Friends With an Elephant

Those of you that know me well (one or two of you have managed to work your way past my defenses...) know that I spend a great deal of time reading about this and about that and you've probably been thinking, "Creek, what have you learned from your studies?  Have you nothing to share with the rest of us?  We breathlessly await your words..."

Wait no more, friends, for here is what I've discovered...

Hmmm... maybe it's time I moved on from Dr. Suess.

[stands up from a tiny chair at a tiny table covered in books, leaves children's section of the library and heads over to check out the DVDs]

...I wonder if they have "Transformers"...

Creeking More In The ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore) Episode #12

I'm not from Atlanta, but I live here, and (because I live here) people who don't live here ask me, "Creek, what's Atlanta really like?"  I don't know what Atlanta is really like, but if you'd like to know what it's like for me I invite you to sit back and enjoy another episode of "CREEKING MORE IN THE ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!!!

[just a heads up, this one gets a little bit sexist towards the end]

In the city of Atlanta, every woman everywhere wears headphones at all times.

Like a lot of single men (men who find that they must make cold calls whenever they decide they'd rather not spend a Friday night alone), I rather abhor the ubiquity of headphones.

It makes the already difficult task of getting a female's attention all the more daunting.  But the other day, I had something of an epiphany.  I was at the 5 Points MARTA station waiting on a northbound train and I couldn't not notice the unusually attractive woman standing across the chasm...

She had on headphones (of course) but as I stood there, observing, I noticed that several of the men who walked past her said things to her.  Generally speaking, the kinds of things they said to her were the kinds of things most women would probably prefer not to hear.

...one guy said nothing at all and instead offered her a kind of leering, hungry look...

...and then there was the slightly less menacing (yet infinitely more awkward) approach demonstrated by the man who stood just a little too close and fumbled about in his mind for the right pickup line to use...

But as long as she had on those headphones, she could ignore the entire spectacle.  It was just her and her music, existing together in her mind; in a place where men didn't regard her as though she was a juicy piece of steak they'd like to have sex with.  In her mind, there were probably just rainbows and unicorns and those little dogs that fit as easily in a handbag as they would in a gerbil cage.

I should get one of those dogs.  I bet it'd make the game much easier...

There you have it folks, another exciting episode of "CREEKING MORE IN THE ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!  Be sure and come back for the next installment where I promise not to be so presumptuous as to imagine what might go on inside the heads of beautiful strangers.

A Chinese Dragon Dance (With Chickens)

I've decided to call this one A Chinese Dragon Dance (With Chickens) because it is, in fact, a depiction of several Chinese dragons (kind of) dancing and there are a number of random chickens floating around in the foreground.

I tend towards a cool palette (lots of blues and grays) on most occasions and I thought this would be a good opportunity to make things a bit warmer.

And as far as the chickens go, they're mostly spill-over from another project I'm working on that requires me to draw chickens over and over and over again...

I was going to make them ostriches, but that would just be ridiculous.

The whole thing is about 23x16 inches and I completed it using ink, watercolor, and pencil.  Oh, and one of the dragons has an entire universe in its mouth.

Enjoy your week folks, and thanks for stopping by.

Creeking More In The ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore) episode #96

I'm not from Atlanta, but I live here, and (because I live here) people who don't live here ask me, "Creek, what's Atlanta really like?"  I don't know what Atlanta is really like, but if you'd like to know what it's like for me I invite you to sit back and enjoy another episode of "CREEKING MORE IN THE ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!!!

[flannel shirts provided by Goodwill and REI]

In the city of Atlanta, one may find that he must (for whatever reason) take the bus to get to where he's going...

The MARTA rail system offers an enjoyable enough ride.  The MARTA bus system does not.  For one thing, it is chronically late.

And I don't know if you've ever noticed, but MARTA will put a bus stop absolutely anywhere.  Sometimes, you'll see a nice one with a bench and a roof, but usually a MARTA bus stop is just a sign sticking out of the ground.

Sometimes that ground is in someone's front lawn:

It may be in a ditch:

...or in the middle of a traffic island...

...or up in the branches of a tree...

MARTA buses don't travel along some secret road set apart from other vehicles, they use the same roads as everyone else.  And that means they get stuck in traffic like everyone else.

No one is happy on a MARTA bus, especially after having worked a full day at a job that doesn't pay you enough to not have to take the bus.  So, needless to say, if you're riding the bus home in the evening during the week, you keep to yourself and so do the other occupants of the bus.

...unless you're this guy:

He just got back into town after having backpacked through Europe (or southeast Asia or Australia) and he wants to say "hi" to everyone on the bus and tell them all about his journey of self-discovery.

He talks about the sites he's seen and the food he ate and the women he slept with and how his mind was broadened and he doesn't notice that the passengers around him just want him to shut up and be as miserable as everyone else.

He even has the audacity to offer a general "goodnight, everyone" as he gets off the bus and goes wherever it is people like him go at night.

And you realize that you hated him because he spoke; because he wanted to share his joy with perfect strangers.  And you wonder what that says about you...

And you definitely don't go home and google all the places he was talking about.

There you have it folks, another exciting episode of "Creeking More in the ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!  Be sure and come back for the next installment and remember that the seats in the front of the bus are reserved for the elderly and the disabled.

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