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I was at Target recently when I found a special version of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers that is a tie-in with the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The main difference is that some of the crackers are in the shape of the Black Panther mask.
Yes, I bought that pack and it was kind of cool seeing the Black Panther mask-shaped crackers mixed in with the usual goldfish crackers. The taste is still the same as with the regular version.
I recently saw Wakanda Forever and I have to say that I liked it just as much as the first Black Panther movie. The acting was terrific and they did a great job of paying tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman (who was the star of the first Black Panther film). I highly recommend it.
I have to roll my eyes at those hardcore comic book fanboys complaining about Boseman’s character, T’Challah, being written off as dead while paving the way for his sister, Shuri, to become the first-ever female Black Panther. I don’t understand what the fuss is about. The filmmakers simply decided not to recast Boseman’s character and went off in a new direction when coming up with a new Black Panther. It was basically a creative decision and, based on Letitia Wright’s performance as the new Black Panther, I think they made the right call that was highly innovative. For decades there have been female versions of male superheroes like Batgirl and Supergirl so why can’t there be a female Black Panther? I think the new Black Panther is awesome and I can imagine young African American girls being thrilled that someone just like them is a superhero.
To date, The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks only the third movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I have ever seen. (The other two are the first Black Panther movie and the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.) The prices of going to the movies have become so expensive that I no longer go to the movies on a regular basis. (It doesn’t help that Hollywood keeps on churning out movies that I’m not interested in.) I don’t have a subscription to Disney+ because I want to find steady work before I can even think about subscribing to any streaming services. The local library does have DVDs of the older Marvel Cinematic Universe movies available to borrow but they are all Blu-Ray and I only have a regular DVD player. I am thinking about maybe getting a 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player, which would be backwards compatible with the Blu-Ray DVDs I can borrow from the library but I haven’t gotten around to actually buying one yet. Yeah, I can be lame at times. (LOL!)
How Cold War-era Hollywood movies rotted our brains.
TikToker shows what Walmart looks like in a wealthy neighborhood.
Brian Eno’s advice for those who want to do their best creative work: Don’t get a job.
Fifty children’s books you should definitely re-read as an adult.
Artist illustrates the pressures she and other women face from society in 30 new honest comics.
Mother’s Day weekend was a total mess weather-wise. It was unusually cold for May (the temperature didn’t go above 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and it rained a lot that weekend. The local mall, Beltway Plaza, had this Free Comic Book Day event that was held inside so I decided to go there.
I’ve been to other Free Comic Book Day events in past years (mainly at Third Eye Comics in Annapolis and Big Planet Comics in College Park) but it was the first time that this was also being held in Greenbelt. (Free Comic Book Day is an annual nationwide event where, as you can guess from the name, free comic books are given away from participating libraries and comic book stores.) It was jointly sponsored by The Space, the Prince George’s County Public Library System, and Third Eye Comics.
I knew it was a special day when the mall had a man who performed songs on his acoustic guitar. I shot a short video of him playing a version of the song “Never Can Say Goodbye” (which was a major hit for both The Jackson Five and Gloria Gaynor), which I uploaded on to TikTok, Clapper, and YouTube.
That day was kind of special because not only was there a guitar player but someone had also set up a table to register voters for the upcoming midterm elections outside of the Giant supermarket.
Here’s a full shot of where the Free Comic Book Day event was held.
There was a cosplay aspect to it where people were encouraged to dress up as a favorite comic book character. I ended up wearing a Stitch hat with a matching Stitch face mask (after all the Coronavirus pandemic was still going on) while bringing my Disney Nuimos Stitch, which is identical to what I wore at the Sakura Matsuri street festival in downtown Washington, DC the previous month.
I know that some of you might think that Stitch isn’t really a comic book character since he originated in a Disney film. Well, there was a brief comic book series that was released in 2006 and a few Japanese manga series with titles like Disney Manga: Stitch!, Disney Manga Stitch! Best Friends Forever!, and Disney Manga: Magical Dance. So, yes, he does fit in with the other comic book characters. Here’s another photo of me wearing my Stitch hat and face mask with a group of cosplayers.
There were plenty of cosplayers who dressed up as various superheroes.
Donations were accepted where the proceeds went towards The Space, a nonprofit art studio and makerspace that’s located inside of Beltway Plaza.
There was a free drawing held where winners could received all kinds of comic book-related freebies, such as Funko Pops.
Of course with a name like Free Comic Book Day, there were plenty of free comic books to choose from.
