Toil and trouble
A few cool events coming up that I thought y’all might like.
If you know of others, share them here. There are also some neat sounding events at the York Street Collective (the old Lucca Ravioli spot on Valencia) https://luma.com/ysc
The post Upcoming Bay Area Events appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
There’s been a huge rise in AI-generated posters in our neighborhood lately, and I hate it. Comedy shows, house painters, community events… all rendered in the same generic AI slop style. Even the fonts seem generated, with weird artifacts around the edges and inconsistent letters.
They should check out what other local businesses like Walls, Only and Red Apple Comics are doing to see how it’s done. Perfect design skills are not necessary, and a little creativity can go a long way.
Walls, Only
Live Art Show
I’m even seeing big local events use generative AI for their official art. For example, Fiesta on the Hill, which claims 20,000 attendees each year, plastered AI slop across its banners and social media. Bernal Heights is filled with amazing artists, many of whom are vendors at this event. Why was AI used when there were so many local artists to choose from?
Thankfully, some venues are pushing back. The Stork Club in Oakland, for instance, has a new rule: all fliers must be human-made.
“We don’t care if it’s a screenshot of the Notes app with the show info or a picture of a hand with band names written in Sharpie.” – The Stork Club
Jamie Zawinski says the DNA Lounge added a similar policy to their booking contracts six months ago:
“Use of ‘AI’ imagery in advertising and promotional material is prohibited. Everyone can tell and everyone hates it. We will get complaints.” – DNA Lounge
I LOVE this energy and hope these policies spread to other venues soon.
While it’s great seeing businesses fight this trend, I think it’s important for consumers to be active too. I’m doing my best not to fund businesses that use generative AI in their marketing or final products, and I encourage you to do the same.
I made some stickers to help spread the word. They’re not for sale, but you are totally free to print them out and distribute them however you like.
Creative Commons art by Doctor Popular (CC-BY)
And if you choose not to spend your money with a company because they’re using AI, let them know why. Keep it friendly, but be clear: generative AI isn’t a good way to keep customers. Or as JWZ put it, “Everyone can tell and everyone hates it.”
Here are some other images you can print out to use however you wish. These work great on standard sheets of paper:
The post Don’t Support Businesses That Use Generative AI appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
After a 15-year hiatus, I started our local cell of the Cartoonist Conspiracy back up earlier this year. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month to draw comics and chat at Finjan Qahwa coffee shop. We mostly use fliers and a WordPress site to promote the group, and an email list to keep our members connected.
We use Google Groups for the email list because it’s simple, low-maintenance, and fits the old-school vibe of our group. We have a link to the group on our website, and that’s been running fairly smoothly since 2006, until a new wave of spambots started joining this year.
It wasn’t a sudden wave, it’s only about 5-10 per week, with seemingly authentic Gmail handles and very descriptive reasons for why they wanted to join the group. Each message was different and fairly well written.
Of course, internet spam has been around forever, but this new wave of spam was far more convincing due to their use of generative-AI to write compelling messages that were specific to our group and not just cut-and-paste like previous attempts.
There was no easy way to weed out the real requests from the spam ones. Many of the spammer’s emails were using structures like “firstnamelastname1234@gmail“, but half of our real members use the same structure for their email handles. The written messages varied drastically, too. Some short, some long, but they all looked similar to the real requests we were getting. Sometimes there would be a giveaway, like messages that had quotation marks in them, but most were really believable. Even with my guard up, I still approved a few requests that turned out to be spam.
I’ve been organizing meetups and groups for most my life, and have been using Google Groups for at least 20 years, but this new wave of AI written bots were far more annoying than anything I’d previously encountered. I thought about shutting down the email list all together.
After pausing all sign-ups for a month, I saw a suggestion from Matthew Newell about implementing a “DIY captcha” for artists and decided to give it a try. Whenever someone requested to join the CCSF group, I’d ask them to verify their humanity by either:
It felt silly at first, but I think it actually worked!
