FrogDaddy Ink

A Long December

2009-12-29T00:36:00.010-05:00

A long December-
And there's reason to believe,
maybe this year will be better than the last.
I can't remember-
the last thing that you said as you were leaving,
when the days go by so fast. - Counting Crows

Hello. I don't know how long it's been since my last post.
I barely even peek at the blog anymore. I can't blame you
if the feeling is mutual. I'd like to explain my absence to you-
and ask your indulgence, as it will be a wordy post- most of
it unpleasant. But I will try to fill it with some pictures and will
end it with what will be some of my final KennaSketches for FrogDaddy Ink.
2009 has been one of the hardest years I've ever endured-
and I was barely able to make it through it myself. More on that later...
Sometime in June I received a call from my youngest brother Darin-
I could tell by his tone that his message was serious.
My mother, who has been battling cancer for 21 years of her life
was diagnosed with Stage III lung cancer. This was startling because
when first diagnosed with it back in 87, it was mostly located in the lymph nodes at her throat area.
After heavy radiation therapy, she was back on her feet and
performing her duties as "Mom". She's always been the glue that held this family of 11 children together.
Seven years later, it resurfaced again, and she had to have a tracheotomy and was limited to speaking with an electronic voice box. She managed to still keep us in command with a well-placed "Beep!" and was as eloquent and feisty as ever.
But the cancer would never truly go away. It would surface every five years or so as a brain lesion or some shadowy mass on an MRI scan.
But with each developing threat, she'd somehow stare it down without blinking.
It would've killed lesser men, never mind this 5' 2" spit-fire.
Doctors would look at her medical history logs at the hospital (which were
the size of phone books by this time) and marvel at her resolve and will to live.
One even called her a "medical miracle".
But when we heard the cancer had migrated to her lungs and chemotherapy would be involved, we all worried that at 74, her body could only absorb so much punishment.
She would spend much of the summer practically living in Sloan-Kettering Hospital on the upper east side in New York City-renown world-wide for it's cancer research and care.
She had just started her chemo treatments, and they were really taking their toll on her.
In the middle of all this grim news, Darin, my aforementioned brother, gave birth to his first child-
Ronan Jack, on July 29th at NY Presbyterian Hospital, quite literally up the block from Sloan.

I happened to be at the hospital at the time and my mother's situation had
taken a grave turn. Her colon was failing and there was a chance she would have to have it removed, greatly reducing
her quality of life, which is exactly what she was afraid having chemo treatments would do to her.
There was also the added risk that the surgery performed in her weakened state could kill her.
My brother-sensing that he may never get a chance to have mom meet the newest member of the Byrne clan,
snuck little Ronan up to her room where she got to hold him for all of 30 seconds before the nurses whisked them out of there.

The H1N1 virus scare prohibits anyone under the age of 13 on those floors, so it was heartbreaking
for both to not be together any longer. After much debate upon a course of action, the doctors decided to try to flush the colon out, and after an exhausting 48 hour period, her colon had went from being pronounced "dead" to "functioning" again- another crisis averted.
But my mother at this point had decided that she was not going to continue her chemotherapy treatments any longer.
Doctors had suggested trying radiation once more in concentrated bursts at the lung area, since her throat was
over-radiated from the tracheotomy. My mother, ever the fighter, agreed to it, but if this did not work,
she was going to let nature take it's course.
On August 14th, Nearly a week after mom's colon scare, my oldest brother Terry, suffered a heart attack.
He has also had a stent placed in one of his major arteries, and has had triple-bypass surgery to boot,
so this was his third heart-related attack within the last 15 years. Terry was lucky enough to have survived this one as well. Thank God.

We happen to have a long history of heart disease in my family. More on that later.
In early September, Darin and his wife Ursula had Ronan Jack baptized in the parish we all grew up attending,
The Church of St. Columba on 25th street. Literally around the corner from where my folks currently reside.
My mother was bound and determined to attend this special ceremony.
We had her favorite pastor, Fr. Frank, who had left the church for another parish in the Bronx come down to preside over the festivities. Midway through the mass, my mother had a hard time breathing.
Without warning, she started to cough up blood through the hole in her throat. The entire church froze in horror.
My older brother John is a nurse and tended to her while she waved at Fr. Frank to continue the service,
still coughing up blood throughout the rest of the ceremony.
She simply would not leave until that blessed holy water touched her grandson's head.
I marvel at her courage. I was sitting in the row in front of her with my crying daughter-absolutely horrified by what was happening to her grandma, and it took all I had not to completely lose my composure myself.
We rushed her back to Sloan afterwards and found out that the cancer was causing mucus plugs in her throat.
Her condition was worsening.
They say God only gives you as much as you can handle...at this point I felt like He was just piling on.
My younger brother James' wife Dana was diagnosed at this time with a rare form of carcinoma called the Brack Gene.
It is inherited, and if it's in your family lineage, there is a 50% chance you will pass it along to your children.
She tested positive for it, and found out she had breast cancer. I wish I could describe her in a way that would do justice to her youthful beauty, her grace and her joie de vivre. She could make Grace Kelly look like one of those MTV Jersey Shore girls.
I could not think of a person who deserved this less than her. She lived a pure, clean life and doted on their four year old son Max Rocky. On September 30th, she had a double mastectomy performed and is still getting regularly chemotherapy doses to keep this devastating disease in check. She's faring well, Thank God.

By mid-October my Mom was pretty much on oxygen 24-7. We had a tank at the house when she wasn't at the hospital.
Her bad days were starting to outnumber the good ones.
We needed something to keep her spirits up and a date to look forward to. She normally spends Thanksgiving at my sister Maryann's house in Pennsylvania, but knew traveling that far with an oxygen tank in tow was a tall order. She decided it should be at my house in Edison NJ, which is only a 45 minute drive from NY. I cannot describe how honored I was at this choice.
I was also quite terrified of the thought of 52 of my immediate relatives squeezing into my tiny home. But somehow, the weather cooperated and she spent a lovely day on my couch being surrounded by the people who love her the most, which is always what she's always wanted out of her life.

It is a day I will cherish as long as I live...
Which almost wasn't very long...
On December 6th, after cooking my wife a lovely birthday breakfast of bacon, egg, and cheese omelet and then enjoying one of them myself, I found myself feeling what I thought at the time was one hell of a case of acid reflux. After a few painful moments of not being able to breathe, my wife dialed 911 and I was whisked to our local hospital where it was revealed that I, following in my older brother's footsteps, was suffering from a 90% clogged lower anterior descending, or in layman's terms: a friggin' heart attack!
Those who are Facebook friends of mine can read all the gory details of that week in my notes section.
I guess it was a combination of family history, multiplied by about a decade of bad eating habits, divided by years of sitting at a computer without a regular gym routine, with a dash of the stress-inducing events of the last few paragraphs you've just read. I am truly lucky to be alive. I was discharged that Thursday evening and received a phone call from James:
"I know what you're going through and how unfair this is to ask of you, but if you're able to come into the city to see mom tomorrow, you really should."
I had asked the entire family to keep my news from her only to discover that were keeping their own secret from me:
she had nearly passed away herself, while I was recovering. They did not think she would last the weekend.
I got to the house Friday morning and to see how frail she had become since the two weekends from Thanksgiving was more than my damaged heart could bear. Her tiny frame was nearly skeletal now, her fingertips to elbows bruised from lack of circulation, her once full head of hair looked thin and fair, and there was a constant pool of blood at the rim of the hole in her throat.
I immediately broke down and cried at her bedside. She reached out and fumbled for her voicebox, and with my youngest sister Kathleen's hand navigating it up to her larynx, she said to me:
"You always were a crybaby...." I couldn't help but laugh...Just like mom....
My sister gasped and said- "Glenn, you don't understand...She hasn't said a word in two days!"
It would be her last words to me.
I spent the rest of the weekend mostly recovering from my own brush with mortality and visiting my cardiologist. For some reason that Wednesday- December 16th...I knew I had to make the journey into the city to see her...I arrived at about 11:30 to find her with my oldest sister Maureen, who's been with her every step of this heartbreaking journey for the last half year.
Mom looked even worse than she did the Friday before...her eyes had rolled to the back of her lids, she wasn't eating, and the only indication that she was alive at all was the occasional intake of oxygen.
Maureen told me that she could still hear everything I said even if she was completely unresponsive.
She asked me if I wanted some time alone with her. It was then I realized that throughout these last six months,
I've never been in a room alone with her... there was always a nurse, a doctor, a sibling, or my father. I told her I did.
And then I poured my heart out... I thanked her for the mother she's been to me, the in-law she's been to my wife,
the grandmother she's been to my daughter. I apologized for being the "son who never calls", as I was often labeled.
Things I've wanted to tell her for years came flowing out as freely as the tears that were running down my face.
"You're my hero, mom...I love you....Goodbye." and I had to leave, lest my grief overwhelm me...
I didn't want the last thing she heard to be me wailing like a banshee.
My sister went in to look after her while I went to the bathroom to compose myself.
Five minutes later, she came out of the room with a stunned look on her face.
"She waited for you Glenny....She's gone..."

The next few days were a blur for me. Her wake was packed with old neighborhood friends. My mother it seems,
was a mother to all of them as well. Tears flowed freely and many pleasant memories were exchanged.
I was literally a week removed from the Critical Care Unit and was doing everything in my power to keep breathing.
The loss of this incredible woman in my life still hasn't quite sunk in yet.
Her funeral was everything she would've wanted it to be. A standing room only church.
Fr. Frank yet again came charging down from the Bronx and delivered wonderful stories of this woman he'd come to love.
My Uncle Bill who came up with my mother and father when they first courted, gave an absolutely
beautiful eulogy that had some in the church standing and applauding when he finished and my brothers
and sisters went up to the altar and sang one of my mothers favorite John Denver songs- "For Baby (For Bobbie)"
I felt her presence there among us in a spiritual way I haven't felt in many a decade.
I'm keeping a brave face for McKenna this Holiday season, but I feel the invisible itch an amputee must feel
for his missing limb. She's truly gone. My life-our lives- will never be the same.

I hope this explains my long absence from this blog. I will not be updating FrogDaddy Ink for the foreseeable future.
This very well may be my last post altogether. I've not felt the desire to draw for awhile now, and while this saddens me,
I feel like I should be spending my energies on getting my life priorities back in order, which includes taking care of myself and my family.
To all of my fellow bloggers who have given me so much encouragement these past four years, I thank you and beseech you to still keep at it. Maybe one day you'll inspire me to jump again back into the fray.

Sincerely,

FrogDaddy

December 28 2009

I Love You Mom.

2009-08-12T20:37:00.002-04:00

Please get well soon.

Borrowed Time

2009-07-19T21:07:00.005-04:00

"Counting stars and passing cars
on the Interstate.
The end is near...I feel it dear,
but I'm not afraid.

Step...Step right over the line...
and onto borrowed time." - A Fine Frenzy

Wow. The Prodigal Son returns... It's been awhile...
I apologize to anyone who still frequents this site.
It's been close to half a year since my last post.
I blame Bettie Page. (Seriously...I didn't want to
throw anything new up till I finished her, and I just never
did..sorry to my fellow bloggers, who all produced amazing
work out of that challenge.) I will post my half-finished
rendering I started just so you know that I tried...

I'll follow that with some more McKenna sketches
drawn over the last half year...I'm going through
a lot of personal things this year, and the desire to
draw has been diminished somewhat...I'm hoping
to find that spark again, and bring it back to the
blog. Stay tuned...

Ribbit!-
FrogDaddy

You Owe Me an I.O.U.

2009-02-28T14:20:00.002-05:00

I know, I know....I'm late with my promised Bettie Page tribute post....
Most of my fellow bloggers have already posted theirs...it's en route,
I promise...I've been drawing so much at work lately, that I've been giving
my wrists a rest on the train rides home. But here's a quick holdover, till
I'm able to better flesh out my Bettie sketch....
It's (who else?) my girl in her fly DKNY parka...she seems as over this cold
weather as I am..."Spring's just around the corner," as Frog said to Toad...
I had also meant to post my 2008 Music Playlist which always seems to
bring out comparative selections from my mates...Please feel free to post your
own top ten or anything else your listening to currently that's rocking your socks off.

The FrogDaddy 2008 Playlist

1) Time To Pretend- MGMT
2) Paper Planes- M.I.A.
3) Take Back The City- Snow Patrol
4) Attention- The Raconteurs
5) Chemtrails- Beck
6) I'm Outta Time- Oasis
7) Gallery Piece- Of Montreal
8) A-Punk- Vampire Weekend
9) Churches Under The Stairs- Brendan Canning
10) You Don't Know Me- Ben Folds (featuring Regina Spektor)

xoxo-

FrogDaddy

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

2009-01-05T00:48:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year, Party People!

Here's a special photo-filled blog story...please to enjoy...
My daughter has always had a life-long obsession with "The Wizard of Oz".
I guess most girls do...maybe because the protagonist, Dorothy, is a girl, maybe because it's
central theme of there being no place like home pulls at your inner child, or maybe it's the ruby slippers, who knows?
The point I'm making here is, she loves it...
She's been Dorothy for Halloween three times!
So when she turned seven in 2006, my wife and I decided to take her to see
the Broadway play, "Wicked". We had purchased the soundtrack so she knew a lot of the music already.
We kept it a surprise until the morning of her birthday and let her open the tickets when she got out of bed.
This is her reaction.

Since you guys are going to think "Wicked" is sponsoring my blog, I won't go into detail about the show itself,
but it was a magical night that exceeded expectations for all of us.

Shortly afterwards, I proceeded to try to paint a mural inspired by the play in my daughter's room.
I only wanted to use the existing paint colors that we'd already used in the room, with a hint of green.
Here's some of the preliminary drawings.

Elphaba-the name of the Wicked Witch of the West in the play- cut a very precise silhouette
in the poster I was recreating, so it took a lot of tape to get the shape just right.

