Alec Longstreth's Blog

THE NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 05:03:11 PST

As I sit down to write this blog entry, it is 1am. I just came home from what will easily go down in history as one of the greatest nights of my entire life. And it's all thanks to one man: KARL KOCH.

(WARNING: this is going to be one of those really long WEEZER blog posts, just deal with it!)

By this point, you should all know that I am a HUGE Weezer fan. My first Weezer album was given to me by my sister Galen in 1994, when she was getting rid of some CDs before going to college (she later rebought the album). I cannot overstate the impact The Blue Album had on my life. It completely changed who I was. I went to my first Weezer show in in 1996, just weeks after Pinkerton debuted (another great night of my life). And since that first concert, I have never missed an opportunity to see Weezer when they played in my area.

I saw them at a small club in Cleveland in 2000 with my friend Charlotte, then again in Cleveland at a massive stadium in 2002 (with Tenacious D and Jimmy Eat World!). I saw them at a medium sized venue in New York in 2005, and then again at Madison Square Garden with Liz Baillie in 2008.

When it was announced that Weezer was playing at the Champlain County Fair in Essex Junction, Vermont on September 2nd, I was a little hesitant at first. I knew it would be the day after I got back from a massive trip out of town and I would be going bonkers trying to catch up on everything. Luckily Jon and Beth talked me into getting tickets for the three of us.

They ALSO talked me into shooting an email to Karl, before the show, to tell him that I would be going. I was reluctant to do this, even though I have been corresponding with Karl sporadically for the last 15 years. I sent him some stamps when I was still in high school, to trade for back issues of the old WeeZine, we have emailed about various Weezer goings on over the years, and he has name checked me and my comics on the Weezer site a few times. ALSO, his neice is Falynn Koch, who told me that Karl is an avid comics reader. So a few years ago, I added Karl to the Phase 7 comp list.

You see, Karl is a MAJOR part of why it's so fun to be a Weezer fan. His daily blog posts, photographs and other documentation of the band create this amazing bridge between the band and all of the fans. It makes us feel SO connected to the band. The MINUTE one of the band members does an interview, or there is some news about upcoming albums or whatever, Karl relays it to the rest of us. I'm really not kidding when I say that his work with Weezer has enriched my life so much. So sending him my comics was like the very smallest way that I could say thank you for everything he has done for me as a Weezer fan.

So ANYWAY, last night at about midnight, I sent Karl a very short email that basically said, "I'm going to the show tomorrow! Maybe I'll see you there!"

30 minutes later, I got an email from Karl saying that he would put a BACKSTAGE PASS for me at the show.

!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?????!!!!!!!!!???!!?!?!?!?!?!!!!

I asked about getting passes for Jon and Beth, but it wasn't really possible because "there are already a lot of other guests who are coming to the show." I told Karl that I totally understood and thanked him profusely for my pass. That night I could only get about 3 hours of sleep, I was SO EXCITED that I might actually get to go backstage...

So this afternoon at 3pm, Jon and Beth and I drove up to Essex Junction (Jon's hometown!) and parked at the fairgrounds. Once inside the gate, I set out to find my backstage pass.

I had my beard down, which might not have been the best idea, because every security guard that saw me suddenly went into DISTRUST mode. We went to one gate and were told to go to the box office. We went to the box office and they told us to go to ANOTHER gate. That gate told us to go back to the box office. Then, finally, one guard knew where we actually needed to go and pointed us in the right direction. I walked up to the "WILL CALL" booth, and told the lady that there should be a backstage pass waiting for me. She looked through her box of envelopes and was like, "Nope, sorry. You're not in here." At this point, I was starting to get pretty nervous! I politely asked if she could look again, and I reassured her that even though I looked SUPER CRAZY, I was actually supposed to be on "the list." She radioed the box office, which confirmed that I was, in fact, on "the list" so she looked through the box of envelopes again and VOILA! She magically found the "Alec Longstreth" envelope and I had my pass!!!

Our ticket price included admission to the fair, so we killed a few hours walking around looking at the massive vegtables, livestock, rides and novelty foods (pictures coming soon, it's too late to deal with Flickr tonight!). Then at about 7pm we headed over to the concert area.

