1522 - There's A New Tariff In Town

So it's the Fourth Of July, and we have fireworks.  Just what is the White House planning these days?  Is this new wave of nationalist protectionism a prelude to war?  Are Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim merely pawns on a chessboard played at by Russia and China?  Or are the new tariffs simply a consequence of executive greed?  

Poor Superman, considering his Canadian origins, will have to balance his chequebook more carefully every time he changes from Clark Kent into The Man Of Steel, now that steel is twenty-five percent more expensive.  

Superman is the intellectual property of DC Comics, as subsidiary of WarnerMedia.

1391 - Red (And White) Glare

Happy American Version Of Canada Day to all JSVB readers from the U.S. of A.!

 

1179 - Queen Of Winter Mask

This is the completed Queen Of Winter mask for my wife.  It's more ornate than my mask, heavier, and also fitted with prescription lenses.

Having visited Venice myself, I have a small familiarity with their masks.  I remember their mask shops and seeing a factory where they are made.  The history of Venetian masks is founded on folktale, so it's hard to grasp exactly why these masks exist in the first place.  They are traditionally worn at the Venice Carnival between Christmas and Lent.  They offered anonymity for various ventures, some legalistic, some practical, some criminal, and some that are purely romantic.

Perhaps the greatest effect of the mask is that it allowed the citizens of Venice to mingle socially.  Considering that historical Venice featured a society that has very strict boundaries of wealth and status, mask-wearers were often allowed a certain flexibility when choosing those with whom they could consort. Certainly today Venice is still divided along lines of wealth and power.  There's something very deliberate and exciting about prowling the fog-shrouded canals at night and seeing across the water a cloaked individual in a white mask.  For good or for evil, the status quo is about to be shaken, if only until the rise of dawn and the fall of the tide. 

Social mingling is the reason I made these masks.  I know at the party that I will be with a fair number of people who are of a higher class than your humble artist.  Normally, that kind of thing stops me cold, at least until I've fortified myself with a stiff drink.  I'm thinking that the masks will show my artistic flair, and ought to make for some interesting conversation with the glitterati.

Of course, Vancouver is far from Venice, and I figure that people will be perplexed by the masquerade in general.  Those who keep their masks are likely the ones I'll get along with the most.  It ought to be interesting!  

1030 - A Piece Of History

As incredible as it seems, today marks the 25th anniversary of the decommissioning of the infamous Berlin Wall.  To me, it feels like those events are as recent as the evening news.  Yet a quarter of a century slips by, and what was once a deadly symbol of the Cold War now lies in pieces.  One of maybe a million of them is sheltered within a cheap display frame on my book-case.  How strange a turn of affairs is that? 

Yet what has the world learned in a score of years plus change?  We've learned about homeland security and unmanned aerial vehicles.  We've become informed on ISIS and the Taliban.  We've weathered the Desert Storm and Desert Shield.  Russia was our enemy, once our ally, is now our enemy yet again.  

Some lessons we're still learning, of yellow ribbons and red poppies in particular. 

And green.  If you're curious, you can buy one of these 25-year-old cement chunks online for around ten dollars.

969 - "Grasshoppers Doing It"

I've eaten a couple of grasshoppers fried in garlic, but it turns out there are many, many more in the wild than I could ever hope to eat.  News from New Mexico tells us that they are currently enduring clouds of locusts so large and thick that you can see them on weather radar.

Every year, New Mexico gets a lot of grasshoppers.  Yet every twenty years or so, they get an unbearable number of them, a sort of "supercloud" that eats everything in its path and creeps out many folks along the way.  Still, even in a natural disaster someone profits, and Albuquerque windshield wiper dealers must think it's Christmas in June.  

937 - "JTF2: In Harm's Way"

I made this illustration of a Canadian JTF2 (Joint Task Force Two) soldier bravely breaching the compound in order to win an art contest. 

However, I realize that I am missing a much larger context with this piece.  Last week saw the official end of the Canadian war in Afghanistan where our final remaining troops were airlifted out of Kabul and returned home.  Our military commitment lasted twelve years, the longest foreign deployment in Canadian history.  158 soldiers died during the war, and many more have been scarred and injured.  

