The current Monday Artday challenge is “birthday”.
In an attempt to bring in a few extra bucks, Jesus becomes a children’s birthday party entertainer.
Monday Artday: paradise
The Monday Artday current challenge is “paradise”.
SCARECROW: Look — here’s someone who can help you!
DOROTHY: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
GLINDA: You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.
DOROTHY: I have? Oh, you pink clad bitch! You gotta be fucking kidding me!
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IF: shaky
The illustrationfriday.com word this week is “shaky”.
The new parents reconsidered their decision when they met the mohel the notorious “Shaky Sheldon” Horowitz.
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IMT: cheeks
The word of inspiration on Inspire Me Thursday is “cheeks”.
When Harpo Marx was a kid in New York, he perfected “The Gookie” his signature, sure-fire, laugh-getting face. Harpo worked “The Gookie” into every comedy act and movie for his entire career. The face involving the puffing of the cheeks, the crossing of the eyes and a fat, lolling tongue sticking out of the mouth had its beginnings in an unusual spot.
Gookie rolled cigars in a storefront on Lexington Avenue. Harpo was fascinated by this man. He was stocky, with skin the color of the cigar leaves he rolled. He wore elastic bands around his dirty shirt sleeves to keep them from interfering in his work. While he worked, he unconciously made the face. Harpo would stand and stare for hours, making mental notes with which to perfect the “Gookie” face. Harpo would then go home and practice making the face in the mirror. One day he felt he had it down perfectly. He stood in front of ther cigar store window and rapped on the glass. When the annoyed cigar roller looked up, Harpo “threw him a Gookie”. He became enraged. His anger caused him to make the face with even more intensity. This was the reaction Harpo was looking for. Harpo taunted Gookie with his own face for years.
Harpo credits Gookie for inspiring his acting career.
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IMT: chalk
The word of inspiration this week on the Inspire Me Thursday website is “chalk”.
They’re out to get you, better leave while you can
Don’t wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man,
You wanna stay alive, better do what you can
So beat it, just beat it
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from my sketchbook: inspiration
Ronald McDonald died for your sins.
And a side of fries.
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IF: drifting
The illustration friday challenge word this week is “drifting”.
In August 1943, PT 109 was on night patrol in the South Pacific. At 2:30 in the morning, a Japanese destroyer came out of the darkness and cut the small Patrol Torpedo boat in half. The crew of thirteen was tossed about. Two crew members were lost, presumably killed on impact. Of the remaining eleven one was badly burned and another was sickened from swallowing fuel during the explosion. The crew clung to the ship’s forward hull and spent the next several hours drifting through flaming debris in the dark waters of the Pacific. They awaited direction from the young lieutenant who served as the PT’s commanding officer.
The crew knew they could not survive in the ocean. They knew the surrounding islands all contained enemy camps. They needed to swim to Plum Pudding Island, a small outpost they knew was their only chance. Several crew members were too badly injured to swim on their own, especially Crewman McMahon, who was burned. Several others didn’t know how to swim at all. Using straps from life vests, the non-swimmers were tied to the hull. A harness was created and McMahon was lashed into it as the young commander, a veteran of Harvard’s swim team, towed McMahon as he swam. After a grueling four hours, the crew arrived on the island’s shore.
The island was only a hundred yards in diameter, with no food or water. The crew had to hide from passing Japanese barge traffic. The commander swam an additional 2 miles, to Olasana Island, which had coconut trees and water.
The crew survived for six days on coconuts. Two local islanders were investigating a Japanese shipwreck, from which they salvaged fuel and food. The young commander spotted them on their mission and began shouting to them. He convinced them they were on the same side of the war. He carved a message into a coconut and the islanders braved 35 miles of hostile waters in their canoe to deliver it to the nearest Allied base. The PT 157, commanded by Lieutenant William Liebenow, was dispatched to pick up the survivors of the PT 109.
The PT 109’s commander was decorated as a hero. He didn’t like the praise, claiming he was no hero – the enemy merely sank his ship. Although, he kept the inscribed coconut on his desk when he became President of the United States in 1961.
The commander of the PT 109 was John F. Kennedy.
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IMT: ticket
The Inspire Me Thursday inspirational word this week is “ticket”.
I live in Philadelphia and I’ve been going to baseball games for a very long time. I struggled alongside the struggling Phillies in those years in the late ’90s when they out-and-out stunk! I also sat in the stands as the Phillies fought their way to their second World Series Championship in 2008. To paraphrase James Earl Jones from “Field of Dreams”: There has been one constant through the years…” The parking lot ticket scapers. These guys fascinate me. I see them every game as I drive through the gates to park the car. They prowl the lots displaying a homemade sign of torn corrugated pasteboard. They exhibit their stock of tickets like a burlesque fan dancer. They also look like they don’t have two nickels to rub together. They address everyone who passes by them with, “Need tickets?”, followed by “Selling tickets?” I don’t understand. Can’t they make up their minds?
It not like Phillies tickets are a rare commodity. Sure, they sell out games now that they have a World Series trophy, but usually tickets are pretty easy to come by. Most games have tickets available at the door.
I’m almost positive that the guys in the torn shorts and stained t-shirts aren’t authorized ticket resellers.
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IF: unfold
The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “unfold”.
“I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m going to take a stand.”
Cameron Frye
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IMT: child art
The inspiration this week on Inspire Me Thursday is “child art”.
When I was a kid, my family would go to the Jersey shore at Atlantic City. Every time we’d go to the beach, my mom would recite this poem:
“When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
to dig the sandy shore
The holes were empty like a cup
In every hole the sea came up
‘Til it could come no more.”
I was just in Atlantic City this past weekend. Boy, has it changed.
(Pictured above: The Pincus Family on the Atlantic City beach, August 1962.)