A few folks did send back real art, the rest were probably spammers. One of my favorite turtle drawings, shown below, came from Luis. They’ve been an active participant in our comic jams, and I’m really glad I didn’t prevent them from joining the group because their firstnamelastnameNUMBERS email account sounded suspicious at first.
“The internet is chock-full of bots.” they wrote. “Here’s my punk rock turtle cuz I don’t use social media! Thanks.”
punk rock turtle by Luis Booth
The group has been spam free for a few months, so the “punk rock turtle” seems to be working for now, though I do worry that a few of the requests that I rejected were from real people who wanted to join our art group, but felt turned off by my email request (or maybe didn’t understand it).
At some point, the person sending this spam will probably reply with AI-generated art, which means I’ll have to be second guessing everything again.
I often talk about how the rise of generative AI has made things harder for artists and organizers like myself. This is yet another example.
I run these meetups as a way for artists to meet and interact with each other, but dealing with AI-generated spam makes me feel like just shutting down the email list altogether.
And that’s just on my end… I’m sure it sucks to be a local artist asking to join an art group, then getting asked to make free art or share personal social media information.
I have to give props to Matthew Newell on Mastodon for suggesting a “DIY catpcha” as a means of sussing out the spammers.
And to all the Fediverse users who shared their punk rock turtle drawings:
https://mastodon.social/@MichelPatrice/114978907129196851
@yojimbo
https://mastodon.social/@jgilbert/114979107526285114
https://mastodon.social/@dan_kn/114978943424457739
The post Fighting AI-generated Spam with Punk Rock Turtles appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
–Kurt Vonnegut
You order the bartender to make you a drink,
She controls what goes in your mouth.
So who has the power?
It belongs to you both.
You say, “Make it again!”
She says, “Get the hell out of my bar.”
Power is a dance, not a throne.
Sometimes you swing, sometimes you’re swung.
Power is woven of alternating acts of service.
A co-created construct,
Like a hug or a handshake.
There’s no one-sided version.
You may resist the idea that anyone should lead,
But someone has to decide.
To lead is to know what you want.
To lead is to evangelize the impossible.
You may resist the idea that anyone should follow,
But to follow is to live your curiosity.
To be led isn’t weakness; it is being receptive.
It requires presence, and a belief in your worth.
There is a phenomenon called “force”
But that’s not what power is.
Force can seize the moment.
Power endures across time.
Should you choose to lead, you must become a servant.
Like a conductor serves an orchestra.
You keep the score, set aside your agenda,
So others can revel in flow.
Should you choose to follow, you must become a teacher.
Because you show the next person how to trust.
Without your assent, there is no truth.
Without your follow, there is no dance.
The bartender pours you a cocktail.
You sip with full trust.
Sante.
Neither wield the power alone.
Once upon a time, people were born into communities and had to find their individuality. Today, people are born as individuals and have to find their communities.
–Youth Mode
You have fallen out of love with the ordinary.
To be ordinary is a failure.
To be extraordinary is the norm.
Revel in how weird this is. Now scroll.
No one is awkward anymore.
Unless it’s deliberate affectation or “cringe.”
A child on camera knows their marks like an actor.
Everyone knows their good side.
You are awash in hyphenates and bullshit job titles.
Everyone has main character energy
And says shit like “main character energy,”
Like you’re interning at Bravo.
The robot vomits slop: “When everyone is unique, no one is.”
More like: when everyone is unique it’s damnedable.
You can’t have ordinary shared experiences.
Like enjoying Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
This is not a paean to a swirling plastic bag in a parking lot.
This is not nostalgia or sonder with a hopecore soundtrack.
It is a boombox raised high in the air
For a six from homeroom called Ordinary.
“I couldn’t possibly give up all this novelty.”
What was the last thing you read on the internet?
Who wrote it? Did you savor it? Did you actually feel it??
Or did you taste a leaf in your mouth during a hurricane?
