text

Hoogda boodi Bo Baa

2012-01-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hoogdom bada bi bi bodo baa, badi baa bodi buati bandi ba baaa

this means

nothing in nothing!

The best time to blog is when you are drunk!

Blogging from my imac which my ex employer tried to take away from me. What's the story? well I'll reserve it for a comic, its a funny story about human behaviour, will come later.

So today, on a perfectly normal day I read this -

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/1260/Kushinagar.html

Joe Sacco, an illustrator cum reporter's account on condition in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, where a segment of people are so poor that they get their food from rat holes, where rats collect grains from the farms nearby. these poor fellows collect grains from this small holes to cook their roti.

so once you read something like this, sleep doesn't strike. Despite of how hard you try it really doesn't come.

So the best way out is trying out the engineering college standard, age old solution, old monk and namkeen.
rab bhi nahi aati!

hoogdi boo ba!

There's no point getting sad about things though, life is unfair to everyone, from the people I consider idiots to people who consider me an idiot, life is unfair to everyone.

its also funny to notice how few grammatical mistakes I make when I am drunk. Should start writing proses when I am drunk, I might win a Sahitya Akademi Award or something.

By the way, India after Gandhi won the Sahitya Akademi Award, so if you haven't read it still, go ahead and read it, its a brilliant book and is an appetizer among the buffet of books we have on the offering.

life as usual, goes on, despite recent deaths, recent achievements and recent moments of joy, life goes on.

And finally don't have anything more to say, if I was creative enough by the standards set by my fine art peers, I would have attempted a 'piece' on life, but well, I am not, so I'll let it be and try and let my thoughts flow through text.

Now, if I am using text to let my feelings flow, doesn't necessarily mean that I am a master of using text to my advantage, actually there are very few out there who really master the art of using text.

Text when used at best makes up of images, transitions, colors and every other tool of expression, but there are very few out there who really are a master of the written word. In this world of blogs and 95 rupee books, every ass like me has the opportunity to express him/herself without anyone's approval and that leads to a clutter of such magnitude that the garbage left after a mata ki chowki can only give you an idea of the beauty of the clutter.

writing more, would really make two phrases suffer badly, specially in my context. There are - political correctness and getting ahead of oneself.

so I'll let it be here. Till the time I get drunk next or I need to show something else off.

- Sumit

Support Without Question

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000-08:00

This year the biggest topic of discussion in India has been the Lokpal Bill, its a bill for a new and stronger anti corruption body.

A group of activists are riding on the government to get the bill passed in time, by fasting and protesting. They have been hailed in various ways, specially Anna Hazare, who has been compared to Mahatma Gandhi on several occasions.

This new body if passed the way the activists want it, will be a small mini government with absolute power to do almost anything.

The debates continue, but the average "supporter" is not too keen in getting to know the Bill.

Kuredna

2011-12-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yellow Cake and the Pig Farmer by Nick Cross

2011-12-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Yellow Cake, super simple, super brilliant!

Yellow Cake from Nick Cross on Vimeo.

The Pig Farmer from Nick Cross on Vimeo.

This Blog looks interesting

2011-12-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

Haven't read it yet - http://sottai.wordpress.com/

On the varying size of Sabu

2011-12-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Sabu in the earlier comics used to be really tall, his head was in the clouds all the times, but slowly Pran scaled him down to the size of a giant.

Why did he do so?

I would’ve preferred the big supertall sabu over the giant size.

I think that what happened was the Madagascar problem.

When you see Madagascar, you can clearly see how the Giraffe’s head was always a problem, mostly when they had to show him with the other characters, so there couldn’t be many group shots.

In some places his long neck was also used as a good device, but mostly it was a problem.

I think the similar might’ve been a problem with the really tall sabu, a giant can have more people in the frame, but for the super tall sabu you would have to draw a special panel everytime.

But still Sabu’s height kept changing all the time. It still varies a lot.

Illingworth

2011-12-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

Cartoonist bolte hi all everyonce can think of is R.K.Laxman, bhaiyya! Goli maar do mereko!

Just to take you away from R.K .Laxman, I found a british cartoonist, who did cartoons on Indian around the time of its independence.

http://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/illingworth-cartoons-on-india-daily-mail-uk-1942-194

He’s plain brilliant.

Books I read recently

2011-12-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

I travel for an hour daily, up and down so I read for two hours, daily.

Books I read recently –

India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

Behenji by Ajoy Bose

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K.Prahalad

India after Gandhi was a brilliant read, there is a reason for every book to exist and the one for this one is

“For us the history of India stops at 15^th August 1947, after that date everything is present”

The book is an interesting read.

School Drawing Competition

2011-09-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

Everything is a remix

2011-09-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Everything is a nice little documentary/audio visual by Kirby Ferguson, it explains how everything new is made out of existing elements.

His narration is brilliant.

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Interview - Sergio Aragone's

2011-07-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not an art student!

2011-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Working On Style

Recently I've been working on rendering, trying to create a final product where the artwork is amplified. I've tried everything, from water colors to pencil colors, to water colors, digital coloring and nothing has ever worked, which has really got me irritated for a lot of time.

And looking at the work of all these illustrators who are so perfect is so irritating, you know the ones who know how to use lines, use pure shapes to create artwork, champ of colors, so on so forth.

And i was taking the regular approach, trying to ink using crow quills, brushes, rooting pens, rooting inks, and what not.

but, why should I go the art college way, I am not an art student, to begin with i don't even understand

the sketchbooks of these art students.

These professional illustrators, who all have studied at these JJ schools, and what not have uploaded their sketchbooks on their blogs, when I look at them, they have all these sketches with water colors, pastels and what not.

and you call them rough sketches?

Aaarrggghhh....

So i just realized, I have drawn most of the time in my notepad, with a BALL PEN.

I am a damn computer science engineer!

I was never an ART student!

I don't have rough sketchbooks which look like Pablo Picasso's tatti!

and I am afraid of ART...

So my notebook and my ball pen are my basic devices, and a ball pen is a beautiful thing, it has various levels of darkness, depending on pen pressure, unlike any method of inking.

So all I need is to create the artwork with a ball pen.

and coloring, what about coloring?

I can't tell you my frustration, my anger at coloring, I am tired of watching the too perfect colors in comics, is people's artwork and especially in the sketchbooks of art students!

So this time to begin with, simple decision, no more trying to be an art student.

Just simple hues of the colors.

I'm not an Art Student.

thats all.

watching things day :-(

2011-05-03T00:59:00.002-07:00

A beautiful Trailer for the Toronto Comic Con - Talks about how the tools of trade for cartooning are simple, how you get attached to them and how they'll be eventually taken away from you.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Pencil it In from Toronto Comic Arts Festival on Vimeo.

A series of pictures with Tiny people

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bousserez/410189633/in/set-72157594266762278

Its Okay Not To Like Things!

Scott McCloud walks us through the techniques he uses to construct his panels and word balloons in Adobe Illustrator

http://blog.drawn.ca/post/5133348458/scott-mccloud-walks-us-through-the-techniques-he

Comedy Central changed their logo and put up this whole big campaign to spread it around, this is the video, I really liked it, its the edit I guess.

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.015-07:00

First I heard about Private Eye Anonymous was when it got a special edition of HT Brunch dedicated to it, which had this specially made piece called THE CASE OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
(http://tejasmodak.blogspot.com/2009/07/press-coverage.html)

I didn't read it then, because I was in my 2nd year, trying hard to find something to do in cartooning, without any success, I had written to everyone, including fartnath Banerjee.

Nobody replied.

And then I read Fartnath Banerjee's books which were even more depressing.

So I took all my anger out when Private Eye Came out, I made it a point that I'll never read it, because I decided on my own that it'd be bad.

AFTER 3 YEARS I was looking around which all authors we had missed during the first Comic Con, I saw Private Eye and I picked it just for that reason.

And then I read it...

And I loved PRIVATE EYE ANONYMOUS.

and for a variety of reasons.

