Countdown to California

I can't tell you how excited I am for the road trip up the Big Sur coast... 

From San Diego to San Francisco....

CALIFORNIA GIRLS by The Beach Boys

If anyone has any recommendations for California, let me know! 

Restaurants where you had AWESOME FOOD? Or places that you'd HAVE TO revisit?

Send them to me at info@andymcparrot.com

I had too much to dream...

You know what's really weird? Last night I dreamt of Andy Samberg again. 

Just like in my last dream, we were running all over the place making hilarious movies and laughing our heads off. We were at a school and an airport and at one point it was raining...

While I was sleeping I was laughing. Kind of like snoring, but weirder...?

I love funny dreams. They make me want to stay dreaming more. That's why it's 10:50 am, and my alarm clock went off 2 hours ago....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GROUND!!

Countdown to California

The art of  

David A. Leffel 

Amber Vase With Onions & Silver Dollars

Yellow Finches & Peaches

Countdown to California

The art of 

Jeremy Lipking

Figure

Nymphe du Bocage

Reclining Nude Figure

Countdown to California

One of the workshops I will be in will be with  

Morgan Weistling.

The Artist

Bowl of Oats

The First Dance

Thoughts from the Nebula

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
- John F. Kennedy 

{photo of The Triangulum Emission Garren Nebula}

What IS awesomesauce?

ATTENTION:

we have taken awesome, made sauce out of it, and now we have AWESOMESAUCE!!!

Yes, awesomesauce exists. But what is it exactly? 

Check out this stuff and you'll get the gist:

When you wish for a castle, is it made of cardboard? 

This cardboard castle was made by Ann Wood as a window display for Johnson's in New York City.

Do you get there with the help of your trusty bicycle horse? 

This was made by Eungi Kim from Korea. He calls it "Horsey".

And here is a vid called "Game Over" made by PES, who really and truly IS the king of the stop-motion animation realm.

It is, of course, awesomesauce:

If you have things that are "awesomesauce", send them to me at andymcparrot@gmail.com

ON ROCKS!!

Here are some rock pictures that never made their way into the album! 

How could they sneak away, those sneaky rock pics?

Well, no matter, here they are!

Me and a hot tamale named Emilia playing on rocks during Pride festivities:

Me and Larisa, one of the most magical people I know, on our way to eat. it was after a morning of outdoor landscape painting!

And here are some ROCK PICTURES that are of other people. 

These photos were taken just for me. Isn't that a bunch of awesomesauce?

Here is one of my "sister from another mother", Anet:

And one of the coolest geekiest people I know, Professor Reubenskistein:

And ONE MORE that just came in! Tony just sent this one to my inbox. He has stolen this metal rooster from his friend's Portuguese home and is taking it on a world tour. Here is the rooster hanging out on a rock!!

Thank you for sending me rock pictures! 

 Rock pictures ROCK!

If you want to send me your rock picture e-mail it to info@andymcparrot.com

Calligraffiti

  

NEILS "SHOE" MEULMAN

"Niels Meulman is an internationally known artist, designer, and art director. Meulman began tagging in 1979 and became a graffiti legend by the time he was 18. Known as ‘Shoe’ within the graffiti community, his work evolved into a business for lettering..."

"Meulman revolutionized the art of writing with Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. He launched this movement in 2007 with a successful solo exhibition in Amsterdam..."

Break It Down

This is a really outside-the-box music video! 

It was created as a school project by Tomas Nilsson from Sweden. 

I've been to Sweden. It's really nice there!

His task was to re-interpret the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, so he animated it. 

What an awesome job. I bet his class loved it.

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by Destiny

Here's more diagram type art.

"Wooly Mammoth" and "Sabre Tooth Tiger" by Lumadessa. They are part of the "Extinct Collection"

Under the Weather

I'm feeling a little "blah" today. 

I'm not exactly sick, but I'm not my usual energetic self.

I feel like a dust bunny. I just want to sit in that corner being all grey and boring and gross.

When I feel like this I want comfort food. I was SO tempted to run out and get some kimchee chigae! 

(For those who do not know, kimchee chigae is a SUPER SPICY Korean stew. It looks SO yummy and makes me feel so happy! )

But after drawing all day, I was tired, and the restaurant was too far, and I wanted to sit in a giant blanket and be a dust bunny. And be whiney. And watch movies. And drink tea. Waah.

So I made Kimchee ramen noodles. I only use half the noodles and use a lot of bean sprouts instead. They are crunchy like the noodles! I also add bok choi, spinach, green onion, and egg whites. 

I know my little cousin will like the next clip. It's a ramen noodle commercial from Korea. 

I LOVE THE CRAZY MUSHROOM DUDE!

And the song is catchy too.

Korean Ramen Song

My Nerdy Childhood

Tonight, over salmon sashimi, we started talking about theme songs from old TV shows. 

Here are some of my favorites. Some nerdy, some not so nerdy.

I picked some clips from more obscure shows because I could post clips from shows like Transformers, but everyone remembers those, and 
I'd like to trigger some long dormant memory in you. 

