donalfall

2012-01-09T02:33:00.002Z

I got a Goodreads profile and while it's taking a while to calibrate my recommendations towards mostly books I want to read, I have already bought several Kindle books on the strength of its suggestions. Fun times. Come join my profile if you're into Goodreads.

I read between 50 and 100 books a year, not including graphic novels and comics and so forth, so I won't review them all - not a hope! - but I'll review a few, like the lovely, lovely graphic novel I read today,

Nelson

Nelson is Rob Davis' and Woodrow Phoenix' ground-breaking collaborative project, inspired by attending a recent English Comic Book Convention and the range of talent they saw on display. Taking more than 50 English and British-based Cartoonists, Artists, Webcartoonists, Illustrators & Graphic Designers that result in the wide sampling of talent on display in this excellent graphic novel.

The book tells the story of Nel, a British girl (woman) through the styles of the 54 creatives involved. Each creator turns in between 1 and 5 pages, using them to chronicle an event or a moment in Nel's life. The neat twist, or added effect, in the book is that each event is in a seperate year of her life, following Nel from birth, through childhood, a roving, reckless very British adolescence and on to... well, no spoilers.

The snapshot, compilation-tape, family-album, anthology nature of this collection is so essential to its power and its British nature that it has to be mentioned. You see a few pages from each year, seeing just a little moment, and through incidental dialogue you get to experience the overall shape of her life passing by. It's a powerful way to tell the story, giving the reader a lot of credit, trusting you to be smart enough to follow along in its path.

There is so much to enjoy here. I mention family-albums as part of its style because the book is all about family and like any family there are highs and lows, laughs and tears. This is one of the sweetest graphic novels I have ever read and so much more cohesive in theme and tone than you would imagine from it's exquisite-corpse style story-telling. Buy it, its amazing. And some of the book's profits are going to charity, so you can feel good about a purchase you will get so much out of.

donalfall out.

2011-11-22T16:24:00.002Z

My Dark Souls playing has taken a back seat for the time being. I got distracted - first by Uncharted 3 (not great - sequel fatigue, am I right?) - and now by Skyrim. Holy Moly you guys. I haven't had much free time this last week cos of work but I've still put in serious time in that game and therefore not a lot of time in my efforts at sleeping. 5 star game you guys. It's a Bethseda RPG - wide and deep - but with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than ever before packed in, and a tiny, tiny fraction of the usual open world jank problems.

There's a great POW! Challenge going on at ConceptArt that I am sub-moderating as usual. Worth checking out. I had a fairly okay finished entry in the last one that I must post up here. Must post more art. Also hoping to go to a life drawing class this evening, so I'll post that too if I have any luck getting home from work in good time this evening.

Just checking in,

donalfall out.

2011-11-02T23:47:00.005Z

I've been playing Dark Souls on the PS3. A lot.

So the thing was that I won this 100 europe voucher from a raffle in work and there was only about 2 places I could use it and I couldn't get change... so I bought Batman:Arkham City and Dark Souls. I don't want to disparage Batman at all. It's probably the game I looked forward to the most this year, its predecessor, Arkham Asylum is an absolutely amazing game of so much depth with the best combat system every developed and it follows that up in every way, but.... I got through the main story and started on the Riddler Challenges. Shortly into that, I put it down and will probably never go back to that game again. Damn, but those challenges are irritating. They're doable, I can see how to do them, but I can also see the hours of not-quite-getting-it-right-do-it-again that have to be sunk into it. So I rang out.

Ironically, I rang out to Dark Souls. The guys from Giant Bomb have me warned, and I saw enough of Demon Souls to know how it went down, but you die. A lot. You go in, you don't quite get it right, you die foolishly, you load it up and do it again. It's kind of the same flaw as Arkham, but it comes out as frustrating and challenging instead of irritating. I've now sunk 24 hours into my Female Thief and I've only just managed to ring that first bell in The Undead Parish. That means nothing to you if you haven't played it, but it's not very far in at all. :)

I'm not putting down the controller on this one though. It's so deep and so complex for a game that only has 2 attacks, 2 blocks and an item button. Combat is so rich - you have to gauge each new enemy and how they fight as well as each weapon and shield combo you try to use and how they work against the enemies fighting styles. The stats go on and on and on with only vague guidelines as to what they actually do.

These dudes will kill you.

I'm going to have more to say on Dark Souls if I remember to use this damn blog more often, but there is interesting elements in its depth and scope that remind me of playing Vagrant Story on the PS1 - a game whose experience I've been trying to find again for more than 10 years now. It's not the same, but its enough like it to catch my fancy. Dark Souls - a great, deep open world experience. A single-player MMO, as they say. 5 stars, if you like a challenge. Probably 0 stars if you don't.

Batman Arkham City - absolutely AMAZING during the story & most of the challenge modes - 5 stars. Once you're done with the story, 3 stars if your experience of the puzzles are like mine (and they probably will be).

donalfall out.

2011-11-02T23:34:00.005Z

So the 1st of November was International Self Portrait Day! So much fun. And you should follow that link through, there's some crazy talent on display.

Here was mine -

I didn't have as much time as I'ld like, but those are the breaks. :)

2011-06-08T02:27:00.002+01:00

I forget to do things. Quite frequently.

Comics:

(they're for this - POW! 50)

I have been writing some reviews.... of comics and books and so forth... maybe those would be worth posting?

I'll have a think about it.

2011-04-21T00:12:00.002+01:00

So I didn't quite finish that last moleskine for the 20th of March, but I did for the 20th of April! Not too bad, but not ideal. I've also been getting distracted by a new forum to go to, more details on that on my next post. Also, as per my last post, I've had the new CA contest to think about.

Here's a taste of the end of the book -

Ciao.

2011-04-19T20:12:00.002+01:00

So ConceptArt.org has finally made a new uber competition, like the Newborn contest last year (or the year before?), and the legendary Thunderdome. This time round, we need to collaborate, and my partner is the awesome Droid!

