The end of a real era... and a chapter

I just learned that Friday (Today) the Rocky Mountain News, Denver's first newspaper, is closing forever.

I don't know why this is killing me, but it is.

I guess because mom was such an avid reader and I remember Sunday mornings we would get up, come downstairs and start parting out the Newspaper for the comics and different parts of the paper (In our younger days the toy ads were rather popular... later I would actually read the Parade section... I was wierd). After I left home, the Rocky was one of the points that mom and I would often chat about over the phone. When columnist Gene Amole, suffering from a terminal illness, continued his column, chronicling his last days, Mom and I discussed that in detail, too...

I still remember in 5th grade Colorado history learning that in the early days of the Rocky, the "war" between Denver and Auraria as to whom would become the capital of Colorado, forced the paper to be built ON Cherry Creek... literally over the river (Since that was the dividing line between the dualing cities).

I used to cut comics out of the Rocky and glue them together in little booklets... (Mostly Alley Oop... I think I was trying to understand the story... and I figured if I collected enough of it, I might actually understand it... I never really did... but I loved the art). I went through Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield and For Better or For Worse... It was from the Rocky that I clipped my copy of the last Peanuts cartoon...

Mom had copies of all of the great John Elway moments squirreled away, and when I went through her things after she died, I found a complete Rocky from somewhere in 1986 in a box... in almost perfect condition... (I still have no idea why she saved it...)

I remember siding against the Denver Post during the decade-long struggle between the two newspapers that almost killed them both...

...well, I guess it did manage to kill one of them....

I have always loved the Rocky... It was Denver's first newspaper. It is a part of Colorado history in a way that is so deeply entrenched and woven into the historical fabric that schoolchildren must learn about it (Though few seem to remember).

But it was part of my history too... and something about losing the Rocky... and not being able to call mom and discuss it and be shocked over it and bemoan it... it's just getting to me...

It's like losing a friend...

Goodbye Rocky Mountain News, I have great memories of you, I always will... Don't worry about your legacy, it's in our history books.

We will remember you.

Where am I?

So, a few weeks ago I drew a new picture;

I think this is a great piece. One of my best. Better than most of the pieces I have done before, she is dynamic in pose, the face is interesting, all kinds of cool stuff...

Then I post it to a comics site for feedback.

24 hours later, there are (Conspicuously) no replies to it (It's the only thread with no replies... all other threads have at least 3).

This morning I find one reply, "the left eye seems too far to the left of the face, it seems as though her face is pretty much straight on to the viewer so the face should just be a bit more symmetrical and proportioned,There needs to be more turn to the hips in her pose from the way she's positioned, and the hands could do with more time spent on them but with some changes it could be a really beautiful picture."

Oh... Well...

Of course, I used a photo as a reference, any eye or hip problems are due to the model, really... (I actually think it must be my shading that's causing an optical illusion).

Here's the thing; this is one of the first pieces of mine that I've been really, honestly proud of. I feel I have come a long way to get to this piece. I feel I have boosted my skills quite a bit...

And it's not even worth a reply from the American Comic folks... When it is, it gets ripped (The other posts don't get this kind of treatment... there are a lot of "Wow! That's incredible!" and "Great Inking!" and stuff like that with a little critique. Mine rates only one response, and it's a pretty hard critique)

So, the question is; Should I "Sour Grapes" this? (Aw, they just don't know good art when they see it) or do I need to get over myself and admit that what I think is good really isn't good, and I need to go back to the area I know I can do right (Manga - style comics)?

I think the thing that is the most frustrating is that I thought this was my BEST piece so far... and obviously I can't seem to judge my own work...

Hmph...

---Me

A monkey's grandson?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/martin.cartoon/index.html?iref=newssearch

So here we go... Another interesting article. A NY post cartoonist makes a cartoon that I don't get and America goes into Black alert. Crying foul and screaming for that man to be burned at the stake for being a racist.

I posted a reply to it... but I noticed they didn't care much for it because it never made it to the responses page...

So, since I didn't actually think it was very agressive (I was being pretty fair-handed), I guess it must not have made any sense...

Well, that's what we have blogs for! :D

So, here's the deal; Ronald Martin is a columnist whom usually does the "Black people are oppressed" thing in his responses. Which is cool.

But the crux of the problem is that a long time ago black people were equated with chimpanzees... and thus this cartoon is obviously a poke at Obama, whom is black and therefore...

Except, I know my history pretty well, and somewhere I missed the chimpanzee thing... perhaps I slept through that part of history class or something, but I have to be honest, if I had been struck with the desire to write a cartoon refering chimpanzees, I would have never guessed I was "implicating" black people...

The problem is; that means that I must be educated in African American plight in order to not offend African-Americans.

So, I went on ahead and tried to do that;

I found three words that are used to label African Americans (Besides African Americans, of course); "Colored", "Black" and of course the dreaded "N" word (Which I was going to write out here, but I think the blogger will delete it automatically if it detects it). I found no reference to chimpanzees anywhere. I ran three different search strings: "African-American lables, African American slang and ethnic slang"

So, let's be clear here; Black people want to be equal, but everyone else must study black heritage before interacting with Black people. This study must be extensive enough that it means a trip to the local library now... And probably a couple of years of reading...