Here's how the graphic over her bed turned out...The contrast of the black and the introduction of red
on the witch's lips felt out of place and later changed...

She's off to see the Wizard!

I wanted to use the second wall to do a grand scene with some of the other characters from
the original movie. (Who all make clever appearances in the play as well) I wanted to use the
artwork from the original Frank L. Baum stories, beautifully drawn by illustrator W.W. Denslow.

Here's how the graphic turned out when I removed the black and just made it tonal.

Action shots.

The Emerald City. (Based on the Map of Oz that acts as the curtain before the play begins.)

and, of course, Dorothy Gale.

Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the scope of the thing.

I've spent the last four days trying to finally finish what I'd originally started in 2007.
You ever have one of those things on your "To Do" list that you think you'll never get to?
My resolution this new year is to finish 'em all...
Her reaction to her new room made all the work worth it.

Now That I've Got Your Attention

2008-12-29T18:25:00.003-05:00

"I try a subtle suggestion-
a more direct approach.
But I can't make a connection...
You're beyond reproach" - The Raconteurs

Here we are folks...the dream we all dream off...
Happy Almost New Year! I've been doing so many side projects,
I figured I may as well post 'em and finish 2008 strong.
I do an annual calendar for my family's Christmas party and
decided to take this year's cover back to the 80's when the graffiti guys
used to bomb our apartment hallways with tags.. The clan at the
bottom row beneath the title are my parents, brothers, and sisters.
It was well received at the party...

My four year old nephew Max was born on Christmas Day, so we wanted to get him something special this year. I created a stencil of him on a swing in Photoshop, and created his name using the chains. I printed it on heat transfer paper and ironed it on an oatmeal heather tee.
His reaction when he opened it was priceless-
"It's Me!!! IT'S MAAAAAAXXXXXX!!!!!!! MOMMY!! IT'S MAAAAAXXX!!!!!!"
He took off his sweater right then and put it on at the party!
Here's a little montage:

and finally, the week before we were to go to our in-law's house for Christmas Eve, I put the pencils on afterburner
and finished a portrait of them I'd been nursing since November...

Coming Soon!
The "Wicked" mural in my daughter's room that I've been working (more off than) on for over a year! I figure if I can't get it done this week,
I may as well paint the entire room over...
and I'm hoping to throw down a tribute to legendary pin-up beauty, Bettie Page, who passed away this month,
with my fellow bloggers during the month of January.
I'll also be dropping my annual 2008 music playlist, so while all the other bloggers are making
resolutions that they're bound to break, feel free to ring in the New Year
with Yours Truly-
FrogDaddy Ink
It always go down smoothly...

It's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

2008-12-11T23:48:00.005-05:00

"They're singing Deck the Halls
But it's not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
and all the fun we had last year"- U2 (covering a Phil Spector song, I think)

Happy Holidays!
Do you believe the end of the year is already upon us?
Crap! I just finished putting away the Halloween decorations!
The girl just turned nine last week...NINE!!!!
She's starting to question whether Santa really exists or not...
but she's asking it in a roundabout way in case there REALLY
is a Santa and he'll angrily pass over our house Christmas Eve because of her doubts.
I'm sure her friends at school are telling her the way things really work.
I know it seems cruel, but we're not going to tell her....
Because once that myth is busted, the whole business of the Easter
Bunny and the Tooth Fairy will be exposed as one big, fat, hairy lie.
And we've been lying to her about it for 9 years! She'll never trust us again!
She'll figure it out on her own, eventually- just like I did...three years ago...
I'm taking the last week of the month off and sincerely hope to finish
the mural I've been painting in her room, so this may be the last post
before the New Year...keep it happy and healthy my friends, and with a
lot of luck (and our new president), here's hoping that 2009 brings a lot
more joy to all of us than this year did....
Peace-
FrogDaddy

41

2008-11-18T09:00:00.003-05:00

"At the age of twenty, we don't care what the World thinks of us;
At the age of thirty, we worry about what it is thinking of us;
At forty, we discover that it wasn't thinking of us at all." - Anonymous

Hello my fellow Scorpios!
I turn 41 today- so if 40 is the new 20, I'm now of legal drinking age? Yes!!
We're hitting the end of the year, and things start moving fast...
McKenna's birthday's is next week (the day after Thanksgiving)
my wife's- a week later, then there's Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Festivus,
Christmas, Greek Christmas, New Year's...it never friggin ends!
We're going to pierce McKenna's ears for her birthday...(she doesn't
know it yet, so don't tell her!) It's a real shocker, because her mom was
firm on waiting till she turned 10, and I fall in line with whatever Michele's
thought process is on makeup/jewelry because I'm a guy and I rarely wear both...
So- like I was saying, were closing the books on '08...last call!
I'm "cleaning out my closet" with this sketchbook, so to speak...
Certain sketchbooks can be as special to you as an old,well-worn baseball glove...
This one has produced some real gems for me this year...I've nearly filled it, now
and hope the next one feels as familiar...Here's a few new sketches that
have been lying about, and some others that I normally wouldn't post,
but I'm a warts-and-all kinda Frog...

Ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

2008-10-30T22:31:00.004-04:00

"In this Town-
We call Home-
Everyone Hail to the Pumpkin song." - Danny Elfman

Boo!!!! Happy Halloween!
Since I moved to the Garden State, Halloween has been the one holiday that
has made me feel like I missed out on something by growing up in New York.
Back in the day, trick or treating for me meant starting at the 21st floor of my apartment building
and working my way down to street level. Somehow, this day brought out the McGyver in kids in my neighborhood....
There were some crafty mofos on my block! They would fill tube socks with baby powder and
drop a tennis ball in it, swing it around like a mace and "Thwack!!" you with it,
leaving a nice white powdery spot on your Superman cape. Or, they'd take the cap off an aerosol can,
attach it to the top of a can of shaving cream so it would shoot out like silly string- you'd get completely hosed with it...
as a kid, I remember Halloween being a day of sweetness and dread...
Out here though, the peoples really get their trick or treat on!
The kids are all candied up on goofballs and they bum rush the houses while their lil' sisters lag behind...
it's awesome! the houses are decorated in orange lights and fake cobwebs, with the appropriately spooky skeleton...
The girl gets so geeked, that I get a bit of a rush from it
myself... plus, I get every third Nestle Crunch bar.... man, I love crunch bars!

She's feeling a lil' Wicked this year...after being Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz 3 times,
she's finally going to be the Witch...but I think she'd tell you she's more Elphaba than
Margaret Hamilton.

G'night!
FrogDaddy

Corn Maze

2008-10-17T15:32:00.004-04:00

Hey True Believers!
Spent the last weekend in Pennsylvania pumpkin picking with my family and friends.
It was a lovely day and though the pickings were slim, we had delicious
cider smoothies, some caramel covered apples, and hit the hayride.
The highlight though, was this 4 acre Corn Maze that was shaped like
some Mayan ziggurat with historical clues placed inside to keep the kids
entertained while you wander around in it completely lost for 2 hours.
The kid at the front said it should take roughly 45 minutes...
McKenna was totally over it after 20 minutes...She has this phobia of getting
lost- when I'm driving in the car and even casually say to myself, "Where am I?"
she'll ask immediately in a fraught voice- "Are we lost, Daddy?"
So after an hour and half of wandering around the maize, (rimshot!)
our nerves were getting pretty raw....It didn't help matters much that I kept
referencing this retarded Human Giant sketch every half hour...
I'd come up from behind the stalks and whisper- "Corn Maaaaaaaaaaaazzzzze....."
my wife stopped laughing completely after the third time...
I'll try and see if the previous "Slideshow" post had emboldened me enough to try posting
my first video...I don't feel like I'm describing the ridiculousness of the day justice...
Hope you're all digging the foliage....I love this time of year....
FrogDaddy

Tattoo You

2008-10-04T00:31:00.003-04:00

"We got nothing to eat
We got nowhere to work
Nothing to drink
We just lost our shirts.
I'm on the dole
We ain't for hire.
Say what the hell
Say what the hell, Hang Fire"- The Rolling Stones

Hey Leaf Peepers!
It's feeling like Fall over here...
My daughter's really taking a liking to Project Runway...
I feel like she's imitating a runway model with this pose.
A lot of changes are happening for me professionally right now
and it's all come about so suddenly I'm not sure if it's a good or
bad change yet...at any rate, I'm gonna see how I roll with it.
Times is hard, ya know?
Keep your head up-
FrogDaddy

Slideshow

2008-09-21T20:58:00.001-04:00

The Century Mark

2008-08-12T19:46:00.000-04:00

"How can I make new again-
What rusts every time it rains?
And the rain it comes and floods our lungs-
We're just orphans in a tidal wave's wake." - Beck

This is officially my 100th post! Yes!
Now FrogDaddy Ink can officially go into syndication!
I'm poking my head out of the sands of the Jersey Shore
to post this lil' sketch of my lil' lovely. I'm really happy with the
way it turned out. I drew it on the way back from a business
trip to L.A. last week, so there's a little more love in this one
than your average 45 minute train ride Kenna Sketch.
Summer's nearly over already! I'm blown away by how fast these
seasons roll on by (cue: Chris Cornell acoustic guitar)
My girl's starting third grade (!) at the end of the month, and when I look
back at some of these old posts, I see there's no baby left in her anymore.
She's a full-grown Jo Bros. lovin', Myley Cyrus singin', Disney Channel
watchin' tween! She's an excellent kid, honestly...I'm quite a lucky dad...
She's really hoping she gets Miss Sheehan as a teacher,
and since she had a real ball buster for second grade last year,
(an hour and a half of homework each night?! In second grade?? Please...)
She deserves a nice one this year...I'll letcha know how it goes...
Enjoy your August!
See you in September-
Glenn

Summersong

2008-06-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled
She's grand the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand

Summer arrives with a length of lights
Summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave - The Decemberists

I hope you're all enjoying the lazy, hazy, crazy days.
Unless I get an incredible burst of creative mojo,
this'll be my last post for awhile...
Can't spend these days basking in the rays of an RGB monitor now!
Time to get out and enjoy life!

Ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Girls of Summer

2008-06-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

she's my fave
undressing in the sun
return to sea-bye
forgetting everyone
eleven high
ride a wave - The Pixies

Ribbit! FrogDaddy's back!
Here's a two-fer....The first is another shot at Mom and McK.....
I'm going to keep on trying to draw my wife right...This would be strike two.....
I started adding pencil to the blue line on the train home tonight, then
stopped because I thought it looked too heavy....totally looks weird now....
another one bites the dust....
The second sketch is of former Yankees relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain who will start the first game of his major league career tomorrow night...maybe this will bring the team some much needed luck...C'mon Yanks! Snap Outta It!

Barack The Vote

2008-05-07T21:23:00.000-04:00

Normally, I run a pretty apolitical blog...
I'm not well-versed in politics, and it tends
to bring out heated discussions that have
no place in an art related blog.
But ya gotta admit, the man's got style...

Let the Healing Begin!

2008-04-22T23:54:00.001-04:00

"Cause this is what you've waited for
A Chance to even up the score
And as these shadows fall on me now
I will somehow

Cause I'm picking up a message Lord
And I'm closer than I've ever been before

So if you have something to say
Say it to me now" - Glen Hansard

Welcome back!
I'm thrilled to report that my wife is recovering nicely
from her surgery. She had her thyroid removed last Monday,
because a non-cancerous tumor had grown to the size of
a small orange and was wrapped around her windpipe-
causing all sorts of breathing difficulties. It had to go.
It was a long day in the hospital. You know the drill
with surgery- no eating or liquids 12 hours prior-
and she was scheduled to go at 1:00.
We didn't see her doctor until 3:00- by that time, my poor girl
was exhausted with a massive hunger/caffeine headache...
I didn't get to see her again till about 6:00 p.m. and it was a quick
15 minute visit in the I.C.U. where she kept coming in and
out of consciousness and she was experiencing some
awful post-anesthesia nausea. (She had experienced the
same thing after McKenna was born) It was awful to see her in
such pain. If you think vomiting sucks, try it after getting a 3 inch
hole cut into your throat. Um...that was kind of macabre...sorry.
Her mom was at our house watching McKenna and I told her
I'd call her as soon as the surgery was over.
I call her and as soon as she answers, my voice catches and I'm done.
I can't even get the words out...the stress of it the entire day punches me
right in the neck and I spend about 10 minutes trying to compose myself
enough to explain to my very patient mother-in-law the status of her daughter's
well-being. Michele didn't come out of I.C.U till about 11:00...
Longest. Day. Ever.
We went home the next day and her mother (who also happens
to be a Head Nurse-could I be any luckier?) spent the rest of the week
with us, which put me in a world of ease. (I can not thank you enough Terry!)
'Chele had her stitches removed yesterday, and she's loving the fact that
her voice didn't change at all and she's rocking some fine scarves when we
go out now...My wife...tough cookie...
So the worst being over, we can get back on the road to recovery...
I'd like to thank everyone for their well-wishes and prayers during this time...

FrogDaddy

P.S.- I know, a wordy post, but I have a story about the dog sketch...
About a week and a half ago, a designer I work with asked me to draw a picture
of a dog for her assistant who's birthday was coming up.
I figured, "Why Not? I could use the practice as I rarely get to draw animals."
so she gives me the photo and tells me that her assistant absolutely loves her dog-
"Miss Little Sparkles", and it would be cool to include the
dog's name on the card as well...I think to myself- "Now THAT'S a strange name..."
Later on that week I ask the designer if she might've gotten her name switched up...
maybe it's "Little Miss Sparkles...you know, like Little Miss Sunshine"?- I kinda want to
make sure if we're putting her name on the card, you know?
The designer thought it over and said- "I think it's "Miss Little Sparkles..."
but she said it with a sort of certainty...the next day, (just to be safe),
I asked another designer who sat next to the assistant to confirm the name
and she told me that her name was definitely "Little Miss Sparkles"...whew!
So I draw her a puppy and after ALL this, the assistant was let go last Wednesday (!)
Oh No! The designers never got to give her the card! I hope she liked it...
Jeez! Whatta friggin' week!
Gimme a drink!

