Amazing pictures I didn't take

Today between tunings I went to visit Wendell Yuponce, who is working hard these days scoring the cable TV show Daisy Does America. Daisy is a British comedian something like Tracy Ullman, except she does real things. Instead of doing a sketch about beauty contests, she enters one... and wins!
Wendell's studio is next to his garage, which I walked into by accident. It's full of discarded junk that is rapidly rusting/corroding in the damp. I saw an Irish harp, a Kawai K5 synthesizer, and a George of the Jungle pinball machine.
But I didn't take any pictures.
When Wendell's son was in pre-school, Wendell went in and did presentations about musical instruments and their history, including crude homemade instruments. He wants to do an illustrated children's book version. I'm going to nag him until we at least have a demo chapter finished.
He also gave me some disks with awesome samples on them for music production.

This is a truly amazing book that covers coloring and lettering comics both the old and the computerized way. Near the end it explains in great detail how to create a digital font based on your own lettering to use in comics. If you have looked at my last few cartoons you are seeing the font I made (using Photoshop, Illustrator, ScanFont, and TypeTool). I love the way it looks -- as easy to use as any digital font, but rough enough so that it blends in well with the line of the drawing. 

Another holiday-related tragedy

 

We went to see The Producers tonight at the Laguna Village movie theater, official popcorn makers to the Pope. 

Cartoons in Polish songbook

Here's an email I got today:

Hi!

I'd like to thank you once again for your wonderful cartoons!!!

That was a great pleasue for me to used them in the songbook for our Cultural Exchange (Poland-Romania-France).

Everybody enyojed your works!!! Thanks!

I also want to wish you a Happy New Year! Lot's of wonderful ideas for many new cartoons!!!!!

By the way, if you want to find out more about out organisation - BEST visit :

www.best.eu.org

or www.best.p.lodz.pl - to find out about my local group!

Take care!

Thanks for everything! I hope you like this songbook (it's a print version)

Ola Wojtas

We went to brunch at Robin Netzer's, I had a snack at Hal's, then we all went to an early dinner at the Ollings'. Their fridge is pictured. Too much good food and conversation. Robin gave her kids art and music supplies and smart books. The Ollings gave their kids clothes and non-violent toys. Denise Olling had a long conversation with Jennifer obsessing about what school to send her kids to. 

Here's a pickup truck with a Cadillac nameplate on it. Another song possibility? 

A guy at the gym playing racquetball wearing a Santa hat. 

Espresso Metro put our Christmas card on the espresso machine. 

A tableau in Tom Phillips' house. The photo shows him with Roy Rogers. On the upper right is a Buddha. 

This is part of Rachel's drawing on her car. Click on the picture to see the words better. 

License plate in front of me in traffic. Would make a great chorus for a song.

Free wisdom

 

The day after I got my car back from the body shop, all the electricals started failing. The car died way out in Orangevale. I had to pay for an 18-mile tow. But the woman driving the truck was hilarious. While driving, she subsists on Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Three Musketeers bars. She also has a Thomas Guide map book with a paint can handle attached to it for carrying. 

No pictures today

I left my camera at Steve's house today so I can't post the pictures I took of my car getting towed today (more on that later). Instead, here are some stories from friends in New York dealing with the transit strike.

Lisa took the first 2 days off, went in today in a car filled with Brooklynites. It didn't take her long to get into town, but they say the drive home is much worse, because no restrictions on minimum # of drivers in car (it's 4 during morning).

I went in today for a dentist appointment I really couldn't miss -- walked from home to rockefeller center -- 3 hours! loved it. Especially crossing the brooklyn bridge at sunrise -- it was filled with empowered new yorkers. Getting home was okay, took a cab -- with had 3 other riders getting on and off at various blocks, then walked across the bridge and home.

I believe the strike may be over?!

---Billy Aronson

I've been staying with Jeff the last two nights. He lives on the Upper West Side, so I only have to walk about 30 minutes to get to either job. Would take me about an hour and a half or more to walk from Astoria (Queens), where my apartment is. Fortunately, the weather has been nice, though a little cold. No snow, though. Hurray! Am enjoying the exercise, though I couldn't get to sleep until 6:30 this morning because my body wasn't used to being exercised so late at night (walking home after the show). Oh well. A nice glass of red wine should do the trick tonight. Miserable not being able to sleep!

---Laura Sherman

Mark!

How happy I was to see that e-mail address.

Happy Holidays from the city with no subway.

I wish you could see me bundled up riding my old bicycle.

What a pain in the ass!

Despite the inconvenience, it sure as hell is nice to be back in NY.

So much so, that I gave my notice. Dec. 30th is it for me.

Now, all I have to do is find a job!

Hope all is good with you.

---Bruce Barnes

This is an All Beef Chicago Hot Dog from Weinerschnitzel's. The hot dog is nothing special, but all the condiments are correct, including the weird-colored relish.
My last tuning today was at a Catholic school in Woodland. I was pressed for time because I had to go back to downtown Sacramento to return my rental car and pick up my car from the body shop. I had never been to the school before, and I went out the back door by accident. This was a high-security school with lots of locked gates and I would have had to walk completely around the block to get to my car in front of the school. So instead, I climbed over a cyclone fence and a six-foot-high wall. The worst part was having to drop my bag and toolcase over the fence. I hope I didn't break anything. 

These are some people who wanted to start a deli on the cheap. They bought a Togo's and changed just two of the letters on the sign so it says HOGY'S. 

This is from a car that was in front of me. "We don't hate gays. We love families! Except gay ones." 

I couldn't decide if this was a mezuzah or a doorbell, but finally pressed it (it rang inside). I think a combination mezuzah/doorbell would be a big seller. 

Doreen Irwin is the director of the choir that I'm going to Australia with (as accompanist). Her Christmas party was a continuous concert, with piano solos, singers with piano, and karaoke. I was impressed by the singers.
She made me play a solo before I left. 

Today's second tuning customer has a son on the UCI baseball team. When I told them that Rachel goes to UCI, the father said, "No kidding! Maybe she's heard of him." I said that Rachel's interest in sports is too tiny to measure. 

These tools are all made strictly in accordance with the laws of physics. 

Tonight we went to see the Christmas lights at 53rd and T, which are always great. 

This painting is over a customer's piano. 

These people had the most Christmas decorations and tchotchkes that I've seen this year, including this collection of ceramic busts from England. The husband explained, "That's why you work hard all your life. You ain't gone get rich savin' your money; the bank just gone get it." 

A great self portrait by my nephew

How family, friends, and self sees Peter Soloway

My customer today is the son of a major Photorealist painter, Ralph Goings. This painting is an early work in the style of James Rosenquist. When I first saw it two years ago, I thought, "Is that a Rosenquist? It must be worth a fortune!" Goings has a nice website. 

This strange orange truck passed me on the freeway. 

Today was my monthly day in the piano store. Don, the salesman on duty, told me the sad story of how he sold this Steinway B (7 feet long) with the top-of-the-line player unit installed, and the movers dropped it.