A very happy birthday to Mr. Tex Avery one of the great pioneers in animation. I’ve always loved his surrealistic slapstick. So to celebrate here’s his 1950 MGM classic, Ventriloquist Cat.
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Once again I am really scraping the barrel. But here we go… This week’s Rhapsody is the Warthog Rhapsody an unused song from Lion King recycled as “That’s All I Need” in Lion King 1/2. I confess I’ve only seen little bits of this direct to video film and what I saw, other than a few neat musical numbers, did not impress me. As far as I can tell the idea behind this (other than let’s stretch this franchise as far as it will go was) Was the thought “Well since Lion King is our adaptation of Hamlet, let’s do our version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead!” which lead to over of half an hour of Timon and Pumba bumbling around in the background of all of the scenes in Lion King. Needless to say it didn’t work for me is a bit of an understatement.
But as I said a few of the musical numbers are fun and this is no exception.
Enjoy.
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Well it had to happen sooner or later. I’ve been doing fanart on Deviantart for a while. I like to treat it as a professional exercise creating something that is not mine and therefore I’m not particularly attached to in a set period of time just as if it were a regular assignment.
Other than some strip related art I pretty much stick to fan art on Deviantart, mainly because I’m a bit paranoid about putting material on it. I’m not one of those people who think that someone will steal their ideas at the slightest slip of the tongue but that’s not the same as putting a potential intellectual property up where everyone can see it. (Deviantart runs on Creative Commons which speaking as a proud member of the Graphic Artists Guild I find charmingly naïve.)
The other reason is kind of sad. Sometimes it seems fanart is the only way to get any attention on Deviantart and what can I say, sometimes the limelight’s nice.
For a while I’ve been specializing in human versions of characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and for the most part I’ve been getting some good positive feedback.
Until the other day.
One of the pieces I did recently was Fluttershy as a dark-skinned Muslim girl. I’d seen some other artists play with this meme and liked it enough to want to give it a try. Later I found out there were a lot of people who didn’t like the concept either due to racism or thinking it was a PC gimmick. (I’d done it because I thought the pink hijab looked cute) I didn’t give it any thought, and besides I’d gotten good feedback out of it until I got this comment.
Why does she look like she’s retarded? Also why give her dark skin when she’s is literally yellow in the cartoon? I understand dark skin for twilight, but fluttershy is just no.
I was flabbergasted. I was nearly certain it’s someone trolling but still… How does having a character smiling make her look retarded? And Fluttershy can’t be dark-skinned because the original version is literally yellow? She’s also literally a pony what’s your point?
So I’m assuming I’m being trolled. (Because otherwise I’d have to assume a small minded racist git is singling me out.) I shouldn’t have a problem with this after all if you’re visible enough for people to do this sort of thing, that’s good right?
Still I can’t say it doesn’t hurt my feelings just a little bit.
I have two friends who make jam… and not just any jam, wonderful excellent craft jam made from the fruits of their own trees. It is jam to be coveted. I usually get a chance for about one jar a year… two if I’m lucky. Sometimes she’ll bring them to parties and I’ve one a few at Christmas White Elephants in ways I’m not particularly proud of.
This year it was a very nice plum jam but the jar was especially hard to open. I did all of the tricks running water tapping the edges… It was like one of those old slapstick routines where the big burly man struggles with the jar and finally hands it to his petite wife in frustration who gets it with one twist. Since I do not have a petite wife it took me nearly fifteen minutes to open.
I had hoped that was the end of it but, the next time I went for the jam, I had the same trouble. It was if I had closed the jar as tight as possible when I was done with it the last time. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Had I somehow mangled the thread of the lid with all of my tapping on the lid? I got it open at last but only after giving up and having something else to snack on twice. When I was done I closed it very gently so i wouldn’t have to do this again.
No such luck. The third and last time it was just as hard to open as before. I finally got it open with some struggle by leaving it out with the warmth allowing the metal to expand slightly.
At the moment I am just wresting the lid on the jar but even now I expect difficulty.
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Today’s sketch is some details from an Annunciation, at the Seattle Art Museum, by Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi Aka Lo Scheggia, “the Splinter” done in egg tempera , 1440.
I found myself quite taken by this piece. For a long time it’s been very easy for me to write off a lot of medieval art as primitive and backwards simply due to it being very stylized showing little knowledge of anatomy and none regarding perspective. Lately however I’ve been very interested in the craft of art. And when you really start to look at these pieces you start to see exquisite brushwork and skill (especially when you know exactly how tedious tempera is to use.) Lo Scheggia had some serious painting chops.
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Last year their was a thread on The Webcomic List’s Forum from some of the out of town attendees about easy options on where to find food quick in downtown Seattle. This year I decided to be preemptive and provide some of the data before the question came up. (A quick note, obviously there are lots of wonderful posh places that I recommend this overview is strictly about downtown grocery stores for people who need food fast.)
Obviously anything at the convention center should be avoided it’s not just the prices it’s the fact that everything there will be huge lines and all of us there on business just won’t have the time. The closest options are:
Ralph’s Grocery and Deli on 4th Ave, Seattle, WA (across the street from the Cinerama)
Kress IGA on 1427 3rd Ave
The New Downtown Target on 1401 2nd Ave and of course Pike Place Market.
I’ve been to Ralph’s once or twice it’s a bit posh but good. I would avoid the IGA it’s one of those places I like to think is designed solely for gauging yuppies. I checked out the Target recently. Their grocery section seems to be designed around people needing to eat on the run but the prices seem to be about average. As for the Market there are always a lot of interesting options there at various prices. I haven’t shopped there recently enough to be able to recommend anything. but one of the few perks of Emerald City being early this year is the tourist season hasn’t officially started so the market shouldn’t be too crowded for people who are just there to shop.
If you’re willing to take a little more time for a better deal I will suggest the QFC on Pike and Broadway. Just walk up Pike (that’s the street the convention center straddles) and you should make it in 15 minutes. The other Market I will recommend is Uwajimaya in the International District 600 5th Avenue South. It has a very good selection of Chinese food, Sushi and Vietnamese Sandwiches. You can probably walk to it in 15 minutes but better yet it’s right on the International Districts Bus tunnel (You can enter the Bus Tunnel at the downtown Nordstrom’s on Pine street) Unfortunately Downtown Seattle no longer has it’s ride free zone but 1.25 for the round trip should be worth it to save on food.
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