Google says I have to make a new email address to continue this blog

That is lame. I don't want another email address. I want to access this blog with the email address I used to start it. Google has apparently decided that I can't use my email address on this blog, since that email address belongs to a pre-existing domain. It does. It's my domain. I've been using this email address with this blog for about a year, and then when Google Accounts happened my email address became mysteriously disassociated from itself. Now, because my email address exists, it can't be used to access this blog. This makes me want to never use Google for anything ever again, which is sad, because up until this they were doing great. There are a bunch of other irritating things that started to happen when Google Accounts kicked in. As happens so often, it wasn't until they had snaked tendrils into every aspect of our life that we realized they were evil. So this blog will be discontinued, and I will make my own blog using Ruby on Rails that Google can't mess with.

TL: DR
I'm mad at Google. This blog is done. Will post my new one soon.

March Monsters 31

This monster is microscopic.

This will be the last of these for a while; I'm going to focus on "Always Bringing, Always Taking Away," the puppet show we're putting together for Northern Spark in June. It'll be part of the Mississippi Megalops project aboard the Jonathan Padleford paddleboat, if you want to come see. I'll post progress reports along the way. This'll be my first full-scale puppet show ever, and i am both excited and aprehensive. Wish me luck! Olli "Rachel" Johnson and Thomas Boguszewski will be helping with the animation, and Erik Ostrom is putting together musical accompaniment. Wish us all luck.

March Monsters 30

Building monster.

March Monsters 29

Bearing, obviously, no relation to this guy.

March Monsters 28

This guy is a master of protective camouflage.

March Monsters 27

Self-examination.

March Monsters 26

So I was drawing the last one and the hands were just wretched. So here!

March Monsters 25

March Monsters 24

i think with this one i started drawing, and then i thought "carp! that looks like Gertie!" so i put a bunch of spare heads on.

March Monsters 23

Today's monster is brought to you by yesterday's snowstorm and a spray bottle full of food coloring.

March Monsters 22

Today's monster reminds me a little of a Skeksis, or a horse in armor, or a poky amoeba.

March Monsters 21

Today's monster is very small.

March Monsters 20

This is an approximation of a shirt i saw in a dream once. The real thing looked a lot more like Exploding Dog. It was interesting to see how scribbly stuff came off my hand different than it looked in my head. Also I have since forgotten exactly what the dude is saying. "Calm down"? "You're blowing things out of proportion?" i put the closest thing i could think of.

March Monsters 19

Goatmeleon!

March Monsters 18

i was watching anime with the Black Hat Collective. I feel like this monster is a fail- not really because her hand is on backwards, which is a valid monsterly trait, but because she's not very monstrous. More a poorly drawn anime chick than an unsettling snake woman.

March Monsters 15

Recycling monster. Show my neighborhood how it's done, friend.

March Monsters 17

This monster is from a dream that Erik had one time.

March Monsters 16

dinner monster; right before i set his face on fire.

March Monsters 14

A subtle monster.

March Monsters 13

A noisy li'l monster. I really appreciate this guy.

March Monsters 12

This monster has acute boogiemania. He's listening to "Hum Along and Dance" by the Jackson 5.

March Monsters 11

This is how i felt yesterday.

March Monsters 10

A portrait of me, as a pony. Or whatever the Pony version of a Care Bear Cousin is, anyway. Done for as a requirement for joining the Black Hat Collective, which i'm pretty sure counts as hazing.

March Monsters 9- black dog

March Monsters 8

it's a goose in a tuxedo. it's scary! he could lecture you about investment banking, or disapprove of you! or run at you like geese run at you!

March Monsters 7

the trunk grows as he sleeps. if he sleeps too long, the trunk might take up all the space in the world.

March Monsters 5

March Monsters 6

This monster is very concerned about the safety of the candles. he feels a great responsibility for them.

Marchmonsters 4

Don't worry, he may look fierce but he's entirely safe.

March Monsters 3

so resentful. look at that sour face and those grabby hands. i wouldn't like to be grabbed by those hands, heck.

