Guitars and Microphones!

Yes, no one wants to hear anyone else's music - especially young'uns whose grandparents are younger than this artist - but *I* have the power here and you must suffer through it! (Or just not click. The story would read the same if I made up fictional song lyrics.) Anyway, if you'd like to sing along with the kids (and Ivy) with the main song from the current story, and the embedded video above doesn't work (news posts on the Precocious front page are mirrored from Blogger, so who knows how it'll go), here is a link to the music video for Kate Pierson's Guitars and Microphones. (Does it count as another B-52's reference for this comic if it's a band member's solo album?)

I stayed true to the concept of this story, by the way, and I listed to the album over and over, THEN this song over and over and over and over. And then I couldn't find a lyrics sheet for the song, so I listened over and over AGAIN to try and make it out. I doubt I got it totally right, so my apologies to Kate!

I also stayed true to the concept of something else, but you'll have to wait for that comic to go live before you know what I mean! (Hint: The comic's title is "Bring Your Arms" - though it's not about that specific song.)

And while I'm doing a news post, here's a health update: I got botox injections to help muscles spasms in my face that were causing migraines, but it didn't go well and has so far been ineffective. I have dozens of emails to write and respond to from the past three weeks, as well as a personal goal of getting at least ONE Copper Road done in June, but right now it's all I can do to keep updating on time. And that's really annoying, because it could mean reshuffling my planned Summer story order.

Sing sing sing!

Here's one potential outcome of the dare from today's strip! (#914)

I'm not sure if it'd be funnier if Max was a good singer or a bad one. I'll leave that up to the readers! (I also open this image up to photoshoppers who want to throw in their own lyrics.)

Bonus Comics Day - A song in my heart!

This day has been a blast! I'd do it forever, except that this day has also nearly killed me.

I went into it thinking I'd get a ton of work done because I'd be chained to the computer. WRONG. With ADHD, it can take me a while to settle down into a work groove, and having to reset myself every hour to an update threw me off-balance completely. By the time I did the update, posted about it, checked out all the social media places, prepped the next update and sat down to start my work... 45 minutes had gone by! It's hard to get a project started in 15 minutes, so back to email and Twitter and...

It was still totally awesome being able to throw updates at you guys left and right. (And I grin looking at the stat boost I got from today's antics!) If I ever do another donation drive, I must have a bonus comics day again - although next time I MUST charge more per strip. I hope you all had as much fun as I did.

Along the way, while trying to stir up the slow early morning crowd, I was talking about music I was listening to - and realized I missed a golden opportunity. I've been listening to the delightful St. Vincent, and some of her songs make great fits for my own little Vincent. Somehow, despite it being crazy to do so, I drew up ANOTHER bonus comic - just so I could double Vincent all the way across the sky. It'll show up at the top of the hour. (Bonus music comic #15, strip #854.) I had two ideas for the St. Vincent strip, and the sketch you see above is from the one that lost. It's such a sweet line and it's perfect for Vincent, but also kinda gross to illustrate if I wanted to be literal.

It's weird to think I could be exhausted from doing nothing but playing on the computer for 15 hours, but I really am. After I get to the regular update, when I can finally let go and have the CMS do the updating for me, I'd like nothing more than to go to bed and sleep for a week. But I'm a cartoonist. That ain't happening.

For one, thanks to all this Bonus Comics Day stuff, my buffer is now gone. Tomorrow I have no choice but to color the rest of this week's strips. Then can I rest? Oh, no! I still have three commission projects that desperately need attention! And I have to build up my buffer again! And I have to work on a donation poster for August! AND I NEED TO GET WORKING ON THE DANG BOOK! *head explodes*

Ahh, cartooning. The work is insane, but at least the pay's nonexistent and no one ever respects what you do (even in your own field, if you're a newspaper-style cartoonist). Woohoo!

Wasting time, sitting still

I've been rocking out today to R.E.M.'s latest live album release. Note that I didn't say "working" - I'm not good at working to music, as it makes me bop bop bop around the room. Also, by "bop bop bop" I mean "sit down at one station after another." Don't confuse it with actual physical exertion. I'm not smart enough for that today!

It was still worth it! I'm a crazy R.E.M. fanboy, so this album was bliss. It consists of "rehearsals" of the material that would eventually become their AWESOME album Accelerate. It's fascinating to see what the songs were before they were finalized. I could geek out more, but I haven't even read the liner notes yet. More music geekery is in my future!

As you can see, work did in fact get done today. Eventually I did shut off the music and move to more traditional working methods. I wanted to sketch out eight pages, but five is still pretty good, with possibly one more to come! Tomorrow: Inking bonanza!

I got the music in me

In a week of low motivation, a guiding light has emerged: Imogen Heap. I have her new album, Ellipse, now and I've started listening to it. (Good so far!) To get some inspiration going, I decided to groove the music via painting. This is what popped out. Not bad so far, although the bite-sized paintings never seem to translate well online. I have no clue where it's going next, but with painting I never do.

iGlut

Yes, that's right. Three iPods, one iPhone. And I'm still typing this post on a PC.

