Mambo King

 

I was in a bookstore yesterday looking for signed editions. It is kind of my latest obsession.  I try to sell them on my ebay store, but part of me is just fine with keeping them.  Anyway I was looking for books by Oscar Hijuelos. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990 (the first Hispanic writer to do so) for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. It wa later adapted into a movie starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. The movie didn't quite capture the book. They rarely do.

I loved the book. I read some of his other books, like Our House in the Last World and Mr. Ives' Christmas. But as with other authors I really admired like Tom Robbins, I lost track of his work (mainly because I stopped reading much).  So I was looking for his books in the book store hoping to find a signed one but there was nothing. I asked ChatGPT if he was still alive and it informed me he died in 2013 at age 62 after suffering a heart attack while playing tennis in Manhattan. 

And just like that another of my favorite authors was gone without me having a clue. I felt this same loss that I felt when I learned Tom Robbins was dead.  When I found out he was dead I started looking for signed editions by him and got one. It was kind of my way of having something he'd touched in my life. 

I started looking for signed Oscar Hijuelos books on ebay and I was kind of shocked at how low the prices were. I was assuming that since he had passed and wouldn't be signing any more the things were be worth alot. Apparently not.  It is like everything in life. New generations come along and they sprint past the past to their own futures.  So Tom Robbins and Oscar Hijuelos mean little to current generations. I imagine it is the same with Hunter Thompson and Douglas Adams.

But still, they left behind amazing books that will continue to amaze...if someone bothers to look for them.

Snailed it

 

It's National Escargot Day. And just in case you forget that they are snails, they are served up in snail shells with lots of garlic so they taste like chicken. It's not something you find at most of your local restaurants. The only time I ever ate them was on a cruise. And in reality, they weren't half bad.

It was also National Family Fun Day. No joke.

And it was National Scavenger Hunt Day so I scavenged some old designs for National Yucatan Shrimp Day (recycled the Sea Monkeys are Brine Shrimp stuff) and National Wyoming Day (dug up my Gyros Have Always Been Cowboys design). 

I passed on Brother's Day and Aviation Maintenance Technician Day.  Even I have standards.

Sail on

 

It is National Maritime Day, and despite having never actually captaining a ship, I used to go on lots of cruises. And the times I helped people who actually owned sail boats, I felt like it was way too much work. So I'm not truly a seafaring man. But I've always been fascinated with the Titanic.

Today is also National Road Trip Day.  I have been on quite a few road trips in my day and I think I prefer cruises.

It is also National Buy a Musical Instrument Day. So I posted several of my guitar designs.

And it is National Cooler Day, so I got deep with my designs.

Finally, it is National Solitaire Day and I urged people to stop playing within themselves and play with these instead.

I think my future is written in the cards.

Don't Stream It, Be It!

 

It is National Streaming Day, National Be A Millionaire Day, National Juice Slush Day, National Rescue Dog Day and National Sugarbee Apple Day. What a day. 

Since National Day Day doesn't seem to like my postings anymore, I am getting the sense they don't appreciate my humor.  For example, National Sugarbee Apple Day seems a stretch for a National Day to me (especially since I've never heard of a Sugarbee Apple. But I have heard of Road Apples.

National Juice Slush Day just seems random. But I tried squeezing a t-shirt out of it anyway.

National Be A Millionaire Day doesn't seem relevant anymore since everybody and their dog are now billionaires. But living is living.

And speaking of dogs, I think every dog should have their day, especially rescue dogs.

Oh well, those were the days.

Did you ever dance with the Devil's Food Cake in the pale moonlight?

 

It is National Devil's Food Cake Day and I asked ChatGPT to give me a transparent background of my "Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" design and it spit out the above image of me as the devil (which gives you a hint as to how the ChatGPT image creator feels about me).

That takes the Devil's food cake. 

Regardless, I used the opportunity to try an hawk devil themed t-shirts. 

It is also National Roadie Day and I just shamelessly used the opportunity to try and sell some 1980s crew passes on eBay. 

People do collect these. I sold one for a Robert Plant concert backstage pass just the other day. 

It's a hell of a thing.

Don't forget about it

 

It is National Visit Your Relatives Day. And we all know that some families require more attention than others.  At least that is my theory.

