Shitty Week

Ok, I'll start off by stating that I've been drinking again.  I'm gonna spell check this shit, though, so you people don't have to try to figure out what the fuck I'm talking about.

My wife got laid off today- that sucks.  They laid off 400+ people from the hospital she works at.  I'm pretty sure that I can blame Obama for that, and even if I can't, I want too, so fuck you Obama, you commie piece of shit- your days are numbered motherfucker.

Last weekend was probably the hardest weekend of my life.  I had to say my last goodbyes to my brother and one of my best friends- James McNish.

Guillermo flew up from Uruguay, and then we made the 15+ hour drive to Syracuse NY to bury our best friend Jamie.  The drive sucked.  It was long, but we got to catch up on the last 6 months since Guillermo moved to Uruguay, talk some shit, and just bullshit in general.  On the way up, we passed an exit for Frackville, It was either in PA or NY (it get's a little fuzzy after the first 12 hours or so).  Don't ever get off here, I'm pretty sure that the entire population is frakkin' cylons.

While we were in Syracuse, we did get to get some NY pizza.  OK, it's not the Island or the City, but it's still the best pizza I've had in 12+ years.  We went to Paladinos- Jamies favorite Syracuse Pizza place 2 days in a row, and I even got to have a couple slices of Sicilian:

OK, so I got too drunk to finish this last night, so I'm gonna do it now.

The wake was pretty rough, but I did get to leave a couple of things in the casket with Jamie- a machine that I built for him for Christmas a few years ago and a chip from Fogo De Chao- on green of course.

The Funeral was rough too.  I got up and said a few words, but can't really remember what all I even said.

After the burial, we headed over to Halo Tattoo, where Jamie worked for the last 2+ years.  There was a 2 day benefit at the shop to help raise money to pay for the funeral expenses.  We tattooed from a couple of sheets of flash done for the benefit and sold a good amount of donated artwork from various artists.  Here's some pics of the flash:

The benefit went really well, and we were able to raise enough money for Jamie's Mom to pay ALL the funeral expenses.  Jamie's Mom is not in good health and Jamie had moved back to NY to help her out, so we have a couple of other things planned for the near future to raise some more money to help his mom out with her bills.

Here's a bunch of pics from the benefit in no particular order:

Maryanne and Jamie's Mom

Guillermo tattooing Tammy

Ray tattooing Kevin, and the Gnome

Ron cookin' up some grub

Me tattooing

Cheryl and the Gnome

Emma and the Gnome

Jamie's Mom with Kevin and the Gnome

Dominique and the Gnome

Ron, Ray, Guillermo and Myself

Ron tattooing Chris and the Gnome

Sherman, Me and Kevin

Ron signing the Gnome.  We all signed the bottom of the Gnome.

Sherman showing us the first tattoo Jamie ever did, 20+ years ago.

Cheryl, Sherman and Kevin

David, the counter guy at the shop.  Many thanks to David for keeping things in order and running smoothly.

Kevin planting a flag.

The Gnome stayed with Jamie.

RIP James Mcnish.  

Big thanks to everyone that worked at, helped at, and donated artwork to the benefit.  There are too many great people that helped for me to list them all.  Another big thanks to all the people from here that sent donations and flowers.

Extra big thanks to Ray and Kristy for putting Guillermo and Me up in their home.  They kept us fed and well caffeinated.

RIP Jamie

Last night one of my best friends in the world was killed in a motorcycle wreck.  I was awakened by my friend Kevin at 6:30 this morning with the awful news, then got on the phone to call some other people and ruin their days with the news.  It's been an hour and a half now, and it's really just starting to sink in.  This shit really sucks.  I've known Jamie for the last 15 or so years, and he was one of the best friends I ever had, and one of the funniest people I ever knew.  Jamie was a big man with a big heart and the most infectious laugh you would ever hear.  I really don't even know what else to say at this point except that I love you and you will be remembered and missed my friend.