Initially I sat down with Jon and Beth, out with everyone else, but AGAIN (bless their hearts) Jon and Beth encouraged me to get backstage as soon as possible, because it was not an opportunity to be missed! Thank god they did!

I got up and went over to the "VIP" area that was at the base of stage right. As I approached the opening, the security guard took one look at me and started to say "This is a restricted area" but when I lifted my beard to one side, thus revealing my VIP sticker, he quickly changed course, and finished with "You're good, chief."

I immediately saw Karl, and headed his way. I had warned him about my massive beard, so he saw me coming and gave me a big smile. I was totally shaking, I couldn't believe I was actually back stage! I kind of interrupted his conversation and it took me a moment to realize that Karl had been standing there talking to PAT WILSON (the sometimes drummer and current lead guitarist of Weezer) and MIKEY WELSH (???!?!?!?!) It turns out that the "other guests" who were coming to the show were Mikey (the bass player of Weezer from 2000-2001) his wife, his son, his stepson and two of the stepson's friends plus one of their Mom's, and also a friend of Mikey's named Dennis.

We all talked for a bit and internally I was completely freaking out. Karl was being so cool, and I kept thanking him and asking him some of the millions of questions about Weezer that I've always wanted to ask him. Conversationally I was not doing a great job of NOT being a total spaz with Pat and Mikey. Luckily, Karl had to go run off to do A MILLION THINGS, Pat left to hang in the tour bus, and Mikey got wrapped up with family stuff. I started talking with Dennis, who was SUPER friendly and laid back and cool, while the opening band played.

After they finished their set, Karl reappeared and told Mikey and his group that they should head to stage left, where they would be allowed to go up on stage in a few minutes, to watch the show from up there. Then he looked at me, with a sort of "I'm sorry" face, and told me he didn't really know if I would be able to go up on stage. I asked if I could just hang with Mikey's group, and he told me I should definitely try!

I walked over to the area behind stage left, through all kinds of crazy lighting gear and tech boxes and tour busses and stuff, and I was SUPER nervous, worried that this was as far as I would get, and that I'd have to go back out to the front of the house, to watch the show with Jon and Beth (which still would have been totally amazing! don't get me wrong!) Dennis and Mikey were standing in the entrance to this catering tent and I just kind of looked at them apologetically and said, "Is it cool if I just hang with you guys?" They both said "of course" and waived away any worries I had. This calmed me down considerably.

I fell into a comfortable conversation with Mikey, who I knew was now doing a lot of painting, and I also knew, lived in Vermont (knowledge I only had, OF COURSE, because of Karl's thorough blogging of all Weezer goings-on!) He reminisced a bit about his days of being in Weezer and about the rock and roll lifestyle. He seemed very content with his current life and was just an all around nice, chill guy.

Karl appeared again and informed us that it was TIME! Mikey led our group over to the stairs that went up to the stage, flashed his very-high-level security badge at the guard, and said "these folks are with me." The guard quipped "All of them?" and let us pass. The stairs spit us out onto the upper left corner of the stage. As we walked to our position on middle stage left, I spotted Jon and Beth in the crowd, waving frantically at me. I shot them a quick wave and kept moving to our final resting spot, next to the sound board. No cameras were allowed in the concert area, but I had my phone, so I snapped a million blurry dark photos (as seen here - again, I'll put them up on Flickr tomorrow, regardless of quality).

YOU GUYS, I WAS ON STAGE, LIKE 20 FEET AWAY FROM WHERE THE BAND WOULD BE PLAYING!!!!

Weezer came out, with Josh Freese on drums, Pat on lead guitar, Scott on bass, Brian on rhythm guitar and keys, and Rivers JUST singing. They played this epic instrumental intro while Rivers sat at the back of the stage, juggling a soccer ball and kicking it around. Then suddenly, Scott came over and said to Mikey "Hey, you wanna play bass on Hash Pipe? It's our first song!" Mikey sort of nodded and Scott literally just handed Mikey his bass. With no rehearsal or anything, Mikey just went out there and killed it! There was this great moment about half way through the first verse when Rivers looked over and suddenly realized that MIKEY was playing bass instead of Scott! I feel like this instantly kicked up the energy level on stage.

