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Holiday Greetings 2007

I’m not exactly sure why, but more people than usual have been asking me about my Christmas card this year.

This one started with some direction from my wife, which she stated plainly enough to me one evening, “You’ve never done a Santa before. You should do an old-fashioned one with rosey cheeks.”

I suspect that I’m actually way off the mark of what she was thinking, but somewhere in-between what she said and what I was feeling at the time, the image of a man playing a banjo kept appearing in my head. I don’t know why, but it made perfect sense to me. And when that happens, I just follow through.

I used this photograph as a referential base, which I found simply by searching for “banjo player” via Google images. It’s actually the first image in the results, but the best one I found after scanning several pages.

The racial ambiguity of the “Santa” like figure was intentional. Also somewhat key to the delivery was my recollection of work by Jack Levine. Other than that, the actual rendering was done rather quickly with ink wash on painted wood (the same board I use every year for texture). The result was then scanned in and colorized via Photoshop. Some embellishments, such as the patterns on the suspenders were layered in, but no filters (nor any harm to small kittens) were used in the making of this card.

As always, the most pain-staking process in making my cards is the hand-deckled edges I compulsively tear from the edge of each and every card, which then get glued on the front of card stock.

It’s a labor of love, and one I couldn’t stop myself from doing even if I tried.

Mac OS X Web Design: Unpublished

The other day I came across this book proposal on my computer, which I apparently wrote four years ago and abandoned for more sensible work at the time. Honestly, I vaguely remember writing it, but I must have been pretty serious about it. There’s like, a whole chapter outline and stuff.

Where I thought I’d find the time to start or finish a book, I don’t know. But in the tradition of sharing my dashed dreams and aspirations with you (do they really count if I don’t remember them?), here’s the pitch I was apparently going to send the publisher.

Mac OS X Web Design

The Vision
The vision for Mac OS X Web Design is to act as an inspirational and technical catalyst for beginning, intermediate, and mildly advanced computer users, which targets academics, hobbyists, and creative professionals—people who Apple has traditionally marketed towards, but specifically people who are either new to the Mac OS platform or web design in general. The book is a solid foundation for modern web practices as they appear in Mac OS X (Aqua-themed screenshots of popular web design applications are plentiful).

As Apple’s Switch campaign called out for new converts to the platform, more and more curious individuals are purchasing Macintoshes and running Mac OS X everyday. This is a wildly new experience for most people, even for those who have worked in the creative industry using pre-Mac OS 9 for many years.

The growth of Mac OS X users along with the web design capabilities hidden therein has the potential to grow exponentially, yet to date its knowledgebase has gone practically unanswered in book format. There simply is no definitive work for Mac OS X web design. Yet, as more and more website bloggers and interactive designers continue to follow Apple’s successful marketing lead, which challenges status quo computing, many Windows and Linux are finding themselves at a pivotal turning point.

Modern Operating Systems have started growing up.

And more often than not, the one that stands out above all is Mac OS X. Using my skill set as a professional website designer and consultant, this book instructs the reader how to use Mac OS X client as part of a new craft.

The Audience
Mac OS X Web Design looks to court the people who’ve decided to try something different. Using the power of positive affirmation and a readiness to tackle a sophisticated experience, the book will educate the user on specific areas of interest—from design basics to web standards, from designing a prototype website to scripting server side technologies—this book wants to get the reader up and running and doesn’t waste time with unnecessarily complex details.

For the beginner, who may simply be a student of music who’s lured in by Apple’s new GarageBand application and looking for a way to set up their web presence, the book is a springboard for participation and a solid foundation for an achievable skill set.

For the hobbyist, who may already be an established blogger who’s new to the Mac OS X platform, the book spotlights technologies they’ve already grown accustomed to and puts them into a new Aqua skin.

For the advanced user, who may already be a working professional using a Mac, the book offers validation for staying with the Mac and is a voice of passionate inspiration. They want and need to recognize Mac OS X as a powerful platform too.

I’d like to focus on being an inspiration, but I’d like to teach in a practical way also by using “Workshops” which will actually get the reader started in the process of dynamic website building.

