Cowboy Snowman

Chester County and the surrounding megalopolis are gearing up for an anticipated big snow event starting Friday evening. The chatter has been heavy in the West Chester area about sledding, snowmen and more.

West Chester's John Young, always scheming, dreamed up a Snowman Rodeo with the idea of  building an army or calvary (or cavalcade?) of snowmen this weekend and needed a cowboy snowman for his flyer.

Luckily I was using a tool for work that takes an incredibly long time to save database changes. So each time I saved, I worked on my cowboy - gunslinger snowman. I added a goatee after realizing I forgot to leave space for the requested mustache. Maybe it will help appeal to West Chester hipsters.

For more Snowman Rodeo info (which will include camping out at Snowman Rodeo HQ (West Chester Scoop) and enjoying hot cocoa, movies, and shrinky dinks, click here and/or follow @tikaro.

Founders Centennial IPA Postcard

Was cleaning up the kitchen and cutting up six pack carriers and thought I'd send one directly to Founders Brewing Company themselves thanking them for crafting a fine-tasting brew. My local twitter pals, @kristenry and @jrybandt had recommended the purchase and I was not disappointed. For a long time, I've been heavily oriented toward buying cases from Pennsylvania brewers since we have so many quality ones especially right here down in the lower right-hand corner. So it was nice to go a little further outside the region to Michigan's Founders Brewing Company. They have some good stuff going on.

West Chester Story Slam: Love Hurts

The February West Chester Story Slam poster for the theme Love Hurts.

The first story slam even of the year last week was terrific - really impressive how many people turned out and how many had the gumption to get up and tell a story. Here's Shirley Landis Van Scoyk's winning story for January's theme, Embarrassing Moments.

Archives: Storm Cloud (1982)

January 1982. I think this accurately portrays my mood for that month as I was grounded for the entire month. As I'm sure you'll recall, there were five weekends in that January -- pretty bad.

Archives: Desert Commander (1981)

Was I really thinking of Saddam Hussein in the summer of 1981?
[note: I've obscured some of the phone number to protect the innocent person who now has that phone number.]

Archives: Teacher's Pencil Holder Still Life (1982)

Another one from the high school public speaking class journal at Henderson High School. This was the teacher's pencil holder. Her name was Joan Robinson-Metz. I'm pretty sure it was wrapped in a carpet material or something similar.

Archives: For All The Stars In Heaven (1982)

Kristen got me thinking about diaries or 'journals' as we of journalistic integrity would call them. I did a quick basement dig through the bin of high school stuff. It contains all the important stuff that I knew would be needed in the future (like now when I haven't had time to work on some drawings-in-the-works).

Scanning through my journals I'm surprised at the lack of doodles and drawings. I appear to have been spending most of my efforts on actual writing since, I guess, that's how I envisioned myself at the time.

This standard webbed aluminum chaise lawn chair drawing was found in my journal for my public speaking class in the spring of my senior year in high school.

The quote is, of course, from Queen's "Long Away".

A Major Award: Breathing Easy in a Mountain Lake

Another Victory six-pack postcard drawing for Kristen (this one was Prima Pils - my favorite hoppy summertime beer). This was her reward for going 30 days without smoking. It's meant to signify the clean air and sunshiny, outdoorsy, slightly religious iconic, enlightenment feeling that she can now feel because she's not smoking. I did this the other day in a groggy, achy, slightly fevered, New Year's flu state.

If you think you deserve a major award, let me know.

This Hacking Cough

I really think I better start circulating among the hoi poloi on a regular basis and start rebuilding my antibodies. I've been catching more sicknesses this year working from home all alone.

Hoi Poloi - Utopia

One more Santa One more time

Scary Stranger on Winter's Walk

Took this photo of a tree on a walk last week. Scary dude stuck his head in the frame just as I clicked.

Smoking Lady 6-pack postcard

About a month ago I sent a postcard out to Kristen because she wanted one. After that I read through her blog posts and found out she was trying to quit smoking and let her know she'd get another postcard after a straight month of smoke-free behavior.

This was the first drawing I did after that deal was brokered and wondered whether this would be better used as a reward or a scolding if she failed in her effort.

Yesterday was her 30-day mark and I was happy to see in her post today that she made it. So this one's to remind Kristen the battle is not over especially with onslaught of social smoking opportunities over the next 2 weeks. I'll get cranking on the 30-day reward!

Chalkboard Santa

Drew this on our bathroom wall for our wreath-making party this past weekend. The Mrs. and I have always loved the freedom that chalkboard paint offers. When I was taking years (no exaggeration) to remodel our bathroom in our old house that was old i used to draw on the plaster walls just to keep it entertaining and interesting, knowing one day that we'd paint or paper over them.  Of course, if I had spent the time drawing on remodeling, the bathroom might have gotten done a wee bit faster.

My friend Rich used to live in a house in W. Conshohocken with a bunch of dudes. Each time they had a party they let everyone draw on their walls with markers and crayons. They'd paint over it before the next party. That house was eventually torn down.

When we moved to this house we knew we wanted everyone to draw on our walls. So the Mrs., a master blackboard paint applier, did up our powder room for guests and family alike to scrawl graffiti, draw pictures, and leave messages.

West Chester Story Slam: Embarrassing Moments

Jim Breslin, local Chester County writer and founder of the West Chester Story Slam contacted me through Twitter the other night asking if I'd be interested in helping put together a promo for the first public Story Slam event in January in West Chester. He wanted fliers/posters to put up around West Chester promoting the event.

Drawing and designing late in the night, I tried a couple of different sketches and settled on this guy. Though he's a little 'fangy' and Star Trek'y I think he does the job of showing a dude in the spotlight telling his tale.

Funny that the theme of the event is "Embarrassing Moments". After Jim posted the poster around the web, I went about writing this post and did a spit-take on it as I pondered my brother, the freelance financial copy writer's reaction to the piece. I noticed that I had misspelled "embarrassing" as "embarassing". A quick fix and the original is now a collector's item.

I'm really looking forward to the inaugural slam for 2010 -- from a watching perspective. Make sure to get to Ryan's Pub early enough for a bite to eat and to get a good seat. In the meantime, look out for Jim with a bag full of fliers and a brush with a bucket of paste.

[Diamond pattern background courtesy of bittbox's free textures. QRCode inspired by Tikaro and West Chester's Barcode Building.]

Dinosaur Bugged by Bugs

Another postcard drawing - this one on the back of a Victory Prima Pils 6-pack panel. Not sure who it's going to. If you want it, email me your address and I'll put it in the mail. Great for spicing up your cubicle.