Month: June 2008

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-18-08

by mav • June 18, 2008 • 10 Comments

Day 677 of 365 More.

There… The economy has been saved. Aren’t you glad? And with 4000 watts of studio power, it’s going to go really well, once I destroy the sun in a few weeks.

In other news, I got an IM from a friend of mine in the great state of Canada today, telling me to check out one of his favorite blogs. And imagine my surprise when I went there and saw someone raving about the awesomeness of my Secret Wars self-portrait. I dunno, it was just a small thing, and certainly not the first time someone has liked one of my shots, but somehow it just kinda made my day. So I did the only thing I could do, I left him a comic thanking him and pimping Cosmic Hellcats. A man’s gotta eat ya know? BTW, new episode out today so check it out.

My new lights shipped with one burnt out lightbulb. How weird is that. I have to remember to write them tomorrow and ask them to send me a replacement bulb.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-17-08

by mav • June 17, 2008 • 7 Comments

Day 676 of 365 More.

Well, my 50mm lens is still broken, but Amazon assures me that a new one has shipped.

I was stuck for an idea today and I kinda started wondering how well the broken lens would work. It has no ability to focus whatsoever, so it was kind of a challenge to move back and forth until I found a spot where I was totally in focus, but I think I nailed it pretty good.

Except for a slight crop (very slight, just got ride of a hair of blackspace on the side) this is right out of the camera. That’s something you don’t see from me very often.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-16-08

by mav • June 16, 2008 • 16 Comments

Day 675 of 365 More.

*sigh*

So I hobbled up to the cigarette store after dinner to get some smokes (my knee is still screwed) and I looked up in the sky and the clouds were back lit in the absolute most beautiful way and I knew it had to be today’s self-portrait. So I hobbled back home and got my camera and my 50mm lens and tripod and then hobbled back up the hill to set up.

And then I kncked my tripod over!

*ARRRRGGGGHHHHH*

Luckily my camera is fine, hence me not just killing myself on the spot, but the casing to the 50 completely cracked open. It’s ruined.

On a good note, at least it was my cheapest lens. But as any photographer knows, the 50 is like the bread and butter. I’ve already ordered a new one.

*sigh*

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-15-08

by mav • June 15, 2008 • 20 Comments

Day 674 of 365 More.

Ouch.

So if anyone ever tells you wrestling is fake, do me a favor and find the hardest object you can and smack them over the head with it as hard as you can..

Today was the BDW anniversary show. I didn’t even have a match. Instead I was in the corner of my tag team partner, Bulldozer while he was in a "street fight" with Dash Bennet. For those who don’t follow wrestling, a street fight means that you don’t wear wrestling gear, you come as you are, weapons are allowed, and you beat the shit out of each other as anything goes and there’s no disqualification.

So I was sitting in the corner rooting my friend on, and keeping a safe distance in a totally fair and completely sportsmanlike manner, when for no reason whatsoever, that bastard Dash attacked me. I was forced to defend myself with the closest thing I could find, which was this here garbage can lid. Only, somehow when I was swinging the lid at Dash’s head, again, in self-defense, I swear, Dash somehow got out the way and I ended up hitting Bulldozer in the head with it. After that, Dash powerbombed me on top of the lid, hence it being all bent out of shape as you see here.

And that’s not even how I got hurt. I mean, it sure as hell didn’t feel good. But somehow, before that, while I was minding my own business, and totally not attacking Dash unfairly, I ended up banging my own knee into the ground when I was doing a diving elbow drop on Dash’s head. Oh my god, it hurt. It was my bad knee, and when I first did it I thought I’d broken it. It’s not I’m pretty sure, but I’m definitely going to feel it tomorrow. And maybe also a couple pains from Dash hitting me in the head with various other street weapons. What a bastard.

New Hellcats is up. Go check it out. We’re definitely moving the story along now.

And while you’re there checking it out, do me a favor. You’ll notice at the top of the main page, just above the comic, there are three voting buttons. Go vote for us on each of those sites. Especially the one that says TWC. TWC and Buzzcomics will have you press a confirm button. While The Web Comic List just takes you to a Hellcats page on their site. It’s a portal, that keeps track of all your favorite webcomics. Anyway, the more people who vote for us the higher we rise on all the lists, and the better it is for us. We’ll be more popular and make more money and one day, we’ll be able to do it full time and there will be daily Hellcats. Won’t that be great? I thought so. You can only vote once per day, so go back there every night and vote again.

And I’m still looking for more fan art and more feedback on stuff, so feel free to write feedback@cosmichellcats.com and let us know what you think and send us any fan art you might have. We’ll put it up on the site and you can be famous too.

Ouch… I think I’m going to bed so I can hobble to work tomorrow.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-14-08

by mav • June 14, 2008 • 9 Comments

Day 673 of 365 More.

