Straight Models, Gay Photo Shoot

Nothing is hotter and yet more respectible than a straight man doing a gay model shoot. Enjoy and appreciate the fact that these two guys are willing to go that far, though some would argue they are only doing it to win a reality show.

Barrier of Obsession

There is just no pleasing some people. This includes teachers.

As of right now, my idea for my main piece in my senior thesis is partially installed in my studio space, as you saw from my last post. I had a progress critique today, as I won't be around tomorrow for it due to a family "emergency." (I say that loosely, which is why it is in quotes.)

My teacher wants me to frame the picture a la Barry McGee. Thing is, McGee's drawings are all different dimensions, and I'm keeping mine to an 8 x 11 format. My defense for this is that I'm borrowing from the obsessive compulsive side of my thesis, albeit it doesn't directly relate to obsessive fandom. He asked then why not do the OCD thing and put it in a grid? That's where the conspiracy theorist side of the obsession aesthetic comes into play, which involves clusters and string going all over the place until it creates a net. And back and forth with this.

It's been kind of like that between me and Jack since seminar. It's as if he doesn't understand the logic behind what I'm doing, even though the rest of the class does.

The big and annoying thing that broiled my chicken was how he wanted me to actually install the string, push pin, and post-it notes in my studio creating said web. The web acts like a symbolic barrier that is often found in fandom culture in sociological terms. But in that studio space? It would act like a hindrance. Oh, sure, I could move my desk around and maybe just do small installations here and there, as was suggested by Jack, but what if the lay out in the studio ends up being something different in the gallery space? What then? Oh no! I don't have enough string left over! I cut a string too short, and I need it longer! And worst of the worse case scenarios is that I forget why I drew a string between these two drawings or lose a post-it note between the studio and the gallery some forty feet away. Yeah, I know I'm being ridiculous, but you have to understand the logistics. It isn't that I don't want to do that now, it's the fact that the school doesn't allow enough space for me to do it in a way that would please my instructor.

The compromise that I came up with was to make a foam-core model of it. Ten by ten inches, with sewing thread being the scale representation of the yarn that would criss-cross all over the space.

Apparently that wasn't even enough for him. With a mandatory Distinction Candidacy presentation for mid-term, he wanted to know how that would help me with the documentation requirements. After all, I'm suppose to show my work at that presentation, what work survived and is documented.

Ah, see, now I have the upper hand! I took public art, and this is how they present their ideas to the committee members that want their art in a public space. They cannot create a large scale installation or sculpture to show what they are thinking the space will look like, so they make models and document those. Some even go as far as to photograph the space and photoshop in the model to give a better example. Why can't I use the scale model as part of my documentation even if the installation isn't installed yet? Public art artists do that all the time!

I won that battle, but I still left the lone critique feeling pretty much the way I did during most of seminar: confident in my idea but not in my execution.

Studio Shots

NERD ALERT: Why I'm Looking Forward to Speed Racer

The following post could be an example of my personal obsession with cartoons that spans a wider range than just their dealings with cultural satire. If anything, it will exhibit my design knowledge (or lack there of depending on how reads this).

To start things off, let me just go ahead an show you the trailer for the upcoming Speed Racer movie, produced by the team that brought you The Matrix.



Anyone familiar with the anime genre (or even the original Mach! GO! GO! GO! anime, as it was called in Japan) probably spotted several things that are right out of the shows aesthetic. You have Trixie in her 60's hip pink helicopter cockpit; Speed's very primary blue shirt and Superman flip. You also have several contemporary anime shots in there. Racer X's new suit, for example, as well as that one racer with the feathered white hair in the locker room shaving. There is also a brief shot of a woman with a long red scarf/train that is flowing ever-consciously like any anime cape capable of producing its own wind.

These elements are straight out of cosplay culture. And what's interesting about Speed Racer is that these elements are more than just costuming elements but a budding fashion aesthetic. This is where I bring in this video from Japanese Pop/Rock star Gackt. I don't know when this video was produced, but it was definitely in his early career, as lately he's gotten more dark both in how he's been dressing and in his music in general. I'm not a fan so much as I'm familiar with him and how he portraying the Japanese rock scene to the Western Audience through the use of cosplaying.

By the way, if you don't like Ska or anything that sounds like it, you may want to turn your sound off before hitting play.



