memories

This is my favorite of the inky colored pieces I have. I’ve said before I don’t have that many pieces in color. Ones in black and white and red are among the strongest pieces though. I like the clarity of this one, decisive line work. This one is not with spray paint though, it’s with a red ink I had at the time.

There was an art store, I can’t remember the name, on Cass street in Pacific Beach and I would ride my bike there and browse their stuff. One day on clearance I found this set of inks, semi-clear, and on sale that I really liked. I think I spent $12 on them, which was a lot for me at the time. Darned if remembering them doesn’t make me want to get another set!

I think the material it was most like is this Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay India Inks. It’s not the brand it was, but it looks similar. The one I had also had a dropper in the cap. At the time I would carry the inks around wherever I went. Not that I used them, but I have a packrat mentality.

It’s a pity I don’t have more pieces done with those inks. Perhaps when I get a chance I’ll get a set and do some work. I have much more fun with a brush than with a pen. And not just a “pen brush,” but a real brush and india ink can be great.

Oh, and I’m not even mentioning the charcoal I used here. I bought that for a drawing class I took at Mesa which I totally failed to get it together for. But I did have some fun with the various charcoals there.

Note to myself: One thing, this has been retouched a bit more than the other “spraypaint” items because there was something on the back of this image that showed through. I’ve done some Photoshopping out of that ghost of an image.

It’s hard to imagine a more aggressive picture than this one.

The 18 year old self of mine could be pretty aggressive in his head, but he was passive on the exterior. Too many years bullied. Led to tendencies toward passive aggression.

Not my best quality.

Working on it still.

So today’s item is a day calendar from 1994.

Nineteen ninety-four is the year I moved back to California in pursuit of the movie business, more or less.

Let’s see what we find!

Here’s my name in some other language, I think got from a coworker from Los Alamitos Medical Center.

MEO NOME E JUSSEFE

The State of California would only give me a temporary license to practice Resspiratory Therapy at the time. Jerks. I had all my paperwork, and the temporary was equivalent to having the license, just the printed official “card” had not arrived. Unfortunately this temporary license was not good enough to get me a job; despite being window dressing on my actual credential, a Registered Respiratory Therapist from the NBRC (National Board for Respiratory Care). Most hospitals said “we’ll hire you the second you get your real license.” Of course, the temporary was the State of CA’s way of saying, “it’s on the way,” but for some reason nobody wanted to hire me until that came through. I think Los Alamitos actually hired me without it, but it’s sort of lost in my memory now.

Okay, what else is in this calendar?

Well, it contains all my night shifts. The pattern was typically(starting on a monday) 2 on, 2 off, 3on , 2off,2on, 3off. Each “on” was a 12 hour night shift: 7p to 7a. These are denoted with “NN”—then there are some (rare) 8 hour nights in there as well. a “N” was an 8 hour night starting at 11pm. so, 11a to 7a. Then a 19N is 7pm to 3am. The 19 is for “19:00” obviously.

I always liked the night shift. I can see how it would be difficult for someone with a wife and kids, but for a single guy it was perfect. I liked nights a lot. One of my favorite things was going out for breakfast after work. There was a place in Charlottesville that made great breakfast and served beer too. After a hard night that is really wonderful.

What else… Some hospital contacts at Chapman General and other SoCal hospitals while I was looking for work. I had done a lot of footwork before I left Virginia.

02 Jan 94: KINKO’s CARD; BIG PLAN 9 PURCHASE
28 Jan 94: Party @ Jim’s Place
29 Jan 94: Flaming Wok, Schindler’s List
02 Feb 94: Cracker – Trax
22 Feb 94: In the Name of the Father
13 Mar 94: Between the Teeth, Tower
20 Mar 94: Satellite Fix, Kabuki
21 Mar 94: Waldenbooks, Roanoke
26 Mar 94: 24th Int’l Tournee of Animation
(Also in May here was seeing Janet, my girlfriend at the time.)
06-10 May 94: To San Diego for Silva Family Reunion
22 May 94: 4 guys named moe
25 May 94: 4 weds & a funeral
08 Jul 94: Leave for Europe
19 Aug 94: to San Diego (EW 830 till 530)
25 Aug 94: Lollapalooze 1pm
29 Aug 94: Los Alamitos Interview
01-30 Sep 94: I have lots of stuff happening this month. Interviews with California Hospital, a per diem outfit, ACLS recertification in Orange County, calling old friends, Kinko’s, Chris G and family, LAMC orientation on 26 Sep, a class I took at Art Center (and did terribly in), Street Scene in San Diego. Very busy month!
01-31 Oct 94: Still busy, but a regular routine. Los Alamitos started their shifts at this strange time, 22:15, and they occasionally had per diems work day shifts too. Man I hated that. Days or nights or never the twain shall meet man! Even then I knew swinging back and forth between shifts was not healthy. Also this month I interviewed at UCI medical center. That was a great interview but they would not consider per diem people at all. And at the time, I was all about being flexible. I wanted to pick and choose my time, and they were against that. They lost.
01-30 Nov 94: It looks like I have my votes in the California election written out here. I voted for a strange mix of candidates. Could this be right? I voted Green for Senator, Lt. Gov, Secretary of State, Republican for Controller Tresurer and Atty General, and Democrat for Governor. And what the heck is “L” for the insurance commissioner. It’s really strange to see this political iconoclasm at 24. I still go my own way on things, but I guess the changes in this country have steered me toward more simple party votes. But I like this 24 year old version of myself. He really seems to care about his right to vote his conscience. I can just see myself reading all the candidate statements and making decisions that way. Also this month I had a second interview (a month later!) at California Hospital and got hired. Then there was overlap working for both hospitals, one in downtown L.A. and one deep in the OC. That was kinda wacky. Somewhere in there I moved into the Oakwood apartments in Koreatown. A little studio apartment for $600/month.
01-31 Dec 94: More California Hospital schedules. I worked New Year’s that year. There was an anniversary party for my Grandparents that year.

