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I’ll post later.

After this, I’m shutting the laptop down, packing it away and turning in for the night. At 4AM I shall be roused, and at 5AM be at the airport, at 6AM be on the plane, and shortly after 7AM, be in San Diego. From there it is more vague… Something about … comics?

I will have internet access while I am at the convention, so I will certainly be posting from the con. In fact, I’m thinking of giving up quite a bit of sleep if need be. To keep the world updated as to my exploits. I will have two convenient methods for taking photos at the con, a Sony digital camera I have got from Fry’s Electronics (I fear I will not be fully satisfied by it, and before the 30-day return period is up), and my new phone (that’s right, I have a new phone now – if you want the number, email me – and it takes photos). So, I may put up a few photos for y’all non-con-people to gander at.

I saw The Pirates of the Carribean and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen today, and I must say I quite enjoyed them both. I shall consider full reviews, but I have the feeling I will have plenty to do in the next few days to keep me busy. Oh, and I saw an advance screening of Spy Kids 3D: Game Over last night. It rocks. Expect a full review when it opens, July 25th. Seriously good fun.

…ummm… can’t think of much else to say right now. … that i haven’t already said. i guess that painting of a chicken (freedom of expression) sold for sure, so will not be making any future appearances by me, in person or in discussion. And.. I’m going to try to carry on that other one. And if they don’t let me… they can refer themselves to the name of this blog. sigh.

That is all. Next post, from San Diego. ta ta!

Tomorrow, Phoenix. Wednesday, San Diego.

I’m trying to get everything together for the trip. We’re leaving here at a little after 6AM tomorrow, so I have to have everything ready to go before I bed down for the night tonight. I have my clothes, my computer and scanner, my old Velo to lend my father, what else? Toothpaste, deodorant, two paintings… I can’t think if I’ve forgotten something.

I’m printing out pages with 6inch by 6inch squares on them and a description of a single panel of the ‘Mouse’ Project below each square. I’m going to have them with me at the con and try to talk artists into volunteering for the ‘Mouse’ Project. If I can get them to sketch something right there, or take the page home and do it on their computer & email it to me, or anything… that will be better than nothing. Even if only a few panels get done this way, it will be worth it. Plus, I will be making contacts with all sorts of new people who may want to help work on the upcoming experimental collaborative comic I’m working on the scripts for.

I’ve got “please” and “freedom of expression” in the back of the vehicle already. Marie hasn’t got back to me since I responded (via email) to her comment this morning, and I don’t have a phone number or other way to get ahold of her, but if she gets her wish I’ll only be taking “please” with me to the con. (Via the helpful helping-ness of Iain. Thanks, Iain!) Note: for those of you who don’t follow FYTH closely, I will be taking “please” because at the Cafepress booth they will be giving away dozens of mini-prints of “please” (along with limited-edition mini-prints of New Comic); I will see about getting the original painting into the Cafepress booth so people can see that their original artwork can be distributed in print form by Cafepress.

I don’t know. I’m going to bed. I’ll see about more updates in the future.

This is just a moment from the dream…

I was in a large room, perhaps a large office or private library, working on plans for … something … there were windows all along one wall of the room, looking out and down; apparently the room is on the second floor. I am across the room from the windows, but I get to a particularly … important … part of my work and feel that perhaps I should look outside. I see two catholic cardinals walking by the building I am in, across the lawn. They must have passed each other (or were they talking and just began walking away from each other?) just as I had that feeling that I ought to come look. I am in front of the right-most window, a couple of paces back now, but I can see the cardinal’s head and shoulders as he comes even with me, and he pauses. He pauses as though he has just felt my presence somehow from twenty feet away, and as he slowly turns and begins to look up I take a couple of slow steps further back from the window. I am out of view of the window before his head is turned up, and I don’t know if there is enough glare on the window from the sun that he wouldn’t have been able to see me anyway, but I get a weird feeling that he has somehow sensed me as I sensed him. I wait a few more seconds and then brave a step forward to see if he is still looking up, expressionless, but both cardinals are now completely out of sight of my window.

This is the seven hundredth post on Fuck Yourself To Hell. Is that meaningful?

So, I was running some numbers through my head yesterday as I sat in the store gallery waiting for customers to walk in (none did), and here are some of them:

Of the ‘currently available art’ I have, including the two I sold a couple of weeks ago, and the two I have finished but not signed yet (a little on that in a moment), about 16% include at least one element that could be considered ‘derivative’ (See Leeloo and Jack/Narrator in ‘lost‘, or Pokey the Penguin in ‘too much baggage‘) in one way or another. About 36% contain letters or words of one kind or another. Eight percent are triptychs (twelve if you count this one). Up to 88% of them are so abstract that they contain no immediately recognizable subject at all, unless you consider concepts proper subjects, and then almost all of them have subjects. Okay, enough numbers for now.

Ooh, except that if I sold all the remaining paintings of the 25 at the deeply discounted rate of the average I sold the three I’ve sold this year for, I’d get just over $2k. If I sold them for full price… over $8k ($4k @ Internet Prices). Seriously folks, by not buying before the SaveME deadline you really missed out on some sweet deals! (Okay, okay, if you email me before the official cut-off of July 16th, I’ll still give you any 16×20 painting for $60, but that’s the end of that. I just want to be true to my word.)

Okay, the unsigned paintings. I recently lost (misplaced? threw away?) the copper paint pen I have been using for the last several years to sign, date and serialize all my paintings. Until a couple of weeks ago, 100% of my paintings were signed in copper. When I’m in Phoenix Monday/Tuesday, I plan (by hook or crook, if necessary) to get someplace where I can buy a new copper paint pen (or two). I will then proceed to sign the unsigned paintings (including the very recently completed freedom of expression), date and serialize them in proper copper. Someday, when I am a valued, successful artist, the two paintings with brush-painted, non-copper signatures will be worth more to someone! Who knows?

Okay, it’s 15 minutes after midnight. I typed longer than I though I would. Should I back-date it so there are more posts yesterday, or start in on making plenty of Sunday posts, too? … …. ….. Sunday it is! Happy 700 fucking posts!