Quandary

Well, not ACTUALLY a quandary, as Tanja and I talked it out, but here goes:

Tanja and I were wandering Newtown after lunch and looked in at a store called Made590 (http://www.made590.com.au/), which does all sorts of interesting stuff. I was looking through there shirts and I spotted this one. I went "hey! I know that shirt! That's from Threadless!" I was outraged that this store had stolen the design. Then I looked at the tag, and lo! It was a Threadless tag.

So my quandary compounded. Threadless is a retail site, not a wholesale site. THey sell their shirts for $10-$20 dollars. If this store purchases them, and pays shipping, is it okay for them to mark the price up to $45 and sell the shirt on?

Tanja and I talked it out (see?) and she said that Threadless pays the artist for the design, then makes the shirt at their cost. Once they sell the shirt, what the buyer does with it is their business, as long as they don't claim it for themselves. This made sense to me. I then brought up that I'd seen Jinx WoW shirts being sold at Minotaur in Melbourne for exhorbitant prices, so it's not just these guys.

My main thought was that the shirt was being sold twice, but the artist was only paid once. The other reason that this was on my mind is that I've been communicated (well, sort of) with Ian Leino (www.ianleino.com), an artist from the states, whose shirts I've bought several times from TeeFury and whose work I admire. My first (admittedly selfish) thought, upon viewing his store was "Wow! I'd love to make shirts with these designs!" which I instantly chided myself for. That thought's now developed to "Well, if I do go to the markets with my shirts, I might buy some of his from TeeFury or something and sell them on. Or maybe inquire as to how much he's paid by TeeFury for his designs."

So yeah.

An end before a return.

So it's the last day of my holidays and it's time to review my list.

[-]record a demo show for Mike's radio station's boss:
Did not do. I've organised the ideas a bit more clearly in my head (that I'll make two shows, one as an indie/rock show, you know, for kids, and one as an anything-goes with three songs at a time on a theme). I haven't recorded any talking because I don't have a microphone because yes, I procrastinated on that too. I've now bought one off eBay, but it's not going to get here in time. I also find it ironic that my brain's response to not get anything done on a task is to create more tasks for me not to do.

[-]register my ABN and look into the shirt press idea that I meant to do in freaking January.
Nope. Started the ABN process Wednesday morning, only to find that before I can get one, I should a) register my business via snail mail which takes two weeks and costs $152, and b) be "already conducting business." What? Before I get registered, I'm to be conducting business? Tanja later explains that they mean I should be ready to go and start the day my ABN is registered. It seems they're petrified of people registering, then not filing any returns for 6 months. Problem is, the money I need to lay out for equipment and substrate is substantial. The whole point is that I have an ABN so I can claim it back as expenses. Then there's the equipment I researched. Turns out there are a few different methods of heat-pressed inkjet printing, and my current printer and inks will produce shirts that fade in two washes. So now, instead of a heat press and sheets, I need a heat press ($450-$1150), a special dye sublimation printer ($675-$1000), special inks to go with the printer, special sheets (two kinds, one for cotton, one for dark clothes, both about $1.50 per sheet), plus the actual shirts to print on.

Further study is needed.

[-]practice with Ted and lay down some tracks.
We practiced yesterday. Ted has a very fancy new kit that he's letting me use that has great snap and response. However, I was not as sure of the one track we wanted to record as I thought, and stumbled through a few records. We then tried to improv on something new, which we kind of did. Then we talked about games and stuff for ages. I then showed him the works of Brian Brushwood, which he liked (I think. It's hard to tell with Ted) which was awesome, but not productive.

[-]relax a little. Sometime.
It's so weird. I didn't feel like I was on holiday this whole holiday. As I described it to Tanja, it was like an extended Sunday that lasted two weeks. Now, don't get me wrong. Sundays are nice. I like Sundays. But there's always the knowledge that the next day is a Monday, so you don't completely relax. I'm not sure I completely relaxed all fortnight. We did fun stuff, like seeing How To Train Your Dragon and Tanja's dad's 60th (where, apparently, I was the life of the party, go figure), I've been cooking more, to more or less okay results (only one mishap involving a pot burning). So why aren't I all mellow?

When Tanja finished her holidays, she was very sad, not wanting to return to work. However, her first day, she said she was all energised and got lots done.

Here's hoping.

Focus!

Alright. This is the first non-long-weekend-day of my two weeks of holidays. The first week Tanja is home with me, the second week its just me.

Things I intend to do in this fortnight:

[-]record a demo show for Mike's radio station's boss to consider (best left for second week, when Tanja's not around).

