I try not to “re-blog” other peoples’ content too much — they work(ed) hard to be funny/crazy/stupid/embarrassing to themselves & their families, and I don’t want to develop a rep as a plagiarist.
If something is worthy, I like to take a pass at it too and contribute my own two cents to [insert witty blogger's name here]‘s scholarly analysis.
But Bobby Finger’s break-down of nouveau Christmas classic Love, Actually is pretty much perfect. You can check it out here at The Hairpin.
A few notes of my own, though:
— My wife isn’t a big rom-com fan. She’s OK with Love, Actually, and thought Crazy Stupid Love was good, but generally she likes to tease me about the fact that I will stop and watch any of the following whenever they pop up on the cable guide:
• When Harry Met Sally
• Four Weddings & A Funeral
• Sleepless In Seattle
• You’ve Got Mail
Essentially, anything with Meg Ryan and/or Tom Hanks circa me no longer thinking girls were icky.
— How weird is it to see Andrew Lincoln butchering zombies on The Walking Dead now after having his role as Mark in Love, Actually be the one that defined him for the rest of the 2000′s?
— Whatever happened to Kiera Knightley?
— Is Bill Nighy contractually-obligated to appear in every single big-budget, ensemble-casted movie out of the UK?
— Colin Firth was awesome in the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice and Bridget Jones’ Diary, but can we all agree that his entire career is built on two roles in which he played the same character (his last name in BJD is even Darcy, for f@#k’s sake!) and that he’s pretty much been coasting since the early 2000′s?
— Hugh Grant IS awesome in everything he’s in, but can we all agree that his entire career is built on playing the same character (himself) and that he’s pretty much been coasting since Four Weddings & A Funeral?
It’s been a while (well, a few weeks) since Japan teamed up with Science to give me nightmares—guess they wanted to give the first few episodes of season two of The Walking Dead a few at-bats in my mindscape—but they are back on the job and better (worse?) than ever:
Basically, these are what will be applauding the zombie herds from the sidelines as they chase me through the southeast in my dreams. Because relentless undead hordes need a cheering section.
Saturday was the first annual Baltimore Run For Your Lives zombie 5K obstacle race, and this guy had a front-row seat!
The race was very much a full-day affair, with the first group of runners heading out into the course at 8am and the last one crossing the finish line around 6pm, followed by live music until midnight! This of course meant that Meredith and I had to get to the event around 5am to finish setting up our booth before the attendees showed up for registration at 6am—which meant a 3am wake-up to load the car up for a 4am departure time!
Totally worth it, though—a very fun experience, and a great place to meet new fans and make new friends.
I even snapped some pictures throughout the day, though I had to wait until around 7:30 or 8 for the sun to come up and get over the treeline. Here’s the booth in the early morning—we were soooo excited to see the sun, and big-ups to the folks in the Funtastic Foods tent for keeping us warm with a steady stream of hot chocolate!
The event area itself was the perfect setting for a mock-zombie apocalypse: remote, lots of forest, and very cold and overcast for much of the day. Our stuff went over really well, and it was especially gratifying to see my newest designs get lots of love from the crowd, though pretty much every design I’d brought with us carried its weight—it’s always nice to see that Fuzz has still got it! Even nicer to see older fans already in-the-know:
I love this sort of thing—I imagine it’s a lot like being a musician and never getting sick of hearing your song on the radio.
All in all, it was a great day, but really long—the booth pretty much looked like this from 8:20am (around the time the first survivors made it to the finish line) until we started packing up around 8pm:
And sad as I was initially that I had to work the booth instead of run the course, I eventually realized it was definitely for the best; way too many reports of broken legs, serious cuts and gashes, and sprained ankles, not to mention that fact that there were two water obstacles that necessitated running around in soaked shorts & tees in sub-55˚ weather, followed by a thorough hosing down to remove caked-on mud. The weather was miserable enough being dry and fully-clothed, thank you very much!
