dead leaves

Ironically, I probably killed a tree creating this ... dead tree.

new vintage

I just heard the new Annie Lennox single for Dark Road. After a lackluster reception of her last album, I'm full on excited for Songs of Mass Destruction. The woman is a powerhouse of chills.

Bonus points for a video featuring a Wonder Woman riff.

house of cards

A condensed version of the week:

- After a third round of negotiating, the bank accepted our offer for the house
- Monday inspections began
- There weren't many surprises
- The printed report comes in, seeing everything on paper was a bit eye opening
- Didn't realize the garage was a total wash. Must be torn down and rebuilt
- Renovations minus garage hit around $60k
- We decide to walk. $60k can be better spent on a more structurally sound property (meaning a floor not in need of foundation work . . . and reflooring)
- Listing agent asks, "What number would we be comfortable with?"
- Hand over all inspection papers to the Bank, which they have to disclose and factor into bidding
- Subtract $100k from our initial offer, ask for 3% credit upon closing
- Wait and see.

The Bank either says, "yes," which means we have a smaller mortgage while still paying our previous price (with the renovations factored into the discount), or the bank says, "no," and we walk as we had intended to do previously.

Sort of win-win. Also sort of, "hurry up and decide already!!"

It's not our dream house (that ship sailed, we missed ESCROW by four days), but it is a house with so much potential and a disgustingly big yard for Los Angeles. It can assuredly be turned into something very special given TLC (or HGTV). I'm fine either way the pendulum swings, honestly.

Google, MD

Thanks to the internet, I can now self-diagnose that I have a tear duct infection, which explains my eye being jacked up. Not sure how it happened, so my default blame goes to aliens.

beach blanket bingo

UPDATE: The Art Walk/Festival is this sunday from 10-6 on Abbott Kinney between Venice Blvd. and Main St. I am told my table is towards the Main St. end of things. Also, since it's on Sunday I'll be ready to have greeting cards available as well!

This weekend I'll have a table at the Venice Art Walk/Abbott Kinney Street Festival. They haven't told me where I'm going to be, but I'll be there with my pal Cassie. I'll have pretty much everything in my store in person, so swing by and save me from potential boredom!

I should probably post concrete information, which I will when I can muster it. Right now I'm still buzzy from house inspections and the money that I don't have that I'm apparently going to spend.

the telly

New Shows to Watch:
Pushing Daisies - The best pilot with the best cast on a network that wants it to succeed so bad they probably won't cancel it when inevitably hits a rough patch after sweeps.
Reaper - I hate when good shows are on the CW, because you never know if they're a lost cause or going to be dragged out past their prime.
Moonlight - I miss Angel. Let's see how the rip-off fares.
Chuck - Josh Shwartz's time is better spent on this NBC show than the CW letdown (see below)

Old Shows to Look Forward To:
30 Rock and the Office - the best thursday night I can imagine.
Heroes - Oddly enough, I think this sophomore season has a better chance at success than...
Ugly Betty - can we say "uphill battle" little darling?
Friday Night Lights - Fingers crossed that lightning keeps striking. This was the best show of last season.
Men in Trees - People say I'm crazy when I tell them Anne Heche is great in a Sex in the City-meets-Northern Exposure dramedy, but I promise you I'm serious.
Brothers & Sisters - Sometimes bloated, sometimes satisfying. Like a real family.
CSI - C'mon, this is procedural technicolor splendor at its best.
Law & Order SVU - is on shakey ground, but I still love it.

"Reality"
Tim Gunn's Guide to Style - is surprisingly tender and informative
America's Next Top Model - is more outrageous than ever
Beauty and the Geek - will, as always, be addictive for exactly 65% of its season

Gossip Girl was a supreme let down, based entirely on the fact that it's a high school based series starring a bunch of 20-somethings who drink and fuck more than the kids on the Real World do each season.

review: resident evil - extinction

the skinny

So we put a bid in on a house over a month ago. Like so many houses in LA it was a foreclosure, and was owned by a bank. We had two inspectors look at it before we put the offer in, then waited. The floor is seriously screwed, requiring 17k worth of foundation work as well as new flooring on top of it, and pretty much every appliance needs to be updated. Pretty standard actually for what we've been looking at in our price range, and while it needs work you can easily see it being a great home in less than a year or two. Not a house to "flip," just a house that needs some TLC (or HGTV).