1. STRONG WRITING - the book has strong writing, it has a specific way it has been written, although the hero is a detective, and has a sidekick, but the writing is brilliant in terms of recurring references.
And the story doesn't suffer because the author was busy with the art, that never happens.
There are strong characters, with a very unique I wont give a character background approach.

2. STYLE OF ITS OWN - the book has unique style, from the plus in my profession style of jokes, to the Panel free arrangement, brilliant coloring not to mention the POVs.

Now, when I look back I see Tejas had worked quite hard to promote the book, because at the time when it was launched, it was everywhere.

But, yes its not covered that much now, because of the idiotic publishers and journalists who have no idea what comics are, because whenever something new happens in comics, all they can come up with is a generic article on the history on Indian Comics, a picture or two of ACK or something and a small tilt towards the topic in question (MAY IT BE A COMIC CON OR A PRIVATE EYE)

Anyways, Tejas Welcome Back!
Lets Kick Start the promotions again, and lets see a new Private Eye installment!

http://www.flipkart.com/private-eye-anonymous-tejas-modak-book-818997565x?ref=48f21906-9777-4565-89a0-ac1d4ed86227

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.013-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.011-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.009-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.007-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.005-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.003-07:00

Private Eye Anonymous - A Unique Book Which Needs More LOVE!

2011-04-30T05:04:00.001-07:00

Stefan Sagmeister - Creating something called www.theitchyoucantscratch.com

2011-04-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

born in 1962, bregenz, austria. stefan sagmeister
studied graphic design at the university of
applied arts in vienna. in 1987 he moved to new york
to attended pratt institute on a fulbright scholarship.

sagmeister opened his own office
‘sagmeister inc’. in 1994 he was nominated for a grammy
award for his album cover - 'h. p. zinker mountains of madness’.

currently among many projects sagmeister finished the website for Sumit Kumar's book

The Itch You Can't Scratch with Hafeez Contractor.

Here he shares his experiences developing the idea and finally creating the website.

related links:
http://www.sagmeister.com

The website for Sumit's new book posed new challenges to the artist in me. The brief was to produce a minimalist kitschy design which would reflect the essence of the book. I started off by reading the book thrice in three days. Then i took a break for a week and meditated on the content. I re-read the book three more times and then I realized that to really get intimate with this project I would need to imbibe the local flavors of India which infuse the work of Sumit Kumar. I decided to immerse myself and flew down to India.

I spent the first week in the holy city of Varanasi purifying my mind of western influences...getting ready to immerse myself into Sumit's context like I was immersing myself in the Ganges. Then I went to the capital city of Delhi, the city where Sumit grew up. To get a real feel I spent three weeks in the home of a middle-class family in Northwest Delhi. After those fulfilling three weeks, I had begun to get an understanding of Sumit's life and book...but no understanding of Sumit could be complete without understanding his college years spent in Amritsar. But I did not want to stay in a hotel in Amritsar...I needed the authentic experience of the boys hostels of GNDU.

To arrange for this, I reached out to my new-found acquaintance Hafeez (I'd met him at the American Diner at India Habitat Centre). Hafeez, through some contacts (as I found out everything can be done in India with the right contacts), arranged for a two week stay at the same hostel Sumit had stayed in. Surrounded by lewd boys in underwear, my understanding got deeper. I returned to Delhi, ready to start working on the design. I read the book one last time...and I realized...my ideas were still not complete. I had identified the correct palette and textures...but I needed some help on the basic underlying structure. I spent two harrowing weeks searching for a way out.

And then one day, when I was on the verge of just giving up and returning my advance to Sumit my phone rang. It was Hafeez...he was suggesting that we work together on a project sometime. And it struck me! Who better to realize the basic structure of my creation than an architect who came from the same context as Sumit! I convinced Hafeez to become a co-creator and Sumit to agree to this. And finally, the creation began to take form. It was a really satisfying assignment and I'm really please to have been able to do such a good job.

Nice Article - Partly useful

2011-04-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Part of it useful, part of it ordinary.

Via http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+austinkleon+%28AUSTINKLEON.COM%29

HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST (AND 9 OTHER THINGS NOBODY TOLD ME)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30TH, 2011

Note: This is a slightly edited version of a talk I gave yesterday at Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York. It’s a simple list of 10 things I wish I’d heard when I was in college.

All advice is autobiographical.
It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past. This list is me talking to a previous version of myself.
Your mileage may vary.

1. Steal like an artist.

Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?”
The honest artist answers, “I steal them.”

I drew this cartoon a few years ago. There are two panels. Figure out what’s worth stealing. Move on to the next thing.
That’s about all there is to it.
Here’s what artists understand. It’s the a three-word sentence that fills me with hope every time I read it:

It says it right there in the Bible. Ecclesiastes:

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.

Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of previous ideas.

Here’s a trick they teach you in art school. Draw two parallel lines on a piece of paper:

How many lines are there? There’s the first line, the second line, but then there’s a line of negative space that runs between them. See it?
1 + 1 = 3.

Speaking of lines, here’s a good example of what I’m talking about: genetics. You have a mother and you have a father. You possess features from both of them, but the sum of you is bigger than their parts. You’re a remix of your mom and dad and all of your ancestors.

You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see.

Jay-Z talks about this in his book, Decoded:

We were kids without fathers…so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history, and in a way, that was a gift. We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves…Our fathers were gone, usually because they just bounced, but we took their old records and used them to build something fresh.

You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”

An artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there’s a difference: hoarders collect indiscriminately, the artist collects selectively. They only collect things that they really love.
There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income.
I think the same thing is true of our idea incomes. You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.

My mom used to say to me, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
It used to drive me nuts. But now I know what she means.
Your job is to collect ideas. The best way to collect ideas is to read. Read, read, read, read, read. Read the newspaper. Read the weather. Read the signs on the road. Read the faces of strangers. The more you read, the more you can choose to be influenced by.

Identify one writer you really love. Find everything they’ve ever written. Then find out what they read. And read all of that. Climb up your own family tree of writers.
Steal things and save them for later. Carry around a sketchpad. Write in your books. Tear things out of magazines and collage them in your scrapbook.
Steal like an artist.

2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to start making things.

There was a video going around the internet last year of Rainn Wilson, the guy who plays Dwight on The Office. He was talking about creative block, and he said this thing that drove me nuts, because I feel like it’s a license for so many people to put off making things: “If you don’t know who you are or what you’re about or what you believe in it’s really pretty impossible to be creative.”
If I waited to know “who I was” or “what I was about” before I started “being creative”, well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.

You’re ready. Start making stuff.
You might be scared. That’s natural.
There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s called imposter syndrome. The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.
Guess what?
None of us do. I had no idea what I was doing when I started blacking out newspaper columns. All I knew was that it felt good. It didn’t feel like work. It felt like play.
Ask any real artist, and they’ll tell you the truth: they don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.
Have you ever heard of dramaturgy? It’s a fancy sociological term for something this guy in England said about 400 years ago:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts…

Another way to say this:

I love this phrase. There’s two ways to read it: Fake it ‘til you make it, as in, fake it until you’re successful, until everybody sees you the way you want, etc. Or, fake it til’ you make it, as in, pretend to be making something until you actually make something. I love that idea.

I also love the book Just Kids by Patti Smith. I love it because it’s a story about how two friends moved to New York and learned to be artists. You know how they learned to be artists? They pretended to be artists. I’ll spoil the book for you and describe my favorite scene, the turning scene in the book: Patti Smith and her friend Robert Maplethorpe dress up in all their gypsy gear and they go to Washington Square, where everybody’s hanging out, and this old couple kind of gawks at them, and the woman says to her husband, “Oh, take their picture. I think they’re artists.” “Oh, go on,” he shrugged. “They’re just kids.”
The point is: all the world’s a stage. You need a stage and you need a costume and you need a script. The stage is your workspace. It can be a studio, a desk, or a sketchbook. The costume is your outfit, your painting pants, or your writing slippers, or your funny hat that gives you ideas. The script is just plain old time. An hour here, or an hour there. A script for a play is just time measured out for things to happen.
Fake it ’til you make it.

