Spent the weekend at the 61st annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival. Went with friends on Saturday and another group on Sunday.
Ran into so many people I hadn’t seen for awhile. Was really a great time.
For the locals, it’s more about the comradery than the art, although we all love seeing and buying art. But it sort of reminds me of NYC, where the locals spot and see each other in the crowds of tourists and the tourists sort of blur into the background and the locals have the city for themselves.
The fun part is that we know some of the artists exhibiting and we visit with them as we all mix and mingle around the festival. We eat, drink (love the old fashioned English tea cafe where I had scones and tea, as I do every year) and enjoy the art. We always end up at the cafe and sit around and talk and laugh for an hour or so, in the midst of the show.
Since I had not seen some people for some time, I may have talked some ears off. I was talking to one guy who works for the festival, he was in a golf cart. He was attempting to drive away as I was talking. I said to him, “Did you hear what I said?” He said, “Yes.” I responded, “I don’t think you did, because you almost ran over my foot.”
Good times.
Today is the final day. I may or may not attend, I’m sort of worn out from non-stop action on Saturday and Sunday.
I was watching this video by artist Mika Song about comic panels. She had a lot of good things to say about the panel. A lot of it was about restrictions. Which I like.
Even though I can do anything with my Tomversation cartoon, since it is distributed online, and there are no parameters, I enjoy the parameters. The image can be made larger, longer, a multi-panel strip and be changed from day to day, where in the newspapers, I would be limited to the same daily allotted space, I enjoy the single panel imitations and the same daily allotted space.
I’ve always been drawn to single panel comics. Oh sure, I read all the comic strips growing up, but I enjoyed the single panel stuff – Hazel, The Addams Family, Ziggy, The Far Side, Our Boarding House, Dennis the Menace, Marmaduke, etc. I liked having the whole story told in one box, usually with one short sentence or text.
It’s interesting setting up the story because I have to figure out how to fit the characters and the text to make sense in the small 5″ x 5″ space.
In recent years I’ve done away with the speech balloon, although I do use it once in awhile, but I like have the letters just floating above and having one single drawn line showing who is speaking. I’m not sure where I got that from, but I know it’s from cartoons I’ve seen in the past.
I also went digital some years back. I use a Surface Pro, to draw, which I love. It has a keyboard so I can use it as a laptop computer when I’m traveling. It’s compact and easy to use and has everything I need.
I’ve done comic strips in the past and I have a few that I have done but am not publishing, but I don’t enjoy drawing the same characters over and over, not just in each pane for that day’s strip, but every day of the week. I like that I can have animals talking one day and ancient Egyptians the next.
Many single panel cartoons have the same characters. I enjoy reading the old Our Boarding House panels, where they tell a continuing story day after day, in a single panel, with the same characters. But for my own work, I enjoy using different characters each day.
Above there are six samples of my comic panel, Tomversation. You can see how I use speech and thought balloons and how sometimes I mix the two. Somethings they are not full balloons, but just part, indicating a border to separate the text from the art.
Some guy posted this picture online and said he started going to Chipotle instead of Wendy’s because Wendy’s did away with their taco chips and made them into little “pebbles” and he likes to scoop up the taco salad with the chips. I feel the same way. The ruined the whole taco salad by doing this. Trying to save money I guess but losing customers in the process.
Speaking of Wendy’s, I think the people who work the drive-thru windows at Wendy’s and Burger King think I am either cheap or poor.
I don’t really pay attention to the cost of things when it comes to lunch, especially at a drive thru. But for some reason, it always appears that way at these two places.
At Wendy’s I always get the taco salad, but may not anymore now that the chips are pebbles, but anyway, I know now with tax is $9.08, but in the past, I didn’t pay attention, I just paid.
One of the ladies at the drive-thru is the manager and one day she gave me a coupon for $2.00 off a salad. I didn’t go back for a while, but the coupon sat on my console in the car. When I finally went back, I remembered it and I gave it to another lady at the window.
