Unboxing: A gift from my cousin Janice!

Friday Night Movie Recommendation #19 "The Killer Klowns from Outer Spac...

One of my favorite movies.

Friday Night Movie Recommendation #16 "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961)

Unboxing: Killer Klown Sticker #3 "Spike"

Unboxing: Something different from Stickermule

Unboxing: Stickers

Weekly Dose of Mark

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Monday was a crazy, long day of social activities I can break down into three parts.

Part One: On Monday, we had a white elephant gift exchange during Freelance Fandango at the Red Elm Café. In attendance were Anique, Penny, Stan, Keith, Haley, Nori and myself. Some gifts were crayons, paints, colored pencils, sketchbooks, stickers, cards, prints, canvases, and books. There was a lot of thievery, bartering, and trading going on. It was a hilarious time. I brought full-sized Churro-flavored KitKats to share with the group. 

Part Two: Doug Makey showed up during Freelance Fandango. He interviewed me for an upcoming issue of the Volcano. The Volcano used to be a free weekly newspaper, but it’s currently a monthly newspaper. Angelina Jossy is managing to keep it running. It’s proving to be quite the challenge for her. As with any newspaper, her main concern is getting ad revenue to pay for everything. Doug is an old friend, and I was very comfortable being interviewed by him.

Part Three: It was Christmas Dinner at the Pythian Temple. It was a small crowd of about twenty. This time, it was the men’s turn to bring the main course and set things up. Krista baked some cranberry cake for me to take. The roast Godo prepared was delicious, with every scrap of it being eaten. There were also lots of sides. I had to control my portions. I did end up taking home some buffalo hot legs. I would have them for lunch during the rest of the week. Allen and my mutual friend Kat were there; she brought a side dish. We grouched about Allen not coming like he promised when we were out watching Frankenhooker the month before. Apparently, he was at the gym rather than feasting with us. 

I went to a couple of medical appointments during the week. One on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. It was all routine stuff. An echo of my heart and a device check. Everything looks great. The exercise and light dieting has really paid off. I’m keeping off all the weight I lost, and I’m averaging 2-3 miles a day of walking. I feel great.

Friday night, I had fun going to the Blue Mouse Theater to watch “Krampus.” I had a chance to talk with some of my friends. Travis and his wife were there. She was selling gingerbread men, snickerdoodles, and Lemon Cake. James Stowe was there with his son Barret. Stowe created the artwork for the poster. He was selling it along with all of his other prints, including the work he’d done for the Weird Elephant series. I enjoy being in a theater with a crowd that’s there to laugh and enjoy a favorite movie. I took a slice of Lemon Cake home for Krista and Stowe’s poster for myself. 

Alley News

The work on the corner continues. The day before they poured the main sidewalks, a car accident occurred on the corner. Part of the curb was damaged. Krista and I investigated when we went for a walk and examined the repair work. Now that the first corner has been repaired and the sidewalk has been poured, the crew has moved across the street to the second corner. Krista is thrilled. The work crew drastically cut back the overgrowth from a poorly maintained yard. The result is increased visibility when driving or walking across the street.

I remembered a few of my dreams from this week:

Dec 10th #IDreamt I was a cop sitting with three others at a pancake restaurant. A call for assistance came in. Did we A: Leave, or B: Order chocolate pancakes.

Dec 11th #IDreamt, an older, pudgy actor with thin hair, received a request from his agents to grow his hair longer so that he’d look more manly. As he did so, he talked to several other actors about this advice.

Dec 12th #Idreamt I was an anthropomorphic car on a kid's television show. The director was attempting to fire me through his direction. But I reminded him my contract stipulated I wasn’t to perform such an unapproved scene.

Dec 13th #IDreamt I saw a black lizard with red markings in my friend’s yard and avoided stepping on it. Then, a black fish with red markings swam through the air around me. That seemed odd, so I took hold of it. A hatch opened on its back, revealing it was…

Dec 14th #IDreamt, a classroom of design students, began working around the clock when it was announced the curriculum had changed. Grades would now be based on quantity as well as quality.

Dec 15th #IDreamt I was leaving a large room on the top floor of an old rotting house. A hole in the center of the room began to expand as the floor crumbled away. Boxes and things fell through as it rapidly grew.

I logged a few movies this week:

112. Dec 12th Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021) Rating: 4

I'm always intrigued by Western horror movies. I watched this on Tubi. While intrigued by the premise, I found the movie's texture could have been more gritty than I hoped. So, my suspension of disbelief carried less than I'd expected. 

113. Dec 14th Air Doll (2016) Rating: 7

The meaning of awakening to an existence is a world filled with humans, and confronting their foibles is explored in this film. I watched this movie on Tubi.

114. Dec 15th Krampus (2016) Rating: 7

I watched this movie at Friday Night Frights, held the third Friday of the month at the Blue Mouse Theater in Tacoma. My friend James Stowe was selling movie posters he created for the event. The Krampus design has an interesting take. The story itself has you wondering where it's going. It was a crowd-pleaser for the audience of cheesy horror fans. It gets an extra point for having a dog with a name in it.

115. Dec 16th Barbie (2023) Rating: 8

I watched this on Max with my wife. My wife's comment was, "Meh." I personally loved all the social commentary the film was having fun with. It was very clever. I certainly enjoyed it. I gave it an extra point for having a dog with a name in it, even if that dog was plastic and ate and shat brown plastic blobs.

More next week,

Mark

Unboxing: Kiss-Cut Stickers

Unboxing: Two Boxes!

Unboxing: Horror Movie Bingo Cards 3rd Printing

Hey! Contact me if you want one $20 includes shipping and handling.

Don't you want to know what's in the box?