Deck and Skull

Did this deck a while ago, but couldn't post it due to the fact that it was commissioned as a birthday gift for someone.  So, now I can post it:

And, here's a pic of the happy recipient:

Here's a small tattoo I did yesterday.  This may be one of the last tattoos I do on earth unless I can convince the Nuwaubians to let me bring my tattoo equipment on the mothership.

I'm gettin' on the Mothership, bitches!

With the end of the world coming on Saturday, I have decided to join a cult.  Specifically one that believes that aliens will come and take us away.  I have decided to join the Nuwaubians.  Years ago, Jamie and I drove past their compound here in Georgia.  Sadly, the compound is gone, including the pyramids and sphinx they built.  I spent some time yesterday reading about them, and the more you read, the crazier they get, so this is definitely the cult for me.  I may have some trouble joining as they don't particularly care for white folks.  Apparently the Nuwaubians are still around despite the fact that their leader,  Malachi Z York (born Dwight York),  is serving a 135 year sentence for multiple RICO and child molestation charges.  Here's an overhead shot of the Nuwaubian complex in Georgia, clearly showing the Pyramids- I gotta say, it's pretty sweet.

Now, lets get to the crazy.  Here are some of the Nuwaubian beliefs:

• Time has been tampered with: It used to both 'Tick' and 'Tock', now it only 'Ticks'
• Black people used to be green, but their skin rusted in earths atmosphere.
• in 1952, extraterrestrial Andromedeans that resembled the Predator met with and frightened U.S. President Harry S. Truman. Other extraterrestrials have been trading with Earth since the Eisenhower administration, and are responsible for giving us technologies ranging from the polio vaccine to the hula hoop.
• The Earth is hollow and contains cities populated by different species of people, such as the Deros, the Teros, the Flugelrods, the Duwanis, the Dunakial, and the Anunnaqi.
• The Pyramids of Egypt are, among other things, electromagnetic antennas that create standing columnar waves of tachyon energy to prevent the wobbling of the Earth.
• The Illuminati have nurtured a child, Satan's son, who was born on 6 June 1966 at the Dakota House on 72nd Street in New York to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The Pope was present at the birth and performed necromantic ceremonies. The child was raised by former U.S. president Richard Nixon and now lives in Belgium, where it is hooked up bodily to a computer called “The Beast 3M” 
• Humans are missing an important part of their brains, the “barathary gland,” which once enabled various forms of extra-sensory perception, or, as it would be, normal sensory perception that is currently disabled in humans
• Tyrannosaurus Rex evolved from extra-terrestrial greys

I could continue, but I think ya get the general idea of just how bat-shit crazy these people are.  Old king of the crazies, Dwight York, now says that he is a Moorish-Cherokee and is now going by the name Chief Black Eagle.  His followers have switched from dressing as ancient Egyptians to wearing the clothing of Native Americans.  I suppose tee-pees are also much easier to construct than pyramids.

So, before the world ends, I will be converting to Nuwaubianism.  I'm not sure if I should dress like an Egyptian or an Indian, but I'm getting on the Mothership, Bitches!

Tattoos, Arts, and BSG

So, it's been a month since my last blog update.  I really need to get back to blabbering on this thing on more of a regular basis, but have had other things to do, namely watching Battlestar Galactica.  I watched the entire series again over the last month- somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 hours of BSG goodness.  It was great the first time I watched it (about a year or so ago) and was just as good if not better the second time around.  Here's a little message for all you Star Wars fan boys and fan girls- Fuck Your Jedi!  Admiral Adama and Kara Thrace would eat those half-fags with their mind tricks alive and then get drunk.

As I write this, I'm sipping a glass of Bookers 127 proof bourbon on the rocks.  No, it's not gonna be another drunken blog entry.  Like I said, I'm an adult and I drink like an adult.  They should though change the name of this stuff  to Bookers Sleepy Time- I might as well be drinking a glass of Nyquil on the rocks- It'll have the same result.

Let's see what's happened in the last month...