Did we further the causes of imperialist aggression?  Did we stamp out international terror?  Did we accomplish our mission?  Our politicians are evasive with these answers.  Did we even win the war?  

Our soldiers were sent into harm's way.  No matter what you feel about their operations, they did not at any point deny their duty, nor did they ever pass their share of effort on to another army.  Canadian soldiers will go to the places that we civilians dare not.  For this, I am most grateful.

934 - Hooray For The CBC

"Hooray for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation"?  Nobody that I recall has ever said that.  Yet here we are today, or rather we should have been last week except that I've been busy with other art projects.  

The CBC does indeed deserve recognition for its coverage of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.  Finally, we can watch our Canadian paralympic athletes strive for Olympic gold on national television!  

Four years ago, I published a critique of the CTV coverage of the Paralympics in Vancouver.  CTV Chairman Ivan Fecan bragged about the profits his network generated during the Olympics, and I suggested that he likely took his money and ran to the bank when it came to promoting the subsequent Paralympics.  CTV chose to transmit a few token events on television, preferring instead to show soap operas and re-runs instead of live broadcasts of the Paralympic Games.  Given the lavish production that was the 2010 Olympics, the 2010 Paralympics on CTV was a national embarasment.

In four years, the nature of sports on Canadian television has changed dramatically.  Rogers Cable now owns most of the sports-related assets of CTV, CBC, and TSN, making them a near-monopoly broadcaster.  Whether or not these networks will continue to show Canadian sports under the Rogers oligarchy remains to be seen.  CBC, at least, did very well in partnership with TSN to show Olympic coverage, and then set a new high standard with their near-comprehensive broadcast of the Paralympics as well.  So, hooray for the CBC, who stood with the Olympians and the Paralympians on the international stage, and made Canada proud.  

You can see my rambling opinion of the CTV Paralympics broadcast way back in JSVB Post #79 by clicking here.  At least the cartoon is pretty good. 

870 - Haiyan

 

I haven't paid much attention to the news.  Typhoons in the Asian Pacific seem normal enough this time of year.  What got me was a weather channel graphic that showed Haiyan as occupying the same size as one half of the United States.  Considering that the USA takes up one fiftieth of the Earth's surface, there's 1 full percent covered by a single Category 5 storm. 

 

Then my wife tells me we have a friend who was underneath that, in the Philippines.

EDIT Nov. 12: We're about 80% sure she made it through the storm okay!  I'll take that.  A falling tree took out our power and cable yesterday, so communications problems were compounded.  Our issue was a lot easier to fix, though.

 

 

 

 

 



844 - Talk Like A Pirate Day

CORRECTION NOTICE, 9/19/2103

 

 



 

 

I don't often make corrections to previous JSVB posts.  However, my wife pointed out that yesterday was "International Talk Like A Pirate Day", and not "International Talk Like H. Poirot Day", which was what I had thought.  I apologise most deeply for any anguish or confusion yesterday's post may have caused.

 

 

 

 



843 - Talk Like H. Poirot Day

 

 

My wife tells me that today is "International Talk Like Hercule Poirot Day".  I'm not sure I get it since these days Hercule Poirot, mystery writer Agatha Christie's genius detective character, is rather obscure, fussy, and quaint compared to  what contemporary CSI-drenched audiences are used to, but what the hey.  My wife seems to be feeling blue today, so I hope this cheers her up some. 

 

"I dissect rucksacks.  It is very interesting."  Whatever that means. 

 

 

 

 



767 - Today In Boston

A nearly unimaginable tragedy in Boston, Massachusetts: bombs are set off at the finish line of the famous Boston Marathon.  The news media reports that at least three people have been killed and over a hundred maimed and injured: a bloodbath. 

 

Far from Boston, we ask our questions.  Why has this happened?  Who is responsible?  What can we do?   Pray, of course, and offer  what support we can.