The Weekly Dose of Mark

Sunday, July 30th 2023 • 07/30/23

Allen Gladfelter drove both Greg Spence Wolf and me to Freelance Fandango. We arrived at the Red Elm Café to find a notice on the door that they were closed today due to staff shortage. I checked my phone, and sure enough, there was a voicemail from the owner telling me this. Somehow I missed it. So Greg left a sign on the door that Freelance Fandango will be held at our backup Corina’s Bakery. As Allen drove us over, I sent texts to Jennevieve, Stowe, Corry, and Anique. I asked if I had forgotten anyone. Don’t forget Nori! I sent Nori a text. Only later, when Stan strolled in and gave me a stern look, I forgot to text him. He teased me about it. Who do you forget to text? The one guy who is always at this thing. Allen asked me as the meeting ended what I would include in my write-up on the meeting. Will it be Nori’s gift to me of Japanese stamps and the stories of his visit with his mother there? Would it be Stan’s graphic novel that he received as a Kickstarter reward? Or would it be Stowe telling us about his daughter’s wonderful time at the Taylor Swift concert? How the wristbands were electronic and lit up creating patterns in the crowd to go with the music. I looked over at him, and he saw it in my eye. You’re going to write up the venue change, aren’t you? Yes, Allen. Yes, I am.

Wednesday night, I was enjoying dinner with Krista. I’d rescheduled The Grand Drawing Room live drawing event to begin at 6:30 rather than 6:00 just to have a non-rushed dinner. But, at 5:50, I got an email from Payton DeSanta, our model for the evening. She was letting me know that she’d arrived and that others were also showing up. So I sent her a text saying I was on my way. I quickly finished the few bites left on my plate and rushed out the door. I thanked everyone who showed up early for having the drawing session as a regular habit and encouraged them to attend at the new time. I’ll have to make a point of stressing the new time during the next wave of announcements. We had fifteen artists show up. In my correspondence with Payton, I’d encouraged her to go with a lighter, thinner costume because of the heat. She was very proud of her armor and wanted to show it off. She got a little woozy and had to take a break at one point. As she got back into position, I cheerfully mumbled in a mom’s tone. “Why don’t you wear the green costume? I asked. It might be better in case that space gets hot. But, no. You wanted to show off the armor.” Peyoton turned her head coyly at me and, with a surgery grin lacking any sweetness, said, “When you’re right. You’re right.” I zipped my lip, then. No need to say anything more about it. At least not without her whacking me over the head with some of that foam armor.

Saturday was very full. First up was Vince and Kim Kurter’s party at Farm 12 in Puyallup. The catered room was very large and not part of the main restaurant. There were easily fifty people there. The idea was to have this as their wedding reception, 60th birthday party, and all the other stuff they would have done with friends during the pandemic. I met Vince through the Pythians. But we had lots of mutual connections from his time working at newspapers. Breakfast was delicious. There was a fun little art project happening on the side involving rulers, scrabble pieces, glue, and stickers. I met people who were involved in the Tacoma writing scene, specifically Creative Coloquoly.

I’ve recently done illustrations for their anthologies. When the party began to wind down there, I said goodbye to Vince and Kim and went home. I did stop briefly at the fruit stand I parked close to and picked up a half flat of raspberries and blueberries. The next party I went to was a gathering at Greg Wolfe’s house. This was a smaller affair of about ten people. I took over some blackberries I picked in the yard. I had some salt and pepper potato chips and two of the three fruit salads people brought. We were hanging out in Greg and Paulet’s yard in event chairs under an apple tree. I got a call from Krista asking me where the funnel was hiding. She was busy taking the berries I brought home and turning them into berry syrup. The recipe called for a lot more sugar than she was willing to put into the syrup. But I wasn’t going to tell her to add more. Her instincts for cooking are far better than mine. So I went home, a mere four-block walk, and located the funnel for her so she could keep on task. Our plan was to go to the Bon Festival at the Buddist Temple together. But apparently, all the work in the kitchen had tired her out. She had been planning on going right up to the moment when she wasn’t. I went down to the temple to give the Buddist Temple some support by buying their Strawberry Mochi, which Krista loves. The food line stretched down the block. I got in line and enjoyed running into Nori and his daughters. Sweat Pea was there selling books on Buddhism. But I didn’t see any other familiar faces. By the time I got inside the building, I’d decided I was going to pick up some roasted eel. I wanted to see if it was better than the roasted eel I found in the freezer at Paldo and H Mart. I texted Krista and asked if she wanted some and picked up both of our dinners for the evening. I stuck around long enough to watch some of the drumming. Then it was home to eat eel.

Alley News

I went on a walk with Pat this week. The afternoon was cooler, and I’ve been trying to walk twice each day. There is a new feature on Pokemon Go called Routes. There should be a way to use them and to create them. However, it’s a new feature, and we complained about not being able to locate it on the app. I did some research online and found that it flat out wasn’t working for a lot of people. In the meantime, Pat sends me texts showing the photos of all the new Pokemon he’s catching. I have most, but he’s been catching a couple not in my collections.

A squirrel mocks me as it sits next to and on top of the squirrel trap. Krista reports that she saw the orange cat with white feet run across our backyard with a mouse in its mouth. Kill honing those skills, killer. Greg, who lives a couple of blocks down and across the street, has been catching feral cats and kittens. One of the kittens is orange with white feet. I meant to ask Greg about his feral cat catching at his party but forgot.

My neighbor, Button, called out to me as I was walking home earlier this week. The extension of her house comes right up to my property line. She asked if I would remove the tree next to her house because she was worried about it rubbing against the paint. The “tree” was a large native fern I’ve been encouraging for decades. These ferns don’t transplant well. I told Buttons I would build a trellis to keep it away from her house. But Krista said that wouldn’t work and I should remove it. I managed to transplant a fern once before successfully. It was over at my parent’s house. I’d also successfully transplanted a trillium. So I’ve dug up the fern. I should have prepared a hole for it before I pulled it out to the ground. But the day was getting warm, and I was overheating. I think I know just the spot that will be perfect for it. It will have the same amount of shade as before. And if it takes, it will look good. I think Buttons will be a lot happier now once she sees that the plant is gone.

