Insert typical "Best of 2008" post here

Okay ~ you've read the rest now read the best ~ the definitive list of the good stuff from the year that was 2008 ~ skidooosh!


Best films of the year ~
The jury is still out on this one since I haven't seen Milk yet or a few other contenders such as Slumdog Millionaire. But hey I liked WALLE ~ but didn't everyone?


Best Books ~
Lots of great reads this year - just going by what I read and not publishing date ...
{tbd}

Best in TV ~
Mad Men - OBVIOUSLY! Without a doubt ... Number ONE!
But also enjoyed The Wire, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Skins, Psych and
The Office was okay - but getting stale - and just recently started watching Chuck and 30 Rock which are funny at times ... Also I enjoy that silly sitcom with Neil Patrick Harris - How I met my Mother - it's silly but fun to watch ... AND the last season of Project Runway was great too ...



Best personal obsessions ~

This was not only the year I discovered the simple pleasures of the pencil,
but also the year that I discovered and fell in love with Japanese dollar stores and the many pleasures contained there with in - from the wooden toys to the strange candies to the cool erasers and notebooks to the many options in bento boxes and chopsticks! There is no end to the fun I tell you ...

Best Music of 2008 ...

* The Dodos- Visiter
* Vampire Weekend - self titled
* Deerhunter - Microcastle
* The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
* High Places - Self titled
* No Age - Nouns
* Jay Reatard - Singles 2008
* Los Campesinos! - We are Beautiful, We are Doomed
* Blitzen Trapper - Furr
* Fleet Foxes - self titled
* Also ~
* Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!
* The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines
* Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (Legacy Edition)
* Weezer (Red)
* Los Campesinos - Hold on Now, Youngster…

The mind wanders & picks up tinker toys along the way...

So I'm thinking about the year that was, and looking back as we tend to do as we prepare to begin another one, and I am pleased to say that it was damn fine year in many ways. Oh sure, we're all doomed to poverty and endless economic suffering for years to come ~ but hey, we went places and accomplished things as well this year. So here's my quick recap of the year in retrospect (before my brain erases all the files and says - What trip to Tahoe?)

In January, we went to Tahoe and had a blast in the snow with my parents & Teri + Elijah and the Goodrich family (we even watched the NFL play off game & some great flix like The Last Mimzy).

I coached my first Odyssey of the Mind team at Glenview, problem #3 - The Muses!

I survived my last year of teaching preschool at Ducks Nest with a crazy bunch of four year olds that became very dear to me...

The kids survived and had fun at several summer camps over the summer ...

We also had a great trip back east in July ~ I got sunburned in Michigan, spent time in Metamora, traveled by car to Canada & we rode the Maid of the Mist by Niagara Falls ~ swam in my brother's pool ~ had lots of Salmon!

Began working for Sanrio!

Became obsessed with pencils in September ~

Went to Gerry Beyer's wedding at the Cliff house ~

Bought a Toyota Prius ~ AND ...

Got hired as a permanent employee of Sanrio as a fulltime web designer!

Yeah ~ you could say it was a good year - and it was!

On the moon

Yes ~ it is time for me to get back to it! It will soon be 2009 ~ the time to begin a new comic strip featuring a clumsy robot and his adventures among the stars. M-bot and his alien friend, Udu (he's the green one armed alien with the big space helmet guy) shall indeed have a promiment place here in 2009. Look out!

Panda Power!

Christmas this year at our house could have easily been renamed "Panda-mas" ~ complete and utter Panda-monium! We have many many panda toys and products ~ from the panda bento box to the panda raincoat to a solar powered panda nodder! There is no lack of pandas in any department, we even have panda chopsticks!
We found this crazy source for panda stuff ~ Tokyo Jazz Panda not to mention all the cool shops in Oakland and such. Sally is still crazy about pandas. Her tiger phase lasted about a year and a half, who knows how long this panda trip will be? Only time will tell. Well enjoy the photos.

Happy Holidays!

Please enjoy this animated flash movie I made for Sanrio ~
http://www.sanrio.com/holiday2008/

Holly Jolly and some tinsel too

It's that time once again, to find some holiday music and make festive and what not. For me it's gotta be the Sufjan Stevens album - Songs for Christmas or The Three Suns - Ding Dong Dandy Christmas. Also David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries set the mood as well as watching the Christmas story or any holiday claymation by Rankin/Bass. It's been a long time since my last post on this sad sack of a blog, but hey I am working like a mad man these days, so it's okay.

For more holiday music that will blow your mind, check out this incredible blog called Ernie (Not Bert) ~ tons of great music for free!

Bodhi Day

Namaste! My nifty keen Life in Hell Calendar tells me, today is Bodhi Day! (December 8th) It is the day that Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened as the Buddha. Learn more!

Happy Chester Greenwood Day!

