It's All About The Benjamins Baby - Look Who I Ran Into!
As a few of you know, I live within walking distance of Justin's, a restaurant owned by the one and only Sean "P Diddy" Combs. I decided to check it out for the first time last night with a few friends, and the food was excellent. It's a mix of southern and caribbean styles, resulting in one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had.
Even though Justin's has a reputation as a local hot spot for celebrities, I was pretty sure that we wouldn't run into anyone on a late Wednesday night. But sure enough, right before our main course came out, we heard some commotion at the front doors. And there was the man himself, P Diddy, accompanied by none other than Farnsworth Bentley (his increasingly famous butler who has been showing up in all sorts of music videos lately). Everyone in the place remained surprisingly calm (except for some annoying girls sitting behind us), but all heads were turned towards Puffy as he walked inside and gave a hug to the hostess. That's when our food came out, and Puffy went to go talk to a group of people seated on the opposite side of the restaurant.
After about 10 minutes, he started walking around from table to table, making sure that everyone was having a good time at his place. I had luckily stowed my digital camera away in my cargo pants pocket in the off chance something like this would happen. He came to our table while we were waiting for the bill. Puffy smiled and asked, "Gentlemen, how are we doing tonight?" We echoed a round of "great" and I asked if I could snap a picture. Or, to be perfectly honest, I found a picture of Puffy online, took a picture of me, combined them in Photoshop and made up a complete lie. Happy April Fool's Day. Recording is going along swimmingly; I should have Aphelion finished by Monday (when classes start up again) and will begin tinkering with the final still-unnamed song shortly thereafter. The end is in sight. I'm looking forward to a visit from my parents and Sarah this weekend; Andrew will be off at his old JMU roommate's wedding.
The new trailer for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban just went up online; you can check it out here. It looks extremely promising. There's also a new Batman movie in the works called Batman Begins, and they just posted a photo of what most people think is the new Batmobile. Instead of the campiness of the last few films, this Batman is being helmed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and will be based on the Dark Knight comic origins.
Wednesday, March 31 at 9:03 PM
M A R C H 0 4
Adam Reno comes into town and second quarter ends. Dave does oil paintings, changes his stage name, and meets illustrator Bill Mayer. Book reviews for Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys and Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors.
Because 1 Through 41 Were Taken
One recent daily distraction is theroot42, a private message board filled with design students from around the world. People post work for school, clients, or just practice, and everyone makes comments and critiques. It's refreshing to get different world perspectives on your designs and be continually inspired by others. Sign up if that sort of thing interests you. And watch this if freestyle harmonica beatboxes interest you, or watch this if Superman and Seinfeld interest you.
Monday, March 29 at 10:03 PM
Don't Quit The Day Job
Tonight I finished two 24"x20" oil paintings on stretched canvas. They're basically just experimentations in a new medium and an excuse to brighten up some bare walls. Oils take a while to dry, so I'd do small sections and paint new layers every 5-7 days...a slow but relaxing process. The first painting is called Projectile Euphoria and was an exploration of a traditional children's storybook style. Iceberg Exodus is the second one, and it's just weird for weirdness' sake, adding spraypaint and permanent markers and a guitar string package (ahem, that's "mixed media").
Saturday, March 27 at 10:05 PM
Reno 911
Last night hearkened back to the Dance Marathon days at UVA. Ranmali goes to Emory for law, and we had made dinner plans when she got a surprise call from none other than Adam Reno. You might remember that Adam beat out Optimus Prime and Justin Timberlake in an old Second Nature comic strip election. Turns out he lives in LA, but he's down here as a casting director for a reality TV show. He and his girlfriend Alicia joined us at Nickiemoto's in midtown for some excellent sushi, and then on to East Andrews and Moondogs for drinks and dancing.
Adam had plenty of classic Reno stories, like planning an elaborate engagement proposal for a friend and having lunch with the cast of the O.C...he was actually recruiting people from time to time during the night, getting names and passing out business cards. And what better place to be for the Georgia Tech NCAA win last night than a bar full of Georgia Tech students?
It's nice to have a digital camera and be able to post a picture like this when you get home. One week of break down, one to go.
at 12:01 AM
Coffee Before Bed Makes You Dream Faster
I've been taking care of Katie's cat, Fritz, while she visits Japan with Jeff. On a related note, I hate cats. When Andrew and I delivered The Washington Post during high school, some houses had cats that would jump out of bushes or snarl at us. Johnny Tomczyk's cat once went insane and started scratching me for no apparent reason. Fritz feels comfortable around me since I use Katie's color printer a lot, but he hasn't converted me. If I try to walk around the house, he meows, runs, and stops RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. So I've had to school him with spinning fake-outs. Colonial Homes has a library of free DVD rentals, so Fritz and I watched Casino, Heat, and Training Day this week.
