#now that I’ve got finals and marching band season out the way hopefully more art shall arrive

[squiggly-mctwig]

Guys what the hell trolls has a death grip on me 😭 (esp the brothers ILOVETHEM)

[gayenerd]

Green Day Deals with the "Rock Star" Dookie 

by Tom Lanham 

(First appeared in BAM Magazine, March 10, 1995)

 Young, loud, and snotty equals beaucoup bucks? What pencil-pushing, graph-charting trend spotter could've predicted it? But the facts speak for themselves: As of late February, Dookie--the brattish, snap 'n' snarl Reprise salvo from Berkeley's sloppy punk trio, Green Day--has sold six million copies. Six million. Chances are, somebody on your block is jumping up and down in his living room at this very moment to the scrap-metal power chords and ardent apathy of "Longview," "Burnout," "Basket Case," or "When I Come Around" and getting lost in the teen abandon of these testy 22-year-olds--weasel-voiced, Montgomery-Clift-like charismatic singer/guitarist Billie Joe; tom-tom tribal percussionist Tre Cool (of the ever-morphing hair-color fame); and bassist Mike Dirnt (who survived Green Day's appearance at Woodstock '94, although several of his teeth did not). 

Yes, punk rock is a marketable phenomenon these days, leaving many involved with the music's initial late-'70s, early-'80s wave scratching their heads, wondering why it didn't take the first time around. Public reaction started as curiosity ("Hey, honey, c'mere and lookit these goofy, green-haired little whippersnappers in an insane asylum on MTV!"), but spiraled up to rock-diet necessity (Green Day just won Grammy and they're nominated for quite a few Bammies as well, including such categories as Outstanding Group, Outstanding Album, and Outstanding Song--"Longview" and "Basket Case"). The fact that they've been nominated at all probably sends a shiver up the old dinosaur backbones of Eddie Money, Huey Lewis, and Boz Scaggs, a time-creepy feeling of "Gee, what the hell do we do now?" Because this isn't just some flash-in-the-pan punk movement, folks--this is a youth movement; Green Day are, as they hiply term it, "bored in the 'burbs," and reaching out, through TV and radio, like some prodigal preachers to other American kids who sense the same slacker ennui. Obviously, we're talking truckloads of kids. 

Ironically, the more fame edges into the Green Day ruffians' lives, the more mature they seem to become. They've turned down all interview requests as of late, even People magazine, preferring to lay low until this tide of interest recedes. Billie Joe got married last autumn, and spent his honeymoon--not in any exotic, expensive locale--but in Berkeley's grand old Claremont Hotel. Cool recently became a father, and Billie Joe's child is due any day now. It's a responsibility they've both eagerly undertaken. Rob Cavallo, the boys' coproducer and A&R man at Reprise, swears they're "old souls, the smartest young kids I've ever met." It rings true. 

The first time I spoke with Green Day, in January of '94, Cool, Dirnt, and Billie Joe were lazing around their dingy basement apartment in Berkeley, sitting on chairs and couches with potentially painful springs poking through. Rock 'n' roll bubblegum cards were scattered across a coffee table, along with several bongs of various sizes, plus a four-and-a-half foot red plastic pipe dubbed "Bongzilla" leaned against a doorway. The only wall decoration, besides a Ren & Stimpy poster, was a Twister game mat nailed up in its entirety, presumably for high-schoolish humor's sake. 

When I'd met Billie Joe a few months earlier at a campus concert, his hair was dyed lime-green and featured squidlike tufts. Now it was dark brown, with only two tufts remaining, and both his ears and nose had piercings. Periodically during the interview, he'd ram a finger into that pierced nostril, rummage around, then stare idly at the resultant booger before flicking it on to the carpet. Cool wandered out of the rec room for several minutes, but returned, red-eyed, to proudly proclaim, "Lookit me! I'm stoned, dude!" Dirnt--when he wasn't strumming an acoustic guitar--kept watching their windowsill Sea Monkey tank, finally noting, "Hey, these Sea Monkeys look just like sperm!" 