My eyes are bad, I need new contact lenses and there no way I could read the expiration date, so I asked her if it was still valid. She said it wasn’t, and I said, ok, fine.
But the manager said to give me the discount, so they did.
She must have assumed I gave her the coupon knowing it was expired, but that wasn’t the case.
I only say that because the next time I went, when I got to the window, I asked them how much it was. I really didn’t know, I didn’t remember, and I don’t keep track.
The manager was at the window, and she said, “Come on, you know how much it is. You just want a discount!”
Ha, I was embarrassed, because that was not the case. I honestly didn’t remember what it cost, and I didn’t hear them when they told me through the speaker. I didn’t even know you could ask for a discount, which she didn’t give me anyway.
I’ve been back many times since then, so that didn’t stop me, but I don’t like the new way they do the taco salads now and they sort of did away with the taco chips, which I liked to use as a spoon to scoop up the salad with the chili, so I may not go back.
One thing I do there, and I seem to do it at Burger King, too, is that I’m counting out bills and coins as if they are my last bit of money. But I do it to get rid of the overflowing coins in my ashtray in the car and also to get rid of the singles I seem to accumulate.
Now at Burger King. For some reason, every time I go, which is not often, I count out the change – bills and coins – to the exact amount, same as at Wendy’s, and I’m usually struggling with it as I get to the window to pay.
And here it is always the same lady who I deal with, and she remembers me, because if I don’t go for a while, she comments on it and says, “You haven’t been her for a while.”
I also only order one thing – some sort of burger or a chicken sandwich. I stopped getting fries and a drink, so it looks like I can only afford the one sandwich, although that one sandwich costs more than their $5.00 meal deal, so there is that.
But when I get the meal, I end up eating the fries mindlessly as I’m driving and I feel I don’t need to eat fries especially since I’m not really enjoying them and just gobbling them down, and I don’t drink soda and don’t like any of their other drinks, so I decided to just get the one burger or chicken sandwich.
I know none of this matters, but I find it funny and sort of embarrassing at the same time.
This guy was trying to sneak into Rome with a fake passport and he did not have Schengen authority and was banned from all the Schengen countries. There are 29 of them!
If you don’t know, like I didn’t, The Schengen Area encompasses 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders. They are sort of treated like states. For instance if you are in Italy, you can easily go to France or Spain or Austria, Germany, Greece, etc. Just as we pass through from Maine to Vermont, to New York.
From Wikipedia: “The common visa policy allows nationals of certain countries to enter the Schengen Area via air, land or sea without a visa for stays of up to 90 days within a 180-day period. Nationals of certain other countries are required to have a visa either upon arrival or in transit.”
This started in 1985 and grew to the current roster and became an official thing in 1995.
I find it interesting, because these days, I often think of moving to Italy and getting my Italian citizenship – and having two – U.S. and Italian.
I was at JFK in NYC once and a TSA agent grabbed my luggage. “Whose luggage is this?” he bellowed. (JFK, NYC, TSA – sounds like code language).
“Mine!” I said, as I raised my hand. I walked over to the luggage.
“Don’t touch it!” he yelled.
“I know, I watch, ‘To Catch A Smuggler!’ I answered.
He laughed and said, “So do I.”
It was a pair of tiny scissors that set of the alarm in the end. It was a funny experience and I tell it often, in fact, I have told it here before.
I was watching a lot of Depeche Mode videos and concerts this weekend. I don’t know why. I mean I aways loved them, but all of a sudden there they were all over my social media.
I think it started by me watching a lot of the FireAid concert on social media and from watching those bands, mostly Stevie Nicks over and over, Depeche Mode starting popping up. So I started watching them. They weren’t part of FireAid, but I guess the genre sort of was part of what was at FireAid so the algorithms brought them up.
It started on my phone and then I put them on YouTube on my big tv screen.
What I found interesting is that they sort of don’t age, although David Gahan, front man, is getting gray streaks in his hair now, but he still sings and moves like he always did. He’s ageless. Although he has almost been dead more than once. Four times he had brushes with death and he go the nickname “The Cat” due to his coming back to life over and over.
