Proof of Keenness

And as a follow-up to the below post, here's one of my favorite songs from the hardworking Mr. Bird at the moment.

Making Noggin cooler, one cameo at a time.

Hurrah for someone at Noggin liking good music! :)

I have a crush on Andrew Bird. He whistles like...uh, an angel. If angels whistled.

Der Hollow Book

Well, I've painted the outside of the hollow book/box, and it looks a bit more "booky" than it did. I do need to find a thin belt of some kind to hold it closed, since the little magnet inside doesn't do the job all that well, particularly if I'll be carrying art supplies around in it and such. I'm picturing a book strap like the kids used to carry books home from school back in the "olden days." I'll probably have to make one if I can't find one to repurpose. Ah well. It's a little sloppy, but I think if I have another go at it, I'll know more what I'm doing, and will be able to make a better one. At $1.99 a pop for the plain box, it's not so bad. I'm also considering trying covering it with leather on the outside--if I can find a leather thin enough, and an epoxy strong enough. That's for another day, though.

Charlie bit my finger - again !

Just thought I'd add to the plethora of adorable kid videos that seem to be going around...

That Charlie. He thinks the whole thing is just hilarious!

Clicking the Classics

I recently discovered Digital Classics, which is a library of "over a hundred literary masterpieces, digitized, and bound in the finest electronic leather." They have a "reader" that pops up, and you're able to view the pages as you would with a normal book, and click on the corners to turn backward and forward.

Though I do prefer a paper copy of a book in my hands, this was a pleasant way to ingest a little classic that was perfect for this time of year--Frances Hodgeson Burnett's The Secret Garden. What a perfect thing to read this time of year, when everything is becoming green and growing. Despite some of the melodrama (people making exultant exclamations!! All the time!!) of the time, the book was sweet and as charming as I'd remembered it, and I do recommend it.

If I were reading it to a child, I might consider skipping some of the bits about India, as the view of "primitive natives" at the time it was written doesn't fit in with the world these days. That, or take a couple minutes to discuss with the child about the time it was written.

These little things don't stop the book from being wonderful and magical, and one I loved dearly as a child. Speaking of books, I'm making over a cheapie little book-shaped wooden box from a craft store, and hopefully it will turn out to look at least somewhat like an actual book.

I've used an exacto to cut fine lines on the edges of the box, and have used a dry brush to paint on some gold for the edges of the "pages." Hopefully they'll eventually look like actual, weathered pages by the time I'm done with the outside.

I'm also "imprinting" the top of the book with a design I've blatantly stolen from a gorgeous 1910 copy of Oliver Wendell Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. It's a beautiful book--even the inside cover pages are gorgeous. In any case, I'm trying to engrave that same sort of design into this book, though I'm not sure what the title will be, yet.

Internets unite! (alternate title: DON'T BUY THIS BOOK)

There are a lot of talented illustrators with an online presence, and I've enjoyed poking at their stuff for years. A lot of these folks don't see much money from their work; they do it because they love it. However... recently, a book came out that has blatantly stolen art from dozens of illustrators (one in particular got practically EVERYTHING lifted from his site) who posted their work online. It has a fake ISBN, and bad contact information for the publisher and authors. The rightful artist is trying to contact these folks, but what we, as random folk who enjoy illustration, can do to help is make sure we spread the word not to buy this book.

The post below is by Luc Latulippe. The link goes to his site.

_____________________________________________

So, here’s a super crappy way to start your day.

Yesterday, my pal Darren Di Lieto, from The Little Chimp Society website, emailed with some upsetting news. Turns out someone scraped the contents of his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s blog.

This book — which reprints without permission several dozen artist interviews which Darren had posted on the LCS blog — transcribes these interviews word-for-word, including the artwork, and was “published” under the title “Colorful Illustrations 93°C”. The book even includes a CD with all the illustrations from the book, all lifted off the site as well. Here’s a link to a gallery of scans that Darren made of each page of the book, with a close-up below of one of the two spreads which feature the interview Darren did of me:

The publisher — one very fake sounding “Great Creativity organization” [sic] — is allegedly in Hong Kong, so pursuing legal action seems pretty pointless, seeing as China has such a sparkling reputation for respecting copyright law. The ISBN they provide — ISBN 978-988-98142-0-5 — is also a fake. You can easily search ISBN databases online, and this number comes up empty.

