San Francisco - Part VII

Sharon Spotbottom is just my cup of tea… Illustration: Karen Heathwood     

Art Appreciation

There are many people who helped make our San Francisco vacation a special one. If I were writing this thirty years ago I would have consulted with a travel agent, queried relatives and friends who had made a similar trip, and bought a guidebook. Now, with the magic of the internet (although I suppose anyone who grew up with it wouldn’t consider the internet ‘magic’), I received several suggestions from people who I wouldn’t have known back in those dark ages. I’ve mentioned DJ Cousin Mary’s help previously and, of course, “NorCal” Shoshanah who grew up in the area. Interestingly enough, most of the commercial travel sites on the ’net weren’t very helpful—either outdated with dead links or just fronts for numerous tour offerings. We did use the Muni and Bart sites a lot however; public transportation in San Francisco is superb and having a Clipper Card made getting around a breeze.  Most parts of the city are within a short walking distance from routes and the various buses, streetcars, and cable cars run often.

One very special blog-pal who contributed to our trip planning was Karen Heathwood: artist, illustrator and inventor. Her travel suggestions were all spot-on. Karen is also the creator of my favorite demented stick figure Sharon Spotbottom (who has been featured on FITK many times.) The Weaver and I arranged to meet her and her partner Elaine at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Many amusing and informative stories were exchanged between the four of us, including artistic assessments of the exhibits. We had tea and coffee in the museum café, and posed for pictures afterward:


Sharon, Batty, Karen at the de Young Museum, February 25, 2018

To top it off, Karen gifted me this original Sharon Spotbottom panel:



Without getting too gushy, I have to say that Karen is one person who has truly enriched my life. Her little single panel comics have amused, enlightened and even touched me on many occasions. More subtle than commercial comic strips, Sharon Spotbottom’s adventures were often reflections on the human condition and the situations we all face as we go through life. Of course some were just whimsy, and some went to some very strange outposts of the human psyche. Karen even encouraged me to try my hand in creating glimpses of Sharon’s world. The kid is alright.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make our trip a success.

See all the FITK San Francisco posts here.

Sharon's Family

Sharon's Dadoo:
Baron Von Spotbottom is a lovely man who enjoys his pets and tinkering around the house.

Sharon's Mamoo:
Clodagh Spotbottom is prone to chasing Sharon with a broom. Sharon has her fathers nose.

Sharon's sister:
Grindle once led a bus load of Girl Scouts over a cliff and then went home to eat all their cookies with Sharon.

Sharon's brother:
Ted Spotbottom hums and smiles when he reads.




Sharon's family will be featured here almost daily until the end of the year.

Used by permission

Spotbottom Thanksgiving

Bird feasting is a hog-wild Spotbottom family tradition.













Feast your eyes on this special holiday Sharon! Sharon returns a week from Friday...

Used by permission

Soggy Sharon

How high’s the water, Sharon?

Sharon Spotbottom lives in The Shire California which is currently experiencing torrential rains.



Sharon Spotbottom character ©2007 by Karen Heathwood. Used by permission.

Desperately Seeking Sharon, Part 6

At Last!


“Are you sure this is the right address?” I asked the cabbie.

“UN general assembly building, that’s what the paper says, buddy.”

“That's BATTY, not buddy!”

I paid my fare and went into the building.

“Here goes nothing,” I thought, “Madame Tara is probably laughing her head off.” But the receptionist read Tara’s note and summoned a page to show me where to go. He took me to a door marked ‘Gallery’ and said “You must be quiet, for the assembly is in session.”


Imagine my surprise to see Sharon on the giant video screens! The chairman was introducing “The Representative from the Shire, Sharon Spotbottom.” I finally picked out where she sat among the delegates. She raised her hand and began to throw small green balls into the crowd! Pandemonium ensued, Sharon was wrestled to the floor and taken away.


A photo was in the papers the next day, with the headline:

  Spotbottom’s Whirled Peas Plan Panics UN

At least the Baron knows where she is now!

Sharon Hólavallargarður

Jumping the Halloween season, Sharon Spotbottom explores the old Reykjavík city cemetery and in the process manages to lose her purse.

Stay tuned for upcoming FITK coverage of Iceland Airwaves, Nov 2-4

Sharon Spotbottom character ©2007 by Karen Heathwood. Used by permission.

Halloween

Sharon Spotbottom is back just in time for Halloween — and now in hi-def!
(Click to embiggen.)

Sharon Spotbottom ©Karen Heathwood, 2007, Used by permission.

Sharon Plays Dead

The Spotbottom kids love playing this trick on their parents.
The Spotbottom parents like to pretend they care.

'Tis the season for Sharon

Used by permission

All good things must come to an end…

   This marks the last of the Sharon Spotbottom posts to be featured on Flippism is the Key. The Professor extends his heartfelt thanks to artist Karen Heathwood for allowing Sharon to grace this site for the last two years. Sharon speaks to me in ways I still don't fully understand but I guess that comes with her being "nothing if she is anything."