Recording is coming along slowly - I've been working at Imagine almost every day...which has been great, but it leaves little time for rocking out. Currently, I'm illustrating and designing a promotional mailing for Pella, a cool shoe store in Lenox Mall. The deal is for 20% off any pair of shoes during your birthday month. Pity I'm a month too late; those crimson leather stilettos are to die for.
Thursday, March 25 at 6:48 PM
Linden Gilliaert
I've decided to make my stage name Linden Gilliaert, and no, you can't convince me to change my mind. Changing names is an ancient pseudonomic art form. Um, that's a shot in the dark; I have no idea if pseudonym can be used as an adjective. Hold on, let me check...yep, turns out it can, pseudonymous. Apparently pseudonomic is an antibacterial acid. Imagine my embarrassment.
Look, I know I've been All-Talk-No-Show-McGee about this demo thing. It's been five months since I first hatched the plan. Four recordings later, self-doubt kicks in and everything is put on hold - Who am I kidding? My stuff is nowhere near as good as what's already out there. Nothing new. But there's no harm in trying, especially under a stage name. So I'm recording two final songs over these next few weeks, re-envisioning the packaging (no more cartoon Dave), and selling myself to Atlanta. Why the name? Linden - the small town in Virginia where my Grandpa retired to. Gilliaert - my middle name that I couldn't spell until I was in middle school. As well as...
1) Safety net. If I make an idiot of myself (likely), no problem. Prospective employers won't say "Oh, so you're the Dave Werner who drop-kicked a puppy onstage."
2) Something to stand out. There are too many Daves out there already: Matthews, Gray, Grohl, Navarro, Bowie, Cassidy, Lee Roth. There are no Lindens on the planet except for Linden Ashby of Johnny Cage Mortal Kombat movie fame.
3) Cool factor. Granted, Linden Gilliaert doesn't really sound like a rockstar name. But it sounds foreign and three vowels really shouldn't be able to stand in a row like that. It will be mispronounced, misspelled and butchered, easily upping the cool status (it's pronounced LYNNE-DIN GILL-E-ART). Maybe I can fake people out into thinking I'm from Iceland or something.
4) An escape. As silly as it may seem, the name change relaxes me. As Dave, in school or music or whatever, I feel like I have to please a lot of people. As Linden, I can do whatever I want. And as Chris Gaines, I can make a commercial disaster.
I've thought about all of this at great length, writing down hundreds of name combinations. Everyone's had an opinion on it, but I can't please them all. I could've stuck with Dave, but couldn't pass up this one and only opportunity to try something different. In all honesty, I'll probably end up only playing a handful of small shows here and there, and it'll just be fun to be back on stage again. I have always said that I have no delusions of rockstar grandeur, and I think that's the healthiest and sanest way to go about something like this. Papa's got a brand new bag, metaphorically corrugated with holes for your eyes.
Monday, March 22 at 10:26 PM
Shia LeBoeuf, This Year's Sasha Mitchell
The Cheese Monkeys is a semi-autobiographical novel from Chip Kidd, the well-known book cover designer who spoke at PC last year. It's a humorous quick read through two semesters of art school, where one semester's boring still life instructor contrasts heavily with an unorthodox graphic design teacher in the next. The highlights of the book are the critiques, where the design instructor verbally rips projects to shreds: "Fate gave little Maybelleen the lemons, and she made lemonade. Good for her. Shame she had to go and drink it and turn it into pee. Next." The ending is a little weak and one awkward scene seems to come out of nowhere, but overall it's a fantastic book, especially for design students.
Augusten Burroughs' autobiographical Running With Scissors is a little too graphic and disturbing for my tastes, but it's well written and has some interesting underlying themes. When Augusten's Mom moves in with her psychiatrist, life seems to enter a bizarre new dimension. The kids create holes in the floor between their rooms, live outside amongst their yard sale wares for a week, and predict the future with toilets. The book keeps on getting more and more unbelievable, but a satisfying ending has the author finding himself amidst the insanity.
The weekend wasn't a total loss to them chapter books that ain't got no pictures. I also watched the Brian Shea-recommended Blue Crush (predictable but entertaining), saw Lost In Translation (good, worth seeing once), and played Resident Evil Zero (still getting a hang of the controls while zombies jump out of refrigerators).
