josh pincus is crying

IF: strings (part 2)

joshpincusiscrying — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:28:53 +0000

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “strings”. This is the second of two illustrations I did for the subject. The first can be seen HERE.
I found two great (and unrelated) quotes for “strings”, so I decided to illustrate both.

“Most men, no matter how well or badly dressed, carry overstuffed, beat up wallets that should have been replaced years ago. Why is that every time I see a guy take out a wallet anywhere, it looks like a piece of old melted chocolate cake-with strings.”
— Jonathan Carroll, author

IF: strings

joshpincusiscrying — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:30:12 +0000

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “strings”.

“All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.”
— Aldous Huxley

This is the first of two illustrations for this topic. HERE is the second.

Monday Artday: mad scientist

joshpincusiscrying — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:47:24 +0000

The challenge this week on Monday Artday is “mad scientist”.

No doubt Nikola Tesla was a brilliant man. He was one of the world’s greatest electrical engineers. Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. (Take that, Marconi!) And he spoke eight languages. But…

Tesla suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and had many unusual quirks and phobias. He did things in threes. He was adamant about staying in a hotel room with a number divisible by three. Tesla was physically revolted by jewelry, notably pearl earrings. He was fastidious about cleanliness and hygiene, and was by all accounts germophobic. He greatly disliked touching human hair other than his own. He disliked touching round objects.
He was obsessed with pigeons, ordering special seeds for the pigeons he fed in Central Park and even bringing some into his hotel room with him. Tesla was an animal-lover, often reflecting contentedly about a childhood cat.
Tesla was a loner and was soft-spoken. However, he displayed the occasional cruel streak. He openly expressed his disgust for overweight people, once firing a secretary because of her weight. He was quick to criticize others’ clothing as well, demanding a subordinate to go home and change her dress on several occasions.
Tesla died of heart failure alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, some time between the evening of January 5 and the morning of January 8, 1943, at the age of 86. Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla was destitute and died with significant debts.
Mad scientist?
How about “Bat-shit whack-o”?

IF: sugary

joshpincusiscrying — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:12:02 +0000

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “sugary”.
This could be a companion piece to my illustration for “yummy”.

Here’s my original Tale of Swirly von Swirly deCocoa McDuff
Swirly von Swirly deCocoa McDuff
Made candy and gumdrops and sugary stuff
He mixed up ten pounds of peppermint sweets
And coconut tangerine crispy rice treats
Tray after tray of peanut fudge drops,
Hazelnut toffee and red lollipops.
Swirly von Swirly, he mixed and he stirred
Batch upon batch of sweet lemony curd,
Butterscotch cherry cashew rum brittle
Caramel chewies with cream in the middle
Those copper pots glistened,
Those pots of McDuff
Overflowing with chocolate
And marshmallow fluff
That Swirly von Swirly, he stirred and he mixed
Nonpareil candies all dotted with Trix!
He tried and he tested and experimentated
Shaken-up fizzy sticks (noncarbonated)
Clusters of almonds in a big creamy puff
All made by the Master —
deCocoa McDuff.

Monday Artday: schoolhouse rock

joshpincusiscrying — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:04:11 +0000

The Monday Artday challenge this week is “Schoolhouse Rock”.
From its 1973 debut, wedged between episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, Schoolhouse Rock taught grammar, math and history to youngsters nationwide. Schoolhouse Rock’s quirky animation, psychedelic images and catchy tunes made learning easy and the lesson stuck with kids. Even into high school, kids were humming the Preamble to the Constitution to themselves during history tests.
Singer/songwriters Paul and Storm obviously grew up with Schoolhouse Rock.
Feeling that the original set of Grammar Rock songs was short one important part of speech, they wrote “Epithets”.

Algernon was hanging pictures over his bed
The hammer missed the nail, and hit his finger instead
The swelling started growin’
And the blood began a-flowin’
While Algernon let go with some
Epithets!

Bobby was the pitcher on his Little League team
His father would project on him his own broken dreams
He’d guzzle down the booze
And then when Bobby’s team was losin’
Daddy started to abuse ’em with
Epithets!

An epithet’s a word or phrase that people can use
When ordinary words and phrases simply won’t do
To express frustration, pain, impatience, anger or scorn
To the ****heads and the ***holes in your way

The Mayor loved the women and he loved cocaine
He got himself a hooker to keep him entertained
But after he discovered
She was working undercover
Then Hizzoner started utterin’
Epithets!