[-]register my ABN and look into the shirt press idea that I meant to do in freaking January.

[-]practice with Ted and lay down some tracks.

[-]relax a little. Sometime.

Also? I'm writing this on Tanja's laptop and I realise that I hate all laptop keyboards utterly. They don't register when you type.

Wierdness=creativity

I feel weird. I blame the weird-feeling on my screwing-up of my normal routine. I woke up, had cereal, went to the gym, then came back, had juice and two cups of coffee (I usually have juice and coffee with my cereal, THEN go to the gym). So now I'm shaky, my head is pounding and I'm dizzy. I was taking a shower, trying to clear my head, but all I could think about were random geeky and obscure references I could put on t-shirts. The first one?

 

[Silhouette of man's head with long curly hair] = [silhouette of shapely female form]

(taking off on the line from the Wog Boy about "having the curls to get the girls.")

 

Then I started thinking about Roadhouse and the ideas exploded:

 

·         [Silhouette of a man in blue with his right foot illuminated in red, possibly with a cutaway showing the razor in the toe of his boot]. On the back: RIGHT BOOT.

·         PAIN  ≠ HURT

·         Two separate Euler circles, not intersecting, one marked "MY WAY" the other marked "HIGHWAY".

and finally

·         "TOO STUPID TO HAVE A GOOD TIME"

 

If and when I make these, I'll have to send a bunch to the Rifftrax crew.

 

Tanja has just brought me a turkey, red kraut & cranberry sandwich, so I must eat. Hopefully I'll feel better.

---

Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online.

Fyeh.

So I get another call today, from the shirt people (you know, the ones I feel like I do nothing but complain about lately?) this morning, confirming that yes, I will be making the shirts for them by Saturday, and that I can bring in the shirts on Friday and Tim will give me the money. So later on, I'm at home, with chilli con carne simmering, and I'm looking up the design (as yes, I had deleted MY designs in a fit of pique) that they want when I discover something. My google-search leads me to the musician's MySpace page, which leads me to two realisations:

1) MySpace is awful Even loading up someone's page makes my Firefox crash and makes me want to run back to my Facebook.

B) When these people were originally calling me 5 or 6 times a day to quibble over what I was going to theoretically do, one of them mentioned casually that Tim had said I was good with Photoshop, and could I put the logo onto one of the promo pics and that they'd give me credit for the design, as well as for the t-shirts. I said okay, and sent them a basic logo spot, then 3 or 4 half-assed attempts of mine to make the photo cooler, saying that they weren't finals, but just me messing around with ideas, and to tell me what they thought. This email was responded to with the 7 weeks of silence, so I figured they didn't think much. Well, what I found on the MySpace page was one of my designs which they'd clearly liked, as it's the Australian street poster for the tour. It's on the MySpace as such, with no credit to me listed.

Now, I get not giving me the shirt credit, because I didn't do them (except the two prototypes), but that? Come on! It's my work! Tanja pointed out that she didn't see much of a change, so I'll let you judge:
Here's the original picture.
Then the logo they sent me.
And this is what I made in 10 minutes.

So the question is: Did I change it enough to make the new work my intellectual property? Not that I want to kick up a big stink, but it just mad me angry(er).

To top it all off, I got ANOTHER call this evening from them, wanting to meet me tomorrow, even saying they'd drag Tim along. They then asked about the shirts again, and I confirmed they'd be ready tomorrow. They sounded presently surprised. So why did they want to meet with me if not to pick up the shirts?

So I probably won't give them a serve when I see them tomorrow, as I'm nonconfrontational and polite (read: gutless) so I'll probably express my concerns as a "goshdarnit, haven't I been worried" joke and I won't be heard.

But hey. For all I know they want to apologise. And if you belive that, I have a use Death Star to sell you.

Required: One Padded Room

As I discussed here (4^th paragraph), I had been approached in early June to do some shirts for a promotions company. Well, after 7 weeks of silence, I got a phone call while waiting for the train this morning.

 

“Oh, yes, it’s So-and-so. Can we still get two shirts with just the name, not the design?”

“Ummm, I suppose. I still have the shirts I bought last time.”

“Yeah, those will do. Can we have them by Saturday?”

“Ummm. I guess.”

“Okay, do you have other So-and-so’s number?”

“No. And I can’t write it down. I’m at a train station.”

