Art Slump

*sigh*

I can't seem to draw these days. At all. I just don't feel as inspired and my mind is usually occupied with other things. I’ve been so lazy and unmotivated. Argh, it’s really dragging me down. I also think I’m getting fatter these days cause all I seem to want to do is just eat, drink Fanta/Coke, watch the Dark Knight again or go to the comic book store and buy something else. It’s such a pain in the ass!!

I feel so bored and ugly.. Urgh.. Look at me, I’m falling apart in my own blog? What are we in high school? lol!

For what it’s worth, I think I’ll force myself to draw something tomorrow. I have a lot of projects in the works that were started during the year, I should really continue those. If nothing else, I’ve been thinking of doing some (brace yourself) Sonic the Hedgehog fan art.

Yes. You read right. Sonic the fucking Hedgehog fucking fan art, by me. Boy, my standards are really lowering these days, huh? Haha. Anyway, the Sonic fan art is just for fun. For some reason, I just really feel like drawing Nack the Weasel (..or Fang the Sniper). He always seemed like such an underused character to me. I felt he was pretty cool ever since Triple Trouble.

So what the fuck, I’ll go ahead and draw a picture of Nack. I’m sure some of the fan boys might appreciate it.

Monday Woes & Photography

This past weekend was a blasty blast. A lot of alcohol, music, dancing, boats, and.. well, raunchy behavior. You can see the photos of my little adventure over at my MySpace account. I don't like making photo albums in Facebook since the interface and amount of photos are so limiting, so expect a small portion of the photos to be uploaded in the coming months.

Also new photos from the Coyote Ugly bar will be making their way to the photography gallery of my website. Same thing goes with those Kill Hannah photos I promised ya'll. They're coming really soon, just hold on.

So I've been thinking about my photography, and I'm really considering taking off all those photos of theSTART and Alpha Rev from my website. I feel I'm slowly coming into to my own with my newer photography and looking back at the old photos really make me embarassed. I know my new photos are heavily influenced by Merlin Bronques, but I've always felt as if that was the direction I wanted to take with my images. My old material doesn't capture the in-your-face, up-close-and-personal attitude that my latest photos capture. When I try to shoot bands performing or hipsters/scenesters dancing; I want to make those viewing my photo's feel right in the action as if they had been there. I want to shoot photos in a way that you can take one of my photos and make it into a banner or advertisement for said band or club.

I know I have a lot to learn about photography, but I am really getting comfortable with this style and I want to see how I can keep evolving it. Studying and taking classes in the princibles and elements of design have really given me a new eye for how exactly I want my photographs to look. Here's a demo photo of Matt from Kill Hannah. I love how I caught the water dripping down from his water-bottle. I may or may not choose to have this in my Kill Hannah set. Tell me what you think of it. I'd like a second opinion.

I'm bringing my dancing shoes.

So I saw The Dark Knight for the third time tonight. I wanted to see it so badly all week. I would have seen it the other day, but Hurricane Dolly and her cheap little gimmicks sorta ruined that evening. Boy, Dolly proved to be a major let down here in Laredo.

I see she tore apart South Padre Island and Corpus Christi, as well as gave San Antonio lllooonnnggg showers, but we didn't even get a power outage or anything. We thought she was going to prove to be this big threat that KC stayed inside for two days only to be bored out of his mind.

"Yeah, I wanted to go Boots house and play Sonic The Fighters on his Wii." - KC the Cat

Oh well. Anyway, I'm headed to Austin in the morning to go hang with my cousins and drink/dance/party/strip/sing/barf all weekend long! My cousin is getting married on a boat and I'm in it to win it, baby. Whatever that means. I should stop quoting Quientin Tarrantino movies. :P

OH NOES!!!11

GEORGE IZ BEAN ATE'D BYE KRISTAN BAIL!!115

Bleh..

I haven't been doing anything productive lately. I haven't drawn or attempted to sketch something out in close to 2 weeks. It's annoying actually. I really want to finish up on this one really experimental peice that I started a while back, but.. no go.

