Beginning Bits O 2019 - Part Three

Jean Michel Basquiat at the Brant Foundation is their inaugural show, right down the street on 6th street from Foo. The building used to be a ConEd substation and now its a huge awesome looking 4 floor art space.

view from inside.

Amor y Amargo

The design for Helms Deep 2.0 (Currently considering renaming it Laputa II) was altered many times over a few months and this is the final version we went to the the roof with. It shook out pretty much like this. There were a few mis calculations that were caught before something bad happened. Backstory: Last year I fashioned a bird netting covering over the garden space and it kept the squirrels out for a few months but eventually the started chewing through the netting every day. Once a neighbor said she saw a raccoon on her balcony and Jen saw one smoking a cigarette and talking on his phone in front of our building I knew that extreme measures had to be taken. Thus began the journey of creating a "Castle in the Sky" free from rodents/birds/ne'er-do-wells who wish to undermine our garden paradise.

From Hayao Miyazaki's classic movie Castle in the Sky (Tenku No Shiro Laputa in Japanese). Laputa was originally from 1726 Gulliver's Travels novel by Jonathan Swift which I didn't know til i googled it. I think it serves as a grand metaphor for our green and verdant fortress floating in the sky (the roof) which is practically and legally not a permanent structure.

didn't buy this but wondered why it had to be camouflaged. 

fit a bunch of 2x4s and 2x2s in Black beauty. Really needed 2x2x12s but wouldn't fit so had to splice some boards together.

ok let's make this 8ft tall, 12 ft wide, 4 ft deep squirrel and raccoon proof cage.

learning the "nuances" of wood. Like how none of the lumber is cut super precisely. 

This is like 6 hours of work on day 1. Steven and I greatly underestimated how much time this would take several times. (total time needed 3 days). We thought we'd get it done in one day.

4 issues of BBC Science Focus with my illos in them.

another garbage room find

Misome greens flowering in March in the greenhouse is weird.

this side track lighting going out on the train looked more dramatic in real life than in the photo.

Reception, a bar with Korean inspired cocktails.

Lettuce greens: chrysanthemum, mizuna, buttercrunch, red leaf.

  

FOB, Filipino BBQ on Smith street. Was delish, my fave was some kinda coconut milk kale thing.

I ordered a Panga Drops beer from Nicaragua at Bar San Miguel and didn't expect this little fella.

Beginning Bits O 2019 - Part Two

a trip to Virginia to see Jen's sister's new kids. This is Emma, and I didn't get a pic of Noah

humble beginnings

Steven's pal Adia Victoria is a big name now and she was in town playing a show.

helped Bartlett move studios from Greenpoint to Gowanus. Along the way he smashed the side mirror off on a parked semi

APA recipe from Johnny Ribiero turned out good but slightly purple for some reason. The most hoppy one we've made to date and we even cut back on some of the hops cuz we thought the IBU level was insane.

The oat stout was sitting around for 6 weeks by the time it was done. We threw in a little bit of beast yeast and it came back to life and ended up being 7% ABV but not very good.

Dinner at now Michelin starred Jeju noodle bar where Jini works. Its in the spot the Nighthawks coffee shop used to be in, aka the Nighthawks painting by Edward Hopper. 

was delicious and good luck getting a table now that it has a Michelin star.

Steven's portion of the winter brews

future jason here to tell you that slow cooking pork shoulder as opposed to pressure cooking is better. Pressure cooking takes like an hour but it leaves it dryer and less flavorful which seems like common sense but when you're in a dinnertime pinch you gotta do what you gotta do.

these days I kind of improvise so I used nectarine soda to make a sweet glaze sauce and t'was pretty great.

two martins and two taylors, my dad's  guitar collection

 

Cormac is a weirdo, he does this by himself sometimes.

and also this he does unprompted.

Brut IPA is a hot new dry style of beer. This one from Sierra Nevada is decent.

2018 Illustration Roundup Part Five

Section cover illo for The StarTribune in Minnesota about fraud, especially against the elderly. These people are the scum of the earth and if you want to hear an example of how they do it listen to this episode of the planet money podcast to hear this elderly woman get scammed several times. These are our grandmas! I really liked this other The Farside-esque idea I had also. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/03/654124255/episode-680-anatomy-of-a-scam

Bachelorette parties are part of the New Orleans economy wether you like it or not. For New Orleans Magazine.

E-Yoga uses technology to stimulate the brain while doing yoga or meditating to enhance the effects. For The New Scientist.

For Golf Magazine’s Rules Guy column. This month there were several questions that involved deferring to the your local golf course committee and socialist theories. Mao, Stalin, Lenin

When I lived in Tokyo I took up the Japanese tradition of sending a new year zodiac animal postcard. 2019 is the year of the pig (but in Japan it's the boar). In the old days they called wild boars "mountain whales". Even now they call young boars "melon boy" because they have stripes like a watermelon until the age of 1. From top to bottom is says "happy new year", then 2018 (in a special year numbering system), then the special character for boar, used only for the year of the boar. The red stamp is my name stamp.

Don’t forget, how we treat our robots and voice assistants is seen by our kids and peers. For BBC Focus

The 1950s was a repressed era where racism was pervasive. As I searched for 50s photo reference I found that 100% of the models were Caucasian so I used people of color in my art. Prim and proper meets rebellion and self expression. wide peak lapel suit, collar bar, wide collar shirt, wingtip shoes, straw boater hat, Japanese Ukiyo-e tattoos, waistcoat. This series was chosen for the Society of Illustrator's annual show. 

For The Nation’s books issue about Ottessa Moshfegh’s book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation about a young woman who is cynical, messed up, a trust fund kid, works at a gallery at one point, attractive like a model, and hates her world and her participation in it. Lots of surreal passages. I also liked this sketch as well. https://www.thenation.com/article/ottessa-moshfeghs-contemporary-gothic/

A guy asks about a practice swing displacing a few grains of sand. For Golf Magazine's Rules Guy column.