Didn’t really have an idea for a shot today.I was sitting around managing some of my project wonderful ads on my laptop and working on coloring the next comic, when Otto, Steph’s cat, climbed up on the couch right above me head. Sometimes its just a moment like that where inspiration is born and you get a shot.

Tess our other cat would have freaked out and ran as soon as I climbed up there with her.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-13-08

by mav • June 13, 2008 • 11 Comments

Day 672 of 365 More.

Brother can you spare a dime!!!!!

You know it’s crazy. I don’t do anything but work anymore. I guess it’s been like that for a while now, but I’m just starting to have it sink in.

I have so many extra projects, I can’t keep up with extra projects. 365s get posted after 4 in the morning. I keep falling behind on answering comments. I’m really behind on commenting on other people’s stuff. I started working on a tarot card like four days ago and haven’t gotten back to it. I haven’t had time to draw or edit my most recent photoshoot.

I’m just burnt out.

This will be so much easier when I become so famous that I don’t have to work a real job. But for being at work for 8+ hours a day, I’d really have a pretty good life.

As it is, I have no life anymore. It’s June. I should be well into planning Jammy Jam by now. I got nothing. No bands. No prizes. Last year we were actually talking about maybe trying to find some venue other than my house for this years jam, and yet I haven’t even been looking at outfits for myself. Anyone want a job being my Jammy Jam coordinator? My last one moved to Hawaii.

I’ve spent most of my time since I got home from work reorganizing the Hellcats site so that it can better display ads. Ewww, banner ads, my god have I sold out. But if I want to seriously be a writer/artist/whatever, I guess I have to make money some way. And I’m really happy about the Project: Wonderfiul business plan. They actually gaver us a serious boost in views today. Let’s hope it continues.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-12-08

by mav • June 12, 2008 • 4 Comments

Day 671 of 365 More.

Got a fair amount of things done today. After spending all day at work, I took Sarah to dinner for her birthday, and then I came home and worked on editing a tutorial for next week’s 365 Podcast (which had a new episode released today, so if you haven’t checked it out, you should).

After that I did some work on promoting Cosmic Hellcats, which also had new episode come out yesterday, so check that out too. The first phase of Hellcats actually went really well. We got a nice big burst of traffic when we opened up shop. We do better on days with new comic than without (no surprise there), and every once in a while someone links to us, and that adds a nice bit of traffic, but for the most part we’ve leveled off. This is bad, because I really think the strip is just getting funnier and funnier. So Max and I decided that maybe it was time to try some advertising. So I’m now experimenting with Project Wonderful. We’ll see how it goes. if anyone else has any ideas on how to make us famous, I’m open for submissions.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-11-08

by mav • June 11, 2008 • 21 Comments

Day 670 of 365 More.

I am a patriot.

I have saved the economy.

At the behest of our fearless leader, I have used the recently issued bribe, errr… that is… stimulus check to revitalize the economy by buying even more photography lights. They should be here in a week or so. I mean, I really didn’t want to. But, I feel that it’s the least I can do for the sake of this great nation.

Besides, I’m going to need all the lights I can get once I destroy the sun.

In other news, new episodes of both the podcast and Cosmic Hellcats are up. Go check them out!

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-10-08

by mav • June 10, 2008 • 18 Comments

Day 669 of 365 More.

In some ways I miss last year. This time last year I was unemployed and looking for work. Looking for work only takes so much time out of your week, so the rest of the time I spent working on photography and working out like I was in prison.

I was in great shape.

I’m not anymore. I’m fat and flabby and generally just not comfortable in my body. I spend most of my day at work and most of my evenings working on the comic strip or the podcast. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything else.

Don’t get me wrong, I love doing the podcast and Hellcats is a childhood dream come true. I mean, I’d be happier with both of them if I had more of an audience, but I’m hopeful that will happen.

I just don’t much like looking in the mirror or looking at pictures of me anymore.

So I took a break tonight and did some weight lifting. I don’t really feel like I look any better, but it’s a start. I need to work on the strip some more tonight, but if I can do that and still convince myself to get up early tomorrow, maybe I’ll put in 30 min. on the elliptical.

It’s time to bring sexy back one more time.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-9-08

by mav • June 9, 2008 • 21 Comments

Day 668 of 365 More.

It’s been hot this week. Godawful hot. In the 90s, and extremly humid. I guess some places it’s like that all the time, but that’s exceptional for Pittsburgh this time of year.

And the worse part, I hadn’t gotten around to cleaning and filling my pool so I couldn’t just jump in to cool off.

I decided tonight was a good time to fix that.

While I was at it, I filmed a tutorial for next week’s podcast on shutter speed. So if you’ve ever wondered how to do a shot like this, where you freeze water in the air, be sure to check out next week’s show. (This week’s show will hopefully be up soon).

365 days

Imported From Flickr, Photoshoot

King of Coins

by mav • June 8, 2008 • 11 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted a tarot card, and I was three behind, so I figured that I’d put one together tonight.