I rearranged a bunch of stuff at the shop.  I've been looking at the same flash on the front wall of the shop for the last 9 years- it used to be 'seller' flash.  The dopey TV shows have convinced people that you should never get anything 'off the wall'.  So, now every customer comes in and says "I don't want anything off the wall", then describes something that you have on at least a dozen sheets of flash.  Or, they show you a picture on their phone, which is usually an image from the first page of google images- why not just get something off the wall?  That star with swirlys you just showed me on your phone has been done about a million times.  Sure, I'm gonna freehand it, so it'll be a little different, but it's still  a fucking star with swirlys!  OK, I got sidetracked.  The thing I was getting to is that I changed all the flash on the front wall.  I hung a bunch of cool flash that I've collected over the years.  I figured if people aren't even gonna look at the walls, I might as well put up stuff that I want to look at all day.  I also hung up a bunch of arts that I made.  That's right, I said 'arts'.  Why?  Because it's just stupid enough to make me chuckle every time.  A bunch of pinstriped skate decks and assorted goodies, and they're all for sale.

Here's a few tattoos I did recently:

Yesterday I bought Socom 4, so I think that it might just be time to go kill some enemies of America.

One more thing, I almost forgot to mention, I shaved my beard on Monday.  Monday night, I decided that it had been the wrong day to shave as it was kind of a chilly ride home and my face was cold.

RIP Poly Styrene

Joe Strummer, Malcolm McLaren, and now Poly Styrene.  I always hate to see any of the people from the '77 era Punk movement die.  I never liked Malcolm Mclaren, and believe that between him and Sid Vicious, they ruined the best Punk band there ever was or ever will be- The Sex Pistols.  But, I do have to give him credit for being very influential in the early Punk scene.  Yesterday, Poly Styrene succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 53.  Like many early Punk bands, X-Ray Spex weren't around for very long, but they are one of those bands that always comes to mind when talking about the early Punk scene.  Songs like 'The Day The World Turned Dayglo', 'Identity', 'Obsessed With You', 'Genetic Engineering', and of course 'Oh Bondage Up Yours' are classic Punk Rock.  You will be missed, Poly Styrene.

Cylons and Smoking Sharks

Here's some stuff I did recently.  

I'm a big Battlestar Galactica geek, so this one was a lot of fun.  Frakkin' Cylons

I also love goofy, stupid tattoos, so I had a good time doing this as well.  How can ya go wrong with a shark smoking a pipe?

Did this image from 'The Orphanage'.  It's a dark image to begin with and the pics are kinda dark.  Wish I could get a healed pic, but that is unlikely as the customer drove up from Florida to get the tattoo.   Who knows, maybe he'll be back, but for now, this is all I got.

Finally, here's a healed pic of the plane I did on Mike.

And now for the stupid customer comment of the week:

Had a woman looking through my portfolio comment on my portraits.  She said "These portraits are unrealistic." And she said it more than once!  Now, I know that what she meant was "These portraits are unreal" or "It's unreal how realistic these portraits are", but that's not what she said.  It was pretty hard keeping a straight face when she said it.

Yesterday was Easter- I'm not religious, so I really don't care.  My wife and child went to her Mother's for the holiday.  I did not go- let's just say that I don't quite get along with my in-laws.  This left me home alone, so I watched 7 episodes of BSG and had Sushi for dinner.  If ya ask me, that's a pretty fuckin' excellent way to spend easter.  About 11 years ago, I was home alone on Christmas (again didn't really care) and TBS was showing all of the Planet of the Apes movies, calling it Christmas with the Apes- that was a pretty fuckin' cool Christmas.

Gin Eagle Flash

This may be my first drunk blog - so for fun, I'm not gonna edit or spell check it.  Got home tonight and made myself a double gin sour.  I'm a gin drinker, and heve recently switched from dirty martiniss to gin sours.  Real gin sours- not the shitty gin sours that they make at bars with thet sour fuckin mix- 2 parts gin, 1 part lemon juice, and a teaspoon of powdered sugar with a marachino cherry for garnish (I'm out of marachino chrrries, so no garnish for me).  I'm 44 yers old, and at ths point i my lif, I drink like an adult.  That's right, I dont OVER DO  it.  Generally I'll hve 1 drink maybe 2, but I ususally don't go pased the 'nice buzz'.  Tonight though, I gt home and decide to start painting anither skat deck, so I started by making myself a doble gin sour.  i started painting, worked ny way through my first drink and made another one ( a visit in between from my old friend Mary Jane didn't help mattrs).  Worked on painting a 'Fink -Eagle' skate deck.  Got some progress on the deck- looks kinda fucked up right now, but I knewI was etting fucked up and was only really concerned with getting some colors laid down in the background, here's some pics:

I'll pull this thing together over the next week or so.  Also, finished up that sheet of flash I started recenty.  Here's a shitty phone pic of it:

So, I'm pretty fucked up at this poit, and I should probably just go to bed, but I recently scored the entire series of Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray for half price so I'm gonna geek out to some BSG muthafuckas.

I'M NOT INTERESTED!

Haven't had any good rants lately (at least not on the my blog), so here ya go:

As a business owner, I deal with people trying to sell me shit that I don't need or want on a daily basis.  On the phone, through the mail, over the internet, and in my damn shop.  The internet and the mail are the easy ones- throw it away or hit delete.  On the phone, you can always just hang up on 'em.  I usually say "I'm not interested" and hang up.  Once in a while, I'll lose it and start yelling at them.  On rare occasions, I'll play with 'em a little before hanging up.  Recently I blew an airhorn into the phone at a guy named Fred who just happened to be in India.  I'm pretty sure that Fred the Indian got the message.  Once, I told a guy (who also happened to be from India) that I wasn't interested and hung up, then the dopey bastard called back.  Now that kinda got me a little mad, so I proceeded to tell him that I hoped his entire family got run over by a bus and that he should, in no uncertain terms, never call me again.  The ones that actually come to the shop are the difficult ones.  For some reason they don't quite understand what "I'm not interested" means.  What it really means is "Turn around and walk the fuck out of my shop 'cause I ain't buying whatever the fuck you're selling."  I just had 2 guys from Comcast in here trying to sell me phone and internet service that I don't need- I also had a woman from Comcast in here 2 days ago trying to sell me the same shit.  I told them 3 times that I was not interested- they didn't listen.  I finally said "I've told you three times that I'm not interested, so how about you stop trying to sell me and just leave."  Now why does it have to get to the point where I get pissed off and turn into a dick?  Do these idiots think that when I say I'm not interested that I'm joking?  I couldn't possibly not be interested in their crap, could I?  Maybe they think "Well he hasn't heard the best part yet, and he'll change his mind when he hears this sweet deal".  NO NO NO!  I'm not interested means I'M NOT FUCKING INTERESTED- GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SHOP AND DO IT BEFORE I HAVE TO BE A DICK TO YOU.

Flash and Tattoos

Really gotta get back to doing this more regularly.  Shit piles up and then I have to post a bunch of photos and don't get the time to rant and rave properly.

Started a new skate deck this morning- should be pretty cool, but I can't post pics of it because it's for someone that might read my shitty blog, and it's supposed to be a surprise.  So, you'll have to wait till next month to see it (like ya even fuckin' care).

Been about 2 years since I did a sheet of flash- pretty damn slack.  Got started on a sheet a few days ago.  This is my first attempt at using the Dr. Martins Concentrated Watercolors- still think I prefer my good old tubed watercolors, but we'll see how it turns out.

Here's some recent tattooing:

Started this last week- I actually drew it for the guy about a year ago- he finally came in to get it started (now let's see if he actually finishes it).

Worked on the giant koi some more last week.  Been 6 months since she was in the last time, hopefully she'll be back soon and we can get this thing finished up some day.

Finished up the big eagle...and started it again?  The guy that got this is room mates with another good customer of ours.  He (the roommate), wanted the same eagle with some changes.  He wanted his zombified.  So his is kinda ripped up and has big splashes of blood in the background.  So, here's pics of Jason's finished eagle and Ryan's started eagle.

Here's something I did on another Atlanta area tattooer.  I would have liked to do the snake in color, but he wanted it all black and gray.

Here's a couple of pics of some tattoos that came back so I could get healed pics.  The first is the plane I posted a couple of weeks ago, the second is the parrot from a 5 or 6 weeks ago.