Since Mother’s Day was the following day, one of the local stores in the mall also gave out a free rose to everyone.
Comic book store files legal complaint in comic book form.
The visionary, haunting, occult artwork of William Blake.
The 3,000-year-old olive tree that still produces olives today.
Thirty cities around the world that no longer exist.
Japanese artist has been creating miniature dioramas every day for seven years.
It has been many months since I’ve done a video book review so I decided to do one after I checked this graphic novel out of the library. Recently TikTok has decided to allow everyone to make three-minute videos (but no longer) so I’ve decided to change the name of my occasional book review series from “One-Minute Book Reviews” to “Book Reviews in Under Three Minutes.” It’s a relief for me because I don’t have to do as much heavy editing as I previously did.
So, without further ado, here’s the book that I reviewed. It’s called War Bears and the story was written by Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood (which was why I was so eager to borrow it when I saw it on the library shelves). I uploaded my review on Clapper, TikTok, and YouTube.
The son of Captain America’s co-creator says Capitol Hill rioters misrepresented the superhero.
Making a miniature world for Marie Antoinette.
Facebook post ends long search for World War I soldier’s relatives in hours.
Vintage photos reveal the gritty New York City subway system in the 1970s and 1980s.
I decided to have some fun and get my mind off of that ongoing pandemic by doing something fun. There was an ad for a vintage toy show that was going on at the Benfield Sportscenter in Millersville, Maryland, which is located near the neighborhood I grew up in neighboring Glen Burnie.
As I was driving I was listening to the car radio, which announced that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election and he would be the next president. I later learned that this announcement had resulted in celebrations all over the country, including Washington, DC but I ended up continuing on to the toy expo. I drove up with trepidation with the intent of turning around and driving back home if there were too many people since there was no way in hell I was going to risk getting the Coronavirus. It turned out that there were people but it wasn’t very crowded and many of them were wearing masks (which was a requirement for entering the toy show). They also provided hand sanitizers at various places in an effort to prevent disease.
This show not only had a wide variety of vintage toys but actual video arcade cabinets were also on sale for prices starting at $1,600. (While I think it would be cool to have an mall-style video arcade with a variety of machines, I just don’t have the extra money or the extra space necessary to make this a reality.) It was a trip seeing toys from my childhood (such as some vintage Barbie dolls) but I ended up not buying anything there because of the prices. I managed to take a bunch of pictures, especially at the one or two cosplayers who arrived at the show dressed like superheroes.
Last week I finally mailed off my entry in The Brooklyn Art Library’s ongoing Sketchbook Project. The origins of that one can be traced to my involvement in last year’s Inktober 2019 (where the object is to create one new ink drawing then share it on social media evert day from October 1-31). One of my Facebook friends who is also my neighbor saw some of my work that I posted on that social media site and she messaged me with this tantalizing proposition. A few months ago she had decided to take part in The Sketchbook Project and she even sent away for the sketchbook, which also included a few ink pens (one was a black fine line pen and the others were brush-like ink pens in black, brown, green, and red). Then she was distracted by other things in her life and she hadn’t started her sketchbook by the time October came. She asked me if I would take over her sketchbook for free. I said yes and she gave me the sketchbook, the included ink pens, and her log-in information for the website.
Since I had already planned and started work on the bulk of the sketches for Inktober, I couldn’t begin work on this new sketchbook immediately. I decided to continue with my current sketchbook for the rest of Inktober then immediately switch to the new sketchbook after the month of October ended.
I finally took a look at The Sketchbook Project in early November and I saw that it had a February 1 deadline, which meant that I only had three months to fill it in then mail it to New York City. I hit upon an idea where I would do The Twelve Drawings of Christmas for the second year in a row while using this sketchbook for the drawings. (Which means that longtime readers of this blog will recognize at least half of the drawings in this post.) While I focused exclusively on winter/Christmas themes for the 2018 edition, for the 2019 edition I decided to include fewer Christmas-themed drawings since I was using a sketchbook that would ultimately be sent elsewhere and it would be looked at by other people (some of whom may not even celebrate Christmas at all) at other times of the year besides the winter holiday season.
I began doing the first of the drawings in this new sketchbook using the included pens only to discover that the paper was a bit on the thin side so the ink would bleed through to the other side. I initially thought about switching to just pencils so I could use both sides of each page but I only had three months to fill in this sketchbook before it was time for me to mail it back in and I had other things going on in my life so I really couldn’t devote 40-60 hours a week on this project.
