Obviously

Tara and Denton, sorry kids, the backgrounds are out. They take a really long time to do (believe it or not), and they're a little sketchy as far as copyright goes. Maybe someday I'll get inspired and draw some real backgrounds. But, to make up for it, here's the 2nd in 2 days. And just for those who care, the comic takes place in the future. . . You can do some math with this one and figure out how far. . . I mean, if it wasn't fiction. Which it is. Obviously.

The future ain't what it used to be. . .

Do they need backgrounds? I don't know. Any thoughts?

A timely commentary. . .

I've been working on a comic strip for a few months, on and off (mostly off), and I finally took a bit of time and inked together some horrible drawings (the pencil is not my friend). There's a lot about it that I want to change -- the backgrounds will probably end up hand-drawn, and the same with the text, but I wanted to print some to have a look. The comics are a work of fiction, and any relation to actual persons, alive, dead, or married to me, are strictly coincidental. . .

Wilco and other commercial failures. . .

So I was hanging out with Peja the other night, cooking dinner, or doing the dishes (or, more likely, checking my Email), and I had tunes on the radio, and this lyric, that I always liked, just struck me right between the ol' eyes and maybe it was the 3 tablespoons of raw sugar I had just eaten, but I thought, "man, that's a great fucking lyric". It's from a Wilco record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and the lyric is --

All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new

The record is featured in a documentary called I am trying to break your heart, and it shows the band recording an amazing record, and then getting kicked off their record label for it.

What is it about records that get people kicked off labels? Sloan's Twice Removed, Thrush Hermit's Sweet Homewrecker (the band's gone, but check out Joel Plaskett), and that Wilco record. 3 of my favorite records, all got people out of record contracts.

Just goes to show.

Huh?

Pianoforte!

There's a 100 year old piano sitting in my dining room. It's missing some hammers. It's beautiful. I've been searching classified ads for years looking for a good deal on a suffering piano, and just when I stopped looking, one was offered to me. Thanks to the Rice family (John, Janie, Milan, Mason) for trusting us to give it a good home -- and for delivering it! I'm 7 keys above middle c in tuning it -- poor Peja has been very tolerant of the same bad notes over and over and over.