Is anyone else tired of the continuous circus put out by Prince Toadger and his grifter wife, a.k.a the Douche and Douchass of Suck-a-lot?
I created these images some time ago, and I wondered if I’d post them, but this never-ending reality show of their supposed “best love story ever” has passed its expiration date.
We have all seen the lies and fabrication of false stories, the outrageously dishonest narrative, and frankly, they’re as pathetic and irrelevant as Vain Wallis and her inconsistent husband Edward the Vacuous.
So I wanted to turn it into fun stuff, to bring comic relief, hence the toad.
The Prince Toadger, Douche of Suck-a-lot (or Suckeggs, depending on the business at hand), Earl of Dumb-like-no-one
It’s a Toad’s life, Poem about Prince Toadger and his worse half, Rachel Megaliar the Douchass of Suckeggs
Hollywood maybe be the cray-cray pool of inspiration where imaginative writers craft unique stories, it’s also where dreams are not just built, but watered and nurtured to become the illusion of reality that we are fed to think that’s what our lives should look like. Through the prism of TV series and movies, reality shows and talk shows, as well as televised quiz shows, all carefully designed, scripted, and filmed (yeah, even reality shows where cheating spouses were “exposed”), we are given a standard to compare ourselves, our lives and achievements too, and feel a certain way about it. Usually, bad or depressed…. thank you very much, hollyfriggin’wood, now’s time for my anti-depressant…… So that we can consume more “happy content” (solid, visual, liquid, powder, smoke…) and forget about our own life, goals, and dreams.
Hollywood also fiercely fences itself within its own glam distortions of basic decency and respect for ethics. Arrogantly, Hollywood showed its true nature from the early days on with gigantic wood letters perched on the mountains surrounding this well of unfathomable wealth (but not everybody can drink from it). The very location of the Hollywood sign screams: “I’m above you, you’ll never reach the top unless I decide so, on my terms.”
Interestingly those terms have been exposed in recent years, but with various reception. And the script, the visual storytelling, the cast, and the score permeate society invisibly, changing rules, making rules, making us accept things or deem them “the standard” (I don’t like the word “Normal” which annihilates the possibility of something different to be welcomed as an ok and a viable alternative), when they are not. Another form of coercion or violence that one has to accept in order to get a job or become toast. (Ask Brendan Fraser)
Hollywood of the limelights
Hollywood is also where the lights of the city blind anyone with bling and fake happiness, displayed on glossy photoshopped snapshots in magazines.
Hollywood of the quiet brainwashing of minds
In the name of “creativity”, many things have been filmed and fed to the masses, that serve no purpose other than instilling fear or rage. Or plant ideas that glamorize violence. It’s done on a massive scale, it’s done in technicolor and large screen, with HD sound, the best cast and crew, and more FX than we can think of… It’s more or less subtle… It’s called …brainwashing.
I recall here the chef Olivier Rollinger, who was one evening beaten to death by teens after they had watched Clockwork Orange, just because they had watched it and wanted to unleash their violence onto someone. He was left for dead, badly injured, bruised with a broken nose. Because Hollywood gives itself full license and freedom to do anything and everything (porn is also made there), because morals are deemed to be outdated or a sign of bigotry, movies explore human behaviors and the human psyche with a fresh approach.
Yet, do we need to see horrendous things happening on a large screen, thus engorging our brains with unfiltered horror?
Drawing after shooting in Parkland, Florida, Feb 2018. Florence Vitel
Hollywood of the unapologetic spreading of violence
Violence begets violence, exposure to violence, and the ensuing degradation of our senses as to what is acceptable and what’s not erodes our sense of compassion and respect for others. We are left with a bruised sense of self-respect and respect for this fragile yet wonderful thing: life.
Who can think it’s beneficial for any of us?
Numerous medical studies have shown it’s not innocuous.
When the only resort for angry people is reaching for a gun and killing kids in schools, what does it say about society?
When words cannot express their inner feelings, because they are not shown that’s what to do, and because a gun does it “better” for them, because it’s been seen countless times on screens, isn’t time for a deeper reflection?
When will Hollywood clean its act for good and take full responsibility?
It won’t, because violence, and guns, sell. And it sells because we have been groomed into thinking it’s a better movie with the supposed thrill of a gun being drawn, at some point. Or the potential of it happening. Even some “family movies” such as “Home Alone” feature guns. (Am I the only one to be shocked by that?). And we’ve been shown, that it’s a “normal thing” (= as in “it’s the norm”). Well, it’s not and shouldn’t have become an accepted standard.
