After months of hard work planning, animating, illustrating, and writing, the Star School Project Web site is now online! The Star School Project is a new music/theatre/film venue located in South Dakota. The building is a school house currently undergoing renovations, though the Star School has already begun hosting a film festival at other locations. A New York illustrator named Derek Van Gieson provided the black and white illustrations that I edited, painted and otherwise toyed with to make the site.

Screenshot from the Star School Project Web site.

As I previously mentioned, Unwed Sailor is currently on tour in support of their new album, Little Wars. I’ve been posting a few streaming tracks here over the past month, and here’s the latest. This one is called “The Garden” and it can be purchased along with the rest of the tracks on the album via iTunes or Unwed Sailor’s official store.

“The Garden” by Unwed Sailor. Photograph by Jaret Farretusco.

I’m currently moving into the final stages of multi-medium artist Michael Pickard’s TwizLand Web site, and in anticipation of the completed project, here’s another nice image from his gallery!

Painting by Michael Pickard

I just updated Unwed Sailor’s official site with the latest slew of dates in their maddening schedule. There’s a lot to see, so have a look at the tour page to see if they’re heading to a venue in your area!

Photograph by Jaret Ferratusco.

Here’s an image from Tracing the Seams. It’s been awhile since anything new has been posted here about that site, but it’s still loaded with lots of collages, photography and writing. Stop by and give it another visit if you get the chance!

“Plugging Potential”

Here’s another track from Unwed Sailor’s new release, Little Wars. This is an old one, but still a pleasant ride from start to finish!

“Copper Islands” by Unwed Sailor. Photograph by Jaret Farretusco.

This past weekend I got to see a couple of very interesting one-act plays directed by some students at Hillsdale College. The first was called “Rain” by Garry Williams, which I thought was very interesting. It deals with a group of Christians, one of whom has lost his legs and is confined to a wheelchair. Another is a giddy, profanity-hating, youth-group girl who comes along and has some very interesting conversations with the angry crippled man about tough topics in the Christian faith. There aren’t any easy answers, and the play doesn’t give any.

The other play is a pretty famous one called “No Exit” by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. It was grim and often times redundant over the course of its approximate 90-minute running time, but very interesting. Three characters sit in Hell and discuss their lives, looking back to see what remains of what they left behind. It has quite a few painfully accurate lines that really cut to the core, and as a result it’s often terrifying. If you haven’t yet seen or read it, the full script (with notes) is available online.  I know it’s pretty famous, but I wasn’t aware of its existence until last weekend, so perhaps this will be news to some of you!

In addition to the question-invoking scripts, both plays were wonderfully performed and directed, and I certainly think the smart, concise “Rain” is worth a look as well.

The excellent Hillsdale performance of “No Exit.” Photograph by Pineapple XVI.

Going through another artist’s massive portfolio is really quite a lot of fun. So, continuing on with my series of highlights from Michael Pickard’s upcoming TwizLand site that I’m working on, here’s another image to whet your appetite.

“Blue Whale” by Michael Pickard.

It’s back. Finally. Due to certain unforeseen freak disasters such as my car’s front passenger rim literally erupting in flames, I have been unable to attain my original goal of one nonsensical stick-person animation per week. I say this because I’m not mature enough to take responsibility for being unable to animate a mouthless businessman eating a sandwich. It’s difficult. But here it is anyway. Complete with M. Night Shyamalan twist.

Budget upgraded! New characters!

Today I’m presenting another track from Pretend, Pretend, which is an electronic musical project of Rob Ogden’s that I occasionally assist with. This one is all Rob and it’s quite delightful.

“Analog Square Phase” by Pretend, Pretend. Photograph by Justin Norman.