fractured reality

I finished my first acrylic piece yesterday (well, I still need to sign and varnish it) and I am pretty damn happy with it. I’ll post a photo of it here once it has been given away.

I have decided that I will do a set of pieces based on favorite/seminal/formative video games. I’m keeping the running list here, in no particular order:

Mario series – I imagine this will be a couple of works, at least one of which will be a stylized Mario, but others will involve iconic things/characters from this series.
Tetris – This could be wonderful or awful depending largely on composition and execution. Oh hey, I just summed up every human activity, ever.
Zelda series – I already have a sketch of this one, which is Link in a sort of picasso style, wielding boomerang and the Master Sword. But it is easy to imagine another piece that is just tectites, which were my favorite critter from the first game.
Puyo Puyo – Oh yeah! I imagine this one is just my four favorite colors arranged in a 2×2 grid, looking all Warholesque.
Mega Man – I have sketches of this too, with mega man in a sort of wide-eyed scary/sad man-child fashion. Think Vasquez and Gorey.
Metroid – mostly this stems from my love for drawing Metroids. I have very little impetus to do a painting of Samus.
Rock Band – Yeah, I play this way too much to not include it.
Braid – I am reluctant to include so recent a game, but this game was beautiful, innovative and truly gave me a sense of accomplishment when I properly reprogrammed my brain to live in Braid’s 4-D environ.
Qix – The first video game I remember watching my dad play, apart from Pong. It is already a very Mondrian game, so do I even really need to bring it up here?
Street Fighter II – I have the greatest trepidation about this one. There is no shortage of bad SFII fan art, and I am not sure I know what I would want to paint for this. A cannonball Blanka just floating in a colored field might be good, but suddenly, it occurs to me that having Blanka standing, looking thoughtful, in a field of flowers would be even better, if a little surreal.
Katamari series – This one is also pretty obvious, but should be fun to do.
World of Warcraft – Again, fan art reluctance. A tasteful shamanistic symbol might be enough here.

There are dozens more, including Mouse Trap, Gauntlet, Wizards & Warriors, Castlevania, Q-Bert, Donkey Kong, DAOC…

Shifting gears abruptly, yesterday we had MetroBurger for dinner… Holy crow is that a ridiculously large veggie burger! I ahd mine with some sort of pesto mayo which was quite tasty, but this was overshadowed by the fact that the burger was immense. I will try to give a better review of the quality of the product when I have a chance. My main concern was with the cohesion of the burger itself. It definitely tasted like it was crafted from Boca product, but it was no standard patty product of theirs that I know of, and with the toppings I had, it was necessary to eat most of it with a fork.

+E

Friday night Chris came over to hang out and play a bit of Catan, which Becca won thanks to her never-ending stream of Knights. Then we played a little SF2HD Remix, after which I totally forgot to give Chris that sealbaby for Maddy. Ah well.

Saturday, we woke up late and headed off to Columbus, where we got some akai hana for lunch, went to the japanese junk food store, and drove to the Arena Grand. With time to kill and no Good movies playing for an hour, we ended up watching The Hangover. I’m not proud; it was actually amusing.

After that, we met up with Chris and Mollie and had some Betty’s, but the line outside Jeni’s was too egregious for my patience, and we retired to chez Worth for another game of Catan, this time with five players (Kate joined us). Because the dice finally acted like probabilistic entities, I won, having cornered the market on grain. The game seemed to go faster with 5 people, which must be because of the “everyone can build any time” rule. There was merriment and Choco Babies and yes. Then we drove home.

Sunday, we went to the art supply store and, according to a previous agreement that I would forgo* computer upgrades until the new year, bought a bunch of acrylics, an easel, and brushes. Also palettes, knives, and canvasses. Then we set it all up in what has finally been deemed the upstairs studio. The rest of the day was spent in homebody activities.

Monday! Monday I finally got to pick up a brush and started playing with a painting I had in my brain as a gift for my mother (awwww). It was very satisfying to paint again after a decade. I had been doodling a LOT during the hiatus, and it was nice to see those skills transferred to a new medium. I am excited to see how it all pans out.

