Cups of Tea 1021 - 1022

Just a quick post (it is hella late!) so I don't break my track record of posting everyday!



TESD #9 is all about Ghosts, therefore it's only right both images are of them! Quinn featuring as the Funky Phantom and just a random small ghost shape. Shoop shoop.

M x

Cups of Tea 1021 - 1026

Quite alot of tea due to a long and arduous day of podcast annotation and design. This morning I got up bright and early to try and tackle the remaining TESD podcasts but then got offered by my parents a trip to the Beacon Beacons. Having never been, I said 'why the hell not?' and jumped in the car for a ride, hoping to get some photographs on the SLR. But it wasn't to be, as soon as we got into close proximity, the thickest mist i've ever seen descended on the car and the whole of the range entered Silent Hill style viability. Suffice to say, we just drove through and came back home...

So I got in around 2ish and sat down to work. Alas, it's been a hella struggle to visualize these podcasts. While some of them are to my eyes quite funny, I'm not sure what the general opinion would be... idk, I work alot better to music and obviously as I'm having to listen to podcasts as I work to meet the deadline it's starting to become abit of a chore >.<

Anyways, almost out of the first 10 TESD's and onto the Hollywood Babble-ons, so it'll hopefully be smooth sailing with Ralph and Kevin supplying the yucks... Which is weird, because TESD is probably my favourite of the three :/ So onto today's work!



TESD #5's art is based off the concept of Bryan's amazing goal keeping skills... While the original idea was to include pigtails descending from the helmet to back up Walt's claims that he 'goalies like a girl', it just didn't look right so I kept it simple. The alt. artwork depicts a phone because of half the episode's talk of prank phonecalling people within the Rec center that Bry and Walt used to work at. They don't describe the phone, but I imaged it as being an old red phone like this (it was the 70's...).



TESD #6 is mainly based around how 'Sunday' Jeff came to work at The Stash. The tale tells of loyalty and how Walt eventually trusts Jeff enough to give him his credit card to return items to stores for him. However, these return's are morally grey and end up with Walt Flannigan being put on a 'wanted' list by the now out of business entertainment stores in New Jersey. However, it turns out that they only got the name right and banned Jeff because he was returning Walt's things. The cross is through Walt for the naming purpose and the bags show returns to be made.




TESD #7 is based on the idea that Bryan wants a glass sell like Magneto to stop podcasting fans touching the guys while recording a 'live' TESD. As Quinn was yet to appear as a cover star, I threw him the Magneto hat as he's into comics. The mini picture depicts the Pod's main theme on debating whether corporal punishment is wrong, following a case where girls faced a paddling of expulsion for inappropriate prom dresses. The image is based on Bryan's visualization that a paddle looked like a paddle ball bat.



The art for TESD #8 is probably the most apt as it hits the point and appeals to the audience. It depicts Bryan as Lando Calrissian, who as for those who haven't seen Star Wars, ends up getting Han Solo frozen in carbonite by selling the main cast out to Darth Vadar, in what can only be described as a Judas move. I though visualizing Judas would be lost on the casual viewer / harsh. And after all, Lando does redeem himself!
Why Lando? purely because Bryan doesn't really stick by his friend's in the Pod by making their enemy his enemy... The Teflon refers to Bryan's ability to instigate the entire argument but take no dirt for any of it... which is possibly the funniest part of the pod

And that's it for tonight. I'm begrudgingly trying to finish #9 atm but as I'll probably end up doing no work tomorrow (it is NYE after all :D) I'll post that and 10 up then maybe!

M x

Cups of Tea 1017 - 1020

Just a quick blog update - Only 3 of the 4 promised podcast art due to #3 and #4 being particularly difficult to design for... unlike SMod, the first few episodes of TESD are a little dry in terms of designable content. Mainly stories in which Walt / Bry / Quinn are themselves retelling stories than the flights of whimsy that make SMod so great to visualize.



TESD #2's main image is of Walt being a good Samaritan and delivering a guy his comic books... that is until you discover Walt's motives are he wanted the money for the merchandise rather than to be nice. Hence the halo but dollar sign eyes. The T-shirt referring to Bryan's plans to be stuffed and placed in the Secret Stash to immortalize his role as Steve Dave.



TESD #3 is a cross-over podcast from SModcast to promote listener-ship from one to the other. The main story taking up 99% of the pod is Bryan's announcement that he slept with the mother of an ex girlfriend. Hence "mofo" (mother fucker...) on his forehead and the cheeky wink on his face. The Sub sandwich refers to him sending his girlfriend at the time out so he could commit this heinous act!