Zucchini, beans, and cucumbers are being harvested daily from our garden. Krista has been busy making Lemon zucchini bread. She just tried an experiment with blueberry lemon bread. She said it had a bit of a blowout when she took it out to the pan. The blowout tasted delicious. Her next batch will be chocolate Zucchini bread. It was only earlier this month that we finished eating all of the frozen Zucchini bread from last year. Maybe our friends, family and neighbors will end up with some again.

Here are some of my dreams:

July 24

#IDreamt Michael McMurphy and I were investigating strange goings on at a campsite. I went in undercover and got a job as a busboy at a diner adjacent to the campsite.

July 25

#IDreamt I was a wizard sent back to 1950 to observe. But I got drunk and created a poorly CAD-rendered starship Enterprise, about seven feet long, to randomly fly around town. I was going to be in trouble when it hit the timeline.

July 26

#IDreamt new internet portals emerged. Yale University was rivaling Netflix. Their slogan: “When you need to post, post-Yale.”

July 27

I must have died again. #IDreamt I was in a waiting room with Sinead O’Connor designing an album cover. The title was “Derick is Dead.” Our conversation: “The revolver should be near the corner.” “Obviously.”

July 28

#IDreamt While waiting for Mick Jagger to arrive, I was examining an odd hibachi grill designed by John Denver. A maid told me the sushi arrived. I wonder why, if there was a maid, I’d been assigned to change the sheets?

It’s been well over a month since I mentioned the audiobooks I’ve enjoyed. I’m way behind on writing reviews for them on GoodReads. Most of the last couple of months have been escapist fantasies or memoirs. If you are curious about my reading history, you can check out my GoodReads account: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1127263-mark

“Winter in Paradise” by Elin Hilderbrand, June 18, Rating: 7

“The Daughters of Isdihar” By Hadeer Eisbai, Jun 22, Rating: 6

“Throne of Glass” Sara J. Maas, Jun 29, Rating: 5

“Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo, June 29, Rating: 7

“Nettle and Bone” by T. Kingfisher, July, Rating: 7

“The Warded Man” by Peter V Brett, July 3, Rating: 5

“The Hollow Places” by T. Kingfisher, July 8, Rating: 6

“The Memory Thief” by Lauren Mansy, July 14, Rating: 4

“Carnival of Snackery” by David Sedaris July 19, Rating: 8

“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner July 24, Rating: 5

“Calypso” by David Sedaris July 29, Rating: 8

“The Children on the Hill” by Jennifer McMahon, July 29, Rating 6

This book reminds me of some of the horror books I would read back in the ’80s. It’s set up horror, where little hints are presented, and he sees if you can guess where the writer is going. Will the story go to the left or to the right? Will a guess turn out to be correct, or did we extend our assumptions too far? The innocence of children is volleyed back and forth with the cruelty of a tennis match that doesn’t worry about the wear of the ball. Checked out from the library on an application called Libby.

68.

July 22

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Rating: 6

As I went to the Friday Night Frights showing at the Blue Mouse Theater, I wondered if I’d seen this movie before. Allen Gladfelter picked me up, and then we picked up Mark Brill, who’d created the poster for this showing of the movie, before carpooling to the destination. It was the first kill in the movie that reminded me I’d seen it, probably on VHS with a rented machine back in the ’80s when you’d through your lot in with a bunch of strangers to do a marathon of rentals overnight before returning the machine the next day. This time I was in an audience that loves trashy, dated films like these. I sell bingo cards with horror tropes on them. My friends were calling out tropes from memory as we tried to keep a body count. This exploitation slasher pleased everyone. Maybe it will take me another forty years to forget the details.

69.

July 22

Oppenheimer (2023) Rating: 8

I’m suffering from movie afterglow. I wasn’t expecting much from this film and was completely blown away. There are multiple plot lines that weave together so skilfully that you don’t realize the overall big picture is a rope of a plotline. All the actors gave high performances. Allen Gladfelter treated me to this movie at the Grand Cinema.

70.

July 23

Bird Box Barcelona (2023) Rating: 7

This is not a sequel to “Bird Box,” which came out in 2018. Rather it is a story told in the same world, at a different location in the world. The story dives a bit deeper into madness, treachery, and perception. I was going to give it a slightly lower score than the first film in the franchise, but I gave it an extra point for having a dog with a name. I watched it on Netflix.

71.

July 29

Saw (2004) Rating: 6

I can’t believe it took me nearly twenty years to get around to watching this movie. At least now I’ll feel better about watching the rest of the franchise. I couldn’t have helped to see clips, parodies, and spoilers in those long years. Still, it holds up fairly well, and I’m curious to see if the writing will be as tight as in the rest of the franchise. I can also see how this film influenced others that followed. I watched it on a DVD from Netflix.

Weekly Dose of Mark

Friday, July 21st, 2023 • 07/21/23

On Monday the car didn’t start. I texted Greg Spencer Wolf and told him I could not pick him up. He asked if I needed him to come over to jump-start the car, and I agreed. It took him a while to find the right alley because he was looking on the wrong side of the street. The car was locked in park, so we couldn’t move it out of the garage. With the car in the garage, our cables were not long enough. I left Greg and Krista looking through the manual to get my neighbor Don’s electric starter. Greg and Krista discovered a way to unpark the car in the manual, but by then, Don was over with the starter. Don tried to open the battery to check the water but with no luck. I thanked him and Greg. After I told Greg I was going to go to the battery store, he drove on his own down to Fandango. During all of this, I called Stowe to let him know I couldn’t pick him up. The battery store said the battery was still under warranty, but checking it showed it was back to 80%. Krista told me the inside cab light had been left on. I remember going out to search through the glove compartment the day before. I must have left it on, and it drained the battery. I was only an hour late to Freelance Fandango, where Greg, Jennevieve, Stan, and Penny were kind enough not to tease me too much. The KitKat flavor was cookies and cream, which the group found to be too sweet.

