Planet Iron Blogger SF

A therapist once reassured me with this declaration: “It won’t kill you.” I offered a pedantic correction: “It probably won’t kill me.”

And I felt a lot better.

“It won’t kill you” isn’t necessarily true. “It probably won't kill you” is almost always true.

Every second of every day, you can be pretty sure you’re going to make it to the next one. This is true for all the seconds you’re alive, except for that final one. Probability is on your side—and then it isn't.

There’s a lot that can kill you. A grizzly bear, a perturbed neighbor, an out-of-control shopping cart. But that thing you’re worried about right now probably won’t kill you ( unless of course, it is the thing that does).

That last second of life sounds awful1, but it’s only one out of billions2. And yet that last second casts a shadow over all the rest. You fill your perfectly good Wednesdays with worry about things that statistically almost never happen. It's a peculiar form of narcissism to believe probability will make an exception for you.

It’s understandable. Our brains evolved to spot predators, not calculate odds. They're great at worst-case scenarios, terrible at math.

Here's what I’ve learned: Acknowledging the ‘probably’ doesn't make you more likely to die. It just makes you more honest about living. Nothing in this life is going to kill you except the one thing that eventually does. And until then, you're surviving at a perfect 100% success rate.

Good luck today.

On Delivery

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon.

Some shadows on a neighbor’s house inspired this Sidewalk Friends drawing of a line of orks.

Today's #SidewalkFriends sketch: a line of goblins, inspired by a shadow on a neighbor's house. #NotShrek #ProcreateArt #Orks #Orcs

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop) 2025-05-30T04:09:24.276Z

The post #SidewalkFriends: Orc Queue appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

They tell you to be fearless. It’s bad advice.

Fear isn’t a weakness to overcome. Fear is your body telling you that something needs to become known. Curiosity dressed in caution tape. You can’t avoid fear, nor can you destroy it. But when you use the fear, the world starts to change.

Fear says:

• I don’t know what the future will look like.

• I don’t know if I’ll find a better job.

• I don’t know if they’ll judge me for speaking my mind.

It’s a lot of “I don’t knows.” Fear is the edge of your map, where “hic sunt dracones.” But fear is rarely screaming stop, it’s whispering pay attention.

The unknown territory is where all growth happens, and where all the unfound spices are. Fear is an internal GPS and it makes noise when you are some place new. Don’t try to silence it. It will reveal precisely what you need to discover next.

The sphere of fear contracts with every step. The thing that terrifies you most contains your greatest lesson. The doorway that makes your heart race leads to a room that contains your future. Don't leave out the impossible idea that what you fear (that is, what you don’t know) might be precisely what you need.

Yesterday’s terror, becomes today’s discomfort, and tomorrow’s routine. And routine is doing what you want. Courage was never about being fearless. Courage is letting fear ride shotgun without letting it grab the wheel.

They were playing Ronnie James Dio at the gym, which isn’t a common occurance, and that was fun. I really liked Dio when I was a small child. Also now that I’ve let my hair grow for a while people said I look like Benson Boone, which I wouldn’t have thought of but now that … Continue reading "Rainbow in the Dark"

Walkie Talkie is a local graffiti artist known for drawing walkie-talkies (portable two-way radios) in their unique style. Sometimes the pieces are painted in great detail; other times, they’re quick, twisty single-line sketches.

photo by Walkie A tag by Walkie Talkie, spotted in the Mission

I recently picked up an upcycled enamel pin from Walkie, and I love it! They found a batch of 80+ identical pins and repainted each one to feature their signature Walkie character. Every pin is unique. Here’s the one I received:

And here’s a behind-the-scenes video from Walkie’s Instagram page (also archived here)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by WALKIE TALKIE (@enterthewalkie)

I don’t think Walkie has any more of these available, but I wanted to write about it because I love mine so much. It’s such a cool way to wear a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

The post Upcycled Enamel Pins From Walkie Talkie appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

Coconut Patrol

Some life advice disguised as writing advice. Write to one person. Craft for someone specific. Imagine their eyes, nose, ears, and all the rest. Give your reader a face.

Every creator trains on an audience of one. A drawing for mom, a letter to Santa. I got my start pleasing an eccentric English teacher. My first blog was an extended love letter to someone on Craig’s List. And when I write these microprinciples, I think about you.

See how it works?

As a former copywriter, I have witnesseth marketers chase the broadest audience. Only water is for everyone and even then some prefer it sparkling. Universal appeal is a myth.

Because there is no dependable definition of “Generation Z” or “mothers” or “product managers.” There is Jen, nineteen, so-excited-scared-she-could-puke about going away to university. There is Wright, awake at 3am with her colicky god-daughter. There is Penn, running late to all his meetings, overwhelmed by deadlines.

Find the face, not a demographic. Write to Jen, not to Gen Z. There is an individual on the other side of these words. And paradoxically, the more specific your writing, the more universal it will feel. Because we are all family.