Check out the announcement thread here, and feel free to register and find a partner, anyone can compete!

(stolen wholesale from Droid's blogpost on the same topic)...

2011-04-05T22:58:00.002+01:00

So I didn't quite fill the last moleskine by the end of March, but I'm very close now. Here's a few scribbles from the most recent pages:

I've been very busy with getting posts done for the Pub Scrawl & our new group blog at Galway Skeptics. I'll now make a tentative resolution to post here more. You can probably disregard. :)

2011-02-14T22:48:00.002Z

A little Catwoman, perhaps?

I just wrapped on another Moleskine pocket sketchbook. It lasted from January 01st til yesterday, February 13th. Not a bad speed, but not too shabby. Next one cracked open, let's try and have it full by the March 20th.

2011-02-03T23:07:00.001Z

Sketches for a Sci-Fi comic. Full version on the way, one panel at a time!

2011-01-25T01:01:00.001Z

Fun at the Pub Scrawl tonight!

Here's moi :

Ciao!

2011-01-20T02:17:00.005Z

Bah. Am having scanner issues with the driver that runs the scanner, I think. Here's what I *can* capture from the final version of my Red Riding Hood pic. Hopefully I can get a better version captured soon.

I was up at the Comic Soc's Comic Drawing night, which was fun. I'll have to try and make more of them. Threw down a 3 panel page, but I already am thinking of how I'ld do it better, narratively speaking. Must remember the tricks to draw the reader left to right more... off the cuff than I do. Anyway, I think it'll be in their publication, so I'll show it to you guys again.

It's late - time for bed.

2011-01-18T22:50:00.004Z

Was kind of busy today. It's what, 10 pm now? and it's my first relaxation time of the night... here's some sketches from the last few days to stay talking.

I got a lot of stuff coming on in the next few weeks that I should get around to asap. I've been working really hard on Pub Scrawl stuff, as I am determined that this is the time for that idea to really take off. Anyhoo, more tomorrow!

2011-01-17T16:30:00.002Z

I'm going to try and do more with this blog from now on. I'm going to close down my sketch blog, move art matters here and concentrate more on that than anything else. Gotta do a bit of a redesign/relayout as well.

Keep watching the Galway Pub Scrawl for more guaranteed regular updates!

Cheers!

donalfall

2010-10-11T17:31:00.003+01:00

Okay, I certainly meant to update with some links and reviews after my last post, but as usual, the discipline was lacking. In a related topic, though...

I went to the Irish 24 hour comics event over the weekend to try my hand at the idea. I was at a disadvantage from the start, however as I had yet again gone to see Crystal Castles in Belfast the night before. There was some hectic travelling done in the hours before the comic day, so my chances of making it through the whole lot were effectively zero.

Anyhow, I turned up at the Central Hotel Dublin for the event, organised (and mostly paid for) by Cliodhna Lyons. There was copies of the "October Anthology" comic she had been taking submissions for for the low price of 1 europe, and a donations box. Needless to say, I stuck a few quid in. The Anthology is really good, the breadth of submissions again speaking for how much there is going on in Irish Comics at the moment.

I plonked myself down at a table and got to it. I hadn't bothered to carry paper etc up to Dublin, so I had actually found Bristol Board in Easons. This is a big sea change for them - normally enquiries about Bristol Board are greeted with funny looks. Bristol Board, by the way, isn't magical or anything - it's just an extra smooth 250gsm card - but it does make erasing pencil marks super easy after you ink something, so there's that anyway.

The main bonus for the day - and *spoilers* I only made 10 hours before the bus home called out to me - was meeting people, including another Galwegian who had come specially for the event James Newell of meanwhile.tv. You should check out his stuff, it's good. Also Barry Hughes and Carlos Añazco are 2 links I have to hand right now.

Here's what I managed in my 10 hours. If you think 24 pages drawn & inked is 48 units of work, I managed 8 drawn & 4 inked = 12 units of work done, or a quarter of the job in 10/24 or nearly half the time gone, it made me realise that it's a fair task to get those pages out in the 24 hours. My collective hats are off to everyone who's ever managed it. There may or may not be a 24 hour event in Dublin next year, but I'll be trying again around the same time to see if I can do it then.

Ciao!

2010-07-25T20:32:00.003+01:00

Edition Book Arts

So, from listening to The Comic Cast - Ireland's number 1 comic book podcast - I discovered there was this comic & art book festival on in Dublin, in the Filmbase in Temple Bar. And it was falling on a Saturday I happened to have off. How could I not go? Especially now you can get from Galway to Dublin and back fast and cheap?

I'ld been in the Filmbase before, so I wandered straight there, getting in around one or so. There was a music and record fair on as well, so the place was a bit crowded, but there was a good atmosphere about. The free entry to Edition Book Arts was probably a fair draw for people, but there was plenty of good stuff to bring the punters in. There was a line of booths running up to the stairs, then the whole first floor was Comic and Artist's books. Mostly comics it has to be said, but there was some interesting showings in the Artist books categories as well.

The space pretty much suited the event - if there had been even a few more exhibitors, it would have been too small and a few less, too large - but it could have done with some more organisation. It's the pedant control freak part of me that was thinking about how I would have arranged it that was already talking in the back of my head when I walked up the stairs, but it was certainly no big detraction from the overall experience. There was also the Filmbase Cafe on this level, so really nice coffee was only a few steps away. I have no idea what the food was like, although it looked good. I guess it would probably be called gourmet or something similar. Another Galwegian, Diarmuid (apologies if you spell it one of the other million ways to spell it!) wandered past me with two thumbnail-sized cupcakes on a plate. Literally. Literally.

My aim was to spend my budget on Irish Comics, 1 from each table, or as close to as possible. And within the 2 hours I was there I had a decent wedge of Irish comics and books for 60-ish europes. I could easily have spent twice as much and come away with more whole series and been pretty happy with my wash. The exhibitors were generally cheery, professional and business-like, with only minor exceptions that again, were no great distraction from my time. All in all a very good day. I'ld highly recommend going to Edition Book Arts next time it rolls around. And if everything goes to plan, I'll have something there for sale.