Krista and I have enjoyed watching Sumo this week. It’s the July Basho. There’s a changing of the guard happening. Several of the players we’ve cheered on over the years are either retiring or falling into the lower rankings. There’s a lot of young blood coming in, and I do mean young. One of the youngest is a nineteen-year-old whose hair still isn’t long enough to form a topknot. We are watching to see if early injuries will shorten their career. A sport that is basically king-of-the-hill sees a lot of injuries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a basho where a player didn’t bleed or withdraw from injury. I won’t bore you with statistics. Just know that for 30 minutes in the day, sometimes in the morning, more often in the afternoon or evening, Krista and I are calling out the names of who we think will win and howling in agony or triumph at close calls, just like football or baseball fans. We don’t wear any sports colors, but I did have a Takayasu pillow I wave about.

This week I’ve been taking my daily walks in the morning while it is still cool. I was finishing my walk around Wapato Park and saw children playing in front of the civic center. This is the time of year when it is used as a location for children to come and play with supervision. A group of what must have been eight-year-olds were playing musical chairs on the grass. My best guess is that it was early in the game. There were at least ten chairs to be circled, with only a couple having been set aside. The organizers were pros at this. I could see that they were drawing out the game as long as they could, so the tension would be high for both those watching and participating. The kids were all smiling, laughing, jumping, and waving their arms. It was a charming scene and a perfect way to bring my walk to a close. I’m trying to remember the last time I played that game. Was it in grade school? I have less than a memory, an inkling perhaps, of playing it in college in the dorm commons. Earlier in my walk, I was laughing. I was on a dirt path surrounded by birds singing, bright greens of plants and trees around me, a warm sunny day with a light breeze, and all was right in the world. You really have to enjoy those moments when they happen.

I was happy to find a nickel on the sidewalk during one of my morning walks. I’m lucky if I find a penny. I’ve found quarters and dimes, but finding a nickel was not bad at all. It was just as I was thinking this that I spotted a folded five-dollar bill. I truly couldn’t believe my luck. I thought it must be torn in half. But, no, it was an intact five-dollar bill. As I tucked it into my pocket, I realized that this was going to jump out in the statistics I keep of picked-up money. The total for 2021 was $1.06. 2022 was $1.35. When I got home, I told my wife I found a nickel.

“WooHoo,” she said cheerfully.

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “But a few footsteps later, I found this.” I snapped the five-dollar bill out between my two hands like I was holding up a shirt.

“I five dollar bill!” I announced.

“Ooooooooo!” She admired.

There’s a new lost dog bulletin posted on a utility pole near the post office. A 12-year-old Chihuahua Dautson mix ran away on the 4th of July. I wonder if the fireworks scared him out of his senses. I also wonder if he ever made it home safely and if their owner never bothered to take down the signs. 

The Weird Cabal is a group of artists I organized to create movie posters for the Grand Cinema’s Weird Elephant series. Wade, the fellow in charge of scheduling movies at the Grand, told me he planned on getting “The Wicker Man.” I usually will let the entire group put “dibs” in on a film. But I’ve not done a poster in months and wanted to do it, so I started the artwork for the poster even before Wade officially announced it. The rest of the group forgave me. The Grand announced that one of the movies they will be showing is “The Cabinet of Dr. Calgori.” I would love to do a movie poster for that classic, but I’d already claimed “The Wicker Man.” It wasn’t long before Brill and Stowe both put in dibs. I mentioned I wanted to do it, too but knew I’d have to let someone else take it. Stowe suggested that all the members of the Cabal do a poster. Just as this idea gained traction, Wade stepped in and said that both “The Cabinet of Dr. Calgori” and “Nosferatu” had their own group that toured with the films and sold their posters. They didn’t want to have to split sales. He apologized for not mentioning that sooner. I’m still thinking about doing a poster, which I can always sell at my other shows. 

Alley News

There was a flurry of activity outside my window. It was the young grey cat hot on the heels of a grey squirrel. He must have caught him by surprise because this squirrel was practically under its claws. Had the cat a little more experience, the squirrel would have been a goner instead of finally managing an escape through some bushes. I opened the front door, complimented the cat for his fine efforts, and set up the squirrel trap. I told Krista about the excitement. A couple of hours later, I reported the squirrel was in the trap. “Already?” she asked. I loaded the trap into the trunk and drove it to Sprinker Center. Their large parking lot is under renovation. Most of it was torn up. I had to park near the edge of the road in what spaces were remaining. The squirrel had four options, through the tall temporary chainlink into the dirt and dust of the parking lot construction, across the street to the golf course, across another street to Goodwill and strip mall, or to a large lone pine tree set next to the side of the road. It chose the pine tree. As I put the trap back into the trunk, I noticed a portable surveillance camera. It was part of a trailer unit with a tall telescoping pole with a camera on top. I’m sure it was used to check the perimeter of the parking lot. I wondered if it was on and if anyone was going to be amused by a few seconds of footage. The next day I noticed there was another squirrel in the yard. I’d reset the trap, and the varmint was digging around next to it.

July 15

#IDreamt I called my wife over to the window to see a goldfinch. Then I realized it was a Robin-sized, yellow, orange, and black. What type of bird is that? I asked.

July 17

#IDreamt I lived in one of the outer dimensions. My job was to adjust the filters to make it look better than it was to encourage choosing it as a destination. Most dimensions travel was one way.

July 18

#IDreamt my family was at a fishing lodge in Forks when the river flooded overnight. The water was at the doorstep. My late grandmother arrived complaining she was cold. I bundled her up in a chair next to the fireplace.

