MAKE ART: Sidewalkin'

Girl with Polychrome, originally uploaded by DivaLea. Click on the pic for more sidewalk art and PRICKLE!

We finally got to bust out a tub of sidewalk chalk given to us by Larry Dixon at last year's Zeus Comics-CAPE 2.5 benefit.
Girl started it, disappearing outside for a good hour before she came back in and dragged me out to see the beginnings of what she's posing with here. She took one block of our front walk and turned it into a perfect solid chalk ground, graduating from blue to pink. It was delicious-looking. The character is her Pokemon "Polychrome."
I sat down and did my own, Prickle (of course), opting to let more of the texture of the cement show through, and fading out my chalk near the bottom to show the cement.

Tin Tin came and took a luxurious wallow on my canvas, dusting her paws neon pink, Push-Up orange on the side of her face, and orange on her pantaloons. I started rubbing her in the chalk to blend it, and to get her dirtier, because a dirty cat is a funny cat. (You can see her orange leg in another picture.)

When I photographed our art, I opted to leave in the grass and leaves around the blocks, and the spaces between, because they make a fantastic visual contrast.

Mainly, though, it was plain enjoyable to spend time with my daughter, in our own neighborhood, in front of our own house.

HURT COMICS: Why Coffee is Evil and Robbie Fulks Will Be My New Best Friend

Because I had some (coffee) around 1AM, and that was a bad idea, but it's the coffee's fault I'm still awake at 3:14 and not doing shit.

I want to recommend the music of Robbie Fulks. Ever thought you'd hear me say "I Like Country?" Well, good, because I don't--I like rockabilly! I like Fulks because his writing is smart and he sounds like he and Dave Edmunds (and k.d. lang circa "Angel with a Lariat") could be friends.
It's criminal I had no idea who Robbie was until about two weeks ago, because Robbie feels the same way about the country music business as I do about the comics business. Which is we love what we do, hate the business, and lash out childishly and with great glee.

"Fuck This Town" was released in 1997, and about how Fulks had been a songwriter for four or so years, hamstrung by suits who decided what the next hit would be, and buried under petty and ridiculous directives (like not mentioning a woman's fingernails because that made women "too sexual.") The petty directives remind me of not only commercial work, but also of Big Two editors who decree on moronic and tasteless storylines, although they tend towards oversexualizing women, or making them vicitms of sexual violence.
And homogenization of entertainment when one act, one person, one book is a hit.
(ETA: There is a line near the end about a "faggot" and I do not approve. Considering the content, "asshole" would've worked fine, and not depicted McSingers as Less Manly Than Thou. Tsk, Robbie.)

"Fountains of Wayne Hotline" grew out of a road game Robbie and bandmates played on the road. It is gut-bustingly funny, a cross of parodying music over-production and help line workers both good and exasperated. The end, where the band simply sings out what they're doing to the song, is huggably squealy clever.

"Countrier Than Thou" is flat-out excoriation of "country" singers who sing about life and angst they've never experienced, but like to pretend they have. (Like gated community white boys tryin' to be down with the homies.) Also freaking hilarious, when shot through the prism of comics creators who puff every kernel of their resume, life, and pedigree to one-up others.
Sung in quite a number of styles, too. Brilliant.

iTunes, my friends, because more bitter fun cannot be had for $2.97. After all, a comic costs that, but you only get one, and typing out the snark takes time. You're paying Robbie for saving you the trouble.