So I came up with the idea of pasting my own photographs on the other side of each bled-through page once I finished with each ink drawing. Using photographs definitely cut the amount of work on that sketchbook since printing and gluing the photo on a page is way quicker than drawing. This sketchbook would highlight my talents as an artist and photographer just like this blog.
For the photographs I decided on a theme. This year is the 10th anniversary of this blog so I decided to use only those photos that I had previously highlighted in this blog. Despite putting that limitation on myself, I still had a challenge of sifting through hundreds of photographs from the last 10 years in order to decide which ones I would actually use. For every photo I decided to use, there were probably hundreds of others that I could have also used. I also made an effort to have a variety of photographs so I wouldn’t get pegged by others as being only a photojournalist or only a portrait photographer or only a nature photographer, etc.
Once I finished my sketchbook the first thing I did before I sent it back to New York City was to make a YouTube video. If you like to listen to music while viewing my work, here is the video.
If you prefer to viewing still photos, I’ll list them here in the order that they were placed in the sketchbook. Every drawing and photograph have previously been mentioned in this blog so I’ll provide a link to the post in case you want to read about the story behind each visual. (The link will open in a new window.)
OUTSIDE FRONT COVER
INSIDE FRONT COVER
PAGE 1: THE JOKER AND ARTHUR FLECK
PAGE 2: MADONNA GIRL DALE
PAGE 3: A COSTUMED PERFORMER AT THE 2010 PIGTOWN FESTIVAL IN BALTIMORE
PAGE 4: HOWARD THE DUCK FAN ART
PAGE 5: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
PAGE 6: CLIMATE STRIKE PROTESTER WITH TRUMP BABY BALLOON, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
PAGE 7: BRUNI FROM FROZEN 2
PAGE 8: BLUE HERON IN PALMETTO, FLORIDA
PAGE 9: VOLKS DOLLFIE DREAM DOLL PEEKING FROM BEHIND CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE
PAGE 10: UNDER THE ZENTANGLE SEA
PAGE 11: BABY YODA IN MEAN CUTIES
PAGE 12: VOLKS DOLLFIE DREAM DOLL IN CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE
PAGE 13: FALL FOLIAGE AT CLARK’S ELIOAK FARM IN ELLICOTT CITY, MARYLAND
PAGE 14: HATSUNE MIKU AND THE CLAUSES
PAGE 15: A PENGUIN NATIVITY SCENE WITH LINUX
PAGE 16: 2014 COWBOY AND INDIAN ALLIANCE PROTEST AGAINST THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
PAGE 17: COPS IN RIOT GEAR AT THE INNER HARBOR IN BALTIMORE DURING THE BALTIMORE UPRISING PROTESTING THE MURDER OF FREDDIE GRAY BY THE BALTIMORE CITY POLICE IN 2015
PAGE 18: UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FLAMING CHALICE
PAGE 19: ROSCOE THE ROOSTER MEMORIAL IN TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND
PAGE 20: STATUE OUTSIDE OF ANN’S DARI-CREME IN GLEN BURNIE, MARYLAND
PAGE 21: BABY RAFAEL
PAGE 22: KRAMPUS TAKING DONALD TRUMP AWAY
PAGE 23: JOLENE SUGARBAKER
PAGE 24: COUNTER-PROTESTERS AT THE 2018 UNITE THE RIGHT 2 RALLY IN WASHINGTON, DC
PAGE 25: THE MAY DAY 2015 PROTEST AGAINST THE KILLING OF FREDDIE GRAY BY THE BALTIMORE CITY POLICE AT THE INNER HARBOR IN BALTIMORE
PAGE 26: EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE RAVEN
PAGE 27: UNDER THE ORANGE SKY
PAGE 28: OCCUPY DC (PART OF THE LARGER OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT), MCPHERSON SQUARE, WASHINGTON, DC, NOVEMBER 5, 2011
PAGE 29: BUTTERFLY ON A FLOWER AT BROOKSIDE GARDENS IN WHEATON, MARYLAND
PAGE 30: DONALD TRUMP AND HARLEY QUINN
PAGE 31: COBB ISLAND, MARYLAND
PAGE 32: RAINBOW OVER NORTH BEACH, MARYLAND, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
INSIDE BACK COVER
OUTSIDE BACK COVER
I felt a really great achievement in finishing this. There was a part of me that felt sorry that I had to mail it to New York City but that’s the way it goes. In a way working on this project is like having a child. You nuture it and make your own imprint on it but ultimately you have to let it go out into the wider world on its own as a completely independent entity. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my sketchbook again in person (let alone actually hold it in my hands one more time) but it was time for me to let go of it. At least I shot enough pictures and video footage so I can at least look at it again if I ever begin to feel sad over no longer having that sketchbook in my possession.