Despite all these schoolboy, poo-poo wit trappings (dookie, after all, is kiddie slang for excrement), there was a sense of seasoned wisdom about them, a feeling that they were, as Cavallo postulated, truly old souls. Like the class clown who frustrates all of his teachers by also maintaining a 4.0 grade average, Green Day can afford to play because their work--brilliantly skewed three-minute pop songs, delivered with such vehemence and vitriol you don't dare doubt them--certainly speaks for itself. But, sooner or later, of course, the band has to speak for itself, too, so what follows is a set of excerpts from that first ratty-digs meeting, as well as a later chat with Billie Joe, sans sidekicks. How did Green Day take over the rock world in less than a year? That's the six-million-copy question, and hopefully we'll provide a few answers. 

* * * 

So punk is back, whether America likes it or not? 

BILLIE JOE: It's always been around, and everyone has their own interpretation of it. It's weird to actually call it "punk" again, when it's been there all the time. 

MIKE DIRNT: It's been springing up in little suburban areas, where people grab it and express themselves. 

TRE COOL: It's people who make a point of setting aside all responsibilities and just playing music. And doing fat joint after fat joint--you have to let go of things like paying rent, going to school, having a job. 

BJ: And, if you can't tell by my house, we don't have a very high standard of living. 

How does today's punk rock differ from its late-'70s cousin?

 BJ: I think it was all about art and fashion back then, really, because everyone who was a punk in England was in art school. I read an early interview with Dee Dee Ramone, where he said he wished the Ramones had more of a glamorous appeal, too, instead of playing in jeans and leather jackets. But it was definitely about fashion, until the Clash really brought out the political side. Our music came from being bored in the 'burbs. You get put in this high school situation, where you're learning someone else's rules in a room with 30 other people that you don't really like. There's nothing interesting about it whatsoever, so you pick up a guitar instead. 

But you all tried college, at least for awhile, right? 

MD: And then we started touring. Constantly. 

TC: So most of our reading now comes from highway signs. 

MD: It's the old grasshopper and the ant story. The thought of actually working is just so... 

TC: Sickening! 

MD: Yeah. So we put everything we had into not working. This is what I do best, and I was always told, "If you're gonna do something, do it the best you can." So why not do the best thing you can, too? 

You guys--at least Mike and Billie Joe--have known each other since you were 10? 

BJ: And the first conversation we ever had was about writing songs. And then we just started playing music. 

A lot of the stuff on your early Lookout! records shows what was on your mind at the time--namely, girls. 

BJ: That was pretty much the viewpoint of a 16-year-old kid. I don't write stuff like that anymore. The new songs are more about coming of age and being apathetic and neurotic.

 Where were your parents when you were touring [at age 16]? 

MD: At work, doing their own thing. 

BJ: My mom's worked a waitress job for like the past 40 years or something, and whatever I was doing was OK with her. 

MD: I moved out when I was 15, and I worked all the way through high school. 

BJ: And me, I've never held a job longer than two weeks. I tried to flip pizzas--it didn't work. I tried cleaning toilets in the Red Onion in El Sobrante. Me and TrŽ, we used to work for the SF Chronicle, selling papers. I sold three the first day, and the next day we just smoked pot, and we smoked pot the next day after that. So we had hella extra papers lying around. Our ultimate goal wasn't to get rich or famous or anything like that. It was to not have a regular job and not be miserable. 

MD: And I've lived in every city around here, except for Albany. Literally. And one thing we want to establish about ourselves is that we're just a bunch of geeks from the suburbs. 

Well, one of the first times I saw you, you guys were closing your set with Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." That's pretty geeky. 

MD: I grew up on radio--that's all I had. When I was a little kid, I couldn't afford records. I'll tell you, I've been down to a dollar in my pocket a lot of times. I've even lived in my truck. I can remember shooting rats with a BB gun in the flat we used to live in, before they'd make it to our food. 