Just about everyone who read Youth Mode got it dead wrong:
Normcore is not performing normalcy in an aspirational way
The promise of normcore is post-aspirational.
It is less about standing out and more about being together.
“Do you mean I can’t be special?”
You don’t need a brand.
A brand is what they used to tell cows apart.
You have a voice, you have a community, you have you.
You’re are the same as everyone else.
Can you imagine? Maybe it’s OK to just be
A human person in an ordinary world.
You will learn to survive.
I’m hosting two upcoming events in the Mission District of San Francisco:
Saturday October 11th from 2-5pm at 826 Valencia. This might be the last yo-yo meetup I run this year.
Tuesday October 14th from 7-9pm at Finjan Qawha Cafe on Mission Street. This is a montly event.
The post San Francisco Yo-Yo Club and Cartoonist Conspiracy appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
These are the mathematics of attention:
If everyone performs, nobody watches.
If everyone speaks, nobody listens.
You can’t all be the main character.
Because then the story doesn’t work.
You’ve fallen out of love with the ordinary among you.
You mistake your friends’ online presence for their value.
Your platforms reward mind-viruses and assholes
There is no room in your world for the supporting roles.
But any story struggles when everyone’s the protagonist,
You can’t all be shouting catchphrases and kicking dragons.
Life is as much about texture as it is forward motion
Too many chefs, spoil the plot.
There are other archetypes: makers, magicians, alchemists,
Muses, lovers, caretakers, connectors,
Questioners, contrarians, innocents, and jokers.
They make the story too.
A main character needs a crusade and a crusade is crazy-making;
Those in supporting roles can keep their identity fluid.
For their efforts, you deride them as NPCs
But they are the infrastructure that make human connection possible.
God bless the supporters who whole communities together
Who value the group more than the spotlight.
Who are more interested than “interesting.”
Who have become the ones not talking.
You all have multiple roles in life to play
Which is why people must make new people.
To grow is to enable new main characters
And surrender your role in the franchise.
I’ve shared a bunch of my sticker designs on this blog before, but I thought I’d round up some of my favorites here. These stickers are all CC-BY licensed, meaning you can print them and sell them if you like, but please remember to credit Doc Pop as the artist.
Move Purposefully and Fix Things
D.C. Hero
Boy generative AI
Coned Waymo
Everyone’s Welcome Here
The “Everyone’s Welcome Here” design is the newest design in the bunch. I’ve been seeing a bunch of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic stickers in SF lately, so I wanted to design a sticker that I could use to cover up hate.
Folks frequently ask who I recommend for sticker printing. The truth is that I have a bunch of businesses that I really like. These places all do sales pretty frequently, so I’d suggest signing up for their mailing lists and waiting for a good deal to come around.
All of these companies are great, but I have to give massive props to Sticker Ninja for being really awesome folks (read their about page).
Sticker Guy is an excellent option if you are looking for cheap two color (ie black and white) stickers. I find that limitation kind of inspiring, so I might design some more stickers just to print out at Sticker Guy.
Sticker Giant currently has a 25% off discount with code “CHEERS25VIP” and StickerBros currently has a 15% off deal with code “FINALDAYS”.
I don’t recommend StickerMule at all. They sent a bunch of pro-Trump emails through their marketing materials a few years back and they still send emails even after you’ve unsubscribed.
I used to recommend the Sticker Brand too, but they’ve started using generative AI in their marketing materials, which is a huge red flag. I don’t support companies which use AI to market themselves, so I’m no longer suggesting SB to any artists or small businesses who are looking for a good sticker option. Since the comments on Sticker Brand’s AI slop videos are very negative, I’m hoping they re-evaluate who they are marketing to (see screenshot below for the comments).
There are tons of great sticker companies out there, so let me know who I missed. As long as they aren’t using AI in their advertising or flat out endorsing Trump in their marketing emails, I’d be glad to give them a try.
