. I imagine that when it was fresh it was much closer.

There are not many elephants in Vietnam now, and to my knowledge, none that are wild. But the Champa sculpture attests to their importance in the culture, and Vietnam's old connections to its more westerly neighbors Cambodia and Thailand.

A number of these statues had plaques that said something like "the rest of this statue is in the Musee Such-n-such in France". Again, this reminded me of Mexico because a number of the relics had been partially robbed and put in Western museums. I understand, there are arguments both for and against, but it's pretty disheartening to see a bunch of statues with the heads knocked off and know that a Nation that so vehemently insists on maintaining its own cultural identity would persist in holding another people's cultural identity hostage. This is not surprising in context of the West's long and glorious "civilising" mission.

Incidentally, our guide on this half-day trip was a balding Vietnamese guy who spoke pretty good English. He told us he had been a war photojournalist with the South Vietnamese press during the U.S. war and had in the`course of his work, been shot in the head, the remnants of which, a large divet in his scalp, he pointed out to us. I believed him because he kept asking people questions about their cameras and commenting on the various pros and cons of each model. He reminded us that just because he was shooting a camera and not a rifle did not mean that his job was easy, many of his friends had died, and yes, he had been shot in other places too. He did not elaborate whether he had suffered for his collusion at the hands of the Communists when the U.S. withdrew.

There were a number of sites in Mexico that also looked like this, grassy and overgrown to the point of near invisibility. I almost like them better like this. It carries a feeling of inevitability and temporaryness of human endeavor which I find comforting and satisfying somehow.

Old Hoi An

2010-12-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

In Nha Trang I realized that I wasn't going to make it all the way to Hue City if I kept taking busses. And ahyway, there wasn't anything between here and there that I really wanted to to see. I could have, but Hue was at the top of the list. So, I looked into in-country flights from Nha Trang's Cam Ranh International Airport and found that a flight to Da Nang was pretty cheap, and it was right in between Hoi An and Hue. It was an easy and quick flight, the pilot was a US American, and along the way the only thing of note was the raging US American woman in the seat in front of me who screamed (in English) at the Vietnamese clerks at check in and bitched the entire way to Da Nang. I had planned on staying in Da Nang for a night or two, but while waiting in baggage claim for my pack I met a couple of United Statesian backpacker guys who asked if I was heading to Hoi An. Turns out it's clese enough that you can hire a cab to go straight there, so we split it three ways and were in Hoi An in about an hour for about 6 bucks each.

Hoi An used to be one of the most active ports in Vietnam, but when the Thu Bon River silted up, it was no longer accessible to deeper draft large cargo vessels and trade moved north to Hue and Da Nang. As a result, so we are told, old Hoi An hasn't changed much in the past 200 years. The old portion of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site. I spent 4 days here, so I had a lot of time to walk around and check out all the old, very old buildings. Hoi An has been settled by Chinese, Japanese and of course colonized by the French, so there is a diversity of architecture.

And quite a few old temples which are still in use. I had never been into a working Buddhist temple, and these ones were definitely working. There were coils of incense hanging from the ceiling with prayer cards in the center of each one. So many that at times when the breeze died the smoke made it difficult to breathe.

While in Hoi An I had to change hotels three times for various reasons. The first one, while nice was too expensive at 18 dollars a night and the room literally opened onto the lobby where the dining room and pool was which as you might imagine was rather noisy. The second one was cheap, only 8 dollars a night, but it was on the top floor and had no AC. Most of the new construction in Vietnam is solid, cast concrete and with an average temperature in the mid to upper 80's along the coast; it was as hot room. The last hotel worked out well though and I stayed there the last two nights, but in the process of trying to find all of the hotels, I did a lot of walking around Hoi AN and I saw a lot of Banh Mi carts. Banh Mi are one of the foods I had been most anticipating on this trip, and so it was a major event when I got to have one. I was not disappointed, and at an average price of 60 cents, how could you go wrong.

I went back almost daily until I left Hoi An, but I would soon discover (in Hue) that all Banh Mi are not the same.

I ate a lot of other good food in Hoi An, some of it HERE.

You could buy hand built model sailing vessels at several shops in Hoi An. If you've ever watched the Vietnam episode of Top gear you'll remember the tailored suits and model galleon, both were purchased in Hoi An.

This is where they make your cheap suit.

And these are the people who make it, on their way to work in the morning.

I first noticed the popularity of trash bins, frequently with odd phrases and images on the front. This one was in one of the Buddhist temples.

