I recently did some logo design work for these guys and they were nice enough to link back to me. Today I saw their ad on a lamp post here in Baltimore:

(Via—you guessed it—DinosaurBreeders.com. You can also follow them on Twitter and/or like them on Facebook)

You may remember I posted pix of my latest litter of fosters a couple weeks ago. Andy was undoubtedly the star of that show—he was the biggest of the three, and, at the time, least-shy. However, he quickly made weight (I like to think of my fosters as high school wrestlers) and had to be taken back to the SPCA for surgery and to be put up for adoption. Unfortunately, Andy’s bro Shane and sister Rosie were quite the lollygaggers when it came to packing on the pounds, so we’ve had them a couple extra weeks, but are due back to the SPCA on Sunday, so I figured now would be a good time to give them the spotlight!

Rosie is a tough little subject to photograph because she’s such a low-contrast little girl with all that black fur, but this one came out OK-ish…

…though this one is pretty awesome. She’s a bit of a talker, but also very much a lap-cat in training. Needless to say, I would love to keep her, but we’re strictly a two-cat household (unless you ask Oliver—I’m pretty sure he wishes Bigby would get the hell out, too.)

Shane, on the other hand, is a ball of grey-and-white energy. I can only take pix of him if he’s on the verge of passing out or just waking up.

That said, he’s pretty awesome. Does not care that Oliver & Bigby are 4 times his size; he will jump on their backs from up high, and has no qualms about running right over to their food dishes while they’re eating to stick his fuzzy face in for a bite.

Finally, the piece de resistance:

Snoozing kitten pic FTW!

Also, I’d be remiss in not sharing a bit of info about this really nebulous art project I’m kinda-sorta working on. It’s all still extremely vague in my own head, but I’m compiling photos of Bigby presenting his balls for a collage of some sort.

Stop laughing! (Actually, no, please to continue.)

Basically, Bigby loves sleeping on his back. And every time I happen upon him like that, I’m compelled to snap a pic of it. It’s simultaneously lewd, hilarious, and adorable:

And this isn’t just a frozen moment of him rolling from one side of this body to another—he lays on his back like this for 5-10 minutes at a time. Sometimes propped against a wall/door/laundry basket, but mostly just in the middle of the floor, flashing his empty kitty-sac at the world. And it cracks me up.

And on that note (and by “note” I mean “with my cat’s balls all up in your grill”), have a great weekend, guys!

So this weekend was Otakon, Baltimore’s annual anime convention. Though this was my first foray into the actual convention center, Otakon weekend (along with Baltimore Comic-Con weekend) has long been a favorite event of ours, purely for the people-watching. This year I got to experience it first-hand as a vendor in the Dealer Room, and it. Was. Awesome.

We got a primo position, directly across from the restrooms (seriously. Guaranteed foot-traffic!) and had a pretty sweet booth set-up, if I do say so myself. For the sake of clarity, I snapped this before the attendees were allowed in for an unobstructed view; with 30,000 people strolling around in costumes that in many cases doubled their actual size, I figured I should take a pic before it got blocked out by a giant dragon:

Yeah, that’s Spyro. And there’s more where that came from!

Everyone’s favorite Pokemon trainer, Ash Ketchum, also put in an appearance!

Not sure what was going on here conceptually, but that hair is awesome! And those beads—like a Japanese Mardi Gras reveler from the future!

An assortment of costumed attendees.

Lots of cute doll costumes like this cupcake-themed one…

…as well as more traditional, less food-centric ones.

We also spied this creepy quasi-Gentleman from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The whole Joker fam, including Joker’s Daughter, Harley Quinn, and the clown prince of crime himself!

And nothing Japanese-inspired would be complete without an appearance from the Mario Bros (or Sisters!), Mario & Luigi.

There were also some more generic characters, like this spacey schoolgirl.

And this attendee, who seemed to have a pretty original look going on, though the hat, bowtie & jacket definitely remind me of Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.

There were also a TON of steampunk aficionados in attendance throughout the weekend…

And of course, you had your staples, which ran the spectrum from your traditional Darth Vader (shown here attempting to choke me out from afar via The Force)…

…to more creative renderings of classic characters, like Leia in a balloon bikini.

