c-c-cold. So very cold...

I'm not quite there, but one can dream. It's not that I don't like the heat. I enjoy summer. But a sauna is not an ideal workplace, therefore, Air Conditioning is a must. And as luck would have it, I have A/C!

I spent the morning walking the nearby mall, as it was still unbearably hot in my apartment this AM. I hardly slept a wink last night, but had a great time re-reading STRAY BULLETS.

Anyway, when I returned home around noon, I braved the stickiness and worked my way to the thermostat situated near my balcony. After saying a silent prayer, I flicked the switch to "COOL". I turned the fan on "HIGH". And like a a miner who had been trapped underground for a grueling couple of days, I slowly reached my hand upwards, not towards fresh air seeping in through the rubble, but to the vent of my heater/air-con unit. And I felt the sweet relief of cool air on my fingertips.

I have yet to turn it off, and only now, around 5 PM, does the apartment feel a little cooler. The heatwave should lift tomorrow! Then I'll have no excuse but to work on my comic! Yah!

I've been inspired by various sources to write some micro-fictions. read: short, short stories. I'm in the midst of tackling prose writing, something I haven't done since I was in school. And somehow I want to incorporate prose into the telling of Kissing Chaos. How this will all work, remains to be seen.

I have written several more installments of my Kissing Chaos production diary THE STRUGGLE, but I'm holding off on posting them. I'm waiting until I have more definite answers as to when things will be appearing online and getting available for purchase. Lot's of stuff has been happening, and I've been working like mad, and hopefully soon I'll be able to share the fruits of that labour!

Keep it locked!




ADC


All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

it's gettin' hot in herre...

Today it was 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Not Cool. Literally. Apparently everyone in my building has been calling the main office to see when our A/C will be switched on. We've been told tomorrow is the day. I'm crossing my fingers.

In my attempt at creating a new MYDESTROYER.COM using WORDPRESS, I've discovered I'm not as well versed at web design as I once thought. (what's all this PHP business? I thought learning basic HTML was a triumph!). So figuring out how to make a wordpress blog look original has been quite the challenge, and a feat I have yet to accomplish. Which in a small way will explain my lack of posts on my current blogs.

So, anyway. Yeah, I'll keep posting on the blogger blog until I finish designing the new MYDESTROYER.COM.

It's two weeks until the Mocca fest. (that's the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art Fest for the lamens out there.). I think it's safe to say I'm not quite ready. Heh. I'm in the midst of creating a mini comic for the show with all new KC material. I should be able to preview a bit of that online as of June 1st. New shirts and hopefully some buttons will also be ready, provided I can get across the border with all my goods!

The KC overtures, which were to be some online exclusive comics have been reformatted, yet again. The remixes and shorts I mentioned creating earlier are still in the works, but I'm kicking it all off with a brand new story. All the reworking of older stories got me hyped to work on new stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Another delay, and another unreleased comic. That's becoming my M.O. Blah, Blah, blah, I'll update you guys with this stuff very soon!

In the meantime, inbetween time, I've taken in a few summer blockbusters the past few weeks. Some in the theater, some via bittorrent. I know, I should support the industry. Whatever. X-men3 was a sad ending to the trilogy of flicks. Not sad, as in emotional, sad as in, not good. Though it did hit all the right notes, and the new director crafted a movie true to the style of the previous films, I just felt it rushed, and lacking in many respects. And even though it was a different reality featuring beloved X-men characters, I still felt killing off the Prof and the others was a bit much. Scott's death was a cool movie moment, and Phoenix had to die,(though Wolverine could've used one of the "cure" bullets" on her!), but the Prof, really? Oops. ( SPOILER WARNING )

Hmm. What else. Lucky Number Slevin. I heard some bad reviews, but figured I'd give it a shot. I fell for the trailer, what can I say. I liked it. It had some cool moments, nice dialogue, though a bit forced. The movie tried to outcool, and out twist others in the genre, but it was still fun.

