Gudbuy T' Jane

Got this one at the Record Grouch the other day. Normally I render people in a very unflattering light, However, with Slade i think I'm kinda helping these dudes out. Slade is best known for this tune, but they also wrote the best Christmas song ever!

Nite Jewel

Nite Jewel makes music that sounds like underwater disco. I miss her every time she comes to town. Whose fault is that?

Living on the Front Line

Listening to a lot of Eddy Grant these days. I've been a fan of The Equals for a while, but I recently got heavily into a b-side called "Time Warp". This led me to buying this album, which is his second solo album and I can't stop playing it.

Naturalize It

Lately i've been looking at and drawing German Naturalist photography from the early 20th century. These are some of my favorites from the stack. Enjoy!

Ralf und Florian

Technically not a great drawing. I was trying to practice with a Sakura Pigma Brush pen. This one turned out to be my favorite. These guys were the brains behind Kraftwerk. Watch this if you want to learn more.

Death In June

I actually do not own this record on vinyl, but i still dare to dream. Go listen to this band immediately if you have not already, or watch this.

Washed Out

This is one the only new records that i listen to. A friend gave me a vinyl copy, which are extremely limited and i am very thankful for it. If anyone knows this dude, feel free to send it to him. I can take the heat.

Holiday Road

Lindsey Buckingham's first solo record. Contains the hit "Trouble". Play it at a wedding for the bride and groom dance, they will never get divorced. Check out Lindsey telling Merv Griffin all about it.

Under The Ivy Bush

I used to give people grief for liking Kate Bush. I think Wuthering Heights changed my mind about 6 years ago. My favorite track on this record now is The Saxophone Song, because i love saxophones.

Covers Girl

This record came out on Rhino in 1981. She is most famous for being Liv Tyler's mom. Rick Derringer(Alice Cooper Band) produced side 1 and Rick Ocasek (Cars) did side 2. I'm assuming she was sleeping with both of them.

Enola Gays

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 2nd LP. It was designed by Peter Saville. I saw him give a lecture once and he was very cocky and a bit of a dick. Needless to say, he was extremely entertaining. I think i'll try more landscapes in the future. Thanks Pete.

Angel Eyes

This one takes me back. I bought this at 19 after hearing Warm Jets and figuring out Roxy was Eno's first band. This was also due to my 2 older buds in college being super Anglophiles that played darts and listened to Oasis and didn't take shit off of anyone. They once fought some guys from the local Army base at a bar with a mechanical bull. They typically got the jump on peckerwoods starting shit because they figured 2 dudes that looked like they tried out to play bass in Blur couldn't fight. I never had as much fun in my life as i did raising hell with those dudes. Cheers.

A Broken Frame

Depeche Mode's second record. I always thought Vince Clark was on this one, turns out he had already left to start Yazoo. Stay tuned for more boring trivia!

Record Covers

One thing i try to do on the reg is make drawings of my records. I have hundreds of them and i never get tired of going through them for inspiration. This is Alan Vega's first solo record.

Check this out if need a refresher.

New Attitude!

Hey blog-dawgs, welcome to the relaunch of Kountry Crafts! KC 2.0! I've decided that I need an outlet again for weird ideas, art in progress, and little drawings that i make daily. It's really just another cheap ploy to make everyone pay attention to me, but my therapist think it will help me release my inner angel. So here we go! Get ready for court ordered creativity! Let's start with this painting of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, never heard of em? google 'em dude.

Party In The Limosine

Hey guys, i thought i would share my 72 hour trip to Los Angeles. I've been told to keep up with my blogging. This is my first post since July, obviously this is a top priority due to becoming famous since then. Moving on, I went out to LA for an opening I'm in and a little drawing event. Just keep reading and all will be explained. This photo show me enjoying my first passion in life, taking stupid photos.

This is my mini-show at TENOVERSIX. It was pretty intense with the live models and all.

