Pete Glover : Online Journal

3 Years

2008-07-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Narangkar and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary a few weekends ago with a leisurely picnic at the location of our reception, the UC Botanical Gardens in Berkeley. Our actual anniversary was Thursday, July 10th, but we hosting a "drawing party" at the gallery that evening so we celebrated the following Sunday.

Narangkar whipped up some awesome salads. We also got some good cheese and cider. We were hoping for pulled pork sandwiches over at Cesar, but had to settle for tuna.

Looking smooth.

This picture is making me thirsty.

My wife is so awesome.

We spent a good part of the afternoon trying to get macro-photos of bees.

Botanical goodness.

The obligatory jumping photo.

Junk Pirate #16

2008-06-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

Junk Pirate #16 is out now. It has lots of good stuff, like a letter from some guy in Santa Rita, Certificate of Death, Gremlins trading stickers, Wizard Dust Mop, Get out of Drunk Tank free card, the OptiVisor, 99 Wife-Savers, The Working Girl's Doodle Pad (number 2!), Drag Racing Club, other people's wedding photos, Skeletor, Ladies Score Card, Structure of Freemasonry, Y2K Survival Guide, Jokers, specimen collection information, Vincent Price's favorite game, not one but two horse diagrams, "I am a tree.", Party Pooper Award, Declaration of Mid-Life Crisis certificate, Hickety Pickety, "...just see if I don't!", and more.

If you are reading this than you most assuredly know me well enough to deserve a free copy. If you don't, than go here to buy it. Thanks to all the hard workers at the EBD (good to have you back, Jammer), and the fine folks at Rowan Morrison Publishing (me and Nara).

"When you have problem remember me. I will always beside you."

Albany Skate Bowl

2008-06-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that the concrete skate bowl in the Albany landfill park is getting torn down sometime soon. There is another, conflicting rumor that the skate bowl is actually getting expanded. On thing you can be sure of is that Jacob Tillman recently visited the East Bay and, once again, tore it up. Bonus air from Duncan. I've got the video to prove it...

Connecticut Represent

2008-05-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

I flew out to visit my Mom at her lovely home in Connecticut this past week. We mostly just sat around and talked for four days straight. I also took the time to clear out a lot of my old school papers and toys and things that she has been kind enough to store for me over the past 13 years. Time goes by so fast. Anyways, here are a few snapshots from the trip:

Artful photography. This is actually a jumping photo.

We went to an art exhibit at the Stamford Nature Center. It was of sculptures by Nathan Sawaya made from Lego blocks. Pretty cool.

Then we checked-out the animals on the farm. From afar, we thought these giant turkeys who were hanging by the Coke machines were made of Legos, too.

Goats!

More wild animals. This time it is the Pudge Master, aka the Varmint Hunter.

That's Pudge on the left and Bobo on the right... ready for some dinner.

This is just a small sample of the many boxes of stuff I went through. Attention members of the Stamford, CT Freecycle: there are some good comic books coming your way!

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe... coming soon to eBay.

Here is a photo from Waveny Park in New Canaan. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time sitting in this park doing nothing.

On my last night there we had a big fire. I wish I had a fireplace in my home.

The flight home was long and I was super tired but still couldn't fall asleep. I got some cool pictures of "the City" during our descent.

Other events that I didn't get photos of were: chicken broccoli casserole, several dead chipmunks and a dead mole courtesy of Pudge, a picture of me with the Ultimate Warrior when I was about 10 years old, my Mom's awesome bathtub, a pretty awful art show (featuring no Legos), Westy storage, the happy guy who took my old baseball card sets, "The Thieves' Market" by Frederick Grant, and my Mom (she doesn't like having her picture taken).
Thanks for having me, Mom. I love you.

Anniversary in Hell

2008-05-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Narangkar and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by spending two fabulous nights in Las Vegas. We figured, if you're gonna go to Vegas, don't half-ass it. Vegas is a gimmicky, cheesy, grimy place so we opted to stay at the dumbest hotel/casino we could find... Excalibur. 100% authentic Las Vegas experience, baby. We stayed two nights and left just before we both went crazy from all the noise and smoke and hooker cards and fat people and bad food and video screens and buffet lines and people with their tiny kids (are you folks nuts!?!) and just the whole Vegas-ness of it all. We partied hard, had a great time, and never want to go back.

