Moleskine sketch, links and Murakami

I wanted to post interesting links so i had to scan something.

Its a bit sad that my scanner is the cheapest piece of plastic on earth, not able to scan a Moleskine page without making the slight yellow tint on the page look funky.

To battle this, i had to turn it into black and white. I hope its still a enjoyable sight!

But lets get down to it!

- Deforgeo makes a borderless comic

- Louis made stickers!

- how to paint with color

- incredible giraffes by Andrew Shek

Other than that, i started reading BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN by Mr.Murakami and i really like it so far. I felt a bit boring to buy ANOTHER Murakami novel but what the hell, his story's have never disappointed and i like the mood his words put me in.

I'm really thinking about doing some drawings based on my favorite books from him.

Sketchbook pages / Movies and Books

ALSO:

- did not like the new HULK movie (mostly because the trailer already had managed to show EVERYTHING! that was in it)
- saw "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" and was impressed by it (a documentary about steroids. Well made and highly entertaining)
- saw "No end in sight", also well made and often times painful to watch.
- read "Pattern recognition" by William Gibson and liked the mood.
- currently re-reading "Kafka on the shore" by Haruki Murakami. Liking even more the second time.

Book report: THE GAME (Neil Strauss)

my take on THE GAME.
pencil sketch and bad overpaint

Another book i read recently is THE GAME by author Neil Strauss.
I think there was some forum post talking about and i thought "why not" and ordered it.
It took me only some days to finish it and i´m still not sure what to think of it.

Its basically an advice book.. only that its subject are women and its audience are men who don't know how to get women/ that don't know how to act around them.
I never really thought that i have a problem being "myself" around the females and it was strange to read all the difficulties one could have talking to women.

So again, its a book about geeks who try to get laid by doing the best thing in their arsenal and that is remembering lines and acting like someone else.
Its never about developing an interesting personality or trying to better yourself to attract someone.. its always about using different methods to gain attention (magic tricks, bumping into someone, ignoring the targeted female while talking to her best friend) and then to play the hustler.
Its geeks dressing up as weirdos with hats and smiling allot and making jokes they read on a forum.

There also is a rough storyline, the author Neil Strauss is talking the journey to become "THE ULTIMATE PICK-UP ARTIST" and we are able to read his adventures and thoughts.
He meets people who call them self MYSTERY and gets laid allot towards the end of the book.
All of this thanks to his lines, confidence and ability to read women.

The redeeming quality this book has, is the author himself. He knows what he is doing, he knows that he is doing something kinda wrong and he always writes about the doubts and failures of himself and his comrades.

And even though the tricks this books teaches you are mostly stupid and embarrassing, i still would recommend it to anyone.
I think there are some fundamental truths about relationships and women buried inside of these pages.. and these are topics were everyone wants to know more.

things to listen to

Time flies by at the moment, i don't really play as much as i want to, i don't draw the things i need to draw and i have many podcasts and movies that remain untouched.

Some of the stuff that is sticking out the most:

World War Z - Audio Book
I have written about the book before but after reading that the audio book enhances the story, i gave it another shot.
And its awesome.
All the problems i had with the written material (it has some boring scenes that don't contain plot or any merit) are non existent in audio form.
There are some famous/good voice actors here and it feels way more real and visceral then before.
Definitely worth checking out and its fun to draw while listening to it.

contains Juergen Prochnow, Mark Hamill AND Henry Rollins

- ERRORS, a great mixture of electronic and post-rock sounds (not a real video, but it gives a good idea of their music)

HOWDY and the UFC

Drawn while watching episodes from the 1, 4 and 5 season of THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER
Never thought that i would like the UFC one day but.. now i´m into it!
MMA is much more interesting than Boxing at the moment.
Most of this could be because of this AWESOME book:

Don't be put off by the cover.
The author (shown being covered in blood) is a pretty normal guy that is interested in finding out more about the world of fighting and the cool thing is that he is ready to step into the ring too.
Its partly filled with his experience training different fighting styles and partly written as a kind of "why do people fight?" "why do we watch people get hurt?" subject book.
Its also full of links and quotes from other books and i cant wait to read some of them too.
But lets let the writer speak for himself

Enders Game

Thanks to the great guys from the GFW Podcast, i was pointed to ENDERS GAME.
Normally, reading sci fi is not really on the top of my "wanted subject in a book" list.

The typical book in that genre is catered to a very specialized fan that most of the time, only reads sci fi and wants certain descriptions, character types and battle stuff.
So, although being a huge fan of sci fi television and movies, reading a book with that kind of sujet was always off to me.
BUT the recommendation from GFW and the low price point made me buy it and i started and finished it on the same day it arrived from amazon.

a quick summary taken from wikipedia

"It is set in Earth's future where mankind has barely survived two invasions by the "buggers", an insectoid alien race, and the International Fleet is preparing for war. In order to find and train the eventual commander for the anticipated third invasion, the world's most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into Battle School at a very young age."