TESD #4 is based on the Cop-Out premier. The main image shows Walt holding a shirt over his face to escape the smell of a Limo full of subs he found distasteful and the other image shows Bryan as the Blob from the 1980's horror movie, based on him declaring he would have looked like him if draped in red fabric.

Until tomorrow folks, hopefully I'll have 3 if not more to show!

M x

Cups of Tea 1013 - 1016

Nom Nom Nom. Nothing like a cup of tea to make you feel less like hungover death...

Despite the thumping headache, temperamental tummy and lax concentration, I've got quite a bit done today for a day that should have been a write-off! I've got a hard day ahead of me tomorrow (I'm aiming to get all of the TESD pod art done so I can get them all done by the end of the week), but for now I'd like to show your the Vectors of Bri, Walt and Quinn, that will alternatively don the front of the artwork much like Kev did for the SMod stuff.



Getting a picture of Quinn head on was a pain in the ass, had to use his Haloween TESD picture in the end >.< While Bri's isn't as head on as I'd like it, I still think it captures his essence well enough :) And with that, I'd like to reveal the first of the TESD art and hopefully you'll enjoy it!



The Art for TESD #1 is all based around the concept of player hating. For me, other than Bri's worries (which was unfortunately to long for the quote box) that people would think using the TESD name would make them look pathetic (which I guess is funnier in hindsight than it would have been at the time I first listened), Walt saying he'd be un-effected by people on the net and 'player haters' was just so full of win, it had to be the cover. The red hat and douche-bag beard he sports are based off of a Chappelle Show Character called Silky Johnson, aka Player Hater of the year. Some of the gold can be found here.

Other than that, the Tales from The Coat is based on one of Brian's original name ideas... I was going to do Joint/Counter Joint but (a.) couldn't find the show logo and (b.) Tales from the Coat is discussed in the next two pods also, so deemed it more relevant.

Come back tomorrow when hopefully, I'll have at least another 4 to show!

M x

Cups of Tea 1008 - 1012

I can't believe I'm typing 1000 haha, it's weird! Anyways... onto the last 4 of the SModcast artworks, I'll only list a brief synopsis as it's my birthday (22 today! winnah!) and there's some drinking to be done :)



The first half of Smod #7 talked about the American box office and how movies like Zodiac were getting beaten at the box office by movies like Wild Hogs. The image of Kev is wearing John Travolta's aviators and bandanna from the movie. The couch is the murder couch from the crazy Icelandic who promised to "show you Iceland, then I show you my ballsack", and murdered his couch surfing guests.



Smod #8's work is all from the opening story as it is mainly based around Kevin's experience of directing the Reaper pilot, the execs not casting Kyle Gass and Kev's response to it all. Elvis Kev and the scarf is based on Kevin being dragged to see an Elvis impersonator as a child and being dumbfounded as to why women went crazy for fake Elvis' scarf.



Smod #9 is based on Kevin saying all the magic of Disney world was taken from him, when he went there almost every week with Harley when the moved near. I just thought visually it would look better than the other option of a sweaty Kev (he hates running) or one with yellow teeth (Jen makes him brush his teeth in the morning). The blue Canadian flag links back to the episode title.



Smod #10 was based on the concept of Kevin infiltrating the chicken coop to discover if chickens really could communicate when nobody else was around (ala Chicken Run)... infiltrating them as a chicken himself. It took 5 attempts to get Kev looking decent, and while not exactly as described in the pod, is as close as I could get while making it visually appealing. The bear in the suit is based around Bear's becoming top of the food chain to make us the equivalent to Chicken's are to us...

And with that... I am tempted to call this project a day for now... I'm going to start the TESD ones tomorrow, but tbh am not really sure what to do with it / I want to get on with my branding project and dissertation. Either way, there'll be some work up tomorrow if I'm not viciously hungover :)

M x

Cups of Tea 0996 - 1007

Wow, so I'm finally there! 1000 cups of tea :O!

Its been three days of merriment so there really isn't anything to show :) Just wanted to blog to show that I hadn't keeled over in the snow and died haha!

Hope everyone had an amazing christmas and I'll show you what I got tomorrow (my birthday)!

M x

Cups of Tea 0996 - 0998

Almost there :o almost! Just a quick update tonight as alas, I am tired!