The Shyamalan-esque twist: you must give the reader your face, too. They don’t want words, they want a voice. Show them your smudged glasses, your 3am thoughts, your palpable dehydration. The surest way to find your people is to reveal yourself first.

Kona is Burning

The Billies played another game of Kill Team this weekend (Hand of the Archon vs Blades of Khaine)

This is a really fun bit of trivia that I made for the folks at WordPress.com. It’s not promoting any services, it’s just a fun bit of trivia to stump your friends with. Enjoy!

The post What was the world’s fist web domain? appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

We’re hosting another Cartoonist Conspiracy meetup in San Francisco tomorrow night, so I asked my friend Mike to design a new flier. I printed 15 copies, hand-colored each one, and posted them around the neighborhood using staples or tape.

To the best of my recollection, I didn’t whip up a big batch of wheatpaste and plaster our fliers around town.

So imagine my surprise when I walked past the old Big Lots on Mission Street and saw one of our fliers wheatpasted to the wall.

I have no idea how it got there. I’m certain it’s the same flier hand-colored and stapled about 20 feet south of where it was glued to a wall.

a photo of the original flier, stapled to another part of the wall

The Big Lots wall has been a longtime hotspot for posters and creative street art. I walk past it often and usually see people putting up massive wheatpasted ads: new product launches, big festivals, shitty crypto scams. The folks who install these large corporate ads don’t have a reputation for respecting what’s already on the wall… they tend to paste over anything in their way.

Which is why I don’t think it was them.

Maybe someone was out wheatpasting fliers for punk shows, saw our cartoonist flier, and decided to give it an upgrade?

Whoever you are: thanks! You added a little mystery to my day and a little more longevity to our flier.

The post The Mystery of the Wheatpasted Flier appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

One of my favorite things in the Bay Area is “Instant Band Night,” where musicians randomly get assigned to be in a “band” together. They have 5 minutes to plan what to play, and then they immediately go on stage and play a 5 minute song. It is incredible and beautiful and vulnerable. I always … Continue reading "Doodle Bops"

Listen to an audio version of this post, read by the author

Once you notice the “Walls, Only” fliers around San Francisco, you start seeing them everywhere. I’ve lived in SF for nearly twenty years, but it wasn’t until halfway through that I really noticed one of these fliers. Since then, I’ve spent the past decade obsessively documenting them whenever I can.

For transparency: I called the Walls, Only number a few years ago while researching this article. The person I spoke with was extremely friendly, but asked me to keep our entire conversation off the record. So everything mentioned here is purely based on my own observations after years of collecting these pieces. Basically, this is the article I would have written before I ever chatted with them.

The look and feel of “Walls, Only” fliers

These fliers are typically black and white, on 8.5×11″ paper, that advertise interior house painting for “as low as $59 a room”. Some are text heavy, some have a strong image with a silly phrase, most have the number “1-415-799-1193” on them. Many of these fliers prominently feature the words Walls, Only, which is also how I refer to this artist when talking about the fliers, though they sometimes use names like William or Paul.

Although some of the fliers have digital elements, there’s also a distinctly handmade element too, as if they were cut with scissors and assembled by hand before being photocopied. The text is often slightly askew, and you can sometimes spot the faint lines where paper was cut and glued to the master image. Along with their eye-catching graphics, the fliers often feature intriguing slogans that immediately grab your attention, like: “Once a cool thing is done, it can’t be undone.”

Tabs upon tabs

Another common feature of these fliers is that they often have removable tabs that are like miniature versions of the flier itself. So there will be a square layout on the top of the flier, with smaller tabs at the bottom that are almost identical to the large poster. This meta element of the fliers was even parodied by a Twitter user a few years back when they made a fake flier consisting of tabs upon tabs.

The Mysterious Comma

This cut-and-paste technique begins to get a little meta when you start seeing parts of previous fliers getting cut-up and re-used later. I think this explains one of the biggest mysteries of the current generation of “Walls, Only”, which always have a little comma mark at the bottom left edge of the “O” in “Only”. I believe the person who designed the fliers started off by writing “Walls Only”, then one day added a comma for some reason, then another day cut the image in a way where the comma and the O overlapped. Without realizing it, they kept re-using that particular cut up section of text, and eventually it became a sort of logo. If you look back at older posters, you can see the comma wasn’t there, then you can see a few fliers where there was a comma added, then you see all the newer fliers have the comma merged into the “O” like some sort of diacritic character.

The older fliers

Of course, these Walls, Only fliers weren’t always as stylized. A search for this phone number on Google revealed a bunch of old flier designs from 2000-2015 that have some of the early building blocks of the Walls, Only fliers we see today.

via The SF Chronicle 2015 Screenshot via Simple Pleasures review on Tripadvisor

Re-imagining “Walls, Only”

Over the years of collecting these fliers, I’ve found other artifacts online by folks who have also been inspired by Walls, Only‘s art. Like Krishnapriya Dutta, a design student who was asked to” find a sign and recreate it” as a school project. She created a full brand book and mock up ads, which look very nice, but I think they also show how effective the original fliers are for standing out. The art and layout aren’t fancy, but the intriguing text and images are what really make Walls, Only fliers stand out from other adverts. By using repetition of phrases like “Nice room, wrong color” or “Walls Only”, sometimes even copy/pasting from previous fliers, Walls, Only has managed to develop a recognizable brand.