But i had a gin gimlet and just tried to act natural. I kinda stuck out at this thing being the only male there that didn't look like a "Twilight" stunt double. It's cool though, God don't make no junk.
Warm-up portrait of Gia. I sent this to Megan and she replied "Great portait!, Looks nothing like Gia though". If that isn't a testament to my portrait skills i don't know what is.

This is the after party that Dexter put together in the storefront at her studio. The idea was that i would draw extremely fast portraits for 3 hours. I really thought i could draw way faster than i actually can. This night put my talents to the test as you will see. Plus, i painted this ghost cat directly after being on a plane for 6 hours, you can practically see me losing my mind in the cats line work. Woof!

Here's a photo of a gorgeous 14 yr old Chocolate Lab.

And here's the drawing!

Here's a photo of a beautiful French Bulldog.

And here's the drawing! ok, enough of that.

Sunday i went with Gia and Nick to the beach in Malibu. I think i bummed Gia out by doing Super Dave Osbourne/Funkhauser/Bob Einstein impressions, (it's easy just say "Larry" like you are taking your last breath before dying) sorry dude, i have problems. The beach turned out to be super rocky. So, the surf was definitely NOT up. Sorry bras!

This beach translates to "The Matador". Hey California, you don't have to give everything a spanish name. That's just lazy.

We made a sand sculpture of our 16th president. I originally called it "Abrasand Lincoln" but, after we started talking about Gore Vidal's revelation that he was a repressed homosexual and putting a flower behind his ear, we landed on "Gaybraham Lincoln". We didn't have time to do a Mary Todd, plus it would have been a pretentious and boring sand sculpture.

As we were leaving, the heavens opened up. It was as if God was saying "Bye, Ya'll"

After Mexican food in Hippy Canyon we went to this party in Silverlake. I didn't know the hosts and I didn't know what the party was for. However, i do know that they had a teepee in the yard. Peace ya'll!
Nick, Nate and I left the party kinda early to go to a Pulp Fiction style diner and have a coffee and made speeches like they do in those amazing movies from the 90's. We covered all the relevant topics, Madonna, Quarter Pounders w Cheese, and the Smurfs, it was riveting, you should've been there . Then I got very excited about the above photo. It's Nate's medicinal dope certificate. I was very stoked on this until i saw that he was born in 1985. Then i felt like an old creep.

Here's the cat i painted during the daytime. You can really see the detail, a true masterpiece.

Gia's table at the studio she shares with everyone I know in LA. Order something from her before she's too popular to be a fan of.

Live Caracitures This Sunday!

Hey folks, I'll be rendering live portraits this Sunday at this vintage sale for 25$ a pop. I'll also be selling signed copies of my book "Castles and Christians" with a 1 of a kind piece of original art in each book. I should be there from about 2pm till 7pm.  Come out!

American Friend Tomorrow!

The Union Film Society is pleased to announce that the Wim Wenders classic "THE AMERICAN FRIEND" is our next film to be screened on TUESDAY JULY 14th. Mark your calendars kids, this ones got it all, intrigue, drugs, rare blood diseases, and Dennis Hopper! Come early for a good seat!

Here's the trailer

Vernon, Florida, Tomorrow Night!

Tomorrow night marks the second screening at the Cinema at Union Pool and it's probably the best one in the series. This film documents the strange inhabitants of a Florida panhandle town in 1981. I don't want to spoil it for you, so just come check it out for yourself! You can read what Janet Maslin said about it here and you can RSVP here

Summer Film Screenings!

Hey folks, Tomorrow night marks the first screening of a 16mm film series i'm curating at the theater at Union Pool(484 Union Ave.). It's pretty casual, just show up a few minutes early for a good seat, lights go down at 9 sharp, this ain't no dj night.  I also invite any suggestions or ideas you guys might have for films or film-like events(no porno). So this is a no-brainer right?, it's air conditioned, dark, and free, what the hell else are you gonna do? Great, here's where you RSVP. Oh, and if you want to find out more about this film try reading this