He also was a heroin addict and had a drug induced heart attack right in the middle of a concert once. I don’t say all this to put him down, I say it all to build him up – he is invincible. He does his famous twirl through the concerts, enjoying every moment.
When you watch him perform, he takes over the stage, his movements, voice and engagement with the audience is incredible, he commands the stage, even when he isn’t singing – many times he gives over the performance to the audience and has them finish singing the songs.
David was ranked at No. 73 on Q magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Singers” and No. 27 on its list of the “100 Greatest Frontmen”.
Founding member Andy Fletcher, “Fletch” passed away in May 2022. They talk about it in the CBS Sunday Morning interview below.
I drew the above cartoon over from a previous version this weekend since he and Depeche Mode were on my mind.
Regarding the video above of “Enjoy the Silence,” my favorite Depeche Mode song, among so many, I like this video because it shows David and the band over years. It sort of intercuts them singing the song in various stages of their career. Love that.
Here, below is a recent interview with David Gahan and Martin Gore on CBS Sunday Morning.
What I mean is that I used to be able to do everything, now after years of paying people, I can’t do a thing, or I am hesitant to do it, thinking I can’t do it.
My car needs antifreeze, I am not sure how to do it or how to buy it. I know where to buy it, but I’m not sure if there is a certain type. When I was younger I could to so much under the engine. Now I don’t even know how to open the car hood. Seriously. I’ve paid people to do things for me for too many years now. I lost my skills.
One time I changed someone’s tire. A stranger. I was walking by and saw the flat. I fixed it for her where I live in the village. Took me a few minutes. Now I don’t even have a jack – cars don’t come with jacks anymore. Look it up.
Now I call AAA or my car dealership and they do all that for me. Helpless.
I was the oldest child, so I helped my father with everything whether I wanted to or not, and this taught me how to do everything. When I moved into my first apartment, I painted, hung curtains, fixed broken closest doors, etc. Now I stare at them all and wonder what to do next.
I do have a toolbox, so that’s half the battle.
I have broken closet doors and a broken window and things that need fixing in the kitchen. I guess I could be handy, but I don’t want to be. In the past I guess I used to just do it as a habit. Car lightbulb out? I’ll fix it. Car needs STP (remember that?), I’ll add it.
I have a shirt I love. I got it years ago from J. Crew. It has a little hole in it where the seems separated. I used to be able to sew it up. But now I am hesitant to try. I can easily buy a new shirt, but I don’t think I’ll find the same one with the same look and feel. It’s sort of a sweater/sweatshirt. I don’t wear it often, so it’s lasted years.
If my mother was around, I would just bring it to her and she would do it for me. I guess I can bring it to the guy at the dry cleaners who does that kind of thing, but it’s sort of embarrassing to ask them to sew up a tiny hole, smaller than a dime.
If I manage to man up and sew it up, I’ll let you know. Man up and sew it up. Hmm, interesting concept.
Went with friends to the Beaux Arts Festival this past weekend, held on the University of Miami campus. It’s the beginning of the arts festival season in Miami, if you don’t count Art Basel, which is at the beginning of December. I missed Basel this year, I was in New York.
The Miami Beach Art Deco Festival was this past weekend, too, which I usually never miss, but I didn’t attend that this year, either.
I’m just a tire kicker – a friend called me that yesterday at Beaux Arts, when I approached his art booth. He sells beautiful photographs he takes.
I’m not sure why I don’t buy a lot of art. I guess it started when I covered the news, which was for 15 years – I was too busy trying to “get the story,” that I didn’t shop around for art. But I don’t really have much wall space where I live, it’s mostly windows.
I do buy sculptures and things like that at times, but not much wall art.
Since I stopped editing the daily news, people think I left town. When I was doing the news, I was at everything every day. It was too much really, but it was my job – morning, noon and night, I was there getting the story and photos. Now I don’t do much in town.
Now when people see me, they say, “You’re back!” And I have to tell them I never left. So, there was a lot of that this weekend. I end up talking to some people and my friends who I arrive with scatter, and they end up talking to people they run into, and it goes like that.
