May 2012
18 posts
More responses to the stuff in my ask box. Words and pictures keep going after the break. They just never stop.
——————————
Q. How many years did you spend seriously drawing before starting Lackadaisy?
A. Not as many as I spent sarcastically drawing.
Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been drawing since I can remember and never really stopped…20+ years-ish. I’m not sure at what point it got serious. I was never properly diagnosed.——————————
Q. artwhim asked you:
I read that you use a tablet for drawing. What kind? I’m looking into buying one and should do some research, but I’d like an opinion from someone who uses one regularly.
A. I use a tablet for everything but drawing, actually. I much prefer drawing in pencil. I use both a Wacom Intuos and a Cintiq (the small 12wx type) for things like toning, painting and lighting, though.
The disconnect between where your drawing hand is and where your eyes are focused takes a little getting used to where the Intuos and similar tablets are concerned, but I’ve never known any artists to struggle with that for more than a day or two upon adopting a tablet. The Cintiq eliminates this issue altogether (you interact directly with its display) and is generally pretty fabulous in my opinion. The only drawbacks are (and I consider them fairly minor) that the display is slightly darker than most other LCDs these days, even the small one is not very portable because of all the wires, and it gets a little toasty. This is not an issue if you’ve got it propped up on a table, or if it’s winter and warm appliances are welcome, but if you’re resting it on your bare knees in summertime, it can make you warmer than you’d like to be.
On the somewhat less expensive end of the art hardware spectrum, I’ve heard almost nothing but good things about Graphire and Bamboo tablets as well. In fact, they probably stand up pretty well against an Intuos tablet. I recommend just finding something that’s responsive enough not to lag behind your gestures, and equipped with decent pressure sensitivity.
Photos I took last week at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was just after a storm, and there was a lovely, strange quality about the light.
(Urgh…also I hope the layout of this doesn’t screw with anyone’s dash).
I wonder to whta extent we are going to see a lot more of this now. First of all, with the recent passage of NDAA (i.e., the ‘indefinite detention’ bill) with Obama’s signature, the security-repressive apparatus of the US government has gained a boost of legal cover to increase its attacks on our rights.
Second, with the recent ebb of the Occupy movement, state and federal governments may certainly be seeking to exact vengenace for being made fools of these past several months. More precisely, now that the media attention has faded, the top 1% richest who were the targets of Occupy may now be tapping their connections with the police and intelligence agencies in an effort to kick the activist community when it’s down.
The message would be: “See, this is what happens when you fuck with the 1%. We arrest you in the middle of the nite, throw a bag over your head, and charge you with terrorism!”
It is therefore of the utmost importance that these repressive attacks are opposed as just one more way that the top 1% are trying to dominate our lives and destroy our freedom of speech and protest.
La lucha continua!
===
THREE ACTIVISTS who were in Chicago for the demonstrations against the NATO summit were arrested in a midnight raid on May 16 and now face terrorism charges—in a case that civil liberties advocates and antiwar organizations are calling a “frame-up” designed to intimidate those who wish to protest war and austerity.
The three—Brian Church and Brent Vincent Betterly of Florida and Jared Chase of New Hampshire—are charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device. A judge set bail at $1.5 million for each. Two more men were charged with terrorism-related offenses over the weekend, though police are unclear about whether they are trying to connect them to the original three.
Church, Betterly and Chase were staying with other activists in an apartment building in the South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport. Shortly before midnight on May 16, police kicked in the front door, rounded up everyone inside, shackled them and placed bags over their heads before taking them to the Organized Crime Unit.
… POLICE CLAIM to have recovered materials for making Molotov cocktails, along with a variety of weapons that included, according to breathless accounts in the mainstream media, “ninja throwing stars” and “swords with brass-knuckle handles.”
But as in so many other cases in which the authorities claim to have foiled a “terrorist” plot, the evidence is full of holes—unless, that is, it was provided by undercover informants.
Other people detained during the Bridgeport raid say the police were hauling away equipment to make beer. Plus, it turns out that three of the activists staying in the apartment were undercover officers or informants, and two of them—“Mo” and “Gloves”—were arrested among the nine people taken away by police that night. They and four others were released without charge.
As Sarah Gelsomino of the Peoples Law Office and National Lawyers Guild (NLG) told the Guardian:
We cannot say enough that we believe that these charges are absolutely…trumped-up…Charging these people who are here to peacefully protest against NATO for terrorism, when in reality the police have been terrorizing activists in Chicago, is absolutely outrageous.
Michael Deutsch, also of the NLG and a lawyer for the three, said the arrests were “entrapment to the highest degree” and “a way to stir up prejudice against people exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Though this fact didn’t figure in most of the mainstream media accounts of the “terrorism” case, the same three activists were in a car that was arbitrarily pulled over by police earlier in the week. The three posted video of the encounter—“in an attempt to expose that police misconduct,” Gelsomino said.
One officer can be heard in the video saying, “We’ll come look for you, each and every one of you.”
- Museums of New Media art should be easily viewed and accessible anywhere. People should be able to search through past and present artworks and by exhibitions. There should be an archive of old artworks so that people are able to view them anytime.
- They should provide an interactive…
Take an e-ink smartwatch that’s got plenty of willing customers, throw in a WiFi-connected sensor box and well, _imagine_ the possibilities. The founders behind Pebble and Twine hope you are, because they have announced that the pair will be connectable through the latter’s web-based…