The glamorization of gangsters in the 30’s, alongside the renewed lease on supposedly”loveable” bad boys who suck at getting a proper meaningful life, but who are swift to produce a GUN, is still going strong in Hollywood (think no further than moronic Han Solo and his pathetic line to Leia “You love bad boys” and how he grossly ignores her rebuttal of his unsolicited advances, what a jerk, really). Notwithstanding the killing of women or girls, in countless legal or detective dramas/series. (it’s still nauseating really, to see the proportion of females, in comparison to males, being killed in order to “create entertainment”, haven’t those misogynistic or revengeful (for whatever reason) writers not heard of #metoo? or basic respect for the other half of the population?)
Since 1950, gun violence in movies produced in Hollywood has doubled in proportion. Mass shootings have been increasing accordingly too.
From Hollywood to Anytown, USA
Deaths by firearms (mass-shooting, individual shooting, suicide) are not showing any decrease. Coward politicians refuse to tackle the debate, and thus, there’s been no debate about 2nd amendment since the shooting at Sandy Hook, basically.
/www.politifact.com states that : “there have been 1,516,863 gun-related deaths since 1968, compared to 1,396,733 cumulative war deaths since the American Revolution. That’s 120,130 more gun deaths than war deaths — about 9 percent more, or nearly four typical years worth of gun deaths.”
According to those one-cell-brain-shared-among-themselves politicians, prayers, apparently, are the best protection against bullets from the semi-automatic AR-15 and their magazines of +40 ammo of 39mm. It’s also, incidentally, the rifle endorsed by the NRA as “America’s rifle”. NRA too will send their prayers, if you lose a child or a loved one to one of their fave rifles (that also happens to be the fave rifle of shooters).
No overexposure to violence and no access to guns equals less harm by arms. QED.
No (or less than 2) school shootings in Europe countries in the past 30 years. USA gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than other high-income countries.
Why? because 1stly, no easy access to firearms, and 2ndly, a lesser proportion of movies featuring arms are distributed in theatres, 3rdly, no right to kill, (according to a marvelous – but obsolete in some areas- document, yet in need of an update, clearly).
So. Every parent now asks themselves, WHEN will the next shooting happen (fatalism), when they should be worried IF a shooting MIGHT happen (frightening but rarely occurring possibility).
Big difference.
Let me be clear, no amount of prayers and turning to God (what shitty bigotry is that?) can stop firearms from being fired at innocent kids.
And it should be, of course, that no one fears going to school or in any public place… but I live in America, and I have kids, so I don’t have this luxury of peace of mind.
Just as a matter of irony, the NRA is holding its annual conference this weekend here in Houston, with tcruz and illiterate orange 45 in attendance, as if nothing has happened. Musicians supposed to sing this weekend have canceled their gig. It took this one more shooting for them to cancel, they were ok with all the previous ones, apparently…
If prayers are needed, it is for those criminals to be tried and jailed or see the light eventually and advocate against arms in households.
Well, this year feels like a century already, and October is not even over yet!
Speaking of October, I stepped out of my cloud of sorrow (personal tragic events I may post about later) and semi-oblivion (I wish I could drown the former into the latter) to stumble upon that drawing-with-ink-in-October controversy which grappled and still divides the art drawing community. My questions were : “Why?” ” What is it about?” and “Does it matter?”
Not sure if we can answer that, but we can think about it. Ah. Thinktober.
I did some research and here are my thoughts. Maybe the 2 first questions cannot be answered but it definitely does matter.
Disclaimer : 1) it’s a longer post than the previous ones, and 2) as the name In*tober is not allowed to be used any longer, as per its founder’s (J*keParker) new rules set last December, I’ll go by *drawingchallengename*, or *challengename* which I might register too at some point, after all).
Because, hold on to your hats, there IS a two-fold controversy and I can see why, as many of us creators do too.
Ink challenge in October was created in 2009 by J*keParker, a Disn*y employee, to improve and practice (his) ink drawing an skills throughout the 10th month of the year, following a prompt a day, during 31 days. Smashing idea. Others joined in and quickly it became a creative meeting for thousands of artists around the globe, and some were popular artists with amazing skills already and great talent, who had not waited this challenge to amass considerable visibility, followership, products based on their craft and solid success. What followed for this concept was a decade of amazing growth based on a good-natured spirit and attitude. So what went wrong?