The Pitch
I do not have aspirations of becoming rich from this book. However, I feel that there is a definite void in the market today for any book of this nature—using this topic or this approach—which has thereby convinced me that it will succeed in a high number of sales. Traditionally, Mac users have been creative types and Apple has made tremendous strides in capturing their hearts and minds. I hope to do the same with this book.

American Gangster

I find it difficult to evaluate the movie American Gangster without some kind of compare and contrast to 2001′s Blow, which I also felt compelled to say a few words about.

Both are period films about drug smugglers, considered by some to be innovators during their time. Both are based on real-life stories. Both sport top-notch actors in some of the worst outfits ever retro-designed from a 1970′s JCPenny catalog.

Yet, one of these movies gets the highest rating I’ve ever issued for a film on this site, and the other gets the lowest.

And I think it all has to do with perspective. Where Blow failed at providing anything but a tunnel vision portrayal of a sophomoric exploiter-cum-big-time-player, American Gangster succeeds at telling an epic rise-and-fall story, all the while examining each side with intelligence–from the hooked mothers overdosing in front of their children, to the crooked cops profiting off of prohibition’s forced demand.

This movie bleeds perspective at just about every turn.

It’s a testament to director Ridley Scott’s experience that proper restraint was used in telling gangster Frank Lucas‘s unique story. After reading The Return of Superfly, a 2001 interview with the ex-con, which the movie was largely based upon, it’s apparent that more could have been told to provide Frank’s character with sympathetic overtones. Instead, the filmmakers pinpoint their focus towards an unrelenting two-sided coin portrayed on one side by Denzel Washington as Frank, and Russel Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts.

It’s a cat and mouse story between two characters representing good and evil, but as obvious as this is, both possess qualities that break down the polarization between them. While bad guy Lucas can be at times charming and sincere, Detective Richie is hardly irreproachable in private. He regularly womanizes and struggles with being a father.

The ethical rift between them becomes even more tense as details of their social status are compared, making the most pivotal scene in the movie all the more poetic. Set against the backdrop of a historic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, a foreshadowing is cleverly suggested as the stakes at each side grow higher and higher.

Two sides will clash. But only one will win.

Power. Corruption. Greed. Class. Race. So much is explored and executed so flawlessly that I think Ridley Scott may have one of the best movies of his career on his hands.

As for that other movie, it just goes to show that anyone can hustle an audience with a real-life story using a few cheap dramatic devices. But only the truly great can make a story as gripping and thought provoking as American Gangster.

Beyond Words

This nonsense brings back a powerful memory.

One morning during my Junior year of college, my sculptor professor, a scruffy-looking curmudgeonly man, who also happens to be one of the most well-spoken individuals on the topic of art I’ve ever met in real life, led our small group through the art building’s court yard area.

We must have been doing a class critique of some student work, when we came across an old, torn-up mattress that had been abandoned next to the art building and seemingly staged for display. On it somebody left a piece of paper with some words scrawled on it.

“This is art. Smell my fart.”

For a minute, I saw the stunt for what it appeared to be on the surface–a prank begotten of laziness, opportunity, and a few too many beers by some asshole fraternity members wanting to get rid of some old junk–and I probably even chuckled to myself at the culprit’s audacity.

But as I stood there debating the delivery of a sardonic comment that never came, it soon sunk in that this was something of a test for me.

At that time, I had just begun accepting the fact that I would be dedicating part of my life to making art, or at the very least something of creative value for others and myself. And here were people telling me how worthless it all was–belittling my peers, my institution, and what I thought at the time was my purpose. In fact, they were willfully acting out against the idea of art itself and I couldn’t help but to take it personally. At the peak of this moment of college self-discovery, I knew there could only one side for me to stand.

When my professor read the note, he didn’t seem surprised. But his disappointment couldn’t be contained either. He later recalled to us his own story of a public sculpture piece he created as a young artist, which repeatedly fell victim to a local vandal.

“That’s when I learned,” he said in his usual deadpan, “that some people can’t handle creative expression. They’re so intolerant of any point of view that they don’t understand or simply don’t agree with, that they’ll try to destroy it.”

This unrehearsed bit of wisdom still resonates with me today. It reminds me to expect the unexpected. And it helps me understand that creative expression can sometimes speak powerful words to people who are too closed minded to simply sit back and listen.

Halloweenhead