I just don't feel like doing anything. It pisses me off. Instead I've tried messing with some of my accounts and pictures and do more advertising or networking on the computer. Okay, I guess. Not that it helps that much, but whatever. (Then again, my Trent Reznor portrait was discovered in Last.fm, by CEO Magazine before they published it. So maybe it's good that I go the extra mile.)

Anyway, today Nine Inch Nails released the phsyical copy of "The Slip" in stores. Remember folks, it's limited too 250,000 copies and each one is individually numbered. Since Trent has both number 1 AND number 250,000, I guess this means there really only is 249,998 copies of it in circulation. Regardless, Best Buy has a decent amount of the CD/DVD set. I got number 100,800! Aren't I the cool guy? I have a ccooolll number. :P It also comes with some stickers which is always fun. The DVD is great too. Live performances make me happy. I can't wait to see Trent and his boys again this coming August.

Should be neat.

Well, that's about it. Sorry to bore you guys. :P

More Batman Talk!

Well, I just came back from watching "The Dark Knight" for a second time. I gotta say, it was even better this time around. I look forward to seeing it again in a few days.

I hope Jack Nicholson, Tim Burton, and Joel Schumacher have all seen this movie. Because, this is how a Batman movie should be. I know all the Batman fans hate Joel Schumacher, but after seeing "The Dark Knight", as well as "Batman Begins", you begin to realize that Tim Burton is really just another hack too. "Batman Returns" is such an idiotic movie. That man (or "director") is useless without Johnny Depp.

The Dark Knight

Go, see it NOW!

If already didn't join the rest of us. And for those watching it right now at 4 in the morning, just wait till you get to the end. Don't worry, I will not type any spoilers!

The movie is fantastic. It is an insane, emotional, and almost devastating roller-coaster ride. There are more twists and turns and fucking sucker punches that you won't know what hit you.

Heath Ledger. OMG. What the fuck does somebody say about that performance?! He just set the bar for the next 30 to 50 years. I don't think anybody can play that role for a really long time without looking like a horse's ass. I wish he was around to hear all the positive press because honestly, he was an entirely different animal. That mother fucker was evil. Insane. I honestly hope somebody like that doesn't exist. Cause, that ain't right.

Here, I'll leave you all with a few words from Roger Ebert's review:

Nolan also directed the previous, and excellent, “Batman Begins” (2005), which went into greater detail than ever before about Bruce Wayne’s origins and the reasons for his compulsions. Now it is the Joker’s turn, although his past is handled entirely with dialogue, not flashbacks. There are no references to Batman’s childhood, but we certainly remember it, and we realize that this conflict is between two adults who were twisted by childhood cruelty — one compensating by trying to do good, the other by trying to do evil. Perhaps they instinctively understand that themselves.

Something fundamental seems to be happening in the upper realms of the comic-book movie. “Spider-Man II” (2004) may have defined the high point of the traditional film based on comic-book heroes. A movie like the new “Hellboy II” allows its director free rein for his fantastical visions. But now “Iron Man” and even more so “The Dark Knight” move the genre into deeper waters. They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes. And the Batman legend, with its origins in film noir, is the most fruitful one for exploration.

In his two Batman movies, Nolan has freed the character to be a canvas for a broader scope of human emotion. For Bruce Wayne is a deeply troubled man, let there be no doubt, and if ever in exile from his heroic role, it would not surprise me what he finds himself capable of doing.

It's almost time..

..in just less than six hours, the most anticipated movie of my life will finally be released!

In honor of the upcoming Batman movie, I have gone ahead and featured my Heath Ledger portrait of The Joker in DeviantART, SheezyArt, MySpace, and Facebook.


The drawing is really popular and I know a lot of people really enjoy it. I spent an entire day on it non-stop, and I'm pretty proud of it.

After reading the reviews and praise of this film, it's sad to know that Heath ain't around to hear all the positive press and critques' on his performance. It sucks.. But alas, he has given this generation a new Joker for this day and age. It's going to be a wild movie. I simply can not wait.

Oh, also.. expect to see me on Pro-8-News tomorrow morning and evening, for I am going to be interviewed tonight at The Dark Knight premire in the mall. Since Valerie works at the newstation she hooked me up with an interview which I'm going to be talking about the new Batman movie and all the hype that surrounds it. It's so rightfully deserved in my opinion! Haha!

