avram | Entries tagged with jerseycity

This guy over here? He was walking past the Starbucks right next to Yuka while I was sitting there sketching yesterday, while waiting for the other folks to show up for

feiran’s short-notice stuff-yourself-full-o-shushi fest. We had fifteen people, clearly a larger group than the restaurant was used to dealing with, and wound up around a series of tables strung together leaving us with two groups of all-you-can-eat people placing separate orders, and the waitresses bring one group’s stuff to the other end of the table, and vice-versa, somehow leading to everyone eating more than they’d intended. But anyway, doesn’t that guy have a great face? One that cries out to be sketched?

Afterward a bunch of us headed off to

bigscary’s place to watch his Farscape DVDs. Bigscary has hit upon a novel way of avoiding having to organize and store his DVD collection, by having me borrow most of it. The first four Farscape disks have joined the pile.

[ Melorne as a kid ]

Oh, note to self: Y’know how you keep putting off clearing off your drawing table during the day, in favor of going out and doing daytime stuff, figuring you can do it in the evening, and then when evening rolls ’round, putting it off to the next day? Well, you’ve been doing this since Friday, and the table ain’t getting any cleared-off-er. Just sayin’.

Today’s waste of time was sitting in Ground, reading more of Mason & Dixon (which continues to be way drolly humorous) and doing still more sketching while putting off actually starting a web comic or a submission for SPX. (Also, see above about drawing table.) On the up side, I am getting the hang of that Japanese brush-pen, and I almost like how Melorne’s jacket came out in the sketch below.

( Big, color Melorne sketch )

Current Music: "Bonus Track", Carbon Leaf

I took advantage of today’s nice weather to walk down Newark Avenue to Journal Square and get a look at the Loew’s Jersey Theatre, a once (and maybe future) beautiful Jersey City landmark. There was a bench across the street, well-sited for sketching, but it was still a bit far to catch the detail in the molding. Just a rough sketch, then:

( Loew's Jersey Theatre )

Then I hit the local Indian Row, had a cheap masala dosa for lunch, picked up a cheap Teach Yourself Hindi book to pick words and phrases out of for my character in

bsd_rpg, and walked back home. Sat my ass down in Ground with a cuppa decaf and sketched with my trusty 005 Pigma Micron:

( Some people at Ground )

I finished Gene Wolfe’s The Knight last night. It’s good; pretty accessible for a Wolfe book. Though it’s got the typical Wolfe touches, like bits where he’ll skip a big chunk of time and not bother to tell you about it till much later. (And that’s doubly odd considering that this is an epistolary novel, supposedly a latter from the protagonist to his brother.) But the language is straightforward, without the exoticisms of New Sun or the slang dialog of Long Sun. And it’s got lots to say about loyalty and heroism. I’m eager for the second half.

Today I started Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. I’m glad I followed up on that impulse — I’m enjoying this. It’s a bit tough to penetrate, since it’s written in an 18th-century style, but I can manage it, and past reading (the Aubrey & Maturin books, and Gene Wolfe as well) is coming in handy. So far (not very, since I haven’t actually just sat down and spent a big chunk of time reading), it’s bizarre and a bit funny.

Current Music: "Wolf Song — Lycanthropy", Patrick Wolf

bugsybanana and I just met and spent a wonderful day with

immlass and

mcroft, who turn out to live about two blocks from

ladymondegreen,

akawil, and I, and that’s more LJ user links in one sentence than anyone needs.

We spent the afternoon at 111 First Street, the heart of Jersey City’s arts community, checking out artists’ open studios. Sadly, there weren’t nearly as many artists participating as there were for the big Open Studios day back in October, but at least we got to check out Ron English’s fantastic work.

We sat in on a performance of Irish music, and I sketched some of the performers. For the second time in two days one of my subjects spotted me drawing (I must be losing my touch) and asked for a look. He (I think it was Tony Horswill) asked me to send him scans.

