mixed media daily, Year 2: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

28 february 2011

What could be more American than Hollywood, baseball, and insane border fences? Nothing, that's what. I guess if the paper played "More than a Feeling" when you opened it that would be something. Still, this A1 hits most of the red, white, and blue bullet points.

Oh, and happy birthday Mom!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

27 february 2011

Yesterday I drew Charlie Sheen for the second time since beginning this project. Which was weird, but at least each time Charlie popped up on A1 it was in a different photo guise, so it didn't feel so much like a retread. Today, however, I was confronted with the very same picture of intractable autocrat Muammar (sp?) Kadafi that I first drew this past Tuesday. Stock photos are part of the news ecosystem, and certainly nobody's getting any new candid shots of Kadafi these days, but still it caught me off guard. Thankfully, a new angle on all those neck folds came courtesy of the Academy Awards an and 8-bit hand.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

26 february 2011

Ah yes, our subjects fell along a continuum from deeply poignant to absolutely ridiculous today. And then there's this story.

Friday, February 25, 2011

25 february 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

24 february 2011

A mixed bag on A1 today, some good, some ominous, but the standout was clearly the Caltech story. Congratulations to Coach Eslinger and the team.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

23 february 2011

Kadafi's rampage continues, New Zealand is in rescue mode, and Cardinal Mahoney, before exiting stage right, is called upon to deliver the news of the day. That's a fine stanza there, Roger.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

22 february 2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

21 february 2011

Well, things got a little wonky on Mixed Media Daily over the weekend. I apologize for said wonkiness and vow never to let it happen again. Of course if it does happen again all previous vows are automatically rendered null and void. At least I believe that's how it works.

After a day or two of technical difficulties it's good to get back to basics. And what could be more basic than the letter "A"? Sometimes the most eye-catching part of the building is its stones.

20 february 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

19 february 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

18 february 2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011

17 february 2011

I did want to draw Oksana Grigorieva; she has sort of an interesting face. Alas, her head was transformed into a Dekopan before I had the chance.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

16 february 2011

15 february 2011

Despite the A1 coverage of Mideast revolt and its accompanying imagery (i.e., a map if the unrest, a photo of a guy pulling a burning dumpster through the streets), Column One's story about a mining town that was destroyed because it was part of a superfund site left the deepest impression today. It's a story that has the finality of an obituary; there's no third-act redemption for Picher, OK.

Monday, February 14, 2011

14 february 2011

A brief respite from drawing Egyptian turmoil, compliments of the Grammys and this story by Mark Magnier on the Nepalese kumari. Of course, with all of the other uprisings going on in the Mideast right now, I'm sure I'll be back to drawing throngs of protesters soon enough.

Oh, and happy Valentine's day, everybody! Go share your love in a consensual, protected fashion.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

13 february 2011

Egypt has left itself in the keeping of those who are sweeping up the ghosts of Saturday night, apparently (the NYT also topped their A1 with a shot of the broom wielders) . But leave it to my man Bijan, making his third Sunday A1 appearance (albeit in a strictly commercial capacity), to give it to you straight. A note on Bijan's pocket square: this week it is on the right (his right), and it features some sort of chain-and-pin device, which no doubt secures it to his person while he is test driving one of the 31 limited edition Rolls Royce automobiles he designed for powerful men.

12 february 2011

Egypt, we haven't been this obsessed with you since our fifth-grade lessons about your illustrious ancient civilization.

Friday, February 11, 2011

11 february 2011

Thursday, February 10, 2011

10 february 2011

I was glad to see that beets made it to A1. Not a story about beets on the front page, but a photo of them, to send you back to the Food section to read more about borscht. In any case, there they were. And there was Justin Bieber next to them. And I think you know what happened next.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

9 february 2011

A1 offered up a heady stew of unusual characters today. Thankfully we were able to stuff them all into the drone test fighter pilot's parachute pack.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

8 february 2011

Today while driving home I heard a story on NPR (that's right, I'm one of those people who listens to NPR in the car) about a guy who ran a marathon every day for a year, and suddenly my choice of yearlong toil seemed downright sensible. I mean, I'm not all sweaty at the end of my daily project. Usually.

The Bell 8 rear their hydra heads once again. The preliminary hearings are underway, and it's not looking good for former city administrator and parking lot enthusiast Robert Rizzo.

Monday, February 7, 2011

7 february 2011

It's almost like after the testosterone surge that is the Superbowl, the LA Times needed to offer up a little balance, to highlight the broad spectrum of masculinity that exists across our globalized globe. Thus we get David Pierson's story about the luxury handbag craze among Chinese businessmen.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

6 february 2011

Do you know why Sunday was awesome? No, not because of the Superbowl. Sunday was awesome because Bijan once again materialized on A1---tuxedo clad, eyebrow arched, pocket square matching the Rolls Royce upon which he gazed approvingly. In honor of Bijan's return, everyone on the front page got all gussied up. Canapés, anyone?

