About a year and a half ago my cousin’s multitalented husband was in town as part of the crew for a show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. I dropped by to say hello, and found myself captivated by the opening act, Julien Baker. As everyone knows, I am a stone cold robot, but on the rare occasions when I want to remind myself what it’s like to love, lose, and have a pulse, I crank up folk rock belted by women half my age, usually starting with this.
I sketched this while watching a terrific documentary on Netflix, Floyd Norman: An Animated Life. Floyd was an animator and writer on basically every cartoon I ever saw as a kid, from Sleeping Beauty, to 101 Dalmations, to Scooby Doo, to the Smurfs, to Toy Story.
Disclaimer: I was not a kid when Toy Story was released. Floyd is now 81, and looks younger than me, and I wish I was joking.
Oh hey, today would have been my Nana’s 100th birthday! Here’s a digital painting of her in her youth, perhaps in her hometown of La Paz, Mexico.
I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I don’t like to talk about politics, because, frankly, I do not know enough to form any strong arguments. (Note: This does not generally stop people who love to talk about politics.)
All I know is that for the past eight years, having this man at the helm caused me absolutely zero anxiety. The incoming administration? Well I’m sleeping a lot less these days. And drawing politicians. That’s how you know we’ve entered bizarro times.
As an illustration of what we’re losing, have a look at the clip below of Obama addressing the U.S. military last month. It’s a quick historical recap, tied to the sort of patriotic, apolitical message that could have been said by any President, and appreciated by conservatives and liberals alike.
The scary thing is that Obama’s comforting words were prompted by dangerously ignorant statements made by the President-Elect. I’m OK with the usual 8-year presidential pendulum swing between Republicans and Democrats, but this guy is a different beast. The Republican Congress really needs to do some soul-searching and ask, “am I on Team America, or Team Thin-Skinned Reality Show Carny?”