Coming up - some quick reviews of the books I picked up, with some links to the creators.

donalfall.

2009-11-14T22:29:00.001Z

My Political Views
I am a right social libertarian
Right: 3.09, Libertarian: 5.86

Political Spectrum Quiz

2009-11-10T19:35:00.001Z

Hitchens is good here, but Fry is fantastic. The Intelligence Squared debate - Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the World?

2009-10-10T05:33:00.002+01:00

I was watching James Randi's talk at the CFI on youtube yesterday and he said something amazing about the frustrations of dealing with people who decieve - intentionally and unintentionally - and how after 65 years of doing what he does, they still frustrate him. But he was saying that it's important not to let that get to you, to try and reach out and show these people the truth.

Here's the video

That's all very noble of course, but I say screw it. We need a New Enemies List.

2009-10-05T01:49:00.002+01:00

Apparently passing Lisbon is one of the signs of the end times. Well, at least a sign that we are reviving the Empire that Daniel prophecied -

"Major #endtime #prophecy fulfilled today? Lisbon Treaty makes European Superstate, Daniel's revived Roman Empire? http://tinyurl.com/yap6fz5"

- or so says twitter.com/elizabethprata. I have to say, the concept of our vote heralding the end times wasn't crossing my mind on friday when I ticked "Yes". Maybe I would have cast it differently?.... No, no I wouldn't, because the end times just aren't coming. Actually, the rational side of me is screaming at that. Let's rephrase - on balance of evidence and human experience, I feel that the end times of revelations etc being on route is significantly less likely than an asteroid striking me before I hit the "Publish Post" button below.

The religious form a problem for me, not because of their beliefs. I'm an Atheist, but I'm also a Libertarian (although all these words are so debased as to be meaningless). I think that people should be free to believe and say anything they like. Granted, sometimes that leads to them indulging in very ineffecient behaviour that costs them time, money and happiness. But that's up to them. It's when their behaviour affects others that I have a problem. Leave other people alone, that's my motto. They're probably relatively happy doing whatever it is they're doing. Or trading their happiness for some other incentive. Who knows what. I know there's many, many exceptions to this and all kinds of logical errors people fall for and dead ends that they think down, but I like to address the world in generalities, and people must be generally happy. My evidence for this is that they still mostly walk around doing things as opposed to lying in the street in an exsistential angst.

So what's the problem? I don't even think that there's anything particularly wrong in indoctrinating your kids into your religion or creed as long as you don't impress upon them a need to bother/convert/kill/poke at other people who don't think the way you do. If you don't believe in those things being an essential part of your faith, then fuck it, your kids will probably be fine, even if they do miss out on approaching the world in a more rational fashion. If you're not scared of other ideas and want to convert or destroy them out of exsistance, then your kids will most likely rub shoulders with the outside world at some point and get to make a choice for themselves.

I guess the problem is politics. I'm naturally inclined to conservatism. Now, that's partially because of being roughly Libertarian, as I said earlier, and partially because I don't think that politics have a place in peoples private lives. So seeing as "conservative" is read as "economically liberal, socially conservative" since the 80's or even before, but I personally knock off the "socially conservative" bit and just think - "I'm conservative/right-wing. Politically, I'm economically liberal. Social ideas have no place in politics. If you ask me on a personal level, I'm socially liberal too, but i feel that this is irrelevant."

This should be the thrust of all right wing politics. Capitalist society, everything else is allowed as long as you don't impinge on someone else's freedom. I thought that was the idea behind it. When I dumped socialism as even a viable concept when I got out of my teens and realised there was a real world where contravening market laws were like trying to contravene the laws of gravity, it was like a breath of fresh air. Seriously. And leaving people alone in their private lives? Magical. Seperation of Church and State? Brilliant. Democracy, the rule of law and freedom for all? Perfect.

But somehow (well, I understand how but its a long and frustrating thought route to get there) "Right Wing" and "religious" are conflated in people's heads. It's part of the broadening of the meanings of these political terms until they are meaningless and bleeding their definition over everything in broad swathes, and partially the confusion unleashed by the conflation of "Right Wing" and "Facist". Read Jonah Goldberg's excellent destruction of that myth in Liberal Facism. Good book.

But "religious" shouldn't be conflating with the Left either. For one thing, the left have their own problems. For another, I think that if you make a political decision for religious reasons, you shouldn't be thought of as either "wing". You should be labelled "religious". You can't decide modern polity on a myth. People lie and die in the real world based on political decisions, and that brings me back to my "bellieve what you like but don't bother anyone else" paradigm.

I'm running out of rant space because I'm tired. 2:20 am is either the very best or the very worst time to be ranting. :) Anyone in Ireland who wants a postcard to join Maurice's campaign against the new blasphemous libel bill here should email me with their address - donalfall (at) gmail.com. Or else go to facebook and join his group - search for "good enough for jehovah" and he has links there to a print ready version of the document. Please help out if you can - this law is ridiculous. Let's seperate the concerns of the church from the concerns of our state and move beyond our ridiculous civil war obsessions with the past and the church and all those other millstones about our neck.

donalfall out.

2009-10-03T13:26:00.002+01:00

That's it for the Lisbon Treaty for Ireland at least. All eyes to the Czech Courts then for the next while. I meant to do a "why I'm going to vote yes" post but it just seemed too pointless. There was nothing to get emotive about in the Lisbon Treaty. It's not an important change to how things are done. Will we notice anything different?

Now there was plenty to get emotive about in the campaigning. Plenty of "True Believers" wandering the streets, putting up ludicrous posters, saying ludicrous things. Quite a bit of dissonant Yes campaigning as well, but it's not hard for a normal jury of peers to see the difference between some PR-based fudging and wild eyed craziness.