“I’ll call you later when you’ll be able to write it down.” *click*

 

It took me a moment, but then I was so angry I wanted to thrash around and scream. 7 freakin’ weeks!?!? No word? I mean, come on! I’m a cottage industry and I’m more professional than these mooks. I don’t even know if I have the designs anymore, as I’ve deleted most of them thinking, oh I don’t know, that I’d never hear from them again!

 

So (since I have the inability to say no to people who want to pay me), I’ll do their two shirts, and then I’ll give them a serve. I might type it, so I can get the tone right.

 

Sigh. It’s hard out there for a pimp t-shirt maker.

 

 

Lucas Brown | Proxy Champignon
Master of Brainthinking

 

Shirts.

As I went up to Oporto to get my lunch today, I walked through the street market they have in Newtown every Saturday. As always, there are people just selling random stuff, like belts made from recycled materials, old albums and CDs, books of all sorts, and the inevitable t-shirt printers. Now, most of the people at markets who do t-shirts are screen printers, with a few tie-dyers and tailors/seamstresses thrown in. Nobody seems to do shirts they way I do. Admittedly, the method I use (cutting the stenicls, then painting with brushes) is not the most efficient, easiest or most practical way of doing things, but it does give me a level of control that I enjoy.

However, lately I've been thinking hard about my printing. My first thinkings were in the vein of more artisitic and impressive (read: difficult) designs to really how what I can do. That line of thinking has been difficult to develop, seeing as the majority of the shirts I do are demand-focused (ie I do what people ask me to do), so these new shirts would pretty much be for me. Also, Stencil Revolution, which was my main source of inspiration, was shut down about a year ago, and has not really gotten back on its feet since. I've come up with a few sort of meta-design examples (my Irgendwas Auf Deutsch one, or a few based on the cartoons of Phil Somerville such as "Tragically Born Without A Logo" (overlaid on a collage of logos I've done for other people, such as the Firetrybe logo, the Carbon Cowboy Design I did for Phil, a Triforce with wings and others) and "Due to computer error, this t-shirt is completely free of advertising," (directly above my logo, heh), but I'm not getting the oomph I wantedto. Most people just assume I got them at JayJays or something and don't give my shirts a second look.

As for my process, it's actually cost me a few jobs. It's fairly difficult to accurately mass-produce shirts, as they never quite turn out identical, and paint builds up on the stencils, make each use afterward less accurate. Large areas of solid colour are also a problem, as it's tough to get a smooth, even shape with clean edges. I made some shirts for a local band that turned out not-so-great because their logo was a large yellow oval (large area of solid colour) with the band name on it and they wanted a dozen shirts, but couldn't afford good ones, so had cheap $3 shirts, which were so thin they barely held still under my brush. The results were less than stellar, and I've never heard from them again.

Recently, the mother of one of my workmates called me to ask if I could print some shirts for a singer she is doing promotion work for. She sent me a design which was very easy, but said that design was from the last tour and they wanted a newer one. We talked for a bit and after I dissuaded her from putting words on the back of jeans, she said she'd get back to me. A few weeks pass. I suddenly get a call, and after a few confused moment, relise who it is, and that yes, she's still interested. After debating every tiny detail of what she wants (to a ridiculous degree, taken two further calls, each spaced about 5 minutes apart while I'm at work), we agree to two prototype shirts using the new design and then many more to come later. I buy two blanks and wait on the email. She calls again to make sure the shirts I got are the right type, and casually asks me to photoshop the logo onto the promo picture, since I'm "good at those sorts of things." The email comes and the design is, in a word, impossible. It's a spanish-style cross with so many criss-crossing loops and whorls and patterns that even if I could cut a stencil, it would be impossible to use more than once and would probably break apart. I photoshop the image though, even throwing together a few cool effects and a couple different versions and send them back, with my worries about the design. I mention that maybe they could come up with a simple design for the shirt for me to do. I get a short email back saying they would run it by the artist and get back to me.

I've heard nothing back. It's been 3 weeks. I even did the plaintive email of "Are we still doing the prototypes?" and got nothing.

So anyway.

The reason I brought up the markets is that the designs I see at markets are always awesome and original and different. They're huge, sprawling, detailed (whereas my designs are usually limited to A4 or A3 size due to my printer). Also, they're mostly selling the shirts for $10 or $15 dollars. I sell mine for $20, and though Tanja keeps saying I should raise my prices for the amount of work I put in, I feel bad asking more (possibly due to being afraid that someone will tell me my work isn't worth more).

So even if I pony up the dough to get a large stock of blanks, find some designs that can compete, I'm still going to be two stalls away from people who are better at it, can mass-produce, and are selling for less.

