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And the beat goes on...

Well, this will instantly align me with the millions of other nerds out there with similar tastes. You've probably gotten a whiff of it with some of the earlier entries for Nerdery Week.

My name is Thomas...and I am a Star Wars nerd.

*sigh*

Truth be told, I've been a geek/nerd/dork for Star Wars since I was a wee lad and saw it in the theatre with my dad. I was 4 years old and it pretty much changed my life. The problem is, it never changed it back.

*rim shot*

While I'll never profess to be a 'deluxe SW nerd' (I've never read the books outside of the original 6 movies, nor do I want to acknowledge they exist) and I don't have every single thing with the image of Star Wars emblazoned on it (cereal boxes, toothpaste, Chewbacca Depends Undergarments), I do have to admit to dressing up as Han Solo once at a Comic Convention.

Yes. Blaster and all.

But...I never, um...tried to use The Force to get myself out of a predicament.

Okay, well, there was that one time I was hanging upside down from an apple tree in winter, a la Luke Skywalker in Hoth. And yes, there was a flashlight (lightsaber) lying in the snow juuuuust out of reach. But, er... I was eight years old or something. I think.

Okay. I'm a giant nerd. But heck, this is our week to celebrate, wounds and all.

Welcome to the Star Wars portion of my Nerdery.

First off, my shelves. These are located to the left of my desk where all the 'magic' happens.

Let's punch in for a closer look, eh?

Here's the original foursome and by original, I'm not saying they're from the original Kenner line way back in the 70's. Nope. These are the new-fangled Star Wars figures that came out a little over 1o years ago. I was a fool when I was a youngster and sold nearly all of my old Star Wars stuff. I had gotten tired of it, so I sold the stuff at rock-bottom prices in a garage sale. Almost immediately I regretted it and spent too much time and money buying all the original smaller figures back. I think I've got all but 4 of them.

Anyway, here is Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and my favorite Obi Wan Kenobi. I'm such a nerd, I still have an unopened OWK in my steamer trunk in the other room.

Side note: I'm pissed that Han Solo can't hold his well-known blaster properly. How much does that stink?

Here we have 4 characters from the 'it should've been much cooler' flick The Phantom Menace.

Young Obi Wan Kenobi (complete with Padawan braid)

Darth Maul (who was the best part of the movie)

Queen Amidala (who cost like $2 at Kaybee Toys when they were going out of business)

And the suckiest guy in the group, Young Anakin Skywalker. I bought Ani on eBay for literally $1. No one else bothered to bid against me. Now I know why. Must've been all those midichloreans in his bloodstream.

2nd shelf down brings us to my favorite characters in the movies: The Bounty Hunters. Something about aliens and robots out hunting other people/Jedis/smugglers that just does something for me.

From the left we have Ponda Baba (that's 'Walrus Man' to my generation) complete with removable left arm, a result of stepping to Alec Guiness on Tatooine. "He doesn't like you. I don't like you either..."

Next we've got Zam Wessel . She was in the worst of all of the Star Wars movies: Attack of the Clones. I still thought she was pretty cool. Almost as cool as Princess Leia as Boussh.

Next in line is Bossk. I don't know why, but I always liked ol' B. He was a lizard who had no business holding a blaster, but he looked mean and greasy. I was sold.

Well, you know who that is next to him, right? (If you said Zuckuss, you're dead wrong) That's 4-LOM which is an inside joke in that his name means 'For Love or Money.' You know, that's what former protocol droid bounty hunters do it for. Love or... Nevermind.

(Okay, when I step away for a moment and re-read what I've just written, I can see that I am a tried and true nerd. Just sayin..')

Hey! There's the grand-daddy of all bounty hunters and snack of the Saarlac, Boba Fett. He's much cooler than the shabby version offered in the 80's. For one thing, his head is proportionate and for another, he talks. My favorite line? "He's no good to me dead."

Next to him is probably the least frightening of all bounty hunters, Dengar. He looks like a turd with a bandage on his head, but I still like the guy. You know, just looking at him, that he never had a chance catching up with Han Solo. Still, you gotta give the guy props for trying.

That tall droid next to him? That's IG-88. He was a hard one to come by and I was worried that he was going to be a crappy addition to the original Bounty-Hunter-Let's-Get-Han-Solo gang. In the movies he's super tall. When he came in the box...he wasn't. Thankfully, the geniuses who designed him equipped ol' IG with extendable legs. Proper!