BJ: I've always been really good about saving. If I got some money, I'd put it away instead of spending it, and I'd buy ramen. 

Why name your disc Dookie? 

TC: Warner's said we could do anything we want, as long as we didn't say "Cop Killer." 

BJ: Somebody told our manager that the ad for it was the most tasteless thing they'd ever seen in Billboard magazine. 

What exactly do you mean on Dookie by "Welcome to Paradise"? 

BJ, MD, TC [in unison]: West Oakland! 

MD: Living in West Oakland, and going out to parties every night. 

So it cost, what, around $100,000 to make Dookie? 

MD: Yeah. We kept the advances low, because you gotta pay all that shit back. Everyone knows you can't become an instant millionaire just by signing, because there are so many people that want a piece of you. 

BJ: We hang out with mostly punks though, and they don't want anything we have. They could care less. And a lot of our friends don't even agree with us being on a major label. 

Is Green Day angry? 

BJ: No, I'm not angry, like, walking around all the time with a frown on my face. But the way my music is interpreted is very angry. 

MD: When you feel really strongly about something, you want to let it out in the most powerful way possible. 

Like the way you baited your old high school principal from the Warfield stage recently? 

MD: I think he was an asshole. He treated me with no respect. And for high school initiation, we got our heads shaved--that's the kind of small-town shit we had to deal with! Sometimes they made you push a penny up the street with your nose. But that's life, and anywhere you go, you're gonna hate a lot of shit in your life. You'll be handed

Dookie? 

MD: Yeah. Yeah, you'll be handed dookie through all parts of your life. And see, what you need to do is just deal with the dookie, build upon what you have, and make something out of the dookie, you know? Like an adobe dookie building! 

* * * 

Several months later, and Dookie is oozing its gooey way into the public consciousness big time. The fading summer heat sticks crackling to the Berkeley sidewalks as punks--many sporting monstrous green or fuchsia mohawks--zing by on skateboards by day, and huddle in Telegraph Avenue doorways by night, conserving feral body heat the whole time. It feels like another world here, a throwback to the Bay Area's DIY/hardcore scene of the early '80s, when squatters reigned supreme and burlesque Broadway--fueled by all-ages shows at the Mabuhay Gardens, On Broadway, and even an occasional GBH or UK Subs booking at the Stone--made weekend conversions to "Punk Playground, USA." It was the best of times; it was the worst of times--despite relentless touring, most of these bands sold bupkus in the way of records, and few, save Metallica, ever held pen in shaky hand over a major-label contract. 

Billie Joe saunters into the Berkeley coffeehouse in rumpled jeans and a grease-spattered flannel shirt; his once-green-and-tufty tresses have grown out into Wally Cleaver waves and been dyed a Rod Stewarty blond. He looks like one of those feisty punks of yore; like he could hold his own through sheer physical endurance in the wildest of thrash pits. There's a new authority about him, the way he strides confidently to the counter, orders a pint-size glass of coffee, then swims through a sea of late-lunching yuppies to grab a table. The singer doesn't seem to notice them at all. Or maybe he's just too tired from nonstop touring to really give a shit. He smiles a goofy grin, revealing a set of generally crooked or chipped choppers, with an entire half of one front tooth missing. But there's such charisma behind it, the same kind of "Who, me?" innocence that little kids use. Billie Joe, you might say, has quickly become the Bart Simpson of the alternative set. 

How else could you explain his uncensored performance at a certain outdoor arena where--in a hyperspeed set lasting only 30 minutes before management threatened to pull the plug--he a) unzipped his fly and paraded his privates around for all to see; b) handed a stunned fan his beat-up, sticker-plastered guitar and urged him to play it; c) destroyed a $600 microphone by smashing it into the stage, then destroyed a second mike he was handed as well; and d) encouraged half the venue to chant, "Rock 'n' roll!" and the other half to respond with, "Shut the fuck up!" He then closed the show with a proposition--"They'll be really angry with us, but what we could do is rip out the seats!" he told the audience, which promptly gave Green Day a standing ovation. Billie Joe not only shrugs off such shenanigans as artistic license, he gets away with them! He's even encouraged to continue by fans who empathize with his uppity "fuck authority" attitude. 