Also on A1 is this story about how the Koch brothers have used their fortune to essentially buy the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Democracy in action!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

5 february 2011

Those gents below the fold are Hmong who fought for the US in Laos during the Vietnam War. They are saluting the casket of Gen. Vang Pao, whose six-day funeral is going on right now in Fresno. Read all about it here.

Oh, hey, Superbowl tomorrow! Go . . . sports team!

4 february 2011

Mubarak vs Barbie. Why not? And here's what's going on in Haiti.

Friday, February 4, 2011

3 february 2011

There was so much going on on the front page that I didn't have time to incorporate any of the news out of Bell. Things fall through the cracks when A1 also offers up a camel, Natalie Portman, and the word "AK-47s". Now if I could only figure out the punchline after they all walk into a bar together...

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

2 february 2011

Well, we all know what's happened in Tahrir Square since this story ran. I hope for better news from Egypt soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

In completely unrelated news, Punxsutawney Phil says we're having an early spring.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

1 february 2011

Mixed Media Daily is now one month old (young)! I celebrated by, well, drawing the paper again. Between Arizona and Tunisia and Egypt, January sure was a rollercoaster of a news cycle. So what will February bring? Will Jerry Brown figure out our California budget woes? Will Mubarak see his shadow on the 2nd? Will I finish reading the telephone-book sized sample ballot I received in the mail before the March 8 voting? Who the hell knows? There is one thing you can count on: I'll be here drawing whatever happens, when it happens.

extra extra

Well, hello. I’m a little surprised we’re all meeting up again like this. I’m more than a little surprised to be launching a project called “Mixed Media Daily, Year Two.” And, to be honest, I’m a little disappointed that the subtitle isn’t “Electric Boogaloo.” But I’ll get over that.

You know what I won’t get over? The way 2016 came to a close. Like the darkness around a sputtering campfire. Like a venus flytrap around a hapless fly.

Back in 2011, when I did the first round of Mixed Media Daily, I thought of the project as an experiment in portraiture, an homage to a style of media that was slowly slipping out of daily life and into the history books. In some sense it felt a like an early obit; I imagined that the death of any newspaper would occur only when they actually (forgive the hackneyed phrase) stopped the presses. Simpler times!

The Los Angeles Times, and newspapers in general, I’m happy to report, are still alive. What seems to have kicked the bucket is the desire of a not inconsequential number of Americans to digest hard news, to do the minimal mental work required to be able to call oneself an informed voter. Which may be the same thing as the death of the newspaper industry, but with one hell of a twist.

How did we get here? How did so many of our fellow citizens mutate into a pack of political rageaholics who rely exclusively on easily debunked garbage journalism to justify their vote? Who have such a white-hot mistrust of mainstream media that they’ll happily believe anything thrown up on the web by any random, anonymous domestic or international opportunist over a well-researched piece from a credible news source? There’s no simple way to unpack this sad, confounding turn of events. Some things we know are worth considering: Since the election many journalists have written about the profusion of fake news outlets, sites set up to turn a quick profit by playing to the latent (or overt) biases of their readership. Traditional news outlets---cable and network television, and of course, print media---also received a measure of blame for what some saw as their unfair equivocation of two clearly unequal candidates. More recently, post apocalypse---sorry, I mean post election---there have been reports of conservative politicians appropriating the term “fake news” to describe stories published by legitimate news sources that do not jibe with their agendas. It all adds up to a campaign of misinformation (hi, Putin!) that is designed to erode our democracy. That, fellow citizens, is unacceptable.

The saddest thing might be that the truth was out there, and easily accessible. I read plenty of well-written, well-researched stories that laid out the truly damning details of our shifty President-Elect’s shifty behavior in his business and his personal life. After reading each piece, I would think, should the country be crazy enough to elect this clown, they cannot say that they weren’t warned. And then the country went ahead and elected this clown.

So here we are. Our country is in serious crisis mode, but I’m not ready to give up on it. We need every weapon primed and ready for the coming four-year bar brawl. One of those weapons will most certainly be solid investigative journalism (Woodward and Bernstein, anyone?). Of course as much as we need good journalism, good journalism needs our attention. So I’m going to pay attention. Close attention, and with a critical eye. And since I’m going to be processing a lot of what will undoubtedly be fucked-up news, I’ll run it all through the old illustration filter, so it least it’ll be kind of fun to look at, and maybe I’ll be able to keep my blood below boiling point.

All of this adds up to a very different mission from the one I used to launch this project six years ago. The main focus will still be the Los Angeles Times, but in an effort to doodle a broader consensus of opinion, I’ll occasionally be working from other local papers (we publish a lot of daily papers here in the Golden State). If I go out of town, there might be an even farther-flung guest paper in the mix. That’s the plan for now. It’s sort of a loose plan, but we’re all just winging it at this point, aren’t we? We’re all stuck in the upside-down, where clowns become kings, homes become battlegrounds, and pens become swords. It’s a scary place, to be sure. Let’s not let it scare us into submission.