Same Monday, Different Week

[tealin]

Hello there, Internet!

GENERAL MAINTENANCE
Saturday's Sketchbook - CENTREFOLD! I had all day to draw ... and got two pages done. And only one of them really worth anything. Two sketches from Monstrous Regiment - one of Maladict demonstrating high morale among the troops, and one of Blouse's arrival. The preceeding page has thumbnails for Maladict and a sketch from a photo of a horse and rider. I filled in the front legs of the horse, because they weren't visible in the photo, but that was a bad idea.
Yesterday's Sketchbook - Sundays don't officially count but I included it for consistency, and also because the hand at the top was from Saturday. The rest are people and hands from the choir rehearsing for Easter.
Ooh, Scubbo! - Finally got ahold of my life drawing pad AND remembered to scan it at work, so here's that Blouse thumbnail I'd been trying to recreate.
Life Drawing Madness - Sitting next to my sister at life drawing can sometimes be ... distracting. This was drawn the day after finding out Michael Surrey was possibly back at Disney, and also features Hellboy as Robin Hood, triggered by the disproportionately large right arm I'd drawn.

Heehee.
Interestingly enough, the Decemberists have Patrick O'Brian on their links to varous interests. Is it all connected? And perhaps more frightening ... have they seen 'Round the Bend?

BONUS FEATURE
Aggrevated by the incessant post-Katrina coverage on Morning Edition* I decided to look up something more entertaining and found a nice long interview with The Decemberists, including several songs. It's a good introduction to the band, even though the drums are left out and the drummer is 'playing his lap,' and of course since it's live it's not as polished and perfectly mixed as the CD. But very good, and very entertaining, and they sang 'Eli,' which wins a million points for the host of the show, who requested it.** Click on the red 'Listen' button above the photo if you've got RealPlayer.

*Which I listen to occasionally, now, as the CBC's morning show is very nearly useless when it comes to news ... I used to listen to Morning Edition every day but now that I don't live in the States I don't really feel connected to most of it and, as I said, the neverending Katrina coverage gets old fast.
**Or the band, if they fed the suggestion to him. But they get a million points anyway.

Comments

[spence137.livejournal.com]

Ahh. Delightful drawings! The Mariner's Revenge Song is easily my faovrite song of theirs, and possibly one of my faovrite songs ever.

[magicnme.livejournal.com]

Wow. Blouse manages to look even more doppler-esque in this one, methinks. *squee* I love your stuff so.

Random Comment from a Fan

[rockangel7011.livejournal.com]

Rabid fan of the Decemberists and your artwork wanders throught. *waves*

I've seen the Decemberists in concert (and Colin Meloy solo). The music is already great, but it's a thousand times better live.

I saw in the comments a few entries back that you mentioned you liked Picaresque better than Her Majesty; I'd agree with you on the whole, but Her Majesty definitely grows on you. I didn't like it at all on my first listen, but I enjoy it much more now.

But I'd have to say that The Tain is the best piece of music they've recorded to date, and I recommend searching it out as soon as you can. There's also quite a few live recordings and such floating around on the web (probably more Colin solo than the Decemberists as a group), but they're worth tracking down in addition to the albums and EPs.

I never get tired of plugging the Decemberists!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Her Majesty has definitely grown on me, but I still like Picaresque way, way better. It's good to hear from someone who has heard The Tain ... most of the reviews I've read say that while it's very good it's a lot, er ... heavier than the others, and I'm not a big fan of heavy rock (some of the songs are already almost too cacophonous ... almost) so I am afraid. I'd like to hear it before I buy it but I don't know of any legal way of doing that as none of my friends owns it.

