solid gone

boy blue news has moved, and now shares its digs with the rest of our site. we hope you'll still come by.

.the boy blue county sunday telegraph.

you're looking at a completely-i-swear-to-you unphotoshopped john flansburg performing "don't let's start". and as if life weren't already awesome enough:

:: ephraim rubenstein, beloved client and rumored relation to boy blue enterprises, has an opening thursday night at george billis gallery in chelsea. the show features a number of his haunting used and discarded book paintings, which seem even more impossible in the flesh. further details on his (rather lovely, if we do say so ourselves) site.

:: our old friend and collegiate collaborator "magic" dan "the danimal" kaplan (and if anyone ever warranted two nicknames, this is the chap) rolled into town this week with his new band magnolia to fill the back room at tommy's with his sweet, sleepy, bostonian brand of (highly effective) make-out music. i recommend track 3, especially if you're into whoever occupies the next cubicle over.

:: we launched the bear bones website this week. the "sounds" page hosts one of the best playlists we've ever stumbled across. also, we are rolling in scene points.

superbowl evasion is the biggest sporting event of our year. be strong, people; don't falter, don't fumble.

.snowy days and sundays.

our d-girl at work.

you're looking at a hard-won morning off. it's still in development, but we think we've stumbled upon the next pet rock.

:: we're doing some design work for n.j. punk haven bear bones recording, a job that makes us feel considerably more attractive and better-liked than we in fact are.

the studio was humbly conceived as a way for its founder, darren golda, to help his friends' bands make records, but quickly (and for good reason) became a staple of the jersey punk scene. some of our very favorite bands have dropped albums from bear bones, and rumor has it mike hunchback's new weird fantasy band and it's a tiger shark have been rattling around there of late.

:: we're going to stumptown.

we just got our confirmation e-mail. precedent aside, we're psyched. there will be new comics to read and old friends to impose upon and jeff fucking smith and we're not going to let any sour self-important hipsters spoil our mood this year, so haters to the left.

the festival happens on april 18th and 19th in lovely, nag champa-scented portland, oregon. if you're in the area, you should come say hi. if not, you should go visit, and come say hi.

:: we've been writing a lot of code.

in addition to bear bones and the fine folks over at the green it group (who go live on inauguration day), we got a last-minute call from our friend graham willoughby, who's down in utah for the second year running. [the design is someone else's; we just wound it up and made it go.] graham is a documentary cinematographer whose recent success is decidedly well-deserved, and we're excited to help introduce him to the interworld.

more to come. until then, enjoy the weather systems.

.sunday morning at the boy blue offices.

you're looking at an early prototype for our new dinosaur apple pancakes. they're still in development, but we feel confident that, once they're ready for the marketplace, sunday brunch will never be the same.

in other news, we've got some new sites up and running:

:: ephraim rubenstein's breathtaking paintings and drawings celebrate the art of observation to a degree one would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. each one examines the most intimate and exquisite details of objects and environments too often taken for granted. seriously, you've never seen a sexier stack of hardcovers.

eph's got an exhibition of his recent used and discarded books series going up in february at george billis in chelsea that we highly recommend. but don't take our word for it.

:: smash camera! is a friendly little rental house in brooklyn run by two stellar cinematographers, graham willoughby and joseph victorine, both of whom i've had the pleasure to work with. (graham shot the much-lauded h.b.o. documentary the blacklist; joe specializes in music videos, and kindly lent his skills to our recent first foray into that realm.) they've got reasonable rates, experienced support, and an amazing new red camera that you will not believe is digital video.

there's lots in the works over here, and more goodness is on its way.

:: in accordance with one of our many resolutions, we've been doing some new-year's tidying here at headquarters, and you'll never believe what we found: our stack of swag from mocca 2007. (remember then? if not, you aren't missing much; we felt certain we were going to be stuck with our current president forever, and we were all really envious of property owners.)

shortly thereafter, we had quickly and unexpectedly to move ourselves into storage for a while, and we never got around to doing a write-up, or even reading most of the beautiful comics we picked up. expect a better-late-than-never atonement for this transgression to trickle onto these pages in the near future.

in the meantime, enjoy your tea and your christmas comics with the confidence that you have begun a new and better year, when complete sentences will issue from the oval office, gabrielle bell will publish a new book, and dinosaurs will roam the breakfast table.

.saturday night's alright for folk rock.

photo: amelia

when i had the idea to folk up a hunchback song and include it in saturday's set, i never dreamed i could get a room full of people to join in on the final chorus. that's how awesome the parlor is.

:: the missed connections gave intimate performances of lots of great stuff from gesture sketch, and played an amazing new song that will hopefully make it onto this february's album.

:: mike hunchback was joined on one of many new classics-to-be by fish and jacki from his new weird fantasy band, which is currently mixing its first album with darren golda at bear bones recording (for which boy blue is currently building a site [link soon], and with which i may soon be making a recording or two). i got to hear the rough mixes after the show and they are shockingly good; i can't freaking wait for this record.

:: i test-drove a new tune, too. it needs work.

:: the rest of the evening was uniformly enjoyable; check out adam finchler's super-fun, super-catchy t.m.b.g.-meets-jonathan-richman goodness, aaron tramell's tom waitsy musings on post-collegiate life, and glad hearts, the rockin' full-band incarnation of ryan bing, who not only played a sensitive, acoustic iron maiden cover, but also bought copies of tick and "prologue."

photo: erin fancy

: update (31 december 2008) :
i got a last-minute call to open for mike doughty last night at maxwell's, where i had the good fortune to be mixed by the stellar and attentive hunchback craig of freedom school records. it is a rare and delightful experience to have a good sound man.