March Monsters 2

His eyeballs are always aging and falling off and new ones are growing in. I'm super tired, and I didn't finish rendering this because shut up.

March Monsters 1

Hey guys,

i started a new 1 thing 1 day for March, because something nice should happen in March. I'm doing monsters. The lovely and talented Eleanore (http://ghostlytoast.blogspot.com/) did basically this in January and i thought it was wonderful.

His name is Xerox.

saw-a-day #30: Todtenvogel

oh dag guys i am sleepy and tired. also i'm out of minutes on SoundCloud so i can't upload the one (or three) remaining tracks that way. dag what was i going to say to you. i totally recorded it though; tomorrow was going to be the last day because the first two days were recorded on my phone which is crap, so i was going to stop at 2/6 instead of 2/4, but now this so.

the downstairs neighbors are having a party that involves hip hop music and everyone saying "ohhh!" at irregular intervals.

saw-a-day #29: edgy

2-4 by confoundedcontraption

saw-a-day #28: Staccato, Stuart

2-1 by confoundedcontraption

this is a make-up for 2-1.

Hourly Comic Day 2011

saw-a-day #27: Come Away

2-3 by confoundedcontraption

Saw-a-day #26: The Best Intentions

2-2 by confoundedcontraption

right before i turned the recorder on, i played something really good.

Saw-a-day #25: The Mayor of Squaresville

1-31 by confoundedcontraption

super long, spooky-ambient, jarring microtones.

Saw-a-day #26: Monsters and Migraines

1-30 by confoundedcontraption

I had a really fun time playing games today with MNØ, despite waking up with a crazy migraine. Really, Kate? You ran through mazelike hallways pretending to be a monster, *and* you had crazy brain things happening, and your saw-of-the-day is a quaint ditty? Who's got two thumbs and is the mayor of Squaresville?

Recorded at the Geek Partnership Society Headquarters. Backing vocals by E. Ostrom and, I think, Dan.

Saw-a-day #25: late night.

1-29 by confoundedcontraption

sometimes i decide i'm too busy/sleepy/depressed to post these the day i record them, and i can never subsequently remember what i was thinking about. good story.

saw-a-day #24: At Tarnish and Gold

1-28 by confoundedcontraption

saw-a-day #23: Opera Doesn't Solve Everything

1-27 by confoundedcontraption

Saw-a-day #22: Maybe I'll Start a Punk Band

1-26 by confoundedcontraption

I've been enjoying playing with overtones, but sometimes it's more successful than others.

Saw-a-day #21: Winter Thinking About Autumn

1-25 by confoundedcontraption

locked the cat in the bedroom. learned my lesson.

started Vol. 2 of Circus Season: that'll start next Tuesday, i think. you can catch up here: http://circusseason.smackjeeves.com/comics/194450/page-1/

saw-a-day #20: Face the World

1-24 by confoundedcontraption

this is a little more what I was thinking. it's a start in a right direction, anyway.

Saw-a-day #14 make-up

1-18 (late) by confoundedcontraption

i was thinking about how unsatisfying the last couple tunes were, and how i shouldn't just put the saw down after i've recorded my piece for the day. so i picked up the saw and started to mess around, and got something closer to what i want out of music. maybe. i couldn't hit record until the ghost of music let me go, however, so what you hear above is me trying to re-do what was done. some success, maybe. we'll never know how great what went before was.

Saw-a-day #19: What keeps mankind alive

1-23 by confoundedcontraption

In which the cat starts trying to eat the saw. I need to start shutting her in another room.

It seems like I have two modes in saw tunes: major-key 1930's pop and fugue. Occasionally I get minor-key torch. Most of my interest in music right now is no-wave, post-jazz and experimental. I thought I'd get past the cute tunes after a while, thought they'd work their way out of my system, but they don't seem to be. I'm getting kind of bored.

1-17: creative block

I was going to make a comic about how my brain distracts me from work, but then I realized that the only thing more boring than having creative block is reading about someone else's. So here are some dancing starfish.