( Sketches of musicians )

We went back to their place and chatted for a bit about computers and gaming and books and various other topics, then went to Helen’s Pizza for dinner (and I realized — I now have local friends who don’t keep kosher, who I can lure up to Grimaldi’s Pizza in Hoboken!), and the local homemade ice cream place for dessert.

I forgot how we wound up on the topic of the War On Some Terrorism as a police action being an NYC-style police action, with Saddam Hussein as Amadou Diallo with a Wallet of Mass Destruction. But we did.

Current Music: "Born Under a Bad Sign", Albert King

I dunno, I’ve been kinda mopey recently, but today felt great. I know the exact moment it turned around: I was getting ready to do some shopping, and I wanted some music. I managed to find my CD player (which had been eluding me for several months), and I popped in Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia, and the moment the opening notes of “What It Is” hit my ears, I felt like all was right with the world. Thanks,

kent_allard_jr! It didn’t hurt that the day was sunny and (relatively) warm.

After shopping, I went to Ground. Chatted a bit with the cute new barrista. Coffee with Splenda is starting to taste good to me. Finished off the Jack Staff book, and man, that was just great. It’s like reading a British Astro City, but more condensed, with the stories all tightly packed and interwoven. And, as I mentioned, with a great sense of design. And that shaded-nose thing he goofs up in Kane? He gets it working in Jack Staff

I also read the second (and, I think, last) volume of FLCL. There’s an intriguing visual drive to it — that’s what attracted me to the book in the first place — but man, it’s just sloppy and incoherent on both the plot and storytelling levels. I hope the anime is better than the manga. The art seems cleaner, anyway.

( And I did some sketching. )

Current Music: "Battle of Evermore", Ann & Nancy Wilson

How long since I’ve posted a drawing? A week?

I haven’t been very productive lately, for all that I’ve been hanging out at Ground to avoid the cold. (On the upside, story ideas have finally started showing up. Generally at 2 AM. I get up and write ’em down anyway.)

( Teacup and cleavage! )

Current Music: "Stockholm Syndrome", Muse

Temperature on Mars, according to the Spirit rover: high of 41°F, low of 5°F.

Temperature in Jersey City right now: 17°F.

Temperature in Boston right now: 3°F.

Update: Top Ten Reasons Why Bush Wants to Go to Mars!

Current Music: "The Man Who Told Everything", Doves

Well, OK, not my life. Mancala saved me from getting some small scratches on my scalp, and maybe a bit of glass in my eye. What kind of title would that be?

I was at Ground, relaxing after the interview. Ground has a pile of boardgames (mostly missing pieces), and it turns out there’s a portable mancala board (with only 27 stones left). I learned this when a couple was playing on the couch next to the easy chair I was sitting in. I walked over to ask what rules they were using (made up, as it turns out), and the light bulb over my chair spontaneously exploded, showering the chair with glass fragments! If not for the bible in my hip pocket, that bullet would have gone right up my, um, well, anyway, it was the second intersection of mancala and glass that day (the first being the glass-covered game board at the office where I interviewed). If I were superstitious, I’d wonder what it augured.

Current Music: "Look What You've Done", Jet

The interview went pretty well, except for the bit where I was all ready to impress the guy by talking about how I used to trap colors by hand in Illustrator when he told me that they do digital printing, and thus don’t have to worry about trapping. (And I told him anyway, and he was still impressed.) He had a bunch more interviews that day, and I assume the rest of the week. Next week they’ll call back some folks for second interviews and some hands-on testing. There’s a risk they might want me for second shift, four-to-midnight, which would suit my typical sleep schedule better, but would kick the rusty bottom right out of the dingy dinghy of my social life.