Once A Cool Thing is Done

It’s easy to overlook the small things around us, but if you take the time to look, art really is everywhere. From handyman signs to graffiti, there’s creativity hidden all around us… you just have to know to look for it. I know Walls, Only is ultimately doing what any business does: trying to stand out with eye-catching marketing. But I genuinely appreciate the thought and craftsmanship that goes into each flier. If these things are going to be plastered on every corner, I’m glad they’re at least fun to look at.

The post The Distinctive Flier Art of “Walls, Only” in San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The newest episode of my PopCast yo-yo vlog is a combination of two different hobbies: Yo-yoing and Magic. I created a couple of yo-yo-inspired magic tricks and showed them to Andrew Evans, owner of the Magic Patio, to see if he could figure them out.

Also available ad-free on Peertube. https://spectra.video/w/kNNZJEoAKUKYeLiyfQLHsc

The post Using Yo-Yo Tricks To Fool A Magician appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The Future is Now!

The math of meaning is surprisingly simple: The more you accumulate, the harder it becomes to tell a cohesive story. (Because Complication accelerates knowledge loss.) So tell a focused story. You’re not a magazine, you are a monograph, an integrated narrative. And integration requires less.

Embrace ruthless elimination. Choice sounds like expansion, but its true power is in reduction. You can’t do everything and You can’t be good at everything and that means you can do what you want and you can be what you want.

The art of becoming is the art of selection: Choose a path from infinite possibilities (and don’t leave out the impossible), let the others face into non-existence. You must learn to discern what belongs in your life or not.

The story of a life is improved with depth, coherence, and a singular voice. It’s not improved by cramming it with as many characters, elements, and ideas as possible (you heard me, Marvel). Complexity fragments; simplicity unifies.

When you have the courage to declare what you are not, you are reward with integration. To is, you must know what you ain’t. Life is not about becoming more, it’s about becoming more yourself.

Doc and I went to a fancy dinner in North Beach recently for date night. It was really nice, and we also got to see the places in the area we rarely get to (because they are in North Beach, alas). We perused Al’s Attire and checked out the Fishtank Gallery with its art vending … Continue reading "Fancy-Pants Dinner"

His Formulas

As someone with terrible handwriting, I dread writing anything by hand… especially a big sign that’s going to be on display at a march or protest.

So here’s a little hack I use to help remove that anxiety: I lay out my text on an iPad, then trace it directly onto poster paper using an app called TracingMat. That’s it. No printers, no rulers, no graphic design degree required.

If you want to see exactly how I do it, I made a quick video:

Here’s what I use:

• iPad or other tablet
• TracingMat (not sponsored, I just like it)
• Poster paper
• Pencil
• Marker (I love the Magic Ink 670, but Sharpies work too)
• Optional but nice:
  • white-out pen (Pentel Presto is nice)
  • eraser
  • paint pens (Uniball Paint are great)
  • glitter?

This method is fast, calming, and honestly kind of satisfying. You get nice, bold, readable signs. If you have any other hacks or tips for signs, let me know!

An ad-free version of the video is also available on PeerTube https://spectra.video/w/gNBuHPAZVPyxRn1Sr1mxQa

The post Making Protest Signs Without the Stress (Even If Your Handwriting Is a Mess) appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

In celebration of #BandcampFriday, when Bandcamp waives their revenue share and passes the funds directly to artists, here’s a list of recent releases I’ve really enjoyed:

Why?- “Ocracoke”

I love how Why?’s musical style has changed over the years, but sometimes miss the raw sound of his early Anticon stuff. This track perfectly scratches that itch.

And if you haven’t heard it yet, Why?’s newest album, “The Well I Fell Into” is one of his best albums yet.

The Well I Fell Into by WHY?

ShyGodwin- “American Circus”

A short new track from one of my favorite new grunge/punk/metal bands. If you like this track, but want something longer, I’d highly recommend “Do What You Want” and “New Enemies“.

american circus by ShyGodwin

Show Me The Body- “Corpus II EP”

Corpus II is actually two short EPs (Corpus II Ep I and Corpus II Ep II) that were released separately, but are sometimes collected onto one EP on some streaming services. I like to listen to them back to back, like an album, but if I had to pick, I’d say “Corpus II Ep I” is my favorite of the two. Corpus II features some bass heavy loops, with a heavy doom vibe at times and a Rage Against The Machine vibe at others. I’m a new SMTB fan, but they have a huge catalog to dig into. There’s some fantastic talent on their record label too, which tends to skew towards industrial noise and metal. If you liked these EPs, maybe check out some of their live footage on Youtube.