Tell It Like It Is

2008-03-30T21:29:00.001-04:00

"When I am older than
These small goddamned hills
And there's no reason for
My mind to be still-

Oh, How I'll feel like a beautiful child-
Such a beautiful child again...."- Rufus Wainwright

A recent conversation-

"Dad- Do you have to draw me with the eyepatch on? It's embarrassing."

"I don't think it's as bad as you make it out, Kenna...It's a cute picture of you."

"Can't you?... You know.... just PhotoShop my eye in there without the patch?"

"It's not that easy to do McKenna..."

"Gimme a break Dad, you draw me everyday...."

Save a Prayer

2008-03-23T23:17:00.000-04:00

This is McKenna describing her Easter Sunday in a phone
conversation with her Grandmother this morning:
"Yeah! And then the Easter Bunny gave me a HUGE pink rabbit Grandma,
but you know what? He ALMOST DIDN'T COME AT ALL, because Daddy
was up all night PLAYING HIS XBOX VIDEO GAMES!!!"
What can I say to that?
Jeez Louise! Whatta Narc!

Here's a rare pose of Mother and Daughter...I rarely draw Michele because
I end up choking like A-Rod with runners on trying to get her likeness.
I missed the mark here as well, but fairplay for trying, huh?
Michele's having a delicate surgical procedure performed next month and the
recovery from the operation's supposed to be a real bitch, so think a good thought
for her, willya? I'll be spending a couple of days at home with her while she convalesces,
and then her mom will arrive like the cavalry to help me take care of her through the week.
I'll keep you all posted-

Glenn

P.S.- I finally got around to seeing the movie "Once" (which Jason Q. recommended to
me in a post from about a half a year ago) and it's a lovely little film. If you're a lover of music
and how it connects you to other people, you should definitely take it in.
The soundtrack, which quietly stole the "Best Song" Academy Award from the Disney/Alan Menken powerhouse-
"Enchanted", (which had three songs from it's soundtrack
nominated competing as well) is on extended play for me these days.

Family Matters

2008-02-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

"This wrinkle in time, I can't give it no credit
I thought about my space and I really got me down
I got me so down, I got me a headache
My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound" - Frank Black

Here's a post for mi familia:
The top you've seen briefly from the previous post- It's my sister's daughter
and ergo, my own niece Tara, with Kenzo...
She's got the best dimples in dimple history: case closed. She's sweet as pie
and McKenna adores her...The next post is my brother's son Max Rocky...
I don't think I got him quite down yet, but I loved the contrast of the pencil...
He's an amazing kid...and the last shot is your basic KennaSketch to complete the trilogy.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.

Kissing the Frogs

2008-02-14T23:20:00.000-05:00

"I do believe it's true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
If the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So Green Eyes I hold you near
Cause you're the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere." - Death Cab for Cutie (slightly paraphrased)

Happy Valentine's Day!
I told you guys I've been busy, so like Sophomore year long division,
I'll hafta show my work...
The top post is this year's Valentine's Card for my lovely wife, Michele
who, after all these years, can still make my heart beat a little faster
whenever she's in a room. You're the bees knees, baby.
I know it's eerily similar to my Mother's Day post from last year,
but this has some of my all-time favorite KennaSketches
culled from what has now been two years of this on-again/off-again
relationship I call FrogDaddy Ink. I had it printed out on this high quality
paper and she absolutely loved it.

The next pages are a family portrait of a friend I work with. She has
two really great kids and excellent taste in music. (I'm sorry
to report that this ended up being a goodbye present as she will
be resigning from the company next week) But it was something
I promised her quite awhile ago and it just stayed on my drawing table-
I was actually able to scan it in chronologically so you could see it from sketch to finish.
I told her it would be ready for Valentine's Day and made good on the promise.
She loved it. I think she's going to have it framed for her husband.
I'm starting to feel like Cupid over here...

Enjoy your hearts and flowers, lads & lasses-
FrogDaddy

What Da Ya Want for Nothing?...

2008-02-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

... A Rubber Biscuit?

Why So Serious?

2008-01-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

The NY newspapers have been in feeding frenzy mode regarding Heath Ledger's death.
Maybe because it happened here and not out in the Viper Room in LA....
Anyways- I felt cheap dedicating an Of Montreal song to him the other day, cause it's not
my song to give...so I drew this on the newspaper article it came from on the way home
as a more personal dedication... It's Ledger in costume as "The Joker"-
from the Batman movie coming out this summer...the previews for it look like
he really nailed the role...I was boldly predicting that he would trump Jack Nicholson's over-the-top, "This town needs an enema!" performance in Tim Burton's Batman movie...
and the funny thing is, I've only seen one movie he's ever been in and that was that 70's skateboarder movie
"The Lords of Dogtown", but fuck if he didn't nail that role!
He had some crazy method actor vibe going on in that movie that elevated the
entire film...
just watch the last two minutes of it while he's waxing the surfboard and singing "Maggie May"...
he impressed the shit out of me...
I was really looking forward to seeing what else he could do...

R.I.P. Heath

City Bird

2008-01-23T00:16:00.001-05:00

City bird haven't you heard
hasn't anybody told you?
These city blocks can't hold you
Your place is in the sky how can I show you?

City bird haven't you learned
of the boundlessness of your freedom
The sky is your blue kingdom
You neglect your wings like you don't need them

City bird maybe these hands that feed you need you
Maybe you understand that city bird

-Of Montreal

The above song is for Heath Ledger...what a talent...what a shame.

I'm going on a business trip with my team next week.
We're spending three days in L.A. checking out the
new Disney stuff we'll be working on this year. I'm
psyched to check out what their artists are working on
and take in their workspaces and see what inspires them.
I'm also going to be on a plane for roughly ten hours
and I'm definitely carrying on my sketchbook, so jet lag
be damned! I'm comin' back heavy or I ain't comin' at all!

Here's something different- I've done a series of sketches
for one of our departments...you've seen other versions
of these same characters previously...here's a "styleguide"
of sorts I did featuring the Bear, the Duck, and The Bunny.

See ya in LA, Marvin!-
(Bonus Movie Quote)

FrogDaddy

Forecast Fascist Future

2008-01-03T23:11:00.000-05:00

Boredom murders the heart of our age while sanguinary creeps take the stage
Boredom strangles the life from the printed page -Of Montreal (my new favorite band)

Happy New Year!

Man was I getting tired of looking at that old post! Note to self: If you plan to stop blogging
for more than three months again, make sure that last post is not a photo of yourself... In costume.

(Man Why do I always sport this stupid pucker in pictures???...specially when I'm dancing??...Por Quuuee?????)

Where was I? Oh Yeah!!! Merry New Year!!!

So much to catch up on! Since my last post:

I turned 40. Joe Torre Out. Girardi In. Clemens Took It In The Butt. (An Actual Houston Newspaper Headline)
Another Christmas/New Year's Fast-Forward Blur which ended with my body finally crying "Uncle" from
going full steam for too long and laying me up for a week with a stomach virus.

My resolution for '08?

Post More.

Bitch Less.

Here's McKenna as "Dorothy" from the Wizard of Oz...I'm currently doing a mural on her wall of the
Broadway musical "Wicked" when I finally finish it, I'll put it up...

Here's something I busted out this morning cramped between two people on a 2 hour delayed, slow moving,
packed-like-lemmings-into-shiny-metal-boxes NJ Transit train....

it felt good to draw again...

feels good to post again...

I Know Whatcha Trying To Say

2007-11-12T22:58:00.000-05:00

I can only apologize for the lack of posts lately...
I could blame the inactivity on having to set up my brand new MacPro,
but that would sound like I'm showin off or something...
I'm going full tilt from now till Christmas and in between have to celebrate
McKenna's, Michele's and my own birthday! ("40 is the new 20...40 is the new 20")
I'll try and get something up, but it'll be an effort....
I also wanna give the Ink a reboot...make it more than just sketches of my kid,
but those delusions of grandeur will have to wait till next year...
Anyways...three weeks later, here's a picture of me as "Jermaine" from
HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" at my office's annual Halloween Party.
It was originally going to be a Talent Show/Costume Party...and a friend
and I were going to perform "Business Time"...in true Conchords spirit,
we brought our acoustic guitars to work and practiced on our lunch break
in some pissed out alleyway in SoHo....We had it down! We were gonna nail it!
They were gonna eat it up! Who likes to rock the party?
Then the weekend before we were supposed to perform it, I went out with some guys for
my best friend's birthday and I was discussing the upcoming talent show...
We go back to my boy's crib and he YouTube's the "Business Time" video
(Here's where you discover that I have no blog savvy and can't link the video to this site
myself because I'm retarded. Here's the link if you'd like to see it-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GpTTf175aE
Anyway, after watching it with the lads (all of whom are in pretty corporate environment
type gigs - an architect, an interior designer, an IT guy) told me that it was pretty risque
to perform a song like that at your job, which totally got me thinking and worrying...
Granted I work for a corporate company, but it's a more relaxed form of corporate-
"All it takes is one person to get bent out of shape about it...." is what they were telling me.
So do I perform it? Is it worth risking your job over? I went in Monday totally stressed...
So after all that, what happens?
They cancelled the talent show...not enough people signed up to perform...
The costume party was fantastic! I work with some very creative people-
I went as Jermaine anyways, right down to my Business Socks,
and everyone there thought I was Dwight from "The Office"
but I knew what they were trying to say...
They were trying to say, "Oh Yeahhh...It's Business Time...."

The Way We Get By

2007-09-27T22:53:00.000-04:00

"We get high in back seats of cars
We break into mobile homes
We go to sleep to shake appeal
Never wake up on our own

And that's the way we get by
The way we get by."- Spoon

If it's Fall, I must be insanely busy...
work's keeping me from posting
regularly...rules is rules, luv...
I'm too tired to even think up a cute story
to accompany my sketch dump...
Most of these pics were taken at a street fair and all
the kids are looking up at me holding rapidly melting icees...
Here's a few random thoughts till I can come back to Bloggertown...
Listening to a few great bands these days through my work mates...
Pinback, Midlake, Cold War Kids, Feist, and though Dave Grohl kinda
went Kumbaya on me, I'm also checking out the new Foos....strangely mellow...
The new single was so RAWK...
I've decided to smoke three packs a day till I sound like the lead singer
from Spoon...love that guy's voice....why isn't that band huge?
And I'll leave you with the greatest KennaQuote in recent memory....

"Dad, I think I either want to die of old age, or I want to die by Excalibur."

"Are you talking about Excalibur...the sword King Arthur pulled out of the stone?
THAT Excalibur?"

"Yeah....that one....."

Glory Days

2007-09-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

"I take a look in the mirror-
Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face."- The Boss

Man- you know I'm in a bad funk when I'm quoting Springsteen...
I'm two months from 40.
FORTY!
Dead Man Walkin'...
I'm starting to feel it too...mornings are the worst-
my body sounds like Rice Krispies when I get out of bed....
I wanna shave my head or do something drastic...
"It's a mid-liiiife criiiiiyi-siiiiiisssss." as Faith No More would sing...
Hope I snap out of it...and soon...
Here's McKenna- in a rare pose rocking her eye patch.
We're seeing the doctor this month and hopefully,
she'll only hafta wear it two hours a day. (down from six)
I guess that's how you work a lazy eye into shape.
Wonder how you work a lazy artist into shape?

Ribbit!

P.S.- Sending our Prayers to Phred out West Eric...Hope she's up and about soon.

Strangers With Candy

2007-08-29T23:38:00.001-04:00

One sunny Sunday afternoon, while walking with Kenna to the store,
we passed the residence of an elderly lady who was sitting on her
stoop. She saw us walking hand-in-hand and gestured for us to come
towards her. As we approached the house, she went inside and came
out with a lollipop in one hand and an unwrapped moonpie in the other.
I got the moonpie.
It was a sweet gesture, and McKenna remembered to
say "Thank you" and wave goodbye. But as we walked away, I had this
strange remembrance of my Mom's old Halloween warnings:
"NEVER eat anything from a stranger that's unwrapped! It could be poisoned!"
So I waited until we were down the block, and tossed the melted mess in the trash.
I told the girl the reason why I did it, but pointed out her lollipops were well-wrapped
and o.k. to eat. She tossed 'em too though...I felt kinda bad about it, but the lady was
like 95 years old, and she DID look a little off...
On the way back home McKenna wondered aloud why she gave us candy.
I told her- "Maybe she had a daughter too, and she would give her lollipops
when they went out for walks, and seeing us walking together reminded her of that.
So she wanted to give us something to make us and her feel good."

"Worst. Story. Ever.", she says, smiling.

"O.K....but what McKenna and her father didn't know what that the kind gentle
old lady was actually an alien leader from OUTER SPAAAAAACE!!!! And the lollipops
she gave us would've given us a DIFFERENT SUPER POWER with every lick!!!! And when
we were finished we'd FLY THROUGH THE GALAXY FIGHTING COSMIC CRIMINALS!!!! And then...."

I go on like this for another minute and finish quietly with-
"If we had only kept those lollipops for ourselves and not thrown them in the garbage...*sniff*..."

"O.K. Bad Ending, but at least it was interesting."- she deadpans.

It's hard out here for a Pop.

The Humans Are Dead

2007-08-20T23:30:00.001-04:00

"Can't we just talk to the Humans?
A little understanding could make things better...
Can't we talk to the Humans and work together, No?"
"No...because they are dead."

...BINARY SOLO...

0000001
00000011
000000111
00001111

...COME ON SUCKER LICK MY BATTERY...

The Back of the Bus

2007-08-20T00:12:00.000-04:00

"I'm a broken heart.
I'm a broken heart.
I'm a broken heart...
My love is bleeding."- The Bird and the Bee

Shine Yer Shoes, Guvner?
What a rarity from me these days....a Sketch Dump!
And what's more! Some are actually someone else's kids!
This is Lily-an engaging nine year old daughter of a fellow coworker...