Sunday, March 21 at 3:35 PM
Luck of the Freakin' Irish
I had lunch today with Bill Mayer, his wife Lee, and my Adobe Illustrator instructor Tom Mattix. Bill is an incredible artist with several unique styles in his arsenal, including some absolutely jaw-dropping work with airbrushes. I took a tour of his studio, saw some of his current projects, browsed through some sketchbooks and even got a chance to show him this site! His son Jason went to PC as well, and I remember visiting his site when I was doing research on the school last year. It was a great experience, and got me excited in illustration again - back to the feelings of the Second Nature comic days. Well, I'm still pursuing art direction, but I've always been interested in becoming as versatile as I can over these two years and beyond. I came home today and immediately started painting a couple of canvases with the leftover oil paints from the Magritte self-portrait. Former Baltimore roommate Nick Deifel is trying to talk me into selling original artwork, so we'll see how it goes.
Last night was insane - I stayed up until 4:30 and watched tipsy classmates try to figure out a $450 bar tab. Hey, when Rusty buys everyone a round of shots and gives a spirited speech about entering our third quarter, how can you say no?
Wednesday, March 17 at 7:27 PM
My Diamonds Are Reckless
Critiques went great. The Conan O'Brien typography poster got the most kudos, followed by the postcards and Magritte letterhead system. It certainly didn't hurt to have two of my current instructors as judges, and the third had a history translating video games. Two quarters down, six to go. Time to celebrate. More on Thursday.
Oh, and here's a Mini Cooper Robot (extremely convincing, but not real). Nike's Transformer ad is also pretty shweet. And there's word of a live-action/CGI Transformers movie in the works. Could you imagine a battle scene where every car on the freeway changes into a robot? Add some 'splosions and slow motion and you've got yourself a movie.
Tuesday, March 16 at 4:54 PM
Yeah, Take That, Rewind It Back
My second quarter Portfolio Center projects are finished and up in a new Shoot. Critiques are Tuesday morning at 11:30. I've felt like I've learned so much in half a year, and feel lucky to be able to call stuff like making video games "homework". Even at its most frenzied and stressful times, I love what I'm doing. I did the normal 18-hour/day work routine again this past week, often sitting at the PC computer labs with my headphones on, rocking to the iTunes radio stations. I tell you what, Nelly's AC/DC Work It remix with Justin Timberlake is what got me through the week. There were a few nights where I came home and wasn't tired, but I knew I had to get to sleep. So I closed my door, blasted Work It, and danced like a Darren's Dance Grooves madman. Other recent favorites of mine are Usher's Yeah (Luda is a genius) and Janet Jackson's Just A Little While (clothes optional).
Work at Imagine Design has been going very well. Lisa just moved into office space that's only five minutes away from me. The new place is warehouse-ish and very open, with lots of friendly people running all sorts of different businesses. The tech guys ride scooters to get around - I might have to find my Big Wheel from the 80s and race them.
Hope you enjoy the new projects. I'll write about how critiques went on Wednesday.
Sunday, March 14 at 8:08 PM
The Misadventures of Ezekiel Balls
No updates from me for a while; studio week has officially begun. Next week will bring a new Shoot of finished second quarter projects. Hopefully, later this month we'll have the final Okay Samurai Chronicles, another movie, and some new mp3s.
Happy Tree Friends push the boundaries of cartoon violence, but the animation is excellent and these guys are hilarious. Jump on the bandwagon now before they get too trendy.
Saturday, March 6 at 9:02 PM
Sorry Yan, But You Can't Cook
If you've known me for a while, you would be very proud of what I did tonight: I went on an Asian cooking extravaganza (this is coming from the guy who had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch every day last year). I had a great peanut/coconut noodle bowl with seasoned chicken at a restaurant a few weeks ago and wondered if I could recreate it cheaper at home. I got thin noodles, coconut milk, peanut oil, boneless chicken breasts, a splash of soy sauce, Emeril's Asian Essence, walnuts, and baby corn. The end result wasn't perfect, but it was certainly the best tasting thing I've ever cooked on my own. Yeah, it even tops my egg and cheese croissant sandwiches.
On March 5-7, McDonald's (ba da ba ba ba) will be giving away one million dollars to fifteen random people all across the country. So if you go eat at McDonald's this weekend, you have a one in a gazillion chance of becoming a millionaire. But this contest is a direct reaction to a lawsuit accusing McDonald's of rigging their promotional games (like the Monopoly peel-offs). Apparently they admitted that the biggest prize pieces weren't seeded out randomly; they were given to friends of high-ranking employees. This scandal reeks of that fat lavender lump, Grimace. Handouts to friends much, you chubby heliotrope? I'm pretty sure that tricked-out Bentley didn't just fall into Mayor McCheese's lap.
Everyone else in the world has linked to these, but I'll do it anyway: episodes one, two and three of the Mario Brothers saga. Two more are on the way.
Wednesday, March 3 at 9:14 PM
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