sebfowler.com

Much to catch up on, so I’ll just jump right in. Ready for cuteness?

I found this tiny little dude on my desk when I got home the other night, hiding under an old bus ticket.

Now, time for a new cartoon. The Morning Monster!

To quote myself from flickr:

I start work at 8am here, which in my view of things is very wrong. Laundry is included in my rent and occasionally shirts come back with unexpected buttons done up, which you fail to notice when you’re half-awake, resulting in this type of situation.

So, a lot’s been happening recently as I prepare to head back to Melbourne next Monday. Most of the work is finished up and you can now see the sites at http://foundation.pekerti.com/ and http://pekerti.com. There is also http://seukeaceh.sebfowler.com, which is probably the prettiest, but hosting hasn’t been secured for it yet. Moving the sites was quite an ordeal, which I won’t go into because, frankly, it’s very boring.

I have been drawing a lot more in practice/preparation for a couple of new projects that I may be getting involved in. I’ve been trying to draw a lot more from reference; sometimes found photos, sometimes snapping myself in the poses I need using Photobooth on my laptop. Last night, I paused the dvds I was watching occasionally to do a quick sketch of the scene. When I’ve got them done and scanned, I’ll put up the sketches and maybe compare the photo refs of me in dumb poses with the final results (if I like them).

Last Saturday night, I went with a couple of friends to a big Korean restaurant. They’d never had Korean before and I love it, so good times for all. In case you’ve never had it, Korean food rules. It’s designed for sharing and you get tons of little side dishes. By the end of the meal, you can’t see the table underneath all the bowls, plates and dishes. So much food! So good!

***Elsewhere***

I just got an email from Sarah Bleby, who arrived as an AYAD in Mongolia not long before I left. Her blog, which I had not previously been aware of, is incredible. Really interesting stuff regarding the arts scene in Mongolia and much more. For some telling images of the post-election riots, check out this set on william…’s flickr.

One of my photos was featured last week on http://indonesia-zsolt72.blogspot.com/, a great Indonesian photo-blog that manages to capture all of the aspects of life I fail to here, which are many (particularly those involving people). Zsolt, who runs it, is quite the traveler.

Those in Melbourne, I will see you all very soon. Cheers!

Firstly, my brother has a new exhibition which just opened, running til the 26th of July at Until-Never Gallery in Melbourne, so if you’re in Melbourne, be sure to get down and check it out soon (and buy something!*). Details here:

Until Never presents
FRED FOWLER
Highland Chamber

OPENING UNTIL NEVER
6PM to 8PM Wednesday June 18 2008 (until July 26)
Gallery hours :: Wednesday to Saturday 12-6pm
2nd flr 3-5 Hosier Lane Enter from Rutledge Lane Melbourne CBD AUSTRALIA
http://until-never.blogspot.com/2008/06/fred-fowler-highland-chamber.html

*He didn’t ask me to say that, he’s just really good and deserves your money.

***

This weekend has been a trip. On Friday, I had a long, intense day. After a late night working on a job application, I had a rather busy morning. After lunch it was a marathon, brain melting meeting, then I oozed myself home.

Not long after that, my friend Edo took me out to the computer/celular technology expo. I’d never been all the way into town on the back of a full sized motorbike, just shorter trips on smaller bikes. It was great fun. Much more crazy and intense to experience the traffic on a bike, as opposed to the bus, which much of the time has it’s own lane. Edo had warned me to wear a jacket, because of the pollution, and rightly so. You see it and feel it walking around, but on the bus you’re sheltered. On the bike you’re right in the thick of it and it hits you with every sense. Great experience regardless.

The festival itself was pretty fun. We just wandered around and looked at fancy new computers, parts and phones for while. There was music, little events and pretty girls handing out flyers everywhere (which I refused and Edo took, ending up with a sizeable stack). Then we ate and headed back through less intense traffic.

***

Saturday was another interesting one. Slow morning, then I headed into town for a few things. The bus was particularly nuts. When I went to change bus, there was a bit of a crowd, but not like peak hour. We waited. And waited. Usually, they’re along every 5 minutes or less, at least one of the 2 lines that go through that stop. I’ve previously had 4 or 5 of the other bus line come before the one I wanted. I’ve also had several busses go by only letting a handful of people on before I finally got one. These events are not out of the ordinary. This time, there were no busses, on any line, for about 20 minutes. We were all standing, packed in. There’s no air conditioning and very poor ventilation in the shelters, so you swelter. Some jerk kept moving around and bumping me too. There’s always one, wherever you are, whatever crowd you happen to be in.