And the place is really tough to get to. Getting there took almost an hour, and involved hiking about a mile over un-sidewalked streets, dodging cars, slogging through grassy shoulder and avoiding hazardous material runoff. Getting back was worse, because I tried to take a bus which turns out not to run this time of year, and wound up having to walk all the way around Liberty State Park, about three miles. There’s one more possible route I’ll try if I get called back, but it’s still about a mile walk. I may have to pass this one up.

Current Music: "Into The Darkness", No Motiv

One thing Jersey City’s teaching me is how good the transit was in NYC. Not just the transit itself, but the support services. Specifically: the maps.

There doesn’t seem to be a bus map for Jersey City. Each borough in NYC has a map showing all of the bus routes, overlaid on a street map of the borough, so you can find your start and finish points and then see what routes go by and where the intersection are. No such thing here. We’ve just got route maps for each route, so you’ve got to already know what route goes where, and gods forbid you need to transfer, ’cause then your decision tree starts branching out into mystery space.

It looks like there’s one bus route that goes past where tomorrow’s interview is, and it doesn’t intersect with any other bus route. It looks like there are two routes that go near me. Do either of them go within a few blocks of that first bus? I don’t know, and there’s no easy way to find out. NJ Transit’s website is supposed to be able to advise me, but when I use that form, it claims there are no routes near my origin.

As far as I can tell, from consulting an actual map of Hudson County and guesstimating where the light rail stops are (’cause they’re not marked, though the PATH stations are), it looks like my options are (1) walk three-quarters of a mile or so east to the light rail, take a two-and-a-half mile train trip to a spot three-quarters of a mile or so northwest of my destination, and then walk from there, or (2) just walk two miles south. In the snow, all uphill both ways, no doubt.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: "Walking With Thee", Clinic

Yesterday,

akawil,

ladymondegreen, and I celebrated the new year with a trip out to the Indian neighborhood near Journal Square for some vegetarian dosa and curry. They had Indian shows running on the satellite TV, mostly with lots of singing and dancing, though we came in towards the end of a low-end comedy/action movie (or TV show). I understand most Indian movies are musicals; I wonder what Hollywood action movies would be like now if directors had been inspired by Bollywood instead of Hong Kong. All singing dancing Matrix!

Today there was some confusion over where Games-Club-in-Exile would be held, so I wound up just staying home. (I’d missed the previous two GCs, but got in a bit of gaming at the party on Wednesday, so I wasn’t jonesing too hard.) I hung out at Ground for a while and finished inking this drawing I’d started after dinner last night:

( Drawing of dancing girl )

Speaking of the confusion, there’s a dynamic in online communication that some people seem not to have grasped. ( On arguments )

Current Music: "Du Haust (English Version)", Rammstein

Cough cough! When I first got to Ground today there were no smokers, but as the day wore on it seemed to get extra smokey. Or maybe that’s ’cause I was chatting in the corner with

jcb and his girlfriend and a buddy of theirs, getting smoked at from three sides.

My artistic blues are over, most likely ’cause I spent the afternoon cross-hatching like a mofo! (The cute girl head above is from a few days ago, as is the Melorne head shot behind the cut, but the rest of today’s catch is fresh.)

tnh just blogged about a school program that’s got half the pupils at an NJ elementary school learning to knit, and she says that knitting “produces a sort of serene buzz”. I think this is a side-effect of concentrating on something, or maybe of making small, repetitive movements with your hands, because cross-hatching gets me slightly tranced out. On the downside, there’s the hand-strain; Carla Speed McNeil calls it “cartoonist’s black lung”.

( Bunch of sketches )

Current Music: "Playing Favorites", Starting Line

Been bored the past few days; I spent most of today at Ground, drinking coffee, idly lusting after the young woman on the couch nearby (not that she’d spare a glance for me, even if she weren’t half my age), reading James Blish’s A Case of Conscience, eavesdropping on investment advice (not that I can afford to take advantage of it), and redesigning Melorne. ’Cause it’s easier than actually writing a strip.