July 19

#IDreamt the characters from my recent dreams were creating a competition chart. Some of the criteria for judgment would be non-sequiturs of conversations and erratic movement.

July 20

#IDreamt my friend Goro visited me during a family gathering at my Uncle’s house. But the year was 1986. Neither he nor I could talk about what came after 1986.

July 21

#IDreamt I was a teenager disguised as a clown retrieving a camera as I attempted to escape from the Fairgrounds.

I watched some movies this week:

65. July 14

Deadly Instincts (1997) Rating: 3

I thought I was getting “Breeders” from 1987, not this film, which Netflix’s DVD service has titled “Breeders.” Rubber suit alien: check. Sexploitation: check. Way too much running around in the basement, sewers, whatever the hell space they call it: check. I took one point off when I realized I got the wrong movie. And the last point I took off was when the much-awaited exposition was carried out in less than thirty seconds.

66. July 16

Evil Dead Rise (2023) Rating: 10

Ramini and Campbell know just what the fans of the franchise want. And this time, they went into it with all the horror and little of the humor. The fans wanted a dark seat-squirmer, and they got one. Homage was paid to the original films in many ways. But all without it being larkish. I watched this movie on Max.

67. July 16

Nimona (2023) Rating: 7

I read the webcomic a long time ago. I had no idea a movie option was picked up. The story is a version of the webcomic, so if you enjoyed the movie, I think you would enjoy seeing the difference and choice made when they made the adaptation. The message of the film is very inclusive and more subtle than other animation films featuring inclusion as a theme. Disney made a mistake in dropping this film, and Netflix did more than a good deed in picking it up. Lots of fun.

More next week,

Mark

Weekly Dose of Mark

Friday, July 14, 2023, Tacoma, WA • 07/14/23

Joining me at Freelance Fandango this week were Greg Spencer Wolf, Haley Waddington, James Stowe, and Allen Gladfelter. I needed to take notes about our discussions and stories, as my head swelled with them when I got home. And now I can’t remember a single one. I do recall that Allen was coaching Greg on how to improve drawing fingers. Maybe the AI programs can take a few tips. We also discussed submitting to have a table at Arts at the Armory. I will apply only on Sunday as I already have booked for Jet City Comicon on Saturday, and the table agreed that most of my fanbase will be there that day.

Stickermule is doing a special this week where they offer a discount on a different type of sticker each day. This is great because my sticker inventory was getting low. However, I only had one design created for a round die-cut sticker, and I just picked those up a couple of weeks ago. But I knew I had to get started on my next Weird Elephant poster for a film titled “The Wickerman.” I was distracted by a few other tasks and didn’t start the project until the afternoon. But once I started, I worked on it non-stop. Well, I did stop to have dinner. I had a deadline. I needed to stop at 9:30 because that’s when I prep for bed. I pushed myself and finished. I then went online to submit the art only to discover that Stickermule’s deadline had passed. They were only offering their next daily deal, which was holographic stickers. I was bummed! This design wasn’t going to work for a holographic sticker. I was low on a design that I’d used holographic backing before and resubmitted that artwork. Oh well, at least I got a much-needed jump start to my poster design.

My friend Penny Firehorse has jury duty all this week. I don’t think she was ever called. Which meant she basically sat in a room all week on-call. I got a jury notice last month. I looked at it today to check the website for next week. Whoops! I got the dates confused and was supposed to be serving this week. I sent Penny a message, “Did I miss anything?”

I was picking up some take-out at Panda Express this week when I saw a small family of four waiting for their order. The husband was playing with their youngest, a boy who I guess was six or seven. He was a small bundle of energy in the dirtiest Crocs I’d ever seen. One fell off his foot as the father slowly strolled after him through the empty tables. In economic movements accomplished only by young fathers, he noted the missing croc and picked up his son just as the kid’s foot touched the floor. He then swung the kid into the errant show. All this went smoothly, even after the father was surprised that his child left a perfect brown footprint on the floor. Baby footprints on birth certificates were not as perfect. The father called his young pre-tween daughter over. She was nothing but long limbs and long hair. Impressed by the footprint, she returned to her mother, who was still seated and waiting for their take-out bags. As the daughter reported on the footprint, the look which crossed her face was not one of amusement. Instead, in was a combination of repelant disgust and mild horror. It wasn’t a fleeting expression. It landed on her face and remained there, much like her child’s footprint on the floor was going to be there until someone scrubbed it away. You could tell that this footprint wasn’t going to disappear with a sweep. Somebody was going to have to get a bucket. In the meantime, it drew attention to itself out of its sheer perfection.

Alley News

We have been eating peas with every dinner. Also coming in are cucumbers, which we are dicing up to include in our salads and zucchini. Krista picks it while it is still less than a foot long and very tender. I’ve asked her to repeat a chicken dish she made earlier this week, but this time with mushrooms. I think it will be perfect then. 

Last trimmed blackberry vines outside our front fence. I also removed many that were in the garden in the hedge that boarders our neighbor’s yard and acts as a screen to their chainlink fence. I filled both of our yard waste containers, which got picked up this week.

For the first time in seven years, the nearby Air Force base will be hosting an air show. One of their attractions is going to be the Thunderbirds. Today they practiced in the sky over our house. While this was noisy at times, it was also very entertaining. Judy Martin came out from under her carport to watch them. Our neighbors Pat and Cathy Smith were also looking up into the sky. They repeated their practice a few hours later when I walked to the Quick-E-Mart a few blocks from here. Krista encouraged me to buy some lottery tickets. Mega Millions is at $560 Million, Powerball is at $875, and the local Lotto is at $4.2 Million. “I want to retire next week,” Krista told me, “so be sure you get the winning numbers.” As I walked home, the four jets flew so low I swore I could read their nametags. SSSSWOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHH!!

