whiskey in the jar-jar

February 18, 2012February 19, 20125 Comments

Last night, I partied like it was 1999. That is to say, I went to see the Phantom Menace. In 3D. I know I always say that 3D is shite, and that Phantom Menace is, largely, also shite, but I couldn’t wait – this would be awesome man! Well, the chance to see Star Wars, any Star Wars, on the big screen again couldn’t be passed up. Phantom Menace has its faults (I am looking squarely at you, Jar-Jar Binks – time has not made it easier to forgive the Gungan for his hapless existence) but in many places it is quite great – Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon is someone everyone would want to know, a favourite uncle, Obi-Wan’s lightsabre skills are still world class, and I think Jake Lloyd was superb as young Anakin. They made some improvements, fixing Yoda from that terrible puppet to a digital one that more closely resembles the original puppet, and switching all of Amidala’s lines with ones that made sense (actually they didn’t do that, sadly). I was reminded of how excited everyone was when the trailer first aired, when double-bladed lightsabre wielding face-painting experiment Darth Maul told us he would be revealed to the Jedi. But was it 3D? Nope.

It’s hard to just switch a regular movie into a 3D movie, I guess. I remember seeing Jaws 3D at the pictures when I was a kid and jumping out of my seat when a harpoon flew out of the screen – now that was 3D (actually, Edgware cinema it may have been a real harpoon, looking back). There were trailers for new 3D movies last night which did look quite spectacular, but they were made with 3D in mind. Phantom Menace just wasn’t. Not even the podraces, exciting though they were, particularly flew out of screen. The most 3D bit, seriously, was when Watto was speaking Huttese and the subtitles came up. I was like, “oooh floating letters!” After a while, the 3D glasses (“3D – Real D” it says, whatever the heck that is supposed to be) were bugging me. I expected those light cardboard ones you used to get, red on one side, blue on the other, but these were proper plastic sunglasses. They’re great, if you don’t already have glasses on. They fit over your glasses, but wearing two sets of specs is a real pain on the nose.

Still, after Darth Maul went to pieces, after Qui-Gon Jinn was set on fire and after the Gungans paraded their vuvuzelas in the streets of Naboo (with Palpatine looking on saying to himself, seriously what part of “wipe them out” did they not understand??), it was fun to come out of the movie theatre feeling like I had relived the olden days. I then fancied a beer and a sketch. One other thing I did in 1999 was spend a couple of weeks in Prague, so I went to local pub Little Prague for some Czech beer. I’ve drawn this place several times before, and this time I drew on a brown envelope (from Peking University), using a uniball vision micro, a superb Y&G Calligraphy pen, and a white gel pen. Oh and a bit of warm grey Pitt brush pen. Took me about an hour and a half, while people milled about dancing and drinking. I like Little Prague, but the music on Friday nights can be a bit loud and, well, not my thing. Lots of others seemed to enjoy it though, but I concentrated on drawing all those bottles. I considered extending the envelope to draw the rest of the bar (I would love to do a curving panoramic of this bar sometime, perhaps on a less busy evening). I would like some time to organize a Drink and Draw type group here in Davis, something that seems to be popular in other cities. In the meantime, here’s wondering how the other Star Wars films will look in 3D. I think I can guess!

going rogue

February 9, 2012February 9, 20122 Comments

This is the Rogue alehouse in North Beach, San Francisco. I have been here before a few times, so stopped in for one of their delicious Rogue Red beers (they have a lot of different beers). Rogue are based in Oregon, and I did find the Rogue in Portland when I was there in 2010. This place was pretty busy; when I came in there were quite a few afternoon barcrawlers drinking copious amounts of Bud Light (seriously, when there is so much decent beer on tap, they drink Bud Light?) and following them down with shots of something or other (mouthwash, presumably). I started drawing, as I do, though I was sat at an awkward angle at the bar, and was right by where everyone was queueing for the bogs.

inside the walls of the old city hall

January 27, 2012January 27, 20123 Comments

You know the old City Hall building in Davis that I have sketched about a million times? This one here? Well I noticed the last time I sketched it that there was a sign outside saying ‘City Hall Tavern’, which was news to me. Apparently, this building (a wing of the restaurant Bistro 33, and the former police station among other things) has now been converted into a bar, so after the fun of last weekend’s sketchcrawl I popped by for a pint of Weihenstephaner. It’s very modern inside, dark walls and cycle-themed (there are rotating bike sheels all over the ceiling), and some sort of games room which was blocked by a curtain. It would be an interesting bar-room to sketch, though I only had time to do a quick one of the bar area itself. I’ll go back some time for a bigger sketch. It’s certainly an interesting use of this historic space.