By far one of my faves was just this cute little pink bear, giving me either the double-bird, or two thumbs up (I hope the latter.)

Even better, I got some new super-fans! I saw this one sporting her new Fuzz tee the day after she bought it, and (shocker of shockers) experienced seeing someone I don’t know walking around with my stuff on for the very first time. I imagine it’s a lot like hearing your song on the radio for the first time. The Beatles>Jesus, Me=The Beatles…am I a god? Probably only when facing Gozer the Gozarian on the roof of an apartment building. Baby steps!

All in all, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to do it again next summer. To fans new and old that came out and said hi, you guys are awesome! And especially thanks to Adrienne, Tony, Lauren, David, & Andrea for helping me man the booth and pimping my wares throughout the weekend—you’re all the second-best friends a guy could ask for (the wife wins that one every time!)

This weekend my wife and I made a quick jaunt up to New York City to visit family. It was only about a 24-hour long visit, but it was packed with a lot of great experiences; here are a few of them:

First, we stopped off at my cousin David’s in Hoboken, NJ to decompress from the drive before heading out for a bite to eat in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. While we were walking toward our chosen eatery, we randomly bumped into our friend Jamie, who diverted us to the magical Indian restaurant Milon, pictured above. It was extremely hot, cramped, and sweaty, and the food was only so-so…but look at the light show! And there’s nothing like two competing doormen screaming at/begging you to come into their respective establishments to stroke your ego.

The next morning we met my wife’s uncle for brunch in Park Slope, Brooklyn before he took us wandering around the neighborhood to look at some of the shops & boutiques, one of which was the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

There are a lot of cool things about the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. While most of the “inventory” is merely for show and used as a vehicle for creative package design (canisters of “matter” and “anti-matter” are pretty obviously full of sand), they do sell some actual items, like fake glasses and masks and capes. Plus, the overall concept is a lot of fun, it’s just a neat place to wander around in and admire the design aesthetic of the labeling and packages. The coolest part though is that it doubles as a front for 826NYC, a creative and expository writing workshop and classroom space founded by writer Dave Eggers for young writers to hone their craft in.

We then headed over to Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood so my wife could attend & speak at a small business forum while I strolled over to Brooklyn Bridge Park to work on some new design sketches:

Finally, to wrap up our adventure, on our way back down to Baltimore we discovered how Yoda & Obi-Wan were able to afford all those technologically-advanced lightsabers:

(Apparently with a little help from the Wendy’s guy.)

So there’s a lot of new stuff coming your way from Ex-Boyfriend. We finally got around to posting my two newest designs, Eight vs. Ate and Transylvania Is 4 Lovers. I’m hoping to get at least one or two more up by the end of the week; I know it’s been a bit quiet in that regard lately. Don’t worry, though. I’m on it!

I also put the finishing touches on a new site design this weekend. Still a few minor things to do before that goes up, but I’m hoping to have it up later this week as well. The pitfalls of running a business with just two people!

Anyway, here are the new designs:

And just so you don’t think this post is all about MY shizz, here’s a pretty cool art blog I discovered via Thrillist.com a couple weeks ago: It’s called Ten Paces and Draw, and the concept behind it is that the blog contributors come up with a conceptual theme and then invite artists to work collaboratively on a piece that reflects the given theme. One artist starts off and creates a sketch inspired by the theme, and then passes it off to another artist who completes it. It’s a very cool idea. One of my favorite recent pieces is this collaboration between Kyle Fewell and fellow Baltimore-based illustrator Ariyana Suvarnasuddhi. Check out their other stuff; it’s very good!

So after a quick diversion into the robotic realm last week, I thought I’d wrap up this two-part series about my recent European escapades!

Previously I posted some pics of the cool art to be seen in Oslo, Norway and the choicest selections from Berlin’s East Side Gallery. This week’s focus is a bit more on Berlin’s excellent street art scene.

This awesome Japanese woodcut-style portrait decorated the side of a hotel across the street from the East Side Gallery facing the Spree River. We really loved the economical use of color and elegant contours and just thought in general it was great art AND marketing for the hotel; it’s hard to miss AND hard to forget.