   There will always be a place for Sharon in my Flippist heart as long as it remains beating.


   XOXOXO

   I Heart Sharon Spotbottom.

Year-end Inspirations

Crackpot                                                       Pine-paneled garret                                          Inspirations

2016!

Need I say more?

This year-end post won’t wallow in the mire of politics, nor will it memorialize celebs that have gone on, prematurely or not. Instead, let me celebrate the good that has come out of this increasingly anachronistic enterprise—Flippism is the Key. I know many pundits have declared that “Blogs are Dead”, but they still exist: attended by furtive, fuzzy-sweater wearing crackpots who have, in their pine-paneled garrets, been erecting shrines to their virtual obsessions.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been “dumping” my Icelandic images and stories here lately—I’m stopping my Icelandic coverage. Twelve years is enough; the well has gone dry.  A wild ride, especially when I think of all the people I’ve interacted with on FITK and my literary site, Laxness in Translation, both in Iceland and around the world. All the FITK Icelandic-themed posts will remain, of course, as a sub-archive of one man’s infatuation.

I’ll be starting a new “Friday Fiction Feature” next week: an open-ended, loosely structured work, more experimental in nature, for people who actually read. The episodes are intended to stand on their own, but there will be recurring characters and a rudimentary plot. FITK will still feature pictures, more illustrative than realistic, perhaps even a return of some new Sharon Spotbottom. Less facts, more fun. Finally, what would a year-end wrap-up be with mentioning those who have inspired me all year long?

Jono, the Horse Whisperer of Grand Marais, doing what needs to be done.

Annie from Wales, Ireland, and Iceland. Consorts with Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg, and her new baby.

Bob, the Scottish Scientist, master of all knowledge and pub quizzes.

Gemma from Seattle, writer and Iceland-nut.

Jófríður, unstoppable force of nature.

Karen from Richmond, hired mouth supreme.

Sheila, master culture vulture.

Minnesotastan, intelligent trivia pursuer.

Caitlin, memento mori fine artist.

Rich, who has been an inspiration for over fifty years!

And, of course, Shoshanah, the pride of Mount Horeb, artist, writer, shepherdess, supermom, exquisite rascal and all-around bon-vivant.

See you next year!

Home Truths For Home Consumption

Some days I can't bring myself to write another word. Another word.

Evidently not today.

For some real blog-spiration, check out today's Sharon Spotbottom.

Then come up with some of your own.

Sharon Welcomes You

With her Spotbottom showgirl flair.












Ring in the New Year with Sharon, Flippist Fridays

Used by permission

Den of Iniquity

Sharon’s Chinatown excursion takes an unexpected turn.

More Spotbottom hi-jinks tomorrow:

Summer Hiatus

Summertime, and the livin' is easy..."

...and the blogging is not, I'm sorry to say. Too many summer projects, too much gorgeous summer weather, and too much daylight after dinner. I'll be back come September, with all-new posts (as if!) and other whimsy (ha-ha!)

In the interim, I'll leave you with some of my favorite new links (check out the sidebar for more):

Tywkiwdbi, high quality ephemera...

Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG- social design issues...

Genomicon, crowd-sourcing intelligent design...

Some Chilean Woman, down-to-earth and earthy...

TPUTH, irreverent news skimmer...

See ya later...

(But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sharon Spotbottom would make an occasional appearance between now and then... )

UPDATE: Annie is posting to her blog again! One of my all-time favorites (and winner of the 2009 Irish Blog Award for "Best Personal Blog"). She's also got a book out, which, IMHO, should be adapted for a movie- I mean, if the mopey Morvern Callar got made into a film, Annie's To the Left of the Midwest  should win an Oscar.

UPDATE: My favorite Icelandic girl-group, Pascal Pinon, has started a blog about their current recording project. They've been signed to a German label!

A Very Sharon Christmas

Above is a Christmas card I received 14(!) years ago from Karen Heathwood, my dear blog-pal and creator of Sharon Spotbottom, stick-figure extraordinaire. I enlarged it to a 16x20 (click on image above to see detail) and it has been a holiday decoration in the Flippist World Headquarters every year since then.

Merry Christmas to All!

2020 Vision

After an extended absence, Madame Tara returns with this look at

            The Future!

IN THE YEAR 2020…


Elon Musk will release consumer jet-packs, sold with a matching flame-thrower. In a related story, the entire State of California is consumed by wildfire.

Amazon will introduce “Smart-alec” furniture, including a chair that will say “Oof!” when you sit on it and then spout disparaging comments about your weight while it sends information to weight-loss programs that will cause its offers to appear on your digital devices, as well as ads for junk food.

Professor Batty will sell his Flippism is the Key website to a consortium of investors who will then turn it into a multi-platform computer game. It sells 37 copies.

President Mike Pence, in a surprise move, does not pardon Donald Trump. In another, possibly related, move he has a private dinner with Melania Trump.

