I PROMISE ... THIS IS THE LAST TROLL POST ...

This year ...

I like the 4th and the 6th but fell the last two posts 

the characters are more goblinoid than troll-like .

<sigh!>

TROLLIN' ALONG

Here we go with even more trolls ...

The chamber pot was also known as a "thunder mug" 

and was the name for one of Grandpa Cappy's giants 

from the stories he told to entertain my Mom.

This one holds a chamber pot as a coffee cup. 

Guess he's not using a Keurig!

CIRCLING ... CIRCLING ...

More trolls ... more circling ...

NOTHING BUT COAL.

Gotta love it when you wake up on Christmas and find coal im your stockings. There is a story in my family about my Great Aunt Rose whose brothers did that as a joke. She threw the lump through a window on a cold Ohio winter morn. I am sick ... thanks Santa. I think Yoko got it from him kissing under the mistletoe and she in turn gave it to me. 

On top of that my Christmas post is posting below the earlier post ... attempting to fix it only puts it lower in the list ... go figure .. so you need to scroll down to find it.

Bah Humbug :)

Merry Christmas!!!

MAYBE THEY'RE ...?

So one of the perks I get from working at the Contemporary is that there are a steady stream of college kids. Nice shiny bright faces. Sometimes they notice I keep a drawing journal and ask to take a look. The one thing I can count on is them giving a unvarnished opinion. One lovely young lady was Rachel Reed. Her comment was ... "John, you have to do something with these."

Well Rachel ... I have. 

What I have been doing is circling. 

You see I have an idea for a cartoon. It seems appropriate for the time. Something special ... in what should be a terrifying form. 

The problem is my cancerian nature of circling is going full speed ahead ... Sort of. I'm trying to come up with trolls. These are the ones that Rachel saw.

The problem is I'm not sure if they aren't more ogre or giant than troll. (Notice the pale eyes ... that started when I started having problems with mine. Yoko would say that I'm courting trouble.)

OZ NEVER HAD NOTHIN' ON THE TIN MAN

My first relocation of "The Wizard of Oz" was a scene done from a local stage production on then our local CBS channel. I'm not ... sure ... I might have been 3. Presented far past my bedtime, it was not long before it was the land of Oz but Nod that I was in. Still I spent the night dreaming of cowardly lions, scarecrows, and of course tin men.  Somewhere down the line the technicolor Oz came like clockwork, came yearly to Kansas. Then the Wizard of Turner appeared on the scene. I have to wonder if this film wasn't the reason he bought the MGM library. The VHS tape started the digital revolution with all the weapons of mass distractions, that we all ... enjoy ... now. Sad to say ... it was past 30 before I borrowed Karl Hertel's book. But hey ... it was the annotated copy. 

If I visit occasionally Oz, my friend Walt lives there. I wish he would feel compelled to go back to his works of Ozzian landscapes. When I needed an avatar for the community pages of the dulcimer site it was under the moniker, Tin Ear with a tin man with a dulcimer. 

Below is a study from my sketch book.

 

WTF

As of today ... there are two weeks until the new year. And with this post I will have 6 posts to make goal. 

OY!

Perhaps my next blog should be in time management. 

It has not been good since the end of October. No excuses ... just the facts. I was suppose to have a week off before vacation. I was well on my way to catch up with the earlier lag. I had dreams of new content ... and then life happened. I got sick in Vegas and it took me a month to recover. Now we are in the whirlwind we know as the holidays.

Now the next I don't know whether to blame western astrology or Chinese. In the common astrology I am a Cancer the Crab. I am suppose to circle around and around. And I do. The Chinese however name me Monkey ... easily distracted. I had a couple of hours to do some work. I got some inspiration on working on a costume for a puppet. I got nothing finished and have yet another iron in the fire. 

Such is my life ... deadline after deadline ...

<sigh>

I guess that is the way I'll end.