Monday Artday: cd cover

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The challenge this week on Monday Artday is “design a cd cover”.
For several years now, I have been compiling a list of possible band names. I have had a lot of help (from this guy and this lady, among others). Sometimes, someone will utter a phrase, as part of regular conversation, and a band name is born.
At one of my previous places of employment, this guy (a co-worker) came up with Günk-Boxx. It needs the umlaut or it doesn’t work.
Now I finally get the opportunity to present the debut CD from Günk-Boxx.
meedeleee meedeleee meedeleee meedeleee meedeleee

When I first saw this challenge, it struck a chord with me. For a few weeks now, my son and I have been creating CD covers based on a formula from sleevage.com. Sleevage.com is a website devoted to CD covers. Recently, they ran this entry:
What happens when you mix a random Wikipedia page with a random Flickr photo? You get the basis for an interesting CD cover and the brief for the ever expanding CD Cover Meme on Flickr.
Here’s the brief from the Meme’s page. Always wanted to be in a rock band? Well, here’s your chance…sort of. Make your own CD Cover with the following steps and rocket yourself to mulit-platinum status and start fending off the groupies.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Assemble the pieces in Photoshop or similar graphics editing program.

HERE are some CD covers that I created based on these instructions.

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IF: punchline

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The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “punchline”.
I know so many jokes and choosing the right one to illustrate was difficult. Plus, I have already done illustrations for two of my favorite jokes, The Zoo Joke and the Desert Joke.
I decided on this joke for “punchline”.
stop me if you heard THIS one.

and here’s the actual joke…..
WARNING! THIS JOKE CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE! NOT FOR THE EASILY OFFENDED!

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Monday Artday: anarchy

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The Monday Artday challenge word this week is “anarchy”.
the only dope worth shooting is President Nixon
Outside the 1968 Democratic Convention, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman announced that their candidate for president would be a pig named Pigasus.

Jerry Rubin was a left-wing social activist (read: radical). In 1967, Rubin and some others founded the Youth International Party (The Yippies), an anti-authoritarian political party known for street theatre and politically-themed pranks. Rubin coined the phrase “Never trust anyone over thirty”. He was thirty-two when he said it. Rubin actively protested against the war in Vietnam. As part of the infamous “Chicago Seven“, he played an instrumental role in the disruption of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was put on trial for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot. Although he was found guilty of inciting a riot, his conviction was later overturned on appeal.

After the Vietnam War ended, Rubin became an entrepreneur and businessman. He was an early investor in Apple Computers. On November 14, 1994, Rubin jaywalked on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, while on his way to dinner with his fiancée. A car swerved to miss Rubin, but a second car was unable to avoid him. He was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where he died 14 days later.

Abbie Hoffman was also one of the founders of the Yippie party. He also earned a master’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley. Prior to his involvement with the Chicago Seven, Hoffman led a protest movement in the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange. The protesters threw fistfuls of dollars (most of the bills were fake) down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically, that’s what NYSE traders “were already doing.”

At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman interrupted The Who’s performance to attempt a protest speech against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, “I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison. . .” The Who’s guitarist, Pete Townshend, unhappy with the interruption, cut Hoffman off mid-sentence, shouting, “Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!” He then smacked Hoffman with his guitar, sending him tumbling offstage, to the approving roar of the crowd. Townshend later said that, although he agreed with Hoffman’s position, Hoffman had no right to use his stage as a forum.

Hoffman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980. On April 12, 1989, he committed suicide by swallowing 150 Phenobarbital tablets.

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SFG: star trek

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The challenge word this week on sugarfrostedgoodness.com is “star trek”.
get a life.
I was never much of a Star Trek fan. I was five years-old when the original series premiered. I’ve seen it, on and off, in reruns for years. I have seen a few of the movies. I just never “got it”.
Whenever I hear “Star Trek” mentioned, I am reminded of an article by Gilbert Gottfried (yes, that Gilbert Gottfried) that appeared in National Lampoon Magazine years ago. The article was titled “How Not to Get Laid”. Gilbert listed the three places that a person had absolutely no chance what-so-ever of getting laid.
1. Any Star Trek convention
2. The lobby of any Star Trek convention
3. Anywhere within a ten block radius of any Star Trek convention.

….and only a true Star Trek fan will point out my error.

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IF: forgotten

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I'm hard to fit!
If you are 25 years old or younger, you probably don’t know Carol Wayne. Even if you were around during the height of Carol’s popularity, she is most likely forgotten to you now.

Carol Wayne was a former professional ice skater and Las Vegas showgirl whose “dumb blonde” persona gave her tremendous, but brief, fame beginning in the late 1960s throughout the 1970s. She made single episode appearances in popular shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Emergency!, I Spy and was featured in six different episodes of Love, American Style. She appeared on numerous game shows, including as a regular panelist on Celebrity Sweepstakes, produced by her husband, Burt Sugarman.