Here are some previous outside drawings of the old City Hall building. It’s on F Street, near 3rd, Davis:

pub lunch

December 29, 20113 Comments

I went downtown at lunchtime today, intending to do some drawing in the bright weather. However I suddenly decided that chips in mushroom gravy sounded really good, so I popped into De Vere’s on E Street. Good place to sketch! I drew the bar previously from the middle; this one, which took under an hour, was drawn from the end. The chips in gravy were really good.

if you want me i’ll be at the bar

November 28, 2011November 29, 20116 Comments

A couple of weeks ago a new pub opened in downtown Davis, De Vere’s. I had to go by and check it out – and do some sketching. It was very busy! But I saw as soon as I walked in, a chair at the bar all by itself, right in the middle, so I parked, ordered a Sudwerk Aggie lager (quite nice) and got sketching. I was doing a long panorama of the bar, an unusual one for me, so I started right in the middle (the pint glass was the first thing I drew), and worked outwards, a little bit left, a little bit right, all the while squeezed in the throng about me. I didn’t draw the barstaff – they moved too quickly, and were kept busy by the punters. It’s an interesting pub, very big, brand new but with a proper ‘pub’ feel, not just a bar – it felt like something back home, and I missed my old London mates. I finished up my drawing (it took two and a half beers, if you’re interested, and mine’s a pint, if you’re buying), decided against adding colour, and went home.

I went back last week with my wife, and we tried their chips with gravy and cheese and I must say it was bloody amazing. With chips and gravy as an incentive, I think I may go and sketch there again from time to time.

not the nine o’clock brews

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011Leave a comment

I hadn’t been to Sudwerk in a long time, so last Friday night, after spending the very warm evening sketching downtown and eating a curry, I popped by for some beer, baseball and more sketching. The Giants actually won; they’ve been doing rather less than stellar lately. Sudwerk is a local brewery-restaurant, with really nice German style beers (I particularly like the Marzen), and these great big boiler things behind the bar. One day I’ll draw in colour, but I liked the black and white pen drawing effect, so kept the watercolours in my bag. It’s funny, Sudwerk was the place we came to for dinner the first time we ever visited Davis, when we drove over once back in 2005. I liked their beer then too, and we decided to stay. I don’t think I expected to be still here in Davis in 2011, but here we are!

After this, I wandered home and watched Porco Rosso (Miyazaki, never seen it, it was ok).

captain sensible

August 19, 2011August 19, 2011Leave a comment

I went to see Captain America last week. It’s funny how the movie companies are now making prequels before they make the main films now (the main film being The Avengers). Before the movie, I sat outside and sketched local Czech pub Little Prague. I’ve drawn the interior several times now but never really the exterior.

The movie was good fun, a little silly in places, but likeable, not ridiculous, not a made-for-3D ‘thrill ride’. some of the trailers before the movie were clearly such – the new Spiderman for example, coming out next year, looked too slick, too obviously 3D orientated, and lacking the personality of the Tobey Maguire Spidey (whose first two movies were great; the third one was dreadful, largely because it was overblown and too interested on spinning your head around a screen while nothing particularly interesting happened, oh a mid-air fight, oh he’s brushing off concrete blocks like they’re made of polystyrene, oh wow a man made of sand, and as for that stupid dance routine…) (that’s why they rebooted). Other trailers I saw, the new Three Musketeers, apparently back in the 18th century there were flying airship galleons that could do battle mid-air (it always has to be mid-air, doesn’t it? Do they think moviegoers can’t stay awake during ground-level scenes any more?); I’m pretty sure they didn’t have those in the original book, but I haven’t read it. My only reference (and come on, probably yours too) is Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds. Don’t ever try to reboot that, that series was a classic. Another trailer was for some doomsday plague virus movie with an all-star cast (they love those genres, don’t they) Then there was Rise of the Planet of the Apes, looks pretty good, Draco Malfoy is in it, so is the Green Goblin’s son, and William Stryker, and the Trinity Killer, oh and Gollum plays the chimp, Caesar the Geezer. Actually at first I thought it was a reboot of Bigfoot and the Hendersons now that they can reboot). I want to see it, mostly because of that shot of the gorilla jumping into a helicopter from the Golden Gate Bridge. Nice try, bananas, but how are you going to fly that thing?