But the facts were all on the table as Billie Joe sipped his house blend that afternoon, and it didn't take a fortune teller to read 'em. Green Day was hitting big time. Fast. And the sheer enormity of the undertaking, the weight of all its accordant responsibility, was just beginning to hit him. He looked older, wiser, and spoke in more grownup tones about his future, which then included a pending marriage to longtime girlfriend Adrienne. You could practically feel this new maturity encircling him like some protective aura. 

* * * 

=Where do all these punks on Telegraph come from? They can't all be local and homeless. 

I think Telegraph has just become this cultural mecca for punk rockers, because most of 'em who are on the Avenue aren't even from here. They're from Arizona, Minneapolis, New York, Florida. They just come out and end up squatting in houses in Berkeley. Why here? It's the climate, and the scene itself--Gilman Street and Maximum Rock 'n' Roll are in this area, and have a link to each other. But at the same time, it's separated, because there are so many different factions of punk now. There are the squatters, the pop-cores, the mods, the crusties. And all these types of people come out just to check it out. Plus, there's the best coffee in Berkeley, and a lot of 'em are real super coffee-drinkers, just pounding cup after cup all the time. It's pretty rare to come across a punk who doesn't drink coffee. I can't drink too much coffee myself--it gives me the shakes at night, so I just have a little bit during the day. Then I can smoke dope and go to bed. 

=What's the attraction in squatting or homelessness for these kids? 

For a lot of 'em, it's the first sense of freedom that they've had. It's like, "You mean I don't have to be home by midnight?" They've pretty much told their families and schools to go fuck themselves, so they go off and do their own thing. When I was 17, I did the same thing. And I had this total sense of freedom, where no one's telling you what to do, you don't have a clock to punch in on, you don't have people breathing down your neck; you don't have any deadlines to meet. You have this endless schedule where you can stay up all night drinking with your friends, or do anything you want. 

=But isn't "Coming Clean" about leaving behind your wilder ways? 

It's also about coming to grips with your sexuality. There's one line, "Skeletons come to life in my closet." And it's like, "Am I homosexual or heterosexual?" You go through this adolescent stage in your life where you don't really know what you are, and one side is taboo because your parents brought you up to think being gay was wrong. And if you come to grips with yourself, that you happen to be gay or bi or whatever, well, that was one thing about punk that was so accepting--all creeds were welcome, all sexualities, everything. 

=Was this something you went through personally? 

Yeah, to a certain extent. But I don't want to go around waving a gay flag or anything. 

=Well, you had a beautiful girl on your arm backstage at the last Green Day show. 

That's Adrienne. She's cool. Actually, we're engaged. That's why it took me so long getting here today--I had to get this! [Rolls sleeve up on tattooed arm, points to a bandaged-on cotton swab] Blood test, dude! We're getting married next week! 

=Has anybody tried to tell you you're too young for such a serious move? 

Of course. There are a lot of people who've said stuff. My parents have been a little more understanding than her parents. I just called my mom yesterday and said, "Mom, I'm gettin' married," and she said, "That's fine, son. Have fun!" I can hardly surprise my mother nowadays. But [this relationship] has been a recurring thing for the past four years, and we just decided to get serious about it. She's coming out here, and we're moving in together, so it's like, "Why not?" I don't really have any wild oats to sow, or anything like that. I'm not into the "Gettin' chicks all the time" thing.

 =I know a lot of girls who'll be really bummed that you're gittin' hitched. They all seem to have developed a crush on you... 

Me?! It must be the teeth [grins again].

 =OK, so maybe you didn't brush often enough when you were young. But you were busy developing a direction... 