3. Write the book you want to read.

Quick story:
Jurassic Park came out on my 10th birthday. I loved it. I was kind of obsessed with it. I mean, what 10-year-old wasn’t obsessed with that movie? The minute I left my little small-town theater, I was dying for a sequel.
I sat down the next day at our old green-screen PC and typed out a sequel. In my treatment, the son of the game warden eaten by velociraptors goes back to the island with the granddaughter of the guy who built the park. See, one wants to destroy the rest of the park, the other wants to save it. Of course, they fall in love and adventures ensue.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was writing what we now call fan fiction—fictional stories based on characters that already exist.
10-year-old me saved the story to the hard drive.
Then, a few years later, Jurassic Park 2 came out.
And it sucked.
The sequel *always* sucks compared to the sequel in our heads.

The question every young writer asks is: “What should I write?”
And the cliched answer is, “Write what you know.”
This advice always leads to terrible stories in which nothing interesting happens.
The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s write what you *like*.
Write the kind of story you like best.
We make art because we like art.
All fiction, in fact, is fan fiction.
The best way to find the work you should be doing is to think about the work you want to see done that isn’t being done, and then go do it.
Draw the art you want to see, make the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read.

4. Use your hands.

My favorite cartoonist, Lynda Barry, she has this saying: “In the digital age, don’t forget to use your digits! Your hands are the original digital devices.”
When I was in creative writing workshops in college, all manuscripts had to be in double-spaced, Times New Roman font. And my stuff was just terrible. It wasn’t until I started making writing with my hands that writing became fun and my work started to improve.
The more I stay away from the computer, the better my ideas get. Microsoft Word is my enemy. I use it all the time at work. I try to stay away from it the rest of my life.
I think the more that writing is made into a physical process, the better it is. You can feel the ink on paper. You can spread writing all over your desk and sort through it. You can lay it all out where you can look at it.
People ask me why I don’t develop an iPhone or iPad Newspaper Blackout app, and I tell them because I think there is magic in feeling the newsprint in your hand and the words disappearing under that marker line. A lot of your senses are engaged–even the smell of the fumes add to the experience.

Art that only comes from the head isn’t any good. Watch any good musician and you’ll see what I mean.
When I’m making the poems, it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like play.
So my advice is to find a way to bring your body into your work. Draw on the walls. Stand up when you’re working. Spread things around the table.
Use your hands.

5. Side projects and hobbies are important.

Speaking of play — one thing I’ve learned in my brief tenure as an artist: it’s the side projects that blow up.
By side projects I mean the stuff that you thought was just messing around. Stuff that’s just play. That’s actually the good stuff. That’s when the magic happens.
The blackout poems were a side project. Had I been focused only on my goal of writing short fiction, had I not allowed myself the room to experiment, I’d never be where I am now.

It’s also important to have a hobby. Something that’s just for you. Music is my hobby. (That’s me at Guitar Center.)
While my art is for the world to see, music is for me and my friends. We get together every Sunday and make noise for a couple of hours. It’s wonderful.
So the lesson is: take time to mess around. Have a hobby. It’s good for you, and you never know where it may lead you…

6. The secret: do good work and put it where people can see it.

I get a lot of e-mails from young artists who ask how they can find an audience. “How do I get discovered?”
I sympathize with them. There was a kind of fallout that happened when I left college. The classroom is a wonderful, if artificial place: your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas, and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas.
Never in your life will you have such a captive audience.
Soon after, you learn that most of the world doesn’t necessarily care about what you think. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. As Steven Pressfield said, “It’s not that people are mean or cruel, they’re just busy.”
If there was a secret formula for getting an audience, or gaining a following, I would give it to you. But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: “Do good work and put it where people can see it.”
It’s a two step process.
Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Fail. Get better.
Step two, “put it where people can see it,” was really hard up until about 10 years ago. Now, it’s very simple: “put your stuff on the internet.”
I tell people this, and then they ask me, “What’s the secret of the internet?”

Step 1: Wonder at something. Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you.
You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about. If everybody’s wondering about apples, go wonder about oranges.
One of the things I’ve learned as an artist is that the more open you are about sharing your passions, the more people love your art.
Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets.

Believe it or not, I get a lot of inspiration from people like Bob Ross and Martha Stewart. Bob Ross taught people how to paint. He gave his secrets away. Martha Stewart teaches you how to make your house and your life awesome. She gives her secrets away.
People love it when you give your secrets away, and sometimes, if you’re smart about it, they’ll reward you by buying the things you’re selling.
When you open up your process and invite people in, you learn. I’ve learned so much from the folks who submit poems to the Newspaper Blackout site. I find a lot of things to steal, too. It benefits me as much as it does them.
So my advice: learn to code. Figure out how to make a website. Figure out blogging. Figure out Twitter and all that other stuff. Find people on the internet who love the same things as you and connect with them. Share things with them.

7. Geography is no longer our master.

I’m so glad I’m alive right now.

I grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Southern Ohio. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was hang out with artists. All I wanted to do was get the heck out of southern Ohio and get someplace where something was happening.
Now I live in Austin, Texas. A pretty hip place. Tons of artists and creative types everywhere.
And you know what? I’d say that 90% of my mentors and peers don’t live in Austin, Texas. They live on the internet.
Which is to say, most of my thinking and talking and art-related fellowship is online.
Instead of a geographical art scene, I have Twitter buddies and Google Reader.
Life is weird.

8. Be nice. The world is a small town.

I’ll keep this short. There’s only one reason I’m here. I’m here to make friends.

Kurt Vonnegut said it best: “There’s only one rule I know of: goddamn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
The golden rule is even more golden in our hyper-connected world.
An important lesson to learn: if you talk about someone on the internet, they will find out. Everybody has a Google alert on their name.
The best way to vanquish your enemies on the internet? Ignore them.
The best way to make friends on the internet? Say nice things about them.

9. Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done.

As Flaubert said, “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
I’m a boring guy with a 9-5 job who lives in a quiet neighborhood with his wife and his dog.
That whole romantic image of the bohemian artist doing drugs and running around and sleeping with everyone is played out. It’s for the superhuman and the people who want to die young.
The thing is: art takes a lot of energy to make. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.
Some things that have worked for me:
Take care of yourself.
Eat breakfast, do some pushups, get some sleep. Remember what I said earlier about good art coming from the body?
Stay out of debt.
Live on the cheap. Pinch pennies. Freedom from monetary stress means freedom in your art.
Get a day job and keep it.
A day job gives you money, a connection to the world, and a routine. Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time allotted. I work a 9-5 and I get about as as much art done now as I did when I worked part-time.
Get yourself a calendar. (And a logbook.)
You need a chart of future events, and you need a chart of past events.
Art is all about the slow accumulation over time. Writing a page one day doesn’t seem like much. Do it for 365 days and you have a big novel.
A calendar helps you plan work. This is the calendar I used for my book:

A calendar gives you concrete goals, keeps you on track, and the nice reward of crossing things off and watching the boxes fill up.
Any goal you want to accomplish: get yourself a calendar. Break the task down into little bits of time. Make it a game.

For past events, I suggest a logbook. It’s not a regular journal, it’s just a little book in which you list the things you do every day. You’d be amazed at how helpful having a daily record like this can be, especially over several years.
Marry well.
It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make.
And marry well doesn’t just mean your life partner — it also means who you do business with, who you befriend, who you choose to be around.

10. Creativity is subtraction.

It’s often what an artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting. What isn’t shown vs. what is.
In this age of information overload and abundance, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s important to them.
Devoting yourself to something means shutting out other things.
What makes you interesting isn’t just what you’ve experienced, but also what you haven’t experienced.
The same is true when you make art: you must embrace your limitations and keep moving.
Creativity isn’t just the things we chose to put in, it’s also the things we chose to leave out. Or black out.
And that’s all I think I have.
Thanks, y’all.

Scott Singh Badal

2011-04-06T05:34:00.000-07:00

Scott Mc Cloud's blog always offers something new to read, although I did get a lot of बेईज्ज़ती over being too smart and trying his teachings on webcomic, but frankly they're not of much use, they make a point, but practical, not much.