Corpus II is actually two short EPs (Corpus II Ep I and Corpus II Ep II) released separately, though some streaming services combine them. I like listening to them back to back like a full album, but if I had to pick, Corpus II Ep I is my favorite. Expect bass-heavy loops, industrial beats, with vocals that feel a bit Rage Against The Machine inspired. I’m a new SMTB fan, but their catalog is deep and their label features lots of excellent industrial/noise/metal artists.

CORPUS II EP I by Show Me The Body

Tunde Adebimpe- “Thee Black Boltz”

A fantastic debut solo album from TV on the Radio’s frontman. Some really solid electro-pop throughout.

Chat Pile- “Live at Roadburn 2023”

A great collection of live tracks by Chat Pile.

Live at Roadburn 2023 by Chat Pile

The post recent music finds on Bandcamp appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

Trying something new!

In most advice columns one person dispenses advice to many. I believe that collective wisdom emerges when we share our individual experiences. In the Reverse Advice Column I pose a question to Microprinciples readers. In the next issue, I’ll share your insights.

Previous question

What’s one small habit that has had outsized impact on your life?

A Sound of Thunder is the classic sci-fi story where a time-travel company sends you back in time to hunt dinosaurs. You know what happens next. You accidentally step on a butterfly in the Jurassic era, yadda, yadda, yadda, Germany wins World War II.

We intuitively understand that small changes in the past can lead to an unimaginably different present, so why do we resist the idea that small changes today could lead to an unimaginable future?

For me, the small habit that changed my life is journalling. Starting my day with paper and pen (not a screen) does something to my brain I can’t explain. A day without journalling is like a day without brushing my teeth; I feel unsettled. In the 10 years since I started, my daily writing has let me perceive the world in new ways.

Your insights

🧇 Waffle Wednesdays. We share our “waffles” (life updates, highs and lows) in a short video. It's unpolished and unapologetic. (I once propped my phone in my fridge to capture my video update.) The point is to stay connected despite busy lives and to avoid constantly apologizing for not speaking sooner.–JMDLP

🧗🏻‍♂️ More stairs. I can linearly correlate my overall energy, health, and positive disposition to those years when I had to climb a lot of stairs. Walking, exercise, eating right, not drinking too much are all great additions for wellness, but more stairs always seems to be the heavy-hitter.–T. Branscombe

🛏️ Making my bed. People in recovery regularly espouse making their bed as one of the habits that changes their life. The idea is that one builds self-esteem by doing esteemable acts. It’s the same as brushing your teeth, flossing, or showering. By taking care of yourself, you show yourself you matter.–Anonymouse 🐁

🗓️ I buy wall calendars… but instead of using them as planners, I fill them with small highlights of the previous day. It’s a way for me to see how I have been spending my day, how I feel about how I spend my time, and what I want to do the next day. Makes me feel grounded in many ways.–Anonymouse 🐁

This week’s question

When has putting something down allowed you to pick up something better?

Simply hit reply to answer. Your note can be as long or as short as you like. Even one sentence! Don’t overthink it or backspace yourself. Just make it edible. Responses may be edited for clarity or length. Unless you instruct me otherwise, I’ll sign you as “anonymouse.”

P.S. A huge thank you to the pilot group of readers for your answers and encouragement—and for helping me prevent this debacle. I appreciate you!

Babies don’t struggle with walking because they’re stupid. They struggle because learning requires rewiring neural pathways in real-time—like digging trenches for water while the river is flowing—it’s tough. You might think of learning as accumulation: adding knowledge, picking up skills, gaining experiences. That’s only half the story.

Learning also requires unlearning. There is no growth without demolition.

Ideas you once fought to understand must be abandoned. Your hard-earned mountain peaks are now basecamps for another climb. Each version of yourself requires the death of the previous one. Learning isn’t only about baby’s first steps; it’s putting grandpa on an ice floe and casting him off to sea.

You are building sandcastles, over and over. The structures themselves matter less than the architect you become. You are the river and the stone, simultaneously carving and being carved.

With every twist of the prism, meaning shifts in new light. You may no longer “know” what you once knew, because what can be known changes as you move through time. The truth is like a mushroom1. This cycle cannot be avoided because existence itself is endless change.

Transformation, not accumulation. Death, not addition. That’s the price.

The game of magical mayhem! We were playing board games (Dune, Wiz-War, Cosmic Encounter, etc etc) a LOT for a while there. It petered out during the pandemic and we never really got back into it. Recently, though, I played a game of Wiz-War and I remembered how much I love that game. We really … Continue reading "Wiz-War!"

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

Here’s a Mastodon-themed zine that I’ve been working on for a while. I started this a year ago, but put it on pause because I didn’t think it was getting to where I’d like it to be. I decided to bring this project back out and make some tweaks to it before sharing the draft here publicly, with the hope of getting feedback and collaborating on it with other folks.

This draft (and the final zine) are CC-BY licensed. This is a single page zine that can be printed and folded at home using the directions I shared in this blog post https://docpop.org/zine

Mastodon Zine v2 (April 24th, 2025):

Here is v2 of the Mastodon zine. Based on feedback from v1 of the zine, I switched up the font. The new font uses an open-source font called Cascadia Mono (available here). I shortened a few sentences and added a drawing of a DeLorean.