I have to admit, that I have no desire to visit my relatives. My mother had 12 brothers and sisters and I had more cousins than I could shake a stick at (and believe me I shook a few sticks at them). One group of cousins we rudely nicknamed "the Martians."  To my brothers and I, they looked like they were from another planet.  In all fairness, I imagine my brothers and I looked like Martians to them.

Needless to say I have almost no contact with any of my relatives...at least on my side of the family. I don't really have much contact with my brothers because they both act as if they are from another planet since they support the invasion of our democracy by the Orange Menace.

But I digress.

It is also National Cheese Souffle Day and the best I could do to commemorate it was post my Egg Yolks design. Because you can't make a souffle without cracking a few yolks or jokes.

As you can see, I still crack myself up.

The Rat Pack

 Technically, it is National Pack Rat Day. But I couldn't resist joining my buddies in the Rat Pack (though they left my name off from the Sands reader board).  I suppose I would more appropriately be part of a groups called the Pack Rats.

I pulled out all the stops (and every design related to rats that I could find). The Hoard Sweet Hoard design just came to me today.

I was thinking of my brother when I came up with it. I view myself as less of a hoarder and more of a collector. And at least I try and turn over my hoard on a regular basis on eBay. Aren't hoarders technically supposed to not be able to let go of anything?

No one on Blue Sky seems to have acknowleged by Pack Rat video.  I was thinking today that perhaps instead of trying to sell my ideas as t-shirt designs I should just think of them as cartoons and featur a new one each day. Maybe then I could even sell ads on my blog and capitalize on the hoards of people who visit my blog. I wonder if Bots buy things from ads?

It was also National Idaho Day. I learned from TikTok the other day that Idaho was a named made up by an Idaho politician when they were trying to become a state. He told the Feds that Idaho was a Shoshone word that meant Gem of the Mountains. It was actually something he pulled out of his ass.  So the state is named after a lie. We all know that Idaho really is a Shoshone word for Famous Potatoes anyway.

I posted this t-shirt design in honor of my birth state anyway.

Manley's was an iconic cafe in Boise that was famous for major portions of fried chicken and pie ala mode. My parents always called it Manley's Rose Garden because it used to have roses growing around it. I ate there once as a kid and it was basically a dive. But it was an iconic dive, one you might find in a state named after a politician's BS.

Rats.

Need for light speed

 

As usual, I started out today marvelling at the random National Day Days that the National Day Days people are promoting and trying to find an angle where my designs are are least slightly relevant. I noticed it was Nascar Day.  Now being a public transportation marketing person I don't really follow car racing. Growing up in Idaho, however, car racing was a big deal. Though I don't think I've ever been to a car race.  Regardless, awhile ago, I toyed with the idea of an Einstein Formula 500 Car.

I may have even tried selling it on Teepublic and who knows, it might have been one that got my account cancelled, because Einstein's image is trademarked and considered intellectual property.  So I worked with my pal ChatGPT to create a version that didn't violate IP.

So boo ya, a design that loosely relates to Nascar Day (though I realize Formula 500 and Nascar are different types of racing).  I still think I was on track.

It is also National Endangered Species Day. Now endangered species don't lend themselves to my normal humor infested t-shirt design. But I do venture into the serious side now and then. And awhile ago I also experimented with a design based on the Elephant Man, but reversing it to the Man Elephant.

I don't remember if I tried to sell this on Teepublic or not. But I ran it past ChatGPT and it advisded me that it was too close to the Elephant Man to not be considered a step on the toes of the Elephant Man trademark.  So I worked with ChatGPT to modify it into something that was free of the intellectual property chains and more relatable to National Endangered Species Day. We came up with this:

Now this one seems very relevant (and elephant). I even made sure it was an Asian Elephant (and endangered species).  So boo ya-ya.

Though lately the National Day Day people haven't been liking my posts. I hope it isn't because they think I am parasidically latching onto their National Day Days to hawk my designs. Because that would be hypocritical, because their whole business model is to help PR people try to promote important things like National Chocolate Chip Day and to (I assume) allow the National Day Day people sell ads when people click on their site.

Parasites, aren't we all.

Tear down the wall

 

Pink Floyd is one of my favorite groups. They are right up there with the Beatles for me, but in a different way. I know everything about the Beatles, but I know very little about Pink Floyd other than I love their music. The Wall is probably one of my favorite albums followed closely by Darkside of the Moon. 

