I just can't help it, but....

Technology has made us too accessible lately.

If you can't write me, call em, page me, 2way me, chirp me, text me then you must be standing right next to me.

See to me. This is new age stalking and it's scary. Some chain mail, if I don't sent it to 10 friends I won't find my true love type shit. Now you see, I am so sick of hearing from people. We've become addicted to these wireless connections that these devices are replacing the physical. 

I mean what happened to ok give me the time and place and I'll come see you. Okay now give me your name your e-mail and I'm gonna do a google search for you. And I'm confused how we accept cell phone monthly plans, overages and activation fees, and then have the audacity to be mad our speech ain't free.

And I mean it's good to keep in touch but I could do that from a distance, for instance, I will call you when I get home after 9 so I won't waste my daytime minutes. Yeah to a point, I do it too but sometimes you gotta say fuck my space, cause I need my space and tell facebook I want my face back.

See we all perpetuate this, and whether you realize it or not, you are helping the government cause we say fuck the patriot act, but we do their job for them. Cause every time we fill out a profile, an about me box, or a questionnaire we inform them, we're getting too close for comfort and it's only getting worse.

Next we'll be posting obituaries on bulletins downloading corpses, and emailing somebody just to get a hearse.

We are giving people reasons to stalk, spy and be nosey but we don't care as long as your website allows pictures and blogs with comment posting.

We are obsessed with people getting to know us, assuming that they will keep it at a distance. Shit I have to admit it, I don't know 1/2 the 524 people on my friends list and this is our problem.  We can't deal with the face to face, so we let technology replace the space that people are supposed to fill.....

Lets face it, we are internally afraid of what's real and we've forgotten that physical contact is more important than our number of contacts so we settle for convenience,  forgetting that physical contact is more important than our number of contacts so we let public access get excess, even if it's at our privacy's expense........

Now family... with that out of the way... what have you guys been up to?

It's Rage of Cage month and I apologize for being gone for a minute. But with it being October and Breast Cancer Awareness month, I'm also going to be RAGIN' all month long. Can you stand it? Will you be able to keep up? Can you tolerate the stuff that's going to be coming out of my mouth? What will I be Ragin' about actually? How about shit like this:

Every day, more and more I come across posts seeking "artists" for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs all over the web. More than ever, there are more people who are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service. But what they're NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

When I was 6 years old, the worst punishment that my mother could administer to me wasn't a beat down. It wasn't a lecture even though I hated those worse than beatdowns. In fact, I could take a dozen beatdowns before one of mom's lectures.

No, the worst punishment that my mother could give me was when I acted out and she told me, "that's it! Go to your room. You will not be allowed to draw for a week!" The crying wailing that came from my 6 year old lungs was something to behold. Now, 35 years later, I still cannot do without my drawing. And I am very VERY passionate about it. So back to my rant.

Here's a bit of advice to to those who are "seeking artists." Riddle me this. How many people do you know personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none? More than likely, they probably don't know any. I only know this because, they wouldn't be posting out there on the web to find them. And truthfully, this does not come as a surprise.

If you take in account that in the U.S. there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY (70) times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the "opportunity" to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him "a few bucks" for "materials". Oooohh yeah! What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you? If you answered "yes" to ANY of the above, well.. how can I put this? You're obviously insane. If you answered "no", then kudos to you for living in the real world that doesn't consist of you taking the blue pill.

But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks? Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. And I am proud as hell to be a part of this set of professionals. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look foolish. Now, given my affinity for coming up with lists, here's another one for you to digest on:

1. It is not a "great opportunity" for an artist to have his work seen on your car/'zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a "great opportunity" for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a "student" or "beginner" in an attempt to get work for free. It's ignorant and insulting. They may be "students", but that does not mean they don't deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a "student" once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition is JUST as stupid. Sorry for putting your business out there Corey!

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it's one or one million, is NOT a VALID ENTICEMENT. What in the fuck is that?! Neither is the right to add that work to their "portfolio". They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It's not compensation. It's their right, and it's a given.

4. Stop thinking that you're giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills. Lets get that straight right away!

5. Students DO need "experience". But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/ can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the "experience" they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother's house when they were seventeen? No, they do not.

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with. Damnit, I didn't want to resort to name calling, but when in Rome...

6. (This one is FOR my fellow artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to "submit work for consideration". They may even be posing as some sort of "contest". Been there, avoided that! These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the "contest", or be "chosen" for the gig, and find what they like most.

They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. Andre can speak on my behalf of this practice. It's sleazy and underhanded.

This is speculative, or as they call it in the bizness; "spec", work. It's risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. So to artists/ designers/ illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are "spec" gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them. Say NO to free art.

