gaelan kelly

Gaelan

Finch Beer's Fascist Pig Ale /  by Gaelan

Today I received a lovely package from Michael Demetrus of Chicago's Finch Beer Company. It contained a few bottles of Michael's Fascist Pig Ale, Finch's newest beer with a label designed by Gaelan Kelly Creative! Description from the bottle:

"A deep red malt-forward ale brewed with plenty of caramel malts and a touch of rye. Brewed and dry-hopped with Palisade and Zythos hops." 

I've always wanted to try my hand at a beer bottle and thanks to Michael I got the opportunity. Unfortunately this Ale is only available in Chicago and outlying areas but if you live in the windy city I recommend heading to your nearest pub and asking about it. You can also find bars and restaurants that carry Fascist Pig Ale at Finch's website. 

Finally, a bit of insider trivia, the loud shirt that the Fascist Pig is sporting on the label is the same shirt Tony Montana wears in Scarface.

Cheers!

 

PS, Mick D is also a crossword constructor, you can find some of his killer crosswords in my links section.

A Kids Map of their Turf /  by Gaelan

Nostalgia is definitely an "it" thing these days. For better or worst most of us hold certain things from our past in a kind of religious regard, elevating even old toys to huge significance in our minds. Sometimes it leeks out when we least expect it, "They can't remake The Karate Kid! That movie is art for cristsake!". I'm definitely guilty of this, I've saved all my old toys from when I was a kid and now they are being played with by my kids. I have to say it does feel like a little piece of me dies every time one of my children pops the head off an old Star Wars guy.

There is a second layer of reverential nostalgia at play for many of us and certainly with me. The place I grew up, the neighborhood I spent my entire childhood and all the explorations, mock-battles, forts, races and treasures that were a part of that place. For me, my siblings and the other kids in the neighborhood (that I'm still in contact with), I've made a map of all our childhood haunts (though not our teen haunts). I've tried to include all the geographical names I could remember as well as any points of interest that I could recall. 

Obviously I'm doubling-down on that whole reverential nostalgia thing here. 

Click on image to bigger-ize

Other works of nostalgia include "Our House" and just about everything else I do.

New Sketchbook /  by Gaelan

Ah, a new sketchbook, it's been a while. Normally my fallback sketchbook is a larger (11x14) hardback drawing book. When you fill one of those suckers up you feel a real sense of accomplishment, and they look great all lined up on your book shelf too. Lately though, it's taken me way too long to fill one up and I have a nasty habit of breaking their spines. So most of the books I do fill end up all taped and glued to hell. Also the size can be a bit unruly and they don't take wet media. This time around I've gone small (5.5x8.5), spiral-bound (which I know I'll bend and end up loosing pages), and instead of drawing paper I'm going with 140# Cold Press! 
So far I'm only a few pages in, the first page in my opinion is always the worst (like the first pancake) so here is page 2. Zombie Robot Space-Suite is what I'm calling it.
Zombie Robot Space-Suite

PART 2 How the NPR voices look (in my head) /  by Gaelan

This is who I see in my head when I listen to NPR these days... PART 2! I had such a great reaction to part 1 in this series and want to thank everyone who sent me messages and shared it with their friends. 

The fact is that the folks at NPR have difficult names to spell (this coming from someone named Gaelan). So it's probably no suprise to anybody that after I had finished with the drawings I needed to go online to find the correct spelling and fill in the names. This was (for the most part) the first time I actually saw what these NPR personalities really looked like. Turns out their photos are all over NPR.org, huh, who knew?

So, once again sorry in advance, but between you and me... I understand why they say "If you must choose between printing the legend or the truth, print the legend." Zing!...*sigh. 

A final thought: I still can't find what this "Tori Malateo" character looks like. The dude is an enigma wrapped in a riddle topped with a catchy nick-name.

UPDATE: It's Torey Malatia! See what happens when you search a wrong spelling? I blame Google, and myself... And society.

Click here to see How the NPR Voices look (in my head) Part 1