When I was in college and would visit my friend Jeremy's apartment that he shared with Chris, I would always ask that they play Pink Floyd the Wall. Chris was an audiophile. In fact he worked at the same university that Jeremy and I were attending at the time. He was the head of their audio visual department. But he had a pretty amazing stereo system so Pink Floyd sounded amazing. There was something about the album and it's theme of madness that appealed to my 20-something mind. 

I have since retained my love for Pink Floyd's music and the revival of David Gilmour and Roger Waters (who apparently hate each other). Syd Barrett was one of the original band members and the one who named the group. He was also the one who had a psychotic breakdown that pretty much ended his tenure in the band. I would have assumed that the Wall was written about Syd Barrett, but Roger Waters said it was actually about him and his disillusionment with fame.

Oh well, being creative and being crazy seem to go hand in hand. I remember being in a staff meeting early in my career after college and writing on a notepad, "Crazy, toys in the attic, I am crazy. Truly gone fishing. Must have taken my marbles away." It is a lyric from the Wall song, "The Trial." I forgot the notebook in the conference room and my bosses secretary found it and was telling me that she was concerned that someone on the staff wrote it. I had to laugh and explain to her I wrote it because it was a line from Pink Floyd and it is how I felt in that staff meeting (and every staff meeting since).

I love Pink Floyd.

A toad less travelled

 

Technically it is National Frog Jumping Day and toads and frogs are not the same thing. If this was my day job I would be worried about such things, but since it is my blog and my design idea and I don't have any with frogs (jumping or otherwise) I don't worry about such things. 

Actually, when I thought of it, I did have one that was about frogs.

So there will be two #NationalFrogJumpingDay posts on BlueSky today. Better those two than this one:

Which reminds me, I did eat frog legs once on a cruise ship. They did, in fact, taste like chicken.

Dancing as fast as I can

 

It is National Limerick Day. I did't have any limerick t-shirts or a strong desire to create a limerick t-shirt. I do have a pressing need to promote my t-shirt design on a daily basis more out of stubborness and pride than on high hopes that it will help. So I created another ad loosely based on limericks. Or loosely based on a limerick I hammered out without any AI help (other than helping me find words that rhyme with "land." And I learned a bit about limericks actually having a formal structure of five lines, an AABBA rhyme scheme and a bouncy rhythm.  I thought limericks were just show offs ways of telling dirty jokes.

I am long past believe that something having a National Day Day makes it worth having a National Day Day. For example, it is also National Nutty Fudge Day to which I responded with:

It is also National Odometer Day. I'm tempted to repost that I don't give a flying bucket of fudge about odometers, either. But I don't think that would go a long way towards selling t-shirts. So I do have some limits.

Zoning out

 

It is National Twilight Zone Day! I have had a special place in my heart for the Twilight Zone since I was a kid and it scared the bejesus out of me with the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet starring William Shatner as an airline passenger who is convinced he sees a gremlin trying to sabotage the wing.  It was later reprised in the 1983 Twilight Zone Movie with John Lithgow playing the Shatner part. I was five in 1963 and really freaked me out. Though I wouldn't take my first airplane trip for another ten years.

Looking back at the 1963 Gremlin, it looked more like Harpo Marx in fuzzy pajamas. 

I asked ChatGPT to make Twilight Zone Gremlin with my face and it gave me this.

It looks more like a black and white mugshot of Shrek than a gremlin. So I kept trying. I told it to make it more like the 1963 gremlin and it shouldn't be wearing a suit and tie and it gave me this.

I think it looks like a cross between Spock and Yoda. But I didn't give up.

Close enough I suppose. Not sure why it couldn't put me on the wing of the plane where any self-respecting gremlin would be, but sometimes you've got to quit with ChatGPT while you are close enough.

Anyway, after that digression, back to National Twilight Zone Day.

When I started writing fiction in junior high and high school, Rod Serling was one of my role models as was Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe and O. Henry. After I got past my fascination with the supernatural, I leaned more toward Tom Robbins. Since I no longer read and all of my role models (except for Stephan King) are dead, I couldn't tell you what influences me now.  I suppose it is whatever famous author sits around coming up with bad pun t-shirts and asking AI apps to put his face on random characters.

I think I have that niche totally covered.