Happy Chester Greenwood Day! Yes it is time to celebrate the inventor of the ear muff ~ It all began in 1873 with some cold ears ... I am not sure why this special day celebrating the man and the invention of ear mufflers or "Greenwood's Ear Protectors" came to mean something to me but it's nice to have fuzzy warm ear muffs on when you're out and about with a proper hat on & it's freezing cold outside. I speak not from experience, since I live in Oakland, California ~ where the temperature remains in the high forties during our coldest days in the winter. But the rest of you - enjoy thine ear muffs!

Bark at the Moon!

Happy Birthday, Ozzy Osbourne! YEAASs! Let us honor the dark lord of RAWK, the prince of darkness himself, OZZY! Don't deny your roots people. I began my adolescence with Ozzy, Motley Crue and the like ~ Yes, it's Ozzy's 60th birthday! On a personal note, I've written O-Z-Z-Y across my knuckles many a time during Junior High and I'll never forget camping as a Boy Scout and playing BARK AT THE MOON as loud as possible at midnight ~ So many great songs like Crazy Train, Iron Man, Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution, Warpigs, I Don't Know, Bark at the moon, Paranoid, Over the Mountain, Miracle Man - not to mention some other Black Sabbath classics like Fairies wear boots & Sabbath Bloody Sabbath of course. Happy Birthday, Ozzy! (Cue flame throwing demoniod robot creature ... now!)

Thanksgiving story

Yes this is my first post in over a week ... What can I say ~ it's that time of year when life gets hectic and overwhelming all at once, aah yes the holiday season! So I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Chris & Kip's this year, astoundingly magnificent I should say except for the fact that I sat next to Jake (SICK BOY) during our private screening of Quantum of Solace (We have a friend on the Academy awards viewing list - Sshhh!) And after Friday's traditional turkey leftovers and multiple slices of pie & watching The Duchess by the warm fire, I began to feel not so well. Saturday and Sunday were spent trying to sleep with an anvil inside my head, the sinus pain was awful. Luckily I recovered enough to hop back to work on Monday ... Well that's my story.

The Best Apple Pie On Planet Earth

My friend Christine is quite the chef. She recently began making Cook Illustrated's Apple pie with vodka crust. It is amazing! I think she's made it three times in the last two months, and each time, the pies disappear more quickly! I suggest making this recipe at once, and please invite me over for some "taste-testing", just to be sure you have made this work of art correctly. Hi Ho!

Artist of the week: Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey's latest claim to fame has been his iconic poster of Barack Obama which went viral this year during the election campaign, even though it wasn't an official part of the campaign.





This artist, illustrator and graphic designer extraordinaire began by making "Andre the Giant has a Posse" stickers and plastering them all over the streets.




Now the Giant Obey label has become a clothing line and poster factory of epic proportions. Check them out at obeygiant.com

And to learn more about Fairey check the wiki entry or pick up a copy of OBEY: Supply and Demand: the art of Shepard Fairey at your local bookstore or library.

The One True Maverick

Vignette IV: The One True Maverick
This vignette is the fourth in a weekly series of vignettes composed and photographed by me. This week I was inspired by Xander's birthday party on Sunday. He invited five friends over and they had a Nerf war ~ red versus green. I found these great wacky ninja style masks at the Japanese dollar store, Daiko in Daly City. It was a bit surreal watching masked children with guns shoot at each other and run around the yard like commandos. But it was all in the spirit of fun, and best of all ~ no one got hurt! So please check out the photos on flickr for a glimpse into the madness from that Sunday afternoon! And enjoy the vignette!

And for more fun with your Maverick ~ try this!

Panda Power!

After many phone calls to the post office and much emotional turmoil, Sally's custom made panda costume arrived today at 3 pm. Yes, the day AFTER Halloween! Amazingly, Sally accepted the sad turn of events about her costume without any fanfare or tears. She simply went through our closets and found Xander's old Ninja Bunny costume and turned it into a Bunny Angel on Halloween night. The crazy thing was, when we tracked Sally's package it said that it was delivered at 2:51 pm on THURSDAY, October 30th! Say What - ?!?!? How confusing is that? Meanwhile, dear old Dad was losing his mind ~ checking the neighbors' porches, calling the post office, and generally getting grumpier and grumpier each hour on Halloween. I almost became convinced that it was stolen off our porch by some no-good hoodlums. Then I realized, that seemed pretty unlikely, and that it was most likely delivered to the wrong house or simply in the back of the mail truck under a pile of magazines and publishers clearing house giveaway letters. My advice? Whatever you do ~ Don't use the United States Postal Service for important packages. Use something more reliable like Uncle Fred and his pal Dave.

Trick Or Treat!

Here they are in their Halloween costumes ready to get some candy. Xander is Doctor Horrible from Joss Whedon's infamous Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long Blog. And Sally is a Bunny Angel (Her panda costume got lost in the mail & just arrived today).

