Skully Mambo II, 5 color screen print by James R Eads

The Skully Mambo II print is a great culmination of illustration coming together after a couple years of tinkering.   The original Skully Mambo released a year earlier had much of the same elements, but was added to and refined for this year.   This 5 color screen print captures its original inspiration very well.

What prompts an artist to create a work such as this?  For this image, I am really glad that James shared a link to the old timey Disney animation silly symphony – the skeleton dance 1929 disney short

The video is an early animation of the Halloween theme, and after watching the video you can see many of the elements in the work by James.  Elements like the church and the more unique dance moves of the skeletons have been reproduced, creating a light but appropriately themed image celebrating the dead.

There are two skeletons in the background, one appears to be holding another by the ankles,  I missed this in my first viewing, I couldn’t figure out what they were doing or why James included this odd part.  After watching the video again, I had an aha moment as I saw one skeleton ride another skeleton like a pogo stick.  Where did the Disney animators get that inspiration?

This is a 5 color screen print, yet there are many more layers to the image than the five colors.  The starry night in the shadow of the church pulls you into outer space, the ghost amebos flying around, and the rich layering of textures all comes together in this celebratory image.  I missed the  window to purchase this print, but am looking forward to seeing more from James R. Eads

How to beat Windows networking issues

While I was on the road this week, I had a terribly frustrating time trying to tether connect my netbook to my phone.   Windows 8.1 was working perfectly normal except that it was unable to connect to the WiFi network aired by my phone.   Even finding the hotspot required patience.    Other WiFi hotspots would appear, but not my phone, when it did appear the connection would fail with a simple message ‘Could not connect to network’.   Windows system logs were not helpful.

I had tried forgetting the hotspot to reconfigure it, I even tried re configuring the mobile WiFi hotspot on my phone.   There was nothing I could do.

Fortunately I found my sons Ubuntu netbook in the car, I booted it up and was able to get online to search for an answer.    I tried to phrase the question to Google in a way that it would get past the easy stuff and get me to the results I was looking for.  Microsoft popped up a promising lead, “Troubleshooting tips for connecting to networks”.  A quick read through found it was the very basic stuff, with no links to more advanced topics.

A techy’s insider tip, search technet.microsoft.com instead, content of technet is kept from general searches as it is more advanced and has a potential to break systems.    Once I updated the Google search to include “site:technet.microsoft.com”.  Bam! I found what I was looking for.

The fix I found was new to me and I wanted to contribute it to the collective memory as it may help future me and others if they have network issues with their windows computers.

Windows 8.1 Troubleshooting: Fix WiFi Connectivity Issues – plus more than just wifi

Reset TCP/IP Stack

Misconfigured TCP/IP settings might probably cause the issue of irresponsive Wi-Fi connection. It can easily be reset or Auto tuned through the Microsoft Windows very own Net Shell utility (netsh.exe). Have a look at the procedures below for the practical implication of this utility.

  • Click Search icon on the Charms bar and type Command Prompt in the search box
  • Right click the search result and choose to Run as administrator
  • Type the command NETSH INT IP RESET C:\RESTLOG.TXT and press Enter key

 

 

How to be cool by listening to CBC Radio 3

Where I live we have a public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  Say what you will cbc3-doorseabout state run media, but when it comes to a voice for the small independent artists the CBC’s Radio 3 online content is hands down the best way to be exposed to independent bands and artists from this dark frozen nation of ours.

The CBC has introduced many great bands to me.  Such as Metric, Arcade Fire, Buck 65, Shad, Grimes, Braids, Stars, Shout Out Out Out, Crystal Castles, most recently Faith Healer.   Many more, dozens… like a hundred.   I’ve never had a good memory for band names or song titles, so CBC has made it easy for me to remember my favorite bands and songs.   Using the web player you can explore, and listen on demand to their entire collection of Independent Canadian Music.    I like that they give voice to aboriginal music as well, check out this cool band from Nunavut, Scary Bear Soundtrack.

Here is a link to my CBC Radio 3 Profile.  I have recently started to add the music I like.   I hope that I can link my playlists here for you.   More on that later.

CBC Radio 3 is in a state of survival recently.   Unfortunately under the Harper regime the CBC’s funding suffered and the dedicated staff of CBC radio 3 paid the price.   The station is mostly just a computer these days.    The star of the station, Grant Lawrence has reached singularity and appears as automated bits of personality.

Hopefully, Canada and the CBC can get it’s act together and restore funding to this much loved service.

Hey there world!

Let’s start a blog.   A blog about me, and all the things I do and find interesting.   Who am I?  What do I do?   Let’s find out.

Welcome to day one of blogging.   I hope I’m here for a while.  🙂

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