It's that weird collection of people that form the opposition to common sense arguments - or in the case of Lisbon, opposition to the "who cares?" argument - that pushed me out of the cultural sectors I used to inhabit and into wherever the hell I am now. The Daily Show did a great piece in the last few days about the protestors at the most recent G20 summit - go see it at Comedy Central website (I think - not able to browse the internet properly atm) - just as PJ O'Rourke did in one of his books years ago.

And fair play to Tipperary North - 75% turnout is brilliant. That's engaging with Democracy. There was a passage in Landsberg's The Armchair Economist where he wondered why a rational person would ever bother to vote, as your indiviual vote is essentially meaningless but your time and effort are not, so why waste them? Maybe it's to ensure that the real average works out, that the opinion carried is actually the voice of the silent majority. The ballot box is their voice, and it's rational to try and be heard.

The Amazing Meeting (TAM) is on in London right now. Simon Singh got a standing ovation for his talk on his libel case and points pertaining to it. I wish I had been there.

Oh, and I joined Atheist Nexus, which I've been meaning to do for quite a time. If anyone's on the site add me as a friend. Social Networking for Atheists seems like a good time to me.

And there are many people in this little country who hold and express ridiculous opinions, but there are few that can hold a candle to Joe O'Higgins of the Socialist Workers Party. I'm sure he's very genuine but he just sounds like a broken record. From the 1970's. Made in the USSR.

2009-09-16T10:19:00.001+01:00

Had a great time at the Drink & Draw Cork on monday. Stuck up a few pictures on my facebook profile. That is all.

2009-09-10T01:57:00.002+01:00

So, that Derren Brown "The Events" stunt was pretty good, eh? I'm not going to speculate til we see the story on friday, but I was impressed. That was just great television. It was just perfect, a neat little 10 minute package that made you sit back and go "woah".

Also, I remembered I have a myspace account. I don't really know what good that does me. Myspace has become chaotic over the years. Shinier, but most of the shiny stuff seems to be bouncing around the place.

I have a massive rant planned about talk radio and my experiences on tuesday, but the longer that goes by the more dusty and dry it seems. I must try to recreate the feeling tomorrow on the bus.

By which I mean to say that I'm off to Kerry on a bus tomorrow. I have a wedding to DJ at. Always fun, for a given value of fun. ;)

2009-09-08T01:00:00.002+01:00

It's too late for me to be commentating on life, the universe etc, but here's one of the many reasons that Sunday set me off....

www.jimcorr.com

as I was twittering about earlier, sometimes you find that the abyss can stare back at you.

2009-09-07T00:45:00.003+01:00

An interesting day on the airwaves today, although frustrating as always. Sometimes the distance of the radio is a good thing - you can take a minute to receive the various pundit's words as they're doing their best to seem intelligent, witty and right and process them to see why they are generally confused, dull and wrong. It must be with the lack of distraction of visual input that you can focus on the actual words said. But it allows the listener to pick out the wheat from the chaff in a way you probably couldn't if you were, say, watching an interview on TV or talking to someone in person. Our habit as humans, after all, is that we speak extemporaneously, discovering our direction of thought as we speak through the previous one and confusing our mouth with the topic we're already moving onto in our mind.

The disadvantage is that you feel silly trying to strangle, or indeed, punch a radio in the face. I don't feel silly throwing things at the television. There must be a psychological impediment to physically abusing something with no human face for the sins of a voice that does have something that passes for a human face.

Your only route of executing a right of reply is by some electronic medium. And the very banality of the average texts/calls/emails that get read out over the airwaves make you both a) ashamed to see that as a measure of your peers and b) curious as to how quickly replying publicly to these things drives you insane. I often wonder the same thing about people who write letters to newspapers and who reply to blogs too. (The complainants - there's something very normal to write a quick message of sympathy for a tragedy or to express delight at something you found entertaining, to my mind).

I wonder if the experience of "vigilance" towards some issue to which you object or just the feeling of revenge, of having "showed them" is what pushes the content of this kind of response a little askew of what we think are social mores? Or are the kind of people who would bother to respond already a little askew?

But there is so much content out there in all the various media we consume that is just wrong. And the frustration involved in having to innocently read through something only to discover that it's misleading, or insane, or downright duplicitous is sometimes overwhelming. (For "read" you can also substitute listen or whatever. Everything is a text these days, or whatever your cup of ism is...) It's hard to self-judge and decide if you're being a reasonable, just, appreciative and skeptically minded observer of human behaviour who likes to help his fellow man see where the middle ground is so that they can then decide where they want to stand on important things, or if you're being a wacko.

I've been trying to "collect" groups of interesting skeptics and thinkers on twitter, which for my money is a great service (free, so even if it was a bit more shite it would still be worth my money). I don't know if I'm a clear thinker. I know I certainly wasn't, earlier in my life. I know that a lot of crap that I put in there myself has only recently been lifted from my mind. I hope that some of the people I listen to will help. Although I must remember to be careful to diagnose what they say. That, or try to punch/strangle the computer screen, which, while it wouldn't feel as silly as punching my radio, would be far more expensive.

2009-08-23T23:36:00.002+01:00

Low and slow is the tempo.

I have been busy finding and reading some awesome webcomics recently. There is some real quality stuff out there right now. Got to share some links with y'all...

The Dresden Codak
Kukuburi
Sinfest (not a new one for me but I stopped reading it a few years ago. Now I can't figure out why... The calligraphic artwork and the punchy humour are just great. And since I stopped reading it he's started doing occasional colour strips. Very, very funny indeed.
The Meek
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella

and by my real-life friends Edel and Gar, Fish for Fish. They have the swine flu, so people should show them some love. Post a nice comment or something.

2009-08-05T00:05:00.003+01:00

Put up some more sketches in the sketchblog. I had an insane July which didn't help my preparations for september - need to get my portfolio added up and well presented if I want to show my face at the conceptart.org workshop in Berlin. I'm somewhat back in gear now.