Anyway, it's almost time! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!! I feel like a 10-year-old girl about to see Hannah Montana live in concert!! XD

In just 24 hours..

..the wait will be over.


"..it's all a part of the plan."

Marvel Comics "Civil War"

Low and behold, this little town surprises me yet again. It seems we finally have a comic book store here in Laredo again! Oh man, I can’t begin to tell you the last time I was in a comic store here in this city!

Needless to say, I think I might be getting into comics again. They had a bunch of neat stuff (like any decently awesome comic shop should be). Tons of toys and posters and movie props. The guy who owns it even told me they have a friend coming down next week who helped do some of the props for the Dark Knight! They’re gunna have them on display at the store after the movie’s release. He says their getting Bat-arangs for sure, as well as one secret that his friend couldn’t say. (Ooohh.. I wonder what it is!!)

So, for my first purchase I decided to buy the trade paperback copy of Marvel Comic’s “Civil War” series. During my stay at Ralph’s apartment in San Antonio this past weekend, he showed me his copy of “Civil War”, which is a groundbreaking Marvel Comics event that permanently shaped the storylines of beloved pop-culture super heroes. I had known of this series for a few years now, but never got around to actually owning any of the stories. (I just read a summary of it in Wikipedia, I think. Which was no fun at all.)

Well, I had no excuse not to own it now so I bought it, and I have to say that this book is stunning. It is a massive achievement in terms of comic book storytelling. Not only is it very adventurous and takes chances but it says so much about the times we’re living in and because of it, it really it’s close to home.

“Civil War” involves the introduction of a Superhuman Registration Act to the United States. The act requires any person in the United States with superhuman abilities to register with the federal government as a "human weapon of mass destruction", reveal his/her true identity to the authorities, and undergo proper training. Those who sign also have the option of working for S.H.I.E.L.D., earning a salary and benefits such as those earned by other American civil servants. Characters within the superhuman community in the Marvel Universe split into two groups: one advocating the registration as a responsible obligation and the other opposing the law on the grounds that it violates civil liberties and the protection that secret identities provide.

It’s a powerful read and the symbolism in both Captain America and Iron Man’s decisions is just genius. The relationship between Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic is tested to a breaking point. Spider-Man shows the world whom he really is, and George W. Bush gives Tony Stark a high ranking job.

..there is much to be said, but I will leave it at that. I recommend it if you’re into comic book super heroes. It really is a great book. I think I’m going to go check out “Batman: The Killing Joke” as well as that one Batman novel Frank Miller wrote which inspired a lot of the imagery in Batman Begins.

Speaking of Batman, the day is almost here. I can hardly wait. I hear the showtimes for the midnight showing at the mall are all sold out. It’s going to be an insane night.

Kill Hannah ..kills San Antonio.

Well, last night was a blasty-blast. The White Tie Affair, Innerpartysystem, and the Medic Droid all tore it up at the Scout Bar in San Antonio. (The White Tie Affair’s cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Lovestoned” was fucking great!) However, it was the headliners Kill Hannah whom totally owned the night! It was a lot of fun. I was pretty buzzed up on red wine throughout the entire performance but was I still able to dance the night away. It was so great. They opened up with “Boys and Girls” which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. They even played a new song called “Acid Rain” which was cool! Mat and the boys really put on a show.

Jaime managed to snag the set-list from the stage and got a few of the members of the band to autograph it. I got to meet Mat (lead singer) and Jon (lead guitarist) as well as got my picture taken with them.

All in all, I had mucho fun. I was going to have a preview of two photos of Kill Hannah’s set that will eventually be featured on my website in the coming weeks, but Blogger‘s photo uploader isn‘t working at the moment. So, yeah.. Sorry for the lack of photos in this entry.

EDIT: Here are new two new photos! Full set will premire in the coming weeks!

San Antonio Guns Me

I'm currently in San Antonio at the moment. I think I'm the only one over the age of 21 in this appartment. Heh. Too much beer and not enough flavor. I can't lower my standards. So I'll remain the "uncool" one for tonight.