[ari-enchanted.livejournal.com]

Oh em gee, Warley and Hollom are the best. I love this ongoing Jonah strip.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh, some of the crazy ideas I've come up with to inflict on them entertain myself ... I've forgotten half of them now, alas. Mostly insane crossovers. |: )

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

All the drawings are fun (you had a little TOO much fun with L -no, that's not really possible, is it? Like "too much chocolate" - can't happen! I loved your funny notes - "Surray"! Ha!) I'm listening to that Decemberists link - cool (rough luck!). BTW - did I already tell you that Mike Surrey is INDEED back working on Rapunzel?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

You mentioned you saw him in the hallway but not what he was working on! Sweet!

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Yep - I found out a week or so later - at the time he wasn't sure, just checking things out. Sorry - I should have told you!

[wicked-warrior.livejournal.com]

Yay! Sketches! I like the horse you did, though I think you're right about the legs.
*Stares at Hellboy/Robin Hood* Ok, I've never seen that one before...
And Yaaaay! MnC sketches! I love them all! Warley's face expression is great! Poor Hollom on a corner, that just remembers me about the Jonah comic :)
Oh, the old "Round the bend", I'll always love that web :)

[wicked-warrior.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way, have you heard about Russell Crowe's visit to HMS Surprise not two weeks ago? I know these rumours can be tiring, but this one looked specially hopeful :) http://community.livejournal.com/hms_surprise/208826.html

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yup, heard about it ... as long as they don't rush it and make it at least 75% as good as the first one, that's fine with me.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Have they been talking a lot about Katrina lately? Phoo - shows how "with it" I am in my own country!
Finished listening to that interview - what jauntily dark music! I'm a real sucker for that kind of hopeless tales of the sea. I really loved the clever lyrics on the second song in particular.
Although I am clearly not as intimately familiar with Master and Commander as most everyone else who posts here (i.e., couldn't vouch for every represented likeness) I really like the easy, soft but confident quality of the drawing of the sailor with earbuds, for what it's worth.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they've been talking about Katrina a lot lately compared to how much they were talking about it, say, five months ago, but every time I tune in they've got at least one segment devoted to 'the ongoing recovery' ... this may be very little coverage from a domestic standpoint, but considering they haven't mentioned Katrina on the CBC or BBC for months (except for a little 'where are they now?' spurt around Mardi Gras) it's a lot more than I'm used to and sounds like a preoccupation to me.

I'm glad you like my Warley ... I like him as a design but as a caricature I still don't quite have him. Here, I'll trawl the screencaps and see if I can find a good shot... The hours have devoted to trying to translate that face into line would probably creep out whoever played him.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Nonsense - he should be flattered! I would be! Now, if you were doing bad designs/likenesses, well...
The problem is I hardly listen to the radio anymore lately, except for old This American Life episodes, or Prairie Home Companion, or that "Small Gods" play you turned me onto (I LOVED it! I can't believe it's over already - it seemed so short! Did they edit a lot, you think? But the ending was so perfect.) So they could be talking about Katrina 24/7 and I would hardly know.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Okeydoke, here ya go ...



There is just something I'm not getting. I can caricature the profile OK (he's got such a Jean Gillmore nose) but the 3/4 ARGH NO. I feel like someday there's going to be some simple little revelation and then everything will click into place but ... ARGH.

Heheh, well... I could always get you hooked on Radio 4 or BBC7 ... Mwahaha. they actually have Prairie Home Companion on BBC7 (which is just WEIRD to listen to) though it's rather truncated.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I should probably add that the above Warley drawing was done from memory, but all the ones before that were end products of hours of fruitless sketching. And it's not even like I find him particularly attractive, he's just so useful for gag sketches!

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Uh huh...sure you don't.;D (don't worry - I won't tell a soul)
Wow - he has a really interesting face, but a tough nut to crack, caricature-wise! For starters, that "Gillmore" nose (very astute!) looks quite different straight-on than in profile! Although it could be the lighting...Hmmm...Now I want to give this a try! Anyway, I think yours was quite good, especially from memory - you definitely got that boyish, puckish, good-naturedness quality. I will have to go back and look at your other drawings of him now...
I guess I should be pleased that they play PHC at all on BBC7, although it always bugged me when they edited the shows during pledge drives here in the states (I once called in and told them I'd give them a big fat donation if they'd just play the whole freakin' show, and the program director actually came on the air and ranted for a while about how I didn't understand how anything worked (it was kind of flattering to get that much attention - I wonder if there had been similar complaints?) I mean, one of the draws of the show (if you like it at all) is that it takes its own, sweet, sometimes glacial time, and is just chock full of entertaining little bits - who would want to miss a minute of it?