Yesterday I received an email from The Sketchbook Project informing me that my sketchbook has been assigned a new call number:
383.10-4
So if anyone ever goes to the Brooklyn Art Library and wants to see my sketchbook in person, you now know how to look for it.
From time to time I’ll probably log into the official website to see if anyone has checked it out or if the Brooklyn Art Library has sent it out on a road trip of some sort. It would interesting to see in the future whatever happened to that sketchbook. But right now I’m going to move on from that project and focus on other things in my life that needs attending to.
I finally attended the Baltimore chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School for the first time in a long time. The last time I attended the Baltimore chapter was in December, 2017. The following year I stuck with the DC Dr. Sketchy’s events mainly because money was very tight (my alimony payments had ran out before I was able to find work) and the commute was shorter. But the DC chapter has gone dormant since its last event in October, 2018.
In the meantime the place where many of the Baltimore Dr. Sketchy’s events were held had gone out of business. But then the Baltimore chapter found a new home in a new neighborhood. I also had some more money because I had a few day jobs but I couldn’t always make it to the Baltimore events because sometimes I had difficulty getting off from work in time.
By November the work I was doing for the Census Bureau had slowed down but I had some extra money in the bank so I finally decided to go for it. I arrived a few hours early so I could explore the Highlandtown area, which I wrote about in a previous entry. So here are my photos from what went down at my first Dr. Sketchy’s event in a very long time.
I arrived at Dr. Sketchy’s new venue, the Creative Alliance, which is housed inside of the historic Patterson Theater.
When I first walked inside of the theater I saw this really cool Day of the Dead Ofrenda altar that was still up even though the two-day Day of the Dead holiday had already passed.
The Creative Alliance goes out of its way to make everyone feel welcome, as this bathroom sign attests.
The lobby of the theater had all sorts of cool elements that makes this place look really artsy and fun.
The theater has an art gallery section featuring the latest exhibition from area artists. The art gallery itself is free to visit, the theater only charges for live performances and other types of events. When I was there the art gallery had this really cool exhibition full of black and white op art.
The next photo shows the entrance to the theater, which requires a paid ticket in order to enter.
When I entered it felt like old times again with the stage that had the table where the model would be posing.
The theater offered Dr. Sketchy’s cocktails with the top drink named after the model for that evening.
It felt like old times when I pulled out my sketchbook, colored pencils, and pencil sharpener that I would be using that evening.
The model for that evening was a male burlesque performer known as Baron Atomy. Some of the drawings in this post are sort of NSFW-ish depending on how prudish your school or workplace is (of course, that’s assuming that you are viewing this blog post anywhere other than in the privacy of your own home).
I participated in two of the contests that were held that evening. One was where we had to incorporate Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in the drawing. I had Daniel Striped Tiger get really close to Baron Atomy. This drawing made it among the finalists but it didn’t win.
I participated in a later contest after Baron Atomy had changed into a costume that’s based on the comic book character The Juggernaut. The contest was to create a comic book character for Baron Atomy. I came up with The Impeacher, who I describe as “He fights for democracy and against fascism.” For added measure I had him sitting on top of a President Donald Trump who has been forced down on all fours with a piece of silver duct tape covering his mouth while The Impeacher says “I’m making America great again!”.
Not only did this photo made it to the finals but I won the contest! For my prize I won a sketchbook pad and a pack of pastels. Sweet! It was so cool to win a contest at the first Dr. Sketchy’s I attended in a long time.
I made one more drawing of Baron Atomy before the event ended.
I really had a great time that night. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the Dr. Sketchy’s event in December because my finances had gotten a bit tighter. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to go to the Baltimore Dr. Sketchy’s in 2020. It really depends on things like work schedules (if I either get re-hired by the Census Bureau or I get hired somewhere else) and whether I can financially afford to go. It really felt good to be able to experience Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School just one more time and I’m happy about that.
I was inspired to do this drawing shortly after I saw The Joker movie in a theater last month while I took advantage of the theater’s $5 Tuesday admission discount.