But still his journal is a great resource.

Like this post :

http://scottmccloud.com/2011/04/01/friday-odds-and-ends-7/

Taking you off

2011-04-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

I'll be taking my friends off the blog, mostly because I don't want to bug them again again, because mostly this blog is going to see more information which might or might not be of use to them.

I don't know if this is for good or bad, because I always liked the little sweet replies I get from you guys, well, f#*k it, I'll rather bore you guys anyways...

Yes, you're here to stay

A very interesting blog

2011-04-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

There's nothing pussy about it, its really a nice blog

www.whiteindianhousewife.com

Rang De - Microlending Platform

2011-04-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Rang De is a microlending platform, it helps really small businesses raise money for their operations.
Micro finance is a brilliant idea and they're doing some killer work.
Don't have much on me now, so I'm pitching in by promoting them!

Kishore Bhanushali - Dev Anand Junior and The Hero's Friend in All 90's films

2011-04-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

--------

2011-04-02T15:15:00.001-07:00

Professor Sahib

2011-04-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

4 color comics !

2011-03-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Seriously 4 color printing has caught my imagination, I really want to use it soon I don't know when, I don't know how, but I will..Soon, its so beautiful!

And this is the most beautiful article on 4 colour comics -

In Defense of Dots: The lost art of comic books

A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide inside the smallest event.

This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rambling past. It makes reality come true.

—Don DeLillo, Underworld (1997)

From the 1940s to the 1970s, comic book art and comic books were the same thing. In the decades since, the art of comics has been carefully separated from the original physical conditions of its reproduction. Elevation of the 20th century art form has resulted in the erasure of the 20th century mechanical processes that enabled comic books to exist and thrive – for ten, twelve, fifteen, or twenty cents, millions of times over.
It was an economic bargain that significantly defined the aesthetic terms of comic books: cheap paper, cheap printing, and four-color separations that could not hide their limitations. These accidental aesthetics governed the experience of comics for generations, were appropriated for fine art in the 1960s, and today fall into the “retro” category of graphic design.

Download full size (699 KB)

Download full size (984 KB)

Four-color process and mid-20^th century comic art have gone their separate ways – one travelling as a computer-assisted simulation of archaic print culture and the other as computer-assisted art books, featuring crisp black lines, bleed-free white paper, and “reconstructions” of the original colorists’ designs. There are no stakes in privileging one comic book reproduction format over the other, but there is no denying the difference between the two.

Download full size (1156 KB)

Download full size (817 KB)

One way to think about the art in the 4CP | Four Color Process gallery (http://4cp.posterous.com/) is as an examination of this difference. It tries to minimize what we think of as the content of comic books, while radically magnifying the four-color process itself. At their original size all the images in the gallery might cover two square feet of printed comic book space. Blown up to monumental proportions, many of these minute fragments could fill a two-page spread.

Download full size (774 KB)

Gone are the page, the frame, the plot, and localized contextual meaning. What remain are the color process and what are generally called the “details” of comic book art. These are the two lowest items on the totem pole of comic book value – poor reproduction and the least important, most static elements of the art itself. Our proposition is that these elements are important and aesthetically compelling.

Download full size (862 KB)

Download full size (1386 KB)

Who is responsible for this art? At the level of a square inch of printed comic book, no one was the creative lead. 4CP highlights the work of arbitrary collectives that merged art and commerce, intent and accident, human and machine. A proper credit for each image would include the scriptwriter, the penciller, the inker, the color designer, the paper buyer, the print production supervisor, and the serial number of the press. Credit is due to all of them, to differing and unknowable degrees, for every square inch of every old comic. The hand of fate created this art, and it guides our hand as we search for 4CP images: We move a tiny Ouija board pointer across mid-Century comic books, looking for beautiful ghosts.

Download full size (603 KB)

Comic book creators fought a constant battle to give depth to an insistently flat medium. There is always, by default, an absolute limit to what we can see in the art – the last black line, the final detail – beyond which there are only fields of color and paper.
Color was an ally in creating depth, while four-color process was an enemy. Bleeding below the black lines, it could not match the level of detail of the artwork. Rather than creating a continuous perspective, it at best established a finite number of planes, rarely an illusion of space to match a good artist’s line and shadow work.

Download full size (861 KB)

However, in the decisive, paradoxical twist, four-color process created a form of depth even as it fought against illustrative realism. Whereas contemporary reproductions of mid-century comic art are truly closed and flat, old comic books are visually leaky and deep. Four-color dots perforate the flat surface of the universe, opening onto nowhere – some uncharted cosmos.

Download full size (934 KB)

At the same time, the dots provide the visual experience of granular detail that the art itself cannot. Every detail is more detailed, while realism is systematically undermined.
Crucially, this perforated universe and molecular level of detail are unintended and have no intrinsic relationship to the illustrative content of comic books. Four-color process delivers surplus, independent information, a kind of visual monosodium glutamate that makes the comic book frame taste deeper.

Download full size (1030 KB)

Or, more provocatively, four-color process ensures that two separate universes – out of register with each other – constantly coexist on the comic book page. Some theorists wager that desire and meaning reside in the space of difference – of discrepancy and unexpected metaphorical relationships. What can’t be pinned down is a promise that can’t be exhausted.
Perhaps the irreconcilable visual universes of four-color comic books function the same way, creating a whole that is never the logical sum of its parts. Perhaps four-color process was essential to comic books’ wild success not simply because it was cheap and colorful, but because it catalyzed them into visual crack.

Download full size (1214 KB)

Dots emit radiation. As you get closer to them, they begin to vibrate and pulse. Moving closer still, the color separations become dramatically separate: Solids become very solid and the black ink holds together, while the CMY dots fly apart. Foreground and background, positive and negative space, reverse unexpectedly. Orange, green, brown, and fake gray give up their secrets, and the basic building blocks of a universe reveal themselves. Unstable molecules, built of primary colored atoms, buzz at different frequencies. Vectors of visual force, experienced implicitly at original size, become intense. Behind everything is wood pulp paper, a still deeper layer of creation, with its own unstable properties.

Download full size (855 KB)

The images in the 4CP gallery attempt to isolate and exploit the unpredictable energies of the four-color process. We seek frames within frames, where a balance can be struck between motion and stillness, uncontrolled radiation and a compositional containment field. Cut free from context and the intrusion of elbows and speech balloons, the comic book subconscious becomes the speaking subject.

Download full size (961 KB)

Download full size (585 KB)

The illustrative content of the 4CP gallery generally fails to meet the terms on which comic art has risen from junk culture to (almost) high culture in the last 20 years - the brilliance of particular artists and the possibilities of sequential art. Think Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Chris Ware, dynamic motion, control of time, film technique, innovative use of (or destruction of) the frame, etc.
Most pages and frames from old comics don't rely on that kind of dynamism. They are just static illustrations alongside speech bubbles and a box of narrative copy. People stand around talking a lot, in offices, homes, headquarters, streets, and blank spaces.

Download full size (734 KB)

These frames are what we might call diegetic – the mode of storytelling in which events and information are summarized rather than enacted. The realistic conventions of the day required not that detail be reduced to that which was organic to the shot, the mood, the sequence, or the story, but that a complete Hollywood set be built for nearly every frame, with changes in location and perspective as often as possible. Rooms are furnished, city blocks constructed, people created - and everything colored - for precisely one frame.
The classic comic book frame is an overstuffed box of visual information that is the functional opposite of disciplined sequential art. It doesn't compel us onward to the next frame; it invites us to sit down and stay a while. The point where narrative essence gives way to supporting information is hard to define, but terming the latter “detail” understates its consequence in the visual encounter with comic books.