The next sketch is of McKenna and her cousins Gillian and Patrick, whom
we spent a lovely weekend with this summer...

And here's some various KennaSketches to fufill the "Sketch Dump"
quota...

We had my brother's family over the weekend, so my wife and I had to share our
bed with the girl. She's getting so tall and lanky now that there's little room for the
three of us anymore...the nightly battle for blanket coverage is ferocious. Last night
Michele and I had came into our room well after she had fallen asleep and as my wife nudged
her over into my hemisphere of the bed, she whispered to her,
"McKenna...skootch over a little bit- you're hogging up the bed."
She then rolls right into my backside and says in a dreamy voice-
"I want to Mommy, but I keep bumping into the bus."
It took Michele ten minutes to stop giggling...

Guess Who?

2007-08-13T09:15:00.001-04:00

Double Your Pleasure, Springfield

2007-08-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

Man oh Man! Two posts in two days?
I'm too good to you people.
Here are the companion pieces to
the prior post...

Small Wonders

2007-08-06T23:38:00.000-04:00

Over futile odds
And laughed at by the gods
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game - Amy Winehouse

I promised to post that warm, fuzzy signage I drew at my job
last week so here 'tis...The Small Wonders Department work
two cubicles down from us in the Licensing Dept.
Their manager approached me to hand draw a banner to hang
over their presentation boards for their Fall '08 meetings.
They do really sweet newborn graphics with Teddy Bears, Bunnies
and Ducklings. Each character is supposed to represent a gender,
the Bears are for Boys, the Bunny's for girls, and the Duck is for
Unisex clothing...boys and girls can safely wear ducks and not be
made to feel too masculine or too feminine about it.
So here are the happy trio...

It was really fun to do because it was HUGE (44" x 15") and that's
a lot of ground to cover with colored pencil. I was able to knock
it out over two days at work. It felt like I was back in school-
penciling for hours at a clip- I regained the feeling in my wrist
by the end of the weekend.
Well, it went over nicely I think. Our President gave me a
nice shout-out at the meeting this morning, and my Design
Director's talking to Corporate in Chicago about possibly designing
some in-store stuff.
As a result, I've been drawing a bit these days-
hopefully I'll be posting more soon.

Off-Duty

2007-07-30T22:43:00.000-04:00

Finally surfacing for a quick Hello-
I'm officially off for the Summer if anyone's still checkin' in...
I think blogging, like tobogganing, is a cold weather sport...
Believe it or not, I'm drawing like mad these days...
I'm doing an animal scene for a presentation board at work-
It's on a pretty large scale so I'll have to photograph it
for the blog and post it later...it's for the young set, so I have to
make it look really sweet-brace yourself for sugar shock!
Ironically enough, the designer who tapped me to do it likes
the Kenna Sketches I tape on my wall.
So maybe this blog thing is useful after all...

P.S.- I really want to throw up a sketch of Bret & Jermaine from
"Flight of the Conchords"...those guys kill me...

Introducing: GlennySketch!

2007-06-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

"I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down.
I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced.
I gonna see some folks who have already been let down-
I'm so tired of you America."- Rufus Wainwright

Guys- I've got nuthin'....Creative Frickin' Dearth here....
I figured I'd post a sketch my daughter did of me because turnabout
is fair play. She busted this out on the back of a grocery list while I was wheeling
her around the market on Father's Day weekend...I think it's a fair resemblance-
she nailed my comb-over perfectly! I'm singing into a microphone some song from
the Disney High School Musical soundtrack and rocking a Lucky Brand T-shirt and
a Swiss Army watch... apparently, I go for groceries in style.
She's all about the details, this one....
I've got a much-needed week-off next week and have relatives coming in for some
chill time so with luck, I'll have recharged enough to create something to justify this
flea-bitten website! Peacesh!
F-Diddy

Mr. April

2007-04-26T00:28:00.000-04:00

I'm a hater.
Have you ever gone to an online message board for a TV show you watch just to get another person's P.O.V. on it? (This, to me, is why the internet was invented.)
So you're reading people's takes on things and there's always one guy with some
insanely geeky User ID that probably starts with "Darth"- who sparks some shit up on the message board by saying things like: "This show jumped the shark when they opened the hatch!"
or "The writing on 'Heroes' is so puerile." and then the show's defenders rush to the rescue and start calling DarthAnus a "hater" for ripping something they all love.
"If you don't like the show, then why are you posting on our message board?"
"You're a hater DarthAnus! Why don't you go drink some Hater-ade?!!!" and so on.....
Hater. Yeah. That's me.
I hate A-Rod.
That's Alex Rodriguez. Yankee Third Baseman. of the 250 million dollar contract.
Now I'm a lifelong Yankee fan-
This guy has won an M.V.P award with us-He's a perennial All-Star lock-
This guy just had the best month in baseball history!
Why can't I root for him? I mean- ferchrissakes! I don't even know him!
He could be, off the field, a genuinely decent human being. I doubt it though.
About two years ago-in the middle of a Yankee-Twins playoff baseball game- with the Yanks down a run, two outs, and a man on base- Rodriguez was up to bat.
I stood up on my seat and yelled-
"HEY 'GAY-ROD'! WHY DON'T YOU HIT US AN IMPORTANT HOME-RUN FOR ONCE?!!!"
and wouldn't you know it?
that fucker hit the next one in the center field bleachers.
Crowd goes crazy. I sit down.
I spent the rest of that game getting razzed by some Growing Up Gotti Guidos in #13 jerseys who sat two rows in front of me.
That would be his only extra base hit of that series, by the way.
I wish I could explain it...
The man just brings out the ugly in me....
I said it when we signed him, and I'll commit it to the blogosphere:
We will NEVER win with him on our team.
But I've personally always liked my old man's quote on him last september-
(Try to hear this in a Capt. Kirk-like staccato)
"A-Rod. Is.....A LOLLIPOP."
Alright- I'm gonna end this hate filled rant right here, or I'll end up hating MYSELF in the mornin'
I'll try and post some positive next time....
I'm a grumpy gus-
F-Daddy

Half-Dids

2007-04-04T23:45:00.000-04:00

Hey I'm not much for chatter tonigh-
so I'll keep it short and sweet.
Here's a series of recent Kenna Sketches...
I'll just refer to them as "Half-Dids"...
Due to either lack of paper space, or lack of interest-
these sketches shall remain, like Gun's N Roses'
"Chinese Democracy"...... Unfinished... sad innit?
G'night.

Renaissance Man

2007-03-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

"Some things look better inside of the store."- Peter Bjorn and John

Say hey! I'm almost postin' weekly now! I'm on a good run...
I'm currently reading "The Beach" by Alex Garland- which is
loads better than the Leonardo DeCraprio movie adaptation...
so I'm feeding the head- I'm running with a sense of impending
40 year old urgency on the treadmill so I'm moving the body-
and I'm trying to draw on the train rides home so I'm feeding the
soul...I guess I'm also working my ass off at the 9 to 5 too, so I'm
feeding my family as well...like I said....I'm on a good run....
Here's a KennaSketch...sometimes a girl needs to rock sunglasses
while she's on the swings.....

One week till Opening Day!

The Pipes, The Pipes Are Callin'....

2007-03-19T22:31:00.000-04:00

"Escape is on your mind again-
Escape...to a faraway land.
Sometimes it seems there is no end-
to long, hard nights of drinkin'..."- Crowded House

Back so soon? I wanted to throw a post up before St. Patrick's
but spent the weekend with family and never got around to it.
Don't regret it though, because I got to spend an excellent Sunday
with my four brothers and their wives (a rarity these days, unfortunately...)
my folks (ditto), and my sister Kathleen, who I adore. We had
a St. Patty's brunch in Greenpoint, Brooklyn complete with corned beef,
cabbage & potatoes (an Irish delicacy).
Once upon a time, when we still lived in Chelsea- my entire family
would come in from every borough on St. Patty's day and we'd
totally celebrate the day-and not as a reason to get shit-faced, either.
My mom would dye any T-shirt we had green, we'd dance to the Dubliners,
and watch "The Quiet Man"...Sunday brought back a lot of those memories...

Here's a new KennaSketch- it's been awhile- I forgot how much I missed drawing her...
she came to my job on Friday when her school closed due to a freak blizzard...
I asked her to show my designers the "Hard Knock Life" skit she performed at her school talent show and, holy crap! she busted out singing and dancing right there!
I didn't have to twist her arm or anything!
The department behind ours got up to watch the commotion and pretty soon she had a crowd!
They burst into applause when she was done and the artist behind me says-
"There's no shy in her!"
Where does she get her balls?
I could've never summoned the nerve to do something like that at seven years old!
God Bless!

Ricci Girl

2007-03-11T19:11:00.000-04:00

Hey Ya!
Daddy's back with a Cheapie Charlie Special-
I wouldn't consider this post-worthy, but once again,
I'm working on a mammoth personal project and have
let the ol' blog slide again....Why must the innocent suffer???
This so wanted to be a portrait of bobblehead actress
Christina Ricci- currently appearing in chained bondage
at a subway station movie poster near you...The pic I drew
it from was a sweet study - high contrast- with a focus on the eyes,
nose, and bow-lipped mouth....But unfortunately, my sketch
looks NOTHING like the photo I took it from...She looks more
like the love child of Winona Rider and Christina Applegate...
so, not the most successful of attempts-to say the least....
I didn't even capture her 52 inch forehead, ferchrissakes!
what can I say? it's better'n nuthin, i guess.....
be back soon with better representation i hopes....

Mid Terms

2007-02-10T19:22:00.000-05:00

"The only thing important about art is how it affects people.
It only needs to affect one person to be interesting.
But it has to affect many people to be important."-Chuck Klosterman

Last year I drew a quick one page cartoon revolving an altercation
I had in a deli in NY. It was really well-received and some even
suggested I make it a regular feature here at FrogDaddy Ink.
Well here is the first (but not the last, I hope) of a series of some
caught moments that I'd like to storyboard...My comic book storytelling skills are on no par with my contemporaries on the links pages to the right, but I figure it'll be a good way to practice a new look,and shake up the blog a bit...there's only so many drawings of my girl I can do before the site just starts to look the same ole, same ole...More to come...

P.S.- We got our mid term 1st grade report card back and to quote her teacher:
"McKenna is a bright and imaginative student. She can comprehend just about any word she comes into contact with! Those stories are starting to show in her writing-her ideas are often times so big it is sometimes difficult for her to write them out. She is a joy to work with."
Ain't that cool? I'm so proud of her!
She saw the cartoon I was working on an felt like setting the story up because I didn't explain to the reader where we were going in the car, so below is her prequel to the above cartoon...

This Year's Model

2007-01-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

Good Evening Blogizens!
We spent a holiday party at a friend's and I spent most of the afternoon
taking pictures of their four children. They're all kind handsome, charismatic
kids, but their daughter Teagan just steals my heart.
She's one of those quiet, dark Irish beauties that speaks with her eyes.
Just gorgeous. Though I think the sketch came out nice- it does her no justice.
Anyways- I wanted to open up the comment board to something cool.
My old bandmate Jimmy sends me a list every year of his co-workers'
Music Polls- Basically a top ten of the best shit you've heard this year.
You should list them in order of relevance.
I was invited to post mine this year and here's what I came up with:

1) Gnarls Barkley , St. Elsewhere
2) Beck, The Information
3) Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire
4) Keane, Under The Iron Sea
5) The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
6) The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers
7) John Legend, Once Again
8) Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
9) Lily Allen, Alright, Still
10) Wolfmother, Wolfmother

But I recently heard the Hold Steady album "Boys and Girls in America"-
and think it probably bumps Wolfmother off the list.
Normally bands that get Springsteen comparisons are
not my cup of Teagan, but the sing-along lyrical brilliance
and the bombastic anthemic rock are hard to resist.
Worth a listen.
So lads & lasses- Did I forget anyone? Feel Industrious?
Why not drop your top ten albums of '06 in my comment box-
Give us something to talk about...
Ribbit!

P.S.- If the Shins had released their latest three weeks ago i,t would've been
in the top 5 fer shure. "Wincing the Night Away" dropped this week.
Lovely stuff....

Baby Blues

2007-01-23T00:51:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!
Long time, no blog...
It's been a hectic month- McKenna was hit in her left eye
at school two weeks ago. Some kid tossed his baseball cap
in her direction and the brim hit her right in the eyeball.
It was a pretty serious injury, according to the eye specialist
the hospital referred us to. There was hemorrhaging and pressure
behind the pupil and she had to take three different forms of
eyedrops four times daily. She had to wear this really weird
metal eyepatch with holes punched through it that reminded me
of the Spiderman mask from the 70's T.V. series with the Von Trapp kid.
On top of that, he put her on bedrest, so she couldn't attend school
for the rest of the week, which meant Michele and I had to alternate
days off to stay home with her. It was a draining experience for all.
I'm happy to report that she's doing much better now.
I don't know what I'd do without those baby blues.
Just one of those moments in life where you cry a little and hold your breath a lot.

FrogDaddy

P.S.- Good Luck to anyone who is forced to keep a 7 year old on "bedrest"....Indeed!

P.S.S.- Breaking in a fine new sketchbook given to me for Christmas by my co-worker
"El" Sid....it smells of leather and rich mahogany...it's quite pungent!
Doesn't it just waft through the monitor?

