The Story Of A Chocolate Mouse

 

Once, there was a mouse.

It was a cute little mouse.

Unfortunately, this mouse was a homemade Hallowe’en treat, created from melted chocolate, a cherry, Hershey’s kiss, almond slices, and decorative icing. It was tempting. And tasty-looking.

Just look at that scared face. (Not mine. The mouse’s.)

And it had reason to be scared.

Mmm.

Chocolate mouse recipe:

• a jar of maraschino cherries
• a bag of Hershey’s Kisses
• a bag of sliced almonds
• baker’s chocolate, preferably semi-sweet
• decorative icing tube

Melt chocolate in a metal bowl floating in a pot full of simmering water. Keep it warm throughout the process, or it’ll solidify.

Dip cherry in chocolate. Place chocolated cherry on wax paper on cookie sheet.

Stick a Hershey’s Kiss on chocolate cherry, using stem as the tail of the mouse.

Stick two almond slices between cherry and Kiss for ears.

Dribble two drops of icing for eyes.

Repeat until you have no more cherries, chocolate, or Hershey’s Kisses. Put in fridge to solidify. Have a fondue with remaining baker’s chocolate.

Mmm.

(Pictures courtesy of Sarah Windle and Andrea Talarico.)

 

…if that’s not my cat that just walked by, then …?

What didn’t work:

• loud clapping noises
• yelling loudly
• pushing him with a broom (man these things can brace themselves)
• luring him outside with food and/or water

What worked: leaving him alone, while blocking all other rooms (though allowing myself to peek through my bedroom door to see his progress) and leaving only the outside door opened (while keeping the cats in the other section of the house).

“Brillant Dindon” – Smart Turkey!

I did a small comic contest in April. There were imposed topics, all of which had “BD” as initials, such as Boulémique Dalmatien, Bon Débarras, Beautée Désespérée, and, last but not least, Brillant Dindon.

I picked the latter one – “Brillant Dindon”, which means Smart Turkey. I’d heard Urban legends as a kid about how dumb farm turkeys are, so that’s how I made my little story.

I didn’t win first prize, but I did get an honorable mention – and a nice fat graphic novel.  I wasn’t allowed to post it up until results were up (which was in May), and now after a few months of travelling et. al, I’m finally getting around to it.

Enjoy!

(click on image for larger version)

PS – it’s in French.

And since I wasn’t allowed to post this up, I never did, but THIS is my first colouring on the Wacom tablet.

It was frustrating at first, then I got the hang of it.

I wonder if I could do the whole comic like that …

Bamboo Power, part deux.

IT WORKS!

MWAAAAHAHAHAHAH!

Bamboo Power!

What’s the one thing that can kick-start me back into my comic projetcs?

A Bamboo!

A … well, a Wacom tablet.

I don’t know how thy thought of that name, or where they see a resemblance …

Anyway!

Its coolness comes from the fact that with it, you can essentially manipulate that little white fake pencil like a real pencil in your graphic programs. It’s pressure sensitive, so, depending on the sophistication of your program, you can do some pretty wicked stuff (or some pretty standard stuff, which is my level … ).  (I know some of you out there know this and own one yourselves – this is for the benifit of others!)

Why is it useful for me? … because that way, Hiding Atlantis became much much much more feasable …!

The storyline’s done, volume 1 of 5 is scripted, volume 2’s getting there … character development is becoming more and more satisfactory … this just might work! The plan? To start putting it up during the summer 2010. (Why 2010 and not 2009? Because I’ve got a Masters’ to finish, and I want to get better at manipulating the Bamboo Wacom, and rendering a decent comic page!)

So, until then, I’ll be, as usual, plopping a few sketches here once in a while.

(And … why would a musician want to do an online graphic novel, you ask? … because it’s fun!) (And because I’ve been trailing this story for 10 years in my mind, and it needs to come out one way or the other!!)

A Peerless Pear

Alright. Here’s the deal.

I ate a pear this morning.

It was the best pear I’ve ever eaten in my life.

It wasn’t even pretty – it looked bruised, it had cuts – kinda fruit I usually wouldn’t want to bite into.

So good.

I’m sure it was delicious for many reasons, but the first and formost in my mind is that it’s an organic pear.

Yeah, yeah, organic hype. Whatever. What’s the big dif?

Organic foods aren’t grown with pesticides.

Check this out: pesticides began in the 1940s, with leftover chemicals from the war, to get rid of insects and produce more crops. Since then, crop losses to insects have been reported to have doubled from 7% to 13%*.

What the heck?!? Why keep using them, then?

