posted: February 14, 2007

An early harbinger of a lifelong obsession with music. I got this in a Valentine today from my sentimental sister. It's a pic of me in my formative years with next-door neighbor Danny Shwartzman, me strumming on my Mickey Mouse-Guitar (Valentine-red in real life) and Danny petting my stuffed tiger and sucking on what I have no idea. Piano at right denotes musical family. Note the fingers of my left hand carefully picking out an "L" chord, and the thumb of the right strumming hand showing early influence of Wes Montgomery. In reality, it must be told, to play a song on the guitar you cranked a little handle on the top. While I hungered to perform material like Unit 7, and West Coast Blues, regrettably the only song it played was "Pop Goes the Weasel". Baby steps...

posted: February 1, 2007

I want to congratulate my pal and Half-Tone mate, Michael Sloan, for winning a Silver Medal in sequential art for his full-length illustrated novel (without words), The Heresy of Professor Nimbus, from the Society of Illustrators. You couldn't find a nicer guy or more dedicated artist. Michael went to New York to receive the honor Tuesday night. I asked him if I could put a notice about it here. Photos of the event were nil, so the image above will serve to illustrate the occasion.

You can find out all about this 60-page book at:

www.drawger.com/msloan/?start_date=1138770000&end_date=1141189200&archives=true