After a couple of mis-steps seeking out the cream of the art scene crop that we’d heard so much about before arriving in Berlin, we asked the proprietor of Big Brobot, a very cool book/toy/comic/t-shirt shop in the Friedrichshain section of the city, if he could recommend any good galleries that exhibited more street art and pop art (as opposed to the truly awful installations we’d seen up to that point.) He kindly pointed us in the direction of the NeuroTitan gallery and shop.

After a couple of missed turns, we finally were pointed in the direction of the correct alley leading to the gallery. Once we stepped into the alley, we were greeted with some really wonderful pieces of street art, from spray can art to traditional media to paste-ups.

The alley then led into a courtyard that featured this very cool steam-powered sculpture of a steampunk bat-creature with flapping wings, roving eyes, and flailing proboscis. I really wish I’d switched on my video camera to catch it in action!

Finally, to get to the NeuroTitan gallery, we had to climb a few flights of stairs to enter the shop area before checking out the exhibit. While the exhibit was pretty “meh”, the trip up the stairs was awesome, with the walls just COVERED in really cool graffiti and street art. One of our favorites was the “Fashion Chimp” ad paste-up, done in the style of a 1930s-40s women’s magazine. Who wouldn’t want a giant, life-sized “fashion chimp” for their home?

That pretty much wraps up our 2011 European adventure. Sad as we were not to be able to make it to Tokyo, it was an excellent diversion none the less, and hopefully the planet is done kicking Japan’s ass for a few years and we can make it over there soon.

In OTHER Ex-Boyfriend news—AT LEAST two new designs are going to be up by the end of this week. If you or someone you know is into vampires, kitties, and/or kawaii-style art, be sure to check back!

ALSO: Be sure to tune into The Daily Show on Comedy Central tonight at 11pm. Our good friend Jackson Galaxy from Animal Planet will be sporting our very own Fuzz Aldrin this evening during Aasif Mandvi’s segment! Woot! Be sure to spread the word!

UPDATE: The Daily Show segment featuring Jackson Galaxy wearing Fuzz Aldrin tonight has been postponed thanks to some big political news today, but I’ll keep you guys updated about when it really airs!

First things first: many thanks to awesome artist D. Billy for his help in getting this design done. I had a bit of a blockage when I started it, and was trying to force it to be something it wasn’t. He talked me off the ledge, and inadvertently inspired me to steal a bit of his style to take it in a different direction to complete it. You should really check out his work here.

Now, onto the shirt. Here’s a close-up of the art:

Check it out on an actual shirt!

Now, without further ado, on to the kittens! These tiny balls of adorable were guests of ours for a few weeks until they’d beefed up enough to get adopted out at the MD SPCA. Say hello to Heidi and her brood, Biff, Cali, Gorby, Gary & Pepper!

Have a great weekend, guys! And if any of you are in or are going to be in the Philadelphia area with some time to kill next Saturday or Sunday, stop by the Art Star Craft Bazaar at Penn’s Landing to meet me at my booth—I’d love to meet you guys!

One of my goals for Ex-Boyfriend this year was to in some way film myself working on a design and create a time-lapsed clip of it to post on YouTube. I finally got around to starting this project about a week and a half ago, and finished the editing last night. It features most of the process that my newest design required—I had some camcorder issues, so I apologize for not including the actual sketching of the design concept. Just as well, since most of that footage probably would have featured more of the top of my head than the actual paper.

I also have to thank my good friend Gary for permitting me to soundtrack the clip with his band The Outdoors’ song ‘I’m Just Drifting’. If you like the track, feel free to become a fan on Facebook and visit their website. Their EP is excellent (Amazing? Sure, that works.), and if you live on the west coast, check them out live—they’re currently on tour!

Anyway, this one is for you guys, the fans—I hope you enjoy it

Sorry for missing yesterday; the Ms. and I were wrapping up our periodic “oh right, this is why we could never live in New York” trip. Nothing against The Center of the Known Universe© (other than the Yankees); it’s just not our preferred stress level (that is, EXTREMELY HIGH, ALL THE TIME). Full disclosure: me being sick and it being extremely cold the whole time may have played a role.