The post Some Free Sticker Designs and Where to Print Them appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
Stumbled upon a delightful exhibit at SFO Terminal 2: “Give Me a Ring: A Telephone Retrospective.” The collection, generously loaned from the JKL Museum of Telephony, traces the evolution of the telephone from the late 19th century through the 1990s.
The exhibit showcases everything from classic Art Deco designs to the iconic rotary phones that once graced every American home. Highlights for me were the Snoopy and Garfield phones (did anyone have that red Lips phone??), the flip phones, and a phone that is also a leather bag.
Magicians do not reveal how the trick is done
Not to protect their secrets, which are cheap.
But to preserve your wonder, which is invaluable
Every magician is an artist and the reverse is just as true.
Never reveal the magic, do not explain it away.
Despite the insistence of the curly-haired rats,
The waste is what works.
You are pulled by the mystery, not the reveal.
Yeah, sunlight is the best disinfectant,
Sure, your podcast “tells it like it is,”
But not everything is solved with a Vox explainer.
Neither your Craft, nor this universe.
“Where do you get your ideas?”
“Is your last song about me?”
“What’s going to happen to the world?”
These questions are not unexpected.
But don’t waste a second trying to answer
You’re better off explaining the shape of a sneeze.
The mortals want to know “Why am I so moved by Chaos?”
When that, of course, was the intended effect.
Besides, you have neither the ability nor the right to explain.
You are not you; you are a conduit.
The artist weaves from Collective Dream
On everyone’s behalf.
You can know your eternal questions.
That’s all a storyteller gets to know.
The listener must know her questions too,
Two shards of curiosity meeting in the prism of Craft.
Ask not about the magic.
Read a book more than once if you want answers
But you’ll mostly learn about yourself.
Which is the “point” were there such a thing.
To craft is to insistently rush into the unknown.
An endless collision of Chaos and knowledge
Producing as byproduct both failure and artifact
And the gorgeous illusion:
That the universe needs to make a lick of sense.
The Summer Forum was willed into existence by our ringleader and European ambassador Zeke. Bringing together now dear friends, it was the first year of the gathering but I doubt it will be the last.
This year’s theme was “Blackout.” Good people, good food, and good fun in a fantastic location.
I can’t wait for the next turn of the wheel.
Never solve a problem in the plane of its original conception.
–George Saunders (after Albert Einstein)
Humans suffered from heartbreak, hunger, and pain.
The reason was God’s will.
The “answer” was Human Science.
The most human of Human Science is known as biology. With a strong enough loupe, biology reveals itself to be chemistry, the study of molecular reactions. Chemistry is addressed with physics, the motion of particles. Physics is math. The deepest maths are philosophy in disguise. And philosophy is best understood by walking in a human body and suffering God’s will.
Never solve a problem where you found it. You must change the plane of conception.
The most profound breakthroughs are betrayals of common sense. To solve disease you need to invent disgusting critters called germs. To grok alternating current you need numbers that don’t exist. You, yourself, are a country nothing like its citizens: the cells of your body. These aren’t contradictions.
Synthesis accretes in dimensions that don’t currently exist. (So Don’t leave out the impossible.) Expect to be confused. All novel dimensions are like the internet to a dog: inconceivable!
Transcending conceptual planes doesn’t eliminate your problems, of course. They just change shape. Once you feared bears. Then you feared the bomb. Now you fear upward scrolling text on illuminated glass.
Each new plane of conception is a step through an infinity mirror—more perspective, more terror. It gets worse before it gets better.
It’s worth slowing down.
Fast-moving eyes must latch to the sticks and stems of the trail; you become stuck to the current plane of reality. When you move as slow as possible, you are able to see more. You might even pause at the base of a tree and climb. A new plane. A different vantage point.
You learn the true shape of the path: it’s a spiral.
You learn the truth about the forest: it’s ablaze.
You notice a beetle on a leaf, and it stares back at you.
The beetle asks you a question, but you can’t understand it.
The reason is God’s will.