Just a look at my favourite of the 10 SMod arts i've done so far, though most people will probably think "meh" if they're not a hardcore nerd like myself. Here's my spin on it -



The art for SMod #6 is based heavily on one of the conversations half way through the SMod, in which Mosier and Kevin discuss 9/11 and Tom Clancy being interviewed, before delving into Kev's relationship with him and how Clancy made his cash. For those who know their games, they'd have noticed Sam Fisher's goggles from the off, but for those who don't, the Kev is in a piece of head gear from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise. The rest of the quotes / the note image are really centralized around one of Kevin's ex's mothers... who had abit of a strange roll in her child's up bringing.

Anyways, I hope you guys like it and it's time for bed. One day left of work... ho.ho.ho.

M x

Cups of Tea 0993 - 0995

I could theoretically get that 1000ths cuppa tomorrow, but wouldn't it just be grander if I did it on Christmas morning ;) Also thanks for the views everyone... it's a real intensive to write when you can see that people are actually reading the blog.

As promised, here are Smod's #4 and #5... I love #6 so much, I'm going to post it to almost soften the blow of the ones that precede it, as imho, it's definitely the strongest of the 10 created so far!



A kinda strange one to create... for anyone who's not heard it (at 9/10th of you...), the title kinda explains it all... The funniest, most wtf moment of the entire podcast is pretty much Kevin talking about his shame of being so 'in the mood for love' shall we say, that he resorts to a very desperate act. I'm not going to say it here, because that's just not cricket... but suffice to say there is no clever way that wouldn't get my project kicked in the arse by uni... so I had to go with the more subtle image of Kevin with an ashtray on top of his head, ala a follow up story to the pre-mentioned shameful act from high school...

There's an awful lot of Oscar talk at the start of the SMod so I thought I'd throw an academy award image out there with a K.S. Beard and glasses as they didn't get the credit for producing Good Will Hunting (as discussed in SMod #6...).



I had this image in my head a very long time ago. Kevin joined a YMCA in his youth during one of his yearly 'I'm going to get in shape!' attempts to take advantage of the Y's CAM2 machines... fundamentally a multi-gym that uses air pressure instead of weight (which as i've never seen one in a gym of today, probably wasn't that great...). As if this weren't enough of a reason to Village People Kevin up, some guy also made a pass at him in the hot tub... it's quite a YMCA central pod when I really think about it haha. I choose the Indian not only for it's higher visual qualities over the other members (like I'm not going to run out of uniforms in #149 SMods without using the police man at the first hurdle...), but also as a Homage to SMod #2, where Kevin and Mosier's mugging incident in Time Square happened on the way to see Wayne's World 2, which has a naked Indian in it...

So that it from me folks, comments are always appreciated :) Especially if you are a SMod listener yourself and want to pitch in your two cents...

M x

Cups of Tea 0990 - 0992

Almost at that 1k mark :o exciting times! Also thanks for the collosal amount of views last night! almost 70 of them, gee willikers batman! If you people can spread the love / possibly re-blog it, that'd be aces...

Had a wicked day with Jimjam today, haven't seen the boyo for a long time so it was good to catch up and get a bear and burger. Finally got a new copy of The Usual Suspects, which means the IOU I was given last year (along with a new copy of fight club...) has been spent. Can't wait to watch that movie tomorrow, been meaning to see it again for such a long time... But in my defense, he did get a copy of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine out of it...

So onto Smodcast #2... and I'm also going to give you lovely people #3 ;) Expect possibly 3 more tomorrow... though after a hard day at work, I can't promise anything :)



For SModcast two, I went with the image of Kevin in a 'cunt cap' as he calls them, after the use of the word in the start of the SMod (and no, we can't get call a cab driver a cunt and get away with it...), then used the description of the dirty brown bag of 'weed' (Jason) Mewes got from the dude in Time Square.



Urgh. Smodcast #3... how many times I had to listen to this podcast to try and get some kind of 'Alt. Kev' face out of it was immense and pretty frustrating... Because of the Pod's large focus on 'who should guest star on the SMod', I tried to make him look like Larry King, Then Conan O'Brien and then Jay Leno, all of them didn't seem right :/ I must have listened to it about 10 times before finally realizing that if the chat show option didn't really work, that I should probably just use something that (barely) sticks and move on with the project. So in reference to Kevin's quotation of the Hulk TV Show ("And I was lifting up the car..." which strangely, is the only bit of that podcast I can ever remember) I created a Kevin / Hulk Hybrid. The 'Bachelor' robe is from Kevin's day of lounging around in a robe with a friend at a young age... which is probably the funniest part of the podcast imho!