First part of the controversy : Trademarking the name after 10 years of piloting the October ink challenge ship and calling in lawyers as echo chambers to forbid artist to use logo and name. So the *challengename* is no longer an inocuous hashtag or title one can freely affix onto their art piece before sharing it with the world/community of artists. Thus restricting the use of said name and depriving creators of the visibility and notoriety both induced and expanded through their very contribution to this particular Autumn art challenge since 2009. For many, it felt like that one person most of us has had a bad experience with : someone you worked with or helped out, a boss, a colleague, a former friend, that steals your work or robs you of the reward for your efforts, belittles your contribution, forgets to put your name on that article you wrote, forgets to acknowledge that negotiation you eased and won, eclipses that crucial help and encouragement you provided, deliberatley omits to praise and recognize the part you played, or attributes your work to someone else if not him/herself, all in order to shine brighter in the light of the ensuing success… It felt like a betrayal and a backstabbing, and as such, it is as despicable as it is immoral. I suppose it certainly felt so for many artists of the *namechallenge* community. (I for my part have no exact idea about how to feel about it.)
As his name grew overtime in notoriety, turning him into a very successful entrepreneur, the founder has had the priviledge of reaping the benefits of his *challengename*, which are plentiful : his paying online courses about drawing and inking, a massive followership on SocMed and on his Youtube Channel, books, standard and exclusive (as in *challengename+year* special editions) art supply boxes, collaborations and teamups with affiliates and, last but not least, his own illustrated books, prints, comics, stickers, original art and patreon memberships, available on his website shop. He is not a struggling artist.
This online creative get-together has brought him fame and $$$, and it’s a good thing. Participating in the challenge was a fun way as well as an incredible opportunity for artists of all walks of life and style to commune while create amazing art around 31 prompts. It was suposed to be (as per the founder’s own words on his Instagram account in 2018, reposted on a DevianArt chat) “…a month long celebration of drawing, creativity, and self-improvement.”
This ink challenge would not have gained such popularity, let alone the massive participation across the globe and the feverish anticipation, if no one had boarded the *challengename* ship and posted and reposted their creations around the prompts on their platforms, encouraged in so doing by the founder. Mind you, *challengename* has also its own official Social Media accounts. It’s an entity on its own. This spread of joy was like a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the participants’ pieces of art were the very fuel that helped the lil’monster grow, expand, attract more participants (and later on, sponsorships and monetary collaborations enjoyed by its founder only) and everybody was happy. It was also the opportunity to connect with fellow artists, to marvel at their skills and imagination and to encourage beginners who were bold enough to enter the arena. (I myself was very happy -and exhausted upon completion)- to participate in 2018. It was fun, it was a way to stick to a plan efficiently, as well as a fab way to meet and marvel at other artists’ work and creativity while getting better at it and at inking.) So this challenge was a good & generous deed, looked favourably upon by the art deities such as Athena, Polymnia and Apollo.
Or so it seemed.
Until the ugly face of greediness crawled -a little less surreptitiously than the -legit, surely- desire for the founder to transform the challenge into a cashmachine that we saw creeping in over the years- into the picture in Dec 2019, when the new legal frame was set for the *challengename*, namely the use of the logo and name, going even as far as closing down artists accounts that were still using the *challengename*, as first title for their art pieces. We’re talking stunning art pieces here, created during or for said challenge, which the founder had gladly shared his enthutiasm for before 2020 and for which supportive community he should still be grateful. We all can understand that he is the father of this baby and want to keep teh rights to his intellectual property, no one contests that. It’s just the way he did the trademarking and the way he castigated potential abuses and suddenly censored practices and usage of the *challengename* before any harm was done. (He could have TM it right in 2009). THAT, rightfully perhaps, was seen and felt as unfair and a bit low.
The second thing the founder stated along with those legal guidelines is the now frowned uponuse of digital tablets. Whereas in the past, the founder has expressed his almost neutral point of view on using the digital pad for the 2020 edition, he has now dismissed digital drawing as not embodying the spirit of the challenge. (Founder on his SocMEd, 2018 : “Initially, the challenge of In*tober was focused on traditional inking. Although learning how to ink digitally is a skill separate from traditional inking it is no less valid. If you want to improve your digital inking skills then doing In*tober digitally is a great way to challenge yourself.”) It is also quite hyocritical of him, seeing that in 2017 he teamed up with Autodesk to release a set of digital brushes. But suddenly, digital art is of less value, or unworthy of *challengename* or so he let us arrive to this conclusion in a fashion that is less than honorable, but quite mean.
Now, for the 2020 edition, it was this name-calling and finger-pointing at artists that understandably divided the art community as early as this summer, when his laywers began to ban (sue?) and prevent artists from making sales with their art, or even compiling their drawings as their *challengename + years* creations in order to have a copy for amateurs to buy, or even creating collections of their art. This can deprive them from a source of income most artists can not afford to lose.