And next to him is...(if you said 4-LOM you're wrong!) Zuckuss. Believe it or not, he was my first bounty hunter. Why? 'Cause he was so darn cheap on eBay.

So that takes care of the shelf. I looked through the nerdery archives and found these two items sitting in the closet with nowhere to be.

They were priced to move at Target, so they came home with me. It's a pocket-sized Bossk and Princess Leia in Endor Gear. I still haven't decided if I'll open 'em or not. A true nerd wouldn't, but that's never stopped me before. We'll see. I still think it's weird that they redesigned the figures, but put them on the same ol' cards they had in the 80's. Say what???

My little brother bought me this weird thing a few years back. I think it's supposed to be Jango Fett (you know, Boba's dad?) but he's made out of old machinery pieces and gears and stuff. He swivels on ball-bearings and it sporting Jango's dual blasters, but I'm not sure. I think he's pretty cool, but definitely ramps up my nerd cred a bit, dontcha think?

And now for the crown jewel of the Star Wars stuff in my nerdery.

I found this at an antique store in Minneapolis. It's a picture of whiny Luke Skywalker alongside his mentor and all-around bad-ass with a beard, Obi Wan Kenobi. If you click the picture or check out the closer-up shot I took, you'll see why this is so garsh-darn cool...and nerdy.

It's signed by the man himself, the late, great Sir Alec Guinness. It says: Good wishes above his name. Now, I have absolutely no way of authenticating that this is his real signature, but I have seen other items with his Johnny Hancock on it and it's pretty much spot-on. Regardless, I've convinced myself that it's the real deal and for that it hangs proudly on my nerdery wall...

...above my autographed picture of Salma Hayek and Gina Gershon. (maybe later)

So, there you have it: all the Star Wars stuff that I could find with the confines of my nerdery. I wish I could say that's all the Star Wars crap I've got, but I can't. There's a steamer trunk in another room that's contains more treaures, but hey...it's not Steamer Trunk Week. It's all about the Nerderies, y'all.

Check out these new updates and what-not from the Get-Nerdy-All-Stars:

Dan @ This Man's Blog - Muses about 'The King of Kong'
Matt @ Blue Birdland - Nerdery: A capella Style
Caryle @ Caryle's Corner - Comic Books!
Catherine J. Gardner/Phoenix Rendell @ The Poisoned Apple - A Nerd's Album Collection

And in case you missed 'em...

Wendy @ The Musings of Wendy Withers - Nerdery 2008, Day 3 (includes a video!)
Uvulapie @ Uvulapie and His Amazing Hillbillies - The Nerdery
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse - Angela's Nerdery
Unhinged - Where the Magic Happens (or not)
Susan Sandmore - It's the Nerdery!

And there's more...tomorrow!!! Strong finish Nerdery Dwellers! Let's do this!

Man...I'm taking a beating already! More than a few people (ahem!) said my desk was too neat n' tidy and therefore they didn't feel up to posting their nerderies for the world to see.

I cry FOUL!

Here's the thing...I sort of have to have some order to my chaos otherwise I can't get a lick of work done. On top of that, my lovely wife is not a fan of clutter and mess. This room, er...my nerdery is easily the messiest room in the house. I could open the closets and show you the absolute horror that resides in there, but hey...we got all week.

So for today, I'm going to display some of the items o' interest on the wall behind where I sit. Sound good? Good...


Here's shot from the doorway to my basement 'nerdery.' This is the back wall that has a built in shelf/ledge/whatever there. You see where the four posters are to the right? Eventually, there's going to be floor to ceiling bookshelves there. Basically the posters are a place-holder until I can get my dad over to help me with the project. You don't even want to see the sick stack of books I've got.

And now, for some close-ups:

I don't think I need to tell anyone how cool the movie Blood Simple is, but in case I need to: It's great. It's the first major film by Minnesota director/producer team Joel & Ethan Coen. I totally love this poster for a number of reasons.

1. It's black n' red (my favorite colors)
2. It's got M. Emmett Walsh on it
3. The dude's loading a small pistol.

Below that, we have a couple of puppets. One is Jesus (which my brother bought me for Xmas one year...don't ask) and the other is a firefighter that my mom bought me last year. It's fun to put on a show between Beardy (what my son calls Jesus) and Smokey (the firefighter).