Basically, it makes me wonder if this is ever going to be more than a hobby for me.

Organising (reposted from The Lucas Letters)

"Dear All and Sundry,

Tanja's birthday has come and gone, with a wonderful dinner at Restaurant Atelier (with a slightly short-tempered chef, but lovely friendly staff and amazing food) and some presents of books, comics, a purple Tiki Mug to call her own, a Japanese teapot, and some other things. She also got the day off on her birthday which, really, should be in the Constitution.

I've been busy making shirts for the huge order that I talked about last post, and I've printed 8 of the 20, and haven't ironed any of them. I figure I'm going to finish them all first, and then show up at work like Santa Claus, passing out gifts. Well, gifts people have paid for, but still.

It's come to my attention that I've gotten a reputation at work for being an organizer. Who would have thought it? When we need someone to take up a collection and get a cake and get everyone to sign a card for Ted's birthday? I'm there. When awards for the quarterly work party need creating, hello, there's me. It's strange. I was never the organizer in Canada. I blame the southern hemisphere mucking with my personality.

Speaking of the work awards night, it's tomorrow, and it's cowboy themed. Happily, I already have three cowboys hats (I'm loaning some out to people), and some toy guns on my desk at work, but I just need to find a vest. Off to the second-hand shop!

-Lucas
PS: Garden continues to explode with life. I think someone put plutonium in the soil when I wasn't looking."

Recapping and mentioning t-shirts. A lot. (reposted from The Lucas Letters)

"Dear Family;

Well, Bill Bailey was very funny and extremely entertaining as always. Plus I got to learn that when it comes to music, the augmented fourth chord (or diminished fifth chord, depending on your worldview) in considered not fit to be played in a church or in hymns. It was classified as a dissonance, because the sound was supposed to awaken bad thoughts. All this means for us today is that it's used in every haunted-house movie because it's very sound provokes uncertainty. Cool. The show wasn't all about historical musical nerdery. There were jokes too. I bought a tour t-shirt, which was the first shirt of that sort that I've ever bought at a show.

Oh! Also at the show I had a wonderful moment. As you all know, I print t-shirts for people. Most of the time it's for people I know or work with. So imagine my surprise when, while waiting in line at the Bill Bailey show, I spot someone wearing one of the 10 shirts I made for a band called Xquabed a year or so ago. I even saw the little Ampersand on the sleeve. I wanted to go over and talk to the guy, but common sense (and Tanja) told me not to embarrass him. Oh well. It was still a thrill.

Speaking of shirts, I've just had a monster order put in by various work-people. I ordered 20 blanks online, and I'll need to print them as soon as they get here. One guy originally said he wanted 2 shirts. He then got on the phone to his brother and ordered shirts for his brother, his brother's wife, his brother's son, ending up with 8 shirts total. I felt like telling him "You know, guy, you can place more than one order. I'm not dying next week."

Poor Tanja's been feeling a bit sick lately, but my super-immune-system has been keeping me safe.

All for now!

-Lucas"

Sun, then Rain. (reposted from The Lucas Letters)

"Dear All and Sundry,

The weather the last few days has been crazy. First, on Friday it was suddenly hot from 2:30 pm to when the sun went down, and then yesterday it was 32 degrees for the first time since the January before last. Then today? Hail and thunderstorms. It's all going down, man!

This week has been work, work, work. Since I'm working 11:30-8 every day, it's like I get just enough time to get up, go to the gym, go to work, work, then come home, eat dinner, and it's then like 45 minutes before time-for-go-to-bed again. Another assignment due on Thursday (which I haven't started yet), and I'm printing a bunch of t-shirts for someone at work (which I did yesterday morning, looking every bit the mad artist, with paint on my fingers and for some reason my cheek). Yesterday afternoon Tanja and I picked out interesting paper for the various invitations we're making and sending out (which is odd, because the people we're inviting already know when things are happening).

Had cake and coffee for breakfast this morning, which was pleasant. Oh, and we're going to see Bill Bailey at the State Theatre this Tuesday. Should be very good :).

All for now,

-Lucas"

Market Saturation

A strange thing occurred Wednesday. I was in the lift with Phil, Wendy, Sam and Louise from work. Phil was wearing the Commander Keen shirt I had made him the day before. I looked over and Louise had on a shirt that Mark had got her (which I also made) saying "Louise is a big dirty whore". Sam was wearing a shirt Louise had gotten her, which I had made saying "If Found, Please Return To Pub." Wendy had a shirt with two emo kids on it that I had made. The only person in the elevator without a shirt made by me...