I want to point out his hair and his costume in that music video.

You don't really get a good look at it until the last quarter of the video, but his outfit is pretty much more fashionable (and wearable) version of a character from the anime, and now live action movie, Death Note. This is the way cosplay enters the fashion industry, or rather a way it can. Gackt only wears a black pleather pants and shirt, both of which are practically skin tight, under a black leather jacket with feathers or fir on the seams that are very pronounced around the shoulders. I've seen faux fir jackets sold in Dillard's this past winter with the same design, but their aesthetic was more make it look cute rather than mimicking something that could have had a design origin in a cartoon.

Now there is the argument that if this was even close to cosplay, the outfit would be more detailed than this, to include gold belt buckles and loops similar to the belted pants that some members of the high school goth culture would wear at my school. The thing is, there's a definite but fine line between cosplay and fashion. While bother are artistic, one has to be functional while the other is for costuming reasons. Barring, of course, those strange European designers that think the next wave of fashion will involve plastic clothing and hats with a brim you can land a plane on. There's a picture in the book I have from the library showing this difference. It has a picture of the UltraMan costume on one side, and another of an UltraMan inspired silk PJ that uses the same red and silver pattern and lining. One is designed for costuming purposes and establish a character's iconic presence. The other to sleep in while being more fashionable than the UltraMan PJs you can find on eBay.

His hair, at first glance looks like Cloud's from Final Fantasy, but also has a hint of Goku from DragonballZ. Either way, it's in your generic spiky style that is often associated with anime. This is an example of how anime sometimes fails to translate very well into the fashion world. For cosplayers, getting the hair to look just right is the make-or-break point of a costume. Oh, sure you can be anal about what color trim your Clone Trooper armor is, thereby exhibiting your rank in the army, but to get something like the specific length, style, and texture of a character's hair is often what separates a good costume from someone who is just phoning it in. And in most cases, hair shaped like this doesn't look good outside of the costume you're wearing to go with it.

There are some cliches in anime that do translate well as far as hair goes, but they are all from characters with a more realistic design to them. Revisit the Death Note human character in the image above. His hair is pretty much your contemporary mop-top. If you look at the character he is playing form the anime, you'll see that he has a similar kind of hair style, only with more of a bed-head ruffle. There was a time when that bed-head look was popular, but it seems that most celebrities and those that mimic them have opted to actually look groomed, so they style it upwards instead of just all over the place. That's not a far cry away from how Bart Simpson has his hair drawn, just to offer some perspective.

In regards to Speed Racer, you can't really ask for a better balance between these two polls. You have Trixie loosing her 60's flip (even though Mom Racer kept hers) to give her a more fashionable character aesthetic. She may single-handily bring pink back as a fashionable color rather than one that is associated with bubble gum pop music and Hello Kitty. You have Speed lacking the over-accented eye lashes, but he still has his little Superman flip in his hair. The casting director also did a very good job with casting something with really captivating eyes, which were the dominating facial feature in character design in anime from that time. Spritle and Chim-chim keep their trademark target pattern beanie, but instead of just red, you have more than one color on there. They also seem to be closer to the ears so that it actually is wearable rather than looking like the religious cap from the Jewish faith. Even Pop Racer's mustache is done in a way that is iconic to the original character, yet not unrealistic to the point where the handle-bar curls would cause everyone to break out laughing.

So there you go. My observation on cosplay, fashion, and why they apply to Speed Racer. The reason I posted this? Personal research into a potential couture idea I've been thinking about since I saw that UltraMan silk PJ in my research Friday. Don't know what I'm going to do, but Speed Racer and Gackt's music videos seem like a good enough reference point.

Obsession: A Personal Interview

In high school, I was told that an interview counted as a creditable source of information. What better way to get information than to go right to the heart of it! You got information you could use for your topic while getting some valuable lessons in what works best in conducting actual field work on an academic research level. I never thought I'd have to use it for a college paper. Shows what I know.

But with art, one doesn't just have to look externally for answers. Some of the most powerful art is produced when the artist looks internally. That said, I feel it is my obligation to answer my own questions I asked a few choice people to help me better understand obsessive fandom--or fan culture in general--in the Western Culture. (There's a wealth of information about Eastern obsessive fandom or otaku, but there's practically nothing on the Western side! In fact, we are all just footnotes for the Japanese in what I've researched so far!)

