bob pendarvis: bob's ramblings

it's 5:50am and i am ready to catch the pillow train to sleepytown and dream of sugarplum fairies and flying reindeer and such. as i was leaving my parent's house (following hours and hours of videogaming sweetness) i looked up and saw the brightest full moon ever (if it wasn't full, it was darned close). there was also an amazing halo glowing around the moon. it was a perfectly christmassy end to a perfect christmas eve.

goodnight, christmas moon!

only two more days until christmas, folks. i've had a very nice christmas break (haven't been to work since a week before thanksgiving...teaching RULES). this weekend, as usual, i've been gaming with my dad, brother, and uncle dennis. mostly call of duty 4, but we'll probably try some compnay of heroes tonight. nothing says christmas quite like finding a safe, well-hidden spot to zap your enemies. well, you know what i mean. anyway, it's not really the actual games themselves, it's the fun of hanging out in the "computer room" and talking smack and munching on snacks as we stay up till the wee, wee hours. last night we made it to a little past 4:00am. who knows how long we can go tonight? fortunately, i'm all done with both shopping AND wrapping my presents (a first for me). next week i hope to try and get a little actual work done (dr. mittens web comic, fletcher hanks web comic, shoujo novel, and final mixes on my third music cd. hey, it's the season of miracles so ya never know!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

tomorrow is beth concepcion's birthday. you may know her as the editor of scad's campus chronicle. or maybe you know her from her tv weatherwoman gigs. maybe you remember her as my special guest vocalist at my (so far) one and only concert appearance. however you know her, i'm sure EVERYONE who knows her would agree she deserves to have a happy, HAPPY birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETH!!!

the famously adorable miss melanie carson invited me to attend a christmas performance held at the lutheran church of the ascension. it was just the right thing to put me in the christmas spirt. melanie played the bells in the ascension ringers and there were plenty of other singers and bell ringers, including shepherds and angels. i remember performing in a christmas pageant when i was a kid...i think i was a shepherd. anyway, it was totally a blast to listen to all those happy harmonies. thanks for the invite, melanie. oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

john lennon should have been 67 this year. george harrison's death was sad too, but at least he wasn't murdered in front of his wife.

i don't have anything brilliant or insightful to say, but i just felt like writing something.

i know, i know...you've heard about my FREE christmas cds and you want a copy of your own, but you're not sure how to get one. it's simple: just drop me an e-mail requesting a cd (include your mailing address) and i'll send you a cd...free! some of you are already on my list, but if you're not sure if i have your current home address then send me an e-mail update, 'kay? this year's cd is thirty minutes of bob, bob, and even more bob singing seventeen christmas carols and songs. not available in stores and not available for sale...but you can have a free copy if you act soon! merry christmas!

howz everybody's christmas/hanukkah/winter solstice so far? i've been busy doing nothing. well, not exactly NOTHING, but i've definitely been a lot lazier than i'd planned. oh, well...

since i don't have any new news to report (soon, people, soon) i'll regale you with yet another installment of UNTOLD TALES OF BOB.

one christmas my parents totally forgot about a present they had hidden deep in their closet. i doubt we missed it much, as my parents always managed to go all out for us kids every christmas. still, it was soooo cool when the present turned up months later: a huge metallic fort with tons of soldiers and little catapults and horses and stuff. sheer bliss. not so much the actual fort, but just the whole "extra present" thingy. sure, my parents could have just saved it until our next birthdays or even until the next Christmas, but they owned up and gave it to us...YES!!!

yay! it's november 22nd, my birthday!!!

special shout outs to my soul-sisters ainsley, ms. squeaks, shinji and zelda, amanda and elle. also, special thanks to my sister-in-law rose and my mom, who made sure i had a delicious oreo-cookie ice cream cake...mmm...cake...

i'm definitely going to go see the new ENCHANTED movie today (all by myself, as all my girlfriends are out of town) and will return to insanely violent videogame mayhem later tonight (after gorging on turkey and dressing, duh).

since this is thanksgiving, let me offer my thanks for being blessed with so many cool friends (especially the female ones) who provide me with the strength to wake up each day and give it my best shot. yay friends!!!
my invisible hat is off to you all and i shall drink a frosty glass of rootbeer in your honor.

ps: did you know the beatles released two different albums on november 22nd (their first one and the white one). cool, eh? well, i think it's cool...