Here are some photos in chronological order:

The view from our hotel room window. It was just magical.

Damn right.

The New York, New York hotel/casino has a mini Statue of Liberty that plays patriotic country music non-stop. God bless America.

We spent the daylight hours by the pool. There were speakers blaring rock music (not classic rock, but the contemporary shit I've never heard before and never want to hear again) non-stop from speakers mounted in every tree. Time for a drink.

$5.75 Corona "imported" beer. As opposed to $5.50 Budweiser "domestic".

We visited the M&M's store, which was 4-stories tall! Four floors of M&M's merchandise! You could buy a 4-pound bag of Skittles for 20 bucks! There was also a "World of Coca-Cola" pavilion but we skipped it. Time for another drink.

Nearby, on The Strip, they are building another monstrosity.

Our second night we headed downtown where the low-rollin' casinos are.
Our kind of place.

This Queen look-a-like tribute band played a few songs every hour outside the 4 Queens Casino. They rocked me. Then they were the champions.

So much razzle-dazzle.

Then the whole Fremont Street domed light show thing happened and it was like, "What the hell is going on?!?" I think Narangkar summed it up nicely by saying, "They've got the technology, but they don't have the content."

Narangkar jockeys some Wheel of Fortune slots while slamming down 54-ounce footballs of High Life to the sweet smells of fried Twinkies. I think Mermaids was our favorite casino.

Meanwhile, the floor starts to trip us out. Whoa.

The old "Ratso and the Pufferfish" routine.

Glitter Gulch... check your dignity at the door.

So glamorous. So drunk.

I think this sign clearly explains why Excalibur is the best hotel in the world. Ever.

See you in Hell, Vegas.
From, Pete...

and Narangkar.

Lavender Air...

2008-04-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

"Lavendair"....

Jacob Tillman pops in and airs out on a quick trip up from Los Angeles. He hasn't skated in many months, slams on his first carve, and then starts responding to onlooker request for a fragrant ollie over the difficult hip. As always, unprecedented. Here's another angle:

Check out Jacob's artwork here (he is currently a painting grad at UCLA): www.jacobtillman.com. Check out a little video edit I did some skating from back in the day over at shredordie.com.

Mess With Texas

2008-04-16T17:28:00.001-07:00

Narangkar and I went to Austin for a bit of the old South by SouthWest a few weeks back. It was the final trip as part of my participation in Scion's Easy Ten film series (you can check out the entire 15-minute film I made with David Choe by clicking this link to "23 Short Film" on Scion's Broadband website). All we had were plane tickets, reservations at a shitbox motel a few miles from downtown, a couple of phone numbers, and our laptop. Well, we also had clothes and stuff and I brought my skateboard. I've never been to Texas, let alone SxSW, so I didn't know what to expect. Thanks to some hot tips from the Texan contingent of This Mob and a phone number for Okay Mountain-Man Michael Sieben, we were fully prepared for a drunken good time.

We strolled over to the Mabel Davis skatepark about a mile or so from where we were staying. It's has got a huge, huge crazy bowl. Yikes.

The park also had a really great street course. Backside 50-50.

These fried pickles were not cheap, but I've been wanted to try me some fried pickles for a while so it was on. Tasty.

Sounder plays at the Camel Lounge, where you are required to accept two packs of free Camel cigarettes if you want some free Pabst tall cans. The whole place was all decked-out in Camel posters. Sounder did their best to not look like tobacco-sponsored sell-outs.

While wandering around downtown Austin our first evening there, we randomly ran into JP, who had spent his first week in Oakland (just after his 21st birthday) at Santa Rita jail on some trumped-up vandalism bullshit. JP rules and hopefully he'll come back to Oakland soon.

One of the only shows we actually payed money to see was, hands down, the worst band I have ever seen in my life. The Slits from the UK. "I'll dance reggae, you dance punk. No- wait- you dance punk and I'll dance reggae." I repeat, with all sincerity, Worst Band Ever!

Here is the 10am line to get into the free Motorhead show.

Motorhead was actually kind of boring. Napalm Death (pictured here), going on year number 27, was the highlight of the afternoon.

I'm sure everybody who has ever been to Okay Mountain gallery has marveled at this nearby amazing, muscle-bound, double bicepted, grill master mural. Awesome.