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1. What is the one thing in contemporary entertainment or media that you consider yourself a fan of? Please pick only one and be specific. (If it is a show, say the title. If it is a company’s franchise, say the franchise.)

I'm a fan of the animated media. To be specific, animation that deals with social issues that, while vague enough to be specific to just about every culture, are able to provoke a social commentary that you couldn't get away with in any other genre of entertainment. To be very specific, I am a fan of any animated show that is able to make a social, political, or cultural point through blatant in-your-face stories or contextual situations that masquerade as entertainment. To name a single show would be difficult, but for me right now, The Boondocks seems to be doing a damn good job of this.

2. Why are you a fan of the previous answer? What does it offer to you that brings you back to it time after time? Do you see anything critically negative about its offerings or the product itself?

I'm a fan of this because I come from a household that still believes cartoons are for kids. Exposing them to a mature animated show or something that is a violent as a live action film turns them off because of their preconceived perception of what an animated feature is suppose to be. So, in a way, I like it because the other members in my family do not.

What brings me back to these cartoons is how creative they can be in delivering their commentary. The Boondocks uses a very straight-forward approach, often introducing the subject they are going to talk about in the cold opening, as was the case this past week with the episode "The S-Word." South Park, in comparison, is not that straight forward but does bring up the question in the context of how the episode opens when a commentary on contemporary society wants to be made, like in the episode where Mr. Garrison becomes Ms. Garrison.

The only negative thing I see with these cartoons is that they tend to deal with subject matters that, while important, end up becoming ammunition for political platforms or ignored entirely. Rev. Jesse Jackson complained about how The Boondocks displayed a revived Dr. King in an alternate timeline using the word "nigga" over and over, calling it nothing short of blasphemy. Some two years later in season two, they address the use of the word only to not make any political press for their social commentary.

3. Is the previous answer the origins of your fandom? If not, what was?

Not directly. This fandom came when I channel-surfed on to The History Channel and saw their special on the social and cultural impact of super hero comics. I was drawn in by the subject matter. A few months later when I was a freshman in college, I had to do a report for Art History, and I couldn't come up with anything. I defaulted to the comic history and found out that the commentary isn't exclusive to comics, but is present in animated cartoons as well. It's only been recently that I've been able to pay attention to these kind of things, which makes watching cartoons I grew up with even more interesting to watch outside of their entertainment value. Catching a rerun of Scooby Doo causes me to think about the context in which that show was produced, why these characters even exist, and even some of the things that people read into them now that I didn't notice back then. Before now, I'd just change the channel because I didn't like the show's predictable pacing.

4. How much knowledge involving the universe, dogma, and/or trivia do you have in regards to your fandom of the product in question? Does it include appendix information not already present in the product? (i.e. information not given by the product itself as exposition, back story, or part of its mythology) If so, where did you obtain this knowledge?

I wouldn't say that I know a lot about how cartoons subvert hot button issues while still being able to make a social commentary about our culture, but I feel that I know enough to be aware of it when it happens. That being said, most of the information involving the subversion or creative communication of these topics came from learning two things: when the show was produced and what was going on at the time. Naturally, the closer you get to today, the easier it is to spot them. For most every other case, I just go by what I know in terms of general knowledge or by what is in the news at the moment until someone points out that there is more there than what I gleaned the first time around, as was the case with The Boondocks episode commenting on hateful rap songs where there was a throw-away scene about how a rap video being aired caused an increase in senior citizen beatings.

5. Are you able to relate your fan-based knowledge to seemingly unrelated academic knowledge and/or subjects? If so, please provide an example.

That kind of goes without saying, as you can't talk about these kind of cartoons without bringing up academic knowledge that doesn't seem to relate at all to them.

For example, you have the silent black-and-white cartoons like Felix the Cat, the early Mickey Mouse shorts, and the recently released Oswald the Rabbit cartoons. These cartoons were produced during Dadaism, an art movement characterised by its own irrationality. The cartoons of that time can be seen as Dada art pieces thanks to their sight gags like Felix fashioning a lasso out of a question mark he just thought up, Mickey using the steam clouds as steps to get to the window above him, or Oswald detaching and kissing his own foot for good luck. I think the Out of the Inkwell series is said to be the closest thing to a Dada cartoon in the entertainment sense, as a cartoon clown is born not by an animator's pen, but spontaneously from an ink well that's on his desk.

