tomversation

The Van Gogh house in Mt. Dora

I saw this story in the news about a house in Mt. Dora, Florida, that is painted to look like Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. Here is a video with artist Richard Barrenechea explaining the art/house.

People either hate it or love it, I’m not sure how I feel about this, but Starry Night is my favorite piece of art. I have it all over my house as knock-off paintings, posters, even a coffee mug.

richard-barrenechea

But you know what I like better than that house? Richard’s shirt. Look at this screen capture I took from another video at the Orlando Sentinel site. Batman/Van Gogh! Love it!

I found a similar shirt on Amazon, is it the same thing? I want it.

Peanuts Global Artist Collective Murals

A new project began this week called the Peanuts Global Artist Collective. Seven artists were chosen to interpret the Peanuts characters on 15′ x 10′ murals at Hudson Square in NYC. Similar projects are happening in Paris; Seoul, South Korea; Berlin; San Francisco; Tokyo and Mexico City.

Hudson Square is in lower Manhattan in SoHo, on the west side.

The artists are Mr. A, Nina Chanel Abney, AVAF, FriendsWithYou, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Rob Pruitt, and Kenny Scharf. You can see them here.

And here is a map of the locations of the murals. It’s in an area I love. I have mentioned before the old Keller Hotel at Barrow and West Side Highway in Greenwich Village; well this is just a little further downtown from that. I take this route sometimes when I meet up with my cousin at her office down in SoHo.

The murals will be up for three months, so I’ll get to see them when I’m in NY June and July. I look forward to it.

Let’s go back to NYC 1911

This film is amazing. It’s New York City in 1911. It’s so interesting, just seeing the people is amazing. So many of the buildings are still standing today, it amazes me that the clocks in the Madison Square area, near the Flatiron building are still there today and I love seeing the old New York Herald building which is in a few shots.

Sound has been added, this isn’t the sound from that period, but it fits in perfectly and you really are transported to 1911 and the streets of NYC. We’re time traveling.

New Tomversation comics store

comics

I have a new Amazon store called Tomversation – you can see it here.

I’m offering all sorts of comics-related things from books and dolls to t-shirts and jewelry.

Please check it out. You might like something for yourself or as a gift and it supports this blog.

Thanks!

comics2

Nancy will outlive us all

So the comic strip Nancy has changed. I don’t know if you knew or if you care, I only care because this is one time when I don’t mind that a comic strip continues.

Usually I feel that when a cartoonist retires or passes on, the strip should pass on, too. Comic strips seem to never end. Usually a new cartoonist takes over and they continue on and that has always bothered me. But for some reason, I like the new Nancy.

So Nancy is now written and drawn by Olivia Jaimes and the new Nancy is a bit fisty and nasty and modern. There are cell phones and video games and things from the 21st Century.

Olivia is one of many cartoonists to do Nancy, many think that Ernie Bushmiller was the creator, but Larry Whittington created Nancy in 1922 and Ernie Bushmiller took over in 1925, then others took over after his death and the last person to do the strip was Guy Gilchrist and finally Olivia. It’s amazing the many lives Nancy has had – sort of like a cat.

People either hate the new Nancy or love it. Here it is at GoComics, check it out for yourself.

nancybook There’s a book out called, “How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels” by Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden. It shows how Nancy is the perfect comic to study; it shows the building blocks of a comic strip – something like that. I downloaded it on my Kindle and haven’t read it yet. I guess Nancy will outlive us all.

How do I raise my Uber rating?

uber

My Uber rating is 4.82, I’ve been trying to get it up to 5.0, which is was for a long time, but about a year ago it dropped and I don’t know why.

I don’t know why I care either, but I’m just wondering why it went down.

I always tip, I over-tip. But am I talking too much for one driver and not enough for another? Should I sit in the back seat or the front seat? Do I remind a driver of someone they don’t like? What is it?