A couple of weeks ago there was a parade in town. We all started out together and by the end, we were in different parts of the village hanging out with others watching the parade from our usual/favorite spots.
We mostly eat our way through these festivals, it’s almost like a food festival with art for many of us.
This Close to Home cartoon from yesterday reminded me of the Publix pharmacy and it was literally too close to home.
Every time I go to pick up a prescription, they try to push other things on me. They aren’t pushing drugs, but they are constantly pushing vaccines and shots.
As I pick up my prescription, the pharmacist says, “Looks like you are due for a flue shot,” or “It’s time for a Covid vaccine update.” Things like that.
It’s sort of sleazy, especially since Publix makes large profits every year. They don’t need to push chemicals on people.
“First quarter sales for Publix Super Markets were $15.1 billion, a 5% increase from $14.3 billion in 2023. Comparable store sales increased by 2.8%,” according to Supermarket News.
A month or so ago I was at the Publix pharmacy and they were pushing a bunch of vaccines and shots on some older man who was there. They just kept hounding him. He didn’t understand what they were talking about and he said he didn’t want them, but the pharmacist kept pushing him with some sort of chart – pointing and saying, “You need this one and this one and this one.”
I didn’t butt in, but sometimes I wish I had said something.
CVS, Walgreens, Publix, they are all the same.
I tried using small mom and pop pharmacies in the past, but every time I did that, they ended up being sold to CVS or Walgreens! I would show up to pick up a prescription and there on the door there would be a sign that says something like, “We are now owned by CVS (or Walgreens). All prescriptions and records are now owned by them. The nearest location is at blah, blah, blah.”
This happened to me three times over the years. Corporate America taking over.
I saw this guy complaining about his name on Reddit.
His name is Michael and he prefers to be called Mick, but a co-worker insists on calling him Mike, and this is upsetting Michael, er, Mick.
With all the crap going on in the world today, this is his issue?
I know names are important and they should be spelled right, especially in the press, but what’s the big deal?
My name is Tom, along with Tom, people call me Thomas (my given name) Tomás, the Latin way; Tommy, Tom-o and Tombo. I answer to all of them. I’ve been called worse.
I have a customer named Benlida. I love that name, I use it in my cartoons often, for witches. It sounds like a Witch’s name.
I never met the real Benlida. She orders from my business online and has for years, but I know her name, shipping address, phone number, etc. But I just don’t know her personally, or what she looks like.
Some names like Hugh Jass, Anita Bath, Ima Hogg, should not be and if I had a dog, I think I would name him Oliver. Maybe Olive, it if was a girl.
Yep, I started another newsletter. Blogs are called newsletters now.
I have my cartoon published daily at TomFalco.com, then there’s this Tomversation blog you are reading now. Then there is 10 With Tom, where I have lists of 10 things and also interview people with 10 random questions and the new newsletter is called The Morning Grapevine.
Yep, I’m a busy guy.
The Morning Grapevine is where I share ideas that will inform and help you curate a business. And even if you don’t own or run a business, The Morning Grapevine is fun and informative.
The newsletter features marketing and business news along with fun interviews with people about their businesses – how did they start, how did they get funding, how do they market themselves- things like that. From bakers to artists to Wall Street types, we want to know about them and share their knowledge, which will help us all with what we do whether it’s build things, write, teach, draw or run a large company.
I have a friend I am interviewing now. She’s a well-known artist and she is a whiz at marketing her art. I was with her this past weekend. I would love to share her techniques for selling art and getting clients, who keep coming back for more. I am interviewing her now.
I also want to ask people what they offer when they have Patreon sites as incentives and also when people have Go Fund Me sites. I’ve donated to a lot of Go Fund Me’s – usually for art project and books – and a lot of those have original art and things like that as incentives. But what about other Go Fund Me’s for different projects? I’m interested in that.
I hope you are interested enough to to subscribe to The Morning Grapevine. It’s free. No cost to you. You can check it out here to see what is published so far.
tomversation.com 