Summing Up.

Over the past 6 years I've been writing poems and making animations. Recently I've been compiling these efforts into a couple anthology projects.

Baby is Mama's Favorite Toy is a selection of short animations made by myself and my good friend and most frequent collaborator Matt Bryan.

The DVD contains over 2 hours of hand drawn and computer animation.





You can preview more animations and obtain this DVD at:





2847 Cherokee Street Saint Louis, MO
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Receipts is an anthology of poems written for the Internet. The thirty-two selected poems cherry picked from Myspace blogs and Facebook notes range from serious to comic, with many sitting comfortably on the fence.

Aug 28, 2006 10:35 AM

snake-oil placebos

the machinema hamlet

gave rise to the backlash

some 50 million luddites

with pitch fork and torch

they poked holes in the tires

of the toyota camry

and set fire to the wires

of the N64

but it was this day in history

in the year 2050

when a scientist finally discovered the soul

and he scribbled his notes

on the front of every newspaper

publication and tv station

in every home

and as it turned out

the souls only found

in a species of worms

found in beirut

and they extracted them out

and put them on ice

but when the worms died

the souls had died too

and 50 million viewers

reached for their electric blankets

as they listened to the statement

of the scientist that day

and 50 million cell phones

rang together in a prayer

but they weren’t sure if

the signal could be heard

that far away

Looks for these in the local section at:

6275 Delmar In the Loop St. Louis MO

Point Omega - Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo seems at his best dealing in bits of minutia, character revealed in the slightest gestures, every detail mined for its significance. It's little wonder then that his newest book Point Omega, sets itself the task of digesting a heady peice of contempory art, where mining for meaning is the name of the game.

The brief novel, singles out a recent video work, a real-life installation by a German video artist entitled 24-Hour Psycho, a slo-mo rendering of the Hitchcock classic with a 24-hour run time. The artwork becomes the jump off point for the story, weaves throughout it, illuminates the story's central themes, to the point that the novel seems as much a work of art appreciation as it does a narrative.

DeLillo's attentiveness to seemingly insignificant detail within his observations reliably cut straight to the heart of the matter. His characters are real and sympathietic, but I feel that however ideosyncratic, they are at bottom a means to a conceptual end. I don't mean this to say that somehow he is a lesser writer for it, rounding the edges off his characters to fit nicely in a conceptual framework. On the contrary, i think he's one of the few writers who can take a top-down idea and see it from the bottom up. In this way he shares a vein with his conceptual artist counterparts.

Having never viewed 24-Hour Psycho, I feel I can appreciate it anyhow. Much like his similar book The Body Artist, all the conceptualizing does take place within the confines of a traditional novel. There are descriptions of art and interpretations of art. But through the words and because of the words, there seems to be very little lost in translation, its almost as if you were experiencing the art first hand with all those fleeting associations, quiet reverences, and little epiphanies caught in their tracks and brought to bear on the page.

Oh i almost forgot...there is a story too! A filmmaker follows an old man(a powerful ex idea-man for the war in Iraq) to his vacation home in Arizona in hopes of making an experimental film about him. Heady Ideas about time and space are rendered realistically and convincingly, and a hunger for film and media criticism is handsomely rewarded. Point Omega is the work of an aging yet powerful writer who still has much to tell us.

Too Many Lions

In case you're wondering, this is an actual book. As you may have gathered its the story of an alligator who hungers for the flesh of a nubile human. The alligator persists in his hunger and nearly claims his prey. The book ends with the hopeful thought that if he can get big enough, someday this dream will be a reality.

In the spirit of this book. I present the books publishers, and you with the following story i've written and illustrated entitled "There's too many lions at the mother fucking zoo!"

Life is a Driveway

www.toothpastefordinner.com



Over a period of years I've let go of my childhood dream of writing the next great American novel. I have since given myself over to the more realistic adult dream of writing books for children. Let's take a peek at some of my work shall we...


XML Data Management 4 Kids is one of a collection of office system networking and analysis books I've created for the younger set. Others include: Dot Net Frameworking and Configuration Issues 4 Kids, Practical Component Model User/Client Systems 4 kids, Java Security Basics 4 Server Management Personnel 4 Kids, also Digital Cameras For Dummies 4 Kids, and the Complete Idiots Guide to Micro-Information Distribution Nano-circuit Encryptions.