I think this zine should either be about why Mastodon (and the fediverse) is worth exploring OR it should be about how to join Mastodon, but I don’t think it’s capable of doing both. So for v3 I’m thinking about removing the last 3 pages about how to join Mastodon and reduce that to a link and QR code. Maybe a link to my “How To Get Started With Mastodon” post.

Below is the version you can print and fold at home (using the zine making instructions here):

or the zine can be read online here:

The post Mastodon Zine Rough Draft appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

At my last job, a higher-up confidently declared in a team meeting that “mistakes are unacceptable.” Poppycock. Mistakes are more than acceptable.

When you make mistakes taboo, you associate them with shame. Shame feels bad, so you adapt by avoiding the risk of doing and collaborating. It’s simple math: you make fewer mistakes when you take fewer actions. (But You gotta do something.)

Mistakes are acceptable because they are inevitable. When you reject the inevitable, you’re in resistance to reality itself. So where are you living then? In a self-constructed illusion, disconnected from the world as it actually exists. Like, for example, middle management at a SaaS company.

This is why you spend time with children (little humans), because they produce mistakes with glee. Our children show you how to learn without shame. This is also why you spend time with elders, because they’ve earned wisdom from a foreign land you call the past. (Don't be so hard on the past.) Our ancestors show you that the journey to now is paved with mistakes.

Errors are the tax you pay for growth—expensive, necessary, unavoidable. The moment you stop making mistakes is the moment you stop becoming.

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon.

I’ve seen a lot of folks sharing #StarterPack images lately, so I thought I’d put my own spin on it by using one of my Sidewalk Friends sketches as the starting point. File under: #StarterPackNoAI

I've seen a lot of folks sharing #StarterPack images lately, so I thought I'd put my own spin on it by using one of my #SidewalkFriends sketches as the starting point. #StarterPackNoAI

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop) 2025-04-16T01:19:18.102Z

The post #SidewalkFriends: Doc Pop Starter Kit appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence put on another Hunky Jesus competition in Dolores Park for 2025. This year’s winning Jesus was “Cowboy Carter Jesus,” who rode in astride a giant disco bison.

Local Neon

In moments of stillness, you may glimpse a sacred feeling: enough. A whispered invitation to remain still, to embrace the dissolution of your body and consciousness, to surrender all earthly pursuits and join the cosmos. These moments are potent reminders of being and nothingness. But you are not dead yet.

Life is motion. The universe swims toward disorder yet, somehow you find (a mote of) order against the current. So, though it pains me to say this, you gotta do something.

Yes, all making and doing is fundamentally pointless in cosmic terms. But your days are numbered, so might as well get cracking. You can't do everything; so orient toward heartbreak and choose. You have infinite freedom, and yet, you do (in fact) have to know what you want.

It’s all a real kick in the pants.

And it’s not exactly easy. Doing, making, writing, water-skiing, whatever: it all involves risk—physical pain, rejection, failure. But these aren’t obstacles to a meaningful life; this is the substance of it.

All your attempts are essays—the word itself means "to try"—that add up to the monograph that is you. And the ripples of your actions extend beyond your pages, inspiring others to do, and to make, to strap on their own skis, and so on, and so on.

Between periods of chaotic creation, you return to stillness. Inspiration requires expiration, breathing out to make room for new breath. And this produces another revelation. That sometimes you gotta do nothing, because you are enough.

Back when I lived in Minneapolis (2001–2005), I managed a toy store in the Mall of America called Air Traffic Kites and Games. We carried yo-yos, juggling equipment, board games, and kites—but we also had a massive section dedicated to Warhammer figures. Naturally, I was expected to be familiar with the game, so I put some time into building my own 40k army. I focused on the Eldar and the Dark Eldar.

I didn’t stick with the hobby for too long, but I thought it’d be fun to share some photos of my armies. Eventually, I sold them off on Craigslist for a hundred bucks or so.

The post My Eldar Army appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

I went looking for recent video game releases and this led me to Black Shard, which has been a great experience so far. It’s stunning, moving, and compelling – with an interesting mystery at the heart of it all. I got it just because it looked arty and interesting and I wanted to find a … Continue reading "Black Shard"

Where the Earth meets the Sky

The faster you move, the less you can see. The less you see, the more stays unknown. The more that's unknown, the more you're in fear. The more you're in fear, the less you can do to help people. And you gotta do something.

Expedient action requires deliberate thought. When you think slowly, you can move more quickly.

You're not always resourced to respond. You can't solve every problem the moment you discover it. You can't internalize every concept the moment you hear it. Like a sliding puzzle, you need space in your mind to move things around.

Paradoxically, some things need time to ripen. It may have to get worse before it gets better. Let time bring solidity to the form. Then can you heft the problem with both hands.

But once you do slow down, the payoff is counterintuitive: you move faster in the long run. You skip the false starts. You avoid the rework. You sidestep the traps. You build solutions that solve the real problem, instead of making bandaids that collapse under pressure.

