Table of Contents: > Sketchbook

Additional Inquiries

> Sketchbook, > Transmissions

…and, after several additional inquiries, Officer Welch and I returned to the Magic Garden and questioned Rainbow, princess of the Super-Fairies again. She remained a tight-lipped and difficult witness, repeatedly insisting her glitter wand was ornamental and had no magic properties. (or, holy moly – I really dig my new macro SLR lens…)

Vroom, vroom, ratatat-tat!!!

> Sketchbook, Technology

Some up-close 35mm shots I took recently of some miniature plane dioramas at the The Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Schenectady, New York. I love how painterly and gently surreal they appear. Larger versions here, and here. (And a heartfelt huzzah to the museum itself, a true labor of love that overcomes modest resources to create a genuinely engaging experience.)

In White…

> Sketchbook, Fashion

A quick, sketchy thing, based on an old Helena Rubenstein ad, painted in gouache, on 100 year old ledger paper from an evening business college that was based in Camden, NJ. (psst… this ditty’s part of the art sale, here.)

The Straight Shave

> Sketchbook, Culture, Design

A preview of a few photographs for my upcoming essay on shaving in issue 7 of Uppercase Magazine. It will be out this fall. They were shot mostly at John the Barbers on Wharton & 13th Street in South Philadelphia. The place is a treasure and a visit a privilege. The article features, along with my observations on the genteel art of shaving, buy vicodin usa walk-ons by Virna Lisi, John Waters, and Robert Goulet, a salute to the Gillette Sensor and Barbasol, praise for the French, a raspberry at ESPN, a brace of fetching pin-ups, and ends where these pictures began, at John the Barbers. Oh, and Uppercase Magazine? Again, with lapel-grabbing enthusiasm, here, and here.

Springtime = Weber’s

> Sketchbook, > Transmissions, Culture

Hooray! The weather has turned, spring sprung, etc… which means, once again, Weber’s is on the menu! Not just an orange Doo Wop-style car hop with a mechanized retro asterisk sign serving simple burgers and home made root beer, but a roadside oasis and an enduring buy vicodin from canada monument to warm weather good times. Route 38 in Cherry Hill, in lovely southern New Jersey.

(These photos were shot a couple of years ago with the Savoy, below, a corker of a fixed focus medium format plastic toy camera.)

Zakuski

> Sketchbook

Zakuski (sketch), gouache on board, 7″x5″ – Another quick ditty for form and color…

Dee Doo Dah

> Sketchbook, Music

berkin_flat2

Jane, gouache on illustration board, 10″ x 10,” 2009

This little ditty of a two night sketch is my contribution to the InLiquid 10×10 Benefit. It’s based on the cover of Jane Birkin’s adorably batty 1973 record Di Doo Dah. In Liquid? Great outfit, local Philly art collective, resources network etc…  they are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a show of over 200 10″ by 10″ works. If you’re in Philly, check it here.

What’s Happening….

> Sketchbook, > Transmissions

rucha

Okey doke. Back. Glad you are too. Not surprisingly, we’re picking up where we left off – you know, in no particular order – art, vintage illustration, glamour, technology, pop, punk, psychedelia, cats, the idea of squirrels, etc….

New stuff? Let’s see, what’s new?. Well, I swear bringing my own Ziploc bag of Fleur De Sel De Camargue Sea Salt to work may be the smartest thing I’ve done since July. I don’t care if it reminds you of Claire’s sushi lunch in the Breakfast Club – it’s magic. Unfortunately, though, it seems Project Donald Sutherland – the goal of which is to slim down to the point that I could flatteringly wear a turtleneck in the style of Donald Sutherland circa Klute, or, for that matter, James Coburn  – is not really happening. Now, Eve Babitz, who’s in that famous photograph, obscured, nude and fetching, playing chess with Marcel Duchamp. She’s happening.  Arundel, an off kilter little town in Maryland, a David Lynch by way of Robert Rauschenberg town – happening. Sketches of Jane Birkin. “The Wait” by Killing Joke. Valentina Terashkova. Edwige Fenech. Barbara Tfank. All happening. Estes Rockets have been on my mind a lot lately. And the fact that I used to play badminton with my dad when I was a kid. And finding a vintage shuttlecock made of a thick rubber and real tail feathers – lingering over contrast between the fluffy yet sturdy feathers and the powdery, matte, solid ball. Anyway, more very soon. A sketch of Jane Birkin, very probably.

(Ed Ruscha, Oxydol, Rubbing Compound, Was Seal Car Polish, Turpentine, Gelatin silver print, 1961)