i was fortunate enough to be at the opening night of nickel creek's "final...for now" tour (at the lucas theater in savannah, ga) and on monday night i was able to see them again (florida theater in jacksonville, fla) as they near the end of the road.

all in all i've seen nickel creek in concert four times (my favorite being the night the ditty bops opened for them at the johnny mercer theater in savannah, ga) and i have been blown away each and every time. their infectious enthusiasm is matched only by the well-honed mastery of their bluegrass instruments (fiddle, mandolin and guitar...plus an awesome upright bass). oh! and their harmonies...sooo sweet!

i look forward to new projects from all of them, especially sara watkins (the only member who has yet to swim in the solo section of the pool), but i'm very glad i was able to experience the full, unfettered power of nickel creek before they called it a day. sara, sean, chris (and amazing bass player/dancer whose name escapes me for the moment), my invisible hat is doffed in your direction.

as i mentioned last time, my birthday is on thanksgiving this year. here's another birthday story for you. i don't remember how old i was, something like 9 or 10 years old. what i DO remember is that my party that night had barely started when i suddenly found it difficult to breathe. nothing new for me, as i used to have many bad asthma attacks as a kid. sometimes my parents could fix me up themselves, and other times i would have to go to the hospital. naturally, this was one of THOSE times. yep, i spent the rest of the night under an oxygen tent at a hospital.

but that's not even the worst part of the story for me. nope, the worst part was coming home the next morning and discovering that my birthday cake had been completely devoured and my presents had all been opened...GAAH!!! i have VERY vivid memories of this (for instance, i remember dad buying me a superman comic on the way home...he was fighting terra-man on the cover). of course, the sight of my opened presents almost caused me to have a relapse and send me right back to the hospital. the horror, the horror...

these days i can totally understand what happened. my mom, faced with a house packed with kids, made the decision to open the presents without me. to be fair, my mom says she doesn't remember any such thing. the hospital stay, sure, but she doesn't remember the cake being eaten or the presents being opened.

on the other hand, my charlie brown level bitterness has remained with me to this very day...sigh...

hee hee!

right now it is 4:17am...halloween is here (well, it's later tonight anyway). that means the beginning of my favorite time of year...four big holidays all wrapped together:

halloween, my birthday/thanksgiving (this year my birhtday actually FALLS on thanksgiving) and christmas. i could throw new year's in, too, but new year's is vastly overrated. the four i mentioned are my hands-down FAVORITE DAYS OF THE YEAR!!! i do have a soft spot for dragon con weekend and the end of the school year, but the halloween-christmas season recharges my batteries every year.

not exactly controversial, but that's okay. let me see if i can manage to stir the pudding up a little. i had been planning on buying the new eagles album (having waited forever for a new one), but i've decided i can live without their politically correct sermonizing about the "evils of bush's america" and its consume everything mentality. i just have no interest in supporting the utter and complete hypocrisy of this attitude (the eagles should be the last folks to serve judgement on anyone), not to mention the utter and complete been-there-done-that vibe (all of the other musicians who have already jumped on this bandwagon).

i support their right to think anyway they like and write whatever kinds of songs they like, but this just smacks of pandering.

there, that should irritate somebody...assuming anyone reads this.

years ago when i was a mere college student (okay...art school) living in savannah, i often found myself with too much time on my hands (i'd kill to have some of that time back now). i used to play a lot of videogames, read a lot of comics, even spent my fair share of nights rolling six-sided dice and building up hit points.

one evening, feeling particularly bored, i walked into the bathroom of my gaston st. apartment and sprayed shaving cream all over my face, completely covering it. soon enough, i was wandering the streets of savannah as "shaving cream head."

those were the days...

here's another true story from the bob files...

when i was a kid, my family used to regularly make trips to visit our relatives back home in shreveport, louisiana (we were living in georgia). these trips were pretty danged close to those portrayed in the movie VACATION, starring chevy chase. you know, lots of old-fashioned family togetherness, mixed with lots of old-fashioned family arguments and humiliation. surely there was no more particularly cringe-worthy moment than the year my mother became convinced that it was downright foolish to risk crossing a certain unbelievably tall mississippi river bridge...unless we were all protected with life-jackets.

as we neared the bridge, my mom instructed all of us to put on our life-jackets. reluctantly, VERY reluctantly, my brothers and i donned our bright orange life-jackets. my dad, bless him, absolutely refused. my mom tried to make him change his mind, tugging on his heart strings with the threat of our poor, doomed family forced to survive without a bread-winning husband/father. dad didn't budge an inch and i'm pretty sure he informed my mother that she would be free to marry someone else if the bridge collapsed.