I've previously documented my ongoing struggle to play my music. The struggle continues, with dysfunctional absurdity. I have a player and four devices it can play - all of which fail to meet my needs fully! Let us review!

Black iPod: My first iPod. My baby! 8gigs of love and music, it has served me well over the years. Now, like me, it is old and breaking down. Its screen is busted, meaning it only works about 10% of the time, if that. You can imagine the frustration involved in this, with me constantly resetting and rebooting the bugger in hopes I see text and not a squiggly blue line. And there's still the problem if my player not charging the nanos! Bah, I can fix THAT!

Enter the iPhone: I hate to say it, but this thing really is amazing. Never before in my life have I kept a calendar, yet it's so easy to do it now! I love the little beep I get when an email arrives! I love having it all in one nice device. Heck, I don't even mind that there's a pesky phone involved as well. These have all been plusses, but what I really wanted was that upgraded, chargable iPod! Hey, I needed a new phone too.

So what's the problem here? Gravity. Why on earth did a device designed for iPhones not factor in that iPhones are HEAVIER than iPods? (iAm getting sick of doing this iCapitalization already.) This means the connection with the player is tenuous at best. I have to remove the bottom of my protective case and use it as to prop the player up. Even better, this is a 3gs, which is just different enough from the 3g to make the phone whine that the device is too foreign and scary. (It whines, but it plays fine.) Ok, so I can prop it up. Good enough. That's when the vibrate option comes in, shaking the phone just enough to silence it. The solution is simple: TURN OFF VIBRATE - but I'm lazier than that. Here comes the next solution!

Red iPod: This was a holiday gift to me by my former employer, with a spiffy logo and color! Problem was, it's only 4 gigs. I stuck with my double-sized friend at work and regifted the player to my littler brother. Years go by, and I'm showing off my iPod player to him at my grandparents' house. I tell him the story of my busted screen and he whips out old reddie here. Since *he* also has an iPhone now, he had no use for it anymore. Reregifting ensues! Well, it works - but now I can only put half my playlists on the bugger. The iPhone has 32 gigs! Oh, whatever. Red is easier. I just wish there was a way to get my other playlists....

Silver iPod: My other brother, the sleazebag jerkoff of the family, managed to scam a 4 gig iPod out of my softie of a mother when they went to buy my first iPod. (Chrispmas gift.) My bro, lacking in both sense and brains, naturally put his player through the wash a few times and killed it. Unfazed, he simple started borrow players from other people, leaving his dead iPod with me.

A long time went by before I found this iCorpse again. I was cleaning and found it in a bin of spare change. It had been a long time since the accident, so I gave it a shot and threw it in the charger. Whaddaya know, it worked! I guess it finally dried out at some point. Do I give this iPod back to my brother, who WILL ruin it with his idiotic incompetence, or do I bring this little fellow into my dysfunction iFamily? Yeah, finders keepers.

So that's the story of how I failed my music needs so hard. If the black iPod works, I play it every night until the battery dies. If not, I move to red for a specific playlist, or silver for my umbrella playlists. After two days, I pull them off to charge. When in the mood for something esoteric, the iPhone comes out. I suppose it works, but it sure works in a stupid, stupid way.

I hope you enjoyed my story, because I've worked on the comic all day and I'm too tired to do any painting or sketches tonight. I'll do better tomorrow. (Maybe.)

Uplifting

I love it when people do things for me - especially since I rarely do things for other people! It means they care enough to overlook my jerkass nature!

Today was a Metric day. When I'm down, I listen to Metric's "Fantasies" and rock the frak out. Track 1: "Help, I'm Alive!" Track 3 includes the line: "I'm not suicidal, I just can't get out of bed!" And, despite the seemingly dark stuff, it's all in electro-pop, inspirational rockitude. It really gets me pumped up. "Every living thing/pushed into the ring/Fight it out to wow the crowd/Guess you thought/You couldn't just watch/No one's getting out/without stadium love." Meaning: Suck it up and fight on through!

So a sluggish day began looking up. My trainwreck interview with WCRI was posted and Tom of Alone in a Crowd drew me some fan art! That gets the spirit going.

Now, I leave you to go work on the strip. Maybe. (I'm still looking at that magnetic bed...)

The day the music died

In today's "I'M AN IDIOT" moment, we feature Chrispy and his new iPod speaker!

I listen to music constantly. Without it, I get all twitchy and panicky. I had been using my old desktop to play my music through iTunes. It worked fine, until everybody died. The desktop is unreliable, the speakers are aging badly and I knew I couldn't keep relying on the aging system. I decided to go with an ipod speaker system in anticipation of me upgrading to an iPhone soon.

I was a good consumer, doing my research and narrowing down my choices to match my need. I thought I was going for Altec Lansing Inmotion mini player, but I was worried the sounds wouldn't be full enough for my needs. I'm not a music stickler, but fuzziness drives me insane. That's when I spotted the higher-end model on sale for only $10 more! It was the top-rated player on CNET! The reviews made it look perfect, as the features it lacked were ones I'd never use. I bought it!

