31 January 2017

Well, hey, we're at the end of the first month of the year! That wasn't so bad, right? I mean, it wasn't all bad, was it? Like, there was that time that... Or, um, when we were all pleasantly surprised by..... Never mind, January completely sucked. Ok then. Here's hoping that some glimmers of light pop through the gloom in February.
Still, let's not leave it on such a glum note. Let's all be inspired by attorney general Sally Yates, who looked at Trump's Muslim ban and said, "Not on my watch, bitch." She was promptly fired because the current administration brooks no dissent or logic or common decency, but if you're gonna get fired, that is an awesome way to get fired.

30 January 2017

The White House might be feeling pretty good about how it's doing, but thankfully lots and lots of folks would and do disagree with that smug self-assessment.
Getting away from the presidential shit show for a second, I'd like to give the award for Headline That Could Totally Be a Country Song to the article "You can't build a wall on a river," by Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

29 January 2017

Well, it didn't take long for a few federal Judges to call bullshit on Trump's ill-advised, bigoted Muslim ban. The federal rulings offer welcome pushback, but there's still plenty of folks stranded at airports here and abroad. How do we resolve something like this? How do we recover?
There was an analysis piece on A1 that, if summed up in one sentence, would be this: Trump did some normal things this week, and then he did some crazy stuff. Fair enough, I guess, but I prefer the Erinyes analysis.

28 January 2017

Sorry, ramen noodles, for appropriating your likeness to illustrate some truly shitty political ideas. You're still delicious. The executive order and antichoice rabble for whom you are a stand in, however, are decidedly not delicious.

27 January 2017

A1 was topped with a play-by-play of Trump's antagonism of Mexico's president Nieto. I'm sure tomorrow we'll see some reporting on Trump's signing of an order that bars all refugees for 120 days and singles out Muslim refugees to stand at the back of the line. Apparently that's how he chose to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day. By singling out an entire religion as evil. I know, I know---I'm trying to keep up with all the insanity, too. We need a way to stem the flow of unconscionable nonsense. Some sort of barrier...

26 January 2017

Congratulations to Natalie Portman, the first actor to be drawn in mixed media daily both in year 1 and year 2. I mean, she's not the first person drawn into both years (that slightly less meaningless award goes to the man whom I wish was still president, Barack Obama), but she's first in her class. And hey, if she doesn't win that Oscar for her portrayal of First Lady Jackie, she's at least got this, whatever the hell this is.

25 January 2017

With the geyser of disconcerting-to-downright-scary news items that are gushing forth from, well, everywhere, I feel like these drawings, which were meant to be a simple one-to-one transaction (i.e., the front page filtered through a drawing), are becoming a much more complicated process (i.e., the front page of the day, filtered through the rest of the news that's actually happening on the day, filtered through a drawing). More on this later, perhaps.

So who are we looking at up there? That guy on the right is our (meaning Californians') Governor, Jerry Brown. In the middle we have Octavia Spencer, and on the right Tritobia Ford, whose son, Ezell, was killed by an LAPD officer, and who is receiving about the same amount of justice that these cases usually get.

24 January 2017

It feels like everything is under assault right now in this country---healthcare, women's reproductive rights, immigrants, refugees, the economy---so why the hell are a bunch of labor leaders applauding Trump? Oh, right, the TPP thing. Bravo, I guess, for doing one normal thing in a week in which you did a whole bunch of other completely fucked up things. Bone-dry in a sea of blue, indeed.

23 January 2017

That fellow up there who's nose deep in a fact war is none other than the White House's Secretary of Makin' Stuff Up, Sean Spicer. Tell us about the time you wrestled a lion into submission, Sean! Or that time that you really did find a leprechaun and his pot o' gold at the end of a rainbow! I'm pretty certain many stories just like these are percolating in your, um, overactive imagination.

And who's that at the top of the drawing? That's Issa Rae, who is in no way implicated in all this White House chicanery; she's just laughing at all that stupidity down there.

22 January 2017

Well, that's more like it. The many, many marches that took place across the globe yesterday were pretty much the only story on A1 today. And deservedly so; the DC march alone drew far more attendees than that other thing that happened around the Capitol on Friday, which I think was some sort of Russian puppet theater performance or something; I'm fuzzy on the details.
Anyway, the march was incredible (full disclosure: I was at the LA march), but it's only a start. There's more work to be done, so let's stay loud, mobilized, and organized.