Because of its UNESCO Heritage status, or at least, the old town is, it is very popular with tourists which is probably pretty bad most of the time. I was there during one of the "off" seasons, so it wasn't too bad. There were still plenty of white people, but not as many as I imagine there can be. Anyway, my point is that there are lots of businesses that cater to disposable incomes. It is in Hoi An that I got reproductions of some old propaganda posters.

There were also a couple of shops that sold hand carved wooden stamps. I bought one with a hammer and sickle, duh.

These guys fabricate animal cages by hand, from spools of wire strand.

Black Metal Fishmonger

2010-12-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

Seattle Vice

2010-12-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

In my sketchbook I did this version first, but I wanted a separate piece, something I could frame if it came out well, so I started all over, see below. (also I misspelled "cocktails" and made the other sign singular.)

The final, cropped version I submitted. The only change was the pencil marks from my first signature which I removed. You'll also notice that there is no glow in the center of the olive. Oops, but I actually like it that way, draws your eye in.

Almost thought this wouldn't work, but it managed to pull through. I just hope they don't take this 5" x 5" illustration and blow it up to fill the whole front cover like they did with the last one. It is meant to grace a book review, so it's not cover story material. Here's hoping.

Sunny McGinn

2010-11-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

Based on the Sunny Jim peanut butter logo. Seattle mayor Mike McGinn wants to permanently locate the Nickelsville homeless encampment to the site of the former Sunny Jim factory in south Seattle.

Hue City 1968

2010-11-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

Maj. General Lewis W. Walt

2010-11-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

Skullz

2010-11-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

Western Cloudscapes

2010-11-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Reparaciones

La Familia Se Fueron

A couple of watercolor/gouache pieces I did a number of years ago. Both are based on a mixture of clouds and landscapes I photographed when I was in Montana and New Mexico, but not at the same time or place for any of the elements.

Days in Nha Trang

2010-11-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

After my night of rain I decided to go and see the sights of the city. I knew Nha Trang wasn't a place I wanted to stay for long, it was a beach town swarming with Westerners despite it being in the "Off Season" when I was there. Really it was just a stepping stone up the coast. I didn't want to spend more than 5 or 6 hours on a bus at any one time (as I've mentioned before they were not built for anyone taller than 5'6") so I could never have slept on one. As such I was just hopscotching up the coast and landed in Nha Trang. While there though, I wanted to see what was available. My first stop was the Vietnam Oceanographic Institute where a large collection of pickled fishes and other sealife was promised.

I picked a restaurant that didn't have any white people in it and managed to order some Pho for breakfast. Halfway through my meal I was joined by a Vietnamese guy who had fled the country in the 1970's with his family and was back to visit, though not for his first time. I was still a little leery of people being super friendly without explanation. Something told me they might try and talk me into some sort of scam or something, so I didn't talk too much to this guy. He just told me a little about his visits to Vietnam, how he had managed to get back despite his official status as a "traitor" etc. I was polite, but I left quickly. Probably unnecessarily paranoid, but whatever. After breakfast a cab with a driver who had no idea what I was talking about and didn't understand the map I showed him. So, I drew a picture of a fish and pointed down the road. He knew exactly what I meant.

In addition to various live tanks, most in pretty dismal condition, there was indeed a very large collection of preserved animals.

In all it wasn't exactly thrilling, but there were a number of rooms which had models of fishing techniques, nets and maps of oceanographic survey sites all over Vietnam. Virtually none of it was in English (I think, hard to remember) but it was an interesting experience in all. Afterwards I caught another cab, this one to Ponagar Cham Towers, or so I thought. I pulled out the same map as before and pointed to my desired location which was indicated by a tiny picture of a tower. The driver indicated in the affirmative and we were off. Ten minutes later we drove past the towers which are on a hill above the town. The driver pointed and said something but kept going, to another entrance I was sure. Another ten minutes and we were long past the towers in some back alleys when I saw a sign for a mud bath that was on the map almost on top of the tower icon. Stop, stop! I pulled out the map and drew an X through the mudbath icon then circled the tower. Bingo, back we went. I paid him the fare for the full ride, it was my fault I'm sure he was happy for that anyway.

I told you about the Cham a couple of posts back so I'll skip it this time. It was awesome to see the towers themselves up close and personal. I wandered around for a while, Ponagar is pretty big, then found a good bench way off to the side with a good view of the main tower, and I took out my sketchbook. This was the view from my seat:

So I sat there drawing the tower for a while, I was off the main plaza so nobody was walking past me until after about 30 or 45 minutes these people showed up all at once:

They took a bunch of photos of these two women dressed in Aodai and then the guy in shorts (Vietnamese men typically do not wear shorts) turned and said, "She wants to take a picture with you." The woman in the blue Aodai came and sat next to me for a few shots, then the woman in pink joined her. I had to get a record of this shit, so I gave the guy my busted ass camera and he took a few, so I have proof.

