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2.5 x 3.5
Coloursofts and Polychromos on board
on ebay

I know I said I was going to do black and whites. And I am! I just had to do this first.

Yesterday was such a contrast to the day before, with the terrible storm and wind and rain and all. The sky was blue, and there were these amazing gigantic fluffy clouds all over. They were still kind of ominous, with grey underbellies, but they also had the most beautiful pinks and lavender colors in them. I just had to do a little piece about them. Or try, anyway.

I don't do as well with pastelly colors for some reason. It probably looks OK to you, but I fussed with it a lot. I'm not a pastel person. I like grey and taupe and black and cream and olive and plum and...well, you get the idea. Even as a kid. (Although I was forced to have a pink bedroom. Well, at least until I got up the nerve to ask my parents to let me paint one wall blue-violet (the rest was white) which they thought was the height of teenage rebellion, and which they also thought gave them lots of "cool" points for allowing me to do. Enough said.)

Anyway, this is my little homage to the "post-storm sky".
And I find that the Polychromos work well with just about every other type of pencil. I like to start with the Coloursofts or Graphitints and then do some Polychromo on top.

To see all the Yarn pieces in this series side-by-side, please go here. Or visit my ebay store to see which are available for sale.
All images and content herein are © Paula Pertile and may not be used or reproduced without permission.

A few weeks ago in Poland, a 14 year old boy reconfigures a remote control and used it to take over the local mass transit system. This has been covered in the media as an amusing case of precocious delinquency, but should be taken much more seriously. This is only the beginning.

We all knew this day was coming. We have passed the tipping point and kids are now WAY too smart. Or rather our society has reached a point where technological advancement is so fast and so furious that the only ones mentally flexible enough to keep up are children. Especially when you consider the speed at which government bureacracy travels, is it a surprise that a tech savvy kid could overtake the Department of Transportation which is probably still using computers from last century? And if one lone punk could take over a transit system, what will an army of these kids be capable of?



(Above: The scene of the crime. The young boy sits on the fence, taunting the helpless passengers by waving the remote that controls their fate. )


The unrelenting conveyor belt of progress ensures that one day we will all live in a world that is beyond our ability to understand... we are all just one Mac Convention away from being obsolete.

So, what will the revolution look like?

One thing is for sure: the revolution will not be televised. It won't even be Youtubed or live-blogged. The truth is we have no idea what form the revolution will come in, because it is beyond the ability of our feeble age-crippled minds to even imagine what tomorrow may bring.

But if I had to guess, the coming revolution will be defined by one phrase: Militant Anarchy. These prepubescent geniuses have been honing their skills with a heavy dose of video games, which serve as a comprehensive curriculum for social dispruption. Games such as Halo and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (actually, anything with the name Tom Clancy in it) teach the virtues ruthless militarism. Hyperkenetic games such as Grand Theft Auto glorify the chaos that is social anarchy. And now the Wii is going to take these video game dorks and whip them into shape. It's like having a boot camp in your living room that trains the perfect soldiers for the perfect army of tomorrow.

Our only hope is to conscript these prepubescent geniuses into the service of our country by giving them full reign over the Department of Transportation or the Department of the Interior. Let them use their preternatural skills to repair our bridges and generally re-awesome-atize our nation's crumbling infrastructure. It's our only hope. We must harness their powers for good, otherwise we'll find that we are on a fast train to nowhere... and that train is being remote controlled by some punk kid with peach fuzz.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Author: Giles Andreae
Illustrator: David Wojtowycz

I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed when I read this book. Not for what the book is (a fun and colorful collection of jungle poetry), but for what the book is not. Because of the title, I was hoping that it was an illustrated account of THE Rumble in the Jungle, the epic 1974 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman that took place in Zaire.

Alas, it was not to be. Which is a shame, because with his unique lyrical stylings and cocky sense of humor, Ali would be the perfect candidate to author a children's book. Unfortunately, since Ali hasn't picked up the pen, we'll have to settle for George Foreman's silly book: Let George Do It!



Author: George Foreman and Fran Manushkin
Illustrator: Whitney Martin

George Foreman has five sons and they are all named George. Not George Junior, George III, or even Curious George... just George. The story follows the crazy mishaps that result from the logistical nightmare of having an entire house of Georges. (Apparently, the original George was so blinded by his crippling megalomania that didn't foresee this being a problem.)

With this picture book, George Foreman's transformation is complete. If you remember him from his boxing days (or if you watch the documentary When We Were Kings), George Foreman was quite possibly the scariest man alive. His sheer size and grizzly scowl were enough to give me the willies even though 3 decades and a television screen separate me from his devastating ham-sized fists.