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Wowser! You listen to the Prairie Home Companion! I do, too! I grew up on it when I lived in the Midwest, and I follow it loyally!

Actually there will be a Prairie Home Companion broadcast from Iceland in May as part of the Reykjavik Arts Festival, so I am really looking forward to that. The staff here at Icelandair did not know much about the PHC and were wondering how much to support it. I kept telling them Pleasepleaseplease this show is great and support it, so we seem to be helping out with it. I just look forward to how they will work Guy Noir and Powdermilk Biscuits and the Cafe Beouf into a setting as weird and fantastic as Iceland!

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Another fan -cool! Well, Keilor always manages to work whatever crazy place he's in into the show somehow! Actually, it might not be that hard, given the austere, severe beauty (and cold) that Minnesota (at least in wintertime) and Norway (where all dem der settlers came from, doncha know?) might share with Iceland - don't know if Woebegonians themselves share a lot in common with...Icelandiers?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

My favourite incorporation of local flavour was when they had a show in Scotland and had the following joke [paraphrased]:

They say cuisine in Scotland is limited, but it's not true. If you go into a restaurant and order a pizza, they will gladly take one out of the freezer and deep-fry it for you.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

If I wasn't British as well as Scottish I'd be offended by that.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, the audience laughed... quite enthusiastically if I remember. At the time I didn't know anything about Scottish stereotypes (or deep-fried Mars bars) so I didn't get it.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I have one word to describe deep-fried Mars bars:

Eyerch.

Hey, did I say it was a real word?

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Oh, man! That is hilarious!

Yeh, there is certainly a lot they can pick on with Icelandic humor. Icelanders pretend to be all serious and straight laced but they really have a wicked, wicked dry humor and love to laugh at themselves. Some things I am sure the show will pick on... e.g.
- traditions of eating things like boiled sheephead, pickled shark, dried fish, ram's testicles
- people who believe in fairies and elves
- road construction building around places to not disturb the little people
-wheels not being used until the 19th century
-Iceland having the smallest population in the world (as far as I know) which results in...
- Icelanders having to always be the best at everything (strongest men, best handball players, most beautiful women)
- baking bread by boiling it in volcanic cracks in the ground
- Icelandic horses still being as a major form of transportation in the wilderness areaz of the country (e.g. in my icon)
- Icelandic weather. I think the motto of the Icelandic Postal service translated into English is "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the somewhat swift completion of their appointed rounds even though it all happens several times each hour."
- Iceland not having many trees... there was a comment in "Going Postal" about a treeless area where the expression for being in a hick or redneck area was "being way out in the stems" or something like that since there are no trees big enough to for someone to "be way out in the sticks". I HAVE to get that translated into Icelandic. It is just too funny.

It fits with the famous Icelandic joke: what do you do when you get lost in an Icelandic forest? 1. Don't panic. 2. Slowly, carefully put the lid back on your bottle of schnapps. 3. Stand up.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Heehee, it would seem Icelanders have an excellent sense of humour, as well.

Hmm, the only thing I know of, as far as odd eating habits goes, is burying fish until it gets nice and rotten and then eating it. I'm sure this is a misconception of something perfectly legitimate, but ... eew.

Ireland's pretty famous for building around fairy forts and trees and suchlike, too... whether or not there is actually anything there, it's nice to see cultural sites preserved. By the way [fairly folklore nerd time] if you know any good sources for stories about the Huldrefolk (or whatever they're called) I would be immensely grateful ... there's no end of fairy lore from Engliah-speaking places but the Icelandic stuff is really interesting and I haven't managed to get ahold of much.