 

This American flag design is the marriage of two resources.  I found an amazing flag image courtesy of creativewebconnection.com.  The pipe bomb, believe it or not, is a decorative piece in gold, silver, and platinum by Lisa Kirk and Jelena Behrend.  I suppose if you're going to make a pipe bomb these days, it had better look great.  I altered and composited both images in Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

682 - "Obamney"

 

Today is the election day for the President Of The United States.  Electioneering is a multi-billion dollar industry, and seems to be the number-one export of the USA.  Worldwide, citizens are asked to involuntarily contribute to this political machine: this morning, I found out that my credit card had been hacked and that the criminal had used my account to donate to Obama's campaign.  While I appreciate the need for the electorate to financially support their favourite candidate, as a Canadian, I don't consider that my credit card should be used to enrich the American presidency.  After all, Obama and Romney are just fishing for work, and just a temp job at that.

 

As I look for work for myself, I am following the American election with a certain amount of interest.  I figure if Romney gets in, then that will be quits for Obama and we'll have another four years of Desert Storm.  If Obama is victorious, then Romney is toast and we'll see the incumbent win another four years of Nobel Prizes because the giddy Norwegian Committee wants to meet the black President again. 

 

I had fun with Photoshop to make this picture.  Although the join is a little sloppy, I was surprised at how much of Mitt Romney's facial structure matches Barack Obama's.  For kicks, I placed the composite head on Al Gore's body.  All images were US government public domain.  The flag is also public domain, courtesy of Petr Kratochvil. 

 

I did have several months of run-up to make this visual joke, so I feel a little ashamed that I waited until the final hour to actually put it together.  There are many other entries for "Obamney" already on the Internet.  My original title for this was "Oromneybama", but the legendary Bob Dylan beat me to this one.  Great minds think alike. 

 

This election was brought to you by Goldman Sachs.  Yes, that Goldman Sachs.  Because they care so much for democracy, they've financed both Democratic and Republican campaigns.  So why did they need my credit card...?

 

 

 

 

 

675 - JANET Spotting

I took a break from JSVB this month, and the reason was a quick vacation to Las Vegas, USA. 

 

One thing I wanted to do in Vegas was to spot the movements of the mysterious black-ops JANET flights which originate from a private, high-security terminal annexed to McCarran International Airport.  Not five minutes into our cab ride to the massive and outrageous Caesar's Palace, an almost non-descript JANET airliner flew final approach over the highway, prompting our friendly Russian driver to launch into his own theory of Roswell, UFO's, and high-level government conspiracy.  At that moment, I knew our vacation was going to be a great one!

 

"JANET" is reportedly the call sign for a number of airliners possibly operated by EG&G, a defense contractor that may or may not be owned by government services megacorporation URS.  The JANET craft are typically painted pure white with a long red stripe over the windows across the fuselage.  The JANET fleet is supposed by conspiracy theorists to be used as commuter craft for thousands of top-secret workers who live in the Las Vegas area but work in facilities such as Groom Lake/Area 51.  JANET has its own air terminal which is guarded heavily against trespassers and the general public. Presumably you could watch some of the action on the JANET jetway from the comfort of the nearby Luxor Hotel, provided you had the use of a good telephoto lens.   

 

The Internet suggests that the US spends upwards of $56 billion a year on so-called "black" operations, ranging from secret military missions to clandestine arms research.  With such a massive amount of money at their disposal, I can imagine  that running JANET as a top-secret airline operating in the open would only use a small fraction of this budget.  Even so, only Russian cab drivers seem willing to offer any accountability. 

 

You can try using Internet resources to track the various JANET flights, some of which are regular shuttle flights from Vegas to who-knows-where, while others fly flight plans that are completely conjectural.  Maybe someone at the URS head office wanted to see Donny & Marie at the Flamingo Showroom?   When you run your own private secret airline, you get to fly it however you like. 

 

Nobody can definitely say what "JANET" stands for.

 

 

 

 

 



634 - Lady And The Tramp

A big, belated, elated congratulations for Team Canada and tramp girl Rosie MacLennan!  Rosie won Canada's first gold medal for the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Her medal was the first gold medal ever for a Canadian in the sport of trampoline gymnastics.  She powered past her Chinese competition who were heavy favourites to win, yet who faltered in their final performance.  Rosie had the score of her life, and she did it at the best possible juncture.  All of Canada is thrilled by her golden, glorious example! 

