The End Of Hansi

I’ve been doing this blog for three years now, and Wow, what a trip it’s been.  Not only have I been able to show-off my crude drawing skills, and my almost adolescent fascination with the female anatomy (boobs),  I’ve been able to rant and carry on about a variety of subjects that have rattled my mind.  To which I’ve added just the right amount of  filth, so your mind can wander into the gutter, but not necessarily lay down or wallow in it.

But like all good things, even this starts to get stale, and loose it’s creative integrity (whatever that is), becoming just more and more of the same old thing.  It’s kinda like rock  groups.  They have a few good albums, and then fizzle-out.  Cream had three great albums, but by the time “Good-bye Cream” came around, everybody was pretty much thinkin’ “Good-riddance Cream”.  Same with Led Zeppelin.  Their first four albums were classics for all times.  “Houses of the Holy” was okay, and “Physical Graffiti” could have been one album instead of a two-record set.  After that, most of Zeppelin’s stuff was pretty much sounding the same.  But then again, if ya wanna hear some ‘Zep”, ya wanna hear Zep, and not Pink Floyd or The Who.  Luckily (or not), Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison of The Doors all died before they started to just crank out crap.  [Janis was at her best when with Big Brother on the Cheap Thrills album].

So much or going on a 60’s music rant.   But here’s the thing.  For a while now, I’ve been collecting a lot of those albums on vinyl: Hendrix, Credence, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Dylan and all that stuff.  And now have a fairly comprehensive collection 60’s and early 70’s groups.  A lot my of time has been going to garage sales, thrift stores and record shops.  Right now I’m listening to The Stones “Let It Bleed” album.  And not on some bullshit ear buds, but on a good stereo system with 12 inch speakers.  Ouch!   Gimme some shelter!

I’ve been a bit of a music nut since I was twelve, when in 1958 I bought my first record:  “Yakety Yak” by the Coasters (don’t talk back).  I’ve been buying records ever since, and really got into collecting 45’s in the early 80’s, to the point where I have well over a thousand of em covering the golden age of rock and roll: 1956 to 1965.  Do wha diddy, diddy down diddy down.

When it comes to music, if it had a strong guitar sound, I liked it.  Duane Eddy, Link Wray and Dick Dale were my early guitar heroes, but when Jimi Hendrix made the scene, he blew em all away.  Then  Stevie Ray Vaughn came along, and what else can I say.

As good as all this stuff is, the thing of it is, if ya hear too much of it, it looses its luster.  Stairway to Heaven, and Black Magic Woman are classic songs, but have been played to death, as was Elvis (The King) before that.  Same thing is happening with my blogging.  It’s pretty much run its course for me.  I still enjoy it, but the golden age is over.  So I’m gonna try something new.  And that something new is not blogging.  We’ll see how it goes.  Gotta proceed with an abundance of caution.  Don’t wanna rush into anything too fast.  But I gotta feelin’ it’s gonna be okay.

Pencil for Pencil’s Sake

For Heaven’s sake!  You’ve probably heard that one before, maybe even mumbled it to yourself upon reading some of the B S that features prominently on this blog.  Well, I was drawing one night, and got into drawing with a pencil…for pencil’s sake.  Nothing fancy, just a plain ol’ yellow #2 pencil, with eraser on the end, exploring what one can do with graphite fashioned into a phallic-like object.

Everybody has used a “lead’ pencil.  It was probably the first thing you learned to write the alphabet with, and primary drawing instrument used as a child.  I knew from a young age that I’d be an artist when I grew up, cause all my teachers always told me, “Hansi, stop daydreaming.  Get to work and get the lead out”.  To me that always meant it was time to draw.

Kids love to draw.  Just give them a pencil and a bunch of paper, and they’ll draw their little asses off.  My two grandsons do, and love it.  Maybe that’s because grandma (aka The Wife) was an art teacher, and there’s reams of paper and every art supply imaginable laying around the hose.  Five year old Logan drew the picture of an ice cream truck, complete with music playing and kids with ice cream cones.

So anyway, all these drawing were done with a # 2 pencil, on cheap paper scavenged from some recycle bin or thrift store.  For me, it was kinda like getting down to basics.  All my early drawings posted on this blog were in pencil (like the one on top).  It was only later that I started to use ink, and later than that even, color, because it photo-shopped better.