After the song, Mikey gave Scott back his bass and then gave him a giant hug. I couldn't believe my luck. The one time I get to see Weezer backstage and MIKEY was there too! If Matt Sharp and Jason Cropper had been there, I could have met EVERY member of Weezer that there has ever been!

Anyway, I watched the rest of the show, which was hands-down the most amazing rock concert I have ever seen, AND the best Weezer show I have ever seen. In the last couple of years, Rivers has really come out of his shell as a performer. No longer does he just stand center stage and play through the songs. He was going completely NUTS for the entirety of this show. He jumped down into the pit and freely walked through the throngs of people. At one point he walked all the way to the BACK of the concert space, up into the bleachers (ALL WHILE STILL SINGING) just high-fiving people and hugging them and being surrounded by his fans. On stage, I could see the band's every movement. I was so close that I could actually hear the physical sound of the drums and cymbals being struck, not just the amplified reproduction of that sound. And let me tell you this: Weezer has got to be the tightest live band on earth. Their musicianship was jaw-droppingly incredible.

In a way, it was really hard for me to watch the show backstage. I am used to being the guy at the Weezer show who is jumping up and down for the whole show, screaming every word to every song. It took every ounce of self-control that I had, to "keep it cool" up there, so I wouldn't be asked to leave for being too loud or distracting.

Okay, so HANDS DOWN, best show ever. They played nothing but hits (from EVERY album). The crowd was going totally nuts. It was the first time Weezer had EVER played in Vermont! Even if the night had just ended there, it would have been one of the best nights of my life. But there's MORE. SO MUCH MORE YOU GUYS.

After the last song, we were quickly ushered off the stage (breakdown began IMMEDIATELY, as the whole set up had to be on the road later that night to get to Montreal, to get a flight to Edmonton). I follow the group back over to the area behind stage right, and a group of 20 or so people were mingling and talking. I got to say hello to Brian and congratulate him on a great show, and then I talked to Pat for a while, with some other super-fans that had watched the show from out front, but used their similar VIP passes to come backstage after the show.

Karl kept telling us super-fans to hang out, as Rivers might be out in a bit (after a well-earned shower). Mikey and his entourage took off, and the number of people started to dwindle. Brian and Pat and Scott took off to shower or eat or just relax and suddenly it was pretty much just me and three other Weezer super fans, standing there, saying "that show was so AMAZING!" over and over again.

Karl magically appeared again, and told us that if we promised to be SUPER MELLOW, we could go over and meet Rivers by his family's tour bus. I told Karl I could be the mellowest person ever alive, and we all walked over to the bus.

There was a ring of security guards by the bus, creating a perimeter that was keeping a few dozen people at bay, who were obviously hanging out by the bus, with the hopes of seeing Rivers. Karl said to the guards "These four people are okay" and with his blessing, we passed into the inner sanctum, by the door to the bus. Karl went inside for a moment and then he came back out with Rivers, who was freshly showered and wearing a yellow t-shirt and sweatpants. I was standing directly in front of him, three feet away. My heart was beating so fast, I was totally shaking.

"Rivers, this is Alec Longstreth" Karl said, "He draws a comic book called PHASE 7, which is really cool."
"What's it called?" Rivers asked.
"PHASE 7. It's awesome. I'll show it to you some time."
I shook Rivers Cuomo's hand and stammered something like "T...that show was so amazing!" Rivers sort of smiled a bit and nodded. He must hear that a dozen times every night! Ugh...

Karl introduced Rivers to the other three super-fans, by first and last name. One was a girl who had helped Rivers do some sort of streaming video thing online? Weezer had comped her a ticket and Rivers thanked her for her technical help. I kind of missed who the next guy was because I was standing there thinking "ALEC, THIS IS IT! YOUR CHANCE TO REALLY SAY SOMETHING TO RIVERS CUOMO, AN ARTIST WHO'S WORK MEANS SO MUCH TO YOU. DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO LET HIM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT WEEZER!!!"

The last guy was just a friend of the third guy. There was a bit of a pause and then Rivers said, "Well, I need to go help put my daughter to sleep. Thanks very much for coming to the show!" People were murmuring "Yeah" and "Sure thing man" or whatever but I was just in a total panic. This was my opportunity and it was slipping away from me!