( Redesigning Melorne )

Current Music: "Landslide Baby", Beulah

You’d think I’d spend more time at museums, what with having my days free and being able to pay virtually nothing for admission, but I somehow rarely get around to it. Today I went to the Met to get my sketch on.

( Museum sketchery )

Afterward I hung out at Ground for a bit. James and I got to talking about how South Park is the kind of thing Aristophanes would be writing if he were around today, and James said that the Mr Hankey song (“He loves me, I love you, therefore vicariously he loves you”) was like the doctrine of Apostolic Succession. And really, after that, what can you say?

Current Music: "A Man Like Me", Beulah

We had not one, but two power outages this morning!

I bought me some pants! I’d been planning to hold off on clothes purchases till I hit 250 pounds (at which point my parents will by me a whole new wardrobe), but I just needed pants. I found a discount place selling jeans at under $10 a pair, but all too small, nothing over a 42" waist. What’s up with that? Don’t these people know there’s an epidemic of obesity in this country? Let’s see some cheap big pants! Pants for the people! Another shop had some nicer jeans at $30 a pair, but I haggled the guy down to $20 by the simple tactic of turning around and walking towards the door. He gave me the traditional spiel about how the factory wouldn’t even let him sell them if they knew he was letting them go so cheap. I’m sure I was taking food from the mouths of his babies.

Turns out I can wear a 48" waist now! And they’re a bit loose; I could probably take a 47" if goyishe shatnez didn’t prohibit odd numbers. (Maybe five of you got that.)

At Cosmic I picked up, um, issue #1 of Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown, ’cause it looked cool and there wasn’t anything else I was interested in, and #1 of Plug Perkins, ’cause it was free, and still looked better written and drawn than stuff I’ve paid actual money for.

Met with the usual NYRSF crowd.

kent_allard_jr dissed my epistemology. Them’s fightin’ words!

Got very rained on. My sketchbook got wet, the big Canson spiral-bound. Some of the stuff towards the beginning was done in water-soluble marker, and has suffered. A pain, but not a disaster.

Got home to find a note from our landlord. More power outages! The power outage spirits love us! I headed off to Ground, and on the way ran into the work crew that was fixing our lines, and got a forecast of another fifteen to twenty minutes of darkness. There’s some sort of problem that’s getting a temporary solution tonight, and a more lasting one tomorrow. I hope.

We didn’t get to see Angel, but we’ve got people taping it for us. Top men.

Current Mood: wet
Current Music: "I'm Only Sleeping", Rosanne Cash

Really, how many of you could keep yourselves out of a restaurant that had a sign in the window saying “SENSATIONAL FRANKIE!”? I figured maybe they had a Sinatra impersonator. No, a frankie is an Indian foodstuff, a thin potato pancake wrapped around filling. I had a medium-spicy cheese frankie, and it was pretty tasty.

Current Music: "Wicked Little High", Bird York

Y’know what I used to hate about commercial radio? How they’d just cycle the same forty or so Billboard chart hits over and over again. Y’know what I hate about alternative net.radio? How they just cycle the same forty or so alternative rock hits over and over. Anyone know of a free net-radio feed from a station that has a huge music library from lots of different genres and just plays whatever they think is cool? Sorta like Vin Scelsa does? (Sadly, Vin won’t let his show go out on the net, because of the limitations the FCC would put on him.)

I’m feeling better now; got some good sketching done. I really like how I got the girl’s hair in the upper-right of this image — the one that looks like it’s all hair, like a darker Cousin It. I’m fond of how I got the highlights working. There’s a bit of a Robert Crumb feel to that.

( Sketches from Ground )

I also like some of the stuff that I haven’t scanned in, some character designs that worked pretty well.

Current Music: "Salt Sweat Sugar", Jimmy Eat World

I don’t know who this guy is; he looks like a surly cross between Burl Ives and Mr. Mxyzptlk. (If you were a cross between Burl Ives and Mr. Mxyzptlk, you’d be surly too.)