I wouldn't necessarily say I had a direction or anything. I just knew I wanted to write songs. It comes from...uh...I don't know. I have no idea. It wasn't any kind of cosmic force or anything like that; it was just a matter of having a guitar around and wanting to play it all the time. I've had the same guitar since I was 11--I bought it off this guy at a guitar store. And I still play it--you know, the blue one with stickers all over it? That's my blue guitar, and, for some reason, things come to life, and everyone calls it "Blue" now--"Where's Blue? Can I pick up Blue and play it?" 

=And you let just anybody touch it? 

Oh yeah! Blue's not prejudiced. 

=It's interesting to note that the general public seems to think Dookie is your debut. 

Yeah, but that's just the general public. There are people who've been with us since the beginning, who know how long we've been around, since our first 7-inch came out back in '89. 

=And now you can afford to trash pricey microphones. 

Actually, Warner Brothers paid for those. It was pretty nice of 'em. They looked really nice--I remember looking at 'em and thinking, "Nice microphones!" They gave me one mike and I took it and threw it down, and they gave me another, and at the end of the set I creamed it pretty hard, I guess. We toured Europe with this band Die Toten Hosen--we played nine dates with 'em--and we got charged for a microphone every night. I dunno, for some reason we just started smashing shit. We'd start throwing equipment around at the end of each set, and these kids would start grabbing Tre's drum set and throwing it, and then they started smashing the microphones too. And the bouncers just couldn't do anything about it. 

=And you actually yanked your dick out onstage too? 

I did. Totally. It was the real thing. I dunno. The bands that we were playing with were just boring. It was more like making a mockery of the whole thing. The big arena rock thing is just so dated now, like Journey or Queen. Which is why I think punk rock started to begin with--it was this reaction to all the dinosaur bands. So for me, that show was, "How can we make a complete mockery of this but at the same time have fun with it?" I like to leave people guessing, "Did he hate that or did he like that?" It's not that I don't care--it's more that I'm careless. I try to be as happy-go-lucky as I can, but you can become apathetic at the same time. 

=Do you feel like Green Day is a part of, or represents, the so-called "slacker generation"? 

There's one side of me that doesn't mind it, because it's a generational thing, and another side of me that says, "Fuck that!" The reason I wrote the songs is, I ended up going back to Rodeo, where I'm from, for a week. And then I said, "Fuck it," and left. But I managed to get several good songs out of it. A lot of my friends had just turned into complete burnouts. And these are kids I've known since kindergarten, because it's a small town and you know everybody. And it was all fixing cars, staying up all night on methamphetamines, smoking dope, and finding out all these rumors about people I haven't heard of in 10 years. Like, "Oh, did you hear about so-and-so, who got married, had three kids, and ended up shooting everybody in his family?" And it happened! It was a true story! You're there for one week, and you get caught up in it. You get so bored, all you wanna do is watch television. And there are no record stores, nothing around, so you end up hanging out with all these delinquents who aren't punkers at all, just cultural idiots. So I was watching all these people rot and rotting with them until I realized, "Shit! I gotta get the fuck outta here!" 

=As they say, you can never go home again. 

Oh yeah, definitely. Unless you get pregnant, like my sister did. Then you have to go. But I quit school my senior year--I just wasn't getting anything out of it. I was taking nine periods a day, plus night classes, which left me no time to smoke dope whatsoever. And my mom even suggested I drop out, because she was a dropout, too. I come from a long line of dropouts. I still have nightmares about being late with my homework assignments. When I finally went in to sign out of high school, the teacher went, "Now, who are you again?" 

=And if that teacher could see you now! 

A lot of people think you get this big connection with a corporate label, and you make millions of dollars, but they don't understand that you just don't make that much money. And when you do, it's easy to piss it away. I mean, every cent that I've made, I've pissed away. I'm not gonna say how I did it, but I don't have it But I don't think you necessarily have to be a punk to decide to say, "Fuck it." You don't even have to have a direction. It's just a matter of getting the fuck out and exploring things for yourself. 

=But didn't you feel abject terror when you first set out on your own? 