Download full size (1653 KB)

In the mid-20^th century comic book, millions of details undermined sequential art time by making readerly time infinitely variable. Details – along with the color process – provided textures, way stations, and destinations for the eye. Choose your own adventure. Find your personal fetishes in the nooks and crannies. Comic book art’s backwater of purely instrumental and often arbitrary visual information was the horizon of meaning, the place where the reading experience became most individual. The tightly controlled wish fulfillment strategies of plot were unhinged by free-floating objects of desire – the details just out of reach, gazing back at us through the electrical field of process printing.
To paraphrase Delillo in our epigraph, the 4CP gallery attempts to peel back the shadows and redeem the dazed and rambling past of comic books, making their reality come true: eternal moments, radiant with unspecified meaning.

Download full size (1712 KB)

John Hilgart, December 2010

Right thing to do

2011-03-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

How do you know something's the right things to do?

When you're doing the right thing, you'll learn from it.
that doesn't mean that you will not learn from the wrong things, you will but that won't be the What-i-should-not-do type of learning.

When you do the right thing, the lessons are realisations, they are really prominent, you won't miss them, they are the like realising the pattern in things.

What I realised while doing my right thing -

1. A quick reply is always nice, with work specially, a quick reply, even if it says that it will take you some time to give them a proper reply.

2. There's no point getting angry on people - If I don't get angry and just give them the cold logic with a smile it works equally better.
(Doesn't mean you have to be gandhi, you have to get pissed ocassionaly to be sane)

3. Always work with an editor - anyone working on a creative project tends to go haywire, lose the sense of reality, or simply put they can get lost in the idea so much that they sometimes forget that they are working within a framework,
Editors help put the third person perspective on everything.

Feels good getting it out of my system, all this was stuck inside my brain for a long time, now its out...

The Grand Summation

2011-03-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

I just realised that how important it is to feel satisfied at times, and then after the satisfaction you can either pursue another goal or if you're really satisfied you can leave the goal pursuing to the side and have some fun.

Also slowly i have to accept that I am very clear that timings are very important in life, the very minute periods of time which decide lot of things, like say kissing a girl, now the terrible thing is that if you don't understand the time when you have to go for it, then you are practically are of no use to yourself, to the girl, or to humanity.

But what can I do? all these periods last for very little time, very little, and the hints are too subtle, really too subtle, until you're not with a normal person.
If you're with someone who's eccentric in some way then its easy, then by one way or the other the hint is very clear! its in bold, blinking, and of huge size.

I clearly remember the three times I missed.

And well, I really don't want to miss any more.

Brilliant!

2011-02-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Check his blog at - http://8ate.blogspot.com/

About him - - -

Hi Sumit,
thanks for the appreciation! I work in
Software industry, making games on social networks which basically
involves sending out lot of spam and getting people to read it and
somehow pay for it. Nice to hear from you.

Regards,
Vinayak

Kisine blog pada...yahan main tense hua

2011-02-08T08:57:00.001-08:00

Ab soch ke likhna shuru kar dunga kya?

I Wrote This Too!!!

2011-02-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

I did this , i did that!

I wrote this , I wrote that!!!!

Look at me !

I am a Wannabe Chutiya!!!

(Just for the viewing pleasure of Adhiraj Singh, according to him this is what this blog is, mostly)

dear Adhiraj,

point noted

- Sumit

Burai Ka Anth!

2011-02-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

Burai Ka Anth - A film, part of the short film competition here at RANDOM.

My Only problem was that I was not able to shoot this completely, so since I made it just to humor myself, I added a small part in the places which i could not shoot...

Music - DJ Automator, Bombay the hard way

Brief - An accountant joins a new office and meets the new people he'll be working with, among these is Naval, the office supervisor. Navalji comes out as a cordial and nice person who likes to help people. The same day, while walking back from office Naval meets Kanwal, his twin brother whom he had broken ties a long time ago.

Kanwal replaces Navalji and then runs loose, before ....

...before the end, the end of the Burai

before Burai Ka Anth

Pictures from the "DVD Release" -

Cover -

and the Script...

Note - Very few have seen this movie till the end, very few, but everyone loved Samay ,theek hai?

The Visiting Card is here

2011-02-06T04:05:00.000-08:00

Punjabi Video Mutiyaar! - I wrote this I wrote this!

2011-02-06T04:00:00.001-08:00

BOSE kaun hai? maloom hai kya?

2011-02-06T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Workshop

2011-01-28T00:58:00.000-08:00

Via Sagmeister Inc.

2011-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

What is the best advice you received that you would like to share with aspiring designers?

When I was moving to Hong Kong and was about to make a lot of money Tibor Kalman told me: And dont you go and spend the money they pay you or you're going to be the whore of the ad agencies for the rest of your life. I didn't and got easily out of it again. Most of my collegues did not get that great advice and are still stuck in the agencies.

Stefan Sagmeister is a great designer, a little cuckoo in the head, but iska cuckoo bhi kaafi intense hai, just bought his book THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN MY LIFE SO FAR, which is designed in its own unique way.

And shashank did it!

2010-12-22T09:19:00.001-08:00

press refresh to see the magic!

P.S - If you think its not cool enough, bhaad mein jaao.

Random Headers

2010-12-22T00:17:00.000-08:00

I really think that I should have some fun with the design of my blog, really.

The complete design is moving more to visual than text, also I have been thinking about a completely visual blog, but I think that would take some time.

I am starting off with Random headers, asking dear o dear Shashank to help me with it, for testing I am using these headers

the old one

and these new ones...

this is the code which I had sent him(stole it from a website), but he's planning to write his own

Code 1:

via

http://blog.vinceliu.com/2007/07/rotating-image-banners-for-blogger.html

Code 2:

via

http://stvincentsdarlinghurstmalenurses.blogspot.com/2010/10/random-rotating-header-images.html

Lets see how it comes out...

The Mainstream Comics Publishers and the Arrogant Chutiyas

2010-12-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

For the Comic Convention we are holding this feburary in delhi, I met big time publishers and the comics publishers who are huge with their footprint across the country.
The Comic publishers, despite their huge readership were nice and easy to talk to. The International publishers, who publish some Graphic Novels here and there were arrogant, with their heads deep inside their asses.

most of these "bigger" publishers have some basic number of Graphic Novels, and most of these are not normal Graphic Novels, they are more on the art side of it, and the contex of the stories finding its origins deep inside the writer's ass.

Seriously Delhi has a hude fart problem, mumbai has even a bigger fart problem.

Most of the "Young" creative people working in media, publishing, and the writers, all of these people very seriously despise the basic majority population of our country, the people you see waiting at the bus stops wearing fake nike caps, or your parents or my parents who sit in front of the TV and have food.

Mostly then just due to the simple logic of numbers, I have seen Beatles lover-barkha dutt hairstyle babbie(girl) work in an Ad Agency, writing slogans for J.K.Super Cement

So All I can figure out is that there is an audience out there, lot of it, not the perfect audience we're asking for, but a good audience.

So all these arrogant chutiyas i see, almost daily, Ad Agency chutiyas, Rock Band members (The Statan-ic Verses type ke gaandu), or these English publishers who live on inhaling fart, God help them, really.

Chutiya Microsoft Saala - Cloud Computing Karenge Ab!

2010-12-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

There's this thing called TREND

Like there's this recent trend for two things, cloud computing and slice of life films.

CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing is a very interesting concept, most probably i guess at the earliest used and marketed by Amazon, others were also interested, but its just so in trend now, i know it because Microsoft chutiyas have their own version of it now.

seriously how chutiya can you get?

IPOD - ZUNE
GOOGLE - BING
FLASH - SILVERLIGHT

and now...

AMAZON CLOUD COMPUTING/GOOGLE CLOUD COMPUTING - MICROSOFT PRESENTS "CLOUD POWER"

p.s - Slice of life films

KHOSLA KA GHOSLA - DO DOONI CHAAR/BAND BAAJA BARAAT

Yash Chopra Ko Roko

2010-12-10T01:15:00.000-08:00

In the 1st Golden Kela Awards I performed this stand up where the central theme was how Yash Chopra is an alien and is attacking out brains through his movies, and how other talentless freaks are Aliens too!

and then I distributed this pamphlet in the audience..heh heh

Here's the video for the award show that year

Taking Someone's Computer

2010-12-10T01:02:00.000-08:00

The best part in taking someone's computer is closing all th links they had left open, like youtube videos they had left in a hope to watch it later when its streamed.
I don't know par ek ajeeb sa anand aata hai yeh karne mein!