But ultimately everyone seemed to have a blast—especially this guy:
Many thanks to all the new fans I met this weekend! And those of you who couldn’t make it, fear not and remember, you can take 10% off your purchase now through the end of October by entering the coupon code HALLOWEEN10 at checkout! And Philly fans—we’re coming back up in December for R5 Productions’ Punk Rock Flea Market! $3 gets you inside to shop for awesome holiday gifts from a variety of vendors, and I’ll be there with new stuff on shirts, bags & belts! Even better: it’s indoors! Hope to see you all there:)
In case you hadn’t noticed, shizz just got a whole lot more orange up in this biatch: I’ve been furiously adding a ton of Halloween-themed designs to the collection of late, and not to get all sales-y on ya, but now is the perfect time to order your “I’m too old/un-creative to wear a costume on Halloween” costume!
And if you feel like picking one of these up in person, stop by my booth at the zombie-themed Run For Your Lives 5k in Darlington, Maryland on October 22nd! It’s bound to be awesome—I mean, c’mon; WE’LL be there—and we LOVE meeting fans!
And hey, those of you too busy or too far away—we get it. Life is busy. October is cold. Zombies (even fake ones) are scary. So to show we have no hard feelings, stay safe and warm at home and take 10% off your purchases now through the end of October by entering HALLOWEEN10 at checkout. Because 3-D or purely digital, we love you guys!
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kind of excited that the holidays are behind us—I just have not been nearly as productive the last two weeks as I would have liked (I don’t think drinking excessively while watching the Buffy marathon on Logo can be termed “productive”). But I have been able to set enough time aside to continue prepping some awesome new designs, both from last week’s guest artist Ginger Nielsen (check out her Timberhooves and Encounter designs), and this week’s guest artist Fee Harding! I have three designs to present courtesy of Fee: Panda Love, You Make Me Weak At The Knees, and Pink Elephant. Check ‘em out!
Without further ado, please say g’day to Fee:
Where are you from (both originally and currently)?
I was born in Brisbane, Australia, but recently moved an hour up north to a place called the Sunshine Coast. I love where I live now; it’s a coastal spot with equally beautiful hinterland areas (so never short of adventures to go on!)
Has that at all shaped you as an artist, or otherwise affected your
creative processes?
I moved up to the Sunshine Coast to live with a friend who pushed me to get my art out there, so I guess indirectly, yes! I’ve done art since a I was a wee little lass—it’s always been my love but I was too scared
to pursue it any further then my bedroom walls. In some sense I moved away from a comfortable but slightly mundane existence to a new life, with a new attitude that anything is possible
Can you let us know about some other visual artists that you admire and draw inspiration from?
My all time favourite artist is Miss Van; she can do no wrong—great females figures, strong style, awesome application! I also love Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Actually, I’m totally in love with his sweet yet sinister characters! For the Aussie team I’ll go with Beci Orpin, who does incredibly clean design work and has an amazing strong, sweet style—simple lines, patterns and incredible colours!
How about non-visual artists (musicians, friends, family, public figures, filmmakers, writers, etc)?
I love films and I have a few favourite directors, the first being Tim Burton; always loved his aesthetics and the kind-hearted characters he puts in his dark worlds. Next is Wes Anderson and his amazing attention to detail and colours; I could easily watch his films with no sound at all I also love for the same reason Sofia Coppola, she creates amazing characters as well! I think I cheated with this answer because I tend to view all three as visual artists in their own right
Did you receive any formal art training, whether it be in college, or elective classes in high school, middle school and so on?
I topped art in high school and I had no doubt in my mind that I would do visual art at University. I prepared my portfolio, went in for my interview and felt I aced it all. When acceptance time came around I searched for my name, not one moment doubting I wouldn’t get in. I never found my name. It was a huge setback for me; I felt this one thing, that I held so dear, that had only been encouraged, faced its biggest rejection ever and it really crushed my soul. That may be why it’s only in the last few years I’ve worked up the courage to put my art out there for judgment (which by the way has only been an incredibly awesome thing)! The story does have a happy ending, though, and I did end up doing a creative industries course at Uni with art as one of my electives
What’s your creative process like? Do you work in silence, or with music/TV/some other background noise on? Do you have a specific space set aside for working on art? What are your preferred mediums?
I work in silence in my little one bedroom flat. I have a drawing table but tend to gravitate towards my dining room table instead. I always work on watercolour paper and I use pens, inks, acrylics, gouache and watercolours.
Do you have any pop cultural guilty pleasures you’d like to admit to?