Oh wait, NO I DIDN'T! I bought a lower model that looks almost exactly like the higher end model. WHOOPS. This one... not so good reviews. For insance, it won't change iPod Nanos. IT WON'T CHARGE IPOD FUCKING NANOS! This was a feature that should be assumed in ALL MODELS OF IPOD PLAYERS.

So, earlier today, the music goes off. The battery is dead. I am confused. I pull out the manual. I look for the product name. I curse. I curse LOUDLY. I'm an idiot.

I can work around this, of course, but it requires me remembering to charge my nano during every moment I'm not listening to it. Aside from that stupidity, it works fine for my needs. Doesn't stop me from stewing over this, though. Can't believe I screwed up like this. I can only hope it charges the iPhone when I get it. If it doesn't, I can't be held responsible for my actions.

Edit: Salt in the wound: It is now on sale, so it cost me an extra $10 to screw up too.

We hope you will enjoy the show!

Stupid ambition, now I have to draw my characters as Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! That is ADVANCED cartooning! Oh well, practice makes perfect...

The Magical Mystery Tour

Oh yes, I am veeeerrrry tempted to finish Precocious: The Musical week with a Sunday tribute to the Beatles. How indulgent can one get? LET'S FIND OUT!

It's been a lot of fun drawing my musical strips, citing favorites such as R.E.M., The B-52's (twice!), Talking Heads, Radiohead and Peter Gabriel. Provided you the know the music (I only chose the hits, don't worry), the strips are pretty darn funny too. Only Saturday's is truly a "you have to know this" strip. The rest... you have NO EXCUSE FOR NOT KNOWING THAT! The fault is yours! KNOW BETTER MUSIC!

He who has the coolest stuff wins

This is a selfish post in which I dance around and brag. Read on at your own risk.



My DeviantArt Precocious mug came in! The quality is highly excellent, so I suggest going out and buying Precocious stuff for yourself, you friends and you family. (My flower paintings are also in there, if you want prints of those.) I make, like, two cents profit each time. Woah, my visit back to DeviantArt also revealed that I had some watchers! Wow! Now... now I have performance anxiety.

Also up for bragging: Check out the nifty 3D print paperweight my brother made me for Chrispmas! As I have no desk space, it sits on display with all my other treasures. Unfortunately, those luscious bottle, just like me, are mostly-to-completely empty inside. I just can't bear to throw them out, since it would reveal my liquor collection was down to rarely-usable stuff and bum wine bottles added as a joke. I miss my croranges. (Grand Marnier + cranberry juice.) *sigh*


Also up for bragging is my brand new GOD OF ALL MONITORS! With the transition to my laptop, which is twice as fast and ten times as reliable as my old desktop, my computer situation has significantly improved. I am now able to have GIANT photoshop files open for DAYS at a time - and do tons of other photoshop projects on top of that. Woo!

You can also get a sexy look into my workspace. The light table in the background has turned into a movable drawing table, so I'm there a lot. That and the new monitor are both birthday gifts to myself, and both are so far huge successes. Do I know me or what? That would be The Pre-History of the Far Side which is functioning as a mouse pad. (Gee, guess why I had *that* out.) My addiction to caffeine-free diet Pepsi is on certainly on display, making the "COKE!" graffiti in the first pic even more absurd. (You had to be there.) On the walls we have posters and clippings for my music loves, including REM, The B-52's, Natalie Merchant, Bjork, Tori Amos and... Kurt Vonnegut? So it goes. The painting is a self-portrait my father made when he was in high school. I'm not actually sentimental at all - rather, I hung it there to get it out of the way while I waited for idiot bro to take it. Anyway, my art would be hanging above the scanner.

Alright, I'm rambled so much even I'm bored with myself, and talking about myself is my favorite thing, so you must be in excruciating agony. Good, you should feel bad because MY STUFF IS COOLER THAN YOURS! (Note: that is not a challenge. Please don't burst my bubble.)

I'd better get my move on...

...or all the good ones will have gone.

Thank to Dana's generous Chrispmas gift, I was allowed to indulge a bit at Amazon.com. The great conquest of last night was the downloading of CSS' latest album, Donkey. I am seriously hooked. The band has gone from art punks flirting with the B-52's to outright footstep following. (According Wikipedia, this is called "New Rave" - which is an awesome term.) I have no problems with this move whatsover. I had put off acquiring this album because critics weren't that enthusiastic over it. (The dreaded MUSIC B grade was bandied about.) Fools!

Of course, when I get attached to an album and listen to it over and over, it puts me in a trance. Strange things happen when I'm entranced, as anyone who got a novella from me in their email today can attest. Alas, the time of dreamy meandering is about to end. It's time to silence the other computer. (Problem: iTunes hates PCs and thus destroys everything when asked to share resources. Solution: Buy a HDTV and hook a laptop up to it, allowing the old desktop to devote itself solely to music providing.) I had to create something fun to share - hey, everyone, guess what CSS stands for! -and get it up before lost.

Now my attention turns away from this giant, loving monitor and focuses upon the comic. 24 intro arc strips sketched, 12 left to sketched, none inked so far. Ahh, progress!