...was me.

It was very surreal.

I do see my work around the office, though I've yet to see a stranger on the street wearing one.

One day.

2: A great dessert number. Serve very cold with strawberries and 9.

Got a huge order for shirts from Evan. 25 this time. So I've started cutting. I ordered the blanks on Saturday, and they were delivered this morning. Fucking hell! That's service.

And the coaching semina-thingie that was meant to defien our jobs went ok. I'm still not entirely sure how to do what I'm supposed to be doing, but I've got a better idea of what "what I'm supposed to be doing" is.

Fronglais.

I came to the realisation yesterday that my French is never going to be decently fluent again. One of the trainees i had yesterday was as fluent speaker and he had me on the ropes trying to keep up. It's actually not the phrasing or the sentence structure. It's the blasted vocabulary. I found myself struggling for the French word for "meaning" (Ha! Searching for meaning). It was very embarrassing. I'm still able to fully understand what he says, I just can't speak back more than half a sentence.

Oh, and on a plus note, these trainees actually had half a brain. Most of the night guys tend to (possibly due to the fact they have other jobs) so teaching them was way easier than my ratbag day people. Unfortunately, I only get them one day out of the month they're in training. They said they were going to bug TTT and get me put on more shifts. Because they learns from me :).

Oh, and I broke my own record yesterday. I bought a shirt at 12:07, cut a stencil, painted it, sealed it, and it was ready when I left at 1:30. Bam.

This is what I get for planning ahead.

Ok, I have a long post to make when I get home (I even made notes on a pad about what I wanted to blog about, then left the pad on my desk. So I'll do it later.

New White Stripes cd. Awesome.

Transformers coming out this Thursday. Giddyup. Getting a nerd posse together to see it. Planning to make a shirt saying "More than meets the eye since 1984".

Put together some IKEA furniture last night. Very handy, I am.

A new look. Just because.

And I borrowed 9 CDs from Ted.

And I can't find bloody t-shirts.

And a combination frustrating and good day.

Deadlines

Ok, Telstra said the internet'd be connected after the 24th. Craig checked the order and it says "ON the 24th". Then Tanja got a message saying the 21st. It came on the afternoon of the 23rd. Thank you Telstra. For making us laugh at deadlines. Again.

And when it rains, it pours. I go from having no shirts to do to having near a billion.

Han-r: Needs 4 shirts. All with gothy skull-with-butterfly wings designs in silver on black shirts. Fairly simple. The original deadline was the 25th, but she's agreed to 2 on the 25th and two later. Did those two last night. Need to buy more plastic for stencils before I can do the other two.
X Quabed: The boys needed a bunch of shirts (10 to be precise) but were too poor at the moment to buy the good quality. Meh, I don't blame them, but it makes for tough shirting when their logo is a big yellow oval with the band name on it. The name is easy, but getting a smooth oval of paint of a thin cheap tshirt is tough. It takes two or three coats and a crap-load of waiting. Craig helped me with some of the shit-work, and now all the ovals are done. Now all I have to do is organise with the band to meet up and get my money and their shirts.
Dave: Poor Dave. He asked me for a Cowbell shirt ages ago on my MySpace, but it was a time when I hadn't checked MySpace in a week. Now he's sent me the thumbnail and I've printed the stencil, but then I ran out of stencilling plactic. So he has to wait more. Argh. Poor dude. He'll think I'm stalling.

Plus I've got two and a half blanks for Craig (although he's happy at the moment with his 8 new shirts that he won't miss two more in the short term).

I've taken to wearing a bandanna at work because as my hair grows longer, it becomes more and more of a pain. Usually I'll wear a fedora outside, but I can't wear a headset over it like I do a cap. So on goes the bandanna. My boss has taken to "reminding" me that I have a hanky on my head. Two or three times a day even. Aussie humour at it's finest. Up there with calling someone with red hair "Bluey". Oy.