Adobe Books is a volunteer-run used bookstore in the Mission District that’s been going strong for 45 years. More than just a bookstore, it’s a community hub for zinesters, poets, and artists… and now they’re raising funds to help keep the doors open for another 45 years.
Tonight (6–9pm), Adobe is hosting a one-night-only Art Fundraiser, featuring work from some of my favorite local artists. Pieces will be sold right off the walls throughout the evening, so if you want to see everything, show up early.
I’m also contributing a piece called Waymo Burning. It’s inspired by the ICE protests in Los Angeles earlier this year, created with pink and blue ink on vintage paper, layered with coffee stains and whiteout. It’s framed, priced at $150 (a steal), and 100% of the sale goes straight to support this nonprofit bookstore on 24th Street.
Come by, support Adobe, and take home some rad local art!.
The post One Night Only: Art Fundraiser for Adobe Books appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
—E.M. Forster
If you’re making, you’re making a mess. You’ll never get it right the first time. Anne Lamott calls these “shitty first drafts.” They’re part of the process, so resist the temptation to erase these attempts, unusable as they might be.
Instead, let them become the soil. Creation is easier when you think of it as revision—everything is a remix, anyway. Your first attempts are the map. The mess is part of the method.
Don’t hide these drafts in the basement, neither. You can be fancy and curate them, as though you needed to present them at trial to prove you suffered for your craft. Or, if the courtroom metaphor invokes anxiety, imagine you’re leaving fodder for future historians trying to make sense of your work.
But be warned. Trying to convince future historians that you’re enlightened is pointless, manipulative, and impossible:
It’s not the point of art to age well, because no one can predict the future. The truth is what you believe for now, and art is a reflection of “what you believe for nows” across the infinite smear of nows we call time. The word “Shaboozey” could be a slur in 2928. It’s not the point of art to age well, because no one can predict the future.
–Don't be so hard on the past
You keep your drafts to see how you work. Wading into failure is prickly curriculum, but your first attempts are the purest map of a mind. It’s forensic evidence of your thinking. A place to learn your patterns, your stuck points, your breakthroughs. Maybe you’ll become an enthusiast of your own weird process. Embrace the clunk.
At the very least, it’s a reminder that no one gets it right the first time. Every finished work is a granite mountain of failure called history, topped with a faint dusting of “done.”
Some friends are hosting an art event at Dermafilia Gallery tonight, and I wanted to help spread the word. The event features a book signing by Nikhil Singh, with live art being made by Red Apple Comics, Dr. Humbert, and Lili .F.
At a time when many local posters are being made with AI-generated images (gross!), it’s refreshing to see the Club Ded show take the punk route: wheatpasted, hand-drawn posters. Each poster is large, one-of-a-kind, and created by the artists involved in the event. I love seeing these in the neighborhood, so I wanted to document as many as I could here:
Club Ded, live art and book signing, is September 13th, 2025 at Dermafilia Gallery (3182 21st SF, CA) from 7pm to midnight.
The post Club Ded – Live Art and Book Signing Tonight in SF appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
I was rewatching Battlestar Galactica recently, and this Commander Adama quote from season 1, episode 2 (“Water”) jumped out at me:
“There’s a reason you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”
-William Adama, Battlestar Galactica (2004)
With Trump sending the military into more and more cities, the line feels more relevant than ever. So I turned it into a sticker. If you’d like the design, it’s free to use. As a subtle nod to Battlestar Galactica, I recommend clipping the corners.
Above image is CCBY Doc Pop. Feel free to use it for stickers or whatever.
The post Battlestar Galactica and the Danger of Militarized Policing appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
Last week, Trump federalized D.C.’s police department and sent federal officers and National Guard troops to patrol the city. The next day, a local man named Sean Charles Dunn shouted “Fuck you, fascists!” at a squad of overly militarized goons, then hurled a pastrami sandwich at them before making his getaway.