Moving slowly isn't passive—it's strategic patience. The world wants you dizzy with urgency. But urgency without direction is just panic in business casual. Slow your mind first. The rest will follow, and faster than you'd think.

Painting the clown elves now I think it might have been the greenish black I used to paint the base coat for the Drukhari’s armor, but edge highlighting was hell for those guys, nothing would stick at all seemingly. I might re-evaluate in the future, but so far this is my running list of things … Continue reading "Down to Clown"

Thursday, March 27 to Sunday, March 30, 2025.

Shows

Day 1

• Tigran Hamasyan, Tennessee Theatre
• Charles Lloyd: Homage to Zakir Hussain, Tennessee Theatre

Day 2

• Philip Glass Ensemble: Music in Twelve Parts (1–6), Tennessee Theatre
• Sun Ra and Yo La Tengo, Knoxville Civic Auditorium
• Still House Plants, The Standard

Day 3

• Philip Glass Ensemble: Music in Twelve Parts (7–12), Tennessee Theatre
• James McVinnie & Eliza McCarthy, 133 Years of Reverb, St. John’s Cathedral
• Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera, Bijou Theatre
• Lara Somogyi, First Presbyterian Sanctuary
• Dakhabrakha, Tennessee Theatre
• Don Was (DJ set), Blue Note Lounge
• Clipping, Jackson Terminal
• Water Damage, The Standard

Day 4

• Laraaji, St. John’s Cathedral
• Kite Symphony, UT Downtown Gallery
• Mùm, Bijou Theatre

Dispatches

The typical punishment for flying between two mid-tier American airports is a layover in a monstrous one. To avoid this we flew direct to Nashville. Our AirBNB is Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash themed. There are 5 guitars on the wall, but no Wi-Fi. We stress-test our livers at Bar Sovereign, Skull’s Rainbow Room, and The Patterson House. The next day we will drive three hours to Knoxville, with a stop in between for hot chicken.

Did you know McGhie Tyson airport is named for a middling-Knoxville man of little importance?

Ladies described him as “charming,” but he wasn’t necessarily the sort of guy you’d think of as a tragic hero. You’ve probably met him yourself: the West Knoxville boy who goes to the Ivy League college and comes home to work for his dad’s company. The handsome unmarried playboy who, even in his late 20s, still lives with his parents. The rich, idle kid who spends most of his free time hanging around Cherokee Country Club playing golf.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere.

I’m staying, for the fourth time, at the Hilton Embassy Suites on S. Gay street. I’ve never frequented any single hotel location more than this, and none has availed themselves of so much of my money. For my loyalty, I have earned at least a dozen Hilton Honors points.

First show: Tigran Hamasyan at the Tennessee Theatre. Armenian folk, jazz piano, progressive rock, and metal. He’s playing from his album The Bird of A Thousand Voices.

I was stoked to see the master Ustad Zakir Hussain, but he died in December. As someone who pretends to play tabla, I felt obligated to make the pilgrimage to his tribute concert. Ganavya sings along with Hussain’s longtime collaborators.

My obsession with Philip Glass started in high school when our percussion ensemble started dosing on Steve Reich, John Cage, and other aleatory drugs. Michael Reisman and the Philip Glass Ensemble performed the entirety of Music in Twelve Parts; an intricate sonic scarf that’s so dense I had to close my eyes to take it all in. The ensemble plays continuously, dividing the three hour piece over two days. I start Friday and Saturday with Glass at the Tennessee Theatre and I feel like I have 100 new synapses. Magnificent.

Sun Ra and Yo La Tengo sharing a stage is surprisingly underwhelming. They alternated songs and never quite found a groove together. Yo La Tengo awkwardly tensed around the ‘Arkestra’ like a doofus trying to infiltrate a conversation at a party. Messy. We surmised that the two bands didn’t really know each other before this show. Turns out they collaborate all the time. What the fuck.

Still House Plants is great. Three young talents in complete vibratory alignment. Jazzy drums, dry guitar, goth-y vocals. Can’t wait to see them when they add some protein to this club sandwich.

133 Years of Reverb turns out to be a sound bath administered by two very over-qualified healers. I saw James McVinnie in this same church a few years ago, but this year he was ordered, with Eliza McCarthy, to dutifully deliver hours-long whole note chords for most of the day.

Alabaster Deplume. I didn’t see him at all this year. Everyone else saw him multiple times. Huh.

Dakhabrakha. My fifth(?) time seeing this band. The first time was at Big Ears in 2017, when they rocked The Standard and it was the highlight of my trip. Once again, they did not disappoint. I get emotional when I think of how hard they are working to free their nation from tyranny. They are not just musicians, they are activists, and every show is a protest. They end the performance by auctioning off one of Marko’s paintings. I don’t even let myself consider bidding: it goes for $3000.

Clipping. Daveed Diggs can rap. Who knew?

Don Was DJ set. The record producer is spinning tracks he had a hand in producing from a 40 year long career. I only knew that he produced Love Shack by the B-52s; turns out he’s a legend.