My favourite fact about Iceland is that Icelandic is the closest 'living' language to ancient Norse. : )

Huldufólkið

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Hello there again!

Wow! We have some nerd interests in common! Awesome. I like that Icelandic is so much like Old Norse. The grammar is the sound but the sounds have changed, probably due to the Celtic influence. I love how Icelanders also create new words based on Old Norse rather than just taking the word from another language. Telephone, for example, is telephone in most languages (or some form). In Iceland they took an Old Norse word for thread "Sími" and that is telephone.

The rotten shark is called hákarl qne is true that it is buried in the ground. That is really only one of the old foods that I actually hate. The other food is great. Iceland also has a big gourmet sccene, too.

You are very right about Ireland's fairy forts and such. Actually Iceland's ancestral make-up is both from Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland so I think a lot of the fairy stories in Iceland originated from the Celts. They knew how to read and write so even though they were taken as slaves by the Vikings they taught the Vikings how to write down stories and, as a result, Iceland is the only Nordic country with a literary tradition. There is a good sci fi/fantasy story in there somewhere for someone to write about how the Celts influenced the Icelanders. BTW, many Icelanders look very Celtic with dark or red hair and grey or green eyes rather than blond hair and blue eyes.

I would LOVE to share some Huldufólk tales! I know a couple. I can email them to you or post them on my Journal- just let me know. There is also a good website I can translate into English for you that has some fairy stories on them. Finally, there is a great book from Iceland that is in English as well. You can find out more from it here.
http://www.randburg.com/is/vaka/folklore.html I can try to pick up a copy to send you the next time I am in Iceland. Brian Pilkington, a lucky British guy who lives in Iceland and whose drawings remind me a lot of Paul Kidby has done some hilarious English language tales about trolls in Iceland, too.


I have been kicking around for the last ten years a funny science fiction novel/graphic novel idea based on Icelandic ghost and fairy stories.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Boiled sheephead? Rotten fish? (imagine my facial features collapsing in on themselves, like a little black hole forming in the middle of my face) Oooo........kayyy. :) The rest sounds pretty cool, actually - like stepping back in time without a time machine! I'm glad that not everyone in the world has embraced the western pattern of progress - trading natural resources, beauty, and a easygoing pace for wealth, technology, and convenience.

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Ahh yes- it is true, indeed. The boiled sheephead is actually quite good. We do only eat this stuff once or twice a year at feasts called Þórrablóts. I actually posted this on my Live Journal with some photos of what the "delicacies" look like.

Yes, Iceland is like stepping back in time in many ways. Reykjavík is über high-tech and materialistic but the rest of the country is not.

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Here is where I put the Survival Guide to Þórrablót feasts in my LJ

http://thefordmustang.livejournal.com/19860.html#cutid1

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really cool! Thanks for posting that! Now I want to go to one of these crazy feasts ... :)

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Gjörðu svo vel. (You are welcome).

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Oh, regarding "Small Gods" they actually did have to leave a lot out from the book. I thought they did a good job of deciding what to put in and leave out so that the essential humor and story were intact. If you can read the book please do so! There is a lot of extra stuff that you might enjoy. There was a lot more adventure stuff in the book, for example, like the journey across the desert was really like an adventure survival story- funny but yet harrowing and beautifully written. I agree, the end of the story is very touching.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Obviously I have a lot of Terry Pratchet to catch up on (I have Twirlynoodle and her family to thank for turning me on to both him AND Neil Gaiman - thank you! Thank you!), but this one is definitely up on the list!

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

I liked the horse drawing.

The Warley and Hollom sketch is hilarious. I have visited your M and C site already and loved the Jonah comic. What happened to Warley in the movie really bothered me so it is nice that he and Hollom get their own spinoff comic. Hope you continue with it.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I'll get that photo film back on Friday. I hope the ones I took inside St. Giles come out OK...

[bananabasket.livejournal.com]

Not anymore. :D