.joyful noise.

so apparently i'll be opening up a rare acoustic night at proto-legendary jersey punk venue the parlor in new brunswick, the day after boxing day. (i'm not sure why, but i'm rolling with it.) subsequent performers include my old friends mike hunchback and amelia of the missed connections, both of whom are strange and amazing. hit me up for the address if you'd like to come.

the parlor first annual acoustic christmas spectacular
the parlor, new brunswick
saturday, december 27th, 2008; 7 p.m.
the missed connections, mike hunchback, adam finchler, ryan bing, me
way free

bring a present.

.side dishes.

we've just completed a video of terry champlin's the earth below, a song for soprano and guitar quartet. (it's available as a quicktime on our video page and streaming over at youtube.) the warm light and narrow depth of field are the work of cinematographer joseph victorine, whose site we've just thoroughly revamped and expanded with some gorgeous new still photography. the glowing skin and smoldering gazes come to us from makeup magician mandy bisesti, whose site, overflowing with pretty ladies and indie-rockers (including a kick-ass mountain goats video), we've just launched.

goodness galore.

.i hocked my art in san francisco.

[i have no idea who made this but it is, in my humble opinion, literally the best thing ever.]

good, good. now that we've gotten all that out of the way, let's talk about a.p.e.:



:: i had the good fortune to share my table with the gregarious and talented randall christopher, teller of the truly delightful all-ages tales of kleeman and mike, a pair of likable misadventuring san diego surfers who spend their days with a talking cat named october and a skateboarding, philosophizing brick. their antics are at turns funny, zany, sad, and sweet, though one is never quite sure, at the outset of a strip or animated short, which adjective to expect. (the effect is not unlike that of eating sour patch kids in a darkened theater.) their latest adventure, the fellowship of the parakeet part 2, is the most fast-paced and jubilant to date; it finds them trying to save the world's last surviving caroliner parakeet from a horde of pirate chickens with the help of rod serling, some maritime monkeys, a 14x11 pull-out poster, and two guest colorists (2 pages from a seasoned professional at d.c., and three more from a self-reflective 3-year-old named noah). pure, unapologetic fun.

:: i was excited to run into tessa brunton on her home turf, particularly because she's produced a new collection since i first discovered her endearing autobiographical comics at stumptown. in the tall grass number three is as charming and sweet as ever, but branches out from its predecessors with some longer strips and formal playfulness. my favorite bit, a miniscule eight-panel comic at the bottom corner of a bustling centerfold array, tells the silent story of a windowsill over time.

:: Nicole Georges and Clutch McBastard have joined forces for their sixth (i think) split zine, Invincible Summer #15 / Clutch #20. these diary comics read like actual diaries (as opposed to the circular, self-aggrandizing sludge into which 'bloggy strips so often degrade); they are up-close and personal, uncomfortable and sad, and the juxtaposition of styles-- visual, narrative, temperamental-- benefits both artists; we get the impression that these are two of the infinite number of ways to pass any given day, none of which seem to leave us any more confident or less confused than we were at its outset.

also, the new papercutter rules.

:: if i ever make any money at one of these things, i will most assuredly spend it over at the two fine chaps table, on one of their gorgeous, inventive, lavishly illustrated and cleverly constructed handmade tomes. probably one of the pop-ups.

:: sev leibundgut was back stateside with a new mini, bad cold step one, which combines the comic timing of a marx brothers routine with the impish humor of an old warner bros. cartoon to describe the trials and tribulations of nasal congestion. this woman is so talented.

:: glossy and crisp and lavishly produced, with a mckean-like presentation of a compelling tale, the boy who made silence issue 1 is beautiful to be sure, and yet does not quite manage to do justice to joshua hagler's breathtaking original paintings. you should seriously go check them out if you ever have the chance.

:: i laughed heartily and often while reading the first print collection of the atrox webcomics. and if you really loved me, you'd buy me one of the insanely awesome little monsters these folks make. actually, you'd buy me all of them. seriously, why do you hate me?

:: if there is a point (and i am in no way suggesting that there needs be) to luster kaboom's toothy and hippo, i confess that it eludes me, but man, these illustrations are brilliant; odd and distressing and satirical and smart, a la crumb, and very skillfully renedered.

:: for a collection of bawdy jam-comics, the first trubble club collection is surprisingly readable and fun, and even, at moments, kind of lovely.

:: i know there are a bunch of hipsters doing this sort of thing these days, but david bessent and camilla taylor's super fun activity challenge is an offbeat and unusually entertaining example of the flourishing children's activity book for adult children genre.

:: i debuted the print version of "prologue" at the expo. folks seemed to like it okay. the web translation can be found over in the oubliette.

don't forget to let me know if you were getting the vote out last week.

.interlude.

odds and ends:

1. a.p.e. ruled. check back for a roundup (with, as always, recommended reading) later in the week.

2. i'm on my way to denver for election day g.o.t.v.'ing. if you volunteer for obama on election day, i will send you a free comic. actually.

3. you should head on over to sweeeeet's site and download their special edition election 'zine. it includes a madlibs-style cover letter from the losing candidate, a map to color as the returns come in, and a connect-the-dots presidential seal (courtesy of me). and maybe make some copies to pass out to the people you drive to the polls on tuesday. you're swell.

talk to you on the fifth.

.some days end up here:.

the oubliette is now open. to be updated monthly, in theory, but you don't want to set your clock by it, okay?