APJ is my Yoda

2010-12-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

I've always liked APJ Abdul Kalam, for his practical idealism.

His book Ignited Minds is an amazing read.

I am a fan of the ads of Presidium school which feature his cartoon made by Laxman, the tagline says "Be what you want to be"

APJ - You are my Yoda!

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

2010-12-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my fate.

I read this poem in 2004, when this article appeared in th Times Of India, when the convict for this bombing incident was sentenced.

this poem was his final statement.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
-from Invictus"
— William Ernest Henley

Writing

2010-11-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

Make the joke in the plot, not the plot around the joke

Kumar is Happy

2010-11-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

The next one stood out. He did a lot of mimicry – which I’m not very fond of actually – but he brought the house down with his ‘Lata Mangeshkar, 800 years old’ impersonation. I won’t go into details lest it offend Lata fans, but this was very edgy stuff.

http://author.toiblogs.com/buzzthat/entry/funnycareers-anyone#comments

2010-11-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would start blogging again, that too honestly.

I won't be performing at open mics anymore, I don't really know how to explain why I won't. Simply put Stand Up comedy is not my first love.

First love is comics, drawing and writing.

I would still be a randi for cash, i.e I would still be performing at places where I am paid.

I have been performing for one whole year now, and in this year, this whole experiment with this medium has taught me a lot, because stand up is a very different form of humor in itself, because here unlike other mediums, you get your response almost immediately.

that instant nature of this medium helps you improve a lot.

A lot of my friends and colleagues didn't see the point of performing for free for the last one year, I didn't too but now when I am finally closing shop, I guess I won't regret because I tried almost everything I could with the medium, and that with what was available.

The only problem is that our venues are stuck to places where normally you and me won't go, if that changes, that would help the whole cause of the medium a lot.

Let's see what happens.

2010-11-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

How do you define a wholesome day?

first I reach office, and I get to know that today's an off (for me)

So I reach Gurgaon and meet this nice girl, a good person. We chat for a long time.

and then I go to this stand up event I had to go to, where no one turns up, I perform for 6 people, I perform "Prof. Kedarnath" ki amar kahani, and then I leave

I reach the wedding function of a colleague, where we all drink, smoke and enjoy.

Best Part - I came back with a colleague and his wife, where we play Antakshari, because the music player in the car doesn't work.

The Antakshari wanders to random songs, thanks to "yours truly" and Anant

some of the songs sung:

1. Haangte hue aate hain sab, dhota hua jo jaayega, wo muqqadar ka siqandar kehlayga

2. Dalla hai tu, Randi hu main

3. Hall chalata hoon main, Kisaan hoon main, laal ka bahadur hoon main, Jai jawan jai kisaan

4. Hamne tumko chun liya hai, tum bhi hamko chuno na (rajput his highness mix)

Finally I come home and I open my door and enter my room and I see, a small zero watt light on in my room,yes, my lovely parents can't stop being lovely, however hard I try and tell them and do nothing for me, they still do these small small things which goes deep inside.

Blarrr...bamm..blahfgfgty

2010-10-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

What is the purpose of doing anything?

Not when you're in college, but after it. In the real world.

No idea.

Chat Chat Chat Chat

2010-10-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

sanjeev kumar's birthday on november 6

2010-10-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

Organise a website where people send their photo with hand under shirt clicked....

Plan

2010-09-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

When we plan too much, we ruin the grand plan.

A Cover Shoot

2010-09-03T02:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/artsandliving/frank-chos-world/?hpid=artslot

Creative anything in Delhi = FART

2010-09-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Everything about being creative in delhi melts down to being a Fart.

Yes, nothing can be fun creative, everything has to boil down to being a fart.

just take a look at the events happening any day, so most of them are basically painting exhibitions, classical dances and other such chutiya events. Participants are farts from all over delhi, they are link this basic tribe, which exists...so in the end everything creative in Delhi boils down to being a Fart.

yellow lights

good interior

and chit chatting

Farts Farts everywhere....Being creative in Delhi

GIVE ME SOME COLOR!!!

In Vain

2010-08-27T03:25:00.001-07:00

Via SMBC

Sent to you by sumit via Google Reader:

August 24, 2010

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (updated daily) on 8/23/10

Pow! I really like purple...

Also, I wanted to give a shoutout to a cool new travel site started by friend/Reddit Co-Founder, Spez (AKA Steve Huffman). It's actually kind of fun to play with.

OH, and lastly, don't forget, I'll be at NYCC with other of your SMBC Theater homies. Come say hi! We'll have the new DVDs, shirts, and pounds and pounds of luscious orange hair.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (updated daily) using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Annual Party Plan

2010-08-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

From now on there will be an annual Party in December each year, where only selected guests will be invited.

The party will be to honour my acquaintances who have shown immense faith and have done commendable work in Sumit's service.

Some of the Awards will be

Sumit Ratna

Pashmina Shawl and 1,000 rupees

An inscribed certificate

Gold painted metal peepal leaf with Sumit's face embossed on it

For inspiring and motivating Sumit, with or without their personal presence.

Sumit Vibhushan

Oswal Shawl and 5,00 rupees

An inscribed certificate

Gold painted medal with Sumit's face embossed on it

For contributing in a nodal moment in life, directly or indirectly, by either helping him think in the right direction, or by making him introspect.

Sumit Bhushan

A Khaadi Gramudyog Shirt and 2,50 rupees

An inscribed certificate

Gold painted medal with Sumit's face embossed on it

For putting sumit in touch with the work of indivduals, jinka work made him think in completely new dimensions, and raised the upper level bars for him.

Sumit Shri

1,00 rupees

An inscribed certificate

Brass medal with Sumit's face embossed on it

For existing, and forming that part of humanity which makes him believe that there is still reason in life.

YES ITS TRUE

2010-08-18T02:38:00.000-07:00

INTERNET'S GONE

2010-08-04T13:09:00.001-07:00

My internet's down, so no major detailed blogs for a few days..

Logo of a sweet shop

2010-07-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

I think you can pretty much make out what it is...Yes, it is a chef welcoming you...

P.S - I think the graphic designer was not paid, or was bugged with...

For one week, I was one half of India's best humor writing team

2010-07-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

For three weeks in June and July, We at Random wrote for Cyrus Broacha.

for his show THE WEEK THAT WASN'T and PHEKING NEWS
first weeks ki script were just me and Adhiraj, other weeks Sandeep, Shreiya and then Anant helped us out.

writing for Cyrus Broacha was a pleasure, as in pleasure pleasure, and then watching him make our jokes was fun.

P.S - posting it late because internet problems, no connectivity...

BOMBshells

2010-06-26T08:49:00.001-07:00

Bombshells is a beautiful play which has these separate women characters, from different phases in a women's lives. The version I saw was by these girls of GARGI college, where they had 5-6 girls behind the main character (For e.g. Bride) who voice her thoughts, and the main character, i.e the bride is the confused one between these opinions.

I loved this idea...

THE VIDEO

THE BOOK

Me with Ruskin Bond Not Giving A Fuck

2010-06-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

What Beauty I Say!

The Poem for a Mean Joke

2010-06-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Mansi is an intern at Random, and I have been joking with her since long about her pop culture knowledge, basic that is, like Ducktales, Mr.India, aur Ek Anek Ekta.

So basically i make lots of jokes about her pop culture knowledge (its more funny because I am very shitty when it comes to pop culture, but american)

So she has her interview for her masters in Mass Comm tomorrow and I made some really bad jokes, which i really like personally, like

1. Suggested her to play dead whenever she's asked about anything remotely related to pop culture.

2. Made fun of her phtography portfolio, which i thought looked like made from a basic arty portfolio template, that means that it included the must have pictures, like

THE RAJASTHANI MAN

THE DOG CLOSE UP

A FEW VILLAGE WOMEN

A RANDOM SHOT OF DOODHWAALA DABBA, OR SOME RANDOM OBJECTS

ALSO

A POOR CHILD, FAVORABLY CHAIWAALA.

so after this she left, and I realised that I have been really rude, so I wrote her this poem, which Rhymes (because all last words ARE THE SAME!!!)