630 - The Laid-Back Olympics

Two years ago and change, the Olympics was a very big deal for JSVB.  My blog was just starting out, and I was eager to revive my stunted art skills by drawing and painting as much as I could.  The Olympics provided a great deal of excellent source material to explore.  Even better, the 2010 Olympics were staged in my home town, which lead to a number of concurrent once-in-a-lifetime cultural experiences, all greatly treasured.

The 2012 Olympics are in a far-off land, London, with a much different culture and approach to the games.  Even the time zone difference creates the sense of great distance.   These games seem best experienced through the television screen, at least for my wife and I.  It's not nearly as exhilarating as attending the Olympics in person, but it's not as expensive and exhausting, either. 

Hopefully, more Olympic posts will follow on JSVB, but likely not with the sense of being there that we had back in 2010. 






596 - Jubilee Elation

May I offer Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II joy of her Diamond Jubilee!  The previous British monarch to achieve this milestone was Victoria, who at that age did not enjoy the stamina of our Queen.  I have to admit that just watching all of the four-day celebration on television would have been draining enough, let alone being the Queen at the center of all that attention. 

At first, I didn't pay much attention to the parties, as I am not much of a monarchist.  However, the love and adoration of the English people displayed for the Queen was a wonderful thing to see.  Much better than the grumpy, imperialistic English I have become accustomed to.  The final concert was great!

I decided to lump together a Photoshop portrait of Her Majesty with pictures from each decade of her service as Queen.  I feel bad being a few days late, but better late than never. I used as much public domain as I could, but I lost the attributions, so I cannot offer photo/art credits as I should. 



564 - 'Frisco B & A

"B & A" is my slang for "Before And After". 

Source photograph courtesy of my friend Earl. 

My friend Earl dug up a photograph from the 1990's of San Francisco.  It's grainy, scratched, and lacks composition on account of Earl not bringing along a decent long lens for his camera.  Earl did not think this picture could be enhanced with Photoshop, so I took that as a challenge to try:

Alcatraz and San Francisco - the "After" pic.

I did what I could.  Perhaps Earl is partially correct that the image was a wash, but I feel that I was able to pick a few things up.

Early in the workflow, I decided that the aspect of the picture should be panoramic wide.  The source picture was both grainy and low-resolution, which meant that enlarging anything would result in big formless blobs.  So, a simple crop wouldn't do.  I decided to boost the resolution to 300 pixels per inch, and enlarge Alcatraz Island as well as move it to the right.  That way, I could also enlarge the city and make a decent crop. 

The city proved to be very obstinate, on account of many distracting artefacts caused by enlargement.  I decided to create a mask for the city which allowed me to keep its silhouette.  Inside this mask, I wiped out all of the grain and noise artefacts, leaving San Francisco looking flat.  I did the same thing for Alcatraz.  The result looks cartoony, but I was able to preserve the smoky colours I liked so much. 

I added some depth using colour and hand-painted lights to Nob Hill and the financial district.  After wrestling with the idea, I also decided to add lights to Alcatraz, despite the infamous prison having been decommissioned decades ago.  The lights make the island look less two-dimensional. 

Then, I needed to add the bridge.  It's been a very long time since I've been to San Francisco, so I only dimly recalled that the iconic Golden Gate should be to the right of Alcatraz from this view.  So then what is the bridge in the background left?  I looked it up on Google™ Maps.  I had to find a vantage from where Earl must have got Alcatraz, the city, and a bridge all in one shot.  I settled upon the vantage at Horseshoe Bay, which made logical sense.  Horseshoe Bay is the future site of the intergalactic headquarters for Star Trek's Federation Of Planets.  Earl, being a huge Trek fan, would gravitate there the way Martok gravitates to a 2309-vintage bloodwine (hint: the attraction is strong!).  A scan of the Google™ Street View showed a spot that must have been close to where Earl took his photograph.  I deduced that the bridge in Earl's shot was the Bay Bridge.  Fortunately, its simple silhouette was very easy to draw by hand. 

