David Bowie and Other Topics
Life on Mars? by =MadElfTk on deviantART
Sometimes I like to say that on Planet Briana...the Holy Trinity consists of David Bowie, the Father, David Usher, the Son, and Devendra Banhart, the Holy Spirit. I'd started a celebrity series awhile back, beginning with Grace Jones, and I kept putting off David Bowie's painting for a long time (he had to pop up sometime...he's pretty much the only celebrity that I fan-girl over). Even this sketch laid around for a few weeks before I cleaned it up and painted it. I suppose that I'm happy with the results...I was going for a flat pop-art feel. I sort of got it how I wanted it in the end, but I'm wishing that I'd done a full-body or at least waist up painting of him now. Well...hindsight is 20/20.
I've been in a painting mood lately (much to my detriment in pursuing other things which should take a priority in life...e.g. studying. However, I'm doing well...even I wouldn't get so distract as to mess up any of my grades). I've been feeling better too...being sick for a month and half-ish really takes a lot out of you emotionally and physically. I'm also pretty much resolved with the things that didn't happen for me the way I envisioned them this semester (the whole being head over heels for someone who is completely oblivious thing, but that's another story for another day). You can't let the small things get you down...so I've decided to have a positive outlook for the rest of this year. It's hard to believe that in two months, I'm going to be twenty. Twenty! I'm not sure whether I feel more like celebrating or freaking out.
Opium by =MadElfTk on deviantART
Dia y noche by =MadElfTk on deviantART
I just finished Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters. It was much better than Fight Club. Chronologically, I believe that this was his first novel, but it was revised and published after Fight Club's début into the literary world. There are a lot of shared elements between the novels...but rather than having your corporate mid-level disgruntled cubicle worker as the protagonist, you get a former, now mutilated model. In many ways Invisible Monsters went to places that even Fight Club didn't dare go in terms of content. I know Palahniuk approached a few directors about getting this novel turned into a film and was rejected because no one wanted to direct a movie that would even at a cursory glance require an NC-17 rating. Long story short, that's how we were all introduced to Fight Club as the first film based on Palahniuk's work. Good book if you're thick-skinned, and it still stands apart from anything that Palahniuk has written lately. It feels like most of his newer novels are more about shock value than substance...so if you haven't read anything by him or only Fight Club bypass anything new he's written and go straight for his older novels. Now I'm also reading this anthology (best word I have for it) of essays on pop culture by Chuck Klosterman...Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puff, and it's every bit as much of the pretentious hipster read I imagined before even opening the book; that doesn't destroy the book's entertainment value or invalidate some of Klosterman's insights. I'm about thirty or so pages into it (I let it sit on my desk for two weeks after buying it while I read other things like Beowulf for the second time and French conversation transcripts to keep myself from flunking out of college), and I have to admit that I'm echoing a lot of his sentiments (but without the smug tone coating every word). With just this in mind, I'll recommend it. Despite the whole condescending tone, it is an interesting book.