ill.

Been trying to do odds and ends work for money and nibbles of international fame. Here's a color comp/ sketch for an illustration I submitted for a poem anthology. 

Hell of a week.

Well, I've pulled up stakes and made it to Burlington, ON a couple of days ago.  Finally, finally, finally, I've got a good bit of land between me and the south, for now at least. 

"Damn the Man" Hanrahan and myself packed a 17" foot U-Haul almost a week ago with all my useless odds and ends (RPG with Trotsky's face on it, poison tipped U-Locks, ect.) and headed west for The Old Dominion (Virginia) to stay with my dad in Lynchburg for a night.

Good times were had by all. Scott wiped at Wii tennis so I ripped his cable line right off the side of his trailer with the U-Haul. Oh well; maybe he can get it fixed with all the money he saved not paying my child support.

After Virginia we roared up the low valleys of Massachusetts to my mothers to store my pile of junk. We got stuck on the Taconic Parkway, a road in which our truck was restricted. Unfortunately, Mapquest doesn't account for truck drivers. I said damn it all and we zoomed onto the thin winding road through New York state, that is until a trooper pulled us over. I was fined with 25 dollars, which I balefully added to the cost of the truck, it's gas, and a storage place in Mass. I don't now if you've heard; living is expensive people.

Brandon came to pick me up in Mass. There was a hectic mix up getting "Hotter than a firing pan" Hanrahan to the Albany airport and an inexplicable loosing of my passport.   

But folks, without regaling you with too many of the in and outs of my woeful trails, I'll say I made it to Canada safe as a safe. That is until Berkshire county put out a warrant on me for unpaid taxes. Good God! I have to get to things in Mass to resolve the problem, but if I cross the border they'll slap me in cuffs for sure. 

Hells bells!

I'm in good spirits though. We set out for a week long canoe trip in northern Ontario, which is some of the prettiest land the crown managed to swipe from the natives.

I've been sending out short stories to small literary blogs and magazines, as well as doing a illustration for a poem anthology that I hope will bring in 100 dollars and a publishing cred in Canada.

Tonight we trolled all about Burlington to rifle through potential dumpsters. Many of the places here are newer and therefore under heavy lock-and-key. To be honest prospects looked poor. The bulk bin rendered me nothing but a  slimy bucket and a huge gash on my shin from slamming it onto the rusty corner of it's dumpster. I was downcast and peeved. Then the dump diving demon smiled on us and we found three prime dumpsters almost in a row.

At a health food store we dug out 2 bags of rice biscuits. Then from a fast food place we found fruit. But The heavy load was to come. In a mart dumpster we found:

8 containers of soy milk

10 Kool-laid   juices

three cinnamon roll tubes

2 bags of cashews

1 bag of chocolate covered nuts

several bags of pasta

and some other odds and ends

This was only a portion of a gigantic pile of perfectly good food. The bin was stuffed full of goodies. We were almost caught by a sketchy guy in a four door, quick thinking won me kiwi-blueberry drink for the week. 

 

looking ahead

finished this today. I don't usually write in verbal affectations, but I thought it would be fun with the little sister Keller. 

Since I'm not coloring these pages I can whip em out speedy and move on. It's a good feeling to get a mass of pages under me. 

Also, I've been trying to learn St. James infirmary on the harp. I suck at third position so I can't play the cool version of the song. One day I'll be slick at the mississippi Sax like a levy or Howlin' Wolf.  

It's been salad days for the last week, what with all my submissions sent out and the jaunt to the north coming up. These afternoons are filled with Whoopee parties and hops through the surf. So sweat. 

 

as the world turns

Hey party people,

I sent more submittions packets out to Fantagraphics, Dark Horse, SLG, and Penny Farthing respectively. I've stopped packing them with my work though, and taken to sendiong them nude photos of my girlfriend. Atleast now I'm more likley to get a call back.

The big move from Georgia is happening on Sunday followed by the u-haul trek through Virginia and on to Massachusetts and the Great White North.

Not a lot of diving happening these days. The summer turns all the dumpsters into ovens and bakes evrything before I get to it. This means I've got to get up and out earlier, which is it's own war I can tell you. No, the closest thing I've done to dumpstering is rip the library off for a mouse pad and some fonts.

well as always there's new posts on the Tug Benson site, though these days the new pages won't be in color. This might piss some people off, but until I'm settled down again I can't do colors.

Anyway Kate's cooing over rescued Bengal cats and I've got to work defense before we're over run my an army of limping 3 foot miniture tigers.

Stay clear.

Tom and Jeremy

Yesterday was riddled with death. In the morning we heard that a good guy we knew shot himself and then, as I was processing it in the way that you does, I learned that a great professor, Jeremy Mullins  had fallen off a cliff to his death. Terrible.

Can't say much more about it really, only that when friends died before I used to think about all the things I'd do so that I'd feel settled when I die. But you can't cheat death, it comes rudely when you least expect it.

Tom and Jeremy were good men.

ready freddy and the big haul

Sent twenty pages to Top Shelf for review today, very relieved to have that bench mark over with. Now we play the waiting game.

Also, I scored:

three loaves of bread (still getting over my phobia of dumpstered baked goods.)

one tomato

two squash

one head of lettuce 

one apple

one lime

from a dumpster that I hit only once before and found had found nothing. I was in the neighborhood and it was raining, but I had just enough time to stuff my bag full before it really started to come down. I could have filled the back seat of a car with all the stuff in that bin.

I also scored:

bread

two zucchini

bundle of collards 

from a free veggie bin downtown. In total I've got enough food for the week!

I also worked on a new page for Tug, that gives a good over view of the Hooverville.

   

 

Tender Reading

I may be reading my story Tender at the student center on Montgomery, on May 7th at 7:00 and then again I may not; more on this later.