6. Be honest. How often do you exhibit your fan knowledge in everyday conversation? Do you often relate events or subjects in real life to a similar situation directly related to your fandom or the product you are a fan of? (Ex. “Your new boyfriend acts a bit too much like Joey from ‘Friends.’”) To what level of obscurity are these references? Are they within the arena of general knowledge or exclusive to the fan base? (Ex. “It says we need to put these objects around a powerful magnetic poll… like Roman Polanski.”)

I don't display this knowledge that often in everyday conversation unless the topic comes up. If it is the day after an episode of The Boondocks that I feel is very creative in how they communicate a sensitive issue, I'll probably bring it up the day after I see the episode.

Due to the nature of how these cartoons work, I generally don't refer to them when talking about similar situations. It's often the other way around. Because they are already making a commentary about something that is going on in our society, it's very difficult to bring that around to a similar situation since that is what they are drawing the content from. There are some exceptions like when a person exhibits characteristics of a character from one of those cartoons. But I personally have yet to make such a reference. At least to my knowledge.

The level of obscurity the information is depends on who I'm relaying it to. In general, most people don't get what I'm talking about unless they've seen the cartoon or are familiar with it to some extent. But this only applies to the cartoons that I talk about. The subject matters they make commentary on, however, are readily know, and more often than not, the other person knows more about that subject than I do.

7. In your opinion, how do people generally react to you using your fan knowledge in real life conversation?

I believe I haven't had the proper chance to find out the answer to this question. Whenever I bring up my knowledge on the subject, it is mostly in explaining my interest and providing an example or in the context of academics. The first of these probably being closest to a real conversation, to which I would say that the reaction is favorable interest. Meaning that it sounds cool to them and it gets them to know what I'm interested in, but that's about as far as it will ever go. They probably don't want me to explain sexual undertones of Wonder Woman or how Family Guy can get away with turning a taboo subject like Prom Night dumpster babies into a Bing Crosby song and dance number.

8. Has anyone pointed out a possible personal need to relate everything to your fandom? (Ex. “Can we please get through at least one movie without you bringing up a super hero reference?”)

Not unless you count the time they pointed out my insistence that cartoons are still being seen by a unconfirmed majority as "just for kids" when trying to elevate my knowledge.

9. To what extent does your fandom involve consumerism activities? (Ex. Buying tickets, pre-ordering special or limited edition printings, collecting merchandise, etc.) Have you ever or are you currently constructing a product that cannot be found in the consumer market? If so, why?

I have The Boondocks on my Amazon Wish List, along with some other things like books and DVDs. They are marked as Personal Interests if you care to take a look (or even buy them for me). Of my recent consumer activities, I cannot say that I've been as active as I should be. So to that extent, my consumerism involvement with this fandom is limited.

Can't say I've gone as far as to construct products that relate to my fandom with politically and socially charged cartoons outside of the context of an assignment. Never really had the drive to explore that, both personally and artistically. That said, chances are I'm doing just that right now and is completely unaware of it.

10. Looking back at all the answers given, would you personally say that your fandom is compensating for something you are lacking? If so, what and how? If not, why? Please be honest and critical in thought.

Personally, I wouldn't say this knowledge and my fandom is compensating for something so much as it is causing more of a social impotence. In other words, the more I like this stuff and look into it, the more of a distance I create socially with others. I don't believe the knowledge and fandom is replacing this lack of social ability either, as I'm clearly able to talk just fine to anyone that is able to hold a conversation. In this sense, my fandom isn't compensating for something I already lack.

So why do I think this? This knowledge and fandom hasn't opened any new channels for me. I have not benefited from knowing that Hello Kitty is the commercial embodiment of Orwellian Uptoianism or that Neon Genesis Eva is a wake up call to otakus saying that you cannot save the world any more than you can save yourself from total annihilation. At least on an emotional level, which is what I believe this kind of compensation is suppose to do: make you feel better about yourself. If anything, I feel the exact opposite. It's great that I have this knowledge now, but now I can't enjoy any cartoon I watch without seeing the gross stereotypes in something like Numbah 4's obsession with the Rainbow Monkey plush toy line being similar to kawaii culture in Japan.