I've been joking all my life

on people, situations and everyday life.

Since I make the jokes, I never mind

I expect people don't do, but sometimes they mind.

Jokes don't mean that i doubt your talent

It means that i am very unsure about my jokes, my talent.

Thats why I want to flaunt it all the time

make you stop, and waste your time.

So forget everything i said today

because it always about the future, not today.

So get up tomorrow, with a smile.

Because you have an interview tomorrow,

and you don't want to be confused

so, sport a smile

hit them with all you have, tomorrow

They'' be awestruck, they'll be confused

Because once you're done with them,

They'll be happy you left xaviers for them.

***********

And then I recieved her reply, a positive fun reply:

wow.

by the time i was finished with this, i had a huge smile on my face.

thanks.

it means a lot.

p.s: and yes ! taking your advice, I will cough or look away or play dead,if they ask me anything about pop culture.

***********

So, with the episode closed on a positive note, I present what I think is a template for a "PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO"

Tech topics i want to write about one day...

2010-06-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

I want to write some tech books, about some topics which i think are made boring and complicated by existing books.

Engineering Drawing: I was always good at it, the existing books cover most of the things, but they explain things like a learn to draw exercise from a kids magazine

Only the third step is complicated as shit.

Also they don't refer outside the textbook world.

Turing Machines, symbolic logic: This is one place where philosophers and Mathematicians find a central point, there may be others also, but this is the one in my knowledge.

Turing machine is a theoretical machine which is completely efficient, how cool is that?

also predicate and prepositional logic is also interesting.

included in my book would be LOGICOMIX as recommended reading.

Logicomix is a graphic novel on a man who spent his life defining logic...

Also the tone of my books would be between a graphic novel and a book, also the writing would be more like The Feyman's Lectures on Physics.

Feyman is a very interesting series of lectures given in a very easy to put manner, interesting and a must have in your book collection, even if you don't have anything to do with physics.

So Prepare for some intense books, soon.

PRETTY WOMAN

2010-05-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

DO I REMBER THE FULL SONG????...HMM..

LETS SEE...

Blacks: Parts i remembered
REDS: PARTS I DIDN'T+REMEMBERED WRONG

Pretty Woman
Walking DOWN on the street

Pretty woman
Kinda I like to meet

Pretty woman
yeah yeah yeah

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, YOU'RE NOT THE TRUTH

NOTHING CAN LOOK AS GOOD AS YOU

MERCY

PRETTY WOMAN
WON'T YOU PARDON ME

PRETTY WOMAN
I COULDN'T HELP BUT I SEE

YOU AS LOVELY AS YOU CAN BE
ARE YOU LONELY JUST LIKE ME

GRRRR
PRETTY WOMAN
STOP A WHILE

PRETTY WOMAN
TALK A WHILE

PRETTY WOMAN
GIVE YOUR SMILE TO ME

Pretty woman
look my way

Pretty woman
say you'll stay

WITH meeeeee...

coz i'll need you
I'll treat you right
COME at me baby
Be mine toniiiiiiiiiiiight...

Pretty woman
Don't walk ON BY

Pretty women
Don't make me cry

DON'T WALK AWAY YEAH

OKAY

I GUESS I'LL GO ON THIS WAY
THERE WILL BE tomorrow night
but wait....

what do i seee???

She's walking back at mee....
YEAHHH...SHE'S WALKING BACK TO MEEE!

OHH OHH

PRETTY WOMAN

I will be stopping Calvin and Hobbes: The Letter

2010-05-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Sourced from: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/05/i-will-be-stopping-calvin-and-hobbes.html

Meet the Artist

2010-05-16T06:30:00.001-07:00

Meet the Artist: Warren Miller

May 13, 2010

by Cartoon Bank

"I forget the name of the product, but the jingle on TV goes something like 'Yadee-dum-dee-rahte-dum-dee-rah-dee-dum.'"

Warren Miller has been a New Yorker cartoonist for more than four decades, and during that time the drawings he’s produced in his classic pen and ink wash style resemble a catalog of changing trends across all subjects. From business and technology to pop culture and politics, Warren has strained it all through his keen powers of observation and lightning-quick wit. During our lunch with him, we absorbed some fun facts about him (though he didn’t know it at the time, he went to school in the same town as fellow future cartoonist Gahan Wilson) as well as about The New Yorker itself.
TCB: When do you first remember being interested in drawing?
WM: When I was a little tiny person, my father was a commercial artist, and my grandfather was an engraver and also drew. I sent in my first cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post when I was around seven and a half. It was of a little Arabian boy outside a tent in the desert, with camels around, asking his father to build him a sandbox. And actually, many years later, Mischa Richter published a cartoon in The New Yorker that made a similar joke. Great minds think alike.
TCB: What other things do you remember drawing when you were young?
WM: I drew a lot of war things, and my cousin and I used to make comics.
TCB: When did you start to consider cartooning as a career?
WM: I had gone to college for commercial art for a year before transferring to another college. There I had a double major in art and anthropology, and was thinking of going into museum work. After I graduated, I was working at the post office (what do you do with a B.A.? You get a job at the P.O.), and I met this guy who had worked with the sculptor Henry Moore. I had sent some cartoons to Playboy in the past, so he said, “Why don’t you try submitting again?” So I started sending more work to other magazines, and out of the first batch I sent to Esquire, they bought some ideas.

"The Birth of the Martini"

TCB: What was the first cartoon you had published in The New Yorker?
WM: It was in 1961, and the cartoon showed a guy in a hospital bed, with a computer-type machine coming in with a hypodermic needle, and the guy screaming, “Oh God, no! Not here!”

"Oh God, no! Not here!"

TCB: What are some changes you’ve seen at The New Yorker since the beginning of your career there?
WM: In the old days, the cartoon editor’s office was the holiest of holies; you couldn’t just walk right in. When I was first at the magazine, some of the cartoonists had offices. I had one, and James Stevenson had an office down the hall from me – he did a lot of children’s books, and would draw maybe one a week.

"I know so much that I don't know where to begin."

TCB: Who are some of your favorite New Yorker cartoonists, past and present?
WM: I was always a Charles Addams fan. And I liked Frank Modell and Saul Steinberg. Of cartoonists working today, I like Roz Chast and David Sipress.

By Saul Steinberg.

TCB: What advice would you give to an aspiring cartoonist?
WM: Persevere. If drawing is what makes you happy, you just have to find a way to do it.

He's leaving the internet

2010-05-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

James Sturm, a graphic novellist and head of Centre of Cartoon Studies has left the internet, find his article here
http://www.slate.com/id/2249562/
and the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7HVP2rroic

one of the best things his readers said, which he illustrated is:

I agree, because this year i hid my birhtday reminder from as many places as possible, and the result was filtered number of people who called and messaged.

P.S: i like his coloring style...

xx - entry for Comix India

2010-05-15T04:48:00.001-07:00

Comix India is this new effort, this is my entry.

although they need a english translation with the hindi text, i have not put it because

1. i am lazy

2. i don't see the point as to why i should put in the "translation".

DREAM from Fumaga.com

2010-05-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anant Singh <singh.anant@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 11, 2010 at 9:40 PM
Subject: comic
To: sumit kumar <sumit.drew@gmail.com>

http://fumaga.com/2852

--
Anant Singh
Twenty Onwards Media Pvt. Ltd.
+91-9953495583

--
sumit kumar
+919999761208
sumit.drew@gmail.com
apunsumit.blogspot.com

Futurama: A Wonderful Series

2010-05-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Futurama is a comedy animated series. (Created by Matt Groaning(Simpsons))
What differentiates it from Simpsons, its copy the family guy and South Park is its style of humor.