Nah, I didn't. Because, for some reason, I knew things were gonna be all right. You can create your own future as long as karma's on your side. And I'm a strong believer in karma. I think things can come back to you if you're just willing to give. 

* * * 

True enough. At least six million times over!

1995 Tom Lanham

[wholelotofweird]

Hi! Hello!

I recently had the huge privilege of working on the Season 4 Cover Art for the Actual Play Podcast @crudelydrawnswords​ (listen here!! or on your podcatcher of choice).

Part of that process was helping design new outfits for The Hawks and I just want to talk about my thoughts through that process! 

First, I think the evolution of my personal designs for them is important because it fully informs where we ended up, I think. 

When I first considered doing fan art I looked around for any existing fan art, this is something I always do, I think maybe to feel like I’m not WAY off base? (Which is super silly, get off base with fan art! That’s why it’s fan art!) But I do it. 

I think this piece of art by CDS’s own Magnus (follow Mag on twitter!) was if not THE first, one of the very first pieces I saw:

This image really heavily played into how I drew The Hawks. ESPECIALLY the color pallets. There are some real obvious similarities between this and where I ended up for a couple reasons. 

Despite the changes I’ve made to their designs I’ve always thought it was important to keep their main colors intact, Bambari in browns, Tristan in reds, Percy in stark silver, and Enigma in green. 

Keeping their colors consistent has been a specific choice on my part, largely to pay homage to this specific image, and partially for visual consistency. Meaning, even if I messed with the structure of the outfit, the vibe would remain (hopefully). 

I think this is most obvious with every group and “special” group art I’ve done of The Hawks. Here’s a couple examples of what I mean by “different structure, same vibe”:

The two pieces have very different fashion choices, but the intent was to remain true to the characters through the use of color. 

Percy: Well put together with colors that invoke the sky just before a storm, combined with over-polished silver. 

Tristian: Reds and blacks, with pieces that are very flashy. 

Enigma: Green and simple, something easy to move in. The one time I drew her in a skirt I tried to make it obvious that it was as easy to move in as possible. 

Bambri: Browns, simple, fabric textures that are basic, no attempts to evoke fancy fabric. 

Color, for me, does a lot of heavy lifting when I draw The Hawks, the colors are always a conscious choice, even down to the little stuff like “How sunburned should Tristan be?” “Which of them should have similar eye colors?”. I mention this, because it was a factor I very much kept in mind when designing the Season 4 art. 

Sooo, with all that in mind, let’s chat about the outfit drafts I came up with! Shout out to Ben (twitter here!) who was my point of contact for all of this. He had a very clear vision for what the energy of the cover art should be, as well as passed on the style references from The Hawks. 

We’ll start with Percy, I’m just going to cut and paste the brief I got from Ben: 

Percy will look less the knight in shining armour. The armour is tarnished, he is wearing tattered robes over it, he perhaps looks a little careworn but there is focus in him as well. 

He also sent a couple of reference pics that were very influential. With those together I ended up with these 4 variations: 

There’s some real difference from 1 to 4. The thoughts I had were along the lines of:

1: Very close to the reference image I liked most

2: Fun, funky, more visual interest and still very much showing off his Paladin garb.

3: Low key, with still a touch of the regal vibe I try to insert into him (it’s the cape.)

4: VERY MUCH PALLY, despite liking this choice, It is def the furthest from the reference I was sent. I included because I wanted to make sure there was still the option of showing off his Pally side. 

In each of the 4 designs there is either an obvious scarf or (in the case of 1) the hint of a scarf shape. A scarf was not a feature of his design before this, it was a feature of the design I had most recently landed on for Bambari. It was VERY important to me to have SOME sort of visual touch that connected the two. 

You can also see I went for similar brown shades and Fabric Styles, again, it was absolutely on purpose to draw a connection between the two. 

Onto Tristan!

Again, from Ben:

I think we have already raised the likelihood of Tristan being dressed absolutely in the style of "Welcome To The Black Parade" era MCR.