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I should point out that I constructed this interview not for the intent of gauging one's level of fandom, but rather to get perspective as to how deep or shallow some fans are. It was designed with the hope that something said will give me a direction to do some academic research in order to get information for the Western side of obsessive fandom. Oh, sure, I could rent the Trekkies documentaries, but that film is so focused. At least with all the research I've done with the otaku/Japanese/Eastern side, I'm getting a broad spectrum of what the different kind of obsessive fandom there are within the subculture. Almost to the point where even the members of that subculture no longer feel they are members of it anymore! The Western side doesn't have that umbrella of an introduction to the obsessive fans of the US. Which means I'll have to make it from my own observations.

At the Home Studio

Have you ever been in a situation where the environment conditions were so intolerable that your brain stops functioning and you are conscious of it happening?

That's pretty much my studio conditions at the school for the last two days this week. Today, I've decided to spend my studio time at home where it is warm, and where I can at least have some music playing in the background while I work.

It's not a fun feeling sitting there in the studio knowing what needs to get done but you are just plain unable to because of how cold the building is. It's not the building's fault; the heating unit for the area of the building the studio is in has been on the fritz since the start of the semester, and everywhere you go you'll see one of the janitors or one of the work-study kids fixing a light bulb or hauling a ladder so that some technician can check the rig above our heads.

I can only imagine how bad it is for the class we share that space with. It's a night class, and the only thing keeping them away from the just-above-freezing temperature outside is a painted cinder block wall and nothing else.

Could this fit?

Below this paragraph is a video I just completed as part of a test to see if I had any corrupt files in my fireworks database. I was originally going to fire them off one by one and see if any particular one crashed the system, but I decided to knock two birds with one stone and create a really cheesy and shallow Valentines Day fireworks show to the music of Disney's High School Musical. Nothing makes sense visually, but its function outside of my own personal knowledge of my files is to entertain those who would be entertained by this.



Now, assuming you've watched the video before reading any further (fat chance, I say), the title of this entry should hold some merit regarding this or something similar to this going into my graduating show involving obsession.

The pitch of the idea went over great, and everyone is looking forward to how I'll be addressing popular media obsession on one level or another. There were some odd suggestions that still linger, but for the most part the class of four knows what I'm trying to do. The biggest compliment I got was that my idea is more refined now thanks to Winter Break.

However, knowing all that, my personal (or at least current) entertainment obsession doesn't seem to fit. I'd like it to that way I can break up what I will be showing instead of relying all on one installation piece consisting of clusters of work. Thing is, I can't seem to "make it fit." At least right now.

Those of you that read my blog and have been keeping up (i.e. Jason and Robert) will no doubt leave comments dealing with this subject matter. Knowing that, I will leave you with this webcomic someone e-mailed to me.

Obsession vs. Obsession

When you have all the time in the world, one tends to look within when there is nothing to do to mentally stimulate yourself, let alone entertain.

It’s only been a hour on this, my third official day in the studio working towards my Senior Thesis, and already I feel like I’m forcing myself to complete a project I no longer care about. Okay, so maybe that’s a little harsh, but my interest and, by proxy, my obsession currently is with the digital fireworks.

Ever since that crash this past weekend, my mind has been on nothing but it. How to fix it the next time around, how to construct a show that allows me to test all of the shells I made that could have corrupted the game, getting a video out on my YouTube account for Valentines Day using that media and the latest ‘tween pop song from Disney’s cash cow High School Musical, calculating and trying to come up with a creative solution to remaking the show I was working before all this.

Drawing as many cartoon images as I can over the course of an 8 hour work day for three days a week is starting to feel forced. I like drawing them, but after I’m done drawing, it feels like I’ve only completed something that will be seen as an individual element and not as part of the whole, which was the problem the last time I worked on this piece.

Then again, my drawings are more artistic than a bunch of digital fireworks set up to look like a show worthy of a theme park installation.

Digital Fireworks Crash

As an art student, you are often given assignments that are designed to make you think practically. This most often happens in sculpture classes, as things like weight, space, and balance are important to the structural integrity of the piece. As well as your wallet if you go to my school.

There are also some assignments that are designed to teach you not to become attached to your work, such as the Drawing 1 assignment I had where I had to perfectly render a still life and then tear it up to shreds to create a mosaic out of it. There are even classes that are designed to set you up to fail, or at the very least make you grow a thicker skin when given critical feedback.