In the span of a week, Hurricanes Priscilla, Quentin and Reggie effectively wipe Mar-a-Lago off the map. “It’s all Obama’s fault,” tweets ex-president Trump from his prison cell.

Kanye West, vacationing in a North Korean insane asylum, calls the hurricanes “More of that B_____ Taylor Swift’s witchcraft.”

Facebook announces its “FB+” service that not only improves your posts, it creates entirely new ones from the data it stores about you.

Facebook announces its “Super FB+” service: a FB account for every man woman and child on earth, with content supplied by Facebook. It is not possible to opt out.

Professor Batty options Flippism is the Key to Wes Anderson, who turns it into The Royal Grand Life of the Fantastic Mr. Flip. It stars Bill Murray as Professor Batty, Angelica Houston as The Weaver, Bob Balaban as Jono, Scarlett Johansson as Shoshanah, Emma Stone as Sharon Spotbottom, and Annie Atkins as herself. JFDR composes the soundtrack. It grosses $300,000,000. Batty receives only $200 and a mention in IMBD.

Thanks Madame T, we’ll be checking back with you in…

                The Future!

California, Here I Come!

Tomorrow morning will find me jetting to sunny California, looking forward to seeing all the sights (and a very special date with Sharon Spotbottom!)

More to come…

My Day In A Cult, Part III – Mysteries Revealed

My Destination:



I descended deep into the bowels of this imposing edifice, below the Golf show, below corporate meetings (with free box lunches!), until I entered the holy sanctum. The tension was palpable, the room was vibrating with spiritual energy:



Our Guru gave this presentation on the "science" of Sharonetics!:



AIYIYI!

Seriously, I was at a Photoshop seminar. I know, how nerdy is that?

It is very nerdy. But the users of this software program have almost turned its study and application into a cult- a cult with millions of devoted followers, engaging in arcane rituals to perform magical feats of imagery. Notice that I didn't say "photography". Photographs may be an element of a Photoshop image, but it is really more of collage tool, and if the original image is manipulated at all it then becomes an abstraction of true photography, at least in the forms presented at this seminar.

Still, it pays the bills.

And it is the only way to make Sharon Spotbottom appear to be walking under a full moon on a street in Reykjavík.

Sharon's Lullaby

Rock-a-bye Sharon, on the bed top
When the wind blows, your dribble will plop
When the bough breaks, the dribble will fall
And down will splash kitty, slobber and all






Another classic Sharon Spotbottom post, used by permission.

Ay, There's the RUB...

UPDATE: as of 2014 these site are almost all defunct. Most are still accessible, although RUB is not. I've left this post up for the curious.

   There is a bookmark I've had for as long as I've been blogging. I'm not proud of it, nor am I ashamed. "Recently Updated Blogs" shows the last ten minutes of new posts as monitored by Blogger- usually several thousand. It is a torrent of undigested and unfiltered muck and dreck from the blogosphere. Full of porn-sites and hucksters, families, fools and failures, it links to almost every sort of human expression and even touches downright incoherence at times.

   Still, when my brain-functions are minimal (comfortably numb) this internet equivalent of TV channel-surfing has its rewards. When I started this mess in April of 2004, RUB was a strange and wild place. Teenage anorexics, mad scientists, poets and dreamers, all liberated by the blogging explosion. I found many brilliant blogs on the site then; some of whom continue to be my favorites, while others I discovered burned brightly for a short time and then faded out.

   I don't visit RUB very often now, I'm afraid that its golden age is over. Yet, I still find a "nugget" now and then as I sift through the gravel.

Recent links found via RUB:

Mariah Carey Is My Kurt Cobain, a mixed-media art site, in Spanish, NSFW!

Pinky Diablo and his Singing Grubworm, outsider art from the Dallas-based Pinky.

Overheard in New York, commercial site, pretty slick, some entries are hilarious.

Dull Tool Dim Bulb (Winkel), arcane Americana, sometimes quite charming.

Vintage Pulchritude, thematically presented antique nudes, NSFW!

Some of my long time faves first discovered on RUB:

Big Mouth Strikes Again, Glasweigan tech and culture writer Gary. Since 2004

Comica, fine writer and occasional contributor to FITK. Since 2004

Reshma Sanyal, also a contributor, her blog is private now, although you can still find her delicious cooking blog. Many of her posts have been reprinted here. 2004-2008

Sharon Spotbottom, comic stick-figure, hopefully only on sabbatical, Sharon was nothing if she is anything. 2006-2008

If Charlie Parker Were A Gunslinger, There'd Be A Whole Lot Of Dead Copycats, photo-impressionistic history of popular culture. Since 2004

There have been many more, of course, but I'm not a link pack-rat. I've been on other people's computers who have had THOUSANDS of book-marks! Outside of my long-term favorites, I have no qualms about letting a site go. If it is any good, I'll probably run into it again, the modern Internet is far bigger than I could ever fully explore.

Or care to.