Update, with Custard Pie Scene

News, well, not really. Work has been workful. I've become quite good at the half-truths, promises, and assurances that make up a Help Desk Person's stock-in-trade. I've been showing off my old Insprite cartoons to my workmates, to rave reviews and requests for more to be made. My shirt business has exploded; after making a pacman shirt for Craig and a quintet of "If Guy Doesn't Care, I Don't Care" shirts for various other people, I've been inundated with orders. Most noiseful has been one workmate who wants shirts for a friend's skateboard company, and his own tattooing company (like 100 at a pop) plus he wants to be the go between for all his friends in the tattooing and biker areas of the city (of twhich I'm happy to leave to him). He's also made noise about getting me to join up with some of his wife's friends who also do this (an idea I'm not happy about) and importing shirts from China (I get mine from Australia, as cheap as you could ask for). I'll belive it when I see it. Until then, I'm happy for him to plan like crazy. Then band is progressing well, though we've lost our original name of Poweranimal (as some other band signed to a label with that exact name) and have temporarily settled on Zombie Rhythm Section. We've got 10 sort-of songs put together, but with no lyrics yet (Sarah says Ted and I are machines. I was tempted to yell back "I'm not a droid!"). So yeah. progress. Tanja and I are planning a Hunter Valley trip in early December, and a move whenever we can find a decent place that will let us have Magrat.

Oh, yeah, and one more thing...

*is hit in face with custard pie by Harpo Marx-like figure*

Interviews and Spitfires

I'm on me holidays this week and next, and I've been using my time constructively (wandering around in my PJs, watching movies (including the awesome Band Of Brothers miniseries, all 12 hours of it). I've also got onto seek.com.au and started applying for jobs and building my profile. Well, this morning I get a call from a place wanting me to come in this afternoon at 3 and apply. Well, great. Then I get another call not five minutes after telling Tanja about the first and they want me to come in at 4:30 and apply too. They saw my resume and were "very impressed". Shit, I know my resume, and I'M not impressed. Oh well, who am I to argue. So I have two interviews this afternoon. Get out the cheap suit once again.

However, isn't it always the way, when something goes right, another goes wrong? I spent most of yesterday cutting a really cool stencil of a Spitfire fighter plane, and when I went to paint it this morning on a cool dark grey shirt. But, of course, the grey is too dark for black, so I painted it in white. Mistake. The stencil was of the shadows and now it just looks wrong. Shoot. I haven't screwed up a shirt in over a year now. Ah, well.

"Yokels! Rubes! You don't understand true art!"

I bought season 1 of the Muppet Show yesterday. *sigh* Takes me right back. Animal and Gonza are still my favourites (well, them and Crazy Harry, but he's more of a recurring cameo who blows things up. You know, like Craig). The only difference is now, as an adult (sort of) I get Gonzo more as a true artist. I mean, come on. He ate a tire to "Flight of the Bumblebee", he grew a tomato plant while playing the 1812 Overture on the violin, he even smashed an antique car with a mallet to "the Anvil Chorus".

However, his crowning moment, his shining star of purist artistry, was when he took on Scooter as a manager, who suggested Gonzo's "rock act" to Kermit.

Kermit: "But Gonzo doesn't sing."
Scooter: "No, no, a rock act. Show him, Gonzo."
Gonzo: "Ok. Watch." *he lifts a big rock onto the table, and readies his mallet*
Scooter: "Right! Hit it, kid!"
*Gonzo: *Hauls off and wallops the rock* ART! *wham!* ART! *wham* ART! *wham!* AAAART!"

Bwa ha ha. I feel an Electric Mayhem T-shirt coming on.

*ahem*

Things I Did Today
by Lucas

1. Bought Thank You, a Stone Temple Pilots compilation at Hum Records. I wanted to get Tiny Music: Song from the Vatican Gift Shop (as this was the album I had taped from my cousin Dan in the 9th grade that turned me onto STP), but they were sold out. So I got this for 10 bucks. Turns out, whether by name or not, I know EVERY song on it. Yikes. This hasn't happened since Big Shiny 90s. And it's not a bad thing. It�s a good thing. Like swimming in your own soylent waste. (Bally! Craig! Ted! You must get that or I'm going to look weird! Er!)

2. Watched Rear Window. Very cool. There's good reason for it being a classic, Simpsons parody notwithstanding. Although, admittedly, I had to resist the urge to call out "I'm a MUR-DIDDLY-URDERER!" at one point. I also remembered (also from 9th grade) two of my classmates who, after we watched It's a Wonderful Life in class, continually referred to Jimmy Stewart as "ol' Jimmy" and talked like he lived down the block from them. "How you doin'?" "I'm good, you?" "Good. You?" "I'm good. Can't say the same for ol' Jimmy, though." "Ohhh, poor Jimmy. He's a character." etc.

3. Finished the book The Historian. Jeez that last few chapter stretched out. If they were going to go and talk to one more old cryptic monk, I was going to plotz.

4. Made this shirt.


In your face Mylo! And also Australian Idol! And no, the shirt is not yellow. It's off-white, it's just the picture.