My new laptop solves some day to day problems such as computer use and access, not to mention portability - the 10" is portable in a way that nothing bar an mp3 player can compare to. But it causes some too on a professional level - the widescreen format is woefully distorting to 2d pictures. You don't notice it at all on movies for some reason - TV's influence, I guess - but throw a familiar 2d pic onto the screen and it really messes with it. Back to playing with the screen settings til I can figure this out, or else I'll have to plan getting a desktop for work purposes, and soon.

2009-07-31T01:10:00.003+01:00

Phew. Anyways, just got my new netbook. A Dell Inspiron Mini V - 10" screen running XP with a 160GB HD, 1GB RAM and a 1.6 Ghz Processor. It's pretty sweet. I've really liked the look of the netbook generation - it's kind of living in the future I imagined back in 1995. Everyone can carry around a cheap, lightweight and relatively high performance computer. This one set me back less than 350 europes and that was with extras.

I had forgotten that XP does expect more of you than Vista, which is both good and bad. Overstating the case a little, Vista assumes you're an idiot and it's very hard to stop it doing all behind the scenes tasks for you in the most average way possible. XP is an idiot, but it's an idiot savant - point it in the right direction and it just performs so well. But the pointing it in the right direction does take a while. Pros and cons to both. I'm really looking forward to the release of Windows 7. All feedback seems to be that it combines the best of both with the weaknesses of neither. Although that may also be overstating the case somewhat. But if George Hook can use it and enjoy it and find it very functional indeed then it must be both simple and flexible.

Roll it out Microsoft. We'll all give it a try. ;)

2009-04-28T16:25:00.002+01:00

More sketches on the sketch blog. I'm a tower inferno of frustration over this swine flu pandemic of misinformation we have going on, so I'll keep on keeping my mouth shut.

2009-04-08T23:53:00.003+01:00

I really have to try to represent myself better on this and on the other side.

Blogging isn't just a matter of being active and/or productive - its also a matter of being fairly fearless in your attitude to what might be said or done about it. Whether you do something fairly harmless like draw or review things you've seen or heard, or if you go further and comment on everyday life, the choices and politics around you. It's a long road to do something that's worth your time with these things, and one I've already failed at once in this very blog.... I'll try faster/harder/longer/harder etc...

2009-03-04T16:38:00.003Z

Okay, it doesn't seem to matter what I try or who I contact, blogging from my phone is a total bust. There's just either A: an unsurmountable technical problem of it being unsupported, or B: it being too expensive cos I have to load the PC page as opposed to the Mobile page. Anyways, I'll have to revert to blogging from the keyboard.

My sketchblog was updated, you can find it here.

2009-02-17T14:41:00.000Z

Testing mobile blogging. Testing, testing, 1, 2.

2009-02-01T00:36:00.002Z

I'm not breaking my new resolution, I've been trying to post via mobile blogger, but my phone carrier doesn't support the technology. Another hurdle to get over. :(

My brother's band - Breakdown Rambler - are releasing their album on Friday 13th of February in the Roisin Dubh, Galway. If you can physically get there, you should go there. Now. Form a queue.

2009-01-23T03:56:00.004Z

So I need to get organised. (Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before)... I stuck up a new sketch blog around about here somewhere. I'll figure out how to link them up again. I'm up at 4 am with the insomnia again... tsk, it's so pesky.

Off to WARPCon for the weekend. Looking forward to stomping around Cork for a while. And I'm not DJ'ing there this year. That's sad news and great news at the same time - no extra baggage to bring. I'm kind of sick of carting Cd's and so forth around to Cons.

2009-01-16T03:45:00.003Z

Oh man, have I fallen behind in this. This is what I was talking about before with blogging being a habit. Is it too late for a New Year Resolution? Maybe a Chinese New Year Resolution.

Let's go with 2:

1: Draw more.

2: Blog more.

It took me a while to find, but I want to recommend it now that I've found it. The vector drawing app Alchemy - http://al.chemy.org/ is absolutely awesome. Even if you don't draw, you should download it to play with it. And you'll have so much fun in this playtime. Particularly if you have a microphone!?! Go find out.

2008-12-25T01:52:00.001Z

Happy Christmas! Merry Everybody!

2008-12-11T11:06:00.002Z

I had no internet, but I just got hooked up. :) Woo-hoo. I've also been relatively productive, art & portfolo wise. Give me a couple of days and I'll fix this up. More stuff on the site.

2008-11-16T22:00:00.002Z

Oh, and I got an email invite from out of the blue to join this website - CGHub. It's kind of a facebook for Artists. With no applications and annoyances, just galleries.

Sweet.

2008-11-16T21:40:00.002Z

Fringe is no X-Files. Or perhaps, as Mykul says, we're just too old to be impressed by that kind of conspiracy-driven, breathless, over the top, "fringe technology", exploratory style drama. And it's way more slick than the X-Files ever was. Or maybe again, it's a lot cheaper to make slick TV shows in this day and age. So, is Fringe sub-par or am I getting old and cynical?

It's hard to say.

4 days of work in a row. donalfall is tired. What I can say is that right now, with my brain in no condition to consider seious topics, Fringe is quite entertaining, even if it's not changing my life. Great TV can change your life, or at least how you perceive the narratives of your life, and inform you of how different people live their lives. The Wire changed how I see Police Detectives. Band of Brothers changed how I perceive how War is conducted. That kind of thing. I notice those are both HBO shows. That probably isn't indicitive of anything in particular.

2008-11-15T22:15:00.002Z

Well, no-one offered me any jobs, disgusting, illegal or otherwise to get me to New Zealand. :(

Meanwhile, my facebook sketchbook for those who are interested.

2008-11-13T23:04:00.002Z

This is what I've been talking about before. You allow yourself to stop for even a minute and next thing the spark goes out. You have to keep pedalling the bike constantly to keep the lightbulb going. Or something to that effect.