We thanked each other, they went on their way and I drew for a while longer (it wasn't a very good rendition of the tower.) That evening I had something for dinner, I don't remember what, and the next day I caught a plane to Da Nang. It was a lot cheaper and quicker than taking buses all the way up, plus there wasn't time or much that I really wanted to see between the two cities, so it made sense to fly. Following are some pictures of Nha Trang from the bluff on which Ponagar stands, followed by some more pics of the site itself.

Dear Leader

2010-10-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

Phill shared this with me, it's good, but a little too cleanly edited and photographed. It seems surreal and propagandistic, obviously from one perspective, but more subtly from another.

Nha Trang in the Rain

2010-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

The first night I was in Nha Trang I went to find another restaurant that was listed in the guidebook I had. Oh No! Not another "learning experience!"
Apparently, these guide book writers like western style settings for their dining experience, this was the third time in as many days that I found myself in an upscale restaurant that was similar to anything in the States except for the language and the menu. Don't get me wrong, the food was still cheap and good. I had what the menu called mackerel braised in a spicy tomato sauce. When the waitress brought it to the table she asked me something that apparently meant "do you want me to cut your food into bite sized pieces so that you have to do less work you decadent imperialist pig?" To which I unknowingly responded yes. Within seconds my mackerel was minced. I didn't knowingly go to another restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet for the rest of the trip. When the check came it said I had ordered tuna.

Almost as soon as I left the restaurant it started raining, and I didn't have my rain-jacket so I ducked under an awning with some Vietnamese people and waited. And waited, and waited for about 15 minutes, but it showed no sign of letting up. You can see from the pictures how heavy it was raining. The streets were six inches deep or more in places, motorbikes, at least the ones with the tiny wheels, were flooding their engines. Across the street there was a restaurant with a patio. Coming out of the wall was a downspout shooting a 2 or three inch column of water into the street. I saw someone crouch under an umbrella in front of the downspout but didn't realize what was going on until I saw them stand up and pull up their pants.

I got tired of standing there so I dashed a couple of doors up the street and found a bar where I could have a beer (Tiger) and wait out the rain. I immediately met another guy who was sitting there doing the same thing, or at least it seemed so. Turned out he was a United Statesian who had been living in 'Nam for ten years. The restaurant was owned by an Italian lady who was very nice. The Statesian bought me a beer and we sat and chatted for about an hour and a half. He told me about his Harley which was parked in front of the restaurant, and told me how much it cost and how much it cost him to have it imported. This seemed to be important in order to demonstrate how much money he spent and also how corrupt the Vietnamese government was. He assured me that the six digit figure in importation tax was lining pockets, not funding infrastructure development. He told me the first year in Vietnam was the honeymoon year, after that you start to see all the shady bullshit that goes on. The Russians he said called the Vietnamese "little rats" for a reason. He also said that you could be fairly certain that the reason a person left their native country to live abroad, nodding at the Italian woman, probably did so because they couldn't hack it in their home country. I wasn't sure if he was aware that this might also apply to him.
.

The next morning the streets were clean and dry. I would find out later that it wasn't the water that had washed all the trash and stuff away.

A Reminiscence

2010-10-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

On the Road

2010-10-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

In Mui Ne I discovered how easy it was to catch a bus in Vietnam. Initially I had planned to take the train for a good deal of the trip, but I found that you could pretty much catch any bus right from a hotel lobby. The train has to follow a single track, but even if the bus itself doesn't stop at your hotel, they'll send a guy around to pick you up. In Mui Ne, the bus stopped was a Korean "sleeper". I had been led to believe that the Korean buses in 'Nam were equipped with karaoke machines and I was hoping to partake at least once. In fact, this bus was intended for sleeping, or at least resting and as such there was no karaoke, but there was no rest for me. The average Korean is much shorter than me and I did not fit in these "seats" very well. On top of that, we were going very fast on some fairly narrow roads and I was on the top shelf where the swaying back and forth as the driver careened around motorbikes is amplified. Add to that the Vietnamese traffic signal, the air-horn, and you get an entertaining experience to say the least. I did get a great view of the passing countryside though.

For my third day in country it wasn't a bad way to see a lot of the place, and I got to read some H.P. Lovecraft during the five hour trip to Nha Trang.

These last two are Cham towers. The Champa Kingdom of Hindus lived in the Vietnam-Cambodia region before the arrival of early Chinese peoples. Now the Cham People are a mostly Muslim minority group in Vietnam. I got to see more of these up close in Nha Trang where I arrived that evening.