The bank responded at the last possible moment with idiotic terms: a price drop less than 10k (remember that 17k worth of foundation work?) and no credits. Not even closing costs. The Bank? In Pennsylvania, and they've never even actually seen the house. We walked, and it actually felt great.

Cut to a week ago, when the house is re-listed at a thousand dollars below our original asking price. Two more rounds of negotiating, and the bank accepted our offer. There's still no credits, but we got the price down far enough where we can pretend they exist.

On Monday Escrow (ESCROW?) starts, inspections are made, and we have 17 days to say "see ya later suckers" without losing a penny. If all goes off without a hitch, and some rennovations are made, we're living in a new 3 bed/2.5 bath by Christmas.

Astonishing, really.

say wah?

A jarring way to wake up: "Get ready to move, the bank accepted the offer."

we are legion

How lame were the Emmy's? I turned them off after 20 minutes, read the winners on CNN.com and skimmed through the recording this morning.

Oh well, Halloween is coming!

working music

Its been a chore to try and get work done this week, but I've found success by chaining myself to my desk and spinning The Hot Stewards from Norway, they being a band who do freaking rad alt-punk covers.

Best Bets: The Locomotion, Tell It to My Heart, Never Gonna Give You Up, Kids In America and Ms. Abduhl's Straight Up.

tim gunn's guide to kyle

Can we be super-gay for a minute and talk about how amazing Tim Gunn's Guide to Style is? We knew he was amazing, Veronica Webb is a firecracker (the perfect sidekick), and each week so far Boy and I have gotten tears in our eyes at least once.

new christmas noggins

And you thought it was too early for Halloween stuff...

the pull list

Comics I bought this week:

B.P.R.D: Killing Ground No. 2 - Potentially my favorite series on the shelves, it's surpassed it's father title (Hellboy) in artwork, consistency and intrigue.

Ultimate Spider-man No. 113 - Flickr friend Stuart Immonen continues doing a great job taking over a book that for obvious reasons belonged to Mark Bagley. Still, I find any Goblin storyline tedious.

Wonder Girl No. 1 of 6 - After finding a copy of the current Teen Titans Vol. 1 TPB used on Amazon for a buck, I now find myself waiting for volume 6 to arrive. I'm really enjoying the series, and was curious to see what this little spin-off miniseries had to offer. So far the only thing really worthwhile is the playful art that trumps a lot of the current Johnny DC books.

Thor No. 3 - Never cared about Thor. Ever. But JMS makes this book rule, Olivier Copiel is an amazing penciller tethered to a great inker and colorist, and its always fun seeing Iron Man get smacked down.

Ultimate Power No. 7 of 9 (heh) - My knee-jerk reaction is to buy this book because it's Jeph Loeb and Greg Land. I didn't really even get into reading it, I just looked at the pretty pictures.

Justice League of America Wedding Special - After a lackluster relaunch, Dwayne McDuffie is taking over from Brad Metzler. McDuffie happened to work on Cartoon Network's JLU series, and this looks like it's going to be a more adult continuation of the last season's arc. That is awesome, because JLU was awesome. Plus, things actually happen in this one-shot. Things that are important. The biggest surprise buy of the week that has me looking forward to JLA No. 13.

New Avengers No. 34 - Sure Bendis rambles, and sure Lenil Yu's pencils never cease to amaze me, but thank god some lingering questions got answered in this issue before we hopped into the New/Mighty Avengers cross-over.

The Walking Dead No. 42 - After months of delays, they're pumping this thing out almost bi-weekly now. I don't think it will last though, given the last panel of this issue that's a total game-changer.

I also snagged Legion of Superheroes Vol. 1 by Wait and Kitson. I know two people who are voices on the animated Legion series, so I figured I might want to get a feel for the universe before watching the kidified show (whose season 2 preview looks pretty nifty).

movistar

I designed these characters for the new Telefonica Movistar ad campaign. Sadly, I don't speak spanish or watch Telemundo, so I've never seen it on TV.