I also really, really wish I had metric shitloads of money. Actually, even an imperial one would do. Conceptart.org are having their most recent workshop in New Zealand this week and I would kill to be there. So if anyone has anything that needs doing tonight that will make me enough cash for a flight and food to and in New Zealand, I will do it. Probably. Almost definately.

I can't get into the workshop anymore, but I can hang around outside and beg for art. Or inspiration, or whatever they'll give me. Some of the coolest people in the world are all in one place in New Zealand, right this minute.

And I'm in galway....

2008-11-03T02:58:00.002Z

I'm probably going to split this into 2 blogs in order to gain some coherence and focus.

2008-10-16T00:23:00.002+01:00

I'm feeling in need of a change. Something to get things moving. So I'm embarking on a project, returning to an idea I had years ago. A comic/writing anthology by a collective I'm going to assemble out of the jgsaw of humanity I can find lying around. :) My original intention was to call it Graphomania, an idea I'm going to stick with. Anyone interested can find it through Facebook and apply to join.

I'm also loving Human Giant - I had never heard of or seen these guys until recently, but now that I've been turned on to them I can't stop checking their clips - look up Human Giant on Youtube, you won't regret it. Unless you're dead inside. ;)

2008-10-14T14:32:00.001+01:00

I need to add an addendum to my last post. Apparently the Crystal Castles gig in Dublin was exactly the same, so the abrupt stage end is obviously part of the act they're pedalling. Which, IMHO, is fair enough. Sound system in Cuba still wasn't up to the task, but at least I feel better about the end of the gig.

2008-10-04T00:02:00.002+01:00

So, I was desperately searching for a ticket to the Heineken Green Energy event in Galway - Crystal Castles live in the Cuba nightclub on Eyre Square! Crystal Castles are the band I'm the most excited about this year, just like Battles last year or The Go! Team the year before. Normally the free tickets for the Green Energy events are plentiful, but this was a hot, hot gig - lots of people were pushing for very limited space. I kind of resigned myself to having to pay for tickets in Dublin, rather than get a free promo for galway. Then I____. came through for me and got me in, mostly by queueing virtually for days, hanging around the forums etc til tickets came her way.

Last night (Thursday) rolled around and we headed on up to Cuba for the gig. The place was professionally presented by Heineken, lots of green lights on the building, more dancing on the buildings across the street and lots of promotional staff, a "transformer"-style robot, a guy in an alien suit (although his leotard was a little too skin-tight, and a whole load of girls in military-style costume. You got in, got tagged with a bracelet and neckband and free Heineken was pushed on you. All a very smooth process though, with no hitches involved - they could handle an excited crowd and it showed.

The support was Spilly Walker - David Kitt and his brother performing some very polished, very funky electronica. I didn't even know who was up for support and was assuming a DJ or some other filler material, but this was quality music by a professional normally associated with the singer/songwriter genre, and not really an act I would have expected good things from. So I was pleasantly surprised very early in the night. Not too many of the crowd danced for them, and most didn't even seem to be listening to them, which was a shame. I think Spilly Walker is a good side project for Kitt, and I think they'll shine as headline acts in their own right. At least in a perfect world.

The first sign that anything would go amiss was at the bar. As a non-drinker accompanying someone who doesn't normally drink beer, I was assuming that the only beer available would be Heineken, but that we could get some soft drinks/spirits/mixers. Nope, only Heineken tonight mate. We gave up on the bar and headed back to the dance floor. Once the Kitt brothers had finished up, various sound engineers began getting the stage ready for the main act and people began to crowd in tighter and tighter to the fairly limited space that is Cuba's top floor. Most of the crowd were young - very young, I thought, looking around. I know that 'Castles got famous partly for being on Skins, but I thought their fan base would be more among Galways alternative/indie set of seasoned concert goers.

The second sign that anything was amiss was the sight of those various sound engineers realising that the microphone set up wasn't working and spending nearly half an hour after the support act changing mic channels and trying to find working ones. That is way too much fooling around to be doing when the crowd is getting overly eager. It's way too much fooling around to be doing after ten o'clock at night. This stuff should be sorted from before the venue opens, and your equipment should be reliable enough that even if there is a problem later you can fix it quickly - five minutes tops. I guess I should say that the gig was likely to end when the venue opened as a nightclub at 11 o'clock, so this fooling around is eating seriously into how long the performance could possibly be.

Anyway, at about twenty past ten Ethan Kath walked onto the stage and started up his keyboard loops, Korg and Apple Mac at hand. The crowd started to go crazy and surge for the front, which i took as my signal to dive straight into the middle. Alice Glass was on the stage and screaming about 5 seconds later, which only brought out the frenzy in the crowd. This was jam-packed and sardine-tight stuff. Jumping got you suspended off the floor. Dancing was impossible. You moved with the crowd or not at all. It was claustrophobic and brilliant, sweat-soaked and horrible. In this way, it was the perfect venue. If you take Crystal Castles' music as presenting a certain kind of atmosphere, what happened at the front of that dance floor was exactly the physical embodiment of that atmosphere. This was the experience that their songs suggest, it was like being in a live recording of the perfect video for "Alice Practise". Down in the middle, inches from the stage, supporting Glass when she started stage-diving wildly was the gig I was hoping for. Crushed together. Barely moving. Moving en masse. It was, for those front hundred people, an epic night. Brilliant.

Just around eleven, there was a sound like a speaker blowing somewhere, and Glass was still moving her mouth, but the vocals disappeared. The music hit on for another couple of seconds, then crashed to a halt. Crystal Castles disappeared from the stage, angrily, I thought. Heading over to the sides, I was informed that that for the last thirty - forty minutes no-one over off the dancefloor had heard anything but fuzz and distortion. There was only one area worth being in. Maybe the front hundred were happy, and the odd other fan, but the other couple hundred punters were either confused, unhappy or had left already. The sound system hadn't been up to the task this night - it just couldn't handle it.