Walrus Middle Management

2010-10-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Remnants of A Rejected Marvin

2010-10-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

100th Birthday Stamps

2010-10-12T12:47:00.001-07:00

Vietnam Space Stamps

2010-10-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Which one of these stamps do you think it was that convinced me to buy the set? They were, maybe 2 dollars for all six. Half of 'em are fairly bland, but there was one that really sealed the deal. If you guessed Sputnik you're right. I saw the astronauts and ogled the awesome line work that defined the tone and outline of their forms and was pretty much sold. So casual yet controlled, perfect. The rest of the stamps, sattelites etc, are okay, but the Sputnik closed it off. No questions after that.

Sleepover In Mui Ne

2010-10-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

Look left, that's the road to Sai Gon. After a nice warm glass of Bongmilk you're ready to get back on the bus and keep going north to Mui Ne, a tiny fishing/tourist town on the coast.

A lot of people mention this town because it's so laid back and beautiful. The hotel I stayed at, Hai Yen, was like a beach wandering beach bungalow. There was a pool that was about five feet away from the beach. It was the 60th anniversary of the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, so a lot of the rooms were full with Vietnamese vacationers. The Vietnamese rise early in the day, with the sun. Generally speaking, people don't stay up too late unless they run a business that necessitates late business. A restaurant, a bar.

In Mui Ne I discovered my first full-bed mosquito nets. I'll be honest and say that I immediately thought of some movie scenes. Anyway, instead of letting those heavy gauze breasts sway above me unused all night, I decided to smother myself in one. I don't like things pushing on my feet while I sleep, blankets, goblins or mosquito nets. I threw it off before the night was over.

That night I had to catch a motorbike to a restaurant, well I didn't have to. Hai Yen also had a restaurant. But I wanted to get something else so I went to the Peaceful Family Restaurant, which nobody knew what the hell I was talking about. So I just got on a bike and rode until I saw it. I was the only person there for about 15 minutes until the place filled up with Vietnamese (for the holiday). I had crab and asparagus soup, followed by pepper braised pork with vegetables and rice. I practiced shoveling rice into my mouth straight from the bowl like I've seen in kung fu movies. I would need to try again before I got it even a little bit. Choke.

On the way back, I just walked for a while, it was a couple of miles back to the hotel. I probably should have walked all the way, woulda been nice, but I hailed a moto. I was watching like a hawk, but I thought we had gone too far, passed the hotel. I stopped the guy, got off and pointed to the name on a cheap tourist map of the city. (below) Yes, yes he said. Alright. I don't remember driving past all these empty beaches and banana trees but whatever. You say yes, yes and I'll believe you. Sure enough, he was right, another half mile or so and we were at the hotel. Sweet. I think I gave the guy a good tip. I don't remember. I definitely patted him on the shoulder and said "Hey dude, you were right, good looking out, sorry bout that." After that I had a beer and read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn before settling in beneath my mosquito net.

The next day I got up and didn't do shit except wait to go to Nha Trang. And wait I did.

Rocket Propaganda

2010-10-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Seattle Police Accountability

2010-10-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

2010-10-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

I occasionally become obsessed with filling an entire page with lines, usually with this sort of comedic result. Both of these are from 2006.

Totally Thirsty?

2010-10-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know like, what you use to quench your thirst when your mouth is all cottonmouthy and parched man. But lemme tell ya, there's a trick I learned when I was in The 'Nam that soothes the post herb-oral Sahara like nothing else man.

Amazing isn't it? You'd never have guessed, but then again, you weren't there man. You wouldn't understand.

Lucha de Love

2010-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

A wedding present. I would change some things about it, but it still works.

War Remnants Museum, HCMC

2010-10-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Honestly, there wasn't much at the War Remnants Museum that I hadn't seen before, except that it was all approached from a perspective that is anathema to the U.S. American story about the war. There was a large collection of war materiel and photographs, most of it correctly labeled from a technical standpoint. The kicker were two rooms that didn't have to do with the hardware aspect. The first of these was a room devoted to memorabilia concerning international solidarity for Vietnamese independence. The collection consisted primarily of anti-war posters and newspaper articles from around the world. Many of them were pretty straightforward, and all of them were behind glass so I didn't take many pictures, just of the stuff that was particularly striking.

The apron above says something along the lines of US out of Vietnam, or Peace In Vietnam (Japanese speakers, help?) Just below you can see a book about the Japanese fellow who wore it everyday for something like nine years. That's amazing to me, commendable and amazing.