My encapsulations are glossing over so much stuff. No possible way to sum up a year in a blog post. But you’re getting the broad strokes.

Let’s see, there’s some more notes in here. I have some addresses and phone numbers. Most of these have changed now. Oh, I didn’t transfer them all in here. See, at the time I kept my addresses in a spreadsheet on my Amiga. I can’t remember the name of the software but it was pretty good. I would shrink the type size to be narrow and small, and I would always print a new copy, and keep that with me at all times in my wallet, carefully and lovingly folded. I was well organized.

Oh, here’s something, showtimes for Ed Wood at some Orange County theatres. I like that movie.

This was a fun post for me, though I wonder what you got out of it?

I’m discarding this item now.

Related: Dog and Desk @ 2:30pm, 1987.

Omega was the friendliest dog in the world.

She did not really understand that we owned her. I guess it’s all a matter of perception.

Many times we’d get phone calls from people saying “we have your dog, the kids love her”—we would go to the place and she would be surrounded by kids, giving her cuddles. She was happy to see us, but she’d have been just as happy either way I think. I guess it’s hubris to say that my family “owned” that dog.

I think it would be quite something to apply a similar philosophy to life. As Strong Bad said in SB Email #94, “’CAUSE YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME!!”

I think the “you can’t control me” philosophy was very Omega. Although I think Omega was on a whole other philosophical level, she didn’t even understand the concept of control or being controlled. Wild.

It’s Friday man. Welcome to the weekend, baby.

Omega the Dog, ink on paper, 1987. This was from the summer after high school and before moving to Virginia.

Omega was a good dog, loving, goofy, and she made a great pillow.

I have another drawing of Omega that’s pretty good, when I post that I’ll talk about all my memories of Omega.

Today: tired from driving 320 miles yesterday. But I’m taking care of business, baby.

So I’ve posted The Flash, and also Batman & Robin.

So here’s Superman now. You know, there’s a new Superman movie that’ll be out next year. Check Blue Tights dot net for more info. It may even be good. And I’m sure you know about Smallville, a show that were I younger I think I would be watching very closely. The kids really seem to like this show. It’s got action and romance and teens. What more could you want?

Oh, and I’m sure you also know that people conflate Superman with Ubermensch, right? I love that Wikipedia:

Last year I picked up the book Superman on the Couch, a pretty good exploration of the psychology of superheroes from a cultural and social perspective. Very thoughtful reading of superheroes comics and why they are such potent metaphors.

It occurs to me that I have not drawn much in the way of Marvel characters at all. These are all DC comics so far. Interesting. I have about an even number of Marvel and DC comics in my collection (still for sale!), but I have many more drawings of DC characters. Maybe I’ll see if I have any Marvel characters at all. I can’t think of any at the moment.

This, one of my first ever studies in perspective, was for the same high school drawing class as this. It shows my room, or at least a simplified version of my room.

At the time my parents, sister and I were living with my grandparents and I lived out on the patio. This included my kickass TI-99/4a computer, which I so dearly loved. You can see the tetherball in the back yard, the puppy Kristi aka Crystal, who chewed on some photos taken with a 110 camera. I still have the chewed photos.

The thing about the drawing is the loving detail on the computer (which had 48k of memory). The TI-99/4a has PRIMARY importance in the composition. Computers came FIRST, I can only presume, based on this.

From the same era, this image likewise includes the computer, but in context.

In this pencil drawing, a bit too large for the scanner so I had to composite it, I’m learning about perspective and not doing too bad a job. I like the inclusion of the tape/radio cassette I used to store my programs.

I have a notebook I started in March, 1988. I think it was a birthday gift. Maybe not. I was 18. It’s full of cryptic lists and notes and scribbles. I’m going to transcribe some of it, then I’m going to throw it out. It may not make any sense.

More after the cut.

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Leahpeah: Who’s that?
Me: John Crivello.
LP: Who’s John Crivello?
Me: A guy I sat next to in a drawing class.
LP: He’s got crazy hair.
Me: Yeah.
LP: Was this the exercise where you don’t take your pencil off the paper?
Me: And not look at the paper.
LP: How old were you?
Me: Thirteen.
LP: Pretty good.
Me: Thanks.

This was my freshman year in high school. The instructor told me I was holding my pencil wrong. How dare this woman tell me how to hold my pencil when I’ve been drawing my WHOLE DAMN LIFE? I never listened to her again in that class.

As a result, I didn’t get as much out of that drawing class as I could have.

So much hubris and ego. It took me years to work more of that ego out of my system. It’s still there, but I understand it much better. It drives me to excel, but it also can get in the way.

Know thyself.

Onward.

Ending the week on a sweet note. I have one sister, Kelly. I was 7 when she was born. She rocks. And my Mom rocks too. This drawing just plain made me smile for various reasons, not the least of which I’m gonna get to see my parents and sister this month, and I’m looking forward to it.

At some point I want to let the story be told about how I, Mr. Mild Mannered, apparently started acting out when I had a baby sister. I was no longer the center of attention, and everything changed.