And I've been burned once too often and I've finally put my foot down. Don't do any artwork unless you KNOW for sure that you are going to be paid. Customers are different from each other, but sometimes when you have been scarred by a potential client, you start to treat all of your future clients as such, which is sad. Now, I won't begin NO WORK unless the full amount is in my hand. I went from having no money in my hand, to 1/2 of the amount and finally to the full amount. The other ways didn't work so fuck it. Now I want the start up money before I move one damn finger to push down on the depresser button on my airbrush.

If I'm guilty of anything regarding my art, it is that I'm a piss poor business man and it's probably because I love my art so much that the money tends to take a bad seat. With my art, I work with my heart and you can't do that if you're going to be successful on the business end. And I'm not good at collecting either.

I don't have that "do you have my money" type of thing going on, but I have gone off when I felt like my trust was betrayed. Especially when I tried to do a client a solid because they couldn't pay me until payday. I had no problems with doing their picture and collecting the money later. But I've been shitted on too many times and it's not a good feeling at all.

Please believe, I drove to a dude's house once and rumbled up on his curb in front of his home because he attempted to play me like Jeff to the left with my money and thought being cute was his way out from having to pay my ass. Fucking loser. How do you have the balls to sit there and walk past that mural every day in your living room, knowing full well that you didn't pay the guy who did it for you in the first place and then give me shit about my payment when I ask for it???

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free. please wake up and join the real world outside of the Matrix. The only thing you're accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue. In fact, get a friggin' grip and maybe I won't go World War Hulk on your ass!

Labor Day. The ending of another long hot summer looms ever closer to it's conclusion and another school year is upon the kiddies. But as the last holiday of the summer beckons, one constant remains with us all. Amidst the sounds of the latest jammies by whoever's hot at the moment, and whatever flavor of the month resonates from the car stereos, sweat drips, and little girls with dry throats chant rhymes in unison.

Boys in summer-stained shirts play-fight, while the neighborhood bully looms on the stoop clowning passersby. Suddenly, everything halts as childhood radar detects a familiar, far-off jingle.

Double-dutch ropes skid to the sidewalk, water guns are stashed, and the car stereo suddenly becomes a portable radio...the bright colors of today slowly changes into a late summer hue of soft orange and oversky yellow. 2007 has timewarped backwards into 1983. The sounds of old school hip hop is drowned out by the static of the ultimate excitement approaching: "The ice cream man is coming!"

The mad dash is on. Kids scramble like a bomb has suddenly detonated in their neighborhood as they madly fan outward. After a few moments of money-seeking mayhem, the scrambling stops as an eager crowd swarms around the beloved truck.

A little girl named Lorna used to slurp the flavor out of her snow cone until her lips were purple. She looked like the Joker. Another lil honey used to lick her rocket pop too slowly, to the point that the pop would melt and she would look at the excess run down her arm. Man, what a waste!

I was the clever one. Who had time to ask mom and dumb stepdad for money. He was the dummy for leaving his wallet out on the kitchen counter, and I would help myself to it's contents and buy myself a nice looking ice cream cone with toasted almond nuts and caramel on it. I used to laugh at Gary sucking on a ice cube wrapped up in a napkin with that pitiful look on his mug.

I have some ice cream, you didn't get none." Eddie Murphy chimed and taunted in 83's Delirious. Whether you grew up in a city or a suburb, you remember the thrill (or torment if, like little Gary, you didn't get none) of gathering at the curb as the music inched closer.

You have experienced street culture in what I call its yummiest and most innocent form. Sweet treats have been delivered curbside since our great grandmama was a pretty young thing. History dictates that in the early 1860's, ice cream peddlers called "Hokey-Pokey Men" emerged in major cities.

In 1897, African-American inventor Alfred L. Cralle patented the ice cream scooper, which so happens to be the same basic design used when French Vanilla, butter pecan and chocolate deluxes get scooped in ice cream trucks today. Much later in the 20's, Good Humor trucks embarked on their maiden voyages and began making rounds, and by the 50's, they had major competition from a little outfit called "Mister Softee" along with it's very recognizable and endless time looping little ditty.

Back to the present though, while many street traditions have died out, such as the latest video game, computer, or cell phone's, let's not kid ourselves here. Nobody, BUT NOBODY has got anything on the ice cream man: For all their fancy, futuristic functions of the latest electronic devises when you hear Uncle Dikey's (As he was referred to in the Boogie Down Bronx circa 1984) jingle coming, there was nothing to do but make a mad dash toward that cold deliciousness.

It's as timeless as the sound of scurrying sneakers, music as it rounds the corner, and the sheer delight of rainbow sprinkles with a "big red cherry on top, oui, oui, Bon Bons and all that good stuff." Couldn't have said it any better Meth. Happy Labor Day everyone! And whatever you do, have fun.