But, Carol was best known for her on-going stint as “The Matinee Lady” on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson”. In a series of skits, known as “The Mighty Carson Art Players”, Johnny would portray different characters. One of the most popular was Art Fern, host of the fictional “Tea Time Move.” Art Fern was a parody of local afternoon movie hosts who showed old films and shilled for local businesses. Carol’s shtick involved standing beside Johnny, batting her eyelashes. She was invariably the punchline to a barrage of rapid-fire, double entendre jokes. In 1980, Johnny Carson threatened to quit The Tonight Show unless NBC cut the show’s time from ninety to sixty minutes. NBC had no choice but to reluctantly agree to Carson’s demand. The new sixty-minute format meant that Carson had less time for skits and the need for Carol’s services dwindled.

By the early 1980s, Carol’s demand in show business was practically over. She divorced Burt Sugarman in 1980. In 1984, she declared bankruptcy due in large part to a cocaine and alcohol problem. At times, she was reduced to being an occasional escort for wealthy businessmen in order to make ends meet. In an effort to recharge her diminishing career, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy. It netted her a part in the film Heartbreakers. It would become her final movie role.

Carol was on vacation in Manzanillo, Mexico with Los Angeles car salesman Edward Durston on January 10, 1985. The couple had an argument and Carol went for a walk on the beach to clear her head and calm down. Edward, meanwhile, packed and checked out of their hotel. He flew back to Los Angeles, leaving Carol’s luggage at the airport in Mexico. Carol’s body was found in shallow water by a local fisherman. She was fully-clothed, free of drugs or alcohol and had been dead for approximately three days. The official cause of her death was accidental drowning. Carol did not know how to swim and consciously steered clear of water.

Sixteen years earlier, her companion, Edward Durston was in Diane Linkletter’s apartment when she jumped six stories to her death.

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Monday Artday: supernatural

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is Susan friend coming wit her t'night?
In 1982, I was in my second year of art school. When I began my first year at The Hussian School of Art, Jimmy Carter was president and he was very generous with government money for education (if you can call “art school” education). When Ronald “There’s a Commie under my bed” Reagan became president, dollars that once went to education programs were now earmarked for bombs to keep us free from those dirty Ruskies! To pay for school, I worked three evenings a week at my cousin’s health food restaurant, Super Natural. Super Natural served veggie burgers and fresh salads and eggplant Parmesan and vegetable stir-fry and tempeh sandwiches and all sorts of organic and healthy shit. My cousin commissioned a local artist to create a mascot for the restaurant. He delivered Carrot Man, a super-vegetable who fought against fast food. (I actually redesigned Carrot Man several months later for a new in-store menu.)

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I would walk (actually I’d run to make it in time for my designated 3 o’clock start) from 13th and Arch in center city Philadelphia to 16th and Spring Garden, just on the outskirts of North Philadelphia.

Super Natural was a cafeteria-style eatery that did a brisk lunch business. It was directly across the street from the Philadelphia headquarters of Smith Kline (now GlaxoSmithKline). Soon, Community College of Philadelphia opened in the 1700 block of Spring Garden Street, in the long-vacant former site of the Philadelphia Mint. (Incidentally, this building also served as Philadelphia Police headquarters in the 1983 film Trading Places.) Because the crowds were so big at lunchtime, my cousin Ron decided to open for dinner three nights a week. Unfortunately, Smith Kline employees and Community College students wouldn’t be caught dead in North Philly after 5 o’clock…lest they be caught dead. Needless to say, dinner business was light.

I worked behind the counter, making salads, stuffing pita bread, dishing out portions of tofu lasagna and grinding fruits and vegetables into fresh juice. Despite fitting the profile with my beard and ponytail, I was not a follower of the health food lifestyle. During the day, I ate hot dogs from street vendors or bacon double cheeseburgers and fries from Burger King. And no weekend was complete without a cheesesteak from Jim’s on South Street or a hoagie from Lee’s.

One Friday evening, — February 26, 1982 to be exact — my life changed forever.

Super Natural’s closing time was 10 PM on Fridays and my co-worker Tony (whose name was really Gary… who knows?) and I were anxious to leave as soon as the last casserole pan was washed and the last mop string cleaned the last floor tile. Around 9 o’clock on this particular Friday, a party of three — two girls and a guy — entered the restaurant. I was not too happy, as I had to greet, serve and get this crew out in under an hour. One of the girls approached the counter. I thought she was pretty, but I was more concerned with moving them along — out of the restaurant and out of my life. She asked about the various dinner offerings on display. She pointed to a container of shredded cheese in the salad section and asked, “Does the cheese have rennet?” I replied with five words. Five words that obviously melted her heart and won me her eternal affection. Five magical words. I said “What the hell is rennet?

“Rennet,” she explained, “is used in making cheese. It is usually from an animal source. I keep kosher and if your restaurant is truly and strictly vegetarian, I was wondering if the cheese has a vegetable-derivative rennet.” She smiled.

