No rain, no rain...

Tonight we are suppose to play the other undefeated team in my softball league. But it is raining and supposed to get heavier as the day goes on. I have a makeup game this Sunday against the same team and the weather looks good for that one. We'll see.

Still working on the daisy pen & ink. Meanwhile here is another oil painting. The field is from a photo reference. The man is from memory. I saw him in a similar field. When I got home I drew a sketch from memory then used that for this painting. The colors don't look very good because of bad photography, but you get the idea.

Daisy update

It was a busy weekend so i didn't get much work done. I saw Dickey Betts and Great Southern over the weekend. They were great. Sunday we had our annual block party. Monday, back to work on the daisies. Here is my progress so far.

Holy Cow!

We won again last night. This time 25 - 2. This has been an incredible season so far. I went 4 for 4 at the plate. Next weeks game will be a good one. We are playing the only other undefeated team in the league.

I'm still plugging away at the daisy pen & ink. But meanwhile here is another painting. I did this in a painting class I took many years ago. I had already painted something on this canvas. I finished another piece I was working on in the class early an had some free time so I started this over the old painting. My teacher would only let me paint with a palette knife. I still like painting with a brush better.

Memorial Day Weekend

Had a nice long weekend. My daughter and wife marched in our local parade with the girl scouts. Played poker with some friends. I won around $10. Woo hoo!

I kept plugging away at my newest flower pen & Ink. It is very slow going. I scanned in what I have so far. The final size will be 18.5" x 12". What I have so far is about 5" x 12". My original plan was to color it when I was done, but I might let it stand as is.

Quick Charcoal

My wife had these two plants in the house that I have been wanting to draw. Yesterday I did not see them and asked her where they were. She brought them outside to plant. I quickly grabbed and made a charcoal drawing of them.

5 - 0

We won yet again last night. This time 17 - 5. This is amazing. Only a couple of years ago we were the league laughing stock. We couldn't get a hit if you paid us. Maybe because most of the team is pushing 50 and started taking geritol?

I have been plugging away at my new flower pict, but it is very slow going. I started inking last night and will post a work in progress soon. Meanwhile here is the last oil painting I completed.

Updates

My mom saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday and she does not need a pin in her thumb. He said it will heal just fine as it is. She is very much relieved.

Worked on the new flower piece last night. Man, it is taking me a loooong time to finish the pencil sketch. I'll post a picture of it once I start the inking process. I should be able to finish the penciling part tonight.

Meanwhile here is another painting.

Sunday Double Header

Had a softball double header on Sunday. We won both games with big leads. I can't remember the last time we hit so well and consistent as a team. It must be ten years. I broke my no hit slump and went 7 for 8. Normally after our Sunday double headers we have a barbecue after the game. But the wind was so bad we all just went home. The wind made for interesting games. Hats were blowing off of heads. Pop flies were never a sure thing. I would have to pitch at the batter and the wind would blow the ball over the plate for a strike.

When I got home I was very tired. I lied down and started to fall a sleep. The phone rand and it was my dad with a sentence that will wake you right up. "I'm at the emergency room with your mom." My mom fell down the basement stairs and cut her thumb open. They couldn't stop the bleeding so they went to the emergency room. She had two deep gashes. They also x-rayed the thumb and found out it was broken. Other than that she is just bruised a little. Lucky that is all at 67 years of age.
She has to see an orthopedic surgeon this morning to fix up the thumb. They think she will need a pin. Oh, and typical for my dad. He called from the emergency room to ask name to tape desperate housewives. They didn't want to miss the season closer.

On to art. I photographed my painting over the weekend. The sun was much better than the flash. Here are the other two paintings that go with the onions.

The allergies are coming, the allergies are coming...

I started feeling my allergies kick in yesterday. I'm allergic to tree and grass pollen. My allergies aren't strong enough to react to just one, but when both are out at the same time I get whomped. Last year they got so bad I had to get an inhaler, pills and eye drops. So far so good. But last year my allergies didn't kick in until Memorial Day Weekend.

I made my famous chicken soup last night. Didn't eat it yet, I make it for lunch. I'm the only one in the family who will eat it. I'll reveal for the first time my secret recipe. Take the left over chicken carcass and boil it in six cups of water with 1 chopped onion and a teaspoon of salt. While that is boiling look in the fridge for some vegetables. Chop up what ever vegetables you can find plus two cloves of garlic. If the garlic has turned brown and soft, don't use. But don't throw it out, it just might get better.

