Linoleum Block Prep

A friend of mine works at a printing press studio in Berkely and we've been talking about doing a series of prints coming up.  The other day I visited the shop and saw the machines:

 

 

 

I bought some linoleum blocks, already have carving tools, and now just need designs.  The image at the top of this post isn't a print but just a happy accident in photoshop where I skewed one color layer over another, slightly offsetting it and mimicking a print.

It would be most simple to start with a simple black and white print, which would only require one block, but that doesn't sound as exciting as the relative precision required for multi-color prints. I sketched a simple image and took it to photoshop to try out various color combinations. I should probably limit myself to just 3 or 4 colors, but they just look so cool. Mixing the paints to match any of these will be an entirely different issue; neither of us has much experience mixing paints.

 

 

I also switched them to black and white to see how well the shapes read.  Some of my favorite color combos are pretty close on the value scale, but it doesn't bother me too much.

I think the biggest crowd I had on this blog was the African music bunch, who I believe since I stopped posting tapes may have abandoned ship.  I assume most of the internet traffic I get (I can see the numbers) are happenstancers searching for my intentionally topical post titles.  All of this is to ask, if anyone has any favorites to let me know!

Enjoy!

Mivacurium Induced Paralysis

I wish I had sound for the video below, but alas, I don't.  It was made over a weekend plus Tuesday, taking about 34 grueling hours.  On the Monday I was a guinea pig for a medical study where I was partially paralyzed by a commonly used but poorly understood neuromuscular blocking drug used for anesthesia during surgeries.  I was hooked up to two IVs, one to administer the drug and another to take blood samples, a heart monitor, and a computer that recorded the distance traveled of my fingers, which were induced to twitch in four short bursts every 15 seconds by an electrical pulse hooked up to my wrist with a sensor.  They dripped mivacurium into me for three hours until I was essentially paralyzed, while doing a series of tests every five minutes to monitor my muscle function, like a bite-test, lifting my head off the bed for five seconds, swallowing, and a hand squeeze.  It was given in three increasing doses, and each higher dose was given only when my muscle response to each test had stabilized over a few runs, every five minutes.  The first dose affected my eyes and eyelids most strongly; it was like being drowsy without being sleepy.  And my lips started to feel numb, not tingly, but less controlled.  After about an hour my muscle receptors had become as blocked as they were going to get, blood samples were drawn, and the next dose came flooding in.  Immediately I lost most control of my jaw and lips.  I could still blink, use my tongue normally, and swallow mostly normally.  I could only lift my hand a few inches off the table until it started sagging back down.  I could usually get a short burst of muscle retraction, like biting, but then I'd lose it and could think about trying to bite down without being able to use my muscles.  It was crazy.  The third dose wasn't as dramatic and was given 25 minutes after the second, and lasted about 35 minutes.  Then when they determined they had the data they wanted (mostly the curve generated by the electric pulse on my wrist and blood samples), the IV was pinched off and within minutes I was back to full strength, except for my eyes that took another hour to see straight.  

Essentially, I was just hanging out with these doctors, one visiting from Norway and another whose dad owns Feiner plumbing in Racine, WI.  Mivacurium is a common drug administered for surgeries, blocking muscles from receiving the signal to contract and rendering patients paralyzed so they don't fidget during the procedure.  Although it's been used commonly for decades, doctors don't quite understand why men and women have different responses to the drug and that's what the Norwegian doctor wants to know.  Another friend told me that the family of drugs from which mivacurium comes is related to the same drug that tips poisoned darts in the Amazon.  It has no sedative properties and you remain 100% crystal clear while unable to use any muscles.  The doctor told me that back in the day (not exactly sure the time scale) when researchers were first trying to figure out what this drug actually did (was it sedative, numbing, what was the pain response, etc) they'd put a tourniquet on the subjects arm, then administer the drug until 100% paralysis except for the one arm whose blood flow was restricted, thus unaffected by the drug.  The subject was still able to signal to doctors in response to their questions.  It was definitely a crazy experience and I probably would have done it for free, too.  It'd be funny if the real research the Norsk doctor was conducting was how stupid Americans voluntarily paralyze themselves for pocket change.

