Hey Mr. DJ--put a record on--

Here is a re-post of something I did previously in Spanish. A little piece about music in my life.


And here you have a look at my studio, or as I like to call it during the summer:
"THE FURNACE". You can boil an egg with just water in there.



That'll be all for now.
More to come.

DISCLAIMER.

As we start a new year I found myself in a very awkward position. Shortly after a year of filling the web with my art and my thoughts, my comments and my critiques I’m sure to say that not much has been achieved.

I originally started this as a way of showing my work to possible editors and people responsible for committing your work to the printed page. Regarding that; it has failed.
Also, because it started as an outlet back when I was living in the states it meant that it was to be written in English (because of my target for readership). As I moved I was shifting towards Spanish, because now most of the people who happen to read this don’t understand a word in English.

I made a promise to translate as much as I could to keep both sides happy. To my surprise it seems like neither of them are actually interested in what I might have to say nor show.
It looks to me that it has become a masturbatory exercise for my devastated ego.

Well then, if that is the case I will let everybody know in this simple way that from now on I won’t care about people anymore. That means that I will post things as they come to my head, at my very whim I will populate this with things in Spanish as well as in English. If you don’t understand you are welcome to use the google translator or whatever way you find useful to do it.

I still hope to find someone that believes in me enough as to offer me a book deal or some real work. The thing is this: I want to get published, NOT self-published. Simple.

I know it might not be the wisest thing to do to make such statements here, but it is what it is. And while the pages are pilling up, so are the frustrations. Sorry to put it this way.

Now, some things I already have translated will be re-posted, but things like the pages I made for the blog’s 1st birthday won’t. From now on things will come as I see fit. If you really don’t like the way things are you are welcome to leave your comment about it and maybe I can start to do something about it. As long as the people stay in silence things won’t change.

Sorry again for any inconvenience it might cause you.
I hope you will stick around though.

Sincerely.
Lisandro Di Pasquale
Frustrated cartoonist.

New year 2011

Happy holidays.

And a happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever it is you might be celebrating.

Concurso FIERROBLOG

Hace ya cosa de un mes que se habia abierto la inscripcion para el concurso organizado por la revista FIERRO. Una revista de comics que es suplemento del diario argentino Pagina/12.

La convocatoria era para hacer un comic de dos paginas, con la promesa de que el ganador del concurso iba a ser convocado a convertirse en parte de los colaboradores de la revista. Es decir, el ganador va a ser publicado y a partir de ahi va a seguir haciendo cosas para ellos.

La respuesta fue buena ya que hubo algo asi como 340 participantes de varios paises. A priori se fue haciendo una preseleccion a cargo de los editores para luego llegar a los miembros del jurado que habrian de definir al ganador final.



Del total quedaron preseleccionados unos 140, dentro de los cuales yo estaba incluido. Imaginen mi emocion (o la de cualquier participante) al pasar esa primera ronda. Paso un mes y el hermetismo de la revista para con los resultados se hacia notar, generando entre los preseleccionados ataques de ansiedad inusitados. Para hacer las cosas peor, la gente de la revista anunciaba que por pedido del jurado y por la cantidad y calidad de los trabajos iba a haber mas de un premio. Para cuando la revista estaba a dias de salir (el 11 de diciembre) ya habian anunciado que habia TRES primeros premios y CINCO menciones especiales. De pronto eran OCHO los que iban a resultar victoriosos en este concurso.

Yo pense que eso mejoraba mis probabilidades, pero estaba equivocado.

Se dieron los resultados y yo no logre nada mas alla de aquella primera seleccion. Como es de esperarse en un concurso, se pierde tanto como se gana, y en esta ocasion a mi me toco perder. C’est la vie.

Es de necio negar que me hubiera gustado ganar, o por lo menos obtener una mencion, pero el jurado considero que o no estoy listo o no doy con el perfil de lo que ellos publican. Igual ofrecieron a modo de premio consolacion la publicacion de algunos de los perdedores en el blog de la revista, ya que dentro de todo fue el ambito donde se organizo el concurso. Solo espero que aunque sea me publiquen las paginas en el blog. De hacerlo se van a enterar cuando les avise y postee el link. Si el tiempo pasa y no hay respuesta de parte de la gente de FIERRO creo que voy a subir las paginas aca.