During the last decade, with a growing community being so thrilled to participate and share the great spirit of drawing as well as for the name of the challenge itself, the founder has benefited largely from the enthusiam of the art community, be them digital or traditional artists. He and his now trademarked challenge have gained tremendous visibility from the free advertising and marketing campaign brought to him by of a very encouraging community and a hashtag used as nearly as 19 million times so far.
“OINKtober”TM – F.VITEL copyright 2020
The founder (which by then was famous for this baby) had by that time secured (and let’s be clear, there is nothing wrong with that, lucky him) :
# collaborations with pen and paper/sketchbook manufacturers (some sketchbooks deemed “revolutionnary” no less) with the big logo stamped on them (as well as on the boxes)
# prestigious sponsorships and visibility , for instance, the gigantic platform DevianArt has been hosting *challengename* awards (but cancelled it for this year).
# pricey (not my words, but other artists’ reviewing the box) monthly or yearly *challengename* boxes, with supplies such as a *challengename* sticker and sketchbook, paper and pens for $90 or more…
Good for him. But he did not build that community alone.
Second part of the conroversy:
The founder has secured a book deal regarding the *challengename* and how to do it “all year long”. He was bound to release in Spetember a “guide” or a book of advice on how to become a better ink artists. This outcome is fine. Good. Excellent. Something all artist can dream of and cause for celebration. Except if allegations of plagiarism are raised. Plagiarism is not cool.
And sadly for the entire art and ink artists community, this is something that artist Aphonso Dunn alledged in a video released on his YT channel Aug 26 2020. It has tarnished a little more the already stained name of the *challengename* founder. Other artists have since then compared the books (frame by frame, taken from JakeParker’s own vid of flipping his proof copy and Alphonso Dunn’s book, which took 3 years to complete) on their YT channels aaaaaaannnnd there are some unsettling similarities between the already published book by Mr Dunn and the founder’s upcoming book. I was curious, and to be exact, for what I saw on those vids, there are too many similarities for it to be just coincidences. So much so that the book release, based on those allegetions of plagiarism, was put on hold by the publisher. But I leave that part (plagiarism case or not) to the experts. The founder of this challenge has probably not adequately adressed the legitimate objections raised against his latest decisions but he certainly responded in a very insensitive way. It is understandable that he wanted to remind artists of the rules, yet the vast+ majority of artists followed them already and created real masterpieces, there was no reason for this unfair move.
As for the digital art being suddenly demonized by J*keParker and his manner of gatekeeping it, I can’t shake the feeling that it screams “I feel threatened, I am insecure” (and maybe a little jealous, perhaps) so he refreshes the artits’ minds about who the boss is. Maybe this primal reaction had not even reached his consciousness to be rationalized and dealt with in a better way in a proper time.
Nonetheless, and notwithstanding the amazing concept this challenge has been, the apparently contemptuous attitude of JP and the use of legal actions towards some artists within the community who literally made the brand the incredible powerhouse and success Mr J*keParker came to enjoy (and monetize) is bordering on unforgivable.
So, as much as I like a good challenge, I have already completed this one in 2018, so I know I can and could do it if I wanted to. And frankly, this whole mess is something very sad, which only once again illustrates only too accurately how big bucks in the equation corrupts everything. It’s also a textbook of how greed and a complex of superiority coupled with a despicable sense of entitlement can tear a community apart and eviscerate the very notion of respect for others or for their work, and their legitimate right to monetize their talent.
As for me, if I draw, it’s for myself or this project I’v ebeen working on, with my own ideas on my own terms.
So long, F.
( if you want to know more about that, search in your browser inkt*ber controversy)
So, a friend stated yesterday that this crisis should inspire me for a novel, I answered that I had already begun a novel revolving around it and a group of people confined in a sub, for a NaNoWriMo challenge. I wrote about half of that novel during the month of October 2016…
The title is “Deep waters”.
And coming to think about it, it’s quite weird that the very subject is about a group of renegades of all nationalities and walks of life (doctors, geophysicist, scientist, nuke researcher, biologists, pshychotherapist, artists, outcast…), confined in a clandestine submarine, escaping the mercenaries set to kill them and eradicate them paid by repressive authorities of their governments and countries, with as backdrop the collapses of democraties and politic systems known until then (it it set in 2056), massive destruction of the ecosystems, huge climate changes, and spreading of deadly infections, notably pulmonaries, and with a growing advocacy for “neutrality” in gender identification, and reorganization of countries and geo-political aeras of influence, constraint and “retraining” of minorities in camps…
Due to all the reasearch I had to do, it went on very slowly. (I had to understand thoroughly ocean acidification and how a nuke sub works, among other things.) I have had barely time to continue since the end of 2018, but those past days, I have felt like I have to finish it now. Several friends and familiy members have already read the first draft as early as Nov 2016.So, for those interested, I’ll set up a link with a password on my blog for you to read it, if you like.
