Archives for March, 2009

I’ve been drawing horizontal lines for the last half-hour, so a little break. To say “hi” and talk about things I like right now.

First, Philip Roth. When I started reading him, I was unaware of the tendency to regard him as the “greatest living american author,” I just had seen his books on my parent’s shelf and loved the typeface.

Yes, this book is extremely sexual. But when I read it, I was struck more of the humanity within it, which is certainly why he’s great. As ridiculous as these things can get, they are unmistakably human, and therefor unsettlingly relatable. Silly critiques aside, He Is Great, and so far since Portnoy, I’ve read The Breast, Goodbye, Columbus, My Life As A Man, When She Was Good (which was so upsetting I threw it across the room when I’d finished it), and am now reading Letting Go. It’s all great.

So let it be the time for me to announce that my life won’t be satisfied until I get a blurb on the back of a book that says “The Philip Roth of comics.” Yes, that’s my goal. I’ll explain later.

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Second on my list of things I like right now is Grace Jones.

I mean, of course! Who couldn’t be wildly inspired by such bold features? The three albums I’ve heard, Nightclubbing, Slave to the Rhythm, and Hurricane, are amazing, and sound like the future. I am obsessed with the future. I want it in me.

Also, if you did not know, the cyberfuture will involve Liquid Fork Empresses:

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So, lastly, a little of Me. This below is an EP Jesse Carsten made for me. During the recording of Honeybear I felt stagnant (like I always do), and thought the album was shitty. I asked Jesse to record some of the songs how he wanted to, so I’d get a better feel for what the core of the song was. It’s hard to lose sight of the goal when you’re as kitchen sink as I am. This was an extremely helpful thing, and GREATLY influenced the outcome of some of the songs. I recommend it heartily.

Jesse Carsten’s Violet Mice EP

Yes sir.

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The amount of people who have downloaded Olympian is astounding. More people have done so than have done Girlz! This is fantastic! If you’re one who has downloaded Oly, then I thank you very much. And if you’re one who has downloaded Oly and then listened to it, then I adore you!

So then, let’s return to that normal kind of post-update where song-sketches go on. Yes.

This, as of course this would be the place to start again, is an example of some strange energy (analogy, i’m not one to believe wholly in resonation [what?]) writing a song. The day was nice, I had a certain feeling of good romantic cheer in my bones, I picked up the guitar, and immediately started playing this:

2.24.08 (Sweet Girl, Ooh, too)

Yes, you can hear my room mate at the end walking in and saying “what’s this? something old? something new?” Then I stop recorded. It’s cool, bra, I got enough.

Also interesting about that is the little thing at the beginning, oddly similar to the line that plays though all of this later song, Ooh, Rode Off! See! More seeds, sewn. Honeybear just wrote itself. Phhht.

So about 10 minutes after I recorded that demo, I recorded the full song. This is the first time I’ve ever actually decided a part of the song wasn’t working and edited it out. I did a fantastic job (toot), which you’ll hear in May. But for now you can delight in the unedited “solo in a different place, with an extra bridge that ended up nowhere” version of Sweet Girl:

Sweet Girl (old)

Snappy alternate title.

Hey, Billy, why are your hands black?

I don’t know why.

For some reason, even though everyone’s been saying it for years, having Billy Corgan be the only member of the Smashing Pumpkins is …I don’t know, I can’t say wrong, it just doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t make sense. Why now? Oh, who cares but me. And I barely care, I’m just really confused.

Anyways, here is Olympian, my new EP.

It’s here, and it’s ready for you, and all you have to do is press the glyph below:

Or this glyph here.

and the information,

OLYMPIAN EP:

1. Olympian
2. O, Miranda!
3. Property
4. Good Humor
5. It’s Endless!

Recorded in Chicago and Albuquerque from December ‘07 to March ‘09 by Ian McDuffie.

The vast amount of work I did in my junior year (right, because it was SOOooo long ago) was around one particular subject. That was Ringo’s Rainbow, a magical world that starred Ringo, Me, and The Pig. Ringo flew through the sky, casting a magical rainbow behind him, and The Pig and I followed him, having surreal adventures, playing basketball, having campfires, etc. It was exciting, and it’s a slight regret that I abandoned the idea…

I feel poor about not updating this visual section that often. I wish that there was a bevy of respectable work up here. So i’m going to do some closet-cleaning, putting up some Old Guard (I love that term) comics. This first one was an assignment to do a research comic about an event. I picked the Northridge Earthquake of ‘94, which I was in, and thought I had caused.

See, I woke up like, four seconds before the earthquake hit, and kicked the side of the bedframe I was in right as it started. Positive side, I didn’t know there was an earthquake, so I didn’t freak out.

In case you didn’t know here, you can click the images to see them bigger, y’all.

Tragedy’s:

—very soon.

like a cat, but only because there is some hidden sass (now irrelevant) in these sketchbook pages. they come from late last year.

Yep. Oh, and be sure to be at SAIC’s Sullivan Galleries (33 S. State St. 7th floor) this Friday (March 20th) at 7PM for the Undergraduate Exhibition (that i’m in, along with many other people I know and love). It’ll be… pretty good. The exhibition runs March 21st to April 3rd, so if you miss the opening, don’t fret. See you there.

Violet Mice (or, me, Ian, anyways) will have a piece in the upcoming Undergraduate Exhibition Show. Anyone at SAIC knows where and when it is (if you don’t, you may be in a heaven that doesn’t have the portal or in a cave that doesn’t have the portal.)

If you don’t know what the portal is, i envy you, sort of, but anyways, YOU SHOULD COME!

Sullivan Galleries, 33 South State Street, 7th floor
Friday, March 20th, 7:00 PM.

I’ve got a thing on the wall and some CDs you can have free if they don’t run out. This’ll be the GIRLZ comic you’ve been a-hearing about, and there’ll be copies of Girlz for you, while they last!!!

AND HERE IS GIRLZ IF YOU DONT HAVE IT REMEMBER IT IS FREE. Ha ha, but even if you do have it, it’s pretty sweet to hold it in your hand.

Wah-wah. SEE YOU THERE!

what does one write about now? I’m eating cheese puffs (sadly not Cheece Puffs, wah-wah, not my inside joke), and feeling sorry for myself. no scholarships for me! now i absolutely have to line up at 3 in the morning for ox-bow. it is funny how mildly upset this news has made me. even though i had said to myself that i would not be that upset by this news. perhaps this is why i didn’t get any scholarships in the first place? oh well, there is nothing more i could do. I will still be going to ox-bow, certainly. only a little more guiltily, maybe? i am trying to make it easier on certain people, i swear.

anyways, enough of that. let’s talk of a few things.

what am i listening to these days?
i will be honest, it is sometimes hard to listen to music because i am becoming too scholarly, too pully-aparty, too looking-for-ammo-for-songs.
Anyways, i’m listening to:

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-Self-titled.
Lotus Plaza-The Floodlight Collective
Yeah Yeah Yeahs-It’s Blitz!
Jackie-O Motherfucker-Valley of Fire
XTC-Skylarking
The Monkees-Head
Antony-The Crying Light

Also, this:

In the drawing world, there is one bigger piece of news that I’ll post about soon in the news section in a little bit (can’t be arsed). If you didn’t know, I’m working on two minis right now, and they’ll be out in May (if not earlier for one).

But as for obsessions, here it is, full-speed ahead:

Also, I thought this was well done:

That’s my life! Sha-bamp-a-da-bwowwwrrrr.