“OMG! You should totally sue them!”

Yes, this is everyone’s first reaction, right after red-faced anger. Well, let me just grab my wallet and… oh, right, I draw pictures for a living! This means I’m lucky if I have enough money to pay some bills for the next few months, but not quite enough to launch a class-action lawsuit across international borders against a bogus copyright infringing publisher in China.

And here’s a troubling thought: How many more such projects is this “Great Creativity organization” publisher working on right now? Maybe another illustration book, this time filled with YOUR WORK? Maybe filled with content scraped from similar sites, such as Illustration Mundo, or Drawn!, or even Boing Boing? Or how about a lovely coffee table book full of high rez photos scraped off of Flickr?

So what are we going to do?

Several things. First, Darren has tried calling the current re-sellers, both in Spain and Japan, who so far both refuse to pull the book. This makes sense, as there’s not enough evidence for them to make up their minds right now (although I fail to see how or why a bookstore would so carelessly stock a book with a fake ISBN number, and not be interested to find out if they’re selling a plagiarized book).

He then tried locating the publisher, but of course they printed a bunch of fake contact info in the book so that’s useless. The distributor seems to be a company called Azur Corporation. They too have been impossible to reach. As we understand it, re-sellers and distributors who don’t pull plagiarized books from the circulation can be held accountable as co-plagiarists.

The main thing we want to do right now, is flood the web with the truth about this plagiarized book and its publisher, both to avoid any more poor suckers from shelling out $100 to these thieves, and to warn other bookstores against getting involved with these scam artists. You say: “So what if the internet is full of negative press regarding this company and their plagiarized book?” Well, YOU try recovering from the backlash of negative press after search engines yield nothing but red flags and warnings against your company or product.

Yes, the damage is done. The book has been printed, distributed, and is being sold. This doesn’t mean we’re powerless and unable to stop any future distribution of the book, and hopefully of any future projects they have planned.

We need your help

First, please re-distribute this blog post. Repost the whole thing, or part of it, in your blog, with links and tags included.

Next, use whatever social networks and news sharing sites you use every day — Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Magnolia, Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook — to spread the word about this overpriced book full of plagiarized and stolen content. Feel free to quote us, and remember to also include the same keywords and tags in your posts. (Darren’s and my site makes this very easy already, with the little green “Share This” button at the bottom of every post in my blog.)

The result is that we may be able at least to shame these bogus publishers into removing this book from circulation and scare them back into their caves. A public apology, as well as forking over all the monies from sales, would be nice too but I’m not gonna hold my breath.

What else?

The longer term plan will involve approaching the current and possible future re-sellers and distributors with legal documents and press releases proving that this book is 100% full of plagiarized and stolen content, and calling for them to stop carrying the book.

We have a few more ideas too. We’re nothing if not creative individuals. Speaking of which, if you have any ideas and thoughts on this, we’d love to hear them!

Boing Boing: One of the biggest internets.

Here is an answer to all your internets related questions. Worry no more!

Magic Pen

Here's a very clever little flash game... In it, you use a crayon to draw shapes that can affect the environment--bumping into each other, rolling etc... The idea is to move a little ball to the flag. Sounds easy enough, right? What I like, though is that there are literally hundreds of ways to accomplish it. It can be as simple as dropping a circle out of the sky to bump the ball along, or as complicated as drawing a little car with two wheels and an axle, and then a crane, with a heavy piece that swings down to hit the car to bump the ball. It's ridiculously fun, and doesn't punish you for just trying things out. You can always restart the level, until you can get used to the physics of the game.

The key is thinking creatively and trying everything.

The other thing I like is that the soundtrack to the game is a pleasant little indie guitar ditty, rather than the frenetic and annoying soundtracks that tend to sometimes happen with flash games.

Enjoy!

There is also a video walkthrough if you get stumped.

Spring Has Sprung!

Apparently someone had a lot of time and bulbs on their hands one year, because the entire village of Mariemont is covered in literally thousands of daffodils. All over the hillsides, in the woods, along the roads. They're everywhere. We just walked over to the closest hill and snapped a photo--this is sparse compared to what's around downtown.

It must be spring.

*contented sigh*

Charles Heston: 1924-2008

Goodnight, Gunny Man...

But now who will save us from Soylent Green in our near-distopian future?

RIP