All three of these things are designed, ultimately, with the intent that you'll use them in your real life practices, be it something artistic or not.

For the last two days, I've been struggling with a problem with my fireworks show I've been working on since the start of December. I'm at the final step, which is to record the thing and then add the soundtrack to the show via a simple video editor. The game, however, doesn't want to co-operate. It has crashed several times during the course of recording the show. I've researched the problem as best as I can only to come to the conclusion now that I must start all over again in order to avoid any bugs that I may have accidentally caused with this overly ambitious project.

Needless to say, that realization does kick me right in the ass to the point of depression and panic of nerd proportions. My best guess now is that the show is too long and too taxing on my computer. To compensate for the length, I will have to use a very limited number of shells in my pallet, which kind of evens out since I designed the show to match the feelings evoked in the soundtrack.

My detachment to my work needs work, but you can see the practicality after being presented with the realization of failure is starting to become part of the process. There's that one baby step towards a different aura, as something like this I would probably brood over for three days after these past two days of trying to figure out what went wrong.

I don't like the idea of starting over, but if it must be done, so be it. Thankfully, the show doesn't have a seasonal due date, unlike the one I just came up with that I want to start and finish before Valentines day. I guess I'll be doing that first when I'm at home and not locked up at my mock animation table I have set up in the newly-claimed Seminar Studio.

Morning Musings or Bored Babbling?

Today is my first day of class, officially. The semester started Wednesday, but with a class that is left open with practically no set meeting time, let alone a room, it feels rather odd being here. Barring the fact I've never had a class meet on Friday until thi semester.

The school has gone under a few changes. New computers in the labs, brighter lighting in the Film Department, an annoying yellow coat of paint in the 500 hallway where all the lecture classes are held, the cafe losing one of the entries in favor for a single way in or out yet able to reap some good from the new layout by being able to offer a wall of plugs for students to recharge their iBooks. And that's just from me wondering around for 10 minutes after updating my website with the last three pictures I was e-mailed involving my public art project.

Curious still is the fact I found a ticket from work here on the floor. Someone from the school is about $18 away from a free soda with their club card. Why I bothered to even do the math to figure that much out is beyond me. Then again, I critique Disney parades and live entertainment offerings when I'm not critiquing art as a way to keep the practice up.

Even more surprising is the fact that one of my works is still in the hallway as I installed it a month ago. I would have thought it would've been thrown out by now, but I guess I'll have to do the uninstalling myself after I'm done with class.

Art, Technology, and Dilbert

Believe it or not, but I found this by accident when I selected YouTube instead of Yahoo from my bookmarks during my daily morning routine of checking e-mails.



The thing about Dilbert that I like is that the humor can take the most high brow of subjects and completely devolve it to a single punchline anyone can get, but most can relate to if they are a member of the pencil pushing work force. He never tackled the subject of art in the Sunday Comics, and I apparently missed this episode when it aired on Comedy Central, but I thank the person that was able to condense the episode to the jokes that make a social commentary about contemporary art.

Kind of wish I found this when I was in Contemporary Art History, though...

I've been published on Schmap!!

The new year is shaping out to be pretty good for me right now.

A few months ago, I got an e-mail on flickr saying that one or more of my photos has been picked for an internet mapping site called Schmap!! If I wanted to add my photo, all I had to do was visit the site and click on a confirmation link. If I didn't want to be associated with the site, I could opt out. They even said in the e-mail that I can pick and choose which of my photos I would accept and/or reject for publication on their site.

I poked around the site to see, first off, what photos of mine were selected and what the site is really about. It surprised me to learn that one of my best pictures from Venice was picked: the lantern of Locanda Motin that I jokingly call "My Postcard Shot." Yes, I did take it, and if you give me enough time, I'll fish out the negative to prove it. After learning this, I went around the site and learned that the site itself is a tourist's internet resource for various landmarks, attractions, and special hole-in-the-wall discoveries found by other people to make a trip to wherever you want to go more enjoyable. Only commercial businesses and tourist spots are "pinned" to their map, and most of them have photos of the location in one sense or another.

Essentially, it's a Google Earth version of a site-seeing book.

