i have recently resigned myself to the fact that i’m not going to have a career. resigned is the wrong word.  but it’s because i can’t imagine myself doing the same thing for the rest of my life (except, of course, writing, making music, and creating models of a vomitting oklahoma giving birth to a mule, but creating models of a vomitting oklahoma giving birth to a mule does not pay the bills).  i get bored, if not after a few days, then at least after 6 months of doing the same thing.  in the future maybe i can stretch that out to 7 months…i really can’t make it more than that.

i’ve spent hours in the library looking at saturday evening post magazines from the early 50s.  have you ever seen a magazine from the 50s?  being absorbed in it for a few hours is quite possibly the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me.  i made copies of a few ads and things, and i’m going to color them with colored pencils and then put them on the site, at which point i will notify you, so that you can see what i’m talking about.  but on about every tenth page there was an ad for a company commenting on “the terrible condition the world is in” and asking “won’t you want a reliable air filter in your fallout shelter?” and creepy, identical looking mothers telling you which girder best tucks in that tummy fat to which your husband shouldn’t be subjected.  cigarette ads everywhere, including a series from 1951 to about 1954 by marlboro where there was a picture of a cute baby’s face who was saying “That’s right, my dad smokes MARLBORO!  What else is there?” and other equally disturbing blurbs.  there was also an odd abundance of spark plug advertisements, many of which said something like “isn’t it nice to know that when the appocalypse arrives in the form of a nuclear holocaust, your spark plugs will still be in tip top shape?”

the reason for this search was originally to find characters to go in my art piece called “the fecal house,” but i started finding horrific images that i couldn’t help but copy to color later.  they are coming soon.  i promise (this isn’t like the shallow promise of producing the tales of karen deathrage, an evil woman who stole my heart and soul).