This is Kevin. He’s actually a makeup artist, not a model, and in fact is the MUA I hired all the way back when I did the photoshoot for Cosmic Hellcats so if you follow my stream you know how long ago that was.

I might get another up tomorrow, but for now, here’s the King of Coins.

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-8-08

by mav • June 8, 2008 • 16 Comments

Day 667 of 365 More.

So here’s something a little different. I took this picture today, but its actually representative of what I did on Friday. Today, I didn’t really do anything superinteresting. I shot the podcast with Stephen. worked on Hellcats, which will be up at midnight, and worked on cleaning my pool.

I wish I had done the pool a week ago. It’s been in the 90s here the last few days and it would have been really nice to jump in. But no dice. Another day or two of chemical balancing and it will be set though.

Anyway, nothing I felt like taking a picture of, so instead I thought I’d talk about one of my favorite activities. BARE-AOKE! I’ve mentioned it here before. It’s Karaoke, at a strip club! One of the best things ever. It’s just like Karaoke anywhere else, a bunch of drunken losers, standing on stage, belting out out of tune renditions of pop and rock songs, with no cohesive style between them, so even if someone is good, which they’re usually not, you’re left wondering why "My Way" was followed by "Baby Got Back". But, to make it more tolerable, at this club, there are naked ladies dancing around you while you sing. It’s the best thing ever. Even if you don’t like strip clubs. It’s just so ridiculous and surreal that you can’t help but love it. Plus the deejay, DJ Marty, is just awesome.

Friday they were celebrating one of my favorite strippers’, Pinky’s, birthday. So I ended up singing her favorite song of mine, Prince’s Darling Nikki to her while she danced for me. Actually everyone loves when I do Darling Nikki. It’s my best karaoke performance. I got a standing ovation, and won myself a couple free passes from the bartender/manager, just because she liked it.

So you know, if anyone wants to go sing in front of some strippers one of these Friday nights, I’m in.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-7-08

by mav • June 7, 2008 • 8 Comments

Day 666 of 365 More.

I wish I would have had the foresight to have started 365 Days two years and two days before I did so that my day 666 could have been on 6-6-06. Oh well.

I actually had intended to do something all devilish looking for this occasion, but I never got around to it. Besides, its 800 degrees outside. All I really want is to drink a margarita and cool off.

So I am.

Explore hates me. I really thought I was a shoe in with the VF cover from the other day. 51 comments, 19 faves. Far better than most of my pics have done lately. But I guess not. I guess I’m not as "interesting" as I thought. I haven’t made it in months. Oh well.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-6-08

by mav • June 6, 2008 • 22 Comments

Day 665 of 365 More.

If I could only do one kind of picture in the 365 project it would be fake magazine covers. And if I was only allowed to fake one cover, over and over again, it would be this one.

Jameel ad I had the idea to do this cover with Steph way back when I did it the first time, and after yesterday’s virtual collaboration, I thought it might be nice to do an in person one as well.

So there you go. Steph’s a pimp.

And you think I’m bad.

365 days

365 Days, Imported From Flickr

6-5-08

by mav • June 6, 2008 • 57 Comments

Day 664 of 365 More.

You know, this staying up all night working on photography stuff was a lot easier before I had a job.

Last night I stayed up late to get the most recent Cosmic Hellcats comic posted and plan this out, but I was still in bed by 4am. I never thought I’d be up this late tonight. I wanted to be asleep by 2am. It’s now almost 6:30.

As I mentioned yesterday, this week’s podcast challenge was "collaboration." It was one I had been looking forward to, so I wanted to do something really big. I decided to write several of my favorite 365ers past and present and ask them to help me out with a photo.

Originally I was thinking I might do some kind of superhero thing, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Then I thought "I haven’t done a magazine cover in a while and this idea started to take shape.

Like any photographer, I’m a big fan of Annie Liebovitz. And like any photographer, I’d love a gig shooting for one of the big magazines. All the people you see here probably feel the same way. Looking over some of Liebovitz’s Vanity Fair covers, I figured out this was what I wanted to do. That’s what the sketch was about yesterday.

The sad thing is, I’m afraid a lot of people will just ignore this pic not realizing what’s going on. So I want to make sure everyone does know. The 10 people you see here, 9 of my favorite 365ers and all people I consider friends are actually spread out across 8 different cities. Most of us have never met. I believe them all to be wonderfully talented individuals and remarkable people. And for the most part (with the exceptions of Steph and Mickey who I already knew), I owe my entire relationships with each one of them to this project. Today, through the magic of photoshop, we can all appear together. I hope that one day we can take this shot in real life.

Thank you to Mikey, Mickey,James, Jessi, Steph, Jason, Jack, Nicole and Kat for doing this with me. You guys are great. Sorry it took so long. Please check out all of their streams and see their wonderful work.

Now I’m going to sleep for an hour and a half and go to my real job.

365 days