Living In La-La Land

Urchestra will be performing Scwitters “Ur Sonate!”  at Westbeth this Thursday. The event is part of this week’s Fluxfest NYC 2012 events:

Here's a comic I did at World War 3 Illustrated about the Pussy Riot protests:

For more information please visit http://www.freepussyriot.org

This was a writing exercise someone put up on ComicFury. And since this is a journal strip, think of it as interviews! (And if I answer these for anyone else who appears in La La Land, ummm...)

JENNY

1. What does their bedroom look like? Cluttered with instruments, art supplies, scrap metal, books and sharp objects.

2. Do they have any daily rituals? Solar attunments at different points of the day. Otherwise, things are only moderately structured.

3. Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often? Yes, daily. Combination of yoga stretches, martial arts fundamentals, and calisthenics.

4. What would they do if they needed to make dinner but the kitchen was busy? Being that the characters live in a collective, see if whatever's being made looks good. If not, get impatient and go grab pizza

5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.) Cluttered, but she knows where everything is.

6. Eating habits and sample daily menu Pesca-vegetarian, though the fish is less and less frequent. Most likely eating some variation on beans-and-greens with other mixed vegetables, lots of herbs and spices for flavoring.

7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time Reading nonsense on the internet, feeling indifferent but sometimes embarrassed.

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging Sweet kid's cereals for breakfast! And they're good!

9. Makeup? When worn, almost always ka-jahl. Everything else may vary. If she's going to wear makeup though, vivid pretty colors, glitter, gloss--nothing duller than an earth-tone palette!

10. Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such? Diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, prone to anxiety, self-injury, is currently writing about herself in third person for a character questionnaire.

11. Intellectual pursuits? Creating art/writing/music. Reading. Watching documentaries.

12. Favorite book genre? Horror, surrealism, books on feminism, books on the occult

13. Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general? Heterosexual. Feels whatever occurs between consenting adults is their own personal choice.

14. Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.) As mentioned, schizoaffective. Scar on left thigh from brown recluse bite, fine scars on arms and legs from "bad habit" (These would go unnoticed unless you were the sort of person who knew what they were.)

15. Biggest and smallest short term goal? Secure safe housing. Make art. Not kill yuppies today.

16. Biggest and smallest long term goal? Evolution and Revolution

17. Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress Skirts and dresses, dark colors and weird patterns

18. Favorite beverage? Soft drink? Malta.

19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?  Killing bedbugs

20. Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them? Was often feverish as a child.

21. Turn-ons? Turn-offs? Turn-ons: Having a super hot revolutionary percussive genius husband. Turn-offs: Facial hair

22. Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen? Art, automatic writing/drawing, spoken word outlines.

23. How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life? Barely. Everyday life is sort of chaotic.

24. Is there one subject of study that they excel at? Or do they even care about intellectual pursuits at all? She is not in school, slightly autodidactic.

25. How do they see themselves 5 years from today? What are you, some douchebag corporate job interviewer? Due to the multiply unfolding universe phenomena and superstring theory, one can not assess that.

26. Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout? A mental list of art projects to undertake. If this can't be done, utter annhilation. On every level.

27. What is their biggest regret? Not becoming hyper-aggressive much sooner in life.

28. Who do they see as their best friend? Eric (husband) Their worst enemy? Currently it's the shitbirds, who constantly jeopardize everyone's health and safety with their nonsense.

29. Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?) Is calm (we're talking a girl who entered Manhattan on 9/11 with a boot knife and a walkman radio to try and pick up news), but will likely have a nervous breakdown in the calm aftermath. Lifelong PTSD.

30. Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies) Sort of the same.

31. Most prized possession? Her wedding ring

32. Thoughts on material possessions in general? If they're something you can enjoy and/or get use from (books, art supplies). Doesn't care about having designer labels, the latest gadget, any other status symbol, is disdainful of people who DO make a big deal of such things.

33. Concept of home and family? Lives in an art collective constantly under seige. Is childfree. Has tumultuous relationship with various individual family members. Devoted to husband and pets.

34. Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?) Probably TMI personally, yet still thinks Homeland Security, Cointel Pro, etc. are going much too far.

35. What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time? Lengthy walks with music on, this questionnaire.

36. What makes them feel guilty? Sometimes rash decisions that turn out to be mistakes in hindsight.

37. Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making? May consult with talking objects or disembodied voices.

