Len TV: Guitarmania

Happy Memorial Day everyone! On this special episode of Len TV, I document the hard work done by my nephew Trevor on our Guitarmania 2007 guitar entitled "Octopus' Garden". To see the backstory on this guitar and the art project, see this post. Our design was chosen by the committee and the guitar was sponsored by Time Warner Cable. Also, our guitar was one of seven that were brought into the Rock Hall, which we feel is pretty darn good and an indictaion of something. Also, it will be on display pretty prominently here in town, so all is good. Watch the video and enjoy your holiday!

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Walk The Walk

Ah, the good old days. I remember when Emily (AKA aleprechaun, AKA Code Monkey Dance Girl) had only a handful of views of her Code Monkey Dance and I felt like I had discovered something really cool before anyone else had. Now the girl has been featured on NPR, the NYT and she has over a gazillion views of her dances. She's back again with a new dance that is slightly more focused and, for lack of a better word, professional. As professional you can get while dancing in your bedroom in your pajamas. Anyway, enjoy her new dance - a Bob Fosse-esque take on Poe's "Walk The Walk".

Caption This: 5-28-07

Mystery Question 5-28-07

No prize this week, just a fun question.

"Emperor Akbar once ruled over India. He was a wise and intelligent ruler, and he had in his court the Nine Gems, his nine advisors, who were each known for a particular skill. One of these Gems was Birbal, known for his wit and wisdom. The story below is one of the examples of his wit. Do you have it in you to find out the answer?

Once Emperor Akbar ordered a horse to be delivered to Birbal so that he could easily move about the kingdom.

The stable-keeper however, was extremely jealous of Birbal, and decided to deliver a sick and weak horse to him. The horse was delivered to Birbal's stable. The next morning, when Birbal went to proudly leave his house on a horse, he found the horse was dead. Looking at the weak and frail horse, he understood what must have happened. However he could not insult the Emperor or his gift, so he kept silent.

Unfortunately for him, the Emperor observed him entering the palace grounds on foot and, when he entered the court, the Emperor immediately questioned him about the horse.

What was Birbal's diplomatic and accurate reply?"

Congrats to former Clevelander, Jen! She was the only answer and the correct one from last week and she gets a four pack of Monster By Mail buttons. Send me your address Jen and I will get them out ASAP.

Heroes Set On Flickr

Hulk
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

For those of you who are interested, I have started a Heroes (and possibly villian set) on Flickr. It will become a repository for my interpretations of different comic book heroes. There are only a few in there now, but I'm sure over time I will add more. I was inspired to a small painting of the Hulk last night and that's what prompted me to start it. Check it out.

GuitarMania Hits Cleveland

For those of you who don't know, Cleveland is the Rock and Roll Capital of the World. Yup, it's true. And one of the benefits of living in the Rock Capital of the World is that you get to participate in some pretty cool public art projects.

A few months ago, my nephew Trevor asked me if I would like to work with him on some designs for GuitarMania , a public art project where artists are invited to create scuplture and art out of these huge oversized guitars. It's been a pretty popular project here in town and it certainly is very prestigious, as each guitar is auctioned off at the end of the summer and also displayed all over town. Many artists from across the country, and even some celebrities, have desigend guitars for the project. I agreed to help Trevor design the guitar and lo and behold, our design, Octopus' Garden, was accepted into the project. Moreover, it got sponsored by Time Warner Cable.

Now, I must confess, my major contribution to the project was my design. Trevor did all the hard work and back-breaking labor of sculpting and painting , lugging this heavy piece to various locations and essentially bringing my artwork to life. He's an incredible artist, a very talented painter and not surpisingly, his guitar is getting a lot of attention. In fact, the sculpture will be displayed rather prominently across from Tower City, a major hub here in town.

Anywho, I was pretty excited about it's big unveiling this weekend. From what I understand, our design is in the upper eschelon of designs for the project. I have to make a trek downtown to see it in person and when I do, photos and video will be forthcoming. But in the meantime, you can see more about our guitar and the other guitars in the project here.

UPDATE: I met the guitar in person and have uploaded the photos to prove it.

The Evil Lakewood Landord

I got this link a few days ago from Michael, who was surprised to see a story on Digg out of Lakewood, Ohio. Apparently, a landlord has been forced to live in his apartment building with no heat, stove or water. The story has been all over the news here in Cleveland. But the interesting thing is that I just found out tonight that this guy used to be Neil's landlord. (Neil, occassional Jawbone guest and blogger of Fishbrick, of course). He says the guy was a pretty nice guy, but never did anything in his apartment building. Anyway, talk about a brush with fame!

Thats One Big Pig!

This has been all over the place and several people have sent me the link, but it's too good not to show.

"Jamison Stone, 11 years old, shot the wild boar that weighed in at a “staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail"

At first, I thought it looked fake, but the offical website tells a different story. Check it.

Happy Star Wars Day!

"It was 30 years ago today
Luke Skywalker blew the Death Star away..."

Man am I really that old? Anyway, today Star Wars turns 30 and to commemorate, I picked up a sheet of Star Wars stamps and a book of postcards from the post office.

How are you celebrating this milestone day?

Tank Girl Returns!