I wish I could describe the feeling I had when I read this. It was intense, visceral, joy. Not only were MCR a part of my heavy rotation through High School, but The Black Parade is so visually “my shit” it’s not funny. If I could draw every character in a Marching Band Inspired Outfit I would 1000% do it. 

The downside of this specifically, is there aren’t a TON of variations to play with. So, I mostly went wild with Jackets. 

I wanted to make sure I kept the very ornate feel, while also staying true to marching band. For folks that were part of marching band (waddup), you’ll notice that the pants in 1 and 3 are absolutely the baggy look that that is the most true to the vibe, but they aren’t the most true to Tristan T. Wilde, world famous bard. 

One of the extra variations of this I sent off for approval had red accents, but I’ll be honest, I’m glad that the final choice was for all sliver and white. Choosing to remove the red from his outfit completely sends a big visual message about where his character is at currently. 

You can see in all 4 options the coat has some form of sharp arrow style cut. I was important to me to keep him from looking boxy, and keep his outfits looking very specifically Fit For Him. 

And Enigma! Once more from Ben:

I don't have a definite visual reference for Enigma yet, but she is a Ranger now.

And she has a magpie.  

So. Uh. Initially that isn’t a lot to go on. But, I’ve been drawing Enigma for A WHILE, I felt confidant that I could direct myself to something that was very “Authentic” Ranger. 

After about 9000 google searches, I came up with 4 ideas. 

Boy howdy. I think her’s may be the most diverse, style wise. I’ll be honest, I love all of these. There are certainly a couple who are less Her than I would normally go for, but in each of them, I tried to make sure there were Obvious Engima Touches.

3 is perhaps the least interesting, as it was the most similar to how I had already been drawing her. 

1 & 2 (and a little bit 4) were an excuse to draw muscle definition, no doubt, don’t @ me, I think it’s important to note that by this point I had been binging F@TT, so 1 is ABSOLUTELY inspired by art I have seen of Hella, you are free to @ me about that. thank you. 

ANYWAY, with all of these I again considered the fact that even if she was no longer a rogue, she wouldn’t be giving up her amazing parkour skills, so she would still need to flip about. 

2 & 4 were designed specifically with that in mind, as in: What will look coolest when she’s flippin’ around? 

And if you’re looking at any of these and thinking: Hm, there are some design elements here that I used for Bambari’s design, again you are correct. I was less concerned with making the connection obvious here than I was with Percy, but I still wanted to insert some of that. 

Later, Ben mentioned that if we could a little more Aloy from HZD that would be ideal. 

SO! HOW DID ALL OF THAT COME TOGETHER?

I’m glad you asked. 

I’m so glad that even with these changes I was able to keep most of the color standards for The Hawks. 

Enigma is still in green. 

Percy still has that silver, even if it isn’t as bright. 

Tristan no longer has red, but my hope is that his attitude still stands out. 

They’ve been through a lot, but they are still them. 

I will admit, there was a selfish part of me that was truly glad with the choices the players made here. Despite really loving all of the outfit choices, these were my favorite from a narrative arc standpoint and also from a re-draw-ability standpoint. 

If you’ve made it this far... Shit dude. 

Thank you. 

I have a lot of feelings about this show and I still can’t really believe I was asked to do this. It was a delight working with Ben to make this vision into a reality. 

The Hawks truly are rad as heck. 

[samsadventurelog]

March 1, 2020

9:46am

It is finally March. This means Animal Crossing is upon us. 19 days away.

So on Thursday Brad and I went out with my old pal Warren. Bar hopped a bit. Experienced our first crazy Halifax rain. We weren’t really prepared. Some people walked around the streets in what look like full hazmat suits. I knew Halegonians don’t use umbrellas but this was a whole new level of rain preparation. We asked Warren if he was ready for the rain - but I guess he forgot to look at the weather that morning - which he was beating himself up for. He did have a protective bag handy to put over his backpack.

