New Bella Novela Shirts with Gold & Silver Foil

Bella Novela has new t-shirts featuring the logo by yours truly.

They come in shiny GOLD or SILVER FOIL on black a black shirt. Nice!

Order yours HERE.

Bella Novela shirt

Bella Novela shirt now available here.

Bella Novela T-Shirts now available

Bella Novela t-shirts are now available featuring a design by yours truly.
Buy one at one of their shows, or right now online.

Here is a photo from their Facebook page:

Sick time

I got sick. Flu or something. Postponed all work for 3 days.
Trying to get back on track
These things are coming out slow like syrup as it is.
Let's hope they're as sweet.

Current projects:
1 t-shirt design (band concept)
1 logotype (open concept)
1 remix project (contest) (see Gazilcher's Tumblr page)
1 t-shirt design (open concept=anxiety)

Site update

I added a few things to the portfolio: 3 T-Shirt designs, a poster and a logo.

Can I get a "YEE-HAH?"

I'm working on resolving a shopping cart issue. The cart works. The only problem is that it's configured to charge shipping for individual items. When adding more items, the shipping doesn't adjust to combined items; it merely adds to the shipping total, displaying an exorbitant shipping charge.

As of now, I would adjust the shipping charge myself, and refund the difference to the buyer. But as it appears now, I can understand people being likely to abandon the cart without buying.

Any advice is welcome...

Progressive Nation Tour 2009

I went to the Progressive Nation Tour 2009 concert at The Greek Theater last week.

My camera still hasn't returned from being fixed, so I could only use my phone camera, which isn't worth much at a concert.

Here are some shots of the smoke clouds from our friendly neighborhood wildfires, as seen on the way to the show...

[click thumbnails to enlarge]



...as well as a Masonic Temple with dilapidated brickwork...



First band: Scale the Summit. Progressive metal ripping young transplanted Houstonian lads with at least 2 extra strings on their guitars & bass. I enjoyed them enough to buy a shirt* & CD...



Unfortunately I have no pics of Bigelf. They rocked. They were underdogs, because they have a very retro 70's rocksound**, rather than being technical shredders like all the other bands. Most bands would sound sloppy next to the other bands on this bill. They did use real Mellotron 400, Hammond C3 & Minimoog.

Zappa Plays Zappa was awesome. Very impressed with and inspired by drummer Joe Travers...



And then there's Dream Theater. Part of me thinks they are total, over-the-top cheese, but I can't shake some strange fascination with them. I had to see them once before I die.

Here is a shot off the big screen, showing Jordan Rudess actually playing his iPhone onstage. Sonically, you would never know it wasn't a professional synth, or his Continuum fingerboard...


(Note: I later found the app he used. It's called Bebot, and you can click here to see a video of JR demonstrating it on YouTube.)

Besides getting onstage to play 1 song with each of the 1st 3 bands, Mike Portnoy called out all the other drummers one-by-one to jam with him side-by-side. This all seemed like support & comradery, but partly to prove that he's the big dog. The first 2 guys seemed nervous, but he couldn't pull a single g*dd*mn trick over on Joe Travers. That guy more than kept up with Mike, and was visibly smiling & laughing his way through. Tearing sh*t up!

Here's Portnoy getting ready to call out Steve Vai & Dweezil Zappa for an all out guitar shredonomitronathon...



Cheesiest keytar ever...
Looks like a Klingon weapon prop from Star Trek The Next Generation. Rudess used it for some psuedo-guitar shredding, ala Jan Hammer...



I enjoyed the whole show; sublime beauty & cheesewank alike.

------

* Designed by Dan Mumford.
** Ala Black Sabbath, Kiss, The Beatles, Alice Cooper, '69 King Crimson

Big image of Alex's Bar shirt, True Blood, Fangtasia, HBO

I've mentioned and posted photos of this shirt design I did years ago for Alex's Bar.

I'm bringing it up again because:
a) Alex's Bar has been appearing on TV lately. Scenes from the new HBO vampire series True Blood were filmed there. If you watch the show, then you'll know the vampire bar called Fangtasia. The Fangtasia scenes, with the red walls and curtains, velvet paintings, etc.; those were filmed at Alex's Bar. Pretty Cool.
b) A decent sized image of the shirt design has never been shown online.

...and so, here is the front...(click thumbnail to enlarge)



...and here is the design on the sleeves...(click thumbnail to enlarge)



Sorry, I don't have an image of the back of the shirt on hand at the moment, but it says the name of the bar in a nice-campy-60's-Mexican-horror-movie-kinda-typestyle

Again, these shirts are only available at the bar itself:
Alex's Bar
2913 E. Anaheim St.
Long Beach, CA 90804
(NE corner of Anaheim & Gladys, next to the Auto Zone, entrance in the back)
562-434-8292

Too big for my son...

...too small for me.

[ click thumbnails to enlarge ]

BK shop is now online

As of today, the shop page is up and running.

I still have a few minor things to add/subtract/improve, but it's there for anyone wishes to purchase any of my wares.

:-)

Certificate of Appreciation

I just recieved another Certificate of Appreciation from The City of Los Angeles for the artwork I did for the LA Housing Dept. March of Dimes fundraiser car show & motorcycle rally...

[click thumbnail to enlarge]



Neato!

2008 LAHD/MOD Car Show t-shirt

For the last couple of years, I've designed t-shirts for the Los Angeles Housing Dept. annual March of Dimes fundraiser car show & motorcycle rally.

Here is the newest, which I just sent to the screenprinter...

[click thumbnail to enlarge]


Click In case you missed it, here is last year's design...

[click thumbnail to enlarge]

Alex's Bar shirts back in print!

I designed a shirt for Alex's Bar a few years back. They've been sold out for awhile, but I've just been informed that a new batch has been printed.

At this time, you can only buy one at the bar itself. Call for size availability.

Alex's Bar
2913 E. Anaheim St.
(Next to the Auto Zone - entrance in the back)
Long Beach, CA 90804
562-434-8292

If you want to order one, you'll have to email them, hit 'em up on MySpace, or pick up the phone and call.

I'll post an image soon, but in the meantime:

I stumbled across this recent picture* of some of the employees & friends all sporting the shirt...



*Taken 1-6-2008 in Echo Park

Fashion flashback

I went to high school in the 80's. 1984-1988 to be exact. Metal was king. All the metal heads (and there were alot) wore denim jackets with large patches on the back, displaying their favorite metal bands: Ratt, Dokken, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Metallica. I was the lone prog rocker, and I had to come up with my own thing, as pictured in my personal relics below...

[click thumbnail to enlarge]


These were hand drawn by myself using fabric markers, while looking at the various single/LP covers.

I still wore these for about a year after moving to California. People didn't generally recognize the images, and filed me under 'acid head.' I remember hearing people comment behind me at 'City College, saying things like "tripper..."