Comment, DM me, and let’s make this a collaborrative work >> your interest in it fueling my creative tank to finish it rapidly.
Let’s see whre this leads us. Thanks for your time.
Stay safe at home..
(Pls find a screenshot of my editing history of Deep Waters, as in my Drive.)
Following a very interesting discussion a few days earlier with a bookshop manager, I got the idea to draw another SPELL, because the wide spreading smartphone/socialmedia/electronic device/apps addiction seems now impossible to thwart, and it affects everyone.
Just go into a coffeeshop, and look at the customers. Too few are not glued onto their little screen.
What happened to good old-fashionned dreamy gazes, impromptu conversations, advices on which beverage to choose, and fortuitous smiles, and nodding, and cheering when we stumble upon a friend or an acquaintance? What happened to those micro-connections, when our eyes meet a stranger’s or a friend’s eyes?
What happened to those tiny glimpses of soul sharing?
Eyes riveted onto those screens that dag us into a world of synthetised emotions, and pseudo connections, we lose what what once a joy and a reason to rejoice : the ability to communicate in a friendly way.
Glued onto those screens, we do not see the person in front of us in the line steping into a dance move briefly as their favorite music plays, or seeing their amazing hair, or fashion style, we become oblivious of all the wonders that surround us…
So, let’s hope there will be more of those who switch off their device, who do not answer their phone as soon as it rings, when they are chatting with somebody, or admiring art in a gallery or a museum.
I often get scolded because I do not answer my phone right away when it rings. Mind you, I prefer to control my phone rather than they other way round.
Time to launch a new movement : I’m smarter than my smartphone, so I keep it under control.
What do you think?
Have a good day fellow bloggers, oddjobbers, readers and friends,
That’s a very old drawing! McIntosh computers were all the rage, before Apple blossomed onto its virtual ashes ( well, sort of, Jobs was fired from his own company and … you know the rest)
Nowadays, I could have drawn a phoneperson with a cellphone grafted onto their hand, as it is becoming a 21th centurty plague, because we are becoming so addicted, some of us are unable to switch this device off, when with other humans/dining/showering, or visiting a museum, or do anything, basically….
Well, actually I did a similar drawing of a girl under the spell of her cellphone, for Inktober 2018… check it out!
Tech is out to get us, folks! Keep drawing and writing prose or poetry!
This drawing is both a reflection and an achievement. By the time I finished it, I realised the face of the climber looks like my younger (and beloved) father’s. But that’s another story.
Climbing to the top of the mountain, figuratively speaking or not, physically climbing to the summit, our personal pyramid of goals or simply the objective to become the best person we know we can be, all this can be synthesize in the picture of a mountaineer, contemplating his feat, sitting atop of the peak he’s just ascended.
George Mallory once compared climbing to being an art, thus in his statement linking the climber to being an artist. In his writings about climbing, it describes it as a symphony. Surely, in his days of discoveries and challenges, with gear retrospectively dubbed as “inadequate” by modern mountaineers ( a statement which I am not sure to agreeing with), climbing “unconquered” mountains set in unchartered territories was a much more dangerous adventure than it is now
Now, who said mountains have to be conquered?
They were there before us and will be long after we’re gone. It’s just another belliquose term to describe a feat of courage, effort, motivation and pushing one’s limits. And it does not reflect properly the tremendous journey it can be. The very word implies a warlike confrontation of some sort, with a winner and a loser, or someone asserting their power over something.
Mountains are not conquered.
But we are, by the intoxicating adrenaline rush, the empowerment of achieving an arduous task, the supreme boost of esteem attached to victory over difficuty and over ourselves. Afterwards comes the joy of being rewarded by an impressive view and a deep sense of completion.
On the other hand, fear can be conquered ; shyness, jealousy, envy, greediness, suffering have to be conquered too. Because those emotions or feelings never vanish entirely, do they? They lurk in a dark corner of the soul, muzzled for a time, feeding on one’s insecurities. We can conquer them, and yet have to remain watchful of their taking over our heart and sensibility. It’s a never ending task.
So, let’s just climb mountains, and conquer our fragile selves.
Really rigged democratic elections or really democritic vote? Same difference in the results sometimes : the people’s voice is not always heard or taken into account.
What do you think?
(Indian Black Ink and watercolours, from the early 2000’s. It seems that the wheel turns, yet nothing really changes *sigh*)
Café culture addict 