The Nestor Wynrush Ensemble poster

August 6th, y'all! Should be a fun night.
Poster design and photo by lil' ol' me. I'll get to posting the original photo on Flickr someday soon.

R.I.P. Ryan August

I just found out that Ryan August of I Want Your Skull passed away on July 11th. I'm stunned. I really wished I had met him in person. He encouraged me to contribute to the first issue of IWYS, and the result is above. Anytime I saw a new issue or a blog post with amazing skull-themed artwork, I felt bad that I didn't draw skulls regularly, and I still do. I'm just thankful that I was able to be involved in a project that got better with each issue. He pushed the quality every time, as did the people that provided the content.
Wherever you're at right now, Ryan, I know you're kicking ass in some fashion. R.I.P.

My Jazz Fest 2010 Photos

The Slew – July 1st, 2010

Some of the best shows I've ever seen were part of this year's TD Jazz Winnipeg Festival. I plan on telling my son or daughter about The Roots show someday. The photos can be found here.

Adventures In Album Cover Design

This thread is comedy gold. Don't take your album design too lightly. Noyz's post pretty much sums up where Infinite P went very wrong:

Original: http://layoutsparks.com/1/232393/moonlight-tropics-night-view.html
✓ Google "moonlight" and steal one of the first images that come up
✓ Fuck up the aspect ration by squishing instead of cropping
✓ Add a second moon/lens-flare because the other fake one wasn't big enough
✓ Add Smoke without basic photoshop skills
✓ Add Parental Advisory logo for spiritual reasons
The even sadder thing is, I bet this cover took you at least a month to make.

Classic.

Johnny Wander – you should read it.

I tend to get a feeling about certain webcomics when I'm introduced to them. If I get that feeling, I'll read it from the very beginning in one shot, no matter how many installments there are.
That's happened three times:

• In 2002, a friend introduced me to Sinfest. I ended up reading two years of strips in one night, and I've been a fan ever since.
• Almost two years ago, I discovered Girls With Slingshots and read four years of strips in one night! Needless to say, it was compelling.
• Tonight, via a GWS guest spot, I found out about Johnny Wander, by Ananth Panagariya and Yuko Ota. It's very slice-of-life and hilarious. Did I mention that Yuko can draw her ass off? I'm already in love with this comic.

BNL-fueled Nostalgia

I'll admit it...I own The Yellow Tape. A lot of folks I knew back then did, too.
I just came in from work and heard a CBC concert featuring The Barenaked Ladies performing their very popular cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers In A Dangerous Time" with Bruce himself. I suddenly remembered how I loved to watch the above video every chance I got (Much had it in heavy rotation back in the day).

For those of you unaware or too young to know, the record store in the video was part of the defunct A&A Records chain. I can't remember where any of the Winnipeg locations were.

I was going to say more stuff, but my sinuses are killing my ass, so my thoughts have evaporated. I'll leave you with this: to me, Steven Page will always be that guy that was in Barenaked Ladies, and the Barenaked Ladies will always be that band that Steven Page was in.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Game Trailer

Yeah, I'll be needing this. The villains pay off in loonies and toonies!
The man behind the look and feel of the game is Paul Robertson. I mentioned him here a little while ago.

The Clifton Santiago Honeymoon Suite...

...aka my new workspace. It's taking shape slowly. Gotta hang some posters up in this motherfucker, and soon! Not before I unpack these boxes that are taking up a third of the room. Bleh.

Unformatted Random Thoughts: June 3rd, 2010

Just moved into the new house, currently setting up my studio. An outlet that only takes two prong plugs is fucking my plans up. I'll survive.
No Internet until Friday morning — this post was generated via iPhone. I must locate my modem.
The grass out back is thicker than Trump's wack-ass hairpiece.
On a wrestling note: I can't help but wonder who's going to win The Best Of The Super Juniors tournament. Tiger Mask IV is out of the running due to a neck injury, and who knows how long Prince Devitt's knee will hold out.
Another wrestling note: this new season of NXT sounds fucking terrible.
A musical note (HA!): Shad's new album is amazing. You should buy it and make your life better.

Best Of The Super Juniors

The video above is a compilation of every Top Of/Best Of The Super Juniors tournament final, from 1988 to 2009. Before watching this, I was familiar with a handful of the matches; regardless, I was gobsmacked throughout the entire 12:58 of this vid. My favorite? The El Samurai/Koji Kanemoto match, which you can find at the 2:57 mark. The shit they were doing was insane.

This comp also contains footage of Chris Benoit (as Wild Pegasus) winning two of the tournaments. This is the first time I've been able to watch anything Benoit-related without wincing. Look closely, and you'll see other gaijin talent, like Fit Finlay, Scorpio, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero. Actually, you won't have to look too hard for Eddie...that's him beating Jushin Liger as Black Tiger in 1996 (at the 2:19 mark).

The 2010 edition is only days away, and among the participants is Winnipegger Kenny Omega. His tag team partner, Kota Ibushi, is also a participant. As opponents, they're no strangers to each other. Guaranteed, there won't be any "going outside" shit in the tournament.

Bonus stuff: watch the 2009 final between Kanemoto and Prince Devitt. It's amazing. Adam and Mike of F4W's Big Audio Nightmare figure Devitt will probably win this thing. I'm inclined to agree, as Devitt has been shut out of the tournament two years in a row due to injury, only to lose in the match above. It may be logical to give him the rub here. Part of me wants Davey Richards to win. That dude is a serious bad-ass.

More bonus stuff: I'm a big fan of the Tumblr blog FUCK YEAH WRESTLING! (I'm not yelling...that's their name.) Random articles, photos, and videos – all wrestling. I'm happy to have contributed some items to the site.