It wasn’t all bad, though—there were a lot of great things about the visit. So to that end, this week’s list is actually a 5-item list of our favorite parts of the visit:

Top 5 Best Things About Our NYC Visit:

5. Visiting and catching up with  some of our friends and family
4. Getting to walk down Broadway in Soho and visit all the different boutiques and see what other designers are up to and into
3. Experiencing Strand Books for the first time. That place is incredible (though the organization is not at all intuitive)! If you’ve ever been to the Amoeba Music in Los Angeles, it’s like that, but with books; kind of paralysis-inducing, it’s so full of books. You just don’t know where to start, and before you know it it’s been three hours and you’ve only scratched the surface. I wanted all of their beautiful leather-bound classics (sorry cows! Let’s hope it was synthetic.) But I did pick up a very cool book on modern poster design for inspiration.
2. Our dedication to food tourism is well-documented here, so it was great to discover Cocoa V in Chelsea Saturday night, a tiny, very cute and romantic chocolate & wine bar that sells artisanal bon bons and caramels that are so pretty you almost don’t want to eat them. Following our visit to Cocoa V, we ate at Pure Food and Wine (between Union Square and Gramercy Park) on Sunday evening and had a raw food extravaganza. The food was wonderful, the service impeccable, and despite it being a little on the loud & crowded side, a really cozy, romantic atmosphere.
1. Le Scandal burlesque show Saturday night at the West Bank Cafe on 42nd St. Sooooo hilarious and entertaining; completely made up for the rocky trip up. Not for the straight-laced, but if you enjoy bawdy humor interspersed with occasional pasty-covered breasts (who doesn’t, amirite?!), then this is definitely worth checking out.

Also, I am super-envious of NYC’s cab fleet. Nice, new-ish, clean vehicles with TV’s that take cash AND cards? Sign me up!

What about you guys? What are some of your favorite things to do in the Big Apple? Let me know in the comment section below!

After several days of not cracking 30°F (with no snow to show for it), I can safely say I’m over winter. Here are some things I’m looking forward to in the next few months:

10.Wearing t-shirts as my primary upper-body article of clothing: This sort of ties in with number three, but gets it’s own slot because it’s integral to me being able to pimp my wares to you fine people when I’m out getting drunk.

9. Longer Days: I hate Daylight Savings. Just because time is a human construct does not mean we can just tug it back and forth willy-nilly.

8. Groundhog Day: The movie, not the holiday. I will admit to a very slight desire to trek up to Pennsylvania and see Punxsutawney Phil peek out of his little hollow, but it’s purely out of love for the 1993 Bill Murray masterpiece that a) introduced us all to Ned Ryerson, and b) inadvertently named one of the best bands to ever come out of Washington, DC.

7. Foster kittens: OK, I’m not really looking forward to this; in a perfect world, people would be responsible about fixing their pets and feline procreation would result in a manageable amount of kittens that could all be adopted into safe, loving homes, and the need for fostering them wouldn’t exist. But since it does, I do feel lucky that I get to help out. Because of the cute!

6. New music: November through January is a pretty fallow period for the music industry; the really good stuff doesn’t start rolling out until February. I might do a list next week of my most-anticipated releases due out in 2011!

5. New vegetables: Specifically, fresh stuff from my garden. Sadly, this won’t actually be ready-to-eat until, oh, June at the earliest, but at this point I’m actually dying to get out into the back courtyard and sweep out the dead leaves and plant new stuff.

4. New fruit: Don’t get me wrong, I love citrus, but I’m really looking forward to berries.

3. Not spending a full five minutes outfitting myself with layer upon layer of clothing before leaving the house.

2. Walking to the gym: The only thing one of countless things better than going to the gym regularly is being able to stroll along the Patapsco River on the way there.

1. Baseball: Let’s be real; I would happily watch meaningful baseball 365 days a year. Hell, I even tuned into the World Baseball Classic in 2009 because I was so desperate for the MLB regular season to start. At this point it’s only a couple weeks until pitchers and catchers report to spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona, and I’m giddy at the prospect of watching meaningless* exhibition games. Though it makes me crack up every time my wife calls the winter months the “hot oven” instead of “hot stove” season. Much like when she asked if the American League played against the Justice League.

* I hear my wife in my head right now: “ALL baseball games are meaningless. And slow. And boring. I hate you; you’re a terrible husband for making me watch this.”