Between Two Ferns: Steve Carrel

I know I've mentioned it before, but a new one is up, so if you like to laugh, and can handle the small amount of swearing, this is funny.
Well, I think so.
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifanikis

New Work In Progress

I'm pretty happy with these two, and they don't need much more work, but I don't think they're finished yet.


This one started out with very little shading, and was working really well, but then I lost it, so had to try save it by giving her face definition and shading, but the lip was in the wrong spot, so I have to fix that and try lost mustache she has.


This is pretty much done as well, but I think it needs a red band across the top, and just some minor adjustments in his face.
It feels good to be doing some painting, and stuff I'm happy with as well. Prices start at $4000.

Poster "Let Me In"

While I'm cautiously optimistic about this remake of the Swedish vampire film "Let The Right One In", or it could be argued, this adaption of the swedish vampire book, I have to admit I doubt it will be as good as "Let The Right One In", which is so good it ruined "Toy Story 3" for me because I watched it the night before "Toy Story", and how can you go to a toy cowboy and space ranger when you've seen the glory of child vampirism?
Anyway, this poster is pretty good, so there's hope. Let's keep an open mind, people.

TRON Trailer.

I don't actually care that much about TRON, I just wanted to scoop Brad.


Still, it looks ok.

The Reunion (Work In Progress)

This is a painting I did at Clay's the other night, or rather started. The female was meant to be larger and take up more of the canvas, and that was all it was meant to be, but instead it turned into this, which is a pretty uninteresting picture in my opinion, so I'm probably going to paint over it rather than continue with it, but at least this way you get to see it.

Clarence Cuts A Tree

Ron Mueck At GOMA

So I finally got round to go seeing the Ron Mueck exhibition, as part of “The Weekend of Scott”, and thought I’d share my impressions, in case anyone cared.
Overall, I thought it was a bit neither here nor there. It’s a small exhibit, with only 12 pieces on display, but I guess that’s 12 more than I’d seen before, and it wasn’t expensive, so I can’t really complain about that. I guess the issue I had with it was, once you get past appreciating the technical skill involved, what’s left? I guess I could’ve joined the free tour, and listened to someone else tell me what I should think about it, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood for someone else’s opinions. But there were pieces I enjoyed, so let me share my thoughts on those.
The first piece I liked was the large bushy haired naked man on a chair. You turn the corner and there he is. When I first encountered him, he as surrounded by a crowd on the tour, and he rose from the middle of them, like he was reacting to being the centre of attention.



He looked uncomfortable under the scrutiny of so many strangers, and I think that’s why I liked this one, because it seemed like part of the environment, it seemed more real, it was telling it’s own story with the crowd of onlookers. That’s why the giant baby didn’t work for me, it’s just a giant baby, lying there. In another context, like a supermarket aisle or a park, where it would seem strange and alien, that would work better, but in a gallery situation, I’m just left with a big baby and telling me nothing.
I liked the old lady carrying the bunch of sticks, but don’t really have anything to say about her, or a photo. The small guy in the boat I thought was interesting, but only up to a point.


The guy on the wall floating on an inflatable bed thing, really impressed me with it’s lifelikeness. I think it was because of the sunglasses, we weren’t able to see his dead eyes, so he had more of the illusion of life.


I think the last one of the exhibit was the one I liked most. It was a picture made real, a frozen moment of a scene, taken from it’s context and put on display for us to view. A young black man lifts his shirt to reveal a wound, which we assume is a knife wound, or at least I did.


Once again, the technical skill on display is amazing, the sculpture so lifelike. But it’s because it’s this frozen moment that fires the imagination that makes it so appealing to me. There’s a story here, and we are left with only this clue to fill in the details.


I really would have liked to have seen his "Boy" sculpture, that was the first one of his I knew of, but oh well. There was also a half hour documentary playing which you can just go see separate to the exhibition which was interesting., detailing the production of his sculpture of an oversized pregnant woman. Really pregnant.

I apologise for the quality of the photos, but I just took them on my phone camera, so that's why they're not so great.

TRON? Never Heard Of It.

Recurring Nightmare: The Party

I have this recurring nightmare where I don't know anyone at the party, not even the person who invited me. It's like I'll get a call, "Come on round, we're having a party!", so I go on round, and I walk into the apartment or building or house, and you know how it is, there's people hanging around the entrance, but no one you recognise. So I push further into the house, it's dimly lit, with candles and fairy lights giving illumination, but not really showing anyone, all I see still are the faces of strangers. I keep going deeper into the house, passing strange rooms and walking down an ever ongoing corridor, passing hipsters and people who are cooler than me, but no one I know. I find the kitchen, an oasis of light, I look around, expecting to see whoever invited me, expecting to see you, or anyone, someone I know, but nothing. Strangers barely acknowledge my existence or return my by now frantic looks with their own impenetrable stares. I turn around to go back where I came from, to leave this party where I don't know you, but I can't see the door I came through, all I see is another door leading down another long eternal corridor. Then I wake up and confess that I just made it all up, and I've never actually had that dream, but now I'm afraid I will.
I think Spike Jonze should make a film of it.