my mom was furious, but at least she knew her children would likely survive. as for me, i wasn't sure it was worth it. when we reached the bridge, the traffic was pretty heavy and had slowed to just about a crawl. i tried to use pillows to conceal the fact that i was wearing a stupid orange life-jacket. after all, it's not like i could explain to all the otherr people on the bridge that i was only following my mom's orders. every now and then some cute girls would look over at our car and a part of me would slink off to die, much like the death that would surely have awaited all of us if the bridge had collapsed, bright orange life-jackets notwithstanding.

yes, we obviously made it over the bridge that day, but i'm still not sure it was worth it...

i've decided to set up at least one more website, as this particular one doesn't seem very equipped to handle my comics.

i'll be keeping this site. after all, i have plenty more music on the way. this will be the place for all of my ZILLIONS of friends and fans to read about the latest happenings in the land of bob, but the new website (maybe more than one) will feature regularly posted online comics...yay!

stay tuned!

gothic lolitas, dainty and/or debonair dollfies, tekken fighthers, peanut butter jelly time, gir, katamari, sailor scouts, solid snake, mario and luigi, princess peach, mr. zelda (link), bleachers, beboppers, oddparents, starblazers...the list just goes on and on.

mind you, i had a particular fondness for my goth hello kitty and pirate hello kitty outfits. i was worried that AWA folks wouldn't be as enamored of kitty as the dragon con fans, but they actually seemed even more happy to see her (yay).

i can't wait to go back next year, only next time i hope to be able to secure a table of my own in the artist alley. if i start working now, maybe i'd have plenty of stuff to sell by next september...

i'm off on the road to atlanta again. this time it's for anime weekend atlanta...and it should be an old-school blast of starblazers, mighty orbots and schoolgirl warriors. naturally, hello kitty will be there, as will a ton of scaddies like shinji, emma, angel, mia, dana, del, jarrett, heidi, brandon, muffin, cali, christy and (yay) ms. squeaks herself. something tells me i will be thoroughly exhausted by sunday. whatever...

wheeeeee!!!

yay! i went to red lobster today with some friends (awesome friends) and three of us decided to take the "endless shrimp" challenge. shinji totally kicked our butts by devouring an UNBELIEVABLE amount of shrimp scampi, popcorn shrimp, buffalo shrimp, shrimpy shrimp, su-su-sudio shrimp....SHRIMP! i tried to keep up, but failed miserably. my invisible top hat is officially doffed in shinji's direction...wowzer!

to be honest, i haven't eaten it...but that commercial just looks icky-yucky.

oh, and remember to thank your local firemen and firewomen (firefolks) today.

A WRINKLE IN TIME blew my mind when i was a kid. i just couldn't believe anything so cool and cosmic was in the "children's section" at my local library. haven't read it? what are you waiting for? read it today!
sadly, the reason i'm bringing this up is the recent death of author MADELEINE L'ENGLE. not so sadly, her work is sure to live on for many, many years to come.

WHEW! what a week! dragon con 2007 was awesome (if very exhausting). i didn't get much sleep, but i sure had a ton of fun. sadly, my camera decided to go on the fritz and i didn't get pics of the INCREDIBLE costumes and cute outfits of the cosplayers...dang it all! oh, well.

i was working on a new hello kitty head right up to the last minute (including a little stitching on saturday evening), but it got to be too much and i wound up settling for last year's costumes. fortunately, nobody seemed to mind as PIRATE HELLO KITTY and GOTH HELLO KITTY were both very, very popular. i couldn't walk more than a few yards (sometimes a few feet) without having to stop and let people take my picture.

i met a bunch of former and current students, including christy lijewski, nate pratt, heidi arnhold (who shared table space with me and promoted her upcoming DARK CRYSTAL tokyopop book), rebecca buchman, tom feister, clay henss... and MICHELLE, MIKE, ABBY, DANIEL, JOHN, JEFFERSON, CAROLINE, BETH, BRANDON, HUNTER...i could go on and on, but my fingers will fall off.

as always, i was mostly accompanied by the adorable AINSLEY, dainty LYNN, and majestic SARAH. lynn has gone back to her vegan roots and i wound up making the rounds to lots of new eateries (for me). i liked the indian food the best, but the ethiopian restaurant was a lot of fun (no utensils...weird).