We ventured out in the rain. The first two spots we hit were Stillwell’s and Lot Six. Both places completely empty due to the weather. At Lot six some jazz musicians started playing right as we were about to leave! I could have stayed there all night. The place looked like a fancy wedding venue in the atrium sitting area. Twinkly lights, plants, fancy cocktails, and a guy on sax. Sign me up.

After the first two stops we did something momentous. Brad and I tried our first Donair! After a month the moment was finally right! And you know what - I didn’t hate it! I wasn’t sold on this whole weird mystery meat and sweet sauce. I went in hesitant but open minded. And it was quite good! I will try another. This post is going to be full of new food experiences - but I won’t get too ahead of myself. Last thing I will say about the donair is by the last bite it did feel like I was eating condensed milk on a pita.

We finished our night at an Ale house, also empty. Warren laughed that all these places we were going to we weren’t getting the right vibes because it was so dead everywhere. Warren’s girlfriend met up with us right before the last bar and she confessed that she hasn’t even had a donair yet! To each their own. Warren gave us a big list of recommended places so we have added those to the never ending pile.

Friday I continued training the new animators. I’m really enjoying it. Most of them are experienced, but coming from Flash, so they’ve been getting to learn the new software and they’re doing quite well! I’m primarily helping them learn program and learn our style of animation so it’s a lot for them to take in but they’re very eager and I think everyone is having fun!

Friday night brad and I just decided to go have a drink and dinner after work - casually- and then we ended up staying at Gahan quite late! We each had an oyster - which I knew I liked because I’d tried them in South Africa. Then we ordered mussels which I was hesitant to do only because I’ve yet to have some that I really liked. But I keep trying, and you know what, this time I loved them! They were in a white wine type sauce, and they were sooooo good! So I’m on way on this whole sea food adventure! We then finishished with some haddoc tacos. Which I knew I would like.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty hungover from our Friday night excursion. I woke up pretty early and watched cartoons for several hours. I checked out the new 101 dalmatians show on Disney +. Really cute. I like the designs. I could see it being something I’d watch as a kid. I used to wake up super early on Saturday mornings to catch Disney’s “one Saturday morning” line up which also started with a 101 Dalmatians show that I really liked. Then I watched some Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Again a show from my childhood I was big into. Gotta say this one tickles my eyes and I really like watching it too. Just some pure fun cartoons.

I finished season 2 of Avatar yesterday too! Oh boy what a journey. It’s really ramping up! All the appa stuff in season 2 killed me. And Uncle Iroh just pulls at my heartstrings basically every episode. Full steam ahead into season 3! Can’t wait to finish so I can start looking up memes and fan art without fear of spoilers !

We headed out to the market yesterday again, didn’t get anything but sometime I like to just go and appreciate all the vendors and look at fresh food. Does that make me a weirdo? Maybe. We then went to Yeah Yeah’s for lunch and got a slice of pizza. That place is so cool! Lots of art on pizza plates all over the wall. Cool vibes - will definitely be going back!

We then were heading home and walking by this restaurant - Niche - we’ve been to before so we decided to pop in for a beer and peroigies to tide us over for dinner. After two drinks we were on our way. Then we were walking by this bar I haven’t been to before but I peeked in the windows and saw live music so I NEEDED to stop there as well. We had a few drinks there and listened to this band called the Kokonut Kings. And they sounded like a band straight out of the bikini bottom! Hawaiian/sponge bob vibes, and some killer kazoo solos. I had the biggest smile on my face. Nothing makes me happier than live music and it’s been a while so that really recharged me! This place was called “Bearly’s house of blues and ribs” and it’s got kind of a run down vibe but they were playing old black and white movies on the big tv and always have live music soooo I’ll definitely be going there to hang out more. It’s walking distance from our house as well - as pretty much everything is.

By the time we were done at Bearly’s it was past 7, where on earth did the day go! I had no drive to cook at this point. So we decided to head home and order pizza from the place across the street. It was ok.

Brad and I have started to go to the gym in the mornings too. It’s been nice getting back into it. Hopefully I can keep it up this time!

That’s all for now friends. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!