I just love diners. There's something for everybody.
What is Wrong with Stuff Anyway??
So I was looking at this blog, which is a nice blog with nice design things in it. But it's got the same problem every blog about design has, which never ceases to annoy me.
Where is all the stuff?
These are supposedly living spaces. Right? Does anyone ever go in there? Does anyone set anything down? Do appliances and lamps magically work without power cords?
And here's another question: Would actual living in one of these space mess up all the nifty angles and levels and lines and things that the designers went to so much trouble and expense to create?
At our house, we have tons of books. We also have tons of CDs (close to 1,000) which are not going away anytime soon. We also make a lot of things. We draw, we paint, we move around. We put on our shoes. We take them off. When we get home, we set down our keys. Somewhere. On a surface.
What infuriates me about all these design-y photo shoots of spaces is how they eliminate the things that you actually have in your space. I believe this is a mind trick, to make you think that if you had that space that your own personal clutter quotient would be eliminated and you would float around in an optimized state at all times.
Just once I'd like to see someone do a shoot where a space was designed to be lived in, and show what that looks like. Or better yet, show ways to make all your stuff look good, not just go away.
And I don't mean just a strategically-placed single piece of paper on a desk in a home office to suggest "work." I mean, messy. Like it really looks. If you can make that pleasant, then you could be the world's greatest designer.
Texting to Death
A while back, I published this cartoon about trying to claim people you're messaging with while driving as part of your carpool.
I quickly got an email from a very upset reader in Arizona. It turned out his fiancee had been killed by a teen driver who had been texting. He did not find this cartoon funny at all.
We ended up having a nice conversation about it - but it certainly hit a nerve. Satire does that sometimes. Part of my job is to point out things that really should be too stupid to write about, but in this case it hit too close to reality. That's the line we walk on.
The New York Times has this story about how much more you're going to crash into things if you, like a moron, think that in addition to piloting thousands of pounds of metal and hundreds of pounds of humanity around at high speed, think you need something more to be doing.
Sometimes I make fun of things that I think are just too ridiculously asinine to be considered not a joke, like putting a trampoline on a hillside. I mean, I can't even really work my radio when the car is moving. This is how I discover lots of new stations.
I really wish this cartoon fell into that category of "Things that are too stupid to be true," but apparently it's not.
Less Than You Need
This one has been on my mind lately. Here in California we passed a law that you can't hold your cell phone up to your head and drive at the same time, but the standard posture of person-driving-gigantic-vehicle-one-handed-while-talking has returned in force.
This drawing was in response to the most offensive over-consumption ad ever - I think it was for a GMC Yukon - which said, "It's not more than you need, just more than you're used to." What the hell is that supposed to mean????
This drawing was in response to the most offensive over-consumption ad ever - I think it was for a GMC Yukon - which said, "It's not more than you need, just more than you're used to." What the hell is that supposed to mean????
Another Kinda Painful One
This one was published in 2005, when real estate was still on the way up.
It makes me heave a heavy sigh when I look at it now.
Having many years of cartoons (I've been publishing since 1993) is kind of like having a big ol' diary of what's been on your mind, just in pictures instead of words. I never set out to make it that way, but it sure is interesting now.
Skeleton Love 2 - More from the Sketchbook
Not sure why all my skeleton pictures seem to be about romance, but that's okay. You've gotta love the tux, it's so late-80's prom.
Bug Freakout - More from the Sketchbook
Another popular gesture, the famous "AAAAA! A BUG!" reaction. The bug is getting pretty tired of this I think.
Piano Alien - More from the Sketchbook
I'm reading a lot about animation currently, so I'm working out ways that gesture in drawings can convey motion without adding expression lines like you would do in comics. Also cheesy grins are important.
Woa. Sugar and Caffeine. Woa.
So, I realize that a well-placed cup of coffee or bit of sugar can go a long way toward improving the quality of your day. I don't dispute this. It's the crashes that I just can't stand. I can't have my head fall off every few hours.
I also realize that one answer to this is to just make darn sure that your levels don't drop by following a well-tuned regimen of intake of various substances. I know lots of folks time their day around when and how much coffee to consume. And, of course, more. More coffee. Or something. Run over the problem like a truck. That's an approach too.
But, I've kind of felt lately that sugar and caffeine are pulling me apart at the seams - like the molecules that make up me are getting farther and farther apart or something. Perhaps I am just experiencing a gravity problem or something. But I decided to try reducing the amount of sugar and caffeine floating around to get a handle on things.
Wow, that was kind of an abrupt approach. I found out that:
1. If you have no sugar or caffeine and then have a glass of wine, you actually get too heavy to get up out of your chair
2. Cranky cranky cranky.
3. I'm depending more on this stuff than I ever thought. Yike!
So next I will attempt to hit some sort of happy medium. One where I am actually conscious, but do not lose my mind and turn into Cranky Pants Lady every 4 to 6 hours.
Bleh! This process is gross. But worth it. I hope.
Skateboard Monster
As a single-panel cartoonist, I spend a lot of time creating action in a single image. Here I'm looking at the various ways that this monster can look to be moving, including the trailing movement of the tail, the forward position of the head and the flying shirt and shoelaces. I think it's maybe not exaggerated enough so... on to the next sketch.
Silent but Deadly
The other day I put up a cartoon about electric cars...
Which reminded me of a couple of others that I've done on the same subject in the past...
I really do hope that we can figure out some great ways to get around that don't involve snarfing enormous amounts of finite resources (oh wait, Europe already did that with trains.) But I think if we get into super-quiet electric motors we'll need to put a little beeper on there or something so people know they're about to get run over in a highly-efficient way.
The Beauty Myth
Okay, so I'm currently reading "They Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf. Now, some may say that a book subtitled "How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women" might pretty much be nothing more than a shrill feminist screed. However, one thing I'm getting from it is that this story, of how we create unattainable standards for people and then convince them to spend lots of money pursuing them, is a story you could tell about many groups, not just women. This happens to be the women's version of the story. It's pretty head-exploding to ponder how much money is spent in our world on things that are supposed to bring you closer to some ideal that you may not even be aware that you're pursuing. Like, wealth. Or, fitness. Or, intelligence. Or, youth. Or, hipness. Or, fame. Or, some combination. Wow.
I make fun of this a lot in Brainwaves - because we buy things for so many bizarre reasons. Now I'm kind of wondering, with the general economic implosion, what happens next. The age of mindless purchasing of plastic gratification may be coming to a close. Or not. Probably not.
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