Or I could just live with them and figure it out by osmosis... most likely by making mistakes and getting in real hot water and widening the gap between our "peoples".

Yep... Now I have been pushed so far away from black peoples that I must STUDY in order to be friends with them...

And they wonder why there is still racism?

Here's the part that really sucks; I only have this problem with AMERICAN blacks (Not all of them, mind, just the ones like Mr. Martin, whom have already pegged me as "One of THEM" without even lookeing) , Normal black people -you know, the ones from Africa that don't require a textbook in order to communicate with them- are family to me...

My own kinsmen, the ones from MY country, however, are aliens...

Mr. Martin and those who saw the link between the Chimpanzee and Obama; if you go looking for evil, you WILL find it... even when it doesn't exist.

For me, I'm tired of talking about the color of my car and looking around nervously to make sure no African Americans are around to hear me say the "B" word...

---Me

About the smell of Roses and Violins

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

It's a long read, a very long article. Sit down, grab a cup of coffee, read it.

Trust me, you need to do this.

When you are done reading it, you'll understand how important it was to sit there and read this important article.

(No, this is not a Rickroll or a joke or anything of the sort, this is serious)

Thank you Ev, for bringing it to my attention, I'll be adding 10 minutes to all of my commutes because of this.

Yag-me Jubei!

This is sorta more for Xanderman than anything else, but anyone who has played Samurai Spirits (Samurai Showdown in English) knows of the character Yagyu Jubei.

The thing is; he really existed... and is rather a famous figure here.

In December I went to Kyoto with my Dojo (And I have some GREAT pictures from there)... but this one pretty much sums it up; Standing on the ruins of the Castle of Yagyu, near the infmaous Yagyu Dojo (Which I visited), where at one time Miyamoto Musashi once stood. On ground where even today the New Shadow School of swordsmanship is practiced, there was this;

Yep, they have a sense of humor even with their history...

---Yagme

Kid Stories

I know I'm not posting very much, we are down to the final stretch on so many projects that I'm simply slammed.

So I have two stories to share: This weekend is Interactive Forum... not the summer one which is only the schools in our town, but the regional one which is all of the schools in the three big towns in the area.

It's also my last Forum.

My team manages to lose every year in the local, so the odds aren't so good for them to do anything interesting in the regional... But we'll try.

To make matters worse, Ms. Turtle, my team teacher, has once again taken over the Forum and, dispite all of my arguments, begun to have them memorize sentences.

(Break for those who are new to my blog); Interactive forum is the new "speach contest" here. They discovered that kids who performed in the Speach contests still couldn't say even their names in English, so they invented this; three kids from different schools are put in a triangle, given a topic (My Favorite person, My Dream, etc) and then they have 5 minutes to talk about that subject in English. They are judged on how natural their English is and how well they follow the conversation. It's brilliant!

Ms. Turtle has them write a whole bunch of sentences in Japanese, she translates them into (bad) English, and then they memorize them...

So, we go into forum and of course they are lost... The other kids talk about all kinds of things. The English isn't complex (Do you, Can you, Is your, My...), but since they learned "Do you like Cats? I have a cat named Pooky, he's cute but sometimes scary" as a whole unit, they can't break it down, so if another kid says "I think my teacher is scary" they don't understand... even though they are using vocabulary they have learned.

---

Anyway, I end up spending most of my time "De-programing" them. Last night was our last practice (The Forum is on Sunday, and we have a City-Wide practice today with all of the MyCity folks). So I'm sitting there with Summer, Water and Mom's Girl, my three second years. Summer has been in this for a while now, and she and I have a repore about us (She actually is talking to me in English now... "Can I go to the Toilet?" etc!). I've talked about her before (Last year some time), and things with her have changed in school (She and Mr. Woods are at odds now), but she and I are still good.

Anway, I was drilling them on asking questions (One of our weak points) and they were cooking along when the conversation went along like this:

M: What is your favorite food?
S: I like hamburg...
(Me): Hamburger... "Hamburg" is a city in Germany. (Note: In Japanese, Salusbury Steak is called "Hamburg")
S: Ah! Hamburger.
(Me-Adding complications): I don't like Hamburger in Japan, they make it too sweet.
S,W,M: Eh?!
S: Too Sweet? Like candy?
(Me): Yep.
S:When I was in New Zealand, I ate Lamb... I didn't like it.
(Me): I don't like Lamb, either... (In Japanese) And during forum do that!!!!

I turn to the other girls; "See, that was totally natural and unplanned! THAT will get you points!"

The girls all nod knowingly.

I smile.

We will probably STILL lose, but at least Summer is starting to really kick butt.

Too bad she's turning into a little bit of a bad girl... She's starting to buck the system, which is why Mr. Woods is on her. We lost a girl last year (HatGirl, whom became pretty much a lost cause and was so bad that she almost didn't pass High School exams) because she went down this path... Mr. Woods' solution is to yell at her a lot... Which I advised against... but he's doing this the Japanese way...Strict and Disciplined... Unfortunately, I think Summer is cracking under years of oppression to do the right thing and not make mistakes, so adding more pressure may be a bad idea. I fear she'll go the way of HatGirl (From last year) anyway.

Well, in about 3 hours, we'll see if Summer can even stand up to MyTown... much less MyArea...

---Me