I had some dreams this week:

July 6

#IDreamt in order to take a college course, I had to return to high school for a quarter. I wasn’t making any friends in art class.

July 7

#IDreamt my brothers Cliff and Stan were renting a multi-room rent-controlled apartment in NYC with some friends. They invited me to live there too. One of the friends was moving out. We were cleaning garbage out of a shared vehicle.

July 8

#IDreamt a mother kept wearing Pokémon themed clothing to annoy her daughter long after the daughter lost interest in the game as an act of long-burn revenge.

July 9

#IDreamt purgatory was a nearly abandoned Mall. Jack Elan saw my confusion and explained, “All these places are connected.” He then showed me around a corner to a bar in Thailand, where we ordered seared sirloin strips.

July 10

#IDreamt my personality split into multiple parts for a group therapy session. One part of me convinced the others that this was unproductive narcissistic feeding bull hockey.

July 11

#IDreamt while waiting for the hotel shuttle, I found several Hawaiian Shirts buried in the sand with a note from a thief, a guest at a hotel stole them from another guest to make a treasure map for their kids.

July 13

#IDreamt I was the first of several people to turn into a 16-foot giant. Large seeds were popping through my skin like acne. Scientists didn’t know what to make of it.

July 14

#IDreamt it was 1934 when an alien and his equivalent to a cow appeared on a secluded farm where a farmer, his wife, son, daughter, and their cow lived. Everything was fine until the farmer had a psychotic break.

I’m in the middle of a couple of movies right now. But here’s one I did finish watching on YouTube.

64. July 8

They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) Rating: 5

I watched this movie because I was curious about Extraction 2, and I like watching my movies in the sequence they were released. This is a highly challenging kill-count movie. It’s even a difficult explosion-count movie. The action scene goes at a breakneck pace through a warren of alleys, apartments, balconies, and slums. It kept me entertained as Fourth of July fireworks went off through the night and didn’t interfere at all with the view of the film.

More next week,

Mark

Weekly Dose of Mark

Sunday, May 28th 2023 • 05/28/23 – Memorial Day Weekend

I didn’t write a Weekly Dose last Friday because there was too much going on at the time. And, as often happens, so much kept happening that another week went by. I’m going to do my best to get you caught up.

The first change to my schedule occurred on Monday, May 15th. Normally I would host a freelancer gathering at the Red Elm Café. This small gathering is called Freelance Fandango, and it runs from 11am until 1pm. However, I had to miss it because the Tacoma Art Commission scheduled an online video conference for all selected artists to create artwork wraps for crosswalk utility boxes. We were going to be instructed on how to file contracts and the measurements of the artwork. Representatives from the print company and the city were both there. After their presentation, I had several questions. The questions I raised inspired the other artists to ask for clarification on small specifics. I’m very glad I took the time to attend and didn’t rely on the recording of the event. I went onto Freelance Fandango’s Facebook page and saw that there was a fun turnout of people without me. Everyone complained about the lack of Kit Kats. 

 Another change to the schedule was Krista having to go into her office in Olympia on Wednesday. She does much better working at home. But, this was a council meeting, and it needed someone on-site to run events. 

 Thursday, I was busy prepping my bins for Crypticon. Crypticon is the largest horror-themed convention in Washington State and is held at a hotel in SeaTac, very near Sea-Tac airport. It runs three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. John Draper helped me on Friday. I spent a little extra to be in the vendor hall rather than the artists’ alley. Not only did I have a backdrop, but the vendor to my right put up a plywood wall between us. With their permission took advantage and draped a spare red tablecloth over it and then hung my shirts on it rather than the poster backdrop. The folks on my other side were a tattooist. He had people booked on his table throughout the entire event. I was grateful for John being there. I would have taken him out to dinner as a thank you. But when I sent him out at lunchtime for some sandwiches, he bought himself a sandwich for dinner. That was a good idea as the Crypticon show starts late and ends late. The vendor’s hall didn’t close until 8 pm. I dropped John off at nine and ate a small dinner with Krista when we got home. I would have to ask John if he had a chance to talk with any of the writers who were selling books at the show.

 Allen Gladfelter helped me on Saturday. Allen picked me up at eight, and we had breakfast at Little Jerry’s down the street. We didn’t have to rush and enjoyed a nicely paced breakfast. I’m not used to eating a big breakfast and was quite fortified. Allen was kind enough to use his car so that Krista could use our car to pick up plants and the like for her weekend activities. Allen has helped me at several conventions, and I can rely on him to pitch and sell items when I step away from the table. Allen is slowly getting items of his own to sell: books, prints, and stickers. So we added those to the display, and he made some sales.

 I allow myself to get one autograph when I’m at Crypticon. There were a lot of celebrities to choose from. This year I chose Dee Wallace. Dee Wallace is an Actress I’ve been following since the ’80s. Most people will remember her as the mom in “E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial.” She was also the lead actress in “The Howling” and” Cujo.” She’s been active for decades in both film and television. Most of the films have been horror films, so it was very easy for me to keep track of her. I left Allen at the table to see if the line for her autographs was short enough for Allen to get a signature for me. But I got lucky, and she was finishing up with a fan as I went to the table and chose a headshot from “The Howling” for her to sign. As she signed it, she asked if I’d be willing to toss in another $20 for a selfie with her. I couldn’t refuse! I could not get over what a small petite woman she was. And as she signed the photo, I complemented how well her most recent headshot looked. She then said, “Oh, let me give that to you for free.” And she signed it as well. So I had to do something for her. I went back to my table and drew a picture of her in the movie “Cujo,” where she is trapped in the car with the dog on the hood, trying to get in. I then went back and gave it to her when her line had quieted down. She laughed when she saw it. She then flipped through the book to where I drew a review of “E.T.” I’d compared the movie to a boy and his dog film. She laughed again and gave me a motherly slap on the shoulder like I had just tried to pull a fast one. “My husband is going to love this.” She told me.