Peter Peppercorn up to his old bullshit:

Within the quiet, cascading corners of Pittsburgh lies a community – nothing short of one large family – that spans zip codes, histories, occupations, and generations, always tumbling inwardly into itself, propped up by steadfast pillars of conviction toward spiritual and emotional mutual aid. The kind of earnest community scaffolding that gets bandied about, wielded as conjecture, particularly in an age of increasing fracture through digital sublimation, is alive and quite well within the universe surrounding Merce Lemon.

Water Damage. Maximum repetition, minimal variation. I guess I wasn’t in the mood, which is rich coming from someone who titrated three hours of Philip Glass that same weekend.

Laraaji. I know him from Brian Eno’s Ambient album, so I didn’t know what to expect. He played soaring, improvisational piano while sing-speaking a paean on non-duality and consciousness to a packed house at St. John’s. Upon walking out, someone described the performance like “getting a massage.” That sounds right.

Mùm is the last show of the festival for us. Ryan says there’s “not a bad seat” at the Bijou, except perhaps for the folks sitting next to the man generating scandalous AI images on his phone while waiting for the show to start. Mum is excellent, but they seemed annoyed with the tech. Later we will beside them at a bar, and Gabe will help one of the members buy a new Macbook Pro.

---

The previous Big Ears

I wanted to add an Age Gate / Age Verification pop-up for Squarespace. The top search engine result had some code, but it A) didn’t work B) didn’t look very good and C) didn’t have any functionality for tracking cookies. Instead, use this code:

First, put this into the injected code in the Header

<!– Age Verification Pop-up HTML –> <div id=“age-verification-popup”> <div class=“popup-content”> <h2>ARE YOU 21+?</h2> <div class=“image-circle-container” style=“margin-bottom: 24px;”> <img src=“https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6788837817ec6330feff09fe/a0416e38-e21f-4f14-88b3-0a8c8589e435/lambi_lamb_black.png” alt=“LAMBI” class=“centered-image” fetchpriority=“high” loading=“eager” decoding=“async” data-loader=“raw”> </div> <div class=“button-container”> <button id=“verify-button-yes”>YES</button> <button id=“verify-button-no”>NO</button> </div> <p class=“disclaimer”> You must be of legal drinking age in<br> your respective country for entry.<br><br> We encourage drinking responsibly! </p> </div> </div>

Next, inject this CSS:

/* Style for Age Verification Pop-up */ #age-verification-popup { display: none; /* Initially hidden, JS will show it if needed */ position: fixed; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); /* Semi-transparent black overlay */ z-index: 9999; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; /* Or choose a font that matches */ } .popup-content { position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); background-color: #fff; /* White background */ padding: 40px 30px; /* Adjust padding as needed */ text-align: center; border: 1px solid #ccc; /* Optional: adds a light border */ min-width: 300px; /* Minimum width */ box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.1); /* Optional subtle shadow */ } /* Optional logo styling */ /* .popup-logo { max-width: 80px; margin-bottom: 20px; } */ .popup-content h2 { font-size: 1.2em; /* Adjust size as needed */ margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 25px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; color: #000; /* Black text */ } .button-container { margin-bottom: 25px; } #verify-button-yes, #verify-button-no { background-color: #000; /* Black background */ color: #fff; /* White text */ padding: 12px 30px; /* Adjust padding */ border: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; margin: 0 5px; /* Space between buttons */ min-width: 80px; /* Minimum width for buttons */ transition: background-color 0.2s ease; /* Smooth hover effect */ } #verify-button-yes:hover, #verify-button-no:hover { background-color: #333; /* Slightly lighter black on hover */ } .popup-content .disclaimer { font-size: 0.9em; /* Smaller font size for disclaimer */ color: #555; /* Grey text */ line-height: 1.5; } .image-circle-container { width: 70px; /* Adjust size of the circle as needed */ height: 70px; /* Must be the same as width for a perfect circle */ background-color: transparent; /* Black background */ border-radius: 50%; /* This makes the div circular */ display: flex; /* Enables flexbox for easy centering */ justify-content: center; /* Centers content (image) horizontally */ align-items: center; /* Centers content (image) vertically */ overflow: hidden; /* Ensures image doesn’t spill outside the circle if it’s too big */ margin-left: auto; /* Centers the circle container itself horizontally */ margin-right: auto; /* Centers the circle container itself horizontally */ } .centered-image { display: block; /* Removes extra space below the image */ height: 50px; /* Your desired image height */ width: auto; /* Let width adjust automatically to maintain aspect ratio */ max-width: 90%; /* Optional: Prevents image from touching the circle edge */ max-height: 90%;/* Optional: Prevents image from touching the circle edge */ }

