Day 270: Teenage Mutant Jurassic Park

I've been re-reading Jurassic Park and The Lost World. I first read those books when I was probably in fourth grade and at the very beginning of my Michael Crichton fan days. My wife recently bought me the Jurassic Park/Lost World Barnes & Noble collected edition with the white embossed cover and silver-edged pages so I decided to revisit what I remembered being a great book.

Not to discourage anyone from reading it, but Jurassic Park did not entertain me in quite the same way the second time around. It was, even in what should have been the most exciting parts, kind of boring; Crichton's writing style leaves something to be desired when there is action involved. On top of that the characters are almost entirely unlikable or, at best, boring. More often than not I was rooting for Ian Malcolm to die to save me from reading another simplistic diatribe on the magical predictive properties of chaos theory. Even Mr. Hammond doesn't seem like the wide-eyed child he is in the movie, but just a greedy salesman. He doesn't even really seem to care that his grand kids are lost in the park with a rampaging T-Rex.

I don't say this very often, but in this case I feel like the movie was much better than the book. The characters are better developed so you invest more in their survival and the creepy charm of Jeff Goldblum balances out the asshole in Ian Malcolm. Plus, Samuel L. Jackson, amiright? Really my only beef with the movie is no Stegosaurus cameos. What the hell, Spielberg? They were/are* amazing and majestic creatures; clearly the best dinosaurs ever. They should have been included in the film.

The Lost World is another story, because I don't really remember much about the movie except that the first time I saw it I thought, "Wow, this isn't really like the book at all." I have to say, I am enjoying The Lost World much more than I did Jurassic Park. Maybe it's because I didn't have the preconceived notions from the film version, or maybe it's just written better.

So, about the drawing. This is a call back to one of the most classic scenes from the movie with Muldoon, Ellie and Ian Malcolm being chased by the T-Rex. I made put Donatello in Ian Malcom's place because they're both smart guys, but then I realized almost everyone in the movie is some sort of scientist and Raph probably has the closest personality to Malcolm. Oh well, next time I do a Jurassic Park drawing I'll remember that.

In related Jurassic Park news everyone needs to go here and donate some money check this out.

Do you remember when I posted about my friend being in Aliens on Ice? Well that theater company is planning a tour to bring their unique version of Jurassic Park to cities across the country. They've got a Kickstarter going to raise the money and they're so very very close they've made it! When I first wrote this post two days ago there was still time to donate and secure a ticket to a showing, but due to circumstances beyond my control I'm only just now posting it. You should still go to the kickstarter page for information on where and when you can see the show.

Old Murder House Theatre's Jurassic Park Parody

*Stegosauruses are very much alive and well in my dreams.

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I mentioned once that I was supposed to post this two days ago. I tried to scan it last night and couldn't do it so I left the picture next to the computer. When I sat down to scan it just now I found this note from my wife. She told me she added the "No joke" part because she didn't want me to think she was being sarcastic. Thanks for the compliments and appreciating my art.

Day 269: Turtle Cookies

Today was supposed to be a Jurassic Park themed drawing, but then I left all my drawing stuff at home and didn't have time to draw my picture after work. Turns out I actually did a drawing, just not a traditional one. My wife, Shaun and I went to see Andrew Jackson Jihad tonight and my wife made them cookies to which I added a little box art.

I won't write a narrative about the whole night because my last post about an AJJ show was pretty long and I'm also pretty tired and running on about 3 hours of sleep, but it was a great show.

We got to the venue a little late because I ended up working late. There were (I think) six bands playing but we only heard a little bit of about half of them. We hung out on the outdoor balcony of the venue for a good portion of the night because it was so nice out.

We talked to AJJ's merch guy, Evan, for a while. He was very excited for the cookies as well as for my wife and Shaun's Princess Bride t-shirts (I swear they didn't both wear Princess Bride shirts on purpose). It was also his birthday so we high-fived for April birthdays (mine's next week) and left him a tip to speed him on his way to a hazy birthday.

While we were on the balcony Ben (AJJ bassist) sat with us for a little while. We've had several semi-lengthy conversations with him and he's always a super nice guy. Sean's nice too, but we didn't see him until after the show was over. One thing I love about seeing them live is they're always so friendly with everyone they meet and are willing to hang around and talk to the fans.

The show was amazing. They started out playing acoustic like usual, but then played the last half of the set as a full electric band. If I'm not mistaken this is the first time they've toured with a full band and it was really pretty great. The band turned what was already a fun time into a true punk show. Mosh pits opened up and people were crowd surfing. It got a little crazy, but it was a lot of fun.

I'm starting to ramble due to exhaustion so I think I'll leave it at this. The show was great, the guys were great and I'm already looking forward to their next stop in Austin.

Day 268: Titanic: A Metaphor

This was my original idea for a TMNT Titanic drawing. It's a metaphor for Leonardo and Raphael's relationship throughout much of the Turtles' history, always butting heads and breaking down their teamwork. Of course in this version Raphael kills Leonardo along with around 1,500 other people, so...

It's not a perfect metaphor, but you get the idea.

I also realized that in yesterday's post I erroneously colored the stripe along the deck of the ship red when it should have been white. Please excuse this oversight. I strive for realism in my images and I should have fact checked myself before coloring.