But for now: Back to work!

++E

* I couldn’t bear it any longer, I had to change it. The original note can be found below**.

**My computer is yelling at me to use forgo instead of forego, which makes me smile, but does Not influence me enough to change it. 1. I would very much like to check Garner and 2. seeing Chris always tilts my needle a little bit toward Descriptionism, even if he is ultimately utterly wrong and so 3. there is no chance of misinterpreting my meaning anyhow.

Absent-mindedly, just now, I just lifted up my calculator in an effort to look beneath it, hoping to find my calculator, which had gone missing.

+E

1. Gleagh! Sam Raimi is slated to direct a World of Warcraft movie? I still haven’t seen Drag Me To Hell.

2. Dinner at Vegiterranean tonight! Crazy to think that it has been four years!

3. We also got a shiny new KitchenAid food processor. Now if only we had counter space for it!

4. I have been thinking a lot about upgrading my home PC lately, and once again I have put it off, after deciding instead to spend a pile of that money on acrylics, brushes and canvasses.

5. Two weeks from tomorrow is PA ’09! It is safe to say I’m excited.

+E

1. “Hey Baby, they’re playing our song” what a weak-ass premise for getting back together, and an equally lame premise for a song itself. You’re on notice, The Buckinghams!

2. While Azithromycin did indeed knock out the infection, the lingering cough that frequently accompanies bronchitis took me by surprise during a recent hotel stay. In the subsequent coughing fit I either a) Seriously sprained a muscle on my left side or b) sustained damage to my ribs. I am tempted to go with b simply because I have never had a sprained muscle hurt this long. But then again, I’ve never been this old before, so it is hard to judge without medical attention, which I am officially eschewing.

3. During said hotel stay, I got to see folks and play Catan and generally be an ass. that was decidedly good.

4. Re: Catan, I lost horribly.

5. Today is the 40th anniversary of Man Walking on the Goddamned MOON. In celebration, I made Moonpies (commercial moonpies have gelatin in them, and I needed to make gluten-free graham crackers anyhow, for the Becca). Here’s to you, Buzz (if that IS your real name) !

6. Another reason Buzz Aldrin is the win: back when he was a spry 72 year-old, a moon landing conspiracy loony got in his face and called him a coward, a liar, and a thief. Buzz punched him square in the face, and the police/city filed no charges.

7. Becca has discovered that when she stopped eating wheat, her stomach problems mysteriously have disappeared, so we are experimenting with the whole “no wheat gluten” thing. Thus the graham crackers. I believe I used the following recipe:

Into a bowl mix:

2 ¼ cups gluten-free flour mix
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 ¾ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Into this, work 7 tablespoons of butter (cut into pieces). Use your fingers!

Stir in 3 tablespoons cold water and 3 tablespoons honey and 1 teaspoon vanilla. If this is too dry to work into a ball, add more water, a teaspoon at a time. Once you’re able to work the dough into a ball, do so, cover it, and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. Then take half of the dough and roll it out on parchment paper, to a thickness of 1/8″. Cut according to your wishes (use a pizza or pastry cutter if you want squares, or use cookie cutters for other shapes). Repeat with the other half of the dough. Throw them in a 325°F oven for 12-15 minutes.

8. Marshmallow fluff acts very strangely in the refrigerator. It runs, slowly, not unlike pitch. Very cool stuff, but not very convenient if you are storing your homemade moonpies in a stacked configuration.

9. Unless you have an immense vat of melted chocolate, or an enrober, coating your homemade moonpies with a uniform layer of dark chocolate is nigh impossible.

10. The parents visited this weekend and we had lunch at the Mustardseed, which was quite good. We then spent way too much time wandering the aisles, fawning over ingredients and such. Then, on the return trip to my house, my phone fell out of my pocket and stayed in the ‘rents’ vehicle until they got back to Toledo and discovered it. Awesome.

11. The rest of the weekend was basically a waste of videogames and House, M.D. I did mow the lawn and weed-whack, but that was about the extent of my productive side.

12. Holy hell, the MOON!! THE MOON!!

+++E