I was a big fan of this comic back in my college heydays. So this comes as great news:

Coming in May of 2007, Ash will work with Tank Girl co-creator/writer Alan Martin on an all-new, four-part Tank Girl adventure, Tank Girl: The Gifting. While Ash will be handling the character for the first time, Scotland-based Alan Martin is returning to the character he originated with artist Jamie Hewlett (also of Gorillaz fame). The Gifting will feature a series of non-linear stories (as you'd expect in a proper Tank Girl adventure) with such titles as "The Dogsh*t in Barney's Handbag," "Kill Jumbo," and "The Innocent Die First."

Great news for those lovers of Tank Girl. Read the whole story.

LEN TV: A Trip To The Real Zoo

Len TV returns with a brand new episode!

I decided to take a break from monsters and cryptids for a bit and go see the real fake dinosaurs at our local zoo. With my trusty companion in tow, we get a one-on-one meeting with some of the coolest pieces of mechanized rubber that Cleveland has ever seen. Enjoy!

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And What About The Batman?

Batman Sketch
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

I picked up this tonight and it made me want to draw Batman. What the hey. I love black and white art and who else would look better in B and W than the Bat?

I also grabbed a bunch of dollar comics, once again, just for the art.

Season Finale Wrap Up

Here's my take:

24 -sucked. Hard.
Heroes - Interesting. But still sucked.
American Idol - should have been only 5 minutes long.
Lost - Really, really really awesome.

Your thoughts?

Coleman's Cryptozoo

Coleman's Cryptozoo
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Last night, Loren Coleman (of the site Cryptomundo) and I traded e-mails back and forth about Monster By Mail. In order to get featured, he threw down the gauntlet for me to draw a "zoo" of a bunch of cryptid creatures, including Nessie, Bigfoot, The Yeti, and the lesser known Dover Demon and Mothman.

Within a few hours, and much to his delight, he had the image in his inbox. You can read more at his site.

Here's a pretty cool excerpt:

"Called “Speedy” at his former mainstream illustrator job, the guy is rapid in his response. Last night, within an hour in email time, Len sent me his black and white graphic art version of my one line request. What he produced, actually, was superb, in my view, as he made “my art” more nonfictional than cryptofictional, as compared to his other pieces. It is almost as if he read my mind, combining my serious but open-minded take on cryptids with his graphic art vision of how he does his illustrations."

On another note, I think I was channeling a little bit of Jim Lee with this piece. I've been reading Batman Hush and it's taking me forever because I am poring over the incredible art. The ink style was definitely Lee-influenced.

I Feel Melting

Like Drum Solos?

I'm a sucker for drum solos. So of course, I had to post this. Thanks to Nephew Mark for this cool find.

Pac Man's Skeleton Found!

Personally I think this is a fake. No way did Pac Man have all those teeth. Check it. And thanks Michael!

Blood Puddle Pillows

This is seriously one of the weirdest, twisted, yet cool items I've seen in a while. Check it out! ViaELR.

Animated Calvin and Hobbes

From Philip via CartoonBrew:

"We may never see a Bill Watterson-approved animated version of Calvin and Hobbes but the following student film from Italy is a nice unofficial attempt. The animation was done by Donato Di Carlo at the CFP Milano film school."

Check it out.

Caption This: 5-21-07

Images of the Joker from the next Batman film have leaked and in my opinion, the jury is out on this...but the image does make for a nice Caption This image. Have fun!

UPDATE: The internets controversy rages on. Is it fake? Or some viral studio trickery? You decide.

Mystery Question 5-21-07

This one, I feel, is pretty tough. The first correct answer gets a four pack of signed, Monster By Mail buttons.

Find a short hidden message in the list of words below.

carrot fiasco nephew spring rabbit
sonata tailor bureau legacy corona
travel bikini object happen soften
picnic option waited effigy adverb
report accuse animal shriek esteem
oyster

Congratulations to Xadrian, who got the answer right first! He gets a four pack of Monster By Mail buttons. The answer:

The first man couldn't have filed away the bars, because if it actually was a diamond palace as he said, quartz wouldn't even leave a scratch.
The second man was closest of all, but still lying. Fingernails are very close to, but not as hard as, copper, so he couldn't get out, no matter how desperate he was.
The third man had lied most of all. First of all there is no such thing as natural black topaz (it was probably obsidian). Also he made the same mistake as all the others, for a steel file is not as hard as topaz, and would not do anything to the topaz.

Insanely Big Monster

This is probably one of the coolest applications of one of my monsters. Paul ordered the monster "Slick Death" from Round 1. He took it to work, printed it out at 1200 dpi, 22 x 40 and now it hangs on his door! It's Insane! It's Big! It's Monstrous!

If you have any other cool shots of the monsters in the wild, please keep sending em along and I'll keep posting them.

CryptoMonsters In Full Swing

Cigar Smoking Desert Yeti
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Things are hopping at old MBM. I think this round is a little tougher because of the subject matter, but that's ok by me. I'm trying to spend a little more time with each drawing, which is turning out nicely. For those who aren't checking the site daily, here is one of my recent faves, The Cigar Smoking Desert Yeti.

JoCo's Secret Chili Recipe

There's a great (long) post by Coulton today at his site about how he conquered the interents with his songwriting prowess. It's a great read and cool to see how the stars aligned for him to become the internet superstar he is today. Required reading, indeed.

Happy Birthday to The Whiz Kid

Leave your messages for Mr. Dan Coulter (the programming genius behind e-hobo, Monster By Mail, E-Zombie and more) right here.