The story below is a bit silly and weird, but it's my first attempt at a storyboarded short.  As I mentioned in the first sentence above, it took about 34 hours, basically writing it as I drew it.  The first versions were absolute chaos, with no consistency in setting and thus incredibly difficult to understand.  But it was cool in that it was so off the wall.  Creating just a few simple backgrounds was the difference between making a chaotic mess and something I could follow, regardless of how good the story is.  The direction I'd like to head is vaguely about diabetes/sugar addiction.  If anyone has suggestions for new and better jokes (especially to replace the kid running around with the bag on his head at the end) I'm open to anything.  Leave a comment please!  Sound would definitely help this video, but I don't have any good film editing/sound software and random internet sound effects are terrible.

And then there's this little guy again.  He was about 150 drawings.  I had fun trying to loosen everything up, but it's not especially consistent; you can see it in his arm movements.  Some of the elbow motion is in rigid angles and other times the structure disappears into what looks like whispy horse tails, except this video quality is not the greatest.  The original video files were huge, and in compressing them the quality turned out like garbage.  It's not so bad for the one above, but the little guy below is a bit hard to see, especially when he first leans up onto his toes.  I spent a long time making his fingers wiggle like Newman in Seinfeld, and now you can hardly see them!

Enjoy!

Country Kitchen #2

Getting bold with photoshop!

Country Kitchen

Staying up late

 

Here's a few hours come and gone.  I think animating this guy took about 8 hours: to plan how he was going to walk, figure out the main poses and draw them and test their initial movement, then draw the head, body and legs for all the drawings in-between, test them to make sure the movement was right, then finish with the arms and nose on every drawing.  I wanted to make him sort of sneaky and should have kept him closer to the ground and slowed it down a bit. 

Then I decided to try converting the creeper to digital with ToonBoom Harmony, an animation software, and came up with this short little scene. 

 

He's definitely not sneaky, especially not in those colorful trees.  The background mountain took about 10 minutes in photoshop and the weirdo plants are just copies painted different colors.  All in all it probably took me 3 hours to trace over the guy, color him, and set up the background/plants.  He looks like he's enjoying a stroll through the forest, not a sneaking-peeping-Tom.

The music is 7 seconds of a song I wrote years ago called Satta, but I don't remember why I called it that since the words I stole to sing on it were from Coumba Sidibe (not from the song in the link but from a transcription I read in a Lucy Duran paper (but I forget which one)).  Writing that song and reading the article probably took another 7 hours, whenever that was.

So I guess this entire project was about 18 hours of work, not including the insane amount of time I waited for this website to upload the stupid videos, but I think that's more C*mcast's fault.  (I'm hoping not to invoke their rage by speaking their full name).

Here's a cool balloon and a dog!

Jason Molina

                                     

I recently learned of Jason Molina's death and now I cannot believe how I never heard of him before.  The amount of amazing music he made throughout the late 90's and early 2000's as Songs: Ohia, or Magnolia Electric Co, or as himself, is humbling-- and all before he was 40!  This was an inspired dude.

His website has opened their Molina collection for free streaming for a short time.  If you get the chance you should definitely check one or both of these (or any of the others).  The acapella song Calling Bird from the compilations category sounds like something John Lomax would have recorded.






                       

                                         

Request...found! - Christy Azuma

Here is a full version of the title song from the film Bamako?


And unrelated except by virtue of an amazing song, via the great Likembe blog, is a 70's Somali song that absolutely fucking rocks:




UPdate a few days later: Thanks Ngoniba for the sleuthing--  Christy Azuma & Uppers International from (didn't see this coming) Ghana!  In the film the character and singer Mele is from Senegal* but married and living in Mali, and apparently singing a Ghanaian song.  The track can be found on Ghana Soundz Vol. 2.  Some searching will yield a copy.

Enjoy!

(* or, at least speaks to her mom in Wolof on the phone)