Chanukkah? Hanukkah?

It's time to get a little festive.  Last year I bought a "holiday" movie that I was going to watch and write about here on the blog.  I didn't get around to it and it's been sitting in various locations on the living room floor ever since.  I finally got around to watching it the other night.

I'm not sure why I didn't do it last year because now it's like I'm not going to do a big write up or anything about the movie.  Instead I'll just tell you that I watched Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights, the all time great Chanukkah/Christmas/Holiday movie.  And you know it's great because there is a ton of product placements, swearing and poop and fart jokes!  For some reason I want to remember Cam and Willie saw this in the theater?  I don't know for sure, but I do know...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS SH#THEADS!!

More arts

We are now at part three of various art stuff from my portfolio.  Please enjoy.

A Hulk print from artist Scott Hepburn that I picked up at the Calgary Comic Expo.  He must've thought I was a complete weirdo.  The bottom of the print is signed and numbered in pencil, but it's very faint.  I asked him if he could sign it again and he reluctantly did if only to get rid of me.

A Spider-Man and Mary Jane print by Craig Rousseau that I got at the Calgary Red & White show.  He was an artist on Marvel's Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.

Craig Rousseau Captain America sketch.

A Batman sketch from artist Norm Breyfogle, I also got this at a Red & White show.

A Wolverine sketch from artist Jacob Chabot from the Calgary Comic Expo.  He has some Marvel stuff, but also his own comic, The Mighty Skullboy Army.

I bought this Spider-Man sketch from Jacob Chabot that was in his art book.   I think he was happy I bought it because he's had it for three years.   Not sure why anyone wouldn't want to buy it, but that's cool I got a deal on it.

Another Chris Giarusso sketch to add to my collection.  I say another because I also have my Punisher sketch that I got him to do when he was offering commissions from this website.

A Die Hard print that I bought online from Society 6.

I bought this Ewoks animation cell on eBay.  It doesn't have the background, but the rough pencils are also included.  The girly ewok has a derpy look on her face.

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Once again I'll end it with a music poster, this time a Superfriendz tour poster from 1996.  Fun fact, Murderecords just released a remastered double LP of Resuce Us From Boredom.  It has bonus tracks and is limited to just 500 copies, so be sure to go buy me one before it's too late!

Wang Chun

This morning I was laying in bed half asleep and browsing the Google Play store on my phone because what else is a guy to do on a cold Sunday morning?  I stumbled upon a photo called called Catwang and downloaded it if only to get a blog post out of it and prove I have not forgot about the free photo app series!

Once you open the app you can choose between taking a picture with your camera or using a photo from you image gallery.  Once you choose a picture you can add various "stamps" to it to make it hip, sick, stupid cool or whatever the hipsters are saying these days.  The app is free and comes with three sets of stamps/effects, but if you want more sets then you'll have to pay 99 cents each.  It is pretty basic in what it does, but it is so over the top, I give it a thumbs up.  Here is what I made it using a Willie picture from Steele O'Neil.

Don't worry Cam, Cara and Mike because Catwang is also available in the Apple App Store.  The developer, 99centbrains, has a few other photo apps out like Snoop Lions Snoopify and Major Lazer's Lazergram.  The Major Lazer one has my interest.

Nerf or nuthin'

I was off today and headed to Market Mall to do some browsing around in hopes of finding some Christmas presents.  While I was at Toys 'R Us I bought something for Avery that was a combination impulse buy and panicked "I have bought no Christmas gifts yet" buy.  I wrote about it already, threatening that I might get it, but I followed through and actually did it.

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25!  Yep, my sister is officially going to hate me, after this one the drum kit will seem like a good idea.

The guy on the back on the back of the box really seems to enjoy his Vulcan.  It even comes with ammo box for the belt of ammo and a tripod.  It also has three tactical rails for add ons.  The thing looks like a monster and needs 6 D batteries to operate in auto mode.  I'm beginning to wish I bought one for myself now.

I also got Avery an awesome Slimer t-shirt.

And a Super Mario Checkers set.  Instead of red and black, it's red and green (Luigi!), how clever!

It is a start, a small one, but at least I got a little done.  If worse comes to worse I can always get Dollarama gift cards.

Japan stuff

I bought some stuff that came from Japan in an envelope with many stamps on it.

And one of the stamps was a Doraeman one!  Haha, awesome.

Christmas In The Stars

It certainly feels Christmasy around here with the cold, all the snow and messed up roads.  Even though I'm not doing the advent calendar countdown I can still do something to get in the holiday spirit.  They started playing Christmas music at work weeks ago and I can't enough of it, so I'm listening to it at home now too.