 I have lots of friends who have tables at Crypticon. It’s hard for me to get time to visit them all. Elizabeth Guizzetti writes and illustrates books featuring vampires and aliens. Other artists I know who were in Artist Alley are Eli Wolff, Mark Brill, Chad Scheres, and Nick Gucker. I chose to be over in the vendor’s room this time and sat across from Jason Emmott and his wife at Evil Threads. I was worried that my friend Travis Bundy wasn’t going to be able to sit the entire convention because of back pain. But he has Kevin McCoy with him, and that lightened the load enough that he was able to manage all three days. I’d hoped to have my neighbor Pat Smith with me on Sunday, but he had other commitments. Thankfully I was able to manage by myself, and Crypticon is a very easy show to set and tear down as the car was parked very close by. The show was not as profitable as last year, but last year it was absolutely nuts! So, it’s tough to compare the two shows. I think I will still stay in the vendor’s hall because of the extra display options.

 My Uncle Bill, an identical twin to my father, moved to Shoreline, WA, on May 25th. I’m going to give him a call in a few days. I think his daughters are moving him into his apartment right now. I know that they were invited to a wedding. I believe it’s Cody Wagner’s wedding, a relative on his late wife’s side of the family.

 I was able to host Freelance Fandango this last Monday. There were seven of us in attendance: Britton Sukys, Corey Macourek, Stan Brown, Nori Kimura, Haley Waddington, Mark Brill and myself. Cory and Brill brought in movie poster art to show. Brittan brought comic and graphic novel art that he’s been working on. Brill brought in another art book. I asked everyone to submit suggestions for a new bingo game I’m creating. I made one for horror movie fans that is selling well, so I want to create one for Anime fans. By the end of the meeting, the whiteboard was filled with suggestions. These were erased, and then we all drew versions of the proposals. I brought a new KitKat flavor this week: Banana Caramel. It was voted one of the better flavors. I made sure to bring one home for Krista since she found the bag. I also have been giving a couple to the staff of the Red Elm Café as a thank you. They have been very generous in letting us use their meeting room for nothing more than the snacks and meals we buy.

 Once a month, I host another event, a drawing session at the Grand Cinema. We call it The Grand Drawing Room. It runs for two hours from 6-8pm. Attendance for this event has been filling the room. This month we had a cosplayer named Miriam as our model. One of my tasks is to position the model into interesting poses for the artists. We also changed the room’s layout this time, with the tables close to the sofa on which the artist stood and sat. Before, we had things arranged with the tables in rows, and late arrivals were stuck in the back rows. This month many of the artists brought friends who were in the back reading books and watching the group quietly draw. One of the artists approached me after the show and asked if she could be the cosplay model for next month. I've already posted the event announcement with her photo. I set up a Facebook page so everyone had a location where they could show off their artwork. You can see photos and sketches of our sessions at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1042279923844176

 Speaking of the Grand Cinemas, both Mark Brill and James Stowe did movie posters this week. Brill did a poster for “The Seven Samurai,” and Stowe did a poster for “Perfect Blue.” I gave the binders holding past posters to Brill before his on Thursday. I then retrieved them and took them to Stowe for his turn in the lobby on Friday. I sat with him and helped to keep track of sales. He sold more posters on Saturday. 

 There were several shows happening this weekend. I didn’t make it into the Punk Rock Flea Market. I was accepted off the waiting list for Tacoma’s Night Market, but by then, I’d already committed to doing the Tabletop Expo. But this week was up in the air as Krista and I weren’t sure if we’d be traveling or not. In the end, I did not table at the Table Top Expo, but Allen Gladfelter and Mark Brill did. Instead, Stowe and I carpooled up to Renton to be part of a panel. Polo, the organizer, asked me if I could line up some artists. Stowe and I stopped at The Cedar River Smokehouse for a BBQ lunch before we went to the expo. He had a chopped porked sandwich. I ordered the brisket sandwich. The owner came out and told us about some new sandwiches he was offering. Instead of a long bun, these would be on a round potato or onion bun, with coleslaw and pickles as part of the sandwich. I changed my order to it and was glad I did so; it was delicious. Stowe’s side selection was coleslaw, so he didn’t change his order. My side was macaroni and cheese. The extra carbs were delicious. Our panel was not as well attended as I had hoped. It was Stowe, Allen, and myself at the table with nobody in the audience. The show was very small and thinly attended. However, we turned on the microphones and made them loud enough that they could be heard over some of the expo hall and got into a discussion with each other. The debate lured our lone audience member into the room. He was joined by the organizer, and we had fun. Both Stowe and Allen are teachers and are looking forward to summer break so that they can hang out with the rest of their artist buddies. Stowe made sure to give me the Grand Cinema poster binders for safekeeping.

 Alley News

 My neighbor Pat Smith and I have gone on walks nearly every day, even on days when I’ve already gone on a walk with Krista. Pat taught me a couple of Pokemon Go this week. He called me up yesterday to see if I wanted to go for a walk. I turned him down as I was busy out in the yard with the weed whacker. The replacement for the battery I ordered still is being processed. I wonder if they discovered that all of their stock is filled with faulty batteries. In the meantime, I’m stuck using the weedwhacker. I tried the push mover, but the grass was too long for it to function easily. It’s been sitting idle for several years, and I’m sure the blades need sharpening. Krista bought plants. She’s also been planting seeds and cuttings that she nurtured over the winter. We should be getting some vegetables soon. Judy Martin is sitting outside on her carport now that the weather is warmer. The Smiths are over at her house a couple of times each day. We were yelling at each other not to give away any spoilers, as today was the last day of the Sumo Tournament. Krista and I have gotten our neighbors addicted to watching sumo.