In the split INSTANT before Rivers turned to go I said, "Rivers!" and he swiveled his head to look me in the eye. Then I said (something like) "I've been a Weezer fan from the beginning, and I have always been with you guys, and I will ALWAYS be with you guys. Your music has been so important to me, and has really helped me get through some hard times. It is so great to see how much fun you guys are having onstage these days and it just seems like the band has never been tighter. I hope you will continue making music for a long time. Don't listen to the haters! There are plenty of us super-fans out there and we always have your back."

Rivers pumped his fist in the air and said "Yeah! Thanks man." We shook hands again, I patted him on the arm, then he turned and got back in the bus.

My head was completely spinning. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Karl and the three others started walking back to the stage right area. I trailed along with them in a daze. Then (jokingly) I said, "Well, I'M ready to die! Life can't possibly get any better than this."

The other three super fans started chatting Karl up, and I suddenly felt like I had overstayed my welcome. It was their turn to pick his brain about all things Weezer. I patted Karl on the back and said "Hey man, I'm going to get out of here, thank you SOOOOOOOO MUCH for everything tonight. This has been like the night of my life." Then Karl, COOL AS ICE, went to shake my hand and said, "Oh, Alec, here's that thing I was telling you about" and palmed me something sort of moist and squishy. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I followed his lead and said, "Oh cool, thanks man!" and slipped it into my pocket without looking at it.

I said my good-byes to the other super fans, thanked Karl again and then turned to leave the VIP area. As soon as I was past the gate, I looked in my pocket, to find the wadded up SET LIST from tonight's show, plus a PICK, which, for the rest of my life, I'm going to assume, was used by Rivers.

UPDATE: Here are my photos from this night!

10 Days in Hawaii

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:07:59 PST

I'm finally back from Hawaii! I've actually been back for a few days now, but I have been going totally bonkers trying to get caught up on everything (mail, email, laundry, grocery shopping, faculty meeting recaps, etc. etc. etc.) so I haven't had a chance to blog about the trip... until now!

Needless to say, it was completely amazing. Hawaii really is a paradise, and I was so lucky to have a chance to go there. This was entirely due to my parents' generosity, because there is no way in hell I would ever be able to afford a trip to Hawaii.

I have put up a Flickr set with a bunch of my Hawaii pictures, and Claire has one too. Check those out for all the details. Below is a quick day-by-day breakdown of what we did!

DAY 1: We flew from San Francisco to Honolulu. It totally blew my mind to fly over open water for six hours and then magically arrive at this tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the most isolated place ON EARTH. It's almost 3,000 miles to the closest land mass. My family arrived, we went to Costco and got a bunch of food, we drove out to the Rental House in Laie, where Claire and I went swimming in the ocean (which we did pretty much every day of the trip).

DAY 2: We went for a long walk in the hot sun, to try and find the famed Ted's Bakery, only to discover that it was actually ten miles down the road. My mom picked us up in the rental car and we drove there. Then we went swimming again!

DAY 3: Completed a puzzle (tropical fish), played some scrabble, went swimming, took a nap. This was a SERIOUS vacation day! Then we drove to Haleiwa for dinner at a Thai place.

DAY 4: We drove up this massive hill to Puu O Mahuk Heiau, which is this ancient ceremonial site. Then we wandered around the shops in Haleiwa. Claire and I grilled dinner that night!

DAY 5: Completed another puzzle (hideous dogs), went swimming for hours, then hit up the Polynesian Cultural Center which is QUITE the operation. We learned a lot and saw all sorts of amazing stuff. And the whole thing is run by mormons! Who knew?

DAY 6: Woke up early to use the low tide to WALK out to "Goat Island" (I forgot its real name). Completed ANOTHER puzzle (wizard conjuring a dragon - GLOW IN THE DARK!). Walked out to La'le Point with Claire.

DAY 7: Started another puzzle (tropical birds) but didn't finish it. Afternoon trip to Honolulu to visit the Engelbergs at their INSANE RENTAL HOUSE.

DAY 8: Cleaned up our rental house, drove to Hanuma Bay to go snorkeling. Claire and I saw a bunch of fish, and then we swam with a SEA TURTLE for like 15 minutes, which was incredible! Then we drove the rest of the way in to Honolulu where we checked into our hotel and went to the Rehearsal dinner.

