adventures in painting, film and animation…
Since I am getting a bit of recognition for my NYC paintings here in the Ol’ Midwest, I figure I ought to start painting stuff out here to bring back to the Big City…
The painting below is the first of what I will dub ‘rural decay’ and thus far, I like the way it is going…
Let’s see where this style takes me…
Have been running around like mad, trying to figure out why my computer died last week. I would turn on the ol’ Fletcher 2000 and led’s would light, fans would spin - but nothing on the dual monitors…
The only hint I had was the POST beep - normally if there are any problems booting up, the computer will beep at you and if you have the manual, you can decipher what those beeps mean. (OK - I’m an uber-geek, mine talks to me…)
So I rolled the dice and figured it was my video card and ordered a cheap replacement and voila’! I’m back in business…
Now to find out what the rest of the world has been up to…
When people ask, ‘Do you miss NYC?’ I can honestly answer, “No.”
Granted, I miss parts of it, namely the close friends I have come to love as family over my years there, but when I read an article like this:
I sometimes wonder why I didn’t move sooner. This is a superb example of the shallow superficiality that made me despise the bulk of humanity I came into contact with while dwelling there.
Now, I agree that in my relationship, my honey is the better looking of us. I don’t have Hollywood hunk looks, far more love handles than I’d like or a mop of untamed hair for her to run her fingers thru. That being said, I don’t consider myself the worst looking guy either. I’m good enough for my sweetheart and that is good enough for me. (well, actually, no it isn’t - because I’ve adopted an exercise regimen because I like it when she squeezes my arm and lets out a delightful squeal that she approved of it being firmer)
I’d like to think better of my fellow man (and woman) but the only mollification I can derive from an article like that is that hey, that guy is bragging to his equally average buds that he is dating a ‘totally slammin’ hottie’.
A kudos to my sister, who got married this weekend:
Ya did good, kiddo - you kept your head and kept calm - even though Mother Nature threatened both your wedding and wiping most of the county off the map. You really were the calm center in the eye of the storm.
To my nieces: you looked lovely and you did your mum proud, keep up the good work.
To my bro: sorry you got stuck in your truck thru the whole thing - hope they saved you some cake & I’ll take you out for beers when I see you next!
To my mum: your tireless efforts and patience paid off in spades - you always make everything perfect.
To da’: sorry you couldn’t be with us, I understand work and all - but I was eternally grateful that your phone call got thru when it did - you always have great timing.
To my new brother in law - welcome to the family!
The subway was grimy, covered in a layer of filth and decay that I have never seen. And I, the artist who deals in decay like it was currency, was put off by the squalor.
The echoes clashed in the distance, creating a nasty reverb that played tricks with my mind - like whispers of strangers, looking at you - spelling your doom. I swear I heard someone mutter, ‘You’re dead…’
I heard something clutter to the ground behind me and I panicked a bit. Sheer adrenaline coursed into my hands and before I knew it, I ripped a chunk of conduit off the wall. Light and flimsy, but I knew I could wield it with speed.
When I saw my first underground junkie / zombie, I let out an involuntary high pitched screech, far more girly than I had ever intended. But the thing crawled towards me with a speed that belied any human resemblance. As it crept closer, I swung my pipe in a tight sharp arc…
My phone rang at that exact moment and I had to put the game down. Whew.
I got sucked into Condemned: Criminal Origins a few days ago and I have to admit, I’m hooked. I played the demo a while back and was impressed, and when it hit 5 bucks on Amazon, I had little choice but to buy it - and have a love affair with all things creepy now…
The thing plays like the movie Se7en - and looks like it too. The plot is straight out of the finest film noir gritty urban detective novel, with a slight surreal twist. I truly relish the fact that a game can creep me out more than any movie ever did. One particular scene had me looking around an abandoned department store, and when I looked away for a moment, I found myself instantly surrounded by disfigured mannequins annd leering down at me. The hair on my arms and neck rose and haven’t calmed down since.
I’m no stranger to survival horror games, but even scenarios like Doom3 got played out: enter a room, see a goodie to grab - as soon as you touch it, Boom! open the monster closet, fight off the foe; repeat. Again and again and again…
This time, Condemned raises the bar by truly hitting you with atmosphere. The levels look abandoned, forgotten and gone to rot and ruin. The sounds echo and hiss. The player movement is slow and languid, like that creeping horror dream that you seem stuck in slow motion.
Definitely a game to play late at night with the lights off and the sound jacked up…
During my morning coffee and headline reading, I came across this little tidbit on Reddit:
For those who don’t have the time to read it, its an editorial railing against those 30+ people who have ‘lost meaning in our lives and the only way to deal with it is to get immersed in a totally unrealistic hi-def universe’ and that I ‘ought to have matured enough to realize that playing Genji: Days of Blade isn’t the solution’.
Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that my life had plummeted into the abyss of loserdom.
Pellerin states: ‘there are days when real adult life stinks. And yeah, it’s good to sometimes enjoy a relaxing evening doing nothing productive’.
Hmm, guess I’d better get busy being productive watching them ladies of Wisteria lane and getting Oprah’s latest book recommendation. Guess I’d better deal with my stinky adult life in the proscribed manners approved by society - think I’ll choose drinking a fifth of scotch and beating my spouse into submission. Wouldn’t want to become a loser outcast, would I?
Oh, and I’m sorry to be absorbed by a obviously newer, more interactive mediums that require thought and puzzle solving - rather than dead or dying ones that spew invective and opinion while I mindlessly soak it all up like a sponge. Gotta go get the Post and read Malkin, or turn on Fox and listen to O’Reilly, eh? It would not do for me to start thinking, would it??
Guess I better dump my outcast girlfriend too. She regularly plays Portal and encourages me to download additional levels between bouts of trying to beat all the levels in Bloxorz. Gotta have a healthy relationship and not one mindlesslyplinkingawayignoringeachother.
Gee, I never knew that trying to learn Parthian Tactics to take down the Mongol Hordes while discovering siege technology in Age of Empires II was rotting my brain. Or replaying Operation Market Garden to find a way to allow Allied forces to win wasn’t educational. Or maybe in trying to learn how to make texture maps and creating levels of my own in a 3D game engine isn’t pushing my creative challenges enough.
Man, I am such a loser.