Unearthing tiny glimpses of things forgotten is delightful :)

This first one is super old and you may only recognize the music.

It was an educational program broadcast on TV Ontario that I used to watch
(I started being nerdy at an early age).
It taught the concepts of physics, and I loved the ones about molecules.

Everyone should watch these. They're great! Click here to watch them all!

Eureka!

"Some of the Molecules Important to Human Life" - by Raphael Abrams at 

http://doodlebird.wordpress.com/

The following show is responsible for the connection my mind makes whenever I put a hat on my head. Somehow it makes perfect sense to think that it will transport me to somewhere new, but of course this impulse only lasts for a second. I wish I had magic hats.

Harriet's Magic Hats

I'm not sure if they had Reading Rainbow in the States, but this was probably my favorite show. 

And Geordi LaForge is the host! WOO HOO! 

Reading Rainbow

"Reading is for Awesome People" - shirt by Nerdyshirts.com

and of course the very famous "Reading is Sexy" shirt from buyolympia.com

A TRUE STORY

For years I had a melody in my head and I could not figure out where it was from. 

Occasionally I'd sing it to someone and try to see if they knew it too. 

But nobody knew it, and it remained a mystery. 

Then one night I was surfing around old TV shows on Youtube, 

and I found a cute show called Jeremy the Bear. 

I listened to the theme song with no recollection until I got to the end.  
And then I almost fell off my seat.

The melody lasts from 0:41 to 0:55.

It's absolutely amazing how the mind stores memories and information. 

I don't actually remember very much from the show at all. Just that little melody.

Jeremy The Bear

(maybe THAT would make a good Halloween costume!)

And I'll leave you with this one: Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings.

Well you know my name is Andy,

and the things I draw come true!

The studio is ready...

I can't find the source of this image. If you know where it's from, please send me an e-mail!

Goodbye Summer!

The leaves on the trees are starting to change, and the air is getting cooler.

I can't wait for autumn colours, and hot cups of tea outside.

And long hikes in the forest.

So Goodbye Summer! 

Hello back to school!

Today

Quirky motivational poster by Etsy seller, Dazeychic

HOOT HOOT

What an awesome weekend!

I was missing in action, no cell, no internet, and it was totally worth it! 

That's all you need sometimes. A weekend to chill and relax with positive people who you love.

Now it's back to every day life, and since I'm sleepy and busy playing catch-up, here's a post with cute pics and vids. Just perfect for the first day back to work after a long weekend.

Here's a short film by a teacher named Tony Dusko.
He started creating short movie clips for his students. His films are super educational and SO CUTE!

Some Facts About Owls 

A little owl from Natalie Dee

"A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

You can get the recipe and directions for these cupcakes HERE

This Malay Eagle Owl is weird. It reminds me of a Jim Henson muppet. Really! 

He LOVES a good head massage and gets totally blissed out!

Weird Owl Muppet

Enough of that weird owl. 

Here's another owl being helpful and not weird. These little owlets were abandoned by their mom and they’ve taken on this stuffed owl as a surrogate. 

Aww!!

This next owl is like an accordion. 

If he had words, he'd be all like "WHhhh-aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?"

Super Scaredy Owl

 These owl sculptures are located in Taiwan near “Sun Moon Lake”.
in a garden named “Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village”

That's it! 

Happy Tuesday! 

Trololo

Hahaha! Thank you Chantelle for sending this to me! 

Trololo Cat

The cat even looks like Edward Hill singing the original song! Hahaha!

Edward Hill - Trololo

Clumps

My post today is about a video game called Katamari Damacy. 

I have never played this video game, but I REALLY WANT TO!

From what I know about it, you're a little prince from outerspace, and you have this little ball that is sticky, and you roll it around and it picks up objects and keeps growing, like a snowball. 

You start by picking up little things like erasers and paperclips, and eventually you're picking up whole islands and cloud formations. 

You're trying to create a star and reconstruct the cosmos.

Then you have a giant clump! And I don't know what happens next. 

And I don't know what's going on in the video below, but I think I may have eaten something weird.

Singing ducks. Cranes flying through the air carrying turtles... 

Here's a good video that starts off kind of small. He's picking up bunches of bananas at first.

It has inspired TONS of people everywhere. Check out some of the amazing things they've done!

These are participants in The ING Bay to Breakers 12K race in San Fransisco. They've made a giant Katamari ball to run with.

Here is a Katamari Damacy cake from Sugar ‘n Spires

This is a short stop-motion animation of the prince and his Katamari:

Here is another incredible cake from Mike’s Amazing Cakes of Redmond, Washington.

There's also a bento box!

And a Katamari Damacy sculpture by Jennie Maneri.

Can you see why I want to play this game? 

It looks like crazy mad fun.

And lastly, here's a sculpture by Wendy Walgate that reminds me of a Katamari ball. It is called "Ahimsa Trophy Yellow". She is a Toronto-based ceramic artist. Check out the rest of her work!

Hard Work = Happy

An affirming print from The Small Object