After all of that, Captain America was quite wholesome and satisfying, with proper leather-jacketed and jack-booted nazi/megalomaniacal villainy, and a quite international team alongside the Cap, a ‘coalition of the willing’ if you like. The feel was not hugely ‘American’ in fact, not so much Captain America, but Team Member America. There are other overly patriotic macho nonsense films, so this didn’t need to be – to its credit, I think, but still surprising given that he is, you know, Captain America.

After the movie, I popped into Little Prague to finish off the last bit of colour in the first drawing, and to draw the sketch below. Didn’t spend too long there doing all the details (I have done that before), but captured the atmosphere.

aye aye, captain

August 2, 2011August 2, 2011Leave a comment

The Captain Kidd pub in Wapping. My friend and fellow sketcher Simon has been telling me about it for a long time, but we’d never been because it’s, you know, in Wapping. Still, with Wapping and it’s less salubrious denizens Murdoch and pals being very much in the news that week it seemed like a good idea to pop down there. We took the London Overground (the old orange East London line, now revamped and extended with swanky new trains and a new name) and went down by the river. The old pub literally backs onto the thames, and we grabbed a pint each and sat on a bench looking across the water. The rain would eventually force us inside, but not after a quick sketch of the scenery, and another attempt at sketching my friend (who really should be very easy to capture, but I always get him just wrong, it’s almost become a running theme; next time, I promise, I’ll practise more!). After some catching up and quite a bit of laughing, we sketched inside and I drew the scene above, before I had to head back home. Such a brief trip to London this time, not long enough with my good friends!

if the sun don’t come you get a tan from standing in the english rain

July 31, 20111 Comment

The smart thing to do would be to check the weather forecast and then decide what to do, but of course as anyone who is familiar with London summers (or winters, autumns and springs) knows, the weather forecast cannot be relied upon anyway. We’d planned to do a walking tour around Westminster (one of the London Walks; I illustrated their book a couple of years ago, including the chapter on Secret Westminster) and wasn’t going to be put off by a few drops of rain. Indeed it looked like it would be just another breezy, grey Saturday, maybe the odd drop here and there but nothing to worry us. We met the group outside a tourist-packed Westminster station, giving me enough time to grab a ten minute sketch of Big Ben (above) before learning about Westminster’s secrets. As we stood behind Westminster Abbey looking at Oliver Cromwell across the road, the rain suddenly turned into a torrent, and pretty much stayed that way for the next few hours.

It was an interesting tour, to be sure, despite the massive downpour. We went down backstreets of Westminster I never even knew about, and took a stroll through the old Westminster school. Of course I attempted to sketch as we went along, which was a challenge I’ll admit. Once it was all over (a little earlier than planned, I suspect), we went to a pub in Whitehall, the Old Shades, to dry off and have something to eat.

Not that the rain deterred us too much. We still spent a day around central London, popping into the National Gallery, squeezing through the crowds at Hamley’s, looking through the football shirt shops (hey, it’s me).

And then in the evening, a night out in Camden Town with friends (one of whom, Ralph, I hadn’t seen in over twenty years). Before meeting up, I grabbed another very quick sketch standing on Camden High street. So despite all the rain, that was a fun day, and it was a fun night as well.

bricks, guns, candy (and dollar bills on the ceiling of a bar)

July 11, 2011July 11, 20113 Comments

More from Jacksonville, southern Oregon. I sat beneath a shady tree and sketched the historic city hall. It is very peaceful around there, the chirruping of birds only broken by the families of visitors humming by on Segways. I sketched this with the uni-ball signo pen, and as I was about to add a tentative wash the pen said no, I will run. You can but but I can’t hide it. So it stayed black and white. You can colour it in if you like (just don’t use watercolours or sharpies on your monitor).

I had to draw this antique gun exchange. With all of the antlers and horns on the front of the shop, I wondered if it was really supposed to be a gnu exchange. You homo sapiens and your gnus. I also sketched a rather interesting candy dispenser, with glamourous looking shiny beads on it, in the window of a clothes store called La Boheme. It seems to fit nicely with the clothes I sketched before.

When I came here on the same day last year, I finished up the afternoon by sketching in the JVille Tavern, accompanied by a nice local beer (Ashland Amber Caldera). I setched this bar from the other side last year. This one was sketched quickly in my small red moley, and spattered with some paint afterwards to add an interesting effect. Those things inexplicably pinned to the ceiling are dollar bills, not butterflies.