Dinosaurs in Space: The True Story of How Dinosaurs Brought the Word of God to the Rest of the Universe is a child's guide to some of the first known interactions between God and the dinosaurs. This book has received much acclaim from the scientific and critical community. The New York Times called it "Unbelievable"... and Dr. William H. Phelps of the Center for Dinosaur research in New Mexico said "...well...true...I cannot prove it didn't happen...good...science". Over several books the Dinosaurs in Space travel all over the universe always surprised nobody else has heard of the Bible.



Let's Have a Look at: Uranus is from my series of children's science books featuring the frisky Professor Knows-it-all. While most "scientists" give Uranus a topical treatment at best, Professor Knows-it-all probes deep into the little known parts of Uranus with plenty of large color photos throughout. Part of the Let's Have a Look At series, The Doctor tackles other subjects including Household tools, and Teen Pregancy.



Firemen: Why They Eat Children is a book about staying safe in a world full of strangers. Other titles from this series include Indians: Why God Won't Let Them Fight Back, Police Men: Guns Can Be Funs, Exploring Vans, and Mommy, I Can Make a Stew Too.

Remember books are for kids but adults can read too!, So give the kid you envy in you one of these books today, he might be less disappointed in the adult you've become!

Stuff thats Great in 2008

Without provocation or pretext you will now be subjected to some of my favorite things of the year 2008.

First.....Music
Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

Fog lifts from the harbor...dawn goes down today...an agent crests the shadows of a nearby alleyway starts out this beautiful mix of songs that sounds like reading your favorite book of short stories...much like great shorts..these song earn/require repeated listenings...The goats started out recording modern classics on tape recorders..Yet its taken them little time to master the use of layered instruments, atmospherics, builds and breaks, earning them their jump from paperback to hard cover

Atmosphere - When Life Gives you Lemons, You Paint that shit gold.



The Gold box caught my eye. The title made me listen. The songs blew me away. I had no idea that anyone was making rap music like this. I'd heard the name thrown around...good thing though i never actually listened till this album. As i took a listen back through older albums, nothing really even comes close to these songs. Its 13 or so tracks of almost entirely fictional narratives that come through MC Slug's highly emotional/emotionally troubled lyrics like as many after school specials directed by Aronofsky...Lyrics and stories aside the album still kills you with its brilliant use of low key beats and samples.

Yes, the new murder by death was good...and the new tv on the radio is great, mogwai and ratatat too, but were all slight let downs....lump of montreal, don cabalerro, sigur ros, hot chip, the mars volta, ben folds, in that same catagory of albums that didn't quite live up to my insanely high expectations.

Next up Movies...

Synecdoche New York



Charlie Kaufman becomes a film-maker and his prediliction for self reference gets the treatment it deserves. If were all going around picturing our lives as movies what are we losing or gaining in the careful writing and rewriting of our own characters. Synechdoche breaks nearly every wall imaginable to expose itself to itself and to the audience. I love to see a movie or any work of art for that matter reach out so ambitiously further that its grasp. Whether or not it comes back with a fresh kill it's important that someones going to new places. Synechdoche wants not only to be a film but a new religion and nearly suceeds on every level save a few forgivable moments when it whines slightly louder than it hurts.


Mister Lonely



It's Harmone Korine's goal to bring thing to film that you haven't seem before. In Mister Lonely he gives us 1. Abe Lincoln reciting an in your face version of the Gettyburg Address while spinning a basketball and under a strobe light. 2. A seemingly invincible nun sky diving while riding a BMX. 3. Charlie Chaplin beating Marilyn Monroe. And somehow he is magicly able to spin all these sweet little pop culture gems into a movie with a plot; an interesting, engaging, and rewarding one at that with the best ending since No Country for Old Men.

Books then...
Frederick Peeter's Blue Pills


The author meets the love of his life...and then finds out she has HIV.
Instead of doing what any sane person would do which is run fast and the other way,
He does what he knows is right and what he wants to do which is stick around and get to know her. What follows is the real life story of living with, overcoming, and making great graphic fiction out of the worlds scariest disease.

I Shot a Man in Reno - Graeme Thomson


If Chuck Klosterman were more of an intellectual and less of a comedian he would have made something like this book. Which is a completely legitimate look at the history of Death songs
From Shakespeare on up through Eminem. Thomson can respect the sentimental and also keep it at a proper distance. He keeps a scientific tone yet allows for pop music to be what it is, which is something to be felt, and appreciated on a level above numbers and lists which is just what you must do if your going to delve in the stuff of the times.

Now you know what I like.

Get to shoppin' bitches!