Put a pot in the sink then a colander on top. (from experience, if you forget the pot you have wasted an hour and some vegetables) Stain broth into pot and put back on stove. Boil the chopped vegetables for ten minutes. While boiling add what ever spices strike your fancy. Also add chunks of chicken that look good from the colander. At the end I add some organic brown rice that I cooked while the chicken was boiling.

Viola!!! Randy's famous chicken soup.

On to the painting. I tried taking a picture of a large painting, but the flash kept making a mess of the image. I'll have to try this weekend outside and see if I can get better pictures. Meanwhile I took one of my smaller paintings and scanned it. This came out all right. I tried to color correct the image but the room our computer in was too dark to do this with any accuracy.

I painted this in 1997. It is about 11" x 14" I have two others that are the same size and style. We had them hanging together in our kitchen. I'll scan the other two this weekend.

And the winner is...

Has a softball game last night. We were down 8 - 2 going into the 6th inning. Then we exploded for 10 runs. We ended up winning 13 - 8. I worked a little more on the new flower piece but I was so tired I only worked for about 15 minutes. Since this piece is going to take a long time I am going to snap some pictures of my oil paintings and post them, but not today.

A new flower starts

Spent last night painting an 'X' on the back of the masonite boards. A friend told me if I didn't do that the boards will warp because of the gesso only on one side.

When I finished I started a new flower pen and ink. My last few pieces were a set up still life which I like doing a lot. It was weird to go back to photo reference. This piece will be much bigger than my previous flowers pieces. I want to push the ink aspect of the drawing more this time. We'll see how it comes out.

My wetcanvas fellow artist Stoy Jones added my blog to his blog links. Thanks Stoy. When I get the time I will update my link to the right and add Stoy's and some other blogs I frequent.

Yup, it's done

Took a last look at the piece last night. Made a couple of small changes and called it done. Then I had some free time to organize things and put some gesso on a bunch of masonite panels that I cut out to use for painting.

Fish...finished

I finished the fish piece last night. And none too soon. My sepia pencil was down to a nub and I don't have another one. I want to take a fresh look at it tonight before I really call it done. It came out pretty good I think.

Saturday night I went to a friend's 50th birthday party. He sings in a band. During the night people started playing guitar and singing. A drummer started bringing in pieces and played too. During the night it could be one person playing guitar and singing to six people playing and singing at the same time. Met some new friends and had a great time. I never had the guts to get up and play too. I've never done anything like that before so I chickened out.

Fish update

We had our first softball game of the season last night. The weather held up. We won 21-2. I went 0 for 3 with a walk.

Worked on the fish some more. It is coming along pretty good. I took a digital picture of my progress, so the image is not that great, but not bad either. I noticed in the image I took that the bottom right shadow seems a bit dark. I'll have to check that out tonight and see if it really should be that much darker. I'm guessing not.

Rowayton Arts Center

Did some sketching in the park yesterday during lunch. Some guys were playing bocce. I thought it would be great to capture the game. But as I started drawing the players some people started gathering in front of me and I couldn’t see the game anymore. So I started drawing the people around me. Then it started raining and I left.

I sent in my check today to become a member of the Rowayton Arts Center. It has been a long time since I have displayed my work. I feel it is time. I went to an opening there over the weekend and they had some great works there.

Sepia Pencil

I started the new drawing with the sepia pencil. Right off the bat I didn't like the feel of it. It has a raspy/scraping feel to it that I don't like. Other than that I am happy with the piece so far.

I wanted an over head view of the fish I am drawing so I have set up on an easel and have to stand while I was drawing. My legs got pretty tired after and hour or so. I took a walk and then came back to work a little more. This piece will be a little slow going. Here is a pict of my set up.

Owl

One charcoal owl for my daughter...done. Did it in one sitting. Now I am off to draw some fish with a sepia pencil. My first time with the sepia pencil.

Flower update

I pulled out the Flower of Paradise and tried to fix the background. It's okay. Better than before anyway. My daughter wants me to make and owl for her room so that will be my next project. I'm going to do it in charcoal. She found a picture on the web that she wants me to copy.

I'm calling it done

Had my first softball game of the season last night...well, almost. There was a cold drizzle when I showed up to the field. The head umpire said the game wold go on. So we practiced in the drizzle for about a half an hour when the same head umpired called it and and told everyone to go home. Maybe next week.

Later that night I started working on the pots again. I had some good advice from the people at wetcanvas and wanted to give this piece another try. I'm calling it done. It didn't come out too bad.

Candlesticks

I finished up this piece last night. I was pretty happy with it. There was something about the