Next to that and very small are Master Chief and Arbiter figurines. I got 'em free with my copy of Halo 3 for Xbox 360.

Since I'm also a filmmaker, I've got a clapboard and while it doesn't work like a real one, it's nerdy enough to warrant a space on the shelf.

In the frame? Why that's a bloated picture of me with my wife during our honeymoon in Maui. There's a movie ticket stub for Man on Fire in there. We saw it whilst on vacation.

Okay, so I've got a weakness for Angelina Jolie and I'm also a tried and true nerd when it comes to the Tomb Raider video games. Sue me. Can I add to the nerdiness? I bought two replica pistols from the movie and they shoot little plastic pellets. Maybe someday when we do Garage Week! I'll display them here on Tappity Tapppity.

Below the movie poster you'll find a couple Lord of the Rings action figures. There's Sam and Frodo on their crappy little canoe. Sauron is hangin' out ready to talk smack and...hey, who the hell is that? Is that Lucy from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? It is. Probably one of the worst action figures ever made, I got her for a mere .79 in Madison. Never mind her. Treebeard rocks and so does Gollum/Smeagol. Yesssss....preciousssss...

Okay...why is there a poster for the movie Beautiful Girls here among all the nerdy stuff? Why would ANYONE have a poster with Rosie O'Donnell on it hanging in their office of cool nerdiness? Well, it's like this:

I'm in the movie for like 2.5 seconds. If you own it or rent is (and it's actually a good movie!) right around the 1:02:27 mark, you'll see yours truly standing there, watching the band Afghan Whigs. Here's a screen capture.

There I am next to that poorly Photoshopped arrow. If you blink, you'll miss me. But seriously, the rest of the movie is decent if not downright hilarious. Some of it was shot in Minneapolis and directed by the late Ted Demme. Hooo...I've got stories. As an extra, I saw and experienced quite a bit. Also, Uma Thurman touched my shoulder like 4 times.

Not that I counted.

Below my BG poster is my previously mentioned glow-in-the-dark zombies that Triple S found for me. Next to the wacky undead? Why, that's a Nazgul doll standing sentinel next to his undead bretheren.

While I'm not a HUGE foreign movie fan, Run Lola Run is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, besides the fact the dialogue is all German. Just a cool, wicked, adrenalin-pumpin' movie. If you ever need a soundtrack to work out to and you have the means, I highly recommend picking it up. It is so choice.

Below that is a skull snow globe...errr...actually it has little bats instead of snow. Next to that is a black earth paper weight. I got it because it reminded me of Public Enemy's 3rd album Fear of a Black Planet. Next to that is a photo of my estranged cat, Kato. Check out how killer this picture is:

He's sitting in an antique box that says KINGSLEY on it. My middle name is KINGSLEY! It's like the whole world split in half and awesome oozed from the gaping wound!

Ahem.

Next to that is a little brown guy called a Japanese Domo. You may have seen him in a certain e-mail attachment that warns you about doing something that might make God do something awful to kittens. If you don't know what I'm talking about...uh, let's move on.

Probably the pride of my movie poster collection is Rushmore. Has there ever been a better movie? Well, maybe. But I still contend that it's Wes Anderson's best. Sorry, W. You peaked with this one, yo. Below that is a Ku Tiki or God of Strength. We got him in Hawaii. I think the Brady Bunch left it behind when they were there last. Next to all the crazy phenomena are ol' Agents Scully and Mulder. They both look like they have no idea how they got here.

What's that in the corner? Well, that, my friends is a leather coffin backpack I won from Heather Brewer, author of Eight Grade Bites (and the forthcoming sequels). Inside was all kinds of cool vampire stuff, including a signed ARC of EGB. I've never worn the backpack, but dang if it doesn't look wicked in the corner all mysterious-like. On top of the coffin is a toy that Travis keeps breaking, so it's up there until he can control himself.

Oh, and yes...Jedi Master Yoda is coolin' out next to the coffin. He talks, teaches you about the force and if he ever kicks the bucket, I'll probably bury him in the backpack. It's about the right size.

Okay. I guess this went on a bit longer than expected. I promise to reign it in a bit for the next five days. Until then, check out these Nerdery updates!

http://dancsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/nerdery-week-desktop.html
Matt @ Blue Birdland - Nerdy Media
http://carylerg.livejournal.com/

I've heard we'll have some new nerderies joining the fray tomorrow. Stay tuned!!!