Andy Won't Sing For You

Here's a song I wrote on my broken-stringed guitar.

Inception Building Poster

I've been keeping quiet about Inception, choosing to focus on The Expendables and Predators, but this is also an upcoming film I'm quite excited about, and thought this poster was rather effective.


Picture originated at scifimania.com.

Starting To Look More Like His Father

Rango (Never Heard Of It)

I do like chameleons.




p.s. I really don't like being sick.

Op-Shop Find Of The Week

This wasn't what I was looking for, but that's the beauty of Op-Shopping, you never know what you'll find. I found this little beauty at the RSPCA Op Shop at Sherwood, probably my favourite Op Shop. I never knew I wanted a plastic Batman coin box until I saw this, but now I know.

p.s. If you know of a second hand helmet of some description, let me know. I need some kind of helmet for a movie, but it needs to be one that whoever gives it up, probably won't want ti back, unless they're happy with the changes I'll make to it.

Lots Of "Predators" Photos For You To Gaze On.

So maybe you've got some time up your sleeve now, and maybe you've been wondering if we need a another Predator movie, or maybe you're just wondering what the fuss is about. If so, you can go to this Russian website and gaze upon picture upon picture of images from the upcoming "Predators" movie. Naturally I chose the one of the ones with the pretty girl and the big gun, but there's plenty of men in suits to look on as well.

For Brad, A Minor Distraction To Help With His Essay

My Excitement Is Building...

I Had A Pretty Good Weekend

You know, I had a really great weekend, so I wanted to write a bit about it, so I don’t forget I guess, or just because it was so nice, I just wanted to share with you.
Shall we start with Friday night? It’s not really the start of my weekend, but it’s the start of most people’s, so we may as well start there. I went over to Michael Fooks’ place to watch Avatar and eat pizza and drink bourbon and rum. I only mention those last 2 because I’m sure they contributed to my drowsiness and my wonderfully blissful uninterrupted sleep when I got home. And it wasn’t watching Avatar that made it a memorable night. No, that movie is woeful and there is no saving it. NO, what made this a good start to the weekend is Michael showed me two game son his iPhone, Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds. I enjoyed playing these while the stupidity that is Avatar went on without me. In fact, these are the first two games I’ve actually paid money for. What pleasure there was in getting my first 6+ Fruit Combo, or even just the simple pleasure of seeing fruit fall under the slash of my blade. Nice.
Of course, I did have to work on Saturday, and theirs is really nothing positive to say about that so let’s move onto Saturday night. I’ve probably gushed enough about roller derby, but let me just put it down in writing, make it official. Having already been exposed to local roller derby thanks to the Northern Brisbane Roller League, I hungered for more, and my cousin assured me the league down in Beenleigh was much better. So a merry crew of converts and soon to be converted headed down to see what we could see. Almost missed out as internet allocations had sold out, and when we got there found out there was only 50 tickets available at the door. But we were there in plenty of time, so able to get in. But it does mean we were standing around for awhile, getting bored and restless. Lucky for me I had my Fruit Ninja game to occupy me. Maybe it’s that pleasure/pain dynamic at play, because as much as we suffered in the waiting, it was more than made up for by the excitement of the bout. Pretty early on, I decided the Liquorice Short Shorts would be my team, as I saw them practicing their drills on the track.


I chose right, even though we lost, it’s pretty obvious they’re the superior team. Anyway, it was a great night, with the final 15 minutes especially thrilling as the lead passed from team to team, coming down to just 4 points the difference. Stand outs for the night were several, but as seen in a previous post, my favourites were Rose Ruin and Cookie Cutter.
So the next day I went to church in the morning, thinking I’d get out of there pretty early. But instead stayed around talking with different people till about midday. I was kind of surprised to look at my watch and see so much time had passed, but it was good company and good conversation, so that was nice. I decided I needed more shoes, as I was getting bored with my choices of Connies, so decided to head to DFO. Fantastically, I found 2 pairs of Chuck Taylors at the right price and new colours I don’t have, so walked away with a couple of new pairs of shoes.