If you know me, you know I love hot sauce. I have all manner of styles and flavours from all over the world. Like the boyscouts, I'm prepared for any mealtime situation, no matter the type. The funny thing is my current love, the reigning sauce du jour is your basic grocery store "Jamaican style" Crushed pepper sauce. I think Grace's is the name brand. It's not that hot, but has a nice flavour to it. I searched,but couldn't find a website for the sauce to link too, and I'm bit lazy in the summer heat to take a photo of the bottle...

I know everyone is just dying to see this sauce.




ADC




All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

soon and very soon...

Yeah, I know, it's been a while since the last update. I've been swamped with preparing for this Mocca arts fest. Working on some new KC comics and merch. I've never actually had a table at Mocca before, and without knowing what to expect, I'm setting my goals kinda low. Hopefully with all my efforts, sales of Kc stuff will break even, and pay for the the cost of the convention. We'll see.

Since the obligatory chained to my desk status (in other words, working) has been in place, I've been able to "watch" alot of movies while I pound the paper. I've taken in a variety of flicks, more notable Rob Zombie's Devil's Rejects, and a DVD screener of United 93. Both quite enjoyable. Dare I say, "good"?

I also saw Da DaVinci Code and Over the hedge over the last weekend, which was a long one. The Queen's B-day. Whoo hoo.

In my mind I was comparing the Da Vinci Code and United 93, as they are both fictionalized stories based on historical events. The Code came up pretty formulaic for the genre, and if you know me, you know I've seen every X-files and what other conspiracy crap that's out there, so the Code sorta fell flat.

But there was no denying the emotional impact of United 93. It was hard for me to discern whether it was great filmmaking that made the flick so powerful, or the fact that it's based on a very recent event, that carried a jetliner's worth of emotional baggage.

My lady and I tried to BBQ from our 23rd storey apartment on the weekend. Like i mentioned before, it was a long weekend, and in Canada, mostly noted as the kick off of nice weather. So in suburban tradition, we thought it would be a great idea to fire up the grill.

It turns out, the idea wasn't so great.

We had bought a tiny little table top charcoal BBQ just for this occasion. It was snuck into our building, along with a bag of charcoal, as I've heard that some apartment don't allow BBQs. All excited by this new culinary adventure, we stepped onto our balcony last sunday afternoon, fresh food in hand. After the charcoal bricks were neatly formed into a pyramid, we lit that sucker up.

Let me just say, wind+freshly lit charcoal= bad.

Now I understand why certain buildings don't allow BBQ on the balcony. The BBQ was tiny, but the flames were not. And don't get me started on the smoke. Oh, the smoke. So we ended up grilling stuff in the oven. Not the same thing.

So if anyone wants a table top BBQ, drop me a line!

I've recently installed wordpress onto my new server, so I should have the blog up and running very soon. The plan is to keep the livejournal/blogger feed going, it's good to have a back up.

I'll be in touch.




ADC





All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

soggy...

Okay, it's been raining on and off for the past few days, today being the heaviest. Let me be the first to say the romantic ambiance has worn out it's welcome. Now, it's just wet.

Never-the-less.

Been having a hard time switching back and forth from writing mode, to drawing mode. Does anyone else have this problem. I like to push myself 100% when I'm working on something these days, and this writer/artist bullshit needs more than a little "slash" to separate it. Maybe something like "writer<<>>artist". Two separate entities, and never the twain shall meet. I'm betting other folks in my line of work out there could beg to differ, but more and more I'm seeing a great divide between my two creative passions. And lately, i'm either hardcore into art, or I'm all the way writer. Perhaps that explains why it takes me so log to produce a damn comic! My two half's are constantly at odds.

My bizarre schizo art problems aside, I've been writing a lot. The first fruits of which will be revealed online by the end of this month. Art should be revealed shortly there after in the form of the KC zine,and some online previews.

Still working out some blog issues. I'm thinking of going with wordpress, because it's free. But we'll see what happens!

Downloaded Running Scared yesterday. I've heard some good, but mostly bad about the flick since it's release, but I vaguely remember Tarantino giving it some props, so I figure it might be worth a watch.


Listening to Sarah Harmer's I'm a Mountain. Great CD. I actually bought it. If you dig some ol' time folk with a bit of a bluesy country tinge, then this should be right up your alley!