And now? He is the grinning goofball of George Foreman Grills and a children's book author. Talk about reinventing yourself. Ali may have won the fight on that balmy night in 1974, but give Foreman credit for picking himself up off the mat and infomercialing his way back into our hearts.


Conspiracy Theory Note: Have you ever noticed the eerie similarity between the design aesthetic of the George Foreman Grill...



...and Apple laptops?



Apple's departure from the standard small black laptop design to the refreshingly sleek look launched sales into the stratosphere as they became the hip choice for a generation that defines themselves by their computer use. It is now impossible to go into any coffeeshop or college campus without the ubiquitous glare of the glowing Apple logo. I had always assumed that the aesthetic similarity to the simple and clean design of the Foreman grill was just a coincidence... until I stumbled upon this:



The George Foreman iGrill

"The iGrill is an indoor/outdoor electric grill/roaster with a built-in dock to play your favorite grillin' tunes from your iPod or other MP3 player."







There is only one possible explanation for the release of this absurdity: Foreman was threatening to sue Apple CEO Steve Jobs for stealing his design and they agreed upon an out-of-court settlement. In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, Apple would outfit the Foreman grill for iPod compatibility... despite the fact that no one in their right minds would buy this ridiculous contraption. (Even Sharper Image, the Mecca of Craptastically Useless Gadgets, doesn't carry it.)

Now if they really wanted to make it a worthwhile product and take it to the next level, they could rig the iGrill so that the grease pan (a.k.a. reservoir of fat drippings) connects directly to some kind of biodiesel conversion devise so that you could charge your iPod using the discarded fat from your porkchops.

Now that, my friends, is a tangible step towards a better tomorrow. Who's going to fix the environment? Let George Do It!

Author/Illustrator: Dr. Seuss

This is Seuss's classic warning against the devastating effect of unchecked industrialism on the environment. What people often miss is that the book also sends a strong word of caution to budding environmentalists. Yes, The Lorax warns against overdevelopment and big business. But it also warns against the folly of misguided idealism in the environmentalist movement.

Our tragic hero, the Lorax, speaks for the trees... unfortunately, he does so with a "voice that was sharpish and bossy." Despite his noble intentions, his efforts are ineffective because of his methods. A good message can do more harm than good if it is delivered the wrong way. Specifically, beware of the "holier-than-thou" attitude which is off-putting to even the most sympathetic among us.

Is this still relevant decades after the publication of The Lorax? Painfully YES, as it is officially Canvassing Season in Washington D.C. Seriously, I can barely walk down one city block without being approached by 5 or 6 people in matching t-shirts and clipboards saying, "Do you have a minute to stop global warming?" or "Do you care about the environment?!"

Do I have a minute to stop global warming? Yes, but I only have 30 minutes to run out and grab lunch!

Do I care about the environment?! Of course I do, but I know you are going to ask me to make a financial contribution and unfortunately I am bleeding debt from every orifice. I can't save the environment by giving you money I don't have. So when I tell you that I'm sorry and can't afford it right now, you can keep your guilt trip to yourself... and don't you dare follow me down the street unless you want me to leave my carbon footprint on your ass.

Don't get me wrong, I admire the cause and their youthful idealism... but there has to be a better way to raise money and awareness. The inconvenient truth is that harrassing people in the street on their lunch break is going to turn more people off than on. The Lorax learned this lesson too late to save the Truffula Trees... don't make the same mistake he did!

The following comment gave me an idea:

Liz said...

What? This book is more like a slasher film in the sense that it gives me nightmares. I don't care how much my mother loves me, the day she shows up at my window with a ladder is the day i have her declared incompetent and put her in the home.

Love You Forever as a slasher film? Brilliant! In the extended film version, once the mother passes away, the son goes off the deep end. Unable to live in a world without his mother, he leaves his family, moves to the countryside, and opens up a roadside motel. The son's name? Norman Bates. The deranged Bates mans the front desk with a smile, but in private he wears his mother's clothes and softly sings to himself,

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
as long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

The more I think about it, the more I think this movie must be made. Love You Forever naturally lends itself to a merger with Hitchcock's Psycho. Is it inevitable that Munsch's young boy raised by a bizarre mother turns into cross-dressing murderer? No. Would it surprise you if he did? Double No.

The director of this film would naturally be Todd Solondz, who specializes in dysfunctional families and giving people the creeps. (If you don't know what I mean, watch Happiness... possibly the most unsettling movie I've ever seen.)

Note: While I recognize the creepiness of Love You Forever, I still stand by my original assertion that it is a tear jerker. As is Psycho (he loved his mother so much!)... so if you go to see Love You Forever: The Movie, you better bring a box of tissues with you.

Sundance, here we come!