sockmonkeybaby

[sockmonkeybaby]

torrent

file extensions that could also be beautiful baby names. ill start: .tiff

[sockmonkeybaby]

[sockmonkeybaby]

The third of three commissions for mirdini. I actually finished this one first whoops

[sockmonkeybaby]

Big thoughts lil guy

[sockmonkeybaby]

@cpapsapphic I'll be sending this you every day

please god what am i tell me what i am

[sockmonkeybaby]

Eeveelutions as pharmaceuticals

[sockmonkeybaby]

As requested by sockmonkeybaby a coord inspired by Pokemon #63 Abra

[sockmonkeybaby]

happy 4/13

[sockmonkeybaby]

i can imagine anything

[sockmonkeybaby]

really true for me

I love saying "cute..." about stuff. because a lot of stuff is cute...

[sockmonkeybaby]

Laurie Anderson

I wanna tell you a story – about a story. And it's about the time I discovered that most adults have no idea what they're talking about. It was the middle of the summer, when I was 12. And I was the kind of kid who was always showing off. I have seven brothers and sisters, and I was always getting lost in the crowd. And so, I would do practically anything for attention.

So, one day I was at the swimming pool, and I decided to do a flip from the high board. The kind of dive when you're temporarily, magically, suspended mid-air. And everyone around the pool goes "Wow! That's incredible. That's amazing!"

Now, I'd never done a flip before. But I thought: "How hard could it be? You just somersault and straighten out right before you hit the water." So I did. But I missed the pool. And I landed on the concrete edge. And broke my back.

I spent the next few weeks in traction, in the Children's Ward at the hospital. And for quite a while I couldn't move or talk. I was just sort of floating. I was in the same trauma unit with the kids who'd been burned. And they were hanging in these rotating slings, sort of like rotisseries or spits. Machines that would turn you around and around. So the burns could be bathed in these cool liquids.

Then one day, one of the doctors came to see me, and he told me that I wouldn't be able to walk again. And I remember thinking: "This guy is crazy. I mean, is he even a doctor? Who knows?" Of course I was going to walk. I just had to concentrate. Keep trying to make contact with my feet, to convince them – will them – to move.

The worst thing about this was the volunteers, who came every afternoon to read to me. And they'd lean over the bed, and they'd say: "Hello Laurie." Really enunciating each word, as if I'd also gone deaf. And they'd open the book. "So, where were we? Oh yes... The gray rabbit was hopping down the road, and guess where he went? Well, nobody knows. The farmer doesn't know... The farmer's wife doesn't know..." Nobody knew where the rabbit had gone - but just about everybody seemed to care.

Now, before this happened, I'd been reading books like A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment. So the gray rabbit stories were kind of a slow torture...

Anyway, eventually I did get on my feet. And for two years I wore a huge metal brace. And I got very obsessed with John F. Kennedy. Because he had back problems too. And he was the President.

Much later in my life, when someone would ask what my childhood was like, sometimes I would tell them this story about the hospital. And it was a short way of telling them certain things about myself. How I'd learned not to trust certain people. And how horrible it was to listen to long pointless stories. Like the one about the gray rabbit.

But there was always something weird about telling this story, that made me very uneasy. Like something was missing. Then one day, when I was in the middle of telling it, I was describing the little rotisseries that the kids were hanging in. And suddenly, it was like I was back in the hospital. Just exactly the way it had been. And I remembered the missing part.

It was the way the ward sounded at night. It was the sounds of all the children crying and screaming. It was the sounds that children make when they're dying.

And then I remembered the rest of it. The heavy smell of medicine. The smell of burnt skin. How afraid I was. And the way some of the beds would be empty in the morning. And the nurses would never talk about what had happened to these kids. They'd just go on making the beds and cleaning up around the ward.

And so the thing about this story – was that actually I'd only told the part about myself. And I'd forgotten the rest of it. I'd cleaned it up, just the way the nurses had. And that's what I think is the creepiest thing about stories. You try to get to the point you're making – usually about yourself or something you learned. And you get your story, and you hold on to it. And every time you tell it, you forget it more.

[sockmonkeybaby]

I have a very esoteric question for JF - I remember hearing you did the artwork or photography for the Miscellaneous T album cover. Were the letters cut out of foam? Using a heated wire cutter? The blocky flintstone-ey letters in an interesting hallway is still very cool. Thank you in advance for answering if you answer and thanks for always being great.

The cover of Miscellaneous T

First I designed the typeface on graph paper (which was actually a bigger project than the cover). This was the very end of the pre-computer era, and the word "font" went from being a shibboleth of design people to being common parlance. While computers were shaking up the world of graphic design the limitations were immediate. While the general public marveled at the 25 typefaces available, designers were sorely missing the other 2000.

(At this time I imported my very crude work into a computer-based font design program, and that file named Conant was even uploaded on to a free font site. I have no notion of how long it played out there or if it was ever used elsewhere, but I like to think there is a restaurant menu somewhere using Conant.)

The idea of my design was drawn from the hand lettering of artist Ben Shahn (although I did not have a lot of direct source material!) The big features of this kind of design is the squared-off letter shapes and the modulating upper and lower case forms. His letter changes from poster to poster but in general it looks like this...

I was also thinking about the woodcut letter shapes on the cover of Edward Albees famous paperback books (a book that was everywhere) I suspect the design was also Ben Shahn-influenced.

So regarding the cover of Misc. T-

The letters on the cover were made with an X-Acto knife, 1/4" foam-core, tape, Elmers glue, paper and acrylic paint. They are not solid at all. I made them very quickly, and in a fashion that I had done many other projects.

I "blew up" the typeface just by eyeballing the points on the graph paper to the much larger grid I drew on the foam core. I cut out the letters, then cut the pieces that created the depth, and taped them into place on the inside of the letter form. (This next part I am have no memory of but I am pretty sure this is how I did it) Once the letters were complete I took very light paper (like a rice paper or old fashioned Xerox paper) dipped in slightly diluted Elmers glue and draped it over the edges of all the letters to hide the seams. I suspect I then lightly painted them with white paint just to even it all out.

Then I placed them in the hallway of my apartment. To trick the eye for a moment, I actually shot it from above so you see the letter shapes before you place the forms in my dilapidated hallway. Below is un-flipped image.

And here's me and John holding the letters...

[sockmonkeybaby]

mini puppet john L I made

[sockmonkeybaby]

everyone should have a balanced diet of both good music and music that fucking sucks. it's healthy. get over it.

[sockmonkeybaby]

*beginning to suspect my roommate is a pulley* hey man would you mind picking up this big crate by changing the direction of applied force, thereby reducing the force needed? no reason

[sockmonkeybaby]

[sockmonkeybaby]

hand painted necktie seen on somewhere on the internet. school is going fine