I never check the driver’s ratings, I just hop in the car and we’re off and I suppose the drivers don’t really check most ratings of passengers, since it’s numbers game and I doubt they can be that picky.

One time a driver got mad because the address given on the system was next door to where I was. But for some reason, I couldn’t get it to put my exact address in. Now it uses a GPS that does it for you so you don’t have to punch in the address.

But he was upset. Not sure why, I was literally 10 feet away early on a Saturday morning, there was not another person on the street and there I was standing there, holding my luggage waving at him.

But I want that rating up to 5.0. Maybe I should offer them chewing gum and bottled water when I get into the car, rather than the other way around.

Maybe I’ll try Lyft. I think I have a few free rides coming with them.

Time travel

I like to look for time travel whenever I can.

I belong to some groups on Facebook that post old photos and this one popped up. It’s Miami Beach in the 1920s. But look at the couple on the left, are they looking at a cell phone? Probably not, it’s probably a book or mirror or something, but it appears like some sort of smart phone.

And the guy’s leg. Why is his left leg so much larger than his left leg? Was it affected during his vortex return from the future?

Time-Man-337321

Then there is this photo that has been making the rounds on the internet for years. This hipster dude in the 1940s looks out of place, but it turns out the t-shirt is of the Montreal Maroons, a hockey team that played around that time. Those type sunglasses were available at the time and the small camera was available by Kodak at the time.

A perfect collaboration

bloomcounty

I don’t know if it was meant to be an April Fools joke, but I took it that way seeing today’s Bloom County. I’m not sure where else it is published, but I follow it on Facebook and it comes up in my feed.

Today, Bloom County is called, “Calvin County” and it features Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes.

At first I wondered by Berkeley Breathed did this. Why would he copy Calvin and make him the star of today’s strip. And the drawings of Calvin were so perfect, that I thought he probably traced him.

But if you look at the byline, it gives it away – it’s signed by both Bill Watterson and Berkeley Breathed!

Perfect April Fools day comic.

You can see the full comic here.

The Miami News

miami-news I was at Miami’s history museum last week, HistoryMiami and I saw this. Sad. An old Miami News newspapers box. Strange to see it in a history museum, but it is history. It was there in the museum along with old Pan Am airway stuff and Miami Vice things and stuff that you really don’t realize are part of history because they are not that old, but then again, yesterday is history.

I like the “fresher news every day” on the side of the box. They were the afternoon paper, the Miami Herald is the morning paper, so I guess The News did have fresher news. But then again, in the morning, The Herald had fresher news . . .

They had the last issue of The Miami News at the museum, it was just there. I wanted to pick it up and thumb through it but didn’t know if that was permitted, but it wasn’t under glass. It was just there.

The last issue was printed on December 31, 1988. I saved that issue and have it somewhere.

I’ve never been the Newseum in Washington, DC, but I bet they have a bunch of these boxes there. I can sort of picture a big area where they are all lined up – The New York Mirror, The Philadelphia Bulletin, The Los Angeles Examiner, The Tamps Tribune and so on.

I like a feature that the Newseum website has, they show today’s front pages of the nation’s daily newspapers.

March for Our Lives

march Did you watch the March For Our Lives event on Saturday? I’m sure you couldn’t miss it, there were demonstrations in 800 cites around the world. The largest of course was the Washington DC event.

If you watched, then you saw our new leaders. I don’t mean future leaders, I mean our leaders today, this is them! And you know what? I’m ready to be lead.

enough They say that the 1940s is the “Greatest Generation,” but I do believe that they have met their match. Today’s up-and-coming generation are people to be proud of. They are all inclusive, they are smart and they are determined. They are fighting for their lives. Literally.

It took these young adults to do what a handful of our leaders cannot or will not do. To listen to these 16 and 17-year-old speak and even 11-year-olds, was amazing and encouraging.

These kids are inclusive of everyone, they are making American Great Again. They are making America the way they want America to be.

Changes are coming and for the first time in a long time I am hopeful, very hopeful about our future.