38. Would they consider themselves a Type A or Type B personality? Type O+. Is that what you mean?

39. What recharges them when they’re feeling drained? Sleep, sex (not necessarily in that order.)

40. Would you say that they have a superiority-complex? Inferiority-complex? Neither? Neither.

41. How misanthropic are they? Pretty misanthropic. But misanthropes are secretly idealists at heart.

42. Hobbies? They all become art.

43. How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education? Art school. Both have their merits.

44. Religion? Thelemite

45. Superstitions or views on the occult? See #44

46. Do they express their thoughts through words or deeds? Both

47. If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal? Eric.(obviously she is in love.)

48. How do they express love? Alchemically. Or with "whips and chains". Whatever.

49. If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like? Being short, "inside fighter". Knows some goju ryu and a smattering of other styles. Best not to delve to much into this.

50. Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not? On occasion, simply for the uncertainty of it, but not very much.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can work on one with Eric. :)

  There's these mp3 files we have of a taped conversation that occured between William Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge, and Brion Gysin. Eric was playing them, I was only half listening and watching the rain, hoping it would subside so I could go outside and sketch motorcycles. But I overheard one of them (I think it was Gysin) relay some anecdote about how a bunch of editorial cartoonists were invited to the White House, only to end up ransacking an apartment there (large room?)

  See what happens when you bring cartoonists anywhere? I'm sure they were looking for the key to the liquor cabinet.

May as well use this blog feature for something besides crossposting things from my Wordpress site.

Recently a post went up on the Comic Fury forums asking why some horribly done comics are popular. This post isn't going to an answer to that as it's already the topic of the thread, and also because I'm really not sure why. But I noticed that in the course of the thread, there seemed to be a certain amount of outrage over the fact that the poster had even asked such a thing. He hadn't singled anyone specific out, so it wasn't even a personal attack towards anyone. But a number of people expressed that pointing out that there are bad things that are popular was "whiny", "jealous", that popularity lay in being constantly nice and ass-kissy to everyone (that may contain some truth, but the world is also full of brown-nosers just waiting to get theirs too.) Some even seemed to believe that voicing negative opinions must mean that he wasn't simply enjoying making his own work, and thus ruining his own success. Which frankly, unless you're some sort of hyper-focused monomaniac, I think is utter bullshit. It is absolutely possible to have a love of what you do, and at the same time  e aware of the work of others, as well as whether you like it or not. It's highly unlikely that anyone is spending all their time fixating on comics they hate, or on nothing but their own comics, contained in their own universe with the childlike glee of a savant who makes art independent of awareness of anything else.

But still, seeing undeserving, pandering garbage receive accolades is annoying as hell. I get spun out by that kind of thing all the time and everyone who knows me knows it. Which is fine, I have no inclination towards pretending otherwise. But while stewing and obsessing over that fact isn't exactly productive, trying to oblige everyone's insistence that you just smile and act like it's totally ok, when that isn't truly how you feel, is even less productive. And trying to squash down feelings of unfairness instead of acknowledging  and dealing with them is a one-way ticket to an eventual nervous breakdown. So what can an artist do when faced with the fact that there's some poorly executed shit out there getting more attention than it probably deserves? After a number of trials, errors, and hospitalizations, i've devised these steps:

1)Take a deep breath and say "Wow, that comic is horrible! It's rancid! It couldn't be worse if it made of excrement flung on walls by angry howler monkeys!" or whatever adequately expresses what you feel about what you're looking at. You're allowed to have those opinions. Despite what anyone says, it's not criminal to dislike something.

2)Now that you've gotten that out, here are some suggestions, none of which are set in stone, that you can try. You can even combine a few.

   a) relax and have a stiff drink. This is very popular with a lot of cartoonists.

   b) find a sympathetic ear, and hopefully one who shares your aesthetic opinions, and bitch about the shitty thing. Only not too much or they'll burn out on it. Maybe goof on the shitty comic a la MST3K, try to make some humor out of your frustration.

   c) Now that you've acknowledged you hate this horrible comic and that's ok, forget about the shitty comic and go read/watch/listen to things you find genuinely good or moving. Bleach your mind of the shitty comic. Remind yourself there's still a lot of good work being done out there, and that there are still audiences for those other works.

   d) do something entirely unrelated to comics or art for a while. Hit the beach. Take care of some stuff you've been meaning to do. Spend time in the company of people you enjoy. Dance. Whatever. Just try and treat yourself to a good time, and maybe you'll find something to inspire you while you're at it.

3) This is the most most crucial part. Now that you've gotten it off your chest, had a little downtime and are hopefully feeling refreshed, go immerse yourself in making the best art you can make. Strive to make it even better. Experiment with new ways of making art.  Because that's really what you love to be doing.

Repeat steps as often as needed.