I spent a good chunk of the day being mopey, bailed on exercising, ate food that was bad for me, hung out at Ground for a couple of hours, got only a little sketching done and none of that really constructive.

On the up side, I got my drawing table cleared off (which took much less time than I expected). Actually, it’s not entirely clear, but all that’s on it is art stuff. I could get painting on very little notice, which is the idea.

I also picked up a couple of little (5x7 inch, gallery edge) canvases at Hudson County Art Supply. The shop’s doing well enough that the owner is planning to expand.

And I visited a doctor yesterday, for the first time in a few years. Just a check-up. It didn’t take ten minutes for the doctor to say to her assistant “You can hold him down, and I’ll hit him.” I just have that effect on women.

I got a tetanus booster, ’cause I hadn’t had one in a couple of decades. I understand it’s supposed to hurt for a day or two after, but I don’t feel it. I hope that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. In other news, my blood pressure is pretty good, and not just good-for-a-fat-guy good, but just plain good.

( Here’s a big sketchbook dump! )

Current Music: "Hocus Pocus", Focus

So after a week of good behavior, I broke down and went to a local pizza place for lunch today and had me some ham and pepperoni knots. (Mmmm.) So now I’m full of nice fatty comfort food, and after skipping out on the gym today there’s no way I’ll be down to 262 tomorrow. Ah well.

But the money is an issue. I spent $4 (exactly; it came out to $4.03 and they rounded the pennies down), and I was grumbling to myself after about whether I really should have spent it, ’cause money’s really tight and that’s four bucks I’ll never see again, and then as I was walking back home I noticed, there on the sidewalk, with nobody else around—

Dollar bills.

Four of them.

Current Music: "Too Much", Rusted Root

More studios today. Went back to 111, checked out the fourth and fifth floors, then back down to catch some folks I’d missed yesterday. Lots of really good stuff. I’m thinking about glazes, I’m thinking about lines, I’m thinking about metallics. I’m thinking I really need to build some more shelving and clear off my drawing table.

Anyone know offhand how much a 6-foot length of 1x12 white pine weighs? Hm, according to this page it’s three pounds per boardfoot. I don’t think I can get a full shelving unit’s worth of wood home without a cart. I might be able to catch one of the wild carts that I sometimes see grazing near the supermarket.

I also went to the after-tour party at the Jersey City Art Museum. Tiny museum, even smaller than the Seattle Art Museum, I think. New York has spoiled me for museums; now I know why tourists rave about them.

( Leftover sketches from last night and last week that I forgot to scan till just now )

Current Music: "enjoy the silence", Depeche Mode

This weekend is Jersey City Arts Festival weekend. I skipped out on most of the festivities and headed straight for the heart of things: 111 First Street, the Powerhouse Art District, an old factory converted into artists’ studios. Lots of good stuff. I saw some abstract oil paintings that got me reconsidering how I felt about surface treatment, and some watercolors that made me want to take up watercoloring again.

After three hours I came out (having seen maybe half of what there was to see) tired with aching feet, and headed over to Ground to cure both conditions. There were musicians performing, and I sat and sketched. The dark-haired woman with the microphone in the second image, below, is Kama Linden, who I liked enough to buy her CD. I wound up typing her track info in for the CDDB — oh, the responsibility!

( Sketchbook dump )

Current Music: "Chris", Kama Linden

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Avram's journal

Days, sketched in brief

More damn sketching

Sketching the Loew’s Jersey

Meeting Immlass

Sailing to Castletown

Some sketches

It's warmer on Mars

Mancala saved my life!

Commuting through Hell

NYC mass transit has spoiled me rotten

First drawing of the new year

Stinking and cross-hatching

Deep in redesign

A day at the Met

My Wednesday

Sensational Frankie!

More sketching

It sounds like yodeling, and then Popeye sings the bridge

It's the little things

More Open Studios

JC Open Studios, Day 1

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April 2017

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