All Is Quiet On New Year's Day

2006-12-28T22:38:00.000-05:00

"Under a blood red sky-
A crowd has gathered-black and white.
Arms entwined-the chosen few?
The newpapers say it's true, it's true-
That we can break through-
Torn in two-we can be one.
I....I will begin again."- U2

I'm gonna squeak in one under the wire and end '06
on the positive. A designer I work with commissioned me
to sketch a picture of her and her little brother. She
wanted it as a Christmas gift for her mother and first
mentioned this to me over the summer-she even gave me the
picture she wanted me to draw as far back as October- thus giving
me ample time to get it to her before X-Mas.
So of course I start drawing two weeks ago.
Whenever my back's to the wall to get something done under a deadline,
I always cue my ipod to play Billy Joel's "Pressure" on endless repeat and
don't stop drawing till it's finished or my head explodes from oversynthsposure.
Now Natalie (the designer) also happens to be a friend- She's one of those rare
birds who can hang out with the girls and talk about Commando Britney
in US Weekly and then turn around and rap to the guys about college football.
You can't say a bad thing about her-she's as cool as November.
And with that comes the burden of really, REALLY trying not to butcher this picture.
Because what if she hates it? Will she tell me? Actually, she probably would.
But she didn't thankfully. She genuinely loved it. It was awesome.
I'm happy with it, which-from me, is high praise. The End.

Happy New Year!
My New Year's resolution is to stop being so goddamned sexy.
Peace, Love and Happiness in '07-
FrogDaddy

Happy Holidays

2006-12-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how many posts will drop
between now and the New Year,
so this may be the last KennaSketch for '06.
It has been a fun first year at FrogDaddy Ink-
A happy and healthy holiday to you and yo mama.
Ribbit!
F-Diddy

Stop Me

2006-12-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

Stop Me Oh Oh Ooh stop me.......
Stop me if you think that you've seen this pose before
Stop me Oh Oh Oooh stop me.....
Stop if you think that you've seen this one before.

We're Gonna Make You Pop-U-Lar

2006-11-30T22:20:00.000-05:00

Hey! What Gives? One post a month?
That's highway bloggery!
November's usually a sick month for me...
but this month in particular has been absolute chaos!
My wife went on a business trip to China for a week-
I turned 39 ("40 is the new 20...40 is the new 20") two weeks
back- sandwich in Thanksgiving at my sisters' and at the In-Laws-
and, the capper- my cutie patootie just turned Lucky Seven two days ago.
Happy Birthday Kenna Beans!
She's always been a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz- it was her first live action
movie she ever sat all the way through as a toddler, so we brought tickets
to see the Broadway production of "Wicked". We gave it to her the morning
of her birthday and she cried with joy. It was one of those sweet parent moments
that only come every so often. We've had the soundtrack since the play came
out, so she knew every song going in. As we arrived at the Gershwin at 51st St. She was in near gallop mode- she was geeked to the gills!
The show's playbill recommends that the show is for children 8 and up
and we had a few old timers in our aisle eyeballing McKenna skeptically as if she were too young to be there. But once the curtain went up, she was transfixed.
The play itself was amazing-if you're even a casual fan of the 1939 film-you'd really enjoy how the play tweaks the mythology of the story.
The premise is that the Wicked WItch wasn't really wicked at all- she was a victim of racism (She's always teased for being green) and a media propaganda target-
because she figures out that the "Wonderful" Wizard was a phony before anyone.That's why the Wiz sent Dorothy and the gang on the witch hunt to begin with.
Pretty heady stuff for a musical! I'm gonna read the novel it was based on!
Great sets, costumes, cast and the music, of course, was tiptop....
Saturday Night Live alumnus Ana Gasteyer played the part of
the Wicked Witch, and while I thought her singing bits with Will Ferrell back in the day
were hilarious, I wondered if she had the chops for the big stage.
To my surprised delight, she was fantastic!
As the curtain went up for intermission, McKenna grabbed my arm and shouts:
"DADDY! Guess what?? It's not over yet!!! There's still MORE SINGING!!!"
and even the oldsters at the end of the row had to admit she was adorable.
On the train ride home, she tells me-
"Daddy I learned something tonight. I learned that it's not nice to laugh at anybody's skin color."
and I'm thinking-
"Great Balls of Fire! Did that play just teach my daughter a life lesson?"
"You know what McKenna? You're absolutely right- it is not nice to laugh
at anyone for the color of their skin."
"So Dad, If I ever meet someone with green skin, I promise not to make fun of them."

Together We Can Rule The Galaxy

2006-10-31T22:16:00.000-05:00

"You came here in THAT thing? You're braver than I thought"- Princess Leia

Happy Halloween, Ladies!
Here are some pics of my little rebel. Ain't she badass?
I think by the end of the night, she was not feeling as glamorous as
some of the other princesses on the block and she started getting
down on her costume. I did what I could to reassure her that
she had the coolest costume in the galaxy, but how can you compete with
"Goth Fairy Princess"? (What the fuck is that by the way?)
Seeing 8 year olds dressing like Siouxsie & the Banshees with
Butterfly Wings is whose idea of an age-appropriate costume?
You got 8 more years before you should be looking like that!
Christ, I'm getting old! I sound like my friggin' father!
I gave her the cold hard facts:
Is your bag filled to the gills with candy? Yes.
Mission Accomplished.
All I got was a rock.
Ribbit-
FrogDaddy

Girl Dreams

2006-10-24T23:51:00.000-04:00

You're just the girl of my dreams but it seems
My dreams never come true
You're just the girl of my dreams but it seems
My dreams never come true

I first met you down on lover's lane
The birds were insane
Flapping all about
Softly you would sing
Swinging in your swing
It wasn't night it wasn't day

-Beck

Think I'm In Love

2006-10-18T00:34:00.000-04:00

"Take a little picture in a photobooth
Keep it in a locket and I think of you
Both of our pictures, face to face
Take off your necklace and throw it away

I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so"- Beck

Wake it, Shake it, Mony Mony!
The latest KennaSketch-(What IS she looking at?)
I sat next to a freelancer at work for a couple of days.
We got to talking art and artists and had a lot of common
heroes. She told me she once took an intensive months-long
apprenticeship with this Master Artist.
She told me they'd draw for 12-13 hours a day.
For some reason, I followed this conversation by producing my sketchbook-
30 drawings of my soon to be seven (Whoa!) year old daughter.
I wanted to know what she thought of it.
She pretty much raked me over the coals.
"This looks labored...This is completely overworked....
This one doesn't feel alive to me....You're not really looking here..."
She pointed to a false-started prelim drawing that was literally four or five lines and says-
"THIS is alive! Now THIS is great design."
At first, I felt-"What a refreshingly honest opinion, for once!"
But lately, since that conversation-
I've felt pretty gun-shy about picking up the book
Here's hoping I'm not boring anyone else out there.

Ribbit!

P.S.- What a year for Music, right? Beck's- "The Information", Sean Lennon's- "Friendly Fire" Keane's- "Under The Iron Sea", Easy Star All-Star's- "Radiodread" ( A Reggae Version of Radiohead's "OK Computer? Hooray Beer!") The Raconteurs- "Broken Boy Soldiers"...just about anything involving DangerMouse....
My ears have never been happier!

Let the Wookie Win

2006-10-07T00:44:00.000-04:00

"Love is like an aeroplane-
You jump and then you pray-
the lucky ones remain."- Sean Lennon

Man I'm a blog slag....so busy my head hurts....
I'd like to promise more frequent posts,
but I'd also like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony too.
Some random soundbites from the past month-
courtesy of (who else?) McKenna:

(to me and michele while discussing her behavior before a dinner party)
"You Guys, Relax! I got everything under control!"

(to me one night at the mirror in the bathroom)
Me: Hey! look at that loose tooth you got there!
McKenna: Dad! It's not a loose tooth-it's a looser tooth!
Me: What's the difference between a loose tooth and a looser tooth?
McKenna: A looser tooth will get me tooth fairy coins, a loose tooth is just
a little wiggle.

And here's the quote with a wraparound story:
She wants to be Princess Leia for Halloween this year. This is the first non-
Disney character Halloween ever. I mean- she's still gonna be a princess;
just one that is equipped with a blaster.
I was so jazzed ordering the costume (it's got the danish rolls wig and everything)
that I checked out some adult size costumes to see if we could double date this year.
I noticed they had this badass Chewbacca costume that was cut from
the original molds at Luca$films. It looked just like Chewie!
Real fur and everything!
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh!!!
It was awesome!
It was four hundred and twenty four dollars.
Let's check out ebay.
Wait! What's this? the same costume for what (at the time) seemed like a very reasonable $250.
Michele was already conked out for the night so this would have to be an executive decision.
Do I really drop two fiddy on a Chewbacca costume? I'm gonna hafta wear this thing for the next
ten Hallloweens! Shit, this may be my winter jacket this season!
I read the description again.
"Authentic Chewbacca Costume.
Real Replica Official Star Wars Costume. Supreme Edition"
Supreme Edition?
Bid.
Aw man! What did I just do?
I wake up the next morning and Michele asks-
"Did you order the Leia costume?"
"Um....Yeah and....I also, ......um...nevermind."
I'm so screwed.
I write her an email when I get to work cause I'm too chickenshit to call her and tell her about my impulsive idiocy.
Chele- god bless her- was awesome about it....Her take on it was like-
"Think of how cool the pictures are gonna be!"
So what happens? I got outbid over the weekend for a final tally of $305
Even my impulses have their limits.
Michele picks me up a consolation prize Darth Vader mask from Target
(which, she points out, makes sense as Vader is Leia's dad, too- I truly married the perfect woman.)
Here's the quote: (at last!)
After she found out about the Chewie loss-McKenna jumps in my lap- pulls the Vader mask over my face,
looks into my black souless,reflective eyes, and says reassuringly-
"Daddy- even though you're Lord Vader and you're the evil bad guy, you're still my Dad and I love you."

The force is strong with this one.

Sass-A-Frass

2006-09-18T23:09:00.000-04:00

I like to tell McKenna stories at bedtime. Not necessarily read books, but make em up on the fly, and just let both of our imaginations run wild. She'll add and edit as she sees fit, and that's perfectly fine by me.
For the past week, I've been creating this enchanted kingdom where she's trying to become a princess. (She's six! This what six year old girl's wanna be when they grow up. I wanted to be a fireman at six. Go figure.)
She can only become a princess by helping other princesses find their true love- and I have her spend each night in a different Disney Princess'
Kingdom where she helps Snow White or Cinderella, or the Little Mermaid, etc. find their Prince Charming and she gets closer to her Gold Tiara Princess Coronation.
Now we live in a Disney DVD household...so she's well-schooled on the
Happily-Ever-After...I can tell she's into it, and it's fun for me too, I'll admit.
Here's a quick aside before I continue...now that I see this art on a daily basis, Have you ever notice that these Princesses never interact with each other?
When you see them on clothes or on coloring books there's always this group shot -usually the Big Four- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, & Snow White- they all look fabulous and are ALWAYS looking right at you....never acknowledging
that the one sitting next to them exists. Very much like a "Desperate Housewives" advertisement, or that VH-1 "Divas Live" where Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey shared the same stage. I don't know why, but this cracks me up to no end...
Back to the show- McKenna decides she wants to make up the story over the weekend.
I thought, "Why Not?" and let the little Spielberg have the reins...
She breaks out into this pretty fantastic crossover story that involves both Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin" and includes Tinkerbell from Pan's Neverland coming in for a last minute save.
She's obviously oblivious to the laws of Licensing, but it was still a pretty kickass tale.
But the capper is she included me and her mom in the story as well....we come riding in on Alladin's magic carpet and help her fight the palace guards, and I'm thinking-
"Wow! She put us in her fairy tale! In the Hero-Saves-the-Day role! How awesome is this?"
And then she drops the hammer.
"And after you get off the Magic Carpet, Daddy, the Carpet was like, 'Whew!', because
you're kinda a heavy guy, Daddy."..............

Cancel Christmas!

What a Sassy Frassy Lassie!

BlobDaddy

From the Mountains to the Prairies

2006-09-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there....
No- I'm not talking about the Red Light District-
Just have some Kenna Sketches backlogged up from
my Procrasterdamned Travel Blog...so rather than wrap up
my story, I'll just post a triple done sequentially to fill up
the lull between posts.
9-11- Hard to believe that was five years ago.
It was such a gorgeous morning (not unlike today) in NYC....
I remember getting to work and the receptionist said..
"A plane just hit the Trade Towers" and I went to my desk thinking
it was a Cessna or some other small aircraft.
Then I went into a meeting with my design team and get a phone call
from my wife. She was in the Queens county courthouse for jury duty, and had seen the
plane hit on a television they had in the auditorium where you wait to get called.
"Do you know a plane hit one of the Twin Towers?"
"Yeah, babe I'm in a meeting right now..." (I still had no idea how big this was...)
"Uh...O.K. listen call me AS SOON as you can alright?"
Just then someone walked into our meeting and said-
"Another plane just hit the second tower."
Meeting over.
Then a scramble to the roof of our building where we had an unobstructed view
right down 6th avenue. We could see both Towers in flames. People were crying-screaming- taking pictures.
All cell phone service was shot. The only TV reception we could get on the set in the office was
a Spanish cable station so we could see the images but had no idea what was being said.
Then both Towers fell. People were dying. We worked right across the street from what
was now the tallest building in the city- The Empire State Building-could it be next?
The radio stations were saying there could be as many as five more planes in the air.
Panic was setting in....Should we leave?
We'd looked around the office and our bosses had already left!
I called my wife and told her I was coming home.
Mass Transit was completely shut down. No Buses-No trains.
I walked across town and with tens of thousands of people.
Walked over the 59th Street Bridge back to my house in Queens watching the smoking ruins
of a building my Dad had worked at for 2 decades. The madness of the day finally settling in...
I picked up my two year old daughter from daycare, went home with my girls and cried for days.
So much has changed since then...
God bless us, everyone.