And finally, we encountered the third factor that almost made it not worth our time to have come to a free gig - the queue for the cloak room. I____ had left her jacket in at the start of the night, but retrieving it was a totally different matter. It was insanity. That is to say, that if the front rows of the gig had been insanity of the best fashion possible to experience, this was the worst insanity of a crowd to have to struggle through. There was no control, and not a single person displayed any patience whatsoever. Just a huge, 90 degree arc of people maybe 15 foot long, all thrashing and panicking about getting their stuff as quickly as possible. From that behaviour, an outsider would have thought that anything in the cloakroom in 20 minutes time was going to get burned or dumped. Your coats would still be there in 20 minutes time, people. They'd still have been there the next day if you came back for them. It was ludicrous, complete madness. All it needed was one bouncer to take charge and push people into a queue, but instead we had huge fat young men trying to push everyone else to the floor so they could walk over them and get to that counter first. Morons.

We escaped intact though. Somehow.

I'll sum up the night briefly. It was epically, epically brilliant. Crystal Castles are worth seeing for the experience of seeing them. It was tragically also a really shit night, punctuated by really crap events. I'm still glad I was there, but only just.

2008-09-22T16:52:00.002+01:00

Just saw "Tropic Thunder" last night, and it was definately worth my couple of euros to go to. There's quite a few chuckles in the first 20 minutes or so, but it isn't until what happens to Steve Coogan happens, and then you laugh out loud for quite a long time indeed.

And Tom Cruise is awesome in it. If he's planning a late-career turn around, he's executing it rather well. Since Collateral he's been great in movies, as opposed to just bland. Or just being himself.

2008-09-11T01:56:00.002+01:00

I guess I have my "side" picked for the US election now. Til sunday morning I didn't give a crap who won. I have no idea what Barack Obama stands for - who does? - but I like his game, and I have nothing against John McCain and I instinctively lean rightwards. The two Vice Presidentials seemed like smart choices too - recruit in experience or appeal to segments of the population that you traditionally don't cover, try and manipulate the disaffected supporters of the other parties base, whatever.

But reading more in the Sunday commentries here in Ireland, bits of the picture come out that you might miss if you're not paying close attention. And the worst curse word I know of was mentioned in connection with one of the VP nominees. The C word.

Creationist.

Barack Obama, you would get my vote if I had one. It's funny how one thing can swing your mood completely. I hope it swings americans too.

2008-09-05T11:35:00.002+01:00

Back from Switzerlanden. Wow it was warm there. Hot even. It was grand during the day, but it sure gets humid in the evening when you're that far inland.

Fun fact - they came up with the Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano, the town we were in.

Anyhow, back into it. Working.

2008-08-25T20:37:00.002+01:00

Working more than usual. :( It's against my philosophy of life. One more day in Galway, then away to Switzerland, as stated. I'm dying to go. We're landing in Zurich, which is a cit I've only seen once and briefly. It'll be good to investigate it more and in depth.

Work is such a barrier to art and generally enjoying life. It is definately for suckers. Suckers like me. Boi.

The main barrier to sleep in galway this week is one of the Irish Navy boats, which seems to have a "run the generators really loudly" policy at night, while keeping their floodlights on really brightly. The non-galway specific threat to sleep is The Wire season 2. When it's critically noted to be "Shakespearean", they're not lying. I'm sad that I missed it when it was current and being broadcast. The internet version is doing me just fine though.

2008-08-20T21:42:00.002+01:00

I'm away to Switzerland in 7 days - really loking forward to it. Swiss culture is great. And clean. :) And very scenic. I really wanted to get down to Cork this week but i just ain't going to have the time, so I'm missing a birhday that was pretty important for me to attend. I'll have to try to be there in spirit.

Oh, and I finally was given the 1st series of "the Wire" to watch. And it's everything its fans have said it is. It's fricking fantastic. If you haven't watched it, go do so now. But you do need to watch every episode in order - it's a slow burner, but a really worthy one. HBO make the best television.

2008-08-18T20:05:00.002+01:00

Access to a fresh computer hasn't spen up the work yet. Maybe the advantages take a while to kick in. Still haven't arranged to recieve my own computer yet, but it's only a matter of inertia.

2008-08-15T10:16:00.003+01:00

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon, but it's only laziness that has stopped me from arranging the documents for recieving said new laptop. Laziness is a terrible thing. My gf bought a new laptop though, so the victory is partial. I have access to a new computer, so it kind of counts. ;)

*edit* Apparently you don't seem to be able to edit the "poll" feature on blogger if anyone votes. You have to remove it and start again. :( Anyone got any enlightenment on that?

2008-08-09T00:06:00.001+01:00

Just days away from getting a new computer! Hurrah! Things are going to improve now. Dell make a sexy laptop.

2008-07-30T01:51:00.003+01:00

Apologies - mostly to myself - for the recent hiatus. I have a bad case of the work going on this week, and two of my best friends got married on saturday, so time is non-exsistant. I am trying to get to grips with watercolours by copying sections of masterworks that were originally done in oil. This may seem like an odd approach to you. You are 100% correct.

Here's an under-drawing. I'll pop up the watercolour soon...

2008-07-22T09:32:00.002+01:00

And that's how easily 5 days pass. I want to give a mention to Stranger than Rain, partly for doing what I should be doing, and partly for the great choice of reference in his current strip. Nice.

Scribbles:

2008-07-17T02:27:00.002+01:00

In my defense, I was working the last 4 days... pretty much. This is what I meant earlier about blogging though as a habit - either you make it a habit or you let it slide. I have to try and push this as a marker - a progress marker, or whatever. It's good to have routines as long as they're not stifling.

I have a load of scribbles to upload as well, but that can wait for later. This is just touching base with this project again - this blog is mainly for myself. Routines again, and establishing them.

Off to Cork tomorrow for the day. Looking forward to seein the gang down there. Thursday is apparently the day for visiting!