Also that night, Claire and I went to go find a place to play pinball (we SORT of did...) and we were both kind of flabbergasted by how many PROSTITUTES were walking around, at like 10pm on busy, touristy streets. I guess that must be yet another reason why people travel to hawaii! (??!)

DAY 9: Claire and I wandered around Honolulu, looking for a REAL place to play pinball, to no avail. Instead, we went swimming in the hotel pool, and then got ready for THE WEDDING.

Rebecca Engelberg has been friends with my sister Galen since birth, and her family is our family's closest friends. It was a beautiful (12 minute!) service, which mixed Jewish traditions with some Hawaiian traditions as well (Matt's mother grew up in Hawaii). The food was amazing, I drank FOUR gin and tonics (!!!!) and a good time was had by all.

DAY 10: We packed up our stuff, quickly swung by the morning-after brunch and then headed back to the main land!

Thanks again to my parents for taking Claire and me on this trip, and thanks to the Engelbergs and Matt's family for hosting such a wonderful celebration. I wish Matt and Rebecca all the best in life.

There is some other SERIOUSLY GIGANTIC news that I'm sitting on, but I better wait until tomorrow to post about it, to see how everything shakes out. Trust me, you're going to want to hear about this!!!

San Fran Summer

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:55:30 PST

Well, I'm in California again. I must say, the 70 degree weather and total lack of humidity has put me in a pretty good mood. Or wait, maybe it's CLAIRE.

On Claire's birthday we went and saw Scott Pilgrim, which is the best movie I've seen all summer (also, pretty much the ONLY movie I've seen all summer). It was a blast, I can't wait to see it again. We also went and got formal Sears portraits taken, which was pretty hilarious (I'll post the photos when we get them back).

We also hit my now-regular Bay Area haunt, The Pacific Pinball Museum, and otherwise spent the weekend running various errands to help prepare Claire for her upcoming move back East. I have been snapping crappy cell phone photos left and right and uploading them to this August 2010 Flickr set, so check that out if you want to keep up with my current goings-on.

Mostly this week I'm holing up in Claire's room and working on: 1) my syllabi for the fast-approaching fall semester and 2) various material for Drop Target Zine #1 which Jon Chad and I hope to have ready for SPX this year. This first issue is already shaping up to be pretty epic, but I don't want to talk too much about it until it's done. I will (obviously) tell you all more about it when it's complete!

Until then, I hope everyone's summers are wrapping up well. I'm having a great time here in California... NEXT STOP: Hawaii!

August Blog Dump!

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 00:01:38 PST

YEESH, another week has flown by, and the next one promises to do the same, so I better do some blogging quickly, before it's all been forgotten! Let's use NUMBERS, shall we?

1) We just wrapped up another week of Summer Workshops here at CCS. Holy cow this was a jam-packed week of cartooning. We had an insanely talented group of students, who turned out some amazing work in just a few short days. It was totally exhausting, but also totally inspiring and completely worth it. There's three more days of workshops this week for the "extended studio" students and then the summer workshops will be done.

2) Today we had a barbecue at the park with all of the extended studio students. It was a beautiful day and we played frisbee and went swimming and a good time was had by all. One year ago, on this very Sunday, we tried to do the same thing, but it was pouring rain. Plans were quickly changed, and instead of the park, we ended up in the brand new pool hall across the street from the school. It was on that fateful day that I first played the Star Wars: Episode I pinball machine and my life look a wacky left turn. One year of pinball - and what a year! I observed this day by having my best game of Medieval Madness yet!

3) Yesterday I was talking to my mom and she asked me what had ever happened with our local grocery store that closed. I realized I had never checked back in about that whole situation! Well, another Co-Op opened there, and it is pretty great. It carries basically all the same stuff (Saltines!), and some stuff that's a lot better (more veggie burgers!) plus they hired back all the same people who worked in the old grocery store, so no one really lost their job or anything. Plus, it turns out I was TOTALLY wrong in my evaluation of the initial closing. From reading the Co-Op's FAQ page I learned that the previous grocery store actually closed because it was a CHAIN, and even though our branch was turning a profit, they had to close down because of larger problems in the corporation. So now the grocery store is locally owned and operated, by members of the community. Really, it's a bit like losing a dime and finding a dollar!