I used a lot of Gaussian Blur to make the scene fog-bound.  Gaussian proved to be a good choice, as it blurs much the same way that true fog blurs our vision in nature.  The blur also helped to remove the scratches that Earl's photo had endured over time.  Ironically, I used a noise filter to bring back some speckles to match the grain of the film that I chose not to blur out. 

Finally, I cropped the image to an aspect that I think looks good, and played with the image curves.  The curves belong to the colour graph of the image.  By adjusting the curves, I can create new colour components.  In this case, I brightened the image a little, which caused a pleasing glow to emerge from around the building skyline. 

I think this picture looks a lot better in high resolution, but Blogger does not easily show landscape-style aspects in anything better than screen resolution, which is low.  I was also tempted to bring this picture into my Painter program, but the challenge was to use only Photoshop.  Maybe I will tackle this image in Painter another day.




 

531 - Year Of The Re-Use

Gong hei fat choi!  It's nearly the lunar new year, or the 4710th Chinese New Year.  This will also be a Year Of The Dragon, which the Chinese view as auspicious and risky. 

Few risks taken for today's JSVB entry.  Shameless, I re-used the little dragon from JSVB Post #140 (please click here to see it).  Gong hei fat choi I traced from written text, and the Imperial dragon is courtesy of Lee Boltin. 



433 - Chainsaw Mascot

I nearly always have considered soccer to be like hockey in super slow motion, with the excellent chance of a game ending up tied nil-nil. 

Recent advances in the sport have raised its profile in my estimation.  FIFA World Cup soccer has become spectacular.  MLS soccer has arrived in Vancouver (MLS stands for Major League Soccer, the top professional league in Canada and the USA).  And now I've also seen my first chainsaw-wielding soccer mascot. 

The Portland Timbers are the Vancouver Whitecaps' regional rivals.  Their mascot is "Timber Joey", who no word of a lie comes to every home game with a full-sized fully-operational chainsaw which he brandishes for the enjoyment of the home team fans.  If Portland had a machinegun manufacturing plant instead of forestry, who knows how this could have ended up.

On the face of it, Timber Joey appears to be a vaguely psychopathic red-haired wildman with a dangerous weapon, which is often not the first choice for major league mascot considerations.  Digging deeper, we find that Timber Joey is actually a spin-off of Timber Jim, who retired from chainsaw soccer activities in 2008.  Timber Jim was a lumberjack who asked the team if he could please be allowed to bring his saw to the games.  Timber Jim became a fan favourite, possibly because he never actually slayed anybody with his chainsaw, but more likely because he seems to be a big-hearted, energetic supporter of the team, and a frequent contributor to local charities.  Timber Jim and Joey have their detractors but they also remain local heroes, no matter how unlikely that may be.  As long as Vancouver has the eardrum-splitting Crazy P and the rediculean Green Men, I don't see how we can begin to complain about Portland's mascot heritage. 



418 - "Bali, Hi!"

Untuk teman-teman Indonesia saya, halo! Saya harap Anda menikmati mengunjungi JSVB.

When it works, if it works, the Google™ Followers tool on the right hand side of the JSVB page shows all of my current "followers": people who are signed on to get automatic updates of my blog.  I like to call them my Cultural Elite.  The other day, I noticed my first addition to my Cultural Elite from overseas.  Welcome Anak Muda 3007! 

From what I can tell, Anak Muda 3007 doesn't speak English, and has a link to an Indonesian news website.  I guess Anak Muda 3007 visits for the pictures, which is cool.

Well, I don't know any Indonesian, and I am very ignorant about Indonesia in general.  I do have a copy of Rogers and Hammerstien's "South Pacific" (1958), which explains the garish colour scheme for today's illustration. 

This is my version of a lagong dancer.  Lagong is a traditional girls' dance that tells the story of a young princess held captive long ago by a warlike king.  The costumes are opulent and the dance moves are convoluted and precise. 

Lagong dancers are seldom tall, but to spruce up the composition I threw in elements of the Balinese Borobodur Temple that I picked up from copyright-free U.S. Government photographs.