Until tomorrow peoplez :)

M x

Cups of Tea 0985 - 0989

Almost at that 1k cup of tea kids, and almost at 2,500 page views :O Wowzers, If I can get it to 10k by the end of February... I promise all of you 14 followers a cup of tea and maybe some other goodies! So spread the word ;)

So yes, as promised, here's Smodcast 1's artwork, the explanation copy / pasted from the view askew board where I posted it last night :)



"I tried to build of the idea of Kevin's idea of celebrating births, so put Kevin in a surgical mask to go with his claims that it doesn't really happen in child birth. I also laughed at the idea of instead of a ring bearer, having a scissor bearer, hence the pillow and scissors The quotes are pretty self explanatory I hope!"

No bugger commented back though... so feedback (especially if any of you listen to SMod, if you don't... you probably won't like it hahah).

Until Tomorrow / Smod 2 + 3...

M x

Cups of Tea 0968 - 0984

Not really alot of tea drunk, but almost 1000 in year... that's pretty impressive I think... when you really think about it, that's alot of bloomin' tea bags!

So where have I been? Unfortunately not London to see the Queen but enthralled in the wonderfully sadistic world of retail... Joy. But as always, it's pushed me to work and work I have. I've been slowly plodding away at work on the project I talked about in the last post, and am ready to reveal!

So those who know the work of Kevin Smith (aka Silent Bob, Director of Clerks) will be aware that he does a weekly podcast called "Smodcast", mostly with his long time producer Scott Mosier and other times with family members / other people involved in the view askewniverse of old. This pod-cast's popularity took off and three years after it's initial launch (2 years after I began listening to it...), The Smodcast Podcast network was born. It started with Tell 'Em Steve Dave, a weekly pod with Brian Johnson and Walt Flanagan, Steve Dave and Fanboy from Mallrats / long time friends of Smiths. Then came The Mo and Glo show, film Director Malcolm Ingram and his Mother, Gloria.

Now, The Smodcast Podcast network has a podcast for every day of the week (hell, some days has more than one podcast) and generally takes up to two hours of my listening time a day. But as much as I love the podcasts, it's very difficult to sort through them to find funny moments I want to re-laugh at. Sure, the early SModcast's had a description of the episode's contents, but as the network developed, with more and more of Mr. Smith's time being spent cutting podcasts, I guess these fell to the side. Not that this is a complaint, I mean how can you complain about a free source of entertainment?

But I wanted to remotely sort them for my own sanity. Focusing on memorable quotes, a visual cue to what is talked about in said podcast... and I guess because I'm not really that keen on the art supplied...

My first task - re branding... As I originally set out to do over 70 podcasts and at least 5 pieces of art for each, I've had to scale back my ambitions for the moment. Focusing instead on the first 10 podcasts of SModcast, TESD and Hollywood Babylon, the podcasts I listen to most. I wanted to stay with Tokyo One, the font used for the original SModcast logo because it would tie in with the SModcastle, Smith's podcasting theater (and the first of it's kind in the world). For TESD, I wanted to get some of the attitude of the Pod across but in a clean san serif. Hollywood Babylon needed a more solid and instantly powerful logo that tied back slightly to the LA theme (hence the star ala Hollywood Boulevard...)



Thoughts, as always... are welcome :)

Tomorrow - The Art of Smodcast 1.

M x

Cups of Tea 0916 - 0967

Yes. It has been that long, and there has been that much tea! I'm back in the swing of working (after abit of a designer's block moment last week) and will be updating tomorrow properly with some visuals (though I'm in work pretty solid the next 3 days... so possibly expect a rant I guess ;) )for you to enjoy!

But first I'd like to swing some attention to this book - While it's got no real conclusion in my eyes, the first two parts are pretty damned insightful into how we should be working as designers. By a bloke called Dan Pink and called Drive, it discusses the implications of money on our craft and well being, but also how intrinsic gain from work should be aimed for above monetary gain. Give it a read, it's pretty cheap on amazon and the last part is supposedly a self help type of spiel you can come back to. Personally, I was more interested in the facts presented in the first two parts, but it's made me set my aims properly for the rest of this degree anyways.



Anyways, time for bed... large shift tomorrow at the work house and I want to design when I get in, not be knackered... so I'll love you and leave you all!

M x

P.s. For those interested in buying me stuff... I wouldn't mind This, This, This or This. ;) I guess I also wouldn't say no to this and this also, but thats looking ahead a little :)