21 January 2017

If you only followed a news story through good old-fashioned print media, it would mean that you have a day or so of lag built into your understanding of current events. I, like most modern citizens, get my news from many different sources, many of them online. Or, in the case of today, I spend the day at a newsworthy event (the Women's March in DTLA, which was incredible and packed with big-hearted protesters far beyond anybody's expectations), and then I come home to a paper bearing yesterday's sad-ass news on its front page: Trump's inauguration. And all I can think is, after a day of social uplift and general good vibes, I have to draw this clown? So I drew the clown. Tomorrow, we'll get back to that glorious march.

20 January 2017

I was drawing and posting remotely yesterday, and in all the hullabaloo this drawing made it to all social media sites except this one. So, here's the inauguration day post.

19 January 2017

Happy two minutes to midnight, everyone. I know everyone's busy battening down the hatches for tomorrow's Idiotfest 2017, so I won't bend your ear (eye?) for long. The lead story on the front page pretty much sums up everything that's going on now, and will likely go on for the foreseeable future: the planet is getting hotter, yo.

18 January 2017

Those kids up there are members of the Dalit caste in India. They made the A1 because Navsarjan, a charity that fights for equal rights for people from this lowest level in the caste system, is being defunded by the Indian government, who considers the charity to be a threat to national interests. Man, a government strong-arming a charity because it wants to enforce an unfair status quo; that's pretty low. At least that sort of thing won't ever happen here. I mean, not in the next two days, anyway.

17 January 2017

Man, the front page was a whole lot of suck today. Highlights include a story about some jackass, and one about a shooting, and one about mass layoffs at American Apparel. There is certainly a lot to digest here, but maybe we need to take a step back and figure out what we can do to give ourselves even a small break from all this bad news. How about trivia? Trivia's fun, right? I'll go first: what country's flag consists of three horizontal bars, the top one being white, the middle blue, and the bottom one red?

16 January 2017

That stylish lady up there on the cover is Brenda Jackson. She is one of the interviewees in a story looking into how African Americans feel about President Obama's legacy. She traveled hundreds of miles with her family to attend Obama's first inauguration. I'm, uh, guessing she's not going to make the trip for the impending inauguration.

Oh, hey, those hands holding the book belong to Kevin Starr, California's unofficial official historian, who passed away this weekend. He wrote multiple volumes on California history, covering almost every period except the 1960s and 70s. He skipped those. Why did you skip those, Kevin? Were you leaving a little something for the next California historian?

15 January 2017

Whoa, whoa, WHOA, Los Angeles Times front page. You're giving me President Obama, and Trump, and the Governator, AND Krispy Kreme doughnuts all on a single A1? Plus mention of a story deeper in section A about the death of the Ringling Bros. Circus? That's some serious information overload. How do I string this all together into some sort of coherent image? Ah, yes--by recalling the poet Juvenal's most well known zinger.

14 January 2017

We're pretty obsessed with water here in Southern California, so whenever there is a change in the amount we have available to us, we proclaim it loudly on all media (watch local news in LA on a day when it's drizzling, or even threatening to drizzle, and you'll see what I mean). Right now we have all kinds of water due to the atmospheric river (which is a real thing, and not just the name of your cousin's lame solo electronic music project), so we're doing the most sensible thing we can with it: we're turning it into beer.

13 January 2017.

Hey, who's that hiding behind all those football players? That's James Comey, the guy who couldn't keep his mouth shut about ongoing FBI investigations during the election, but who when asked recently in congressional hearings about anything the FBI knew about contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, said he "could not confirm or deny the existence of any FBI inquiry into the matter, especially in a public forum."  Ha! Comey, you old, ethically compromised, kidder, you!

12 January 2017

Today on A1: between LAUSD and Trump, a distinct lack of planning. But also a shit ton of water.

11 January 2017

I have to admit, I was a little tempted to find a way to work George Lucas into the drawing tonight since he popped up on the front page (he's building a museum in our little town), but all I could manage to fit in from the article about him was one word (guess which one!). This drawing totally belongs to Obama, our president for nine more days, who when he leaves the Oval Office will be taking all reason, decorum, and good sense with him. Thanks for one last great speech, Mr. President.