Also Erik (www.echographia.com, http://slapdash.erikostrom.com) is sitting next to me right now, working on the new comix site. It looks really nice, and he's put a lot of work into it. Thanks Erik.

1-13: Dinner with Erik's Parents

1-22: job hunting

1-22 by confoundedcontraption

the recorder ran out of batteries in the middle of this one. it didn't have a chance to evolve into whatever it might have wanted to evolve into, but you get the idea. maybe.

1-21: i need to do these after doing something interesting, rather than after reading lots of webcomics.

1-21 by confoundedcontraption

possibly audible in the background: Montana Skies, a nice band. the cat jumped into my lap (by way of right next to the recorder) but did not otherwise participate. she gets really interested in the higher registers of the saw, and also whistling. i'm not really sure why.

1-20: no vegetarian pho

1-20 by confoundedcontraption

i did some research while this was loading and i think i found some vegetarian pho. thank heavens.

this track takes a minute to get started, and then it starts to fall apart at about 3.5 minutes, but there's a couple nice moments in between there. another track featuring the cat playing the saw with her face.

1-19: what makes a home

1-19 by confoundedcontraption

i missed 1/18, i forget why. this is not 1/18's.

1-13: Why I have no friends in the Twin Cities

It wasn't the first time this happened to me.

1-10: Hello World

I really need to start doing this. I read so many web comics, and I never show any kind of appreciation. Thanks for setting me straight, sketchy cartoon me.

1-17: in the other room

1-17 by confoundedcontraption

featuring Bryan and that other guy on jackhammers. I started out in one direction, changed course drastically, and then decided at about 3 min. to start basically over. There's a point in all my projects where the initial coolness of talent and novelty wear off and the project becomes kind of lame for a while. Then i work through that and get to a more nourishing, transformative good. I hope this is that lame part, so we can get to the part where i learn. But usually if i rely on the inevitability of the good learning part, the project ends up kind of sucking the entire way through. so i don't know where that leaves us now.

First day back

1-16 by confoundedcontraption

a nice little tune. sorry about the clipping, and the off-pitchness.

1-15 by confoundedcontraption

in which my cat learns to play the saw, quietly, with her face, and i learn to make adjustments.

1-14 by confoundedcontraption

this is late, because...i didn't do it yesterday. but i tried to play it like i would have done yesterday. towards the end, my cat came up and started rubbing her face on the saw blade, so i stopped.

Saw-a-day #10: Snakes in a snow maze (with door)

1-13 by confoundedcontraption

based on a collaboration between myself and www.onefleacircus.com

Saw-a-day #9: Now what

1-12 by confoundedcontraption

Saw-a-day #8: Push-ups

1-11 by confoundedcontraption

also featuring Edward on vocals and mailing envelope.

Saw-a-day 7: What we need to be happy

1-10 by confoundedcontraption

1-9: Why am I not more awesome

1-9 not awesome by confoundedcontraption

stay off the s'mores. get it?

Saw-a-day 5: Latvian Puppet Workshop

1-8 (Latvian Puppet Workshop) by confoundedcontraption

Saw-a-day day 4: It's cold and I have to pee, but otherwise I feel no particular way

1 7 by confoundedcontraption

This took 4 takes, between running out of batteries and forgetting to press record and etc., which, given that I had to pee, increased the urgency of the performance.

At the Comix Conspiracy Jam

The comics jam is every 1st Thursday in Minneapolis and 3rd Thursday in St. Paul. http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/conspire/ for details and huggermugger.

Saw-a-day project day 3: Sad and anxious

1-6 by confoundedcontraption

I'm wound kind of tight lately.

...and here I am. New frontiers, and all that. Spectamur agendo.

Iowa was uneventful, but lovely.

I was only in MO for a little while, and didn't get much of a feel for it, outside Kansas City. seemed like a nice enough place.

another group trying to put clouds in Kansas are pilots. There were a bunch of them chasing eachother all over the sky, leaving tangled contrails.