I originally wasn’t interested in seeing this movie because the last time I saw the various Batman movies back in the 1990s I found most of them to be pretty dark and depressing. (I had grown up watching reruns of the campy 1960s Batman TV show so I found it jarring to see a cynical, morose, and sarcastic Batman in the theaters. In fact, I found the villains in those movies to be far more memorable than Batman himself.) But then I saw filmmaker Michael Moore making social media posts on how great The Joker is, how he felt that it is one of the best movies he has seen this year, and he was urging people to see it. Since I have never known Michael Moore to be a major comic book nerd unlike—let’s say—Kevin Smith, I thought that his very positive review must have some merit and I changed my mind.
So I saw it and I found it to be a revelation. For years I used to think that Jack Nicholson was the ultimate Joker based on his memorable performance in the 1989 movie version of Batman. Now I feel that Joaquin Phoenix has outdone Nicholson in that role. He brought an intensity to that role that I had never seen in Nicholson or Cesar Romero (who played the Joker in the 1960s Batman TV show). The movie itself serves as an indictment of the sorry state of both health care and income inequality in the United States.
I know that The Joker was hyped as a standalone movie with no ties to the other comic book films that have been released as part of the DC Cinematic Universe in recent years. While there weren’t any superheroes in this movie, there were just enough elements to satisfy the hardcore comic book fans. The movie still takes place in the fictional Gotham City. Arkham Asylum is among the locations shown in the film. Among the candidates running for Gotham City mayor is wealthy industrialist Thomas Wayne, who is the father of future Batman Bruce Wayne. A young Bruce Wayne makes a couple of minor appearances while his mother, Martha, and Alfred the family butler also make cameo appearances. There was a brief scene showing the armed robbery attempt in a back alley that resulted in both Thomas and Martha Wayne being shot to death in front of Bruce. While that incident has long been described in the comic books as the spark that sets Bruce on the path to becoming Batman, Bruce Wayne’s time in that movie ends right there since he wouldn’t become the Caped Crusader until after he reaches adulthood.
The Joker reminded me of the 1970s movie Taxi Driver with its gritty depictions of a city in decay while a political campaign for a local election is going on and a person gradually descends into a madness that is so deep that he becomes a violent killer. While Taxi Driver also had a look at the proliferation of porn theaters and prostitution (it was shot in Times Square in New York City back when it was a red light district many years before Disney and other developers renovated the entire area into the expensive family-friendly tourist trap that it is today), The Joker focused its attention on income inequality.
The man who becomes the Joker was originally born as Arthur Fleck, a struggling low-paid party clown performer and aspiring comedian who lives in a squalid apartment with his ailing mother. Thomas Wayne is a cinematic version of people like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg where he is publicly showing off the fact that he is a rich industrialist while claiming that he is only running for mayor because he wants to help Gotham City but the viewer feels that Wayne is really only running for his own selfish power-hungry reasons. Arthur Fleck has a difficult time finding jobs that pay enough money so he could support himself and possibly move him and his mother into a better neighborhood.
Arthur Fleck is also mentally ill and he frequently has to go through bureaucratic hurdles just so he could get the minimal amount of help that he really needs. The film makes it clear that he could have benefitted more from a stay in a psychiatric facility with around-the-clock personalized care but Fleck was too poor to afford it. When he loses the minimal amount of help that he was receiving due to government budget cuts, his mind gradually deteriorates until he becomes the psychopathic killer known as the Joker.
At times the film gives the viewer a look at inside of the Joker’s mind in an effort to show what living with mental illness is like. One example were scenes where it looked like Arthur Fleck had a budding romantic relationship with a single mother of a young child who lives in the same gritty apartment building as Fleck. But, as the film progresses, it eventually becomes clear that Arthur Fleck’s relationship with the single mother exists only in his mind.
Given his state of mind, it was inevitable that Arthur Fleck became a psychopathic killer known as the Joker. At the same time, it was also inevitable that when he started to go on the first of his killing sprees (when he kills three drunken wealthy Wall Street stockbroker corporate bro types after they started to sexually harass a female passenger and they had beaten him up when he raised objections to their treatment of that woman), he was hailed as a vigilante hero by the 99% who have long felt the sting of income inequality along with the rise of the 1% who seem to have everything while they were left with very few crumbs.
In short, if you get a chance to see The Joker, do it. Don’t let the fact that it’s based on a comic book character deter you because it is still an excellent drama that you will enjoy even if you haven’t opened a single comic book in many years.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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