Day 58 - so do you come here often

Olives have always vexed me - they are a strange food - I have no idea why they are popular, but I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that they are always finding themselves in martinis!

day 55 - Pineapples

Pineapples are just bad ass - in the fruit and vegetable community, they would be the ones riding old triumph motorcycles, wearing leather jackets over vintage Rolling Stones T-shirts smoking Marlboro Reds while listening to Floyd....

Day 54 - 60% Banana

Humans share remarkable sequence homology with among other things, bananas (something like 50-60%). The similarities are even higher when we move up the evolutionary tree (primates are basically dumber furrier humans). When you really consider this though, it isn't really that surprising - transcription factors, metabolic genes, genes involved in cell cytoskeletons, cell cycle regulators etc are pretty much the same....

What I think makes me chuckle is that if bananas were conscious, they would view humans with the same skepticism that cows do now.

Banana: "Let me understand you, you are going to cultivate me so that you can proceed to eat me? Ummmm not sure I am cool with that"

Day 53 - On the vine

We rarely get to choose our families - but imagine being stuck at the hip on a vine with the crazy uncle who always creeps everyone out....FYI, if you cant identify who that is in the family, a note of caution...it might be you.

Day 52 - Fruity?

With the highly variable temperatures (it was something like 55 a few days ago, and then suddenly, snow storm - 20 degree weather, and general mayhem) and spring rapidly approaching, I (and my stomach) have been thinking a lot about fresh produce and food - thus, this week will be all about food! =- drawings (cartoons mainly) about fruits and vegetables, and whatever else pops into my head.

This little drawing came to mind when I was looking at smoothie ingredients and realized that strawberries - well represented, other berries, less so - what envy that must cause.....

Day 44 - Hi Tom...

One of the best showns on TV, Psych has a great episode where the main character, Shawn, "crashes" a corporate retreat - his introduction is one of the funniest thing you will see - ever - period!!!! But also heartbreaking in the way that only satire can blend the two. The scene is the essence of awkward, and I had this image of a "fish" (or in the case of the drawing, a rabbit) out of water trying to get into a conversation, but always resigned to the fringes (a wallflower) of the party.

Day 42 - Collaborating on monkeys

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I have a things for monkeys - they are both adorable and hilarious - not monkeys in real life of course, which tend to be vicious and violent, but I am thinking of cartoon monkeys.

This little drawing is a collaboration I did with another artist whose is super talented.

Day 40 - Holy SNOT!

This is not for the faint of heart. Post op splints hold the reconstructed septum in place, and these things are gigantic. See here for examples. Let us just say that the little green monster deep inside my head is not longer there. He is neither green nor particularly malicious, but damn it he does have a sick sense of humor!

Day 39 - Me and Mrs. Nose

So a number of people have asked me to send photos of what my nose looks like, and rather than post a pic, I have decided to draw a flattering self portrait of my nose. Generally, I am against drawing self-portraits, unless I am using facial expressions for styling cues to add emotion to the face of an animal drawing, but I thought this compromise would satisfy the collective masses.

As an aside, somehow I totally imagine slow dancing,with my nose, listening to this (replace me and Mrs. Jones with me and my nose). Maybe a little candlelight, a bottle of champagne...

Me and my nose

we got some sniffing going on...

we both know it was wrong,

but breathing is much too strong to let it go now...

The same nostril, I sniffed everyday

10-20% air flow...no one knows she was that way

sniffing plants, making all kinds rants,

while bilateral breathing slipped away

Me and my, my nose my nose my nose....

me and my nose

Day 38 - Boogers...

One of the benefits of apparently having my deviated septum taken care of is that in addition to being able to breathe, I may not have to continue my seemingly unending war with my nasal nemesis the booger, that haunts me from about mid October to early May. Mucous, you have been a worthy adversary, but now it is time to die!

Day 36 - The Badger arrow

When one has a quiver of badgers, this is how they should be used - Every time I see this and think of the times with the 110Crew, I am reminded about how much fun, and uncontrolled hilarity can be had when creative smart people work a little to hard and then go a little crazy....

Day 34 - Snakes

Although the motivation for this drawing came out of something a bit more comical, I was thinking about art as storytelling and the ability to convey something about a character in anticipation of an event -

Day 32 - Sprout

From tragedy and heartbreak, something extraordinary emerges!

As a complete aside - essentially unrelated but what the hell - I was thinking about the Jack Johnson-esque (but perhaps more appropriate for the emergence of a fighter, think this Jack Johnson) - surf films like September sessions or Thicker than Water (which is totally worth watching even if you aren't into surfing - visually awesome and the music is sick!) - and the Tom Campbell film Sprout .

Basically, this rambling was the semantic leap that my brain takes when I think about the verb "to sprout" in the context of this drawing, and then somehow end up in the noun "Sprout" that takes me into Surf films of the early 2000s which has nothing to do really with this picture.

Posit "To what extent is the way in which we break up our representations of the world (semantics - but other category systems) a way of fostering creativity by allowing us to jump from one representation to another.

Returning from this tangent, I should say that this drawing goes out to 110Crew!

Day 31 - Tears of Zeus

All Nas needed was one mic, all I needed between 2004-2006 was one whiteboard and the precursors to the Gang of Four to entertain. This week is dedicated to the 110Crew, and the unending giggling that came out of one whiteboard!

Q: From where does humanity's champion come?

A: Zeus' tear!

Day 30 - Chicken!

I am unapologetic about loving all things chicken (well ll things except eating them, which I suppose is a big thing). A potential candidate as proof that evolution has a sense of humor, chicken are hilarious (though they can also be pretty terrifying).

On the subject of chickens, giant ones are the best. People in chicken suits, plastic dinosaurs terrified of said people in chicken suits - all recipes for hilarity.

Finally, to the hand full of people around during the clucking period of 2006-2008, this one goes out to you.

Day 28 - Tuft Envy

The handful of slice elctrophysiologists that follow this blog will appreciate the anthropomorphization of neurons and the anguish that must come from having ones dendrites lesioned because of slicing. The even smaller group of people who record from mitral cells in the bulb will find this mildly amusing. The three people that were present when tuft envy emerged among a group of bald(-ing) slice physiologists will basically loose it!

Happy weekend, happy slicing, and may your apical dendrites be intact and fully arborized!

Day 27 - Moustache

A foreshadow of things to come in the following week. I am part of a nontrivial number of men and women who thing gigantic moustaches are basically awesome. Think this, only the 2011 version.

Day 10 - Lemmas

A few years ago, I became obsessed with lemmas. I imagined them as little fuzzy creatures, distinct in personality and ability.

A gallery of lemmas makes me smile...

Tools: iPad, Sketchbook Pro, right finger!

Day 5- Awkward

Awkward, animals, preferably ones that are surprised or made uncomfortable thrill me to death. It is not so much the prospect of them being made uncomfortable, but the idea that there is something that makes them fell this way. The sentiment is totally different that fear, which I suspect that animals feel often.

Maybe I just like the idea of googlie eyes!

Tools: iPad, Sketchbook Pro, right finger!

Day 2 - Shock and awe

I suspect that this is the face I would have if confronted with the prospect of drawing something new daily. Thankfully, if I were anything but a human or nonhuman primate, the difficulty of holding something without thumbs would outweigh any concern I have for a daily drawing!

Tools: iPad, Sketchbook Pro, right finger!