I'm actually over here cause I'm going to a see Kill Hannah perform tomorrow. What sucks is that I'll need to drive back right after the show. I have an appointment with the goverment Monday morning and I can't miss it. It's nothing bad, but it could change my "situation". Take that whatever way you want. I won't mention anything about it other than that.

So anyway, I think it's safe to say that my latest drawing "Chains" is a complete failure on all my accounts. I haven't gotten any feedback and nobody has favorited it. Still, it's all good. I'm proud of my work. Also, I'm going to be donating one of my works to the Laredo Center for the Arts during the fall as well as be another exhibition where I can get the chance to sell some my work.

More people are starting to know my name and work in Laredo. I feel pretty special. So, maybe it's better that I'm becoming successful outside of the internet. Life's funny like that. Heh.

Anyway, I'm gunna go chelax now. Laters, ya'll.

"Chains" Premires!

My new drawing, "Chains" has officially been uploaded to my website, SheezyArt, Self-Portrait.net, and DeviantART.

A shout-out thank you to Mrs. Mary Bausman and her husband, David Bausman! Mrs. Bausman is somebody whom really inspires me and gives me a lot of hope, at times when I have none left as an artist and a person. She's somebody to really look up too, and I admire her. I'm sure Angie would agree with me on that one. :)

Thanks for always pushing us and making us go that extra mile. I wish more people were like you Mary. You rock! :D

Enslave those around you..

"..must be a devil between us,
or whores in my head,
whores at my door.

whores in my bed..
but hey,

where have you been?"

DVD Review: "Gotham Knight"

I forgot to mention yesterday that I purchased the new anime Batman film, “Gotham Knight” (which was released the same day). Being the Batman freak that I am, I just had to go out and by it. More so because of the fact that this “Ani-Matrix” film deals with the events in-between “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” That to me was the major selling point. You know, I love Batman, but what I love even more is Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the character. Despite Nolan not directing any of these films, he and David Goyor (“Begins” and “Knight” co-writer) oversaw the project as well as the producers of both movies. As you most certainly know, I’m very much excited for the new movie as I read up on it everyday and am slowly counting down the days until it’s release. Shit, I even bought my tickets 3 weeks early!

Anywho, “Gotham Knight” is six interlocking short films directed by established (and celebrated) anime directors. I have to say I am really out of touch with anime and anime culture. I don’t know who’s who or what the new thing is, and since I grew out of anime several years ago I was a bit confused by the first several minutes of the movie. It was also weird to see Batman in anime form. I am so used to his American variation that it just seemed a bit out of place. However, rest assured that as the first feature “Have I Got a Story For You” keeps going you become to accept it with ease. It’s actually pretty cool in fact. I love the first story as it’s a re-working of one of my favorite classic Batman cartoons, “Legends of the Dark Knight”. (What makes “Gotham Knight” even more amazing is that the episode “Legends of the Dark Knight” is actually encluded in the 2nd disc!! Who cool is that!!) Basically it’s a bunch of punky preteens hanging out at a skate park talking about their personal encounters with Batman. Each of their story tells a different interpretation of Batman or how they saw him. It’s kind of cute actually. I like how the one girl overly exaggerated her experience making Batman look like not only an actual Bat-mutant but that he ripped off the head of the bad guy causing a bloody scene in the middle of on-lookers. I was like, “WTF?!”, and then her friends were like, “..what? That didn’t happen! Batman doesn’t kill anybody!” ..and thus she admitted she sort of made the experience more dramatic. It was funny and really neat.

Another great story in “Gotham Knight” is “Working Through Pain” which reminds us that there is still a very emotionally and mentally weakened Knight inside Batman. In order to try and work through some of his unrecognized demons, this chapter shows Batman going too India to train under a mysterious Indian woman, Cassandra. What I like about this chapter is that it shows you the Dark Knight’s more spiritual side and how he deals with his emotional scars and how it affects him as a hero and a person. This is something that has always attracted me to this superhero and why he stands out to me more than Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Superman, or the X-Men.

