Artist John Picacio, who joined us for an edifying Q&A back in July of 2008 (July 25, 2008: With Special Guest – Award-Winning Artist/Illustrator/Designer John Picacio) has been busy: last month scoring his second Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist AND winning two Chelsea Awards in the same weekend for Best Paperback Cover Illustration and Best Product Illustration. He is presently Kickstarting a 2014 Calendar featuring the first twelve artworks of a planned 54 card deck and game. According to John, he is creating a modern re-engineering of Loteria: “It’s a Mexican game of chance that I played as a kid with my mother and my grandma. I’m re-envisioning it via my artwork, and my version will be unlike anything seen before.”
Gorgeous, no?
Included amongst the rewards are special-edition Grande Loteria cards. They’re big, deluxe Mexican Tarot cards featuring the new art and backers collect them toward an eventual full deluxe deck. Every time the campaign hits a stretch goal, backers get a free Grande card.
Here’s the link to the Kickstarter campaign: The 2014 John Picacio Calendar
And check out all the latest Picacio-related updates here: http://picacio.blogspot.ca/2013/10/score-free-el-arpa-grande-card.html
Meanwhile…
Ming-Na has found her way onto the preliminary list of nominees for this year’s People’s Choice Award as “Favorite Actress on a New Series”! As most of you know Ming, played Camile Wray on Stargate: Universe, is presently starring on ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.
So do our friend a solid by heading over and voting – early and often – and getting your friends and family to vote as well: http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/nominations/vote.jsp?pollId=130023
Finally – those conference calls I mentioned the other day went swimmingly. In the case of one: some solid notes as we move forward on the outline (which I hope to deliver and get notes on before I leave for Tokyo next week – although that’s highly unlikely). In the case of the other: if the individual I spoke to is able to follow through on my suggestion (and he seemed quite excited by the idea) then we could have an announcement before month’s end.
Still pretty cryptic, no?
Still pretty cryptic, yes! Be not afraid, your crypticness still has no match!
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I think John’s Q&A was before my time here on the blog. Either that or I’ve just completely forgot. Cool artwork, though.
It’s great to see Ming-Na being recognized for her great work. Hope she makes it!
Re: the calls – end of month is in two days! Still, I’m not getting my hopes up for anything. It ain’t official ’til it’s official!
Tonight I made two of Akemi’s recipes – the mini sour cream apple crisps and the kabocha squash soup. I also made tarragon chicken (chicken, broth, white wine, tarragon, garlic, dijon mustard) and rice. Have yet to tackle the crisp, but the soup was fantastic!! Can’t wait to try the crisp!
Here they are:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/soupcrisp_zpsa836996d.jpg
Akemi needs to publish her own cookbook. 🙂
das
if it’s not stargate related, can you tell us (to save the high-to-low fall)??
The apple crisp is delish, too!! I feel like a stuffed piggy! 🙂
das
@joe: cryptic, yes.
Also, a friend’s son is getting married in Tokyo next year. In July. How is the weather in Tokyo in July. Hot? Humid? Rainy? I told her I would check with experts and get back to her. Joe? Akemi? Anyone else?
@das: The food looks divine. I have to check out Akemi’s blog and get some of her recipes. I love kabocha and saw some nice ones at my local Japanese market.
i’ve been voting for her. and i’ve been voting for most of the other categories as well. a note to anyone who’s thinking of going though all of the categories to vote; if there’s no one you want to vote for either write-in your own nomination or click next category.
I would call it more vague than cryptic. Not as fun, but at least I won’t feel ornery for trying to guess anyway.
The project is a re-imagining of Fahrenheit 451 with a particular antagonism toward bloggers, their commenters and those who associate with self-described journalists.
Though the project will have perfect pacing and many exciting and suspenseful moments, not to mention a breath-taking final twist that will have us second-guessing everything we’ve seen, the project head will insist on an unfitting soundtrack that proves distracting and upsetting. The project will be re-scored for the European market, but by then major concepts from the project will have proved prophetic and the licensed fiction reviewers will refuse to admit to any empathy for the protagonists.
Contraband copies of the project do eventually become highly prized among certain subsets of society. Due to the need to be able to destroy evidence of ownership quickly and thoroughly (by fire), the project will finally find its stride in VHS format.
Your crypticosity is intact.
@DP: I think you’re on to something there 🙂
@ Sparrowhawk – I got the recipes from Akemi’s youtube channel – it’s ‘peasnatch Akemi’.