A four language poster with a universally understandable image of Nixon riding a bomber. If you don't know the details of Nixon's "Secret plan to end the war" with which he duped the American public into electing him, you can be forgiven. Long story short it basically consisted of escalated expanded and increasingly arbitrary violence throughout the southern half of Vietnam. There was no plan for peace.

If you click the pictures above you should be able to read the captions, but these are solidarity banners from the Mexican Communist Party and the Palestinian Liberation Front.

Nobody talks about this stuff in the States, but it has happened many times. The plaque in the top left says everything you need to know.

The second room that was an exception to the hardware collection was a photo exhibition from the Requiem collection. This is a collection of photographs by correspondents from both sides, and from unalligned countries, all whom were killed during the wars. I didn't take any photo's of the photos because they were again all behind glass, and because there is a book out with the entire collection. Also, quite a number of the photos are well known, or well used, we just aren't aware that the people who took them were killed.
Take for example this famous image from a series taken by Larry Burrows, a photographer who was lost (likely in a helicopter crash) somewhere in Laos in 1973:

The last room of note was the Agent Orange room which was a bunch of photographs of disfigured and deformed people and babies. I didn't stay in there long.

Several groups of Vietnamese students were at the museum doing a class/tour of some sort. At one point a couple of girls sat down near me and started asking me some basic questions in English, probably to practice, but their teacher saw and gave them a talking to. That ended my conversation with my future student demographic.

And of course, there were old military vehicles parked in the yard around the museum, not terribly interesting if you can't crawl around inside them. This M-48 Patton tank had a tiny tree starting to grow out of the coupola, that's why I took the picture. I love it when nature overtakes human endeavor. Maybe you can see it if you look close. I heard an interesting statement during the trip, totally unrelated to the subject of war, but it applies to this picture in retrospect. It went something like: "Nature always strives to reach a balance, man always strives to conquer."

Speaking of conquering.

And of course, the walk through model of the infamous tiger cages on the Con Son islands.

All this was still the first day I was in Vietnam, so it was also my first experience with motorbike traffic. This is not a great picture, but I did take it while riding on the back of a motorbike! When I originally got to the museum it was closed and this guy affered to take me to a couple of other places until it reopened. Why the hell not, seemed like a great way to start the trip.

Arrival

2010-10-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

If you read about the US experience in Vietnam you will likely hear about the heat. Specifically what I remembered as I was en-route was descriptions of getting off the air conditioned plane and stepping into a wall of wet sweltering heat. When I got there it was a lot like that, a heavy moist cave like feeling. As I was walking out of the airport however, the most bizarre experience was the massive crowd of Vietnamese people surrounding both sides of the sidewalk the entire way out to the taxi lot. They were all waiting for relatives who were arriving (there were lots of Seattle area Vietnamese on the flight with me), but since I hadn't checked any bags, I was the first person out of the airport and I walked those fifty yards to a taxi alone, down a corridor of locals. It was a trip and a half.

Fortunately it was close to 12 midnight and so I went straight to the hotel and to sleep. The next morning in Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) I ate breakfast at the hotel and then decided I ought to just go out in the street and get neck deep instead of vacilating and worrying about what might happen. I was in District 1, Pham Ngu Lau ward, which is the main tourist hotel area of the city, also, pretty much downtown Sai Gon. It's also where the best sights from the American War are located, so I spent my first day visiting the three major museums in the area.

The best and first was the former Independence Palace, now known as Reunification Palace and preserved more or less as it was in 1975 when the South Vietnamese puppet government fell to the Communist PAVN. Here's what it looks like now:

and the reverse angle:

You might remember this place from these next two photos taken on 30 April, 1975:

This very tank, or at least one just like it is on display in the front of the Military museum about a kilometer to the northeast of the Reunification Palace.

Inside, like I said everything is preserved "just the way it was" when the capital fell in '75.

Okay, the national flag and Uncle Ho bust probably weren't there.

I could just picture Henry Kissinger and Nguyen Van Thieu shaking hands in these rooms and it was wierd, there were very few people there while I was walking around. The whole place smelled like the 70's, vintage, aged and polished. I later found out that we weren't supposed to take pictures in the basement where the war-room bunkers were, but nobody was there to stop me, so how was I supposed to know?

And up on the roof:

That gate in the middle-distance, see also the tank picture above.

After this I went to see the War Remnants Museum, also known as the War Atrocities Museum. It is probably the most famous Vietnamese museum about the American War years, but I would recommend the Reunification Palace. It was much more tangible and far less contrived, and the smell, for a history scholar, it was unmatched.