4) The MINUTE the workshops are over, I'm jumping on a bus, which will take me to a plane, which will take me to Oakland, so I can be with Claire for her birthday. Then a few days later we are going to meet up with the rest of my family in HAWAII (??!) for the wedding of one of our closest family friends, Rebecca Engelberg. While I'm busy trying NOT to be eaten by sharks, cartoonist pal Sarah Glidden will be crashing at my place in Vermont for a few days and using my new studio space to draw some of her amazing comics.

5) The day after I get back to Vermont, I'm going to go see WEEZER, who are playing a show in VERMONT (???!) As I'm sure you can imagine, this NEVER happens! It's been a big week in the Weezer world. After seven albums and 17 years at DGC, they just signed with indie punk label Epitaph Records and their new album "Hurley" will be out on September 14th! I read a bit about it in an interview with Rivers on RollingStone.com and it sounds like this album is going to be pretty awesome - 60s style! (You can hear the first single HERE!) This will be their third album in three years, which, if you ask me, is a pretty sweet payback for the five year stretch of silence between Pinkerton and the Green Album or the three years between Make Believe and the Red Album. The band seems happier and more energetic than ever, which is really great. I can't wait to see them live again!

6) THEN, of course, SCHOOL starts! I will once again be teaching Professional Practices for the seniors, and this year I am also co-teaching Publication Workshop for the first-years with Jon Chad (who recently redid his website by the by!)

But I'm getting ahead of myself! I'll try to check back in when I can, with reports of the above. In the mean time, I hope summer wraps up well for everyone out there! Enjoy it while it lasts. Fall is on its way!

The Basewood Beard: YEAR TWO

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 11:46:10 PST

Well, today was August 1st, which means it was TWO years ago today I cut off all of my hair. Last year I wondered if my beard had actually stopped growing. Well, I'm here, 12 months later, to let you know that, YES, it is still growing. Check the two-year and one-year photos above for undeniable proof.

Now, I know what you're all thinking... Will this project reach a third year?
NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!

In an attempt to bring a swift and efficient end to my work on Basewood, I have decided to set up shop in a studio, where I feel I will be able to focus more and work even harder than I am now. I spent most of today transferring the Phase 7 Headquarters to this new top-secret location. Here's what it looks like!

And I have the honor of sharing this space with the extremely talented Jason Lutes, Joe Lambert, Keny Widjaja, Chuck McBuck and Melissa Mendes. Though Chuck and Melissa will be leaving soon... :(

Really though, getting more work done on Basewood is only HALF of the reason why I got this studio. I ALSO needed to clear out some space in my apartment for my new roommate... CLAIRE! She will be moving to Vermont this fall, so this is a good starting step for getting ready for her arrival. But more about that later!

This week is going to be bonkers, the Cartoon Studio CCS Summer Workshop starts tomorrow and runs through the beginning of next week, and we've got more students than we've ever had before. It should be fun! I'll check back in when the dust settles, to let you all know how it went.

A Night at the Opera

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:27:17 PST

When I was in high school, I played trumpet in the Jazz Band. I started listening to a lot of jazz and especially Big Band music. Of all the jazz trumpeters I heard, one of my favorites was Doc Severinson, for his pure tone, unbelievable range and cool old-dudeness. Miraculously, he and he orchestra came to Seattle while I was in high school, and I was lucky enough to get to see the performance.

At the end of the concert, he played a song called "Nessun Dorma" which completely knocked my socks off. At the time, I don't think I had ever heard anything so beautiful in all my life.

I was taking trumpet lessons at the University of Washington that year, with another great trumpeter, and the best teacher I have ever had, Roy Cummings. I remember I went into my lesson a few days later, with the program from the Doc Severinson concert. I asked Roy if there was any way he could get me the sheet music for Nessum Dorma. He called the music library downstairs and they gave him the call number for the score of Turandot by Puccini. After my lesson, they had the book waiting for me and I made some photocopies of the aria, and learned to play it on my trumpet.

