Remember Here When You Are There.

The new volume in Larry Marder's Beanworld series arrived on shelves this week. To say that this book was formative to me would be an understatement. To say that I've been anxious to read this book for over fifteen years would not be an exaggeration. As I mentioned in the link, that first issue of Tales of the Beanworld changed the way I view the world, how we work together, how art and music make our days easier... There are so many little secrets in this book. The book is refreshingly simple, yet surprisingly deep. I highly recommend a reading.



The three volumes in Marder's Beanworld Spring Cycle are:
Wahoolazuma!, A Gift Comes! and Remember Here When You Are There!

More from Larry Marder can be found on his blog: larrymarder.blogspot.com

Zoom Schwartz Perfigliano!

I've started taking an improv class offered by Monkey Butler. I've been toying with the idea of getting back into improvisation, but have found the rates to be prohibitive. The Monkey Butler classes are free, and generally everyone seems to be very welcoming and open. It's been really great to find a place that gets me back to work. I have missed performing for quite a while and am really enjoying the process of rediscovery!

More later. I'm just taking lots of notes and doing my best to improve.

Stuck in your head?

I've been watching the first three seasons of SOAP. Some people said that my recent postings on Facebook have gotten the theme song stuck in their heads. If you don't know what it sounds like, here it is!


This is the original theme.


Here's the shorter one after they introduced Chuck and Bob.


Here's the Batman theme song in case you need help getting the other one out of your head.

Some things I played

I love traditional swing music, but I love to find and play stuff that I don't hear anywhere else. As a DJ I've generally always been eclectic. If I had to dance to anything all night, it would be real swing music, from a great live band. With the ability to choose CDs I prefer a set that goes all over the place.

People asked me about these two artists I played at Camp Hollywood:

Nellie McKay - I've been playing this tune for years. This is a newer recording than I have. Ms. McKay is kind of rebellious and I dig her song-writing skills.



Leftover Cuties - I tried out a couple of tunes from this band I saw at the Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday morning. I picked up their EP to play that night. I previewed the tunes in between classes that afternoon. Being discombobulated by Sunday night, I couldn't find the disc. I am occasionally lame.

The audio on the next video isn't great, but I still like the song. I really wanted to dance yesterday morning at the farmers market.



And lastly, this is Sweet's song from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, Once More with Feeling.



edited to add:
Two bonus songs that I forgot to play!
I had downloaded this video from the Movits after seeing them on the Colbert Report last week:



And I also got Lucas very well played Lucas with the Lid Off:

Sushi, a how-to.

Thanks to Shawn Lesniak for turning me on to this video. It made me laugh harder than anything in a long time.

Build a better...

I don't think I've ever once actually played a game of Mousetrap. All the fun was in the Rube Goldberg-esque machinations it took to bring the cage down on that little plastic rodent. I still think this is endlessly cool and would not mind having one in my backyard for dealing with intruders.

It's an Art Form

Who (or what) is an Inker? In the most mechanical sense an Inker is a person in illustration, most often in comics, who takes drawings that have been layed out (by another person called a Penciller) and gets them ready for reproduction.

In comics, the Inker is often under-appreciated. Kevin Smith wrote a whole conversation about how inkers are "tracers" in Chasing Amy. Smith later recanted when he began working with professional comics artists.

Here's a lot more about comics inking, an excerpt from the DC Comics Guide to Inking Comic, by Klaus Janson:



What do comics have to do with the short film above? Maybe nothing.