10 January 2017

Damnit, LA Times, the day after I give my spiel about how I don't really draw famous people, not my thing, yadda yadda yadda, you go and put Meryl Streep on the front page. Meryl Streep! So I have to draw her. What other choice do I have? Jeff Sessions? Please, I'm sure I'll have many an opportunity to draw his ruddy, xenophobic face throughout the year. Ms. Streep gave a great speech at the Golden Globes, so I hope my crude sketch measures up in some way. Oh, and Obama gave a stellar goodbye speech tonight in Chicago, so maybe I'll have one last opportunity to draw him tomorrow.

9 January 2017

We all know what happened at the Golden Globes, yes? We're all up to date on who won and whatnot? Good. Now who wants to go on a state-sponsored press junket to Tibet?

Also, this is a good time for me to insert what I guess is now my standard disclaimer (since I used a version of this back in 2011) about me drawing famous people: look, drawing famous people is not something i spend a lot of time doing (unless I'm doing this project, i guess). I have friends who are really fine caricaturists, and there are scads of talented folks out there doing this sort of thing  at a much higher level than i could ever hope to reach. I'm just flailing around down here with exactly one passable micron fine tip at the moment (note to self: go to the art store already!), so cut me some slack, Jack. Jacks. And Jills.

Ok, tune in tomorrow when, hopefully, the entire cast of Hamilton will not be on the front page.

8 January 2017

Maybe it's because I really miss the real deal East Coast Winters, or maybe it's just because I've been binge watching Game of Thrones, but the big snowy landscape photo, which accompanied an article about the crazy amount of precipitation that's wreaking havoc on Northern California, grabbed me immediately. Elsewhere on A1: Mosul, the side effects of a minimum wage hike, and "Does Trump owe victory to Russia?" Well, I don't want to tell you how to write your headlines, Los Angeles Times, but shouldn't that read, "Is Russia to blame for this shit?"

7 January 2017

Oh ho ho, so we have our first A1 sighting this year of the sociopathic circus peanut you love to hate, Donald J. Trump. Also on A1: U.S. Intelligence's assessment of Russian interference in the election, unsolved murders in San Bernardino, and since this is Saturday, a tease for the L.A. Affairs column.

6 January 2017

It feels good to be caught up. So today on A1 we have an account of the harrowing journey across the Mediterranean Sea that migrants who are looking to get to Europe take (all those people in life vests framing the text in my drawing are from a photo by Carolyn Cole. You can see the image, and many other great photos that didn't make it into the print edition, if you follow the link above). Oh, and even some Senate Republicans have a problem with Trump's refusal to accept that the election was hacked by his good buddy Putin.

5 January 2017

Better late than never, I always say.  Or at least I say it when I'm late with something.

Yesterday's post is being published today because I was so damn sick last night I couldn't muster the energy to finish it up and do all the scanning and whatnot that I need to do to get one of these drawings up here.

OK, so yesterday on A1: Muslim citizens, Republican shenanigans, and uh, some other stuff.

4 January 2017

I love these numbers.  And I love these numbers. Of course, numbers aren't always a source of satisfaction. You know who's having a hard time with numbers? Congressional Republicans! They can't figure out how to replace Obamacare with something that does everything that Obamacare does except bear the name "Obamacare." Which means that they think they have a number problem, but what they really have is a naming problem. Which isn't really a problem, unless you're a congressional Republican.

Also on A1: Megyn Kelly, in the corner, in a sidebar.

3 January 2017

Today on A1: Paul Ryan, Rose Bowl floats, Indian monetary policy.

2 January 2017

I know we've all had quite enough of plot twists in our lives, thank you very much, but this one only affects Univision's owners, so relax. Unless you happen to be one of the owners of Univision, in which case panic as you see fit.

Also on A1: Istanbul, subways, and the city of Compton.

1 January 2017

Hey, look at that, 2016 is finished! Welcome back to Mixed Media Daily Year 2, dozen or so people who care. 

The front page was pretty much an even split between looking back and looking ahead on this first day of the year. I chose to focus on the past, mostly because those two stories represent two radically different lives lived---one cut short and completely heart-wrenching, and one quite long and, well, pretty awesome (full disclosure: I will always favor stories about the fine folks who work in animation in this town). Plus, I felt like on the first day of the year I’d rather ignore the bloviating orange elephant in the room. We have the whole year to talk about that (sigh).

Let’s see, programming notes: This year’s drawings will look a bit different from those done in 2011. I am dispensing with drawing the actual paper, and there is no witty/confusing/lame version of the Los Angeles Times masthead in the drawings. Why? In a nutshell, I’m merely looking for a little more compositional freedom. Of course, I have no hard rule about this, but that’s the plan for now.