Walking home from the bus shelter at about 10pm, a guy calls out to me in English and I respond. Happens all the time. This guy was very friendly and beckoned me over, asking me lots of different questions in very good English, so I sat down and chatted with him and his girlfriend for a while. This is a big rasta dude with dreads going by the name Bob. He’s from East Indonesia and used to be a tour guide. He was in a reggae band, but they broke up.

Long story short, we hung out for a while, he showed me his kost, we sang some songs, I showed him some drawings and I headed back home. Bob’s an artist too, so he showed me his paintings; a landscape, a village river bathing scene, caricatures of Einstein, Che Guevara and Bob Marley. He also had one of the holy family and a Jesus - crown of thorns one, because Bob’s a Catholic. Everyone at his kost popped in to meet me too, and they were a funny, interesting bunch.

A completely unplanned, random Saturday night with reggae band Bob who I met on the way home.

***

Last night, the one thing that made my whole bus journey was the old guy wearing swimming goggles for sunglasses. Awesome.

I’ve been working on some new stuff, using ink washes for shadow. Hoping to apply to more stuff soon… Here are some of the results:

There will be more soon, as I work on a few different ideas, so keep the occasional eye out here.

***

If you aren’t already, you should be reading FreakAngels, every Friday. Written by Warren Ellis and beautifully illustrated by Paul Duffield, and it’s free. 6 pages of full colour goodness every week. Go now and read from the start.

When I turned up to work on Friday morning, I was told that I have to be at work at 7am on Saturday, to go to Bogor for a tree planting ceremony for Fair Trade Day. Friday night happened to be one of the rare occasions I was actually going out for a drink with people, which I was looking forward to a great deal. Getting up around 6am after Fri night drinks wasn’t ideal, but I was keen to check out Bogor and it sounded like it would be fun (which it was).

On the way to the drinks, I had some trouble on the bus. Basically, I needed to get to an obscure little stop on a line that I use frequently. The strangeness started when (as usual) I had to change buses and there was a huge, packed crowd, waiting to get on the next bus. This is all standard fare, but what was not so standard was the hand on my arse while waiting. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, or if it was something else on my butt, then I leaned a little forward to get away from it. Lo and behold, it moved with me! I was still a bit miffed, but when I felt some distinct finger movement, my suspicions were confirmed.

Now, to see if I can find the perpetrator… No. It was so crowded I could hardly move to see, but I think it may have been the small middle-aged woman with the shopping bags.

So, after the groping and finally getting on the bus, it skips the stop I need to get off at, which is right at the start of the line. The bus is so crowded I can’t get off and I’m not sure if it’s just taking a slightly different route, so I stay on. Till the end of the line. Then all the way back, making what should’ve been an easy 45min trip 2 hours long, stressful and tiring.

When I did finally get there, it was a lot of fun. The drinks were unusually reasonably cheap, so I got my first scotch in about 4 months. The company was great and a band started half way through, who were doing old cover songs pretty well. The animated guy with the fancy mullet type haircut was a highlight.

I was awoken briefly just before 4am on Sat morning by a weird sound. It sounded like someone outside my room whispering hoarsely, like something out of a horror movie, someone trying to freak me out. I lay and listened a little more, wondering when the scratching or the axe through the door would come. The cadence was familiar. I realised that it was actually the rooster across the street, trying to do his morning crow, but he had no voice. It’s impossible to adequately describe; sad and creepy are a start. It just kept going. Eventually, it stopped and I drifted back to sleep til my 6:15 alarm.

::Bogor::

The work trip was quite fun. The place we were heading to was actually a property that my work owns, about an hour out of Bogor, or 2/3 from Jakarta. It’s a nice little plot in the hills where they’re planting various useful fruit trees and others that used in making some of the products.

The people from my work are very nice and we just hung out there for a while, did some planting and took some photos.
On the way back, we stopped off at the palace gardens in Bogor and took some photos, which you can see here.

Saturday night and Sunday have stories too, but it’s too much to get into for now.