In Response To The Current Kerfuffle Going On In Neil Gaiman's Corner Of The Internet, The Affable @mistressmousey

Alexander Graham Plane 1978

As the era of novelty telephones took hold in the 1970s, third-party phones of all shapes and gimmicks began finding their way into homes.   Most telephone companies were still discouraging the practice of customers connecting third-party phones to their lines, but interestingly-shaped phones caught on regardless.  Canadian phone company Northern Telecom addressed the issue with their own cute airplane-inspired phone.

The Alexander Graham Plane, part of Nortel's “Imagination” line of contemporary telephone designs, was one of very few novelty phones of the period to be actively manufactured and made available by a telco.

Acrylic on canvas, 7x5″.  From my series of paintings of historical telephones.

Started as sort of Rorschach of Watchmen, but I don’t know I’m tired.  Around seven minutes.

My performance at "Say Everything" yesterday, August 13, 2015, chatting with intrepid interim hosts Davey Stevey Dave and Babe Parker.

"Say Everything," the unique interactive standup showcase where comics eschew prepared material and just have a freeform chat with the hosts and the crowd, happens every Thursday evening at Paddy Reilly's Music Bar in Manhattan. More info at www.facebook.com/sayeverythingcomedy !

Mojave Phone Booth 196?-2000

In the late 1990s, certain corners of the Internet took notice of a strange anomaly in California’s Mojave desert: a lone phone booth, miles from civilization. The Mojave Phone Booth developed a strong following among telecom enthusiasts, phone phreaks, and other fans of odd cultural artifacts.  People called the booth for days on end hoping to talk to strangers wandering the desert, and pilgrimages to the booth itself became increasingly common.

The National Park Service, bothered by the effect of growing numbers of visiting telephone fans, eventually had the booth removed.  Its legacy lives on, with the booth and its story inspiring literature, film, and music as well as the continuing exchange of fond memories.

Acrylic on canvas, 7x5″.  From my series of paintings of historical telephones.

Edward Barnett

In 1971, Purdue University undergraduate student Edward Barnett co-founded the Purdue University Black Society of Engineers to encourage his fellow black students to pursue engineering in a dedicated and supportive environment. The organization succeeded and grew, and continues its work today as the National Society of Black Engineers.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

I have some post-it notes illustrated with Tom Servo of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." For today's daily doodle, I added some more Servos to one.

Going through my pin collection, I unearthed a "The Hunger Games" mockingjay which I'd purchased in darker times.

I like it a lot more now that I've given it a Woody Woodpecker paint job.

I just scratched this little fellow out while half-listening to a TV show my girlfriend was watching.  I don't know who or what he is, but painting him made me feel a little better.

I didn’t want to draw David Bowie today.  I don’t feel capable of accurately portraying anything close to what his work has done for me over the course of my entire life.  My drawing hand had other ideas, no other drawings would work until I got this onto the screen.

I haven’t felt this personally screwed up over the passing of an artist I’d never met since Freddie Mercury in 1991.

I took some video of part of my rail commute and set it to the English-language cover of Yatta! I made recently; the result turned out surprisingly mellow.  More info and an MP3 download in the track's original post.

Captioned lyrics are included if you click through to YouTube.  Here's the direct YouTube link for embedophobes.

This goofy track has gotten a far kinder response here and elsewhere than I thought it would; thanks, Internet!  I shall have to do more musical things.