my panel (on pitching ideas to publishers) went well and i didn't feel too outclassed by the actual big shots sitting next to me (scott allie, peter david, andy runton). i even managed to throw shout outs to mia paluzzi and ross campbell (who helped make me ready by letting me know of their own experiences with pitching). after the panel, i met the great wayne vansant, a wonderful artist who joined in as i was chatting with a girl about how and where to pitch her christian-approved comic series. that's one of the great things about going to conventions, the random, unexpected conversations and encounters.

favorite sights: peanut butter jelly time dude wandering the halls (tied with the "slow ride" guys wandering the streets with their beat box), the monarch's henchmen, the classic star trek dresses, the various harry potter themed outfits, the 501st (duh), optimus prime, jack skellington, gamers staying up all night playing in the hallways and behind the escalators, fans sprawled on the floors reading their freshly purchased treasures or drawing in their sketchbooks, and, the freaking tree guy (you had to see it to believe it).

anyhoo, my thanks to the dragon con staff and volunteers for yet another perfect way to end the summer. i can't wait for next year (maybe if i start now i can finally get my new costumes and comics ready).

next week: BACK TO SCHOOL!

pirate hello kitty will be making a return appearance at dragon con this year. i also have a couple of goth dresses and my original blue denim jumper, but dragon con's theme this year seems to be pirates, so i figure the return of pirate kitty is definitely in order. i didn't have time to sew a new head before the trip (dang), so i guess i'll be cutting and stitching on thursday night. i'm also appearing at a panel on "pitching ideas to professionals". i asked my AWESOME friends mia paluzzi and ross campbell (and even the darklord mark kneece himself) for some personal observations and now i feel fully armed (in case someone actually bothers to ask me a question).

anyway, i'll let you know how the con went when i get back next week. and SOON i hope to have pictures up...whee!

meanwhile..."arrr!"

good grief! where the heck did my summer go? it's almost labor day weekend already? arrrgh!! well, at least i get to end the summer on a high note. yes, the powers-that-be have deigned to permit me to be a guest at this year's dragon con in atlanta, georgia. for many years now, dragon con has been the only major comics convention that i've regularly attended. why? because dragon con ROCKS! it may not be as high profile as san diego's comic con, but that doesn't matter to me. dragon con is still for freaks and geeks, goths and sloths, fans and hans (han solo, that is). i usually spend at least four or five hours every night wandering the halls checking out all the AMAZING costumes and popping into various video rooms. mind you, i do this while dressed as hello kitty...
sad to see summer ending? drown your sorrows drinking free sodas in the con suite at dragon con. see you there!

last week, mike wieringo died of a sudden, very unexpected heart attack. mike was a very popular comic book artist who worked on characters like FLASH and THE FANTASTIC FOUR. more importantly, he seemed to be a classic "great guy" who actually loved what he did for a living. i met him several times over the years, at conventions and SCAD's own Comics Art Forum, and he just impressed the daylights out of me. i've met many, many comics big shots and i'm often disappointed to discover how annoying or obnoxious some of these folks can be...but not mike weiringo. he was just the kind of pro you want to meet: unbelievably talented and unbelievably nice.

my thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

actually, this tale has been told any number of times, but it's catchier to say it's an untold tale. here goes...

a long time ago, when i was still in high school, it was the night before my birthday and my brother (scott) and i were playing a game of chess at the kitchen table. at one point, i knew that i was doomed to lose and took his queen and deposited it in the giant "jethro-sized" bowl of cereal (probably cheerios) he was only halfway through. this, understandably, irritated him no end. he got up and chased me round and round the kitchen table. this went on for several minutes, but my asthma got the better of me and i eventually ran out breath and he caught me. well, he didn't merely "catch" me, he actually ran into me and shoved me right through the dining room wall. i mean, i was IN the wall, looking out at my brother, who had a shocked look on his face (mirroring my own, no doubt, but i couldn't say for sure, as there were no mirrors hidden in the walls of our house).

as if that weren't enough, my mom drove up the driveway only minutes later. i saw my whole birthday flash before my eyes in an instant (it wasn't pretty) and i went outside to "prepare her" before she saw it with her own eyes. she saw through my strategy and brushed right past me and into the bright headlights of hell. "the wall...there's a hole in the wall...what have you two idiots done?!"

needless to say, i tried to deflect blame to my brother. again, my mom wasn't buying any of it...sigh...

this has been an untold tale of bob!

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