Everything I Got For Christmas...

...all in one photo set on Flickr:

Boxing Day Haul 2011

This is comparatively lighter than last year's stack of purchases, but no less essential or awesome.

• Glenn Barr's Faces
• Hark! A Vagant by Kate Beaton
• Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan McLeod
• Habibi by Craig Thompson
• Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label by Def Jam, Bill Adler and Dan Charnas 
• Steinweiss by Alex Steinweiss, Steven Heller and Kevin Reagan

The bottom two were purchased at Chapters with a 30% discount. The rest were from Comics America at a discount of 25%.

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

I currently have this here playlist on repeat. The soundtrack for the gift opening (which will happen as soon as lil' man gets up) will be provided by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, of course.
All the best to you and yours.

A Review of Deseo Bistro In Two Tweets

Hyperbole? Sure. All I know is, I left that place feeling like the very embodiment of satisfaction. Go to Deseo, get satisfied. www.deseobistro.com

Eleven Achieved!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I needed an "11" in my workspace, so I painted one! No, it's not perfect (check that white gouache smudge at the top left), but it'll do. Things are coming together in this spot. Did I mention that the cardboard came from this Steinweiss calendar?

Cloud Nine

In the hubbub of this already-half-over month, I neglected to mention that The Place Where Al Dwells... turned nine on the eighth. Crazy! Yeah, I post a lot over at Mr. Lorde Should Be Drawing nowadays, but this blog is where I go off at length, and I still have a lot of love for it. This year has been rather fucking horrible, so I'm happy to have kept the woe-is-me posts to a minimum. I'll pat myself on the back once I'm done typing.
Another nine years? I guess that's up to whether apathy finally consumes me or not.
Fingers crossed!

One Year Old!

Dante and his pirate self (which was used in his birthday party invite).

My lil' man turned one today! After all this time, I'm still in disbelief that he's here. We had his birthday celebration the week before, because Sarah had to return to work today (BOOOO!). Many thanks to everyone that showed up that day. It was truly special.
For a chronological look at the dude, look here and here.

11/11/11

Y'all know about Photo-Lettering, right? You should.

I wrote a draft of this post a few months ago, but now is as good a time as any to write this. I don't spread this around much, but 11 is my favorite number. Why?

• Even though it doesn't appear much in my work at all, I love symmetry.
• It was Isiah Thomas' number. I cared about basketball once.
• January 11th is my birthday. I guess it's only natural.

I need an 11 in my workspace somewhere. Either via old physical signage (like in Tad Carpenter's space), a painted sign, or something made by me. We'll see what happens. It'd be nice to look at every once in a while.

How Long Has This Been Going On?

I've been using Instagram for over a year, and I swear I never noticed that option before. I've been liking stuff left and right, all the while thinking it was pretty stupid to not have an option to view what you've marked as a fave. Color me stupefied. At any rate, this is the last time I'll quote Ace in post titles.

EVIL!

Speed Dial 7's "Pure Evil", featuring Pip Skid. More madness from Marathon of Dope, directed by Mike Maryniuk. So damn good.