Sunset on whatever the name of the river that Austin is on is called. It was a lovely evening.

The cupcake airstream. Now that's good eatin'.

We began to doubt that we would get to see any really good shows while at SxSW and were kinda caught off guard when Jay Reatard blew-up the outdoor stage at some Scion / Vice gig. It was over 90 degrees on this mid-March day, there was no shade, but the High Life tallboys were on the house so it was all good. Jay Reatard rules live and on record. Go buy their stuff.

Okay Mountain is swell. We dropped fifty bucks on zines, T-shirts, and a beer cozy in their gift shop. Sitting on their grassy yard listen to random art-music duos and sipping keg beer was not a bad way to spend a few hours. Highly recommended.

Big Nate Sieben.

Backyard rampage.

Narangkar drops in.

Mike, Michael, and Alison. They took us to Barton Springs for some fresh-water swimming and then out for some Tex-Mex. It was a good day.

Oakland in Texas! DJ Eleven and DJ Willie Maze! I bet they are texting each other.

Narangkar dropping moves on the dance floor like you've never seen .

Hooray for everything.

Big thanks to Michael, Allison, and Big Nate Sieben for all their help and hospitality. Thanks also to Todd, Steven, Aho, and the Sounder/Volcom crew, JP, all the Austin heads, and everybody else. See you next time.

13' tall by 27' wide

2008-04-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the completed mural. We finished it a few weeks ago but I'm just now posting the pictures. Narangkar and I are really pleased with how it turned out and are contemplating doing a similar mural on the side of the gallery, in full public view. Maybe in the fall when we have a little more time.

Big thanks to Lynn and Siriji over at GWPC.

Pete Picks 'Em

2008-03-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Baseball season begin in less than a week when those lovable local losers, the Oakland Athletics, take on the World Champion Boston Red Sox in Tokyo, Japan. Without delay, Fearless Pete is gonna tell you what you'll be seeing when all is said and done in October. You can check the recap of my 2007 predictions at this blog. I also want to reiterate that I successfully picked the Cardinals to win it all in '06.

Let start with the big one: The New York Mets will win the World Series with Johan Santana being the series MVP. Now let's get to the nitty-gritty.

American League East:

Red Sox (best team in baseball in 08)
Yankees (winning the wild card just over the Mariners)
Blue Jays
the Rays (the team formerly known as the "Devil Rays")
Orioles (worst team in the AL)

AL Central:

Tigers (both D-Train and Cabrera rock)
Indians (Sabathia wins on 14 games)
Twins (3-4-5 teams are all close)
White Sox
Royals (win 73 games!)

AL West:

Angels
Mariners (1-2 teams close, both rule)
Oakland A's
Rangers (3-4 teams close, both suck)

For MVP I'm going with Vlad, then A-Rod and Ortiz.
For Cy Young, it's Bedard (on Seattle), Beckett, and Dontrelle Willis (on Detroit)
R.O.Y.: Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury

ALDS: Angels over Yanks, Red Sox over Tigers
ALCS: Angels over Red Sox in seven

National League East:

Mets
Phillies (wild card winners)
Braves (no good)
Nationals (even worse)
Marlins (worst in NL)

NL Central:

Cubs
Brewers (winning but fade in September)
Astros
Reds
Cardinals
Pirates (3-4-5-6 teams all below .500)

NL West:

Diamondbacks (best in NL)
Padres
Dodgers (2-3 teams close and good)
Rockies (tank in '08)
Giants (lose 95 games)

For NL MVP I say D. Wright, then Pujols, then Chase Utley
Cy Young goes to Jake Peavy, with Dan Haren (on Arizona) and Santana (New York) close
R.O.Y.: I don't know... Jay Bruce on the Reds

NLDS: Mets sweep the Cubs, Diamondbacks beat the Phils
NLCS: Mets over Diamondbacks in 5

World Series: You heard it here first, Mets over Angels in 6 games.

I also predict neither Bonds nor Clemens play this year. Also, pitchers Pryor, Wood, Harden, Burnett, Webb, Zambrano, and Hamels spend lots of time on the DL. Oh yeah, Zito is back to form with a low ERA despite the worst run support in baseball.

Play Ball.