Amsterdamaged

2006-09-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

GoldMember: "Look. My vinky was a key"
Nigel Powers: "Only a bloody Dutchman....."
-from "Austin Powers' Goldmember"

"AMSTER-ABOUT-DAM TIME! PART DEUX"-

Hi. I've come up for air to finally Finnish my tale...sorry for the delay-
The trip needed to sink in a bit for me...I had to work it on others like
a comedian works out his material in the comedy clubs before I felt like
throwing it out there. I always seem to remember more of it talking it out.
We all had a shortlist of what we wanted to see while we were there and
AnneFrankehuis was at the top of the list. The museum of the young Jewish diarist,whose family hid from the Nazi's during WW II is probably the most
sobering thing you'll ever do here, but it's incredibly powerful.
There were people there who were visibly moved to tears by the stark imagery.
We left and appropriately enough, it started to pour. Sheets of rain.
We ran to a cafe across the street an had an accidentally wonderful breakfast.
Pretty cool for just stepping in from the rain!
Now when it rains in New York you can usually sit tight somewhere and wait for a lull-
but it never happens here I guess. The clouds were set on "Riot Hose" for the entire afternoon.
We picked up some 5 Euro umbrellas that were suprisingly sturdy for off-the-street rip-offs.
We knew the weather was gonna be crap so we'd planned to take the tram to the Musuem Quarter
and see the Van Gogh and RijksMuseum. I can't lie. This is why I'm here.
Van Gogh was like a hero to me growing up.
The place was laid out like a career retrospective, and at the later stage asylum pieces you see him
just completely lose his grip through the canvas and it tears at you.
Wheatfield With Crows is frickin huge. You can see the defeat right there.
It breaks your heart.
And to see a Rembrandt self portrait thisclose is something I'll savor for the rest of my life.
I could see the cracks in a Vermeer. An amazing day.
Unfortunately the weather also prohibited a trip to Vondelpark, which really bummed me out.
We headed back home, had an amazing dinner at this mom & pop place, where we tried some
"Dutch Cuisine"- some excellent cheeses, bitterbollen-which is like a deep fried ah spicy meat-ahball!
(think about how much fun it is among three men to order anything that sounds like "Bitter Balls")
and most importantly, some great, sweet, sweet, Beer. Beer in Amsterdam tastes amazing!
Even Heineken-which stateside I think tastes like Panther- Piss goes down great!
I was like Frank the Tank!
"Fill it up again! Fill it up again! Once it hits your lips, it's so good!"
Our bellies full we decided it was time to hit what became known as the RLD:
The Red Light District.
I'll have to split this story yet again unfortunately cause I'm bloody exhausted, but
I'm sure you'll be back for the finale. I promise the next post'll be sooner.
Holy CliffHanger!
Ribbit

I AmSTERDAM

2006-08-24T22:32:00.000-04:00

"There's only two things I hate in this world.
People who are intolerant of other people's cultures...
and the Dutch."- Nigel Powers

AMSTERDAMNED- Part I

'Allo! FrogDaddy 'es returned from his much needed, long anticipated
four day stay in the Dutch Netherlands. Here's a rare, wordy post sans
KennaSketches- but chock fulla pictures which, I hope, capture the essence
of our travels. As I mentioned in my panicked prior blog, I have never left
the continent before, so the day of our flight was very much like the scene
in Swingers where Favreau & Vaughn are screaming, "VEGAS BABY!" at the
top of their lungs at the beginning of a five hour drive. We were hopped
up on goofballs and high-fiving all the way to the airport.
My comrades were Fran (my oldest friend who cooked this scheme up with me) and Jim, a late addition, but a genuine lad always up for a good time.
We left Newark Thursday at about 5:15 p.m. with the plan being to sleep on the plane and land in Amsterdam ready to hit the streets running at 8:00 a.m. Friday morning. We were about two hours over the Atlantic when the pilot announces that because
the outer hull of one of the plane's windows suffered a crack he would have to turn around the plane and we would replane at Newark. There was an old guy sitting behind us who, speaking for the entire cabin- I guess, let out an Episode III Vader-esque-"NOOOOOOoOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!" -
which woulda had me in stitches if I hadn't soiled myself from the pilot's news.
I'm a nervous flyer to begin with.
But we eventually got back and did the whole magilley over again and eventually
landed in Amsterdam at around mid afternoon- we had lost half a day!
But we checked into our hotel and undeterred, still managed to walk a quarter
of the city. A friend of mine I work with told me that when you're in another country,
even the air smells different, and as weird as that sounded to me, he was totally right!
The whole place smelled like beer and weed! (Ribbit! Just kidding!)
The air had a sweetness to it that's hard to describe.
This place with it's sordid reputation as a city of sin seemed innocent enough at first glance.
The canal lined streets were pristine with a few cigarette butts scattered about.
Everyone-EVERYONE- there rides a bike. The locals are all Ivory Girl beautiful and in fantastic shape,
and are generally cool towards tourists...though they all speak English exceptionally.
I eventually got fed up with trying to pronounce the guttural street names and started
affecting a fey "Sprockets Muzt Danze!" German accent and would drive my boys nuts with it.
The only street I could pronounce was Leidseplein ( a pub filled block party) and would
leave every venue and look at my mates and say, "LIED-SUH-PLINE, YA? YAAahh...."
Anyways...Here's some scrapbook-style pictures for now and I'll
send out AMSTERDAMNED Pt. II this weekend.
It's good to be back in one piece-
Ribbit, Ya? Yaaah.....
Frogdaddy

Red Skies At Night

2006-08-10T23:11:00.000-04:00

"C'mon baby-Get me into the car.
Out on a bender I'm waitin for you-
Get me out of the bar....."- Superdrag

Red Alert? What the fuck?
Why of all times this week?
I'm flying to Amsterdam in 7 days!
I've never been out of the States-I plan a trip with my best friend-
whom I've known for 30 years-to go to Europe.
I get my very first passport.
We booked the thing last February.
I've been foaming at the mouth for this for months... and it's a week away!
And then I'm in my shower this morning, and hear-
"Terror plot foiled in England!
Terror Threat raised to Red!!
Americans warned not to travel!!!
1010WINS -You give us twenty minutes-we'll make you piss yourself in the shower."
This completely puts a damper on my enthusiasm...
I'm still going-and when I get there, plan on having a great time.
But this "Terror Shit" bookending my getting there and back again is a MoFo.
Whatever and Ever, Amen.
I'll bring back stories and sketches!
This'll be my last post till I get back, so I'll make it a double-
Sweet & Sour Kenna
Ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Summer Hours

2006-08-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

"I hope all my days-
Will be lit by your face
I hope all the years-
Will hold tight our promises"- Keane

It's been a stretch between posts, I know...What can I say?
Even FrogDaddy Ink can have Summer Hours.
Figured I'd at least post something worth the wait.
Here's my Bathing Beauty ready to beat the Jersey Heat
courtesy of Slip-N-Slide.
Totally Bumming this evening.
I peripherally knew one of the designers on Project Runway.
(You guys can tease me about watching it, but that show is MANDATORY
viewing in our industry- or should be anyways...best reality show-
no-ONLY reality show I have ever watched, and that's a fact. HouseQuake!)
Holy Tangent- Where was I? Oh Yeah- Anyways-a girl we knew got "Auf'd"
tonight- Bonnie Dominguez- who was probably the realest person on that
program. She never mugged for the cameras, and always had a great quip.
She got totally shanghi'ed by that Flaming Lips dude Bradley- who she was
saddled with for her challenge. Sorry Bonnie- but you represented well,
I thought-while you were around.
Auf Ribbitersehen!
FrogDaddy

P.S.- I'm telling everyone I know to pick up Keane's new album
"Under The Iron Sea"- just really beautiful, majestic stuff...
"Carry On!"

Beating Around The Bush

2006-07-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

"Americans should be prudent in their use of energy during the course of the next few weeks.
Don't buy gas if you don't need it." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2005

This is normally an apolitical blog, so allow me to explain the Bush quote.
About a month ago, on Father's Day- I made a Red Buttons quote which
accompanied a sketch of my Old Man.
Red Buttons was a comedian from the pioneering days of B&W T.V.
I only know him from the comic celebrity roasts my dad would watch during the late 70's. Pop always got a kick out of him.
I turned on Yahoo today and found out Red passed away at the age of 87.
God bless 'em.
Two weeks ago I quoted a Weezer song to accompany one of my KennaSketches.
Right underneath the news of Red Buttons' passing was the news that the lead singer
of Weezer, Rivers Cuomo, was breaking up the band.
We're done." was how it was put.
God bless 'em.
So I'm sitting here and I'm thinking:
"Whomever I quote- gets the FrogDaddy 'VooDoo-That-You-Do-So-Well' Hex!"
So I'm puttin' you & your administration on notice, Dubya...
Your ice cream cone is meltin' fast.
Ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Easy Peasey-Lemon Squeezey

2006-07-09T23:04:00.000-04:00

"Look outside...
I know that you'll recognize...
It's Summertime."- The Flaming Lips

I really didn't care much for last week's KennaSketch,
but I posted it anyways, 'cause the story was fun.
But what I did like about it, was the quickness of it...
it's not as labored as my recent posts, and it has a looseness
that's been missing, so basically here's this week's model
with the same mind frame... it's more of an accurate expression
of the mood than the model.
Hasta Luego-
Señor FrogDaddy

Dreaming Is Free

2006-07-03T20:49:00.000-04:00

"Only in Dreams-
We see what it Means"- Weezer

Sometimes my wife will fall asleep while lying down with Kenzo.
Some nights they fall asleep together in our bed, and it is my duty
to be the transporter who takes my girl back to her bed so she magically
wakes up in her room every morning. Either that or I get in bed with the two of 'em and I end up feeling like an ottoman footrest.
So the other night while scooping her up from our bed. she stretched out like a cat and said in a strangely wakeful voice- "No. Daddy..."
So I whispered reassuringly- "It's alright, honey."
I cradled her and walked quietly out of the room.
"Daddy..."-she continues,"They took the baby..."
I carry her into her room still consoling, but curious.
"It's O.K. baby. Go to sleep."
"No Daddy...They, like...they took her...and then..."
I'm sitting at her bedside now...tucking her in, abso-fuckin-lutely riveted.
"They took the baby...and then...they put her in the...in the.......in the.......
................................................................................................................"
(I can't believe I'm doing this)
"Where'd they put her, McKenna???"
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
Shit.
Now I'll be up all night.

Was Up?

2006-06-26T23:38:00.000-04:00

'ello 'ello, Lads & Lasses!
FrogDaddy here with what has become a weekly (very weakly) posting.
But until I settle in at the new digs, this'll hafta doodlely-do, neighbor.
I took some pics at the park on Father's Day and really was sort of directing
McKenna for some new looks. I always find a portrait where the model is looking up to be a challenge, just because the way the face planes out and all the traditional shapes of the face go awry...so here she is searching the skies for Pedro, her pet Dragon.
I'll be back after July 4th weekend hopefully chock fulla KennaSketches.
Keep it real Internet-

Happy Father's Day

2006-06-16T23:32:00.000-04:00

"Never raise your hand to your kids.
It leaves your groin unprotected."- Red Buttons

I've had six Father's Days now, and it has been awesome.
But, no matter how mad a day I have at work-
No matter how much I wonder-
"How am I gonna make ends meet?"
No matter how much my girl can test my patience-
Now matter how hard I think my life is or will be...
I stop and think-
Did you marry your girlfriend at the age of 20?
Have your first child at the age of 21?
Have your ELEVENTH child at the age of 45?
Have you ever worked two jobs and still found time for night classes at college?
Could you put those eleven children through Catholic Schools?
Could you raise them right?
Could you run the New York Marathon at the age of fifty?
Could you stay in love and married to the same woman for over 50 years?
(Um, actually- I'd better say "Yes!" to that one!)
What I'm trying to say Dad-
Is Thank You.
I Love You
Glenn

Gone Daddy Gone

2006-05-31T22:52:00.000-04:00

"Some cause happiness wherever they go;
Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Hey lads & lasses..Ol' Blue Eyes is back! Here's a new KennaSketch
for you to enjoy. I'm so amazed at how fast she's growing....
Doesn't she look like a 'tween? (that, by the way, is what
advertisers are calling kids be"tween" the ages of 8 and 12...too old to be an infant-too young to be a teenager...they actually created a demographic to sell shit to....bastards!)
Remember when a kid was just a kid? Jeez Louise!
Anyway, I know I dropped a tease about a month ago about some big
personal news for myself, and now, I can reveal that I gave notice at my job!
I will be working for the new Sears/KMart design studios that just opened
in lower Manhattan! Huzzah!
No more working for the middle man!
No more input from creatively bankrupt salespeople!
I'll be creating artwork directly for the retailer!
I'm so stoked at this wonderful opportunity!
I've had a great run at my job (between a three year hiatus, I've been there
close to 8 years) but I had obviously hit my ceiling both financially and
professionally. They still throw a mean Christmas Party though....sigh!
I'll miss it, and my mates who've become like an extended family to me.
I'll keep you posted on my new adventures in corporate America!
This has been FrogDaddy- You stay classy, Planet Earth!
Ribbit!

Déja Vu

2006-05-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

No. You're not seeing things...I posted a picture of sweet Teagan
about two weeks ago, but lacking anything else to draw on the train lately,
I decided to revisit it and include her mischievous older brother Kieran.
Ain't he a stinker? He stood there in the swing with his tongue out waiting for me to take the picture and then when I noticed it on the digital, he gave me the biggest shit-eating grin a four year old can muster.
God- I miss that age!
I should be back on track with more KennaSketches next week.
Enjoy the long weekend!
F-Diddy

Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Communion Wafers Closer

2006-05-21T23:02:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's been a week between posts...ain't got much to say,
but then again, neither do you. Here's a rushed gift for my
GodDaughter who made her First Holy Communion last week.
She's on the left next to her sister. She's my daughter's first friend.
She seemed to really appreciate it, which made me feel great
as I felt like I didn't quite capture her playful spirit.
As always, I'm my own worst critic.
Maybe I can stop doing Suduko on the train and dust off the sketchbook soon....

Mother's Little Helper

2006-05-13T23:39:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day!
This post shall go to my wife, Michele- the mother of my little muse.
If most of these KennaSketches show our daughter to be a vivacious,
outgoing, confident and happy child, that is in no small part due to you.
She wears your love like a cozy JCrew jersey knit sweater with contrasting coverstitch.
I borrow, crib, and outright steal every parenting trick in the book from
you and somehow end up looking like an alright dad in the process.
You amaze me on a daily basis.
So thank you, and take the day off, ma Belle.
With Love-
FrogDooley

Who Cares?