Epithets
Show emotion
Impatience
Frustration
Pain and anger
Amen

Press the “play >” button below to hear “Epithets”, from Paul and Storm’s album Opening Band.

HEY! LOOK! I even got a mention on Paul and Storm’s website! Thanks Paul and Storm.

IF: packed

joshpincusiscrying — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:39:07 +0000

The challenge this week on illustrationfriday.com is “packed”.

Moving day at Castle Frankenstein.

Monday Artday: prehistoric humans

joshpincusiscrying — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:26:22 +0000

The challenge on Monday Artday this week is “prehistoric humans”.

The first automotive trade show, circa 10,000,000 years BC.

SFG: yummy

joshpincusiscrying — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:07:49 +0000

The sugarfrostedgoodness.com current challenge is “yummy”.
For this uncharacteristically cheerful illustration, I took my inspiration from Dr. Seuss.

Here’s my original story of “Mister McBaker O’Frosting Moran”
Mister McBaker O’Frosting Moran
Baked one thousand cakes and used only one pan
He concocted pink cupcakes
And yellow and blue
But he used just one pan
Not seven or two
Giant red cream cakes with sprinkles on top
A big plate of chocolatey brownies and glop
Crunch cookies and fudgy yum yummies with fudge
Six batches of rum raisin spice cinnamon sludge
A great big enormous sweet stick-ity bun
And the pans that he used only numbered to one
He mixed in the eggs and the butter and flour
And the baking was done in just under an hour
Petit fours were presented by O’Frosting Moran
And ten dozen tea cakes — all using one pan
Cakes for a birthday
Cakes for a bris
Cakes for a Christening
with a cinnamon twist
How, you may ask, could he just use one pan?
’cause there’s magic in the kitchen
Of McBaker Moran

IF: clique

joshpincusiscrying — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:43:32 +0000

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “clique”.

no clique would have them, so they made their own.

Monday Artday: music group part 2

joshpincusiscrying — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:36:00 +0000

The challenge this week on Monday Artday is “music group”. This is the second of two illustrations for this topic.

Sparks are the greatest band that you have never heard of. Their career has spanned five decades. They have released twenty-one albums. They have played sold-out shows all over the world. And you’ve never heard of them.
Keyboard wiz Ron Mael and his younger brother, vocalist Russell formed Sparks (originally named “Halfnelson”) in Los Angeles in late 1969. Self-proclaimed Anglophiles, the brothers moved to England, assembled a backing band of local musicians and released “A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing”.They toured the United Kingdom and released their breakthrough follow-up album “Kimono My House”in 1974. That album gave Sparks a Number 2 single in the UK with “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” (covered by British “Flavor-of-the-Month” The Darkness’ singer Justin Hawkins in August 2005). Sparks’ cult-status success continued with one genre-defying album after another. Sparks appeared in the 1977 Sensurround film “Rollercoaster“, after Kiss turned the role down. (The Mael brothers later said that their appearance in that film was the biggest regret of their career.)
Their style jumped from rock to glam to pop to euro-pop to electronic to new wave. In 1983, they broke onto the US singles chart with “Cool Places,”a collaboration with the Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin. Jane had run her own Sparks Fan Club as a teenager.
Known for their “off-the-wall” ventures, Sparks released “Plagiarism”, an album of covers of their own songs with guest vocalists.
2002 saw the release of their opus “Lil Beethoven”, featuring classical arrangements of strings and choirs. Record Collector Magazine named the album as one of its “Best New Albums of 2002″, describing it as “possibly the most exciting and interesting release ever from such a long established act”. Sparks appeared in the season 6 finale of the show Gilmore Girls, performing “Perfume” from the follow-up to “Lil Beethoven”, “Hello Young Lovers”.
In May and June 2008, the always-ambitious Maels brought the 21-night “Sparks Spectacular” in London, where the band performed each of their albums in chronological order during the first twenty nights, and premiered their new album, “Exotic Creatures of the Deep”, on the twenty-first concert on June 13th. Each night, they performed an album in its entirety followed by a rare track. Many of the songs had never been performed live before.
Sparks’ musical philosophy has always been to observe current trends in music and then head in the opposite direction. They’ve been doing it for almost forty years.
You haven’t heard of them? You have a lot of catching up to do.