Here's a recent promo piece that I did. I always thought this chunky style would lend itself well to a pirate theme. So here is my take on a scurvy dog - AARGH!

Last week everyone post a page from their sketch books. Oh well, better late than never, right? Here's a page of faces that I doodled while watching TV last week.

I dug through my old papers and discovered the first greeting card designs I did. I never sold any of these first designs. But I did learn about a lot of things... like rejection letters. This lion was done before I knew about Adobe and Wacom tablets and all that good stuff. This was done with Prismacolors on drafting vellum. This was probably around 1998?

I still use drafting vellum but I've ditched the colored pencils. I could never get the colors as vibrant as I wanted with pencils. I know some artists that do amazing work with colored pencil (Paula Pertile for one) but I just don't have the patience. Now I scan in the pencil drawing (usually on vellum) and then do all the color in Photoshop. I always liked this little lion so a few years later (2004 maybe?), I repainted him in Photoshop. By the way, I did sell the Photoshop version.



And here's an even more recent lion (2007). The colors are more muted because it's suppose to be dawn in the image. I like to think my color sense has improved over the years. I didn't spend as much time on this lion fur details but at least I did give him the proper number of toes.

Here's the pencil sketch and the final painting for my contribution to our summer mailing. My original thought was to make a little fish annoying all the big grown-up fish around him. I really wanted the little fish to be red, or orange or some other bright, warm color that would stand out against the water but Pixar already has pretty substantial dibs on clown fish so I settled for something called a neon wrasse. I hope neon wrasse are ocean going fish.

I do my initial drawings on paper and all my final art work in Photoshop and Illustrator. One thing that I recently purchased and really love is a Mustek Scanexpress A3 flatbed scanner. It will scan pages up to 11"x17" So no more having to scan pencils drawings in sections and piece them back together Photoshop (Yay!) And the best part, it only cost $170. Definitely worth it!

Also I couldn't live without my Wacom tablet. I had been using a mouse for about a year before someone finally said, "You ninny, buy a pen tablet!" They were expensive and I dragged my feet but I finally bought one. It was like the clouds parted and the sun shown down and all was right with the world. So if you are using a mouse and trying to paint in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop I'll say it again - "Buy a pen tablet!"

Other than my computer hardware and software, my art supplies are pretty simple. I live in the boonies, a considerable drive from a decent art supply store, so I use stuff I can get at Walmart and Office Max. Like Jannie I like mechanical pencils - I hate having to stop to sharpen. I prefer Pilot Dr. Grip pencils. And I like Clic pencil-style erasers - those little teeny erasers on the mechanical pencils just don't cut it. For rough drawings, I use what ever cheap tracing paper or printer paper I have around. For final pencil work, I use drafting velum.

This week the plan is to discuss some of our favorite children's books. Well I couldn't fit all of my favorites in just one post. So let me talk about at least one of my favorite books - "Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm" by Jerdine Nolen and illustrated by Mark Beuhner.

Coincidently this is also one of my son's new favorites. I read it to my five-year-old this morning and he wanted it again a bedtime. For my son that is a HUGE endorsement. Once he hears a story he's done, zip, he never EVER wants to hear the same story twice in one day. Maybe in a month or two but never in the same day, rarely the same week. This is even more remarkable considering there are no trains or construction vehicles in the story.

Okay, why do I like the book? For one, well, how can you not like the idea of someone growing balloons like corn - that's just cool. Two, it's a fun book to read aloud. As most parents know there are some books that are almost painful to read aloud (you know which ones I'm talking about) Harvey Potter is written from the view point of a young girl that says stuff like "We never knowed..." which makes it really easy get into character and start a talkin' like I ain't in New England no more. Also there's a part where you get to yell and holler (always a bonus when reading aloud)

And it's illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Mark Buehner. (Incidentally anything illustrated by Mark Buehner is also on my favorites list.) The illustrations are absolutely superb with lots of little hidden things to find and a funny little porcine sidekick. I own some of Mark Beuhner's books and today I checked out every other Mark Buehner book in our public library. If I study them maybe something - anything - might rub off.

This book was originally published in 1994 (3 years before J.K. Rowling's series). And I couldn't help thinking that Ms. Jerdine must be thanking heaven that she named her character Harvey Potter and not Harry.