Es que no hay caso, mientras todo dice que NO, uno hace todo lo posible para que sea SI.
Veremos que es lo que dice el paso del tiempo.

MORE MUSIC

An idea.
Something wonderful that sparks from the back of your head and can take you anywhere.
That is how this started. A few songs being played on an ipod. The thought of what they mean now and what they have meant over the years to me. A picture.

An idea.
An image worked on the back of a page of a script that I’m actually breaking down now (HTSWR#6 for those of you interested).
A lot of momentum gained from the rush of running a pencil over a piece of paper. Of dropping ink over it just moments later.

A train of thought that becomes an unstoppable juggernaut…

…an idea.



Una idea.
Algo maravilloso que te brota de la parte de atras de la cabeza y que te puede llevar a cualquier lado. Asi fue como esto comenzo. Con un par de canciones siendo reproducidas en un ipod. El pensamiento de lo que significan y lo que han significado para mi a lo largo de los años. Una imagen.

Una idea.
Una imagen hecha en la parte de atras de una pagina de un guion que estoy comenzando a ilustrar en estos dias (HTSWR#6 para el que este interesado).
Una fuerza imparable obtenida de la emocion de pasar el lapiz sobre un pedazo de papel. De volcarle tinta apenas unos momentos despues.

Un tren de pensamiento que se vuelve una fuerza imparable...

...una idea.

Movie Talk #8

SKYLINE [Don't look up alright, hell.. if you can don't look at all]

When I saw the trailer I remember thinking: “wow, that looks cool, it might be a good movie”

Boy was I wrong.

This his, hands down the stupidest movie I’ve seen this year. Not the worst mind you, but the most idiotic way of spending money I’ve seen in a long time. The worst movie of the year title goes to ‘The A-team’.

I still don’t know what the story of SKYLINE is all about. We are invaded by aliens that kidnap us to eat our brains. So I’ll take it that now we have taken the concept of the zombie one step further. Now they come from outer space.

Wow, I mean what a waste of resources and time, I demand that hour and a half of my life back. On the bright side, it wasn’t as long as the other stupidest movie ever, Avatar, that took three hours of my precious life away from me. I tell you, I’d rather die smoking than wasting my time in movies like this.

This is so based on the visual aspect of filmmaking that instead of Skyline it might as well been called “INDEPENDENCE DAY 2”. It’s equally stupid, poorly acted and filled with eye candy as that dreaded and miserable excuse for a movie as the other one.

It’s worthless to spend words talking about this piece of crap. The only thing I can suggest is for you to stay away from it for as long as you can. I wish they had placed a warning in the beginning saying something:

Disclaimer: the following movie was made for no reason. We didn’t have an idea of what we were doing other than showing up some neat special effects. Be warned that after it is over you might feel the need to punch something. As for the ticket money, well…we tricked you out of it, now it’s ours bitches.

Jesus, I was expecting to see the name Alan Smithee at some point, because let’s be serious, Who in his/her own mind would like to be associated with this?
Apparently they all did. Brett Ratner was somehow involved. That’s about all you need to know. I wish I’d known before hand just to skip it at once.

My advise: Don’t watch it under any circumstances. Not even if you like BAD movies.
I’ll recommend it as much as playing with a vile containing a sample o ebola.

We keep complaining that there are no new ideas in Hollywood (to me this is clearly not an original, because as I said before its Independence day 2) but if you plan to release new ideas like this one, I’ll happily sit and wait for the remake of ‘Gone with the wind’.

‘Nuff said.

They are always watching.

The truth about my Birthday.

This year I didn't have a happy Birthday. Much like last year's, but for very different reasons.

Last year's was because I was all alone and felt abandoned in a foreign country. This year I am no longer alone, I'm surrounded by friends and family. But to my own surprise I found myself not allowing me to be happy. I decided that there was no reason whatsoever to celebrate because around this same time last year I materialized the biggest mistake of my life...

...I bought the ticket back to my home.



My shrink says that I'm constantly doing the impossible to keep myself from being happy. She's right, I know that, and things like this are the reason behind my self-punishment.

Maybe next year I will be a little bit more tolerant with myself and allow me to be happy.

At least for a little while, one day of the year.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.