This afternoon I listened to Christmas In The Stars, the Star Wars Christmas album from 1980 featuring the original cast of R2-D2 and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.  Yes, that means C-3PO "sings" on the album and so does R2.  Chewie also does some guest vocals on a couple tracks.  I know because I listened to the thing.  It's about as bad as you would guess and twice as cheesy, but still way better than the Star Wars Holiday Special, which is something I wish I could forget I ever saw.

Not all the songs are bad, but if I had to pick a favourite it would have to be "Sleigh Ride".  "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas" is so cheesy and stupid it's funny and the Wookie one at least has funny title.  Spoiler Alert: Later on in the album they decide to get him a brush.

I actually picked this up just over a month ago from Urban Sound for $10.  I cashed in one of my full stamp cards, so it was actually free.  When company comes over during the holidays I can pop in the fireplace DVD and this album in the background.  Perfect!  Merry Christmas and may the force be with you!

Comix P2

Here we go in the next chapter of stuff from my portfolio book.

Yes, Scott Pilgrim!  Got this at the Calgary Comic Expo '09 and the best part was that it was free.  Bryan Lee O'Malley was doing quickie free sketches, but there was a catch...you had to supply the paper.  Sounds like a deal to me.

A page of original Scott Pilgrim art from Volume 2 of the series, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.  I bought this page on the Sunday, the second day of the show, and even though I saw Bryan on the Saturday I had no idea he was selling comic art.  I noticed it on the second day when some guy was going through the pages.  I'm not sure why the guy was buying the art at all because the vibe I got was that he hadn't even read the books.  He was probably just collector jerk buying it because it will go up in value.  Anyway, the jerk bought the page I been eye balling and as he was leaving he mentioned he might come back to pick up another page.  That page he was going to maybe come back and get was the one I bought for myself.   HA!

On the second day day of the show I thought I might as well get another sketch from Bryan Lee O'Malley because they were free, but I didn't have any paper.  I asked Fiona Staples for a page of paper and she was nice enough to give me one.  Then I got a cat.

A sketch of the Thing by David Hahn obtained from the Calgary Red & White show 2008.  At the time David Hahn was drawing Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and Marvel Adventure: Fantastic Four.  I'm not too sure what he has done lately, but did he draw the Suicide Girls mini series.  Yes, there were some boobs in it.

David Hahn Firestar model sheet for Spider-Man Love Mary Jane.

This a page of Spider-Man patches for Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane issue #16.  After the pages had been drawn I guess some poses or shots didn't work, or he wanted a different look, so David drew these to be scanned in and "patched" in over the original page.  I just like this page because it's got so much Spider-Man on it and in so many different poses.

Just some signed cards from David Hahn.  I spent the most money at his table.

A Spider-Man sketch by Todd Nauck from the same show as David Hahn.  Todd Nauck has done lots of stuff for both Marvel and DC, he even drew the Power Rangers Zeo comic which only made it to one issue.  He actually drew the first four issues, but the company publishing the comic lost the rights and it didn't make it past issue #1.

More Takeshi Miyazawa and a Mary Jane sketch.  I'm pretty sure I got this sketch at the inaugural Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo.  Back then it wasn't very busy and was nice and spread out with lots of room.  Now it's totally huge and tickets sell out weeks before the show.

I'll leave you with another music poster, this time a album promo poster for The Aquabats!  I pre-ordered the CD online and the incentive was this poster signed by the band.  Super Rad!

Countdown aborted

It's December 1st and the countdown to Christmas has officially started.  An easy way to do this is with an advent calendar and better yet, a Star Wars advent calendar.  But sorry, I didn't get one.  I first saw one back at the start of October at Wal-Mart for $50, a regular Lego advent calendar goes for $40.  The extra $10 is for the Star Wars license.

Don't worry though as I'll probably just do what I did last year and wait until January and pick one up on the cheap.  Looking at the cover you get an idea of some of the kits in the set and since I saw a Biker Scout on there I'm pretty sold on it.  The exclusive figure this year is a Santa Jango Fett.  Other than I'm sure to be mostly disappointed with stuff from the newer movies as they already did a lot of cool stuff already.

It's good I don't have an advent calendar because it will just remind me the clocking is ticking down to Christmas and I'm totally screwed.  Usually, I've started my Christmas shopping by now or at least know what I'm going to get for gifts.  Other than a snuggie, this year I'm completely clueless and don't even know what to get anybody.  Although, I did see the Nerf Vulcan gun on sale at Toys'R'Us this week which is a possibility for Avery.  My sister will hate it, so I'll have to get one.