2006-05-12T23:08:00.000-04:00

Drew this on the train ride home while
listening to the album of the year -"St. Elsewhere"
by Gnarls Barkley (a team-up up Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse
who- it seemed, just a year ago was this illegal underground mash-up DJ
and now he's everywhere!)
It's like some sort of forgotten sweet 60's soul throwback record...
It'll put a smile on your face and a shuffle to your step.
When it's playing as I walk to work, I feel like I'm in the movie
"Fame" and everyone'll stop what they're doing and start shimmying
down the street with me in time to the music.
Maybe I should ask my doctor to double my dose.
It's so much better than just about anything you're listening to
at the moment so pick it up, you won't regret it.
Did I mention they're called Gnarls Barkley?

Forgive Me, Father...

2006-05-09T00:32:00.000-04:00

"I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it."- U2 (via Johnny Cash)

Since I'm in between sketches, why not something from back in the day?
(which, from what I'm told, was a Wednesday-dunno if you knew that...)
Now before you burn me at the stake, allow me to explain the project.
I had just entered the first year of my Bachelor's degree in Illustration.
Our materials and techniques teacher, Morton Kaish, wanted us to
Take a black and white photograph and render it with graphite pencil so
closely, that you'd have a hard time telling apart the drawing from the photo.
Week Two's lesson had us taking the same photo and redrawing it-
focusing only on the eyes, nose, and mouth of the portrait.
Then for Week Three, we were to take a Xerox of the first photo and
mutilate it however way you wanted to achieve maximum graphic impact. O.K....
Now looking at this piece, there's no way you'd think it was produced
by an Irish American with 8 years of Catholic School and another four
at a Jesuit Military School! Jaysus, Mary, & Joseph!
I still to this day wonder why I picked a picture of a priest. I had
no idea what the end result of this project would be.
And the burnt priest collage with the rosary? Ay Dio Mio!
Please believe me when I say it was all done for dramatic effect
and in no way represents my feelings towards any organized religion.
I'm fairly agnostic myself these days....but that's another blog.....
Anywhoo, Long story longer....this actually hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
(Sure it was for an employee art show, but how many artists can say that about one
of their works?)
Ribbit!

Baby Teagan

2006-05-02T21:16:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick sketch of a girl who turned one
this past Saturday. We attended her birthday party and I
pushed her on a rope swing.
She stole my heart with her doe eyes
and easy smile...whatta beauty!
More sketches and maybe some big personal news to come...(whatta tease!)
P.S.- got the new Raconteurs disc....it drinks from the goblet of rawk.

Steady as She Goes

2006-04-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

Find yourself a girl-
and settle down.
Live a simple life-
In a quiet town.
Steady as she goes. - The Raconteurs

When that new Raconteurs album finally drops, I'm a gonna be
one happy lad...I mean Brendan Benson & Jack White?
It's like a power pop cream dream! Their latest single-
"Steady as She Goes" is totally resonating with me right now...
I've been kinda stuck in neutral at my job-kind of a holding pattern
of going nowhere. Steady as She Goes.....
Here's a Kenna Sketch with some smoke n mirror colored pencils
to cover up yet another slightly-off kilter portrait....
Steady as She Goes.....

It's Not Fully Operational Yet...

2006-04-23T22:25:00.000-04:00

This wanted to be a portrait of sadsack actor Paul Giamatti ("Sideways")
but instead ended up looking like a busted pre-D.U.I. Billy Joel circa
1982's "Nylon Curtain"....oh well, still drawing through the drought-
still looking for my mojo...

"He Stole My Mojo!"

2006-04-20T23:10:00.000-04:00

"I'm a junkyard, full of false starts-
and I don't need your permission."- Elliott Smith

True story.
I'm riding the train about a two weeks ago and drawing what I'm sure will be the first of many KennaSketches for da 'Ink when I notice just out of my right eye peripheral,
there's someone sketching me! I take a quickpeek to catch him in the act, and sure enough- he did the quicklookdown that all artists do when they get busted by their subject matter....
While I was kinda flattered, it sorta pissed me off, cause it took a lot of my focus off of what started out being a decent KennaSketch. It got in my head that I was posing for him instead of sketching for me and I ended up with something I wouldn't consider postworthy.
Since it's part of the story though, I'll post it....

Then something strange happened.
I had an 8 day run of incomplete, half-hearted, non-finished sketches none of which I felt like posting either, but I hadn't posted in a bit and Eric from MindBloggingTypos was starting a boycott in my comment box until I posted something new.
Here they are...under extreme duress, I might add...

Why couldn't I finish something? Why wasn't I liking any of it?
Who put the Bop in the Bop Shoo Bop Shoo Bop?
Was I getting burnt out?
Did Jesse throw some Domincan Voodoo at me for swiping his Van Halen post?
What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going on around here?
Then it hit me like a ton of brickshithouses.
That fucker took my Mojo!
That rat bastard who was sketching me on the train somehow took my skills
that partially pay the bills! Whatta jagoff! How could he?
How am I gonna get 'em back?
How am I gonna get right again?
I feel like rocking back and forth like Nancy Kerrigan
after she got lowjacked in the kneecap, tears streaming down my face-
"WHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????????????"

Van Halen Still Rocks!!!

2006-04-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting folks, but I've had my hands full
and the baby's been under the weather. I figured in the meantime
I'll post something old but dear to me. This is a photo of Eddie Van Halen
right before he brainfarted and started playing the keyboards. ( I loved
them but never got to see them live...don't know why). What the hell was
he thinking? I mean, the guy didn't suck but, it's just that he's such a freakin' monster on guitar, you really don't see him doing anything else. Anyway this was a pen & ink illustration project for school where the focus was mainly on the face and hands and i decided to reproduce it in Rapidograph pen (remember those, kids?) and Letraset fonts. That's right- I rubbed each letter of type onto that page by hand!
I painted and taped the frame to echo the design of Eddie's guitar.
I'll probably redo it in Illustrator one of these days 'cause I think it's such
a cool drawing. But I love the rawness and the discipline I had back then for detail...still do. Hope you guys enjoy it...for the next two months!
Later, dudes!

The Case of the Lazy Artist

2006-03-28T23:21:00.000-05:00

Once, when I was ten, my Dad said to me- "You are the biggest procrastinator I've ever known."
I asked, "What does that mean?"- and he told me to look it up in the dictionary.
I never got around to it.
Ironic, dontcha think?
Get well soon Pop.

Here's a blast from my college past. In my senior year, I was privileged to work with Rick Geary
as a part of my mentor program. Mr. Geary is an exceptional illustrator who had at the time, been illustrating comic book versions of classic novelists such as Dickens ("Great Expectations") and Bronte ("Wuthering Heights").
I decided to take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's reknown detective Sherlock Holmes- a character I'd always loved reading in high school.
And which Holmes mystery should it be?
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Elementary!
In preparing for this project, it dawned on me that though I'd been drawing comic book characters for as long as I could remember, I'd never actually attempted to draw an actual comic book!
Ironic, dontcha think?
I really struggled to pull off the look- I thought it would be a breeze because cartooning had always been my comfort zone, but there's a deceptive discipline in those rectangle boxes.
Mr. Geary made some very generous crits- mainly focusing on better editing- as I think I had translated the first chapter literally word-for-word as is evidenced by the cramped word balloons!
Though it is unpolished as it is unfinished, ("Procrastinator!")
I still received a passing grade for it.

Ribbit!

Two Face

2006-03-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

KennaSketch 3/25
She was teasing me this weekend with a coin she took from me.
"Nyah! Nyah! I gotcha Nickel!" she says holding it at arms length.
I quickly grab her wrist and try to pry it out of her tight clutch.
I start to pull away each finger, counting them off one by one when she cries out-
"NO Dad! If you put the middle finger up it's saying a curse word to you!"
she whimpers near tears...
I'm kinda taken aback that she even knows this information and immediately let her hand go saying- "I'm sorry baby-I know you didn't mean it like that..."
She runs away laughing-
"I gotcha Nickel! I gotcha Nickel!"

I got served by a six year old.

Dear Blog...

2006-03-21T23:26:00.000-05:00

Ya know, It's Hard out here for a Pimp.
Dear Blog- I've neglected you for a week. Have I shot my load?
Am I burnt-out like Courtney Love on an oxycontin bender?
I'm having a hard time at work-and I think it's carrying over creatively...
And last weekend was St. Patrick's Day and I don't Drink & Draw.
I also think I'm kind of addicted to my friends' blogs at the moment.
I'm something of a comment whore.
But poor Blog! Look at you! Still with that busted Manchu scribble
and that Mikey Z story that I realized after the fact didn't make him
sound like a stand-up guy at all! I made him sound like a fall-down
drunk! (Sorry Z-you deserved better'n that)
C'mon Blog! I promise I'll do the dishes! I'll pick up my balled-up socks
from under the bed. I'm gonna clean you up good, Blog!
I have to say I'm feeling a little underwhelmed by my recent posts.
Let's make it work, Blog!
Let's start tonight-

FrogDaddy

"Shotgun Mikey"

2006-03-14T22:57:00.000-05:00

"Come on home, girl" he said with a smile.
"You don't have to love me but let's get high awhile"
"But try to understand....try to understand....
Try, Try Try to understand....I'm a Magic Man." - Heart

Here a real muddied up version of Manchu- a wizard I doodled
on a bus ride home from Boston one weekend....It got shmudged
by my heavy handed lead from the opposite page...I coulda cleaned
it up in photoshop I guess, but fuggit, I'm lazy!
I'm sending a Happy Birthday Shout-Out to one of my oldest friends- Mikey Z!
He's officially 39 today, so he's still a year removed from his
"Harrison Ford Mid-Life Crisis Earring Kit:"! Ribbit!
Anyways, a quick Miguelito Zeta Jones story so the masses can see what a stand-up
guy he is: When I met Mike in college back in 1986, he was as fresh-faced as they came...
(think Steve Carell from the 40 year old virgin) I mean, the lad had never had a drink in his life!
We cleared that hurdle soon enough! A few years had passed and one summer I invited him to come to a summer camp I was working in New Jersey. There were a lot of people from England who worked at the camp gratis for the plane ticket stateside. These sassy English lifeguard babes were throwing a party in their cottage that evening, so we made the beer run into town. Somehow a dude in the car convinced Mikey and I to eat an entire Entenman's Pound Cake before the party.
"It'll absorb ALL the alcohol! You can drink ALL NIGHT LONG!" (all night.)
That night we taught Mikey Z how to shotgun a can o' beer.
(For those who haven't ever shotgunned- You punch a hole in the side of a can of beer. You place hole to your mouth. You open can. Beer flushes down throat like Tide-D-Bowl Man.)
He was a freakin natural.
The boy, to the encouragement of the entire room ,shotgunned an entire six pack! I had to take him aside and let him know that we hadn't quite tested the "Pound Cake" theory yet and maybe we should slow it down a bit,
but later on that evening, I saw him putting away a coupla more! I coulda sworn I saw him crush a can against his forehead after finishing one of them.
We all know how this story ends....
I finally find him a few hours later outside leaning against the cottage as if he was holding it up.
I gave him the courtesy- "You o.k. dude?"
Then his body just gave this horrible shudder/convulsion lurch and with a cry of
"WHHHOOOOOOARRRRGGGGUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
the entire contents of the night
shot out like a riot hose. He turns around to me, eyes wet, and says-
"Never again, dude.....never again.....
WHHHOOOOOOARRRRGGGGUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

(Wonder how I'm gonna fit 39 candles on a pound cake?)

Poses

2006-03-11T23:26:00.000-05:00

"The yellow walls are lined with portraits-
and I got my new red fetching leather jacket-
and all of these poses, such beautiful poses-
makes any boy feel like picking up roses."
- Rufus Wainwright

Picturing "Pedro"

2006-03-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Something new is what we need-
Something new we have agreed-
It is time for us to look for something new."- The Smithereens

Here's a sketchbook combo meal with special sauce!
I'm trying to create a dragon for this story I'm writing for McKenna.
I've never really tried my hand at sci-fi/fantasy save for a coupla crappy high
school dungeons and dragons type sketches i did before my balls dropped.
I'm using lizards to get the feel for rendering "dragon-skin", but I'm really new
to this type of stuff....
I'm a people person!
Anyone have any links to some cool Dragon pics? I need some inspirato....
I included a quick KennaSketch (3/9) cause she when she stretches, she

S T R E T C H E S !

ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Expecto Patronum!

2006-03-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a newish KennaSketch! 3/6
She's wearing the latest in Harry Potter fashions....
Since my "Boys of Blog" Frankenstein creation
seemed to have gone over as well as Jon Stewart
at the Oscars,I thought I'd throw something up
quick.... 'twas not my intention to offend, lads...
ribbit!

The Boys Of Blog

2006-03-04T00:07:00.000-05:00

"Friends....How many of us have them?"- Whodini

Here's to my boys of blog:
Charlie "Toolz of the Trade" Valderrama and Jesse "Jesse's Sketchpad" Hernandez.
(with love to Keeper's Notes for the floating OMMMM)
we know you're taking care of business at home with your lovelies
and if we give you shit because you don't have as much time to post
as you used to, it's only cause we miss you round the lillypad-
ribbit!

(DaddyNotes: the montage contains photos & art of the above-mentioned blogspots
and are all copyrighted by their respective creators...in Charles' case-literally.)