I’ve also been toying with the idea of buying a dual tuner DVD recorder hard drive thingy, but that Sony store wasn’t there anymore. But when I went to get back on the Centenary highway, I got on the wrong way and was pointed towards Idro instead of the Ipswich motorway, so decided to head to the shopping town there and see if the Myer Stocktake sale was going to make it easy for me. No such luck, but I ran into Ness and Nicole there, so ended up chatting with them, and then having dinner with them before heading to visit Unichurch that night. Oh wait, there’s something I forgot to mention. Like I said, I was planning on visiting Unichurch that night, so I was going to send Jared a text as I was leaving DFO to see if he and Jemima wanted to do anything for dinner. But like 5 minutes before I was going to text him, I got a photo on my phone from Jared of a tiny baby arm, with Bird, Jemima Ann, 6/6/10 11:46, Boy written on it. That was pretty good news, even though it meant I wouldn’t be having dinner with them, but I was pretty happy to hear about it still. A bit unexpected, Jared said 9 days early, so I guess that’s not too early, though is unexpected and not common. So yay!! A baby boy and everyone’s ok. So where were we? Oh yeah, dinner at sushi train, which was frankly a little disappointing. For the money I spent there, I can do much better at Jackpot. Oh well. Left Ness and Nicole and drove to church early so I could park and still fit a bit of a walk in. Nice time at church chatting with old friends and Andrew Ling. Did you know he’s thinking about going into politics in the future as a way of doing ministry? I didn’t, but now I do. Would have liked to stay longer, but I was over that side of town to take advantage of the Eldorado’s cheap ticket offer and went to see “I Love You Too”. I actually quite enjoyed it, mainly because of the character Peter Dinklage, the dwarf, plays. He did a really good job, and I liked his story. So that was good, I was afraid it was really going to suck, but I liked it. So that was Sunday.
Monday, the second actual day of my “weekend”, I headed up Mt. Tamborine to spend some time with Mark and Bethany and Sonny, the Jenner’s new Labrador pup. Had a nice lunch where I finished off the tomato and poor Mark didn’t get any, but as he’s such a gracious host, he still let me have some ice-cream for dessert. Enjoyed my time with them and then we went to pick up the kids from school. It’s nice to see the smile on a kids face when you show up unexpectedly at school. I feel popular. Heard about Eddie and Millie’s school day, then dropped them all off at Ma and Pa’s where Jo was waiting, and I ate some Peanut Butter Chocolate balls on the journey as well. If you haven’t had Sandy’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls, they’re pretty much like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups so you know you’re missing out. Farewelled them and headed down the coast to have dinner with Ju & Stu, and as it turns out Rachel, as she joined us via skype, so as we sat on one side of the table, Rachel sat on the other side, squeezed into Stuart’s laptop. So that was pretty cool too. Headed home after an episode of Scrubs, and went to bed a pretty happy man.
So all in all, it was a pretty good weekend. The good times continued as I got to visit Oscar Bird on Tuesday, and spend some nice time with the newly expanded Bird family. I got to hold Oscar for most of the time I was there, and he’s a beautiful little boy.


Community group was pretty good last night, I thought as well, with the idea of taking joy in the fact those people we know around us who are Christians are Christians, and we should remember that. You know how exciting it is when you hear about someone turning to Jesus? Well, we should be that excited all the time that anyone of us is Christian, no matter how long they have been. Harder to maintain hat level than to talk about it, but still, it’s a good idea and was a helpful reminder. Then I just had nice dinner with Gav down at the Mexican restaurant down West End, so if you see me in the next couple days, and ask how I’m doing, and I say good, you know I mean it.

Where is God When It Hurts by Philip Yancey

So I recently just started reading this book again. I think I read it many years ago, but it seems more relevant lately, so thought I’d read it again. Really, the title of the book is not the question I want answered, but I couldn’t find a copy of “Why Would God Take My Niece?”, so decided to read this instead, to see if this would help with the building resentment of all the time I haven’t had with my niece over the last two years. I thought I’d share my thoughts with you, if you were interested in reading them, and perhaps as I continue reading, I’ll post more. But we’ll see.
So the book starts of examining the question of the necessity of pain, which is fine, I don’t have a problem with that, except that when you’re dealing with emotional hurt, the biological processes of pressure on the skin and the receptors that convey messages to the brain is as about as useful as offering a band-aid or sling for a broken heart. Not really going to do it. So at this stage I’m really not getting all that much out of it.
The next chapter, (Chapter 4, if you’re reading along at home) is titled Agony & Ecstasy. This chapter seems to be talking about (and I say seems, because I haven’t read it in over a week, and my memory is failing) how the pleasure of things is exponentially greater when it’s proceeded by suffering. Like how after a huge walk in the hot sun, the pleasure of drinking cool water is fantastic. Is there anything sweeter than water when you’re dehydrated? Maybe, but it’s pretty good still. And now I can’t remember if this was a point I got from his book, or a point I made up as I extrapolated to my own situation, but I was thinking once again how pointless this is, and not very helpful, but I began thinking something along these lines. So if I’m suffering now, does that mean my pleasure will be greater in some distant time? If I’m suffering now, how much greater will my pleasure and joy be as I live eternity with Zoë in heaven? But even as I was thinking “Is that what I’m meant to take from this, how is that helpful thing?”, the truth is, it has been a helpful thought. I think the idea of eternity is too big a concept for our brain to handle, and I’m not sure we really understand what heaven will be like, but even so, I have found comfort in the thought, and my resentment has ebbed away. So I don’t know if there’s anything in that for you, but I guess it’s helped me, so that’s something, at least.

Licorice Short Shorts Forever!!