Snickers

2008-02-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

It's official. We adopted a new kitten. She is about 6 months old and we've had her for about 3 weeks, but it was only a "foster" period at first. She got just about every type of pattern and coloring on her, and by the looks of her fluff tail, fluff paws, and junior chops she is probably gonna puff out soon. I especially like her on orange leg. She never stops running and playing. I know all kittens are frisky but she is, like, vibrating with energy.

We named her Snickers because she has chocolate, caramel, nougat... and she's nuts.

A rare snoozy moment.

more mural

2008-02-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

The mural is coming along nicely. Narangkar went on a solo mission two weekends ago and got a lot done, and we both got busy this past Sunday and got even further along. This Sunday we'll be dropping the last of the color, filling in some of black poles, and after any color corrections, we should be all done. Then we'll clear coat and sign that sucker next weekend. After that is belongs to the ages.
We've gotten lots of good feedback so far and the gym offered to let us do the entire wall, but I don't think that will be happening anytime soon. We're pretty stoked to have this artwork up at GWPC. It is a great climbing gym and everyone working there has been very cool. Check back for final photos of the mural next week.

This was the wall after Narangkar painted back on the 17th.

Lookin' good.

Mural Update - Colors

2008-02-13T16:29:00.000-08:00

Narangkar and I started in with some colors this past Sunday. I take my own sweet time mixing colors and getting it just right so it is taking a while to get filled, but I think we can all now see how this thing is going to rule when it is finished.

Mural Update

2008-02-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

Remember the sketch I did for a mural Narangkar and I were gonna do at some new climbing gym in downtown Oakland? Refresh your memory with this blog.

Well, we got started in January and have pretty much gotten it all mapped out and ready for some color. It is just Narangkar and I working with ladders upstairs in the weight room at the Great Western Power Company gym. The space already has all the weight and aerobic equipment so people are all grunting and sweating around us while we paint.

Big blank wall.

The mural starts about 3 feet off the floor and is over 10 feet tall.

Here is the end of day one. We got all the poles and most of the "bits" on there.

The end of day two gives us most of our wires lines. Getting all these lines proper while working with just two ladders and a secret line mapping techniques was pretty time consuming. Now it's looking sharp.

I spent another day adding in the last lines, doing a few fixes with white paint, and painting in the black center pillar. Other than some extra paint to fill in the rough spots in the wall texture, we are ready to map our colors and set this thing off.

Here is the original sketch again. We definitely simplified the wires a bit and everything got a bit crammed in the space, but I think things are turning out nicely.
Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Burns 08! Oh fuck yeah!

2008-01-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

Narangkar and I just finished up Season 3 of Melrose Place on DVD and we are already jonesin' for Season 4. This season things really heated up: featuring the debut (and then return) of Dr. Peter Burns, Mike Mancini getting amnesia, Jake getting shot, Jo getting shot (with a shotgun in the back!) by the parents of her baby's dead father (Reed, whom she killed), Kimberly going to No More Victims camp and then getting possessed and blowing up the apartment complex in the season finale, Alison going to alcohol rehab and hooking up with a sex addict pro football player, Brooke and Billy get married, Dan Cortez as Jess Hansen, Chris Marchet gambling half-a-million of Jane's Manicini Designs money and basically getting away with it, Amanda's father dies, then her boss, Bruce (head of D&D Advertising), kills himself, then she gets Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which she recovers from really fast, Sydney joins a cult, Matt gets stalked by Gay Cop, and so, so, so much more!

To celebrate the triumphant return of Melrose Place into our lives, I'm resurrecting a custom sticker I made ten years ago to celebrate my favorite character and the one true chief-of-staff over at Wilshire Memorial:

Melrose Place season 4 coming at you April 15th (Narangkar and my 10th anniversary!). Oh fuck yeah!

Winter Skate Jamboree

2008-01-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

We got a big enough gap in the winter weather to bucket out the old skatepond and rip it up yesterday afternoon. Andrew, Narangkar, Duncan, Tom, Jedson (or is it Judsen?), and myself got a good 4 hours of skating in. Got some footage of it. Click the photo of Duncan slamming to check the movie:

If you don't want to wait for the video to load, click this link to the video as seen on Shred or Die.

Tom's kickflip into the pond is my vote for trick-of-the-day. It was good to get a strong session going in the middle of winter. Then we all ate Indian food.