I was already a little bit aware of Puccini, because of Pinkerton, which had come out two years prior. But this was the first time I had ever heard any of his music. Coincidentally, at the end of that year, my English class took a field trip to the Seattle Opera to see La Boheme

For college, I ended up at Oberlin, which has one of the best Opera Theatre departments in the country. I ended up building sets for tons of different operas, and working backstage on the set crews, where I got to hear a lot of the music.

I have owned a recorded version of Turandot for years now. Opera is great music for penciling - it's always exciting and beautiful - plus I don't speak italian, so the lyrics don't confuse me while I'm trying to write! Still, I've always wanted to see it live. I missed it by a few days in Portland when I was living there. I think my old pal Dan was actually working on the set crew. We hung out on his last day in town and only then did I find out which show had brought him to Portland. Alas!

ANYWAY, a few weeks ago, I was up at Quechee Gorge and I saw a poster for a screening of Turandot at Dartmouth. It was this past Wednesday, and I went with recent CCS grad Keny Widjaja. We were the only two people in the theatre under the age of 60 (Dartmouth runs on the quarter system - AND all Sophomores are required to attend summer quarter - so it wasn't because of a lack of students).

One one hand, I think The Met live in HD thing is pretty amazing. It was pretty incredible to see a world class performance of this opera for only $15. Plus it had subtitles, which made it that much easier to follow the story. It seems like a great way to get more people interested in opera (even if it wasn't working in Hanover, New Hampshire).

On the other hand, it's really weird to have a stage production filmed. Certain aspects of the set and the certain ways that the singers and actors moved, are MEANT to be seen from a great distance, and look pretty weird in close-up shots (in HD no less!) I found myself getting really frustrated when the camera would decide to follow some random member of the chorus, when I wanted to know what the main character was doing. I kind of wish they'd just take the camera out to the 12th row, put it on a tripod in front of the center seat, hit record and let ME decide where I want to look.

I know it's no substitute for the real thing. But out here in the upper valley, I'll take what I can get! Any way you look at it, I had a great time and it was really neat to see this story acted out, and to finally understand what all the music means, and how it is all interwoven with the plot. I highly recommend going, if there is a screening near you!

Whoa-oh! I'm half way there...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:13:25 PST

As many of you know, I'm very fond of Dave Sim's 2,000-Page Theory, which basically says that you have to draw 2,000 pages of comics before you can draw your first REALLY GOOD page of comics.

Earlier this summer I read Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell, which puts forth an amazingly similar theory which says that it takes about 10,000 hours of concentrated effort and practice to master a discipline. And well, if it takes you somewhere around 5 hours to write, pencil and ink a page of comics, then that math works out quite nicely, doesn't it?

Back in March, when Nate helped me update this site, I put a Bibilography page up in the new "Miscellaneous" section. At first I just dumped in all the issues of Phase 7, but I had much bigger plans for this page, which I didn't get around to until this morning!

I finally loaded in every single page of finished comics I have ever drawn into the table, whether it was a 24-hour comic, an anthology submission, a zine, a webcomic, or whatever. The only stuff it doesn't include are covers, and all my sketchbook stuff (unless those sketchbook pages ended up in a zine!).

As of today, the grand total is 1,085 pages.

The list starts in 2000, after I read Understanding Comics for the first time (none of my comics drawn before then were worth counting, and none have - or ever will be - published). So it's 1,000 pages in 10 years. An average of 100 pages a year? And another 10 years ahead ahead of me before I start drawing some really amazing comics? I can live with that! :)

Anyway, people might want to go check out the Bibliography, as it has many links to stories that I did for various zines and anthologies that you may never have known about. I will continue to update the table with all of my new comics projects, so you can keep an eye on that total at the bottom of the page.

Onwards, into the next 1,000 pages!

Create Comics 2010!

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:03:15 PST

My grandfather's funeral went off without a hitch, thanks mostly to a lot of very hard work my mother did, and very specific written instructions he put down before he died. Pop requested that I play "When the Saints Go Marching In" at the end of the funeral, on my TRUMPET, which I basically haven't touched in 8 years. I found out about this two weeks before the funeral, and played as much as I could every day leading up to the event, so I would be able to play. Everything turned out all right and hopefully Pop would have been pleased with how it all went.

I had a 6am flight out of Virginia on Sunday morning, then Jon Chad and Colleen met me at the airport in Burlington to give me a ride back to White River Junction. I had that afternoon/night to finish getting ready for the first of the CCS Summer Workshops, which started the next day!