I accepted the offer and was told I would be e-mailed again once the revised map came out. This morning, I got said e-mail and this link to a list of restaurants of one could find in Venice. While my photo is the third one in their little slide show (of which I'm surprised they already had a lantern shot, so why didn't they take any of my other pictures from Locanda?), the fact still remains that my photo has been published on a website that is used for something other than a personal photo album.

Why is this a good thing outside of the obvious? Because now I have a new line to put on my artist resume!! If I can figure out how exactly to list said publication.

Newsflash!

I think I just made my first piece in this thesis of obsession. I won't tell you what it is, but I'll give you hints.

You've seen it already, and it's a triptych.

Box Office Planning 3つの団体

You should know the drill by this point. Click the image to make it larger.



I should title this "My Official Response to the Animation Process," but it turned out to be just part of the thought process with this project.

My reasoning behind not animating is more than just time and the math behind the process. It's the fact that it is an assembly line process and not one that is inherently obsessive. At least in the contemporary sense of the media. We don't have many Ub Iwerks in the world that draw so much during the course of the day it could be considered their waste product... well, except for Steve Purcell, but he's Pixar's storyboard artist and an indie comic book artist. I don't know if he actually animates. But the point still stands that the animation process doesn't equal an obsessive product. It's a product to be obsessed about, but it doesn't illustrate obsession short of producing an animation loop of a pack rat feverishly collecting things into one stock pile only to be a victim of a Sisyphus-like scenario where the items end up blowing away.

Makes me want to see how much it costs to rent or even construct one of those strange leaf-blower boxes you see on game shows where the contestant is locked in and has to grab that one gold ticket out of the millions that are zooming around their head in a space no bigger than their body's width. Oh, who am I fooling? I'm working on a budget here, and I'd like to keep it that way.

No Appreciation at the Movies

I've never asked for pity from anyone. If that is the impression I give off, I'm sorry. The best reasoning behind it is that it's a by-product of how I act.

But this time, things are different. This isn't a cry for pity but a plea for consideration towards those of us in the work force that have to suffer through rough days of work just to make sure those of you who are out and about to relax can relax.

Apparently, most of you have forgotten about those people out there that try their damnest to make sure your dinner is served to you as fresh from the kitchen as possible after slaving away during the three hour lunch rush that overflowed over into the afternoon. Or in my case, there are people out there that will never read this blog entry that blame me for not having enough bottle water in stock four hours into a six hour rush. It's bad enough people assume I know why we only have so-many things happening at the same time.

And I feel like I'm insulting them when I honestly say that I don't know the answer to that question and direct them to my manager working that shift. The managers don't get chewed out as much as us expendable employees, who are at the bottom of the ladder. They generally get suggestions. I, on the other hand, get blamed for not moving the line fast enough and for a guest missing 20 minutes of their movie. So many times I wanted to say "You don't have to get popcorn and drinks if your movie is that important to you." But, again, that would be insulting the guest.

Those few out there that realize how difficult we service employees have it during these rushes know very well it isn't our fault. We are just following orders. But, like I said, there are very few of those people out there. If I had to apply a statistic to this, I would say the odds of finding said person would be 1 out of 50 guests per hour in my experience. And when you service numbers well into the 3,000+ arena, you would think that would increase my odds. Mathematically, yes. Socially? Not really.

When people go to the movies, it is all about them. If their movie experience isn't close to tolerable, the blame falls on me, the guy behind the counter trying to get you your popcorn and drink while not trying to crash into other people or slip on that butter slick that somehow create itself 20 orders ago.

There are some days where during these rushes I wish I could fall and hurt myself. Not break a limb or anything, but definitely something that would cause me to close my line down for 20 minutes and get the attention of about 100 people. Either that, or we honestly run out of stock and have to announce the concession stand is closed for the day. The worse case scenario is that a manager has to announce that labor laws require their employees to take a break in the middle of a never-ending rush so they have to close the concession stand for 40 minutes, but I can only wonder how a lobby full of already impatient and grouchy movie-goers would take such an announcement. If they got upset, I would just fire back saying "Look, corporate doesn't pay me overtime. In fact, they hate it when I get even a minute overtime, so unless you want to pay me extra on top of your popcorn and drink price, I'm on break." But that would be insulting the customer.

I hate how this is my first post of the new year. It's an insult to those of you who read this regularly.