The Cutter

2006-03-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

" I like to wait- to see how things turn out.....
When you apply some pressure." - Maximo Park

The above cartoon is only 50% accurate.
The following story is about 88% percent true.
Yesterday, I stopped by my regular deli for my morning bagel and bottle of tea- pretty
much a routine for me before going to work. This deli is always packed with commute-dazed
New Yorkers and it's completely claustrophobic. You're either pushing or getting pushed.
I'm waiting in line with about 4 people behind me when this guy walks right up to the register.
Bypassing all of us and seemingly oblivious to common deli line etiquette.
I'm not a violent man.
I've mentioned previously that I dislike confrontation.
So what compelled me to walk up to this guy (6'1, 250 lbs, early 40's by my guessitmates) and tap him on the shoulder repeatedly until he turned around?
I HATE being cut in line. It's a damn social injustice that should never be tolerated.
"Dude- there's a line."
"So?"
"SO?" (.....Slow Burn)
"So you're a dick, dude."
"Fuck you, jerkoff."
Now, I've heard a comedian named Dane Cook mention that once an
altercation enters the "Fuck You" stage, there's nothing you can say
to beat that. And it's true...it's just a matter of volume after that.
"FUCK ME?" and at this point I take a step towards him...
"Fuck YOU man!"
and at that point he was completely done with his transaction and
the guys behind the counter were hollering at both of us and I realized
that the whole place dropped a few decibels....then I kinda checked myself
and realized the situation wasn't worth all the fuss and turned my back on
the jackass and paid for my breakfast.
And lived to draw another day.
Anyways, The above sketch is my therapeutic graphic handling of the scene with
FrogDaddy dispensing his virtual justice.
I'm not a violent man.
I just play one in cartoons.
Ribbit!

FrogDaddy

Are You Trying To Seduce Me?

2006-02-26T11:41:00.000-05:00

"She walked into the room-
On the arm of my best friend.
I knew whatever happened-
our friendship would end."- Sting

Finished her up last night. Think I may try
three more like this and frame 'em.
This piece was really inspired by an L.A.
painter named Audrey Kawasaki. I can't touch
her with a ten foot paint brush, but her work
is so hauntingly beautiful that it inspired
this pale mimicry. Check her site out for
some REAL artwork.

http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/main.htm

I'll leave this up for awhile...Hope you enjoy it.

FrogDaddy

In Progress...

2006-02-25T00:54:00.000-05:00

Here's something still in the works.
Maybe I'll finish before Sunday.
Enjoy the weekend!
Ribbit!

D.W.S. (Daddies With Shotguns)

2006-02-23T22:31:00.000-05:00

"Dad."
"Yes McKenna?"
"When can I be President?"
(stunned silence.)

We got a haircut this weekend. (KennaSketch 2/23)
and while I was worried about her having some initial
hair shock, she's actually quite confident in her new 'do.
So much so, that I'm starting to worry....I'm inventing these
scenarios that may occur within the next decade... where I
gotta invite some future yackoff who wants to take my daughter
to a movie into my house for interrogation.
I'll have the Reservoir Dogs "cut the cop's ear off"
torture scene que'ed up on the dvd, and have him sit in the
t.v. room with me while I ask him questions. Let 'em sweat it out, ya know?
I happen to be part of a group of artists at my job who all have daughters,
and they'd started this new membership club called
"Daddies With Shotguns" and I'm seriously thinking helping charter it with them.
I guess Pop's who bust their daughter's date's balls is a time-honored
tradition in this country, and if I don't do it that would be sending
a wrong message to the terrorists!
Lord knows my Old Man gave my sister's husbands their share...Now HE
was a friggin artist! He could make 'em sweat! He asked my (future wife)
girlfriend the first day I brought her over the house if she wanted to take
a shower with him to help conserve water!
My love (god bless her) called him on it, said-
"Allright! Where's the bathroom?"
And I knew he approved of her right then.

"So what time did you say you'll have my daughter home by?"

I love my lil' tadpole.
Frogdaddy

Big Pimpin'

2006-02-22T22:59:00.000-05:00

"He who does not feel me
is not real to me;
therefore he doesn't exist-
so poof! Vamoose sonuvabitch!"
- Shawn Carter

i loosely started this doodle of Jay-Z the other night and
what began as a lazy contour drawing ended up looking
like a finished caricature....it was a batlle though....
i was gonna try and hold off posting another day,
but there's just too much good shit being posted by my peers
that i'm feeling rather inspired...
(besides, wouldn't you rather see jay z's face
at the top of the blog or my prior sketch of johnny blowdrier?)
i'll try and throw something colorful up before the weekend-
stay chilly-
frogadelic

The Last Thirty Three Days

2006-02-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

"-and your momentos will turn to dust
but that's the price you pay
for every year is a souvenir
that slowly fades away." - Billy Joel
(everyone who knows me knew a B.J. quote
was not only inevitable, but at this point, overdue.)

hey! today marks one month blogging for FrogDaddy Ink!
(throws confetti over keyboard.) i did a little census
of my blogs and noted i had a total of 24 posts in
a 33 day period! not bad!
i am however going to try in the immediate future
to go more for quality over quantity....maybe actually
finishing a sketch here & there, and applying more
use of color, so while it won't be as daily, it will definitely
be more interesting visually and more lyrically dynamic.
(at least in the rap department....)

thanks to all art lovers for welcoming me
into this nurturing community!

FrogDaddy

Free to the Flow (Pt. 1)

2006-02-18T16:35:00.000-05:00

Frogdaddy Ink..... creepin'
while you're sleepin'-
multi-bloggin on a weekend-
thru my sketchbook you be leafin'-
don't be stealin my posts-no theivin'
like steve perry sang-"don't stop believin"...
in yourself-
cause i'm not about boastin- (say what? say what?)
would rather be toastin- (say what? say what?)
all the artists east to west coastin- (say what? say what?)
one day i'll be triple postin'- (say what?!!!)
then like patrick swayze I'm ghostin'....
(ghostin'....ghostin'.....ghostin'.....)

i ain't no hollaback frog!

ribbit!

No Cure for Cancer (Yet.)

2006-02-17T22:36:00.000-05:00

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."- Abraham Lincoln
"A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest."- Irish Proverb

I painted "Brickhead" back in 1992. My mother was coming off of massive chemotherapy from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in an artery in her neck.
She had smoked most of her adult life as was the fashion for young peoples in the 50's. Smoked through all 11 pregnancies and smoked at the dinner table... it seemed so normal growing up that I never realized that it was the danger that surgeon generals are now required to paste all over the product in huge, warning, bold-faced type. Why anyone would want to smoke cigarettes at all these days is a mystery to me. Anyway she quit cold turkey when she was first diagnosed in '85, but had gone through various stages of it flaring up and migrating to different areas of her body and you could see it just physically wear her down.
This is the strongest woman in the world to me, and I think the painting was just a response to this horrible habit that held her for so long.
Anyways, two years after this painting,
she had to have a tracheotomy- which is basically the removal of the voice box, and she had to speak with this electronic microphone that projects she sound from the vibrations of the larynx.
which make her sound like E.T. a bit, but my daughter loves it.
She had a brain tumor removed just two summers ago and so far, thank God,
she's been battling on and surviving and appreciating every day she gets.
Did I mention she's the strongest woman in the world?
(I'm not even going to go into the 11 children- that's a whole 'nother blog)
So, giving cancer a point for stealing her voice, I still score this series as:

Mom - 4
Cancer - 1

Mom wins series!
Fuck you Cancer.
Hope science figures you out soon. Punk ass.

I love you mom-
Glenn

Will Blog for Food....

2006-02-15T23:56:00.000-05:00

KennaSketch 2/15....
drew this coming home on the train tonight...i was sitting next to a...(ahem!)
larger woman who kind of monopolized 15% of my seat with her left arm....
now i know i'm no string bean myself, but i was trying to sketch dammit!
so i realized at one point that because she was leaning into me,
i ended up drawing my girl on a slant....her face looks a little contorted to me,
stretched out like a saturday night live skit, and i was reluctant to post,
but since i'm now taking hooked on blogging pills-
what can i do?
wednesdays are normally reserved for "LOST"!
this was supposed to be a night off! dammit!
gonna hop back to the evangeline lillypad for some zzzzzzzzzzzzz's
ribbit!
(P.S. no large woman were harmed or hated on in the writing of this blog.
we love you just the way you are.)

Everyday's the 14th!

2006-02-14T21:58:00.000-05:00

"change your heart...look around you...
change your heart....it will astound you...
and I need your lovin'....like the sunshine....
but everybody's gotta learn sometimes"... beck

Valentines Day. what a motherfucker.
what hallmark-manufactured bullshit!
what 1 800 FLOWERS-sponsored poppycock!
i read that in Japan, women have to buy the
MEN chocolate on this day (and more than a few of them are fed up with it!)
who needs it? who needs a specific day to tell your sig/other you love them?
you should be telling 'em everyday! and not in that peck on the lips "love u"
you give em before you go to work....i'm talking full-bodied tongue baths!
YES! TESTIFY! can i get a what? what?
everyone i work with asked me what i got my wife for valentines' day,
and i told em all the same thing...nuthin'.
no candies.
no flowers.
no heart-shaped balloons...
i've done it all for years and i kept trying to outdo the last gift
which is always a dangerous habit...and she tells me she's o.k.
with keeping it simple, so this year it's nuthin'....

so i'll be sleeping on the couch tonight...

This Valentines' Day couch crawl is brought to you by 1 800 FLOWERS.

Ribbit!
FrogDaddy

P.S.- fresh KennaSketch! we had a visit from the Tooth Fairy last night...

Snow Day

2006-02-13T21:14:00.000-05:00

The Modern World

2006-02-10T22:04:00.000-05:00

"i'm in love with the U.S.A. yeah-
I'm in love with the Modern World, man-
Put down your cigarettes- and drop outta high school...alright..."-
Johnathan Richman & the Modern Lovers

As I posted previously, here's my take on an Egon Schiele drawing circa 1910...
prolly gonna take the week-end off...we're expecting 12 inches of snow in
the garden state...i think there's a snowman in my immediate future!
( i wish a snowblower was.... stupid corner property!)
be back monday folks...drink lots of swiss miss and get outside!
(you're looking a little pasty these days!)
Peash!
F-Diddy

"Isn't That Right, Mr. Poopypants?"

2006-02-09T21:49:00.000-05:00

newest latest: KennaSketch!
we're reading a book tonight for storytime called "The Giant Jellybean Jar"
that was signed by the artist when she visited their kindergarten Wednesday.
There's a part of the story where the young boy's older sister shares her jellybeans
with her little brother. "Wow. McKenna...that was a nice thing for an older sister to do."
"Yeah Dad...she showed caring, sharing, and trustworthiness.: (I guess these are kindergarten
buzzwords at the moment...) "Hey, do you think if your mom and I ever gave you a little brother
that you could share things with him like that?".......she waits a beat....then says...
"Yeah! If he doesn't POOP all over me!"
the joys of fatherhood.
ribbit!

10 a.m. Automatic

2006-02-07T22:01:00.000-05:00

"What about the night- makes you change-
Oh from sweet.....to deranged?" - The Black Keys

i was doodling my daughter on a grocery list and my wife thought
it was worth saving so i figured it's worth posting...the style reminds
me of Rick Geary, a comic book illustrator who i got to meet
through my college mentor program....it may be the way i want to
approach the look of this still percolating "book" i've yet to draw...
G'night & G'luck-
FDiddy

Quiet Is The New Loud

2006-02-06T23:24:00.000-05:00

"I hate Mondays."- my six year old before walking into kindergarten last week.

I used to be in a rock band. a couple actually. bass player. i was o.k.
we'd play these small ny clubs in the east village like arlene's grocery
and invite our work friends out and it was a blast...we had a democratic
singing process where you get to sing the song you wrote, since I'd always
played other people's music, it was quite a challenge for me to actually
write my own. here's one i wrote-"resignation" -which i performed in front
of my work crew one night. they thought i was referring to quitting my job
and gave me quite an ovation when it was over... truthfully though, the song's
about my fear of confrontation....so when i heard the ovation, i freaked out
and ran out of the club crying like Prince did at the end of Purple Rain....
o.k. i made that last part up.
ribbit!
FrogDaddy

Tear You Apart

2006-02-04T23:09:00.000-05:00

"You cry out in your sleep - all my failings expose
There's a taste in my mouth, as desperation takes hold
Just that something so good just can't function no more
When love, love will tear us apart again --" Joy Division
just purchased this new album from a band called "She Wants Revenge"
when i heard the single "Tear You Apart" on the radio, i was thinking, "wow this is pretty
poppy for interpol..." but the dj never announced who it was-which annoys the hell outta
me....i had to hear this bloody song three times(!) before i finally heard it this morning on the
way to the bagel store..i sat in the car till the goddam song ended and when the dude finally
dropped the band name- i said (out loud, to nobody) THANK YOU! anyway it's sounds
like an unreleased 80's joy division disc and so far i'm enjoying it....but there's been such a
dearth of good music out there lately, that i'll jump at anything that sounds left of center...
or like interpol.
here's a piece from the early 90's (my F.I.T. days) i drew this pre-computer,
and measured everyone of these circles till my eye was as lazy as
colin hay.(it's an 80's themed blog!) it's called "confessional"
ribbit!
frogdaddy

Sketchbook Part Deux

2006-02-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

It's been about 20 hours since my last post, so it must be time for
a new KennaSketch! i don't particularly like how this one came along,
but I kinda like the idea of the gaps in her mouth
where her new teeth are forming giving her a jack-o-lantern
effect....
my Superbowl prediction is:
Steelers 31, Seahawks 17
Ribbit!
frogdaddy

I'm Brendan...What's Your Name?

2006-02-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

"The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you."- Brendan Behan
here's a study of the great Irish playwright Brendan Behan. i was commissioned out of college to paint a portrait of
Behan by an Irish Bartender who owned the local pub i frequented.(lived in) i actually drew this study in that bar and after
having one too many, showed to the barkeep to get his approval, folded it in half and tucked it in my pocket...
when i realized the next day that it wasn't a half bad effort, considering the environment it was produced from, i was sorta
pissed i folded it...i actually like this sketch more than the painting....which still might be hanging by the bar in Molly's
on 3rd avenue in NYC....cheers!
frogdaddy