Create Comics is always a lot of fun, especially the final "Connect the Plot" exercise, which Aaron and I developed back in 2006, and which is still in use today! This summer's book was pretty deluxe, with a screen-printed, "die" cut cover and 24-pages of awesome student comics. You can see photos of the book and tons of other photos from the week in this CCS Flickr Set. Thanks to the all the great students for an awesome workshop!

The next workshop starts August 2nd, so between now and then I'm just trying to get as much work done on Basewood as is humanly possible! I've been working in the CCS Basement lately, which has got to be the coolest place in White River Junction (BOTH meanings of that word apply in that sentence!) Being able to draw without SWEATING is upping my productivity quite a bit!

East Coast Summer #6

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 21:51:06 PST

Instead of shingles, most Vermont rooftops are covered with long, narrow, interlocking sheets of metal. This is for winter, when massive amounts of snow piles up on roofs. Instead of it getting higher and higher and eventually needing to be cleared (or caving in the roof!) it slides right off because the metal is too smooth for the snow to stick to.

In the SUMMER, however, these metal sheets absorb massive amounts of heat, basically turning my apartment into an OVEN. I live right below the roof, on the top floor of my building. And the ground floor of my building is a popular pizzeria, which has a LITERAL oven running from about 11am - 9pm. I am sandwiched between two layers of HEAT.

Today it was a record-breaking 100 degrees in White River Junction, with 50% humidity. Yesterday was the same, and the forecast promises more of the same for the rest of this week.

Even with my air conditioner on full blast and fans distributing the cool air around my apartment, even with all of my windows covered, I still SWEAT while sitting at my drawing table. It is impossible to overstate just how miserable this makes me. I'm far less productive, I'm irritable all day, it really makes me feel depressed. It's like seasonal affect disorder, but for the wrong season!

I've posted about this many times before, and I'm sorry to keep whining about it. But this is the main thing that I really dislike about the east coast. I'm a west coast wimp, no doubt about it. I actually dug through my blog archives, to try and find my "Waah, it's HOT!" dispatch from last summer and all I could find was the surprisingly upbeat post, A Splendid Summer. From rereading that post, it sounds like I need to do some more swimming this summer!

Despite the heat, I had a lovely 4th of July weekend trip up to the Dartmouth Class of '66 lodge with some of my CCS friends. Colleen's got a ton of great pictures from the trip in a Flickr set.

We're gearing up this week for the CCS Summer Workshops, which start on Monday. But first I have to head down to my grandfather's funeral, in VIRGINIA, where I'm sure it will be even hotter and muggier! :(

Howard Goodwin (1919 - 2010)

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:13:36 PST

My cell phone rang at 6:20am this morning. It was my mom, calling to tell me that her father had died during the night, in his sleep.

He was 91, and for all but the last two weeks of his life, he was in incredible shape. In the photo above he was 89, if you can believe that. He took a spill two weeks ago which was sadly the beginning of the end.

My mother has been incredible - she dropped everything and flew back to Virginia immediately after his accident and was with him this whole time. My sister Courtney went out last week to be with her and my sister Galen is in Virginia now. They are three good daughters.

I got to talk with my grandfather a few days ago while he was in the hospital, and we had a very important written exchange before his accident, so I feel like I got to say a proper goodbye.

"Pop" (as I always called him) was without a doubt, the friendliest, most cheerful person I have ever met. People LOVED my grandfather. Not just his friends, coworkers and peers, but his mail carrier, and his neighbors, and the folks at his grocery store and pretty much anyone else who was lucky enough to cross his path. And he did this simply by being polite and cheerful, and treating everyone with respect.

For years now, when I find myself being judgmental of someone, or getting frustrated with them, I have tried to think of Pop and the example he lead. And now I will do that more than ever.

It took no effort whatsoever to think of the best way to pay tribute to Pop. It is clear what he would have wanted, because he was a man who loved to drink. We used to joke that he looked so good in his old age, because all his organs were pickled in GIN. He was a black belt drinker, I am a featherweight. But just the same, I will gather my friends around me tonight and we will each raise a martini to Pop, and I hope that you will do the same! It's what he would have wanted.