Though organic farmer opponents say they need the pesticides to keep harvesting at a lower price, research done at Cornell University found that “pesticide use could be cut by half with no impact on crop yields and only a 1% increase in costs.”†

Oooook …

Studies are showing that, not only is organic food very low in toxic content, it is much higher in vitamin and mineral content.

From a study found in Journal of Applied Nutrition, let’s look at the “regular” (standard grocery store-bought) pear, and the “organic” (naturally cultivated) pear.

Nutrients: 40% more calcium, 220% more chromium, 30% more magnesium, 240% more iron, 180% more maganese, 110% more potassium, 40% more selenium, 100% more zinc

Toxins: 80% less lead, 55% less aluminum, 40% less mercury‡

Granted, not all the toxins are gone, since our air and soil is so generally contaminated by now that almost nothing is safe from it, but it definitely helps reduce the stress from your cleansing organs (i.e. liver, kidneys, skin, etc …). If you were to make ALL of your food as nontoxic as possible, your body would be working much less at cleaning up that toxic stuff we didn’t really have to clean up in our systems in the first place until a hundred years ago. Think of the health and energy you’d have …!

This also includes meat, dairy products, eggs, flours – you name it – even water (especially in cities). There’s a lot of junk in there, even though we’ve been desensitized and can’t taste the stuff. Until you taste the organic variety.

The point of all of this?

I’m enjoying organic food now. And only organic food. And if it can be fair trade, the better.

Like that pear. Oh, yummy pear.

_________________________________________

* Diamond, W. John, M.D., W. Lee Cowden, M.D., and Burton Goldberg. An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer, p. 559. Tiburon, CA: Future Medicine Publishing, 1997.

†Blonz, Edward R. Ph.D. The Really Simple No Nonsense Nutrition Guide, p.157. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1993.

‡Smith, Bob L. “Organic Foods vs. Supermarket Foods: Element Levels,” Journal of Applied Nutrition. Vol 45, no. 1, pp. 35-39, 1993.

***This research was found in the book: Fitzgerald, Patricia Dr, The Detox Solution, pp. 203-204. Santa Monica, CA: Illumination Press, 2001.

Montréal, Cats, & Irish Shows

I love Montréal:

_______________________________________________________________

Did I fail to mention I finally have a cat?

I finally have a cat.

A snow-loving, music-hating (sigh) cat. Django.

_________________________________________________________

Remember my Irish band, Shamrock?

We had a few shows, and though short of one member (he’s out in Alberta tending goats for his last semester of environmental studies), we didn’t do too bad …! (videos courtesy of Simon St-Pierre – merci!)

“Felix saves the day!”

So this semester, we had to score a silent cartoon of Felix the Cat from the 1920’s. It’ll be played live at the Cinématèque in Montréal on the corner of St-Denis and Maisonneuve in March, but for now, I had to make a midi maquette for my end of semester evaluation. It doesn’t sound half-bad, and so, up I post it.

Yes. It’s silly, and ridiculous.

On a side-note, I participated in a concert last weekend that was quite particular.

Stage: a cavern, standing room only, max 200 people

Decorations: ice stalagmites and stalactites (the stalagmites were so big and particular – a formation of them could easily be mistaken as an artistic representation of the nativiy scene with shepherds and all, but it was all natural … so cool!)

Lighting: candles

Temperature: a steady -5C inside, but with a cold -25C outside, and you have to walk up the side of a small mountain to reach it – brr!

Performers: a choir composed of amateurs, professionals, and children, all singing in four-part harmony

Répertoir: medieval and traditional tunes: French, English, Latin, two Russian, and one Huron.

Concert length: 1 hour

Twice an evening, for four nights in a row.

It was fun.

Shamrock!

OK folks. This is official. I’m in an Irish band. “Shamrock.” We consist of four musicians:

Jean-Philip Goupil, voice, guitar, occasional percussions

Dylan Perron, voice, banjo, occasional guitar

Marie-Claire Saindon, voice, fiddle, occasional tin whistle

Alexandre Veillette, voice, mandoline, occasional guitar

AND WE HAVE SHOWS COMING UP in BOTH Ottawa and Montréal regions!! Check out our Myspace page, Shamrock, for a show near you! (And to see if you like what you hear!)

Doodling With Ardor

I made myself a portrait a few weeks ago. Despite it looking more like my mother than myself, I’ve discovered by doing it that, 1), I can do something with brush pens, and 2), I may actually be able to develop a more personal style … I’ve done my brother’s portrait today, and I’m happy to say I was able to duplicate the style. I may be on to something.