Heroes

One of the cool things I like about the NBC TV show, Heroes, is who does the soundtrack - two of my favorite artists, Wendy and Lisa, also known as The Girl Bros. They first got noticed nationally when they joined up with Prince on his Dirty Minds album and proceeded to create ground-breaking records as Prince and the Revolution. I highly recommend their follow-up albums as 'Wendy and Lisa' and 'Girl Bros'.


Here's Wendy Melvoin, Sheila E, and Lisa Coleman at the Brit Awards 2006.


Wendy and Lisa at the Brit Awards 2006 where they would play with Prince for the first time in twenty years.

Photos © 2006 renata k.

Clive Barker

Sarah and Phil, the lovely folks over at Revelations (the official Clive Barker website), were nice enough to put a link to the 'In The Flesh' posters at the Burning City store. There's also a cool little video of Clive giving a gallery tour of his work.

Sick Leave

Well, wasn't that fun? Around 9AM Friday morning I called both Alex and Dave to tell them that I wouldn't be attending a lunch that had been planned for awhile. After I hung up I proceeded to puke hour on the hour until about Saturday afternoon. It is now very early Tuesday morning and I am finally feeling remotely human again. Back to work.

Engel

I've added another song to the First Fear working soundtrack - 'Engel' by Rammstein.



Here's the English translation:

Angel

Who in their lifetime is good on Earth
and will become an angel after death
you look to the sky and ask
why can't you see them

First if the clouds have gone to sleep
you can see us in the sky
we are afraid and alone

God knows I don't want to be an angel

They live behind the sunshine
separated from us, infinite expanse
they must cling to the stars (very tightly)
so they won't fall from the sky

First if the clouds have gone to sleep
you can see us in the sky
we are afraid and alone

God knows I don't want to be an angel

© 1997 Edition Rammstein from the Sennsucht album.



I've seen Rammstein a couple of times now, once at Metro and another time on the Southside in a huge metal sports hall. The Metro show was interesting, because Chicago prohibits pyrotechnics in most venues and the band had to play sans fire. On the next tour around they played at the most out of the way joint around, but they were outside city limits and lit the place up with flames, firecrackers, and pyro from every possible angle and limb. Rammstein is both impressive and disturbing for their way with the audience. The Germanic rally atmosphere is pretty overwhelming and the irony is unfortunately lost on some of the skinhead fans. Scary on many levels.

Fellow Traveller

This year, in October, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sputnik's launch. That's right, Sputnik, the first orbiting satellite. Man's maiden voyage into outer space. Which, of course, makes me a Sputnik baby.

Now We're Cooking

I started writing The First Fear in June, 2006. Today I finally broke through the myriad of story drafts with an intro I could work with. I have several intros and lots of background, but never really bought into my lead character nor the way I was telling the story to the reader. Until now.

I had been writing tons of exposition and scenes, but no cohesive story to hang a hat on. Or draw for that matter. I have devoured Will Eisner's books, Scott McCloud's theories and other writing tomes, but the one that really hit me hard was Alex Toth's critique of a Steve Rude story. Everything I was writing introduced the lead character waaay too late and took forever to establish the core of the story and where it takes place.

But now I'm in a happy place (for however brief that will be, it's good to find at least one happy place per project.)

Two First Downs

I don't normally talk about life outside of my artwork in this chatfest, but once in awhile I have some special news that affects all of my life, including my creativity. This is one of those times. My father, who is 89, fell about 8 weeks ago and broke his hip. His recovery has been touch and go, including talk of funeral homes, hospice care, and my father never walking again. Well, yesterday (with help) he got out of bed and walked for the first time since his operation. And he kept walking. Two walks at 30 feet apiece. Essentially, two first downs. Way to go, Dad.