2008-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

Let any and all doubts that I have been ripping it on the skateboard since I was just a wee youngster be put to rest with this action photo:

Pink "Heat Zone" deck, velcro shoes, fingerless gloves that are way to big, bike helmet, non-skate knee pads. Man, I was way ahead of my time.

Ryohei Kills It

2008-01-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

I first met Ryohei (pronounced "Yo-Hey") when we were both freshmen at CCAC back in 1995. He lived in the apartment/dorm room right across from mine. I think the first thing that really stood out about him was that his bed was completely covered in artwork and stuff. When I asked him where he slept, he pointed under his bed. We were pretty good friends just about right away and he did a lot of illustration for my zine, Mr. Nice Guy. He could draw so fast and so well. He also was just a generally fun and funny guy.

Throughout the years we have worked together on a lot of projects. Our collaborative film noir was conceived, story-boarded, shot (in super8), and edited in about 7 non-consecutive days. It was the smoothest film production I've ever been a part of. Check it out in its entirety (about 4 minutes - starring Rob Sato):

We also continued to work on zines together, participated in some group shows, and even played some of his music at an opening at Gallery AD as The Apartments. After 10 years as an American, Ryohei moved back to his hometown of Tokyo about 3 or 4 years ago. He continues his massive artistic outpouring of paintings, drawings, comics, videos, prints, music, and his amazing papercut artworks from Japan, with updates on his blog. He also finally got a website up.

His papercut artwork, made by simply folding a piece of paper in half and cutting it with scissors into all sorts of creative monsters and scenarios, had made such a lasting impression on Narangkar and I that one of our first publishing projects with Rowan Morrison was a little book of his cuts. Then, about two months ago, that book came out: Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes by Ryohei Tanaka. The book has sold really well through our online art bookstore as well as our distributor, Last Gasp. And we haven't even launched a direct promotional campaign yet. You should get yourself a copy.

Anyway, Ryohei recently sent us a little package from Japan and I'm pretty psyched about it so check it out. It has some Japanese print promo stuff for the Simpsons movie, some snapshots from my bachelor "party" two years ago (we went to a baseball game), and the 2008 Ryohei Tanaka Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes Calendar! Plus an awesome letter. I really miss Ryohei.

The calendar features 6 all new papercuts.

It looks like it is screenprinted on construction paper.

I hope all the dates are right this time. His "Mark & Cindy" calendar (with Kris Chau) had a few months off and threw me into temporary chaos for a minute.

We have been making plans to get to Japan and hang with Ryohei on his home turf for many years now. Maybe this is the year...

RoMoLoCoGroupShow preview

2007-12-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Rowan Morrison Low-Commission Group Show (aka RoMoLoCoGroupShow) is happening right about... now! That is, today, Saturday, December 15th, from 5pm until 10pm. Get your ass over here.

The show is up in our recently renovated (new track lights, a coat of paint on one wall) studio next to the gallery tonight and then next weekend. 31 artists with over 50 works of art. And 85% of the sales dollars go to the artists directly (we normally take a 40% commission). Plus, we got a case of champagne on ice, some sparkly water, and Narangkar baked no less than six types of cookies! And if that isn't enough for you, Brian and Alice are having their annual potluck Holiday Party upstairs, so we can crash that later.

Here are some preview pics of the show I took last night. The artwork is available to take home right away so this is probably the only time we'll see it all together. Please excuse my quickee photoshop compositing of 2 pictures...

There is so much art that we had to use a bit of the north wall as well. All the artwork is by folks who have shown with us in the past 2 years, are showing with us in 2008, have prints in the portfolio, or are awesome supporters from day one. Every artist came through with great work. Some of the art is really, really affordable as well. I'm really proud and stoked on this show and a little sad it is only for one night (plus next weekend with whatever is still up). Here are a few details:

This oil on canvas on birch panel by Carl Auge is only $240! It is 24"x24", too. That is a freakin' deal! Carl rules. His band (Drain the Sky) rules, too.

One of Jen Siska's gorgeous color photographs. She was our only photography show so far. $70 with the frame.

Kathryn Glover shipped this framed oil on canvas all the way from icey-cold Connecticut for the show. Only $350 bucks. Get collectin'.

RoMo regular Nic Gauthier threw his hat in the ring with this psychedelic masterpiece. I didn't know what Nic would come up with and I'm stoked he came through with a solid effort. Nice frame, too. Trip out, man. Only $50.