The campaign was run by Bromley Communications, and animated by Buzz Image in Montreal.

faster than a speeding booger

Uncanny how I wound up with an Audi 5 days before a SoCal Audi Club event in the valley, isn't it?

Every year a bunch of the Audi-geeks (Boy, obviously, being one) head up to Buttonwillow, which is a blip on the map between LA and SF. It's after Magic Mountain, before Cowschwitz, and it barely qualifies as a town. It does, sadly, qualify as the smelliest place I've ever been in my life. Kathy Griffin said Kuwait smelled like a fart, well Buttonwillow smells like a sick person's shit. I'm not sure if I fell asleep so easily because I was exhausted, or because of the fumes.

Thankfully, the track itself did not smell like fecal matter, which is good since we spent a good 12 hours there on saturday and sunday. It wasn't a racing school, but rather a course the teaches you how to drive your car to the fullest (and at times the fastest).

My. New. Car. Is. Awesome.

I have to say wearing long sleeves and jeans in 95º heat while navigating a winding road that ignores everything you were taught in driver's ed got a bit frustrating at times, but it was a worthwhile weekend, and I'm now 100% certain that I can stop on a dime and swerve to evade a dinosaur attacking a police car.

the silver booger

I've told this story so many times I have the condensed version almost down to a science:

On Sunday, during the frying of Los Angeles, Boy vanished for hours on end. He'd taken my car out for a drive, and in the early evening he made a very bizarre phone call. It was short and to the point and he asked me to scan and email my car registration (which for insurance purposes was on the kitchen table, and not in the car where it belonged). I figured he'd been pulled over for speeding (both of his feet are lead), and was in a bit of jam.

Long story short: I was lead to believe for hours on end that he was in jail, and since monday was a holiday, he might not get released until tuesday morning. The main perpetrator of this ruse? The sales rep at Thousand Oaks Audi, who was very convincing on the phone. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and when Boy returned home, Nemo the Volvo was gone and this was in the driveway:

A 2007 qwartz gray Audi A4 2.0. Nemo, my '04 Volvo S60R (with his poor turning radius and jarring suspension) was gone and The Silver Booger was in his place. (I call it the Silver Booger because he picked a good one, and he's a boogerhead for making me worry that he was in jail.)

FAQ: Why was it so easy for you to believe Boy was in jail?
Well, aside from his lead feet and lack of registration in the car, Boy yells at cops for not using their turn signals, so just imagine what could happen if he got pulled over.

How could he trade in your car without your signature?
The amazing loan we got for Nemo was through SAG. Boy is in the guild, I am not, thus the car was in Boy's name. Trade in one car, pay off loan, get a Silver Booger.

This is how we roll in our house: since we're so hard to shop for, we give unintentionally crappy Christmas and Birthday presents to each other, we don't really celebrate anniversaries (we just had out 2nd, by the way) or Valentine's Day, and then at random spots in the year new cars and Playstation 3's magically appear. It works.

newsies

Hey lookit, som new pieces have popped up in my store:

four little dinosaurs

From A to Zanzabelle

In an uncharactistic move, Boy and I went for a late lunch in Los Feliz yesterday. On our travels we walked by a tiny ice cream and gift parlour called Zanzabelle. Two cups of ice cream and $100 in knicknacks later we left. It is awesome and you should check it out. I'm gonna see about getting some of my stuff in there.

Speaking of stuff, I have 2 things of note coming up: The Abbot Kinney Art walk at the end of september as well a group show called October Shadows (appropriately in October and Halloween themed). I'll give concrete dates and locations when I have them.

Los Angeles is empty since its Labor Day weekend. Being a household of freelancers, three-day weekends mean little to us, but it's nice to have no traffic. On the flipside, some of our favorite smaller eating establishments are closed. Bummer.

C'est la vie. Back to drawing!

hot hot heat

Sure it's been 110º in Phoenix for the past week, but I don't live there. I live here in LA, where its been over 100º for the past three days. I'm not sure why I chose to paint outside in the sun, but I did (I'm a messy painter). It was so hot that the dog got bored of licking ice cubes on the pavement and went back inside to the A/C.

Hey, have you been to my online store Kyle-Cummings.com? You buying things for me helps me pay for the A/C!