And i really don't want to write more about the story.
Knowing nearly nothing helped to enjoy this book allot more i think.
Maybe because there is not REALLY much meat or maybe because the twist is easily spoiled by most of the sites.
In any case, the GREAT thing about this book is its style.
The author manages to write about space ships and technology without describing it too much,
without getting into lala- land territory.
Sci fi tends to be outdated very quickly but this book (written in 85) feels like it was written some days ago.

Enders Game is the first book of a whole series but i don't know at this point if i really want more.
It was a great experience and part of it was the mystery surrounding that universe.
Getting too much information could ruin it.

CURRENTLY READING:
All the pretty Horses

the men who stare at goats

a lazy sunday with a great documentary, thanks to google video:

from boingboing:

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a must-read 2005 book by UK journalist Jon Ronson about the US government's interest in very strange stuff, like Jedi powers, psychic spying, subliminal sound weapons, and the potential to kill something (like a goat, or an enemy soldier) just by looking at it. Fact or fiction, or most likely some of both, it's an absolute blast to read. (And Ronson's BBC Channel 4 documentary based on the book, Crazy Rulers of the World, is a lot of fun too! You can find it here on Google Video.)

i also read:

and have a hard time finishing:

more finished things

JPOD

I read through Jpod in a very short amount of time.
Not because i was so hooked and into it but rather because there was not much to read.
Its a thick book without any real content.
Lots of jokes about google, cunnilingus sites and haha, video games!

Its the equivalent of a popcorn movie, its shallow entertainment.
Read it if you really liked MICROSERFS or want to see how many times an author can set himself into a story as a character that is NOT the main protagonist.

It was pretty much the opposite of THE ROAD.
While The Road is dry and sparse but very effective,
JPOD is loud, dancing on your head while being on acid and not touching at all.


Splinter Cell for the PS2

Another thing i finished is splinter cell on the ps2.
Its not really the newest game but i wanted some stealth action and the MGS collection is not yet out in Europe.

This was not the first time I played as Sam Fisher, I tried it once on the PC (at a time it was new) liked it, but then ran into a graphic glitch that broke the game for me.
Seeing that it was only 3€ on Amazon was also nice in thinking what game to tackle next.

And it was a good run!
It took some hours to get used to the camera and I died ALOT but overall:
A good experience!

something from the sketchbook:



and:
i finished THE ROAD yesterday and it was good but it also took me some time to get into it.
from the wiki entry:

"It is a post-apocalyptic tale describing a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted years before by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and, seemingly, most life on earth."

Its hard to write something about this book. There is not much dialog, not much "action".
But it conveys something real between the main protagonists and you really get a glimpse of the shattering loneliness they both endure.
Its also going to be a movie and i´m looking forward to seeing it being translated to the big screen.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN turned out great, this could be just as good.

a book report

two books I've been enjoying in the last week:

1_the autobiography of steve martin.
a book about working hard on the thing you love, meeting girls and having trouble connecting to once parents.
the only bad thing about this book is that its short (around 250 pages) and that it ended with me wanting more.
i guess that not a real downer though.





2_grand central winter by lee stringer
recommended if your interested in looking into the life of people living on the streets of new york.
the writing is good and the stories are full of high and very low points in life.


And while on the subject:
Dark Days is a documentary about people living in the subway tunnels of new york city.
Below are the first 10 Minutes, you can watch the whole movie on Google Video

BooksMusicDs

My life is pretty dull at the moment.
I´m reading books, go to work, listen
to music on the train and paint at home
(with some DS playing pauses).

I don't even watch that much movies/tv right now.

In the above order, recommended things:

BOOKS



MUSIC


DS

things done while watching the giant ape

while watching KING KONG the second time, the mind wanders and pages get filled with lines.
(the bug scene still creeps me the hell out)




Other than that, im trying to understand Zbrush3,
i got a new book,
and its constantly raining when im about to paint in the park.

Why not

update!
i managed to spend nearly all my money on books (amazon)
and useless stuff (IKEA) and im broke again.
this is not unusual but as the "messy" sketchbook is getting nearly filled.. having not enough money to choose my next SB without thinking about the price is horror.
hehe, these "problems" seem really ridiculous when thinking about it.
AND THEY ARE!







WORTH A LOOK

a great book

|

a dreamy series
|

even better the second time
|

finally
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oh you beautiful decay

updateupdateupdate.
got a new moleskine and another SB just for ink stuff and for messing around.
(sorry for the bad scans, had to do it at home with the crappy one)







other things of current interest:

MUSIC


BOOKS


MOVIES
awesome (if you can overlook that its pocahontas again)


allright, not much meat to it but its worth watching for the costume design alone
and boring


GAMES
replaying this one

and first time playing this one