Mitsy Ávila Ovalles has a solo exhibition with us coming up in January 2008. She contributed 7 small Owl "Pyrographies" (wood burnings) to the group show for only $40 each. We sold 3 of them (including the one in this photo) already and the show hasn't even officially started yet.

The whole show looks great and I'm so proud of everybody involved. We'll have complete photos of every piece over at rowanmorrison.com soon (I'm planning a whole extra photo album for it), and if you are interested in purchasing anything send us an email at info-at-rowanmorrison.com and we'll let you know if it is still available.

Big "hooray" to Narangkar who planned this whole party, created an awesome vintage Mexican holiday music mix, baked so many yummy cookies, took the care to find those cool plastic champagne glasses, and totally scored the track lights for free (see blog about it here). She also created two new oil paintings for the show as well.

Oh yeah, as part of the party we are offering 10% off all art books, zines, and papergoods for tonight only. And we are gonna sell our final copy of the Found Paper Journal.

Thanks for checking it out. And, now it's time to party!
Happy Holidays.

Art Show Tonight - allright

2007-11-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in a blog a while back, I got four new pieces of artwork in a group show that is having an artist's reception tonight. 6-9 (or so) at Esteban Sabar Gallery in Oakland. Theo Auer presents "The There, There" featuring the likes of John Casey (who created the card artwork), Lexa Walsh, Derek Weisberg, and about six others including myself. The whole thing is a benefit for Theo's broken nose with any leftovers going to perhaps fund the start of his East Bay arts website.

I also gotta mention that Esteban Sabar is taking 30% commission on the work despite the fact that it is a benefit. I think this is pretty whack since Theo was stuck paying for card printing, promotion, and even making the artist-gallery contracts! Esteban had better be bringing in some high rollin', art collectin', upper crust motherfuckers to justify his 30%. Hell, 21 Grand takes less than that on all art sales of every show and does all the work for the artists.

So, besides all that, I'm stoked on the show and the artists and my new work and I hope Theo's nose gets straightened out.

Also, I'll be selling the Rowan Morrison goods (including the new Ryohei Book and the Found Paper Journal) at the CCA arts and crafts fair early tomorrow morning on the Oakland campus.

telepole mural

2007-10-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the sketch Narangkar and I submitted for our mural proposal for the new downtown Oakland location of the Touchstone Climbing Gym. The gym is called the Great Western Power Company because that was the name of the original company to own the building (like Iron Works Gym in Berkeley). So the telephone poles and wires sorta fit that. The wall (which is indoors in the weight / aerobic room) is 27 feet wide and 16 feet tall. The mural starts 6 feet up the wall (so it will be 10' tall). The negetive space of the sky will be colored patchwork and reflect the hues of dawn, day, and dusk. Narangkar is gonna handle the colors and the project management while I did this original sketch. We'll both do the painting, along with any volunteers. Anyone?
We should be painting in December so I'll post photos of the progress.

Here is our original painting collaboration from 2005 that the mural is based on:

Game Over

2007-10-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the 2007 baseball season is now completely over (although it was over for Oakland back in June if you know what I mean). What better time could there be to go over my pre-season predictions? Probably after all the awards are announced, but let's do this now anyways.

Let me just preface this with the fact that I'm on a red-hot prediction streak of 1 year. That's right, it was me who predicted that the Cardinals would win it all in 2006 back before that season even started. Was I as clairvoyant this year?

I did, in fact, have the Red Sox in the World Series! Except I them losing to the Dodgers in seven games. So that was so close, yet so, so far. I had the Rockies finishing last in the NL West.

I few things I predicted came to pass: Like Zito sucking it in SF, the Phillies in the post-season, and (big surprise) Bonds breaking the all-time home run mark. I had the standings in the AL East right (with New York as the wild card losing in the first round of the playoffs). I also successfully predicted the White Sox tanking, the Royals losing fewer than 100 games, and the poor Pittsburgh Pirates in last in the NL Central. I also predicted a Cy Young season for San Diego's Chris Young, which was a possibility for a while there.

But it isn't all sunshine for my ability to call it: I thought Randy Johnson was in for a big season. I also thought Jason Schmidt was gonna win 20 games. I somehow dared to believe Rich Harden would pitch a triumphant, full season. I predicted Clemens would play... with the division champion Astros. I prognosticated the Nationals losing over 100 games (they didn't even lose 90), Teixeira as an AL MVP candidate, and the A's and the Rangers battling it out for the crown in the AL West - with the Angels bombing.