My work is heavily influenced by pop culture, so yes, many many guilty pleasures. I guess my most cringe-worthy would have to be the movie Twilight. Love that sappy romance, which is a big leap from my once too-cool-for-school attitude. I’ve learnt you should just enjoy what you enjoy even if it pulls your cool status down into unreachable depths!
What are some of your favorite web haunts? Any blogs or websites you’d like to turn more people on to?
I have a whole list of awesome blogs I read, listed over my own blog (right hand hand side under “daily reads”). I love blogs!
Do you have any pets?
Does a pet rock count? No pets at the moment, I just live vicariously
through others to get my daily dose of animal happiness!
Beer, wine, or liquor? Which kind (ales, porters, pilsners, reds, whites, rums, vodkas)?
I like wine, sweet sweet wine! But really I can drink anything
If you had access to Doc Brown’s Delorean in Back to the Future, when in time would you go?
Oh so many choices! You know what, I’d probably first stop in at few years ago, sit down with my high school self and be like “oi punk, stop caring what others think—they are just as insecure as you are!”
Cake, pie or cookies (ice cream and candy are also acceptable, but be specific)?
Black forest cake! I used to have a lolly addiction, but I had to give it up; now I replace lollies with chocolate, which probably wasn’t what my body had in mind when it wanted me to give up the sugar ***
Be sure to take some time to pop on over to Fee’s Etsy shop and have a look around at all her artwork!
It’s almost Halloween, which means it’s time to start planning pre-game menus for before you head out to gawk at the slutty/scary costumes that will be on display in your local watering holes. This cocktail, courtesy of the Sloshed blog, sounds like it will fit the bill nicely, especially given that I plan on watching the debut of AMC’s new horror drama The Walking Dead on Halloween night before I head out. The recipe is as follows—it might seem a tad involved, but nothing delicious is ever easy. Except mac & cheese. And tater tots.
Ingredients:
1½ oz light rum
¾ oz coconut milk
¾ oz freshly squeezed lime juice
¾ oz chile simple syrup (see below)
grenadine
To Make:
Shake all ingredients except grenadine with ice and pour into a double old-fashioned glass. Float a barspoon or two of grenadine over the top and garnish with lime zest or a lime wheel.
Chile Simple Syrup
Boil ⅓ cup water and ⅓ cup sugar and a two quartered chiles (Fresnos are called for, but any hot chile would be nice) in a sauce pan until the sugar is dissolved. Cool and use. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
N.B. Don’t try to make these ahead. The booze and coconut milk will separate and look pretty nasty.
(Via Sloshed, by way of The Hungry Cat restaurant’s mixologist, Hollywood, CA)
Even the most infrequent visitor to my online store (and this blog) knows that Iheartzombies. In fact, I’m in the midst of reading S.G. Browne’s Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament, a fantastic novel narrated in first person by a zombie.
So of course, as soon as I found out about the wonderful new service provided by My Zombie Insurance, I just had to spread the word. I think we can all safely say that were pretty in-the-dark about how much property damage is attributable to zombies over the course of a given year. One could be forgiven for even going so far as to call us… brainless.
Also, big up’s for that killer (pun not initially intended, but it works, so it’s now retroactively intended) slogan: Zombies don’t care. We do.™ I don’t know about you guys, but I am all over this. Like zombies on brains.
I worked on some new illustrations over the weekend, both in the realm of word play and both featuring creepy characters. First up: Zombie Boyfriends Bite
Fallen down on your fitness-related new year’s resolutions already? You probably just lack proper motivation. I know I’d be much more likely to hit the treadmill instead of the Ben and Jerry’s if I was dutifully preparing for a zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately I don’t live in Chicago, so I can’t get my ass in shape with ZombieFit.
Zombie fit is a work out program with a practical focus, surviving Z-day. With your zombie readiness work out routine you will be able to lift and throw heavy stuff, run fast and for long distances, and navigate obstacles and urban environments in an efficient manner. Sounds handy.
In totally unrelated news, instead of hitting the gym over the weekend I designed a new tee. I would have designed more tees, but Lost has totally taken over my life. We are watching it on Netflix and we’re completely riveted. In the meantime, enjoy Chow Guevara and look for more new art soon:
our customers
I also love for the same reason Sofia Coppola, she creates amazing characters as well! I think I cheated with this answer because I tend to view all three as visual artists in their own right 