@ Joe and Akemi – Ever since watching Akemi’s videos I have started calling spinach ‘peasnatch’. It’s quite fun to say! 🙂
das
thanks for the heads up on Ming-Na, I voted, hope she makes it. John’s work is surely beautiful. and the kickstart looks like it is doing well. Good luck to him.
@ Ponytail – (regarding comment on Akemi’s blog) – the tea lights and large bowls are from Pier 1, and the placemats and leaf runner from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Not sure where I got the metal candle holder thingy from – that was either Pier 1 or a local shop a long time ago. I love autumn, and leaves, and autumn leaves.
Speaking of leaves, I had 5 bearded lumberjacks at my house yesterday. Hubby came home and asked what Duck Dynasty was doing in our back yard. 😆 I had one dead spruce taken down, and some large, and high, branches removed to bring a little more light into my yard. AND they raked up all my leaves! Of course, only about 10% of our leaves have fallen – the last don’t drop until the very end of November. Still, they got up all the sweet gum balls (those little mace-like balls that are hell on your feet), so now I can venture outside in barefeets again.
Now…to watch out for the hidden kitty poop land mines…
😛
das
@DP: I likes it!
@das feeling any better?
Joe, you are about as cryptic as Gollum’s riddles. If I were Bilbo in the cave answering riddles, I would be dead already.
Crossing fingers and toes in the past for you seems to always backfire, so I’m going to pretend to take a “whatever” attitude about it and that might bless it with some good luck.
Did you see this new travel opportunity for your….STUFFED ANIMALS? http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/430019/october-28-2013/lifetime-of-furfillment
Stunning art work. I’ll have to give it a go, although I’m also supporting my friend who also has a calendar out. I’m supposed to be on a budget, though. I can rationalize calendar purchases which support artists, which drives my husband crazy, because I am a unpaid artist myself who has no intention of selling what I create.
@sparrow-hawk … Japan in the summer is hot, humid, rainy and sticky, with bonus typhoons tossed in. July is better than August, but not really. I can tell mildew horror stories.
@ PBMom – Back is still temperamental, but at least I can function. I need to find out why it keeps going out (they’ll tell me I’m too fat, probably).
John’s art is always fantastic – such talent!
Gotta run! I just got sucked into the vortex that is the People’s Choice voting machine, and who the hell knows who I voted for. I wrote in a lot a votes (seeing as how I watch like…two shows. And don’t get me started on the music categories! Thank goodness NIN and a couple other bands where on there, but no Pearl Jam. That’s just not right. And fortunately Lorde was on there, I just love this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFasFq4GJYM
So ethereal…
das
I’ll vote for Ming-Na Wren. The woman never ages.
“Still pretty cryptic, no?”
You suck, Joe. 😉 😉
I’m curious, I don’t remember if you ever put Continuum on your watch list last year or not. I guess I figured with all it’s SG alum that you’d watch at least a few episodes. I’ve been rewatching a few episodes and was reminded of the final few minutes of season two’s 11th episode, “Second Guess”. The way they show the storylines, the gravity of the situations portrayed, the music, the realizations you witness, the music, and a heavy revelation all make for a seriously intense final 5 minutes of that episode. Some of the best TV I’ve seen in a while. Really well done stuff.
-Mike A.
An announcement before month’s end = tomorrow !
This is a bit amusing: http://news.yahoo.com/captain-kirk-navy-destroyer-135551630.html
das
Wishing you Luck!! Also excited to see that John is doing another Kickstarter Campaign and that you have it here on the blog. He does such fantastic work.
Oh and @DP – I can totally see this happening. Nice.
Yes cryptic like code purple. Nice shout out for Ming-Na. If I can watch “Buffy the vampire slayer” because of Sarah Michelle Gilitzer, I can make an effort to watch the S.H.I.E.L.D. With Ming. I do not have cable, so broadcast and DVD are my limitation. Speaking of DVDs,a as part of my recent travel I pick up a few set doubt in the local language. I find it a good way to help with contempary speak and reading skills. Is that a technique you use with your up coming trip?Do you have any up coming title selections in mind? Oddly with my additions like Breaking Bad I found a copy of Transporter the series. I wanted to see what you and Paul did for the project. I saw you received credit for writing.(Perhaps it is a subject you wish to avoid.) Man in watching the first few episodes co-staring those actresses, it makes my life so inadequate. With regards to dubbing, it is interesting to see how polite it is in relation to the dialog. I did go back and read your previous posts. Was the ending of Payback the way you invisioned it? It seems any time I am in NRT I feel warm.
Waiting to here the out come of the two projects!