First the guys always have a new line below the show super wating for you as you enter the show...

The show has these innumerable little gags running throughout, like this one here...from an episode where aliens attacks earth...

first the main space shape blows up the white house(independence day style) followed by a minature space ship, which blows a sand castle..

Am so Happy I tell you...

2010-05-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

Kasab's verdict is out, and i am really happy.

because i was expecting worse like everyone else, i was expecting an umar qaid for the chutiya, i knew it was going to happen.

but i am so happy with the verdict, it has so aggression, and so much anger in it..

4 Death Penalties and 5 Life sentences.

How cool is that?

Reaffirmations

2010-04-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

We constantly need reaffirmations, and we look forward to those from time to time in songs, stories, films....reaffirmations range from beliefs, angers, thoughts, something weird which we thought had happened to us all...

Comics People : Alaan Moore

2010-04-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

Alaan Moore is the writer of V for Vendetta, and Watchmen...both of which have been made into movies..

personally i liked V for Vendetta...but i hated the Watchmen ...i have read the other things he wrote ...i love the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the comics....don't judge it by the movie...the book is far better...

but after one point in time he has been overhyped...and that kills it...as in whatever he writes has to be the word of GOD

P.S - If you're writing a Graphic Novel, check his script for the Killing Joke, its killer...all thanks to Adhiraj for letting me know...

Peak of Entertaintment Comics : How To Make Money Like A Pornstar

2010-04-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

Seriously this comics is brilliant...its really fun how they created the story and the little small details around it..it even beat Watchmen when it comes to it ...

Fuck Alaan Moore and his chutiya super serious bullshit ..check this...

my personal suggestion..buy this...you'll love it...

What i Like About Manga

2010-04-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Manga is the Japanese style of comics, its definition like all definitions is all loose...Tezuka's work is the standard definition of Manga now.....

what i love about Manga is the simplistic style of story telling..and how the storytellers head never goes up his/her ass...

they'll have simple frames with the basic crosshatching...or just the bare minimal shading..

like this page from Tezuka's Buddha

and then they'll have some establishing double page spreads...which will be worth all the effort...

d

That's the approach i like, why waste time around drawing details into every frame, say if the whople scene is set in a single place...why waste the time drawing the whole scene again and again??

especially if you're the writer cum illustrator...

Manga Baby....

Reminder

2010-04-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

All of you who cry about where you're stuck due to your geographical locations...well Amazon takes 4$ to deliever a book anywhere in outside US...so that's my answer....

Comics for the comics enthusiast: Yoshihiro Tatsumi

2010-04-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

If you are an illustrator, or a cartoonist...

P.S - don't read this if you've just started out, read it after you've struggled with cartooning..then you'll feel like this is a treasure of knowledge..

so..if you're a cartoonist or an illustrator...then check out Yoshihiro Tatsumi, i don't read his books because for their story..i read them because his work teaches you things...you can seee how his style develops through the years...

check this when he was 21

now you might see how his shapes are very basic, how he doesn't go into the fuck ups of anatomy etc..

and this is his later work..

you can clearly see how his strokes, shapes and actually everything has changed over the years...

Yoshihiro Tatsumi...reaed him out...

Comics for everyone: Osamu Tezuka

2010-04-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Osamu Tezuka is a Japanese Illustrator who changed the whole game of how Japan looked at Manga, earlier manga used to be just stupid four panel gags, Tezuka had two things which made him different than the crowd, \

number one, his style which was different, the big eyes and stuff was entirely his invention.

number 2 was the fact that his stories were ususal sometimes, but they were very different sometimes.

Frankly his book Dororo changed my whole perspective towardds comics

and this is not only for the comics enthusiast, his comics are for everyone...anyone who's interested in reading ...

book list:

1. Dororo
2. Buddha
3. MW

BOOM

2010-04-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Am cool now, just watched RAY..i love the treatment...
that doesn't mean that what i wrote earlier was trash...

Work

2010-04-20T13:39:00.001-07:00

I'm counting minutes before i go to work tomorrow....

Moving out

2010-04-20T12:55:00.001-07:00

Now, when i am moving out there are some promises i need to keep to myself.

1. It will get lonely, it will be really hard sometimes, but i would need to keep going on.

2. Will need to save money, and no one has the right to make me feel like a dependent.

The History of a Failure

2010-04-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

A rare documentary done by BBC, look at rajesh khanna there, he's fucking tired, doing 7 movies at a time extracting as much as he can out of his stardom...and that's sad..and that's we need to keep in mind...

Too much coverage...too little material

2010-04-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

We have lots of coverage, in terms of media and all, but too little people doing things original and good, and when i say good, i mean ...i don't mean no second class effort, i mean an original honest, up to the mark effort..too little of that kind...too many of the wannabe effort kinds...

There are other people in the world

2010-04-20T12:15:00.001-07:00

There are others in this world, a lot variety of people, everybody with their unique kind of worries...so just need to keep that in mind...

No More a Blog

2010-04-20T12:14:00.001-07:00

no more is this blog a diary for others to read, its a personal reminder system, to keep myself on my toes.

Comics

2010-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

"I have some kind of strange love for this medium....not like i am the best or something...i have just some kind of strange affinity...you know how a pianist can never sit idle in front of a piano, i can't sit idle in front of a paper and pen.

Alone

2010-04-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

From today i am taking off all those reminders i used to send to my friends, my blogs used to go to some people i know by email...but no more i am freakin tired...and i miss all my friends who are lying here and there...

i am alone.

The Life of A Nobody

2010-04-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

1. Everyone's like a pack of wolves: Everyone, especially relatives, relatives of relatives, all of them are look like thousands of wolves, with their eyes fixed on each one of us...each one of us have our thousand wolves, when we're in college we don't give a damn about them, but as soon as we're back, we'll be taught that how they are so important, how whatever we do can make or break the fuckin family name...

2. All of them are Afraid and they want us to be afraid too: All of our parents and elders have grown in a constant fear, a fear that the we might lose our job, a fear that something bad might happen, a fear that we might be left behind.....fear, sadness, lack of any enthusiasm is what we can find in life even without trying...

In the morning traffic where people rush from corners, to the tasteless swift or maruti cars, this is everywhere,....in our tasteless parents, who just so depend upon us, look upon us as if we're some sort of thing they have invested in....

seriosuly, when i look our from the balcony, i see silence, nowhere i hear some loud music...nowhere i see anything...

i see tastelessness, i see boredom....

And everyone gives in...everyone at one point or other gives in to this boredom, this tastelessness...

i'll rather die than give in....

Sairam Iyer

2010-04-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

I saw sairam iyer many years ago on Mtv, and i had forgotten his name, what i remembered was the fact that he sang in both male and female voice, and not like kishore kumar, his female voice is really authentic, this dude seriously sounds nice, he even does some classical later in the song.....

i'll use this guy anytime i get the chance...

Animals in Films

2010-04-16T01:11:00.001-07:00

Animals in films, when are nice, are really nice.

as in they help on very human levels, as in handing phones inside homes, being an umpire, murdering villains, applying cream on babies with sunburns or shooting people.

but when they play bad characters, all they do is things which are normal to them...i.e growling, barking, attacking...

why don't they rape, murder, rob banks...have affairs and leave girls?

"Shakaal tries to kill him, but Shiv Kumar breaks loose and tries to escape from the island. Shakaal unleashes wild dogs upon Shiv Kumar and eventually shoots him dead upon the beach." - Shaan, Wikipedia.

a blog on movies...as in thodi pakau, thodi fun movies...

2010-04-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

http://diedangerdiediekill.blogspot.com/

some movies i might watch soon...

2010-04-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

Movies

2010-04-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Movies i saw recently:

Clerk

Timeless, the best part is where the langda bhaiya asks bhabhi where she has been all night and all she has to say is 'badan chur chur ho raha hai'...

2012

pakau torture, i hate the parts with the indian characters, gorey fuckers...

The Great Buck Howard

The greatest movie after Pursuit, seriously killer, especially the sad-happy-sad-happy ending...