Them Bones

Some more art from Sally! This time, I inverted her drawing from black on white to white on black to suit the spirit of the silly skeleton and the other ghostly ghoulies. AND ~ Please help yourself to 1000 Ghost bucks for all your ghostly needs! Enjoy.

It's The Great Obama-kin, Charlie Brown!

My son, Xander, created this Obama Jack O Lantern with the help of Miles, Calen and the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Pink Pages. I tried lighting it ~ but it needs to be etched in deeper to get that eerie pumpkin glow effect. Tomorrow night, I will post an update ... g'nite.

Here it is ... after much digging and scraping away layers of pumpkin, the Glowing Obamakin!



And now a Panda Pumpkin!

Artist of the week: Robert Bright

There is something really incredible about the energy in the lines of Robert Bright's drawings. The pictures are simple enough, but the lines flow and create something like a symphony playing together in harmony, intrinsically beautiful. It took me some time to appreciate this. Robert Bright published Georgie in 1944, but the story and the art is timeless.

Robert Bright wrote twelve more "Georgie" books for Doubleday & Company, including "Georgie's Halloween", "Georgie to the Rescue" and "Georgie and the Robber." The only information I found on the internet for Robert Bright was an obituary from the New York Times ~


Robert Bright, an author and illustrator of children's books, died of cancer on Nov. 21 at his home in San Francisco. He was 87 years old (Published: December 3, 1988).

Mr. Bright, born in Sandwich, Mass., was also a teacher, reporter and fiction writer. Among his adult novels were "The Intruders" and "The Olivers".

Here's an idea for a new Halloween tradition, introduce a child to these classic books about a ghost named Georgie, and keep the magic of Robert Bright alive for another generation.

Ghoul Evening

Vignette III: Ghoul Evening
This vignette is the third in a weekly series of vignettes composed and photographed by me. This time I got into the Halloween spirit, and photographed some of our many seasonal dealy bobs. Yeah, that's right you read it correctly ~ dealy bobs! I also employed the use of the cross process curves in Adobe Photoshop CS3. Fun, fun, fun! Now it's time to run.

Going to Helle

It is time once again for more cuteness from Sally! Here we have a cute panda angel being lured into "Helle" by some other friendly creatures. I am not sure what Sally thinks of Hell, but she is definitely thinking about it. I am also fond of the two drawings below. Her characters and scenes crack me up. Enjoy!

Artist of the week: Elizabeth McGrath

Okay, I admit it. I found this artist on Boing Boing and was blown away. Go ahead, check out these twisted grotesqueries for yourself. To learn more about this artist, check out her bio.

Big Dog in Doraemonland

Vignette II: Big Dog in Doraemonland
This vignette is the second in a weekly series of vignettes composed and photographed by yours truly. This time I found some objects & toys in Sally's room then added a sheet of Doraemon stickers, that we got at the Chinese dollar store, for a background. I am particularly fond of the little boy in front of the dog on the big Snoopy soap dish (See image below for detailed graphic). The other factor here is my photos have a lot of noise, due to long exposures in low light conditions. Once I find my missing tripod, I'll be golden! You'll see, next week will be even better.

MTXS Poster Factory

Yes I have added a new page to my web site. I have been trying to get around to this task for over two weeks now. Life is like that some times. Check out my new online gallery of poster designs at http://mtxs.net/posters.html The idea is that I will add more designs as I continue to design more posters. Perhaps I will open up an Etsy shop featuring my custom poster design services... Perhaps, I got an idea from my little brother. Hard to say really ...

More cuteness

It's Wednesday, so that means it's time for more art by Sally! Today we have a happy girl with balloons and a funny creature who likes video games. Enjoy!

When Monsters Attack!

Here at last on the MTXS tip is Letter X ~ Some great drawings by Xander. The little creature on top is Mud Kip, who somehow becomes the predator in the drawing below. Life is a vicious cycle, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed, primal instincts and survival of the epic sized creature who can step on everyone else. Hey, it happens in Spore, so it must be true. Enjoy the art of Xander!

Artist of the week: Obamaware 2008

Not one artist, many amazing ceramicists shaping clay for the future! Check it out ~ Shop Handmade Obamaware 2008

Little Panda in Warioland

Vignette I: Little Panda in Warioland
This vignette is the first in a weekly series of vignettes composed and photographed by yours truly. The series will feature found objects, toys, packaging and so on from my home. Today, I just put together a few things I found in our bathroom. I love the juxtaposition of all the various elements, the way the yellows and blues play off the grays and so on. Perhaps this series will lead to my own Joseph Campbell boxes ~ who knows? But you see where I am headed with this right? . . . Cool beans.

Prius power!

Today we bought a car! It is a 2005 Toyota Prius with 38,000 miles on it. It's blue with tan leather seats and snazzy chrome wheels. It's going to make my commute so much more pleasurable, words can't begin to describe how excited and thrilled I am to be driving such a car. Now who wants to go for a drive? Half Moon Bay ~ go pick out some pumpkins, anyone?