This guy, his Sandwich Guy, has quickly become a symbol of resistance in D.C. and across the U.S. Partly because his act reminds us that everyday people can and should resist fascism, but mostly because it’s fucking hilarious. A dude in a pink polo, armed with nothing but a Subway sandwich, standing up to goons in tactical gear? Instant icon.
I loved the imagery so much, I drew a couple of Sandwich Guy pieces in my cyan-and-magenta style on aged paper:
And since folks on Mastodon and Threads asked for stickers, I also made a cleaned-up digital version. The image below is CC-BY, so you can print it, share it, or slap it on a sign, just give credit when possi.
The post Sandwich Guy: A Modern Day Folk Hero appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
Replace the fluorescent dawn of a maternity ward with the wash of an ink-blue sky. You start life in a soccer field. Bright bleacher lights, the crowd’s waterfall roar. You step to a line in cleats and give the ball one swift kick. That's the length of your life. There are no do-overs.
Everything comes to an end. You train for endings by trading linguistic simulations called stories. All stories have an end (except for your mother's), and you couldn’t want it any other way.
Even television used to close each night with the national anthem and a test pattern. Today, you thirst for firehose. You want your favorite stories to run forever, your relationships to never change, your routines to remain permanently satisfying. You ask “and then what happened?” and the algorithms deliver, forever. Permanence is the enemy of meaning. Never trust a story that promises “forever.”
Not all endings are the same.
They can be drama: the shouty you-can't-take-that-back pronouncements, punctuated by door slams. They can be delicate: the gradual transition of your friend group into parents while Hey Jude plays. They can be doom: when you are locked out of your country, by bureaucracy, never to return.
This isn't the last post, but it is the beginning of the end.
The reason is simple: I'm writing a book. These microprinciples are starting to feel different. They are no longer the rehydrated post-its that inspired this project. They long to become something else. I feel them changing under my fingers.
(If you're interested in providing feedback on early drafts, you should let me know.)
This might feel like a Midwest goodbye—the kind where you announce your departure but linger in the foyer for 45 minutes. I'll keep posting until I don't. The remaining notes might taste different, like your favorite donut shop changed the recipe. You won’t see it coming. Equal parts drama and fade away.
Not all endings are the same, but in a sense they all are. Endings are the acknowledgment of heartbreak. The force that turns every story into something you can hold.
Jonathan Lee makes silly short yo-yo videos for youtube and Instagram. His latest one is a funny little tribute to…. ME! So I thought I’d share it here.
The post “I want to be a doctor” appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
–Joseph Campbell
You check your inbox for an invitation to your dream. An acceptance letter. A job offer. A shiny golden ticket. A “yes” that transforms everything.
No invitation is coming, because you’re not invited to fulfill your dreams. All manifestation is a form of trespassing over fence and unmarked trail. It’s messy. You will have to find your own way. Especially if you have interesting dreams; how could it be otherwise?
Dreams are nebulous. Vision concretizes. A plan connects a vision to a territory, but you cannot plan everything—you only see as far as your headlights. So you start to trek and along the way, unplanned opportunities appear. Are they distractions or are they shortcuts? Here’s how to choose:
If the alternative between options is doing nothing, do the thing that’s not nothing.
If the alternatives are both equally compelling, choose the path that’s harder in the short term1. (That’s your invitation.)
The harder path bends time because it confronts you with the inevitable before you are ready, which is the fastest way to learn. If you wait until you are ready, it’s too late.
Familiar paths endorse comfort, and you know how we feel about that. Even if all you discover is “I hate this,” now you know. Lessons travel in packs and opportunities beget opportunities.
You increase what is known by venturing into the unknown. You make your dreams real, literally, by making them. No one is coming to save you. No invitation is coming. You must write it all yourself. It’s usually the harder path.
Certainly Strange
Doctor Popular
I Like Turtles
I before E except Gleitzman
Matt Spitz
Monoprinciples
Vivek Sri
Last updated:
October 29, 2025 12:30 AM
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