 I had some dreams:

May 14

#IDreamt time-traveling teenagers from the future infiltrated high schools in the past. Rather than murder, they assassinated would-be politicians’ characters with rumor, innuendo, and such.

 May 15

#IDreamt I was a runaway youth who was also a material witness. I was bad at faces but good at remembering badge numbers. I ran from the police assigned to my transportation because they had black tape over their badge numbers.

 May 16

#IDreamt that I could tell when one dream stopped and another began. My brain then had the option of rewinding the dream for two minutes to change the ending.

 May 17

#IDreamt While doing an old friend a favor, I walked into a plot to blow up a wealthy oil magnate while he was getting drunk at a club. I think I was the only sober one there, but high school chemistry was a long time ago.

 May 18

#IDreamt Barack Obama wanted to hire me to do a graphic novel. He’d hired another artist who did it, but his advisors didn’t like it. I looked at it and saw it was superior to what I could do and told him so. He still wanted to do it.

 May 19

#IDreamt creating a space station with a functioning pool was less of a challenge than you would think. The surprise was in water in the pool becoming sentient a few decades later.

 May 22

#IDreamt I was meeting my sister at Steam Engine Station’s Cafe, where she went to get a Latte. I found her flirting with a young Marlon Brando. I wondered if we were in the afterlife, and I was just slow in figuring it out.

 May 23

I dreamt I was at a client’s convention, searching through two flash drives for images to insert into a PowerPoint presentation mere minutes before their time slot was scheduled.

 May 24

#IDreamt David Hasselhoff was celebrating his birthday by giving away fried chicken at a seaside bar. He was also signing his autograph. He was behaving just like he did in “Piranha 3DD”.

 May 25

#IDreamt after its debut at a county fair, the Rat-Bait Guitar was remarked as a dog’s chew toy (minus the rat poison). Sales soared after a TikTok video showed a dog being a music critic.

 May 26

I dreamt I took a large cedar tree pole to a lumberyard and haggled with them over its value.

 May 28

#IDreamt I was mistaken for a spy and found myself wearing an exosuit that could mimic my physical appearance and completely protect me. The drawback was I couldn’t take it off. And it could mess with my mind by feeding me false info.

   I read a couple of books:

 “Paperback From Hell: The Twisted Story of ’70s and ’80s Twisted Horror Fiction” by Grady Hendrix, Rating: 10

I was a voracious reader from an early age. As a teenager and college student, I consumed 3-5 books a week, often re-reading my favorites. And I was a horror fan. It never occurred to me that these decades would be the heyday for such books. As I flipped through the pages, I was amazed. I pointed to the covers and said, “I read this one, and this one, and this one, and this one. Oh, and this one too.” I’ve been showing this book to my friends, and they asked if I’ve read any of the ones featured. They chortle when I confess I’ve read most of them. They become intrigued. I don’t know why. A lot of those books were completely trashy! Most of them were! But I couldn’t get enough of their gory, nightmare-fueling contents. Now I’m using it as a reference to hunt down books at the used bookstore. These aren’t titles you will find in the audiobook section of the library. My niece, who bought me this book as a gift, was intrigued and might get herself a copy.

 “Sacrament” by Clive Barker, Rating:7

There was less goo and grisel than I was expecting. And since I kept expecting it, I was kept on edge. It wasn’t until I was halfway through the book that I settled on the rhythm the author established for the story. That was a bit of relief. I hadn’t read a horror novel in a while. I first started to read Barker in the ’80s when horror was a bit extreme in themes, description, and insane writing decisions. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to wade up to my hips in gore and goop. That’s not to say that there is a lack of some disturbing images. I enjoyed hearing Mr. Barker’s storytelling voice again.

 I’ve watched some movies

 53. May 16

No Man of Her Own (1932) Rating: 7

It’s quite possible I watched this film when I was a kid, that is, if they allowed pre-code movies on television. The romance angle must have left me flat if I had watched it before. I was probably more interested in the card shark aspects. As an adult, I enjoyed it for many reasons. I got to think about how much better movies were pre-code when the innuendo allowed for more salaciousness. I enjoyed it as it was the only time the two leads worked together, even though they would marry years later. And I enjoyed it because of the character actors and the wonderful sets. These early films kindle my nostalgia. I watched it on a Netflix DVD.

 54. May 18

Ted (2012) Rating: 7

There comes a time when you realize you’ve watched the same clips from a movie so many times that had you spent that same amount of time just watching the film, you would have seen the whole thing by now. So, before I started to get my Ted clips confused with Ted 2 clips, and before the rumored Ted 3 came out, I thought I should see the film. Why haven’t I seen this film? Perhaps it’s because I don’t smoke pot, drink beer, or make jokes about hookers. And having met Sam J. Jones, I can tell you my reaction to the experience was very much like that in the movie - minus the cocaine. I watched it on Amazon Prime.

 55. May 24

The Deadly Mantix (1956) Rating: 6

Do you want to see a giant mantis? This is the film for you. It also comes with lots of stock footage of air force planes. There’s also a lot of footage of civilian airforce spotters. Perhaps a thank you for all their hard work in looking for airplanes that never appeared during WWII. The danger of the cold war was made abundantly clear with multiple references to the various lines of defense against “the threat” against “us.” I watched it on a DVD from my personal collection.

 Not a movie, but an Anime series on Netflix I finished watching:

Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre (2023) Rating: 6

I lived in Japan for a year back in 1979 before Anime and Manga started to influence American culture. But I got hooked on it while I was there, and I was particularly fascinated by their spooky tales, which differed in their approach to horror. This collection captures the weirdness of their horror.

 Songs I woke up with in my head:

“Honky Tong Women” by the Rolling Stones

“Royals” by Pentatonix

 “Here Comes The Sun” by the Beatles

“The Distance” by Cake

“Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac

 More next week,

Mark