One other awesome thing about “Gotham Knight” is the chapter, “In Darkness Dwells” which introduces “Killer Croc” into the Christopher Nolan-Universe. Yup, that’s right. One of Batman’s more “unrealistic” characters is actually introduced to the much more realistic universe. I gotta tell you, David Goyor and the other writers involved in this totally updated his origin and makes me believe that he might just be a possible candidate for “Batman 3.” Instead of a the “radioactive/chemical lab experiment-gone-wrong” cop-out, they decided to make him a man born with a skin condition. Even more interesting is that the writers figured out a way to involve Scarecrow into the Killer Croc origin. Scarecrow basically made Killer Croc into even more of a monster because swimming inside his blood was the hallucination gas (as seen in “Batman Begins”). In tern, Batman got bite by Croc and thus some of the gas got inside Batman for a bit. It was pretty wicked and very action packed. It was good to see Scarecrow again and see what he was doing after his escape from the Narrows back in “Batman Begins”.

All in all, the movie is pretty sweet. It’s solid, it’s got it’s share of emotion and action. Even though some of the stories end to quickly (“Deadshot”) it’s still a good add-on to “Batman Begins” and the upcoming “Dark Knight” movie.

However, my only real big grip with this film is the voice acting. I am a fan of Kevin Conroy who voiced Batman in every single Batman Animated Series/Justice League episode, but.. Why? ..why couldn’t Warner Brothers get Christian Bale to voice Batman?! Huh? There’s no excuse! Why wasn’t Michael Cane, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Eric Roberts, or Cillian Murphy in it either?? You know, a big reason that made “The Animatrix” so special was that it actually had Keanue Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss doing the voices of their characters. Urgh.. It just kind of bugged me that they didn‘t have Christian doing the voice. He’s voiced an anime before too. So he knows the drill on how it‘s done. No excuse, Warner Bros. >:/

But whatever, that’s my only grip. It doesn’t take a way that this DVD is a badass companion to “Batman Begins“. I plan on seeing it several times before “The Dark Knight” actually. It’s that good.

Anyway, “The Dark Knight” will be released in just 8 more days!! See you guys there!! :D

11 New Photos Added!!

Ladies and gents, 11 new official photos of Mindless Self Indulgences' set in Austin, Texas (shot by yours truly) have been added to the photography section of my website.

I am no photographer, so needless to say my photography skills lack so much. My previous photos of theSTART and Alpha Rev really show that I am not skilled. However, I really tried to take my time with these new set of pictures. If you're familiar with Merlin Bronques work, you'd see that he was a major influence on the direction I took. I'm getting comfortable with this kind of style and have already begun applying it to a lot of my new photography. So, expect more photography along the same lines as these Mindless Self Indulgence photos.

Oh yeah, new photos of The Birthday Massacre as well as my new drawing "Chains" will be released very soon. So keep an eye out for those and continue to check-in on my updates here at "Another Pilot Down". Thanks for the support everyone!

Metal Gear Soild 4, Hancock, and "Chains"

It’s been pretty tough working on drawings lately. Too much around me that gets me distracted. I’ve been hanging out with my cousin Fernie a lot and yesterday I hung out with Sir JC “Supafly” Garcia and I got to see his Playstation 3 at work playing “Metal Gear Soild 4.” OMGF, it was awesome. Graphically it’s one amazing game, but even though I know they’ll explain the story as you progress, I felt really confused.

All in all, though, it looks really nice. I am sure a PS3 will find it’s way into this house again pretty soon.. >.>

..so I will undoubtedly see what happens next.

Oh yeah, on Tuesday I got to go see Will Smith’s new movie, Hancock. It’s a pretty fun movie, I gotta say. I don’t think I will buy it on DVD, but I can tell I will be watching it a lot when it comes out on HBO. Even though it gets kinda serious towards the end, the humor, action, and fun make the movie from becoming a failure.

Aside from my fun distractions, today I was stuck in my laboratory for most of the day working away, penning my nightmares and fighting my demons with pencils and inks. I like where some of these new drawings are going. Hopefully I can maintain a good schedule and can work on them for and more. One drawing you can expect soon will be called, “Chains” which is one of my more abstract pieces.

Hopefully you kats, will enjoy that. That’s it for now, I’m gunna go chill out.