Finally, inject this code into the footer

<script> // JavaScript for Age Verification Pop-up with Cookies document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function () { const popup = document.getElementById(“age-verification-popup”); const verifyButtonYes = document.getElementById(“verify-button-yes”); const verifyButtonNo = document.getElementById(“verify-button-no”); const cookieName = “ageVerified”; // Name of our cookie // Function to set a cookie function setCookie(name, value, days) { let expires = “”; if (days) { const date = new Date(); date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)); expires = “; expires=” + date.toUTCString(); } // Add SameSite=Lax and Secure attributes for better security, especially if using HTTPS // For local testing (http), you might omit ‘Secure’ // document.cookie = name + “=” + (value || “”) + expires + “; path=/; SameSite=Lax; Secure”; document.cookie = name + “=” + (value || “”) + expires + “; path=/; SameSite=Lax”; // Use this line if not using HTTPS for testing } // Function to get a cookie function getCookie(name) { const nameEQ = name + “=”; const ca = document.cookie.split(’;’); for(let i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) { let c = ca[i]; while (c.charAt(0) === ’ ’) c = c.substring(1, c.length); if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) === 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length); } return null; } // Check if the age verification cookie exists const isVerified = getCookie(cookieName); if (!isVerified) { // If the cookie doesn’t exist, show the pop-up if (popup) { popup.style.display = “block”; } } else { // If the cookie exists, keep the pop-up hidden (it’s hidden by default CSS) console.log(“Age already verified.”); } // Event listener for the “YES” button if (verifyButtonYes) { verifyButtonYes.addEventListener(“click”, function () { // Set a cookie to remember verification for 365 days setCookie(cookieName, “yes”, 365); // Hide the pop-up if (popup) { popup.style.display = “none”; } }); } // Event listener for the “NO” button if (verifyButtonNo) { verifyButtonNo.addEventListener(“click”, function () { // Redirect the user to the specified URL when they click “NO” window.location.href = “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50vvwTystA”; }); } }); </script>

Enjoy!

Audio version of this post, read by the author

After a long hiatus, I’m hosting a Cartoonist Conspiracy SF meet up next Tuesday in the Mission District.

Cartoonist Conspiracy SF
7-9pm on Tuesday April 8th
Finjan Qahwa coffee shop (3188 Mission St)
All ages, no cover fee (but please buy a drink or pastry)

What’s a Jam Comic?

A comic jam is a creative experiment where multiple artists collaborate to make a comic together. Usually an artist draws a single panel on a sheet of paper, then hands the paper to someone else who then creates the next panel. There’s no script, and each artist can take the comic in whatever direction they want.

To keep the book a little more coherent, I usually like to number the blank pages before the event begins. This means when an artist is drawing the last panel on a page, they need to find the next page and make sure their panel connects the two pages together. So if I’m drawing the last panel on page 5, I need to look at the first panel on page 6 and find a way for my panel to connect the story from page 5 to page 6.

That’s how jam comics are made!

What is The Cartoonist Conspiracy?

The Cartoonist Conspiracy is a meetup for cartoonists to work on jam comics together. Steven Stwalley started the original International Cartoonist Conspiracy in Minneapolis in 2002. I was a regular attendee back in the day, so when I moved to San Francisco in 2005, I knew I had to start a chapter here too.

Cartoonist Conspiracy jam at Muddy Waters in 2007. 2007 flier for SFCC by Mike Hales.

The San Francisco Cartoonist Conspiracy ran from 2006 to 2011 (or so). I started the group and organized the meetings for the first three or four years, but I couldn’t keep up with it on a monthly basis, so other folks took the reins and kept it going longer. Shout out particularly to Brian Kolm and Romy Ilano for keeping the jams going and uploading the comics to the blog and on social media.

Back From The Dead?

There’s no shortage of awesome events for artists in San Francisco. I’ve mentioned the Community Table events at The Drawing Room before, but there are many other great events for artists to choose from. That said, I still think there’s room for a collaborative, storytelling-focused meetup like SFCC. It’s a lot more collaborative than a still life meet-up, and it’s fun to work on sequential storytelling.

There’s also this rad new coffee shop in the Mission called Finjan Qahwa which seems like a perfect fit for a meet-up like this. It’s all ages, free to get in (but please buy a coffee or pastry), well lit, and open late. It really reminds me of the Muddy Waters or the other shops the SFCC got it’s start in.

So we’ll try this meetup on April 8th, and if I have fun, I might do it again. I know that I can’t organize it on my own, so I’m really hoping that other folks can help with organizing in some way (scanning comics, posting on social, etc). But I’m taking it slow for now and just seeing how this one goes.

I have such fond memories from our SFCC meetups and met many of my closest SF friends through these jams. I know there are still a lot of young artists in the city and I hope that some of them can find the same joy from the SFCC that we did back in the day.

The post The Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Yo-Yo Contest happened this week up in Portland. I couldn’t make it this year, but I heard good things. At one of the PNWR parties, there were some cocktails inspired by classic yo-yo tricks. This included a bourbon and ginger beer drink called “Skin the Gerbal”, named after a trick I created called “Skin The Gerbil”. It looks tasty!

Shout out to the PNWR crew for hosting the event and for honoring one of my tricks like that. I hope I can attend next year and try one of these in person.

The post Skin the Gerbil cocktail at PNWR appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.