Older scribbles, to whet the appetite:

2008-07-11T02:40:00.002+01:00

Again, posting at a ridiculous hour in the morning. And again, my computer caused me art problems today. It crashed during the creation of a photoshop file, and every version of the piece I had previously saved were corrupt. So it hadn't been working right all along. :(

Some of my friends gave me a collection towards a new computer for my birthday there, over a month ago. I should really get on with it or they'll feel let down. :| I want to make a print (digital print) that will only have 10 copies (or however many people contributed) just for them. And that was the piece that exploded earlier. Lousy computer.

Ah well, another day another crash I guess. I'll have to sort out my new machine by the end of this month. Money is a tricky thing to find. I've been looking under stones for weeks and have only found 10c so far. Once, when I was in Cork, unemployed and broke, myself and my housemate scoured nearby streets for cash and found enough for food. Ah, harsh times.

Was up in Eyre Square there for an open air showing of the Talking Heads "Stop making Sense" concert movie. David Byrne.... if I was to choose a musician to become, magically overnight, like, I'ld be him. Or possibly Mike Patton. I've been youtubing a lot for old FNM videos recently... great memories.

I'll try to bring the art tomorrow. This is starting to feel like college. ;)

2008-07-09T11:27:00.003+01:00

I've been working out on paper what I think I should include in the portfolio when it's done. It's hard, again, to know if one should emphasise diversity of skill or focus on one particular aspect.

Portfolios around Ireland tend to be short. Small, that is. Most people say 20 - 25 really good pages. Portfolios elsewhere seem to be longer, like 40 - 50 really good pages. So at the moment, I'm aiming for 50 and I can cut and choose where I want to. Most of the stuff below is done, but I guess I'ld like to scan them all in and digitally print them again with a unifying border, motif or signature. Also, if I was lugging a portfolio around I wouldn't want to be carrying originals.

And I could have a pdf of stuff on cd to give to places to keep as well, which would be neat. I'ld like to do some of the short ateliers abroad in the next few years. There's one in London I'm looking at, could be a lot of fun & a great learning experience. I guess I'll have to keep working...

portfolio layout

5 - Sketches and Studies (collages of sketchwork. anatomy bits and pieces. probably scanned and printed)
5 - Life Drawings (finished ones. I have some 30 mins and 1hr ones)
5 - Master Copies (half drawn, half painted)
5 - Portraits (half drawn, half painted)
5 - Photography (half big prints and half collections printed out on one page)
5 - Creative Works(ink drawing, painting and large creative drawing)
5 - Perspective and Landscapes (perspective drawn, landscape painted)
5 - Documentation (like photos of the set projects I've worked on & notbatman, etc)
5 - Prints (traditional prints, mostly screenprints)
5 - Design Work (graphic design pages, past and present)

2008-07-08T23:46:00.002+01:00

I guess that blogging shows its greatest effectiveness in giving one a deadline - did I update today? How long has it been? etc etc. But of course, if it goes on too long (see first entry below) you just don't bother coming back for years.... :)

My computer, as is well known in certain circles these days, is pretty much dead. I've been collecting funds for a new one, but it is slow going when you're under the average income spectrum. Maybe other studenty people have their families buy computers for them. My computer wouldn't run the scanner today - it just flat out refused. Well, it crashed, which is the same thing. I really want to put more art here. I'll get right on it soon.

donalfall.

2008-07-05T02:23:00.003+01:00

I don't want to get into a habit of late-night blogging, but I've ended up awake again at unusual hours.... or usual hours? I'm really tempted to buy a DS so I can load it up with a huge memory card and a copy of colours - http://colors.brombra.net/ - if you haven't seen what this program can do, and you own a DS, you should think about downloading it now.
The problem with portfolio-planning is always what to put in, what ratios of stuff to have in it, what sizes & how much collage pieces you have in it. So on and so forth. Whether to tightly focus it or seem like a Jack-of-all-Trades. Hmmm. Dilemmas. Now lets see... I have explored Michelangelo' s Libyan Sibyl on more than one occasion. ( I consider Master Copies to be vital to a good portfolio). I'm going to revisit it for this portfolio on some grand scale. A big, tightly controlled A0 version, done in graphite. Or red chalk. Here's an old version, pencil on paper... a little bigger than a4.

You can easily google for "libyan sibyl" to see the original. Night night!

donalfall.

2008-07-04T14:31:00.003+01:00

Well, in testament to Ireland's new professional image, our pump was completely replaced within 36 hours of it exploding. Pretty neat, eh? And they say there's a recession on. And so, the showers run on time and the toilets fill in seconds.

I won a table from Amnesty International. In a draw. That's one of those things where you feel guilty about claiming your prize - like when you win money on charity scratchcards. I was only entering - and only once - in order to show support for Amnesty. Now I'm costing them something. What a dilemma. But it is a nice table.

donalfall.

2008-07-03T01:22:00.001+01:00

Wow, look how old the post below is. I had to trawl my memory for old passwords to now-defunct email accounts in order to reclaim this. Mental. I'm currently in the process of creating my "professional level" portfolio. I need somewhere to post up stuff for comments by all. It's now 1:23 am, so it's a little late for postings now, so I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Oh, and the pump just blew out. It's going to be hard to run the hot water here for a while. ;)

2002-10-31T17:18:00.000Z

31 10 02
Yackedy Yack

What are they doing to me? I can't get anymore busy, I just don't have the time.

My life has become an almost endless progression of sleep/work/sleep/work/sleep and this week involved very little of items 1 3 & 5 on that list. Sucky. And they keep giving me more responsibility??? What are they thinking? What i have can be a killer in the wrong circumstance... Its not like I'm swanning around relaxing or anything.

Oh yeah - XML breaks Blogspot diaries. What the hell are they thinking? Get with the future!

The next update for The Shard is coming tomorrow. And as soon I will have my own little office, the updates should be thick and fast from then on. Hopefully.

Later,

Donalfall