So, congrats to Boston and our boy Bobby Kielty. Tune in next spring for Fearless Pete's MLB 2008 fool-proof predictions.

gouache and ink on paper bag

2007-10-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

It all continues with this series of time-wasting cities. Gouache and ink on a brown paper bag. I got some sweet frames in the making as well. There will be a few of these on display in the group show, The There, There, curated by Theo Auer at Esteban Sabar Gallery in Oakland starting November 20th.

Free Stuff (for me)

2007-10-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Narangkar and I were just chilling in the gallery/studio when Becker came in with an armful of canvases for us. Free canvas is always good. Even if we end up not using it, it won't be hard to stoke someone else out with it. And that wasn't even the best part, as Becker was getting into his car he asked if I wanted a new skate deck. Apparently it was flowed to him and 7.75" is too skinny. So now I get a brand-new Zoo York deck, which I promptly repainted with a stencil I made from one of Ryohei Tanaka's papercuts (I'll write about that project later). Also a the RoMo bunny stencil had to go on there are well. My current board is good for the winter for me, but it is good to know that I have most of 2008 covered.

It gets even better: Earlier in the week we wrangled some serious track lights (about 40' of track and 16 cams) from the gutting of the late-Poppy Fabric (RIP). Track lights in the studio, oh hell yeah!

Best Art Studio, EVER!

2007-09-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

This picture doesn't even show the flat file, the back room (with painting storage, drafting table, work table #2, supply shelves, and paper rack), the sewing / book inventory room, the bathroom, the kitchen with mini-fridge and microwave, bike storage, bookcase alcove, the houseplant that will not die, iPod dock, and wall-mounted pencil sharpener. It is the last affordable storefront in Oakland, has bike racks outside, south-facing windows, and a yard behind it (with skatepond). Yeah, I think it can be stated that we have the best studio set-up for the money in the East Bay, maybe all of California.

Sometimes the crack-n-booze lurkers and liquor store litter and yelling pedestrians and Crab Shak parking lot riff-raff and constant noise from the car wash and passing busses and all that gets me down. But, really, how jaded am I to not constantly be thanking the fates for this place. Actually, it is amazing how little art I get done considering this setting.

Here are some more studio photos.

Upper Sparks Juxtaplayground

2007-09-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

I headed out to SF (aka the City) last Saturday to check in at Upper Playground's Ignite Sparks Art Tour thing with Saber and Dave Choe. UP's video guy couldn't make the rest of the tour and I was hoping to skitch onto their coattails and video the Northwest portion of the trip. Welp, that didn't work out, but it was nice to hang with David while he signed autographs and drew pictures of Spawn in peoples sketchbooks (look for them on eBay any day now).
The whole event was strange, with a room full of gawkers drinking free sparks and watching Dave paint really slowly. It was not a very dynamic event (-ahem- these things usually look a lot better in time lapse). It was actually pretty cool to see how Saber constructed his imagery, though. I felt a bit odd being lumped in with the fanboys when really I just wanted to show some support for Dave. Especially considering all he has done for me recently (he was angling to get me on the tour). I just about got over it all but then Juxtapoz.com dropped this photo:
The caption of the photo labeled me as an "onlooking admirer". I would say I'm more of a well-wisher, in that I don't wish David Choe any specific harm. It is weird talking to your friend while 30 hipsters are taking photos of you. That dude is a rock star.

The whole aversion to hipster openings, coupled with the disappointment of not getting the video gig, left me a little down. I felt better then next day when Dave texted (it's crazy the word "text" just recently became a verb) me saying thanks for coming out. Dave may be a hyped-up, super-jocked, criminally minded art rebel, but he is also a pretty good friend. Hope the rest of the tour goes well. Remember, I'm still available for the East Coast leg.

Video of the Upper Sparks Juxtaplayground tour is online from Walrus TV.

I also checked-out Deth P. Sun's new art show at GRSF, which is great, and Marci Washington and Michele Blade were part of a fancy shin-dig at the SF Arts Commission gallery at City Hall. This isn't one of those art opening photo blogs so you'll have to find pictures elsewhere.