This guy was too much--student body pres., philosophy major (and honestly, sounded dang bright). He spoke at the inauguration, and did so with a confidence and ease that I would have found impossible to even recognize, let alone execute at age 22. Props.  Yes, that's a bandana on the head...a harsh observer might accuse him of overly self-conscious David Foster Wallace (famed author/recent suicide) wannabe (DFW himself is probably best known for his commencement address to Kenyon College grads). But I don't want to be harsh.

David Foster Wallace: everyone talks about his monumental "Infinte Jest"--I haven't read it yet--but I really liked his first novel, "The Broom of the System." Perfect as an Audible book-on-digi-tape.)

There was free food afterwards.

Dear Wife took me along to the inauguration ceremony for Reed College's new president. What a lot of characters! Their Steve Jobs notoriety has turned the place into a mecca for eccentrics. So many characters I had to run to the campus bookstore and buy a (crappy) brushpen and pad to try and capture some of the visual richness. Sadly, my sketches in no way do the student and faculty population of this august institution justice.

Dangit, totally missed my new Friday Film Frame.

A belated "Merry Widow," a 1925 Erich von Stroheim silent, a movie unexcelled in portraying diabolical Prussian officers.

That Mae Questal was quite a fire cracker!

Shirt dress!

Brushpen!

More Pillow Talk.

(pssst--what is Dotty squeezing in there???)

Pillow Talk. These days I'm not letting myself just sit and watch a movie without trying to sketch it.  (And why, you might ask, am I sitting waching something like "Pillow Talk"? Good question....)
I've found that drawing from old movies with proper movie stars really makes a difference. In the olden days, everyone's features tended to be very distinct. We don't have a DVR with pause and slow-mo, etc., so I just have to draw as the movie unspools. Even tho' a lot of the sketches wind up funky (and unrecognizable) this way, sometimes an unpredictable,  almost subliminal likeness appears. The drawing shows you something in the actor's features/personality you might not have discovered otherwise.

Other times, you just get crappy drawings and long for the ability to sit down with a photo and get the person RIGHT.

Tony Randall, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and yes, Nick Adams as the Harvard Boy.

Spartacus doodle up at the Notorious T.A.G. Blog.

Such a great little statue. Or as the movie/SFX/action figure community would have it, a great little "sculpt."

More views of Flo. So cool!

Went down to the Oakland Museum in July to see the Daniel Clowes exhibition (more on that later). They had this great sculpture on display. This drawing is misleading: the piece is only a couple feet tall.
p.s. Guy in background is not a sculpture. He's a drawing.

Not a headlock.

A love lock.

Post-race coupling after some kind of 5K or 1/2 marathon run downtown.

Spotted on the corner of Burnside and 13th while eating french toast at the Zeus Cafe.

A thank you for a friend (they requested a drawing). I think the prelim sketch has a lot more life, esp'ly for Suzy. Dang it!

I have an inexcusable backlog to work through. (The guy seemed much nicer than I made him look.)