I looked back at her with an annoyed and confused expression and said, “Kosher? I don’t know anyone under the age of 80 that keeps kosher. My grandmother keeps kosher, for Christ sakes!” I looked at the clock. “This is taking too long,” I thought. The other girl approached the counter. She was cute. I thought I would attempt to charm her phone number out of her, so this night wouldn’t be a total loss. The three made their selections and sat down at a table to eat.

Already behind in my usual closing-time schedule, I began to close up the steamtable, clean the wok and wipe down the other tabletops. Tony (or Gary or….whoever) was in the second-floor kitchen, washing the evening’s dirty casserole pans. As I wiped the other tables close to the lone diners, I tried to make friendly conversation. I suppose I thought it was my duty. I gathered all the charm I could (for a Friday at 9:45 PM). I introduced myself and I asked their names. The guy muttered something I really wasn’t interested in. The first girl — the pretty rennet-questioner — told me her name and asked me if I had an older and taller friend. The other girl introduced herself. Midway through her name I asked for her phone number….several times…. which she refused to give. So I scribbled on a piece of paper and forced my number on her. Girl Number One, however, gave me her number for my older and taller friend. She also told me that I was one of the most obnoxious people she had ever met. Finally they finished their meal and left to go to the movies, a midnight showing of Grease.

I called Girl Number One the next day, to tell her to expect a call from my older and taller friend. On the phone she was funny and sweet and adorable and there was no way I was giving her number to anyone. We talked for almost three hours and I asked her out myself.

We were engaged nine months later. This July, we celebrate our twenty-fourth wedding anniversary.

Curiously, I have happily kept kosher for twenty-four years and I decided to become a vegetarian almost three years ago.

Maybe Carrot Man does have super powers — supernatural powers.

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SFG: politics

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The challenge from sugarfrostedgoodness.com this week is “politics”.
I'll press your flesh, you dimwitted sumbitch!
W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel served as Texas governor and United States senator. Born in 1890 in Ohio, O’Daniel came to Texas at age 29 as a sales manager for Burrus Mills, a flour-milling company in Fort Worth. In 1928, O’Daniel took over the company’s radio advertising and started a country music program to promote the flour. O’Daniel hosted the show and organized a band called the Light Crust Doughboys. Many of the musicians who made Western Swing famous, including Bob Wills, got their start in O’Daniel’s band. In 1935 he organized his own flour company to make “Hillbilly Flour” and began to call his band the Hillbilly Boys. The slogan, “Pass the biscuits, Pappy,” made O’Daniel a household name throughout Texas.
Radio fans urged “Pappy” to run for governor, and in 1938 he did. He attracted huge crowds, ran on a platform of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, and won the election by a landslide. Unfortunately, O’Daniel possessed almost no qualifications for success in the governorship, and accomplished little of the agenda he had promised the people of Texas. He ushered in an era of censorship and limits on academic freedom at the University of Texas by his appointments to the Board of Regents. But despite his obvious shortcomings as a leader, he remained very popular due to his masterful radio showmanship.
In 1941, O’Daniel won election to the United States Senate in one of the most controversial elections in Texas history, edging out Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson by only a handful of votes. O’Daniel was ineffective in the Senate and was shunned by his more serious colleagues. With his popularity finally on the wane, he did not seek reelection in 1948.
In later years, O’Daniel was active in business and made two comeback attempts at the governorship, basing his campaigns on crude appeals to anti-communist and anti-civil rights feeling. But time had passed Pappy by and he attracted few votes. He died in 1969.
The character of Mississippi governor Menelaus “Pappy” O’Daniel, played by Charles Durning in the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  is loosely based on the real W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel.

“Furthermore, in the second Pappy O’Daniel administration, these boys is gonna be my brain trust. And furthermore, by way of endorsing my candidacy, the Soggy Bottom Boys are gonna lead us all in a rousing chorus of ‘You Are My Sunshine.’ …. Ain’t you, boys?”
“Governor, it’s one of our favorites.”

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Monday Artday: elvis

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The Monday Artday challenge this week is “Elvis”.
I hope I haven't bored you.
Sure, he was known worldwide as “The King”, but here are a few little-known facts about Elvis Presley.
He was a black belt in karate.
His entourage were known collectively as the Memphis Mafia.
None of Elvis’s 31 feature films were ever nominated for an Oscar in any category.
Elvis recorded more than 600 songs in his music career, but didn’t write a single one of them.
Some of Elvis’s bejewelled jumpsuits weighed more than twenty-eight pounds.
He only performed five concerts outside the United States – all in Canada in 1957.
Led Zeppelin were big fans of Elvis and were desperate to meet him when they toured the US.
Elvis collected marble statues of the Venus de Milo and Joan of Arc.
Elvis’s favorite soft drink was Pepsi.
Elvis had “the hots” for Elizabeth Montgomery.
Elvis wore a cross, a chai (Hebrew for “life”) , and a star of David around his neck. He said, “I don’t want to miss out on heaven due to a technicality.”
Elvis’ favorite sandwich was a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich.
Elvis’ favorite dessert was a hot fudge and amphetamine sundae.

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