ADC



All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

fear of a back planet.

Check this out.

Who would've thought back in the days when I was in school, and I busting a move to Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet, that we would see that fear manifest on cable TV?!

Well, I guess Chuck D thought it.

Thanks to the Colbert Report for bringing this to light.


ADC




All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

it's like that.

A sky of dark clouds billow above me. I can hear a gentle rain falling on the concrete 23 floors below me. I'm listening to some classic Slackers. I'm working on some monotype prints and brainstorming some dialogue for the upcoming KC mini comic.

It's all good.

ADC


All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

not quite...

Okay, so a few months ago I figured I'd brave this new world of blogs and internet shit. I've been trying to learn me some of this new fangled technology that so popular with the kids these days. Learning about PHP, CGI scripts, and actually controlling the content on the web, and even trying to figure out RSS feeds and what not. By no means have I become an expert, scratch that. I'm not even good at it yet. I did settle on a little free software called GreyMatter, as it was very easy to understand and set up. I was quite happy with how that worked out. And I used it for my blog.

Well, those days are over. It seems that the new server I'm on has banned GM scripts, citing that they cause problems on the server. That may actually explain what happened on the other server.shhh! I won't tell if you don't!. Anyway, so this morning I had to remove all my hard work at making even the most rudimentary of blogs! I'll be spending some time figuring out what to do next. All's well that ends well, I guess.

Keep checking out this page in the meantime. I know, people ask why don't you just use blogger or livejournal like everyone else. I guess I don't like being in total control of my content. I dunno. My dictatorial tendencies shine through on matters like this. At any rate, I'll have this blog thing figured out soon. To be continued...
In other news, I'm getting pretty hyped about this new Kissing Chaos mini comic. Again, being a controlaholic, there's a great sense of satisfaction I get from creating a product, a work of art entirely on my own, without a publisher of distributor or anything to stand between me, the final work, and the reader. Of course, people my argue the legitimacy of a mini comic in comparison to a book published by a company. I'm not one of those people. Sure, there may be more press and money for a book by a publisher, as opposed to a self published work, but I don't do it for press or money. Stay tuned.


ADC



All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz

working order...

I do believe the transition to the new server is complete. Everything should be in working order. Please delete the cache form your browsers, and return your seats to their upright position. Don't hesitate to drop me a line if something isn't working properly on either mydestroyer.com or kissingchaos.com.

Speaking of email, over the past week and a half, I've been told that emails sent to me have been bouncing. I've done some tests, and with the new server, that issue seems to have been resolved. So email away! And the comments one the blog should be working again as well!

The blog ran into some bumps in the road, along the way to the new server. CGI scripts failed, files were corrupted. There were tears. I was left with only one option, and that was to rebuild the whole thing "from scratch". Luckily I had all the html files backed up, so it wasn't a total loss.

Long story short, things should be back to normal. I'll be in touch.



ADC


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coming soon...

The server switch went down on the weekend. I was out of town, so my buddy was handling it all. And this morning I just changed my domain name servers to the new ones.

Yeah, I really have no idea what that means, I just follow the instructions and pray that the internet and my website still works. Apparently my blog didn't exactly make the trip to the new server. I'm trying to figure out if I can salvage the files. Most likely I'll have to re-install the software from scratch.

Serves me right for attempting to shy away from the big blog machines like Blogger and livejournal and myspace, and actually have my own space online.

I'll hopefully have things running smoothly later today!

ADC



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I'm not addicted!

The server switch is going down this weekend. I think I've backed up everything that's important, and me and my buddies are hauling ass to a new home on the world wide web.

Everything should be back to kosher next week.

The past few days I've been watching my fave TV shows wind down for the season. LOST has been progressing nicely, and I can't wait to see where they are taking us next. I especially love the online supplements to the show. You can research the The Hanso Foundation, which is the fictional company that is apparently behind the whole mystery. There are tons of clues and easter eggs all over the site giving insight to the show. It's brilliant really. Kinda like the whole ilovebees.com thing that went down when HALO2 was released.

Also, Alias has been getting good. I'm glad to see it end, as the show has sort of outlived it's welcome the past season or two. It's cool that Rimbaldi is the focus, and Sloan is a bad guy again.

And Veronica Mars blew my mind. This season finale came up fast, and though it just played off various twists and turns and tricks that are genre conventions, it was a hoot. Good stuff.

My fingers are black with ink from experimenting with monotype prints. I have the basics down, but I'm fine tuning my process to achieve the best method of attack. Since my ink came with no "instructions", I've been doing tests prints with different ratios of ink:retarder, a necessary ingredient so the ink doesn't dry on the plate. Also trying to find the right pressure when creating the actual plate, that's a dilemma in itself. Why, of why, didn't they cover this in printmaking when I was in art college?

Been totally focused on writing Kissing Chaos. I haven't even touched my pencils to create the overtures that I've promised. My bad. When I'm in the zone in terms of writing, it's so hard to pull myself away...

I'll be back on monday!

be safe!

ADC


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All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz
www.kissingchaos.com

when it rains... it pours

I'm not really complaining. It's all good. I do have some email problems, linked to my current bum server. many folk are emailing me and having it get bounced back. Fear not, I am getting all your emails. And with the big server move later this week, all should be fine in a few!

I'll keep y'all posted!


ADC

bags are packed... ready to go.

First up, the main feed of this blog, which is usually found at www.mydestroyer.com, is in dire straits. The server Keeps having bad connections. I can't even log in to update! So I'm using blogger and livejournal as my back ups. This week I'll be switching servers, so I'm assuming things will be right as rain I in about a week.

So, I got my first bit of ink done over the weekend. What can I say, I'm hooked! I'm already planning of the rest of my sleeve. And it was especially sweet because it was my own design!

I Know I'm a bit behind the times, as a lot of my have tattoos and I've designed some for a number of people. And that's not even mentioning the KC fans who have gotten the logo permanently fashioned on their skin. (I guess I just did!) But better late than never! I can't wait to get more work done!

There's a bit of news l posted at Kissing chaos dot com mentioning a new KC comic I'm working on. Allow me to shed a bit of light on this. Though it may feature one or two of the overtures that I'm working on for the website, the main purpose of the book is to serve as a prelude to the "Sweet Nothings" story that I'm planning for the fall. More on this in the next installment of "the Struggle".



ADC


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Finishing up some commissions. Designing some tattoos. Writing some Kissing Chaos. It's all good. That's the order of the weekend for me. Such is the life of a freelance comic artist. What? Did you expect red carpet comic premieres and snorting coke with modelchix in the back of the club.

I can name a few comic artists who think they lead a life tailored for a rockstar. But it's all good. You reap what you sow, or something.

This afternoon one could probably find me in a darkened movie theater enjoying Mission Impossible 3. I'm hyped. JJ Abrams is my boy! From Felicity to Lost and Alias in between, it's all good. Speaking of LOST, what a friggin' insane ending to this weeks episode. The first gunshot was obvious, but I totally didn't see the second one coming. Can't wait till wednesday!

I have to admit, though I've designed many a tattoo for people, I have yet to get inked myself. I'm actually going to go this weekend and get that taken care of. I'm not a fan of pain, but I figure what I've been through recently will make the tattoo feel like disneyland.

Also, there may be some service interruption on my blog and the KC site this week, as I'll finally be switching servers! It should all be done and over with in about a week!

be safe!


ADC




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All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz
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problems still

Still having inexplicable server issues. Can't seem to get a good explanation why things aren't working. I think it may be time to pack up shop and move on.

I'll keep you posted.

And apparently music of the day is softer acoustic pop type shit. Im listening to the JamesTown Story by And Then I Turned Seven. A Dashboard Confessional sounding side project of a band that unabashedly site Blink 182/Box Car Racer as an influence. Any band that does that in today's hipster world is fine in my book.

Also, I've been giving the new Jewel CD a listen. I've been a fan since her debut back in the day. And while none of her follow-up CDs have come even close to the depth of content found in her first offering, I've enjoyed each disc. One thing I like about this new CD, is that it features one of my favorite songs she's ever played. While on tour for her first CD (a tour where I saw her several times) she played a number of songs (she mentioned 25 at one point) that she had wrote for her second album. And all these songs sounded great. But along the road to recording studio to do her 2nd CD, something happened, and she scrapped most of the songs, and recorded a bunch of new crap. most of which was arguably more radio friendly than her folk styled tunes she busted out on tour. Whatever happened to those 25 songs I wondered every time Jewel dropped a new album. Thankfully, over the past few CDs, she's included 1 or 2 of those songs, so all was not lost. ( or at least limited to bad bootleg recordings) And I'm super crazed to see my fave song "Last Dance Rodeo" on her new CD. It kicks.

Anyway, through it's not soft or acoustic, I've been giving Eternal Tears of Sorrow disc some spin. It's great mood music, perfect for drawing. Well, drawing certain things. The type of things Finnish Melodic Metal inspire.


ADC


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days like these...

I rode my bike today. My first time since my little incident last month. I suppose I should be getting regular exercise, as that's what everyone tells me. And why would they lie about exercise? No one is profiting if I take a leisurely stroll down the "nature-walk" path near my building. Sure, the city planners get some props for trying to make an area in this suburban wasteland somewhat resemble something natural...I realize I said I rode my bike, therefore I bought a bike, and someone profited off that. But we all gotta make a living, right?

Anyway, I saw a squirrel that had no tail on my bike ride today. Poor little fella.

But now, I have to work. Get down to business. Put my money where my mouth is. Etc...etc... I'll be attempting to get a shitload of art done today, while I battle the urge to step outside and enjoy a beautiful spring day in Toronto. Such as waste of daylight.

le sigh!


ADC



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All text (c) 2006 Arthur Dela Cruz
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the struggle pt. 5

The struggle pt. 5.

Needless to say, production of KC (and all my other work) took a hit last month due to some unforeseen health problems. By my estimation, I'm about two weeks behind schedule. I have allowed enough time for the production of the art for this story, that I don't think this delay will effect my projected launch date around the end of September.

Right now, I'm going through a spring cleaning sort of sweep, editing my vast collection of notes. Trying to focus the story more, making sure each story element actually needs to be there. More on this as I get deeper into the process.

In terms of art I haunt done much. But this month I'm putting together a zine for the Mocca arts festival in June. Alot of my experimentation for SWEET NOTHINGS will end up in this zine.

The stories will also be comprised of some of the fat trimmed from my Sweet Nothings notes.




ADC

the struggle pt. 1/the struggle pt. 2/the struggle pt. 3/the struggle pt. 4



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get your geek on!

The Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon came and went this past weekend. I was there all 3 days of the show, and had a pretty good time of it. I gotta admit, compared to other cons I've been to, it was a little smaller, and the traffic was a little slow at various times during the con, but it was definitely very chill, and a very well run affair. I gotta give props to Peter and Kevin and their Paradise Comics crew for putting together a great event! And respect due to Peter, who got his head shaved on the last day! (all for charity!) Don't worry! We got mad pictures of you in various states of shaven head. You'll never live this down!

Anyway, had fine time catching up with all my peoples in the local comic scene that I haven't seen from a while, plus some from out of town. Got to hang with Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos, the two just dropped a OGN with TokyoPop called East Coast Rising. Hot pirate action! Check it!

One cool thing to note, is my buddies in the RAID collective totally fucked with the traditional convention set up(you know, 8 foot tables and chairs, maybe a big banner behind your table), and brought in their own furniture! They transformed their block of tables into a lounge area. Couches coffee tables and lamp posts. Dunno if they sold any comics, but they provided a nice rest area for the little kids to some Gameboy.

Anyway, I had a nice time interacting with some of the KC fans. It's cool to see some of the same people at every con, and it's great to see new people pick up the TPBs. Thanks to all for checking out my table!

Next stop is MoCCA in NYC on June 10-11th. And I plan to have some hot new Kissing Chaos shit on the self published tip! Definitely stay tuned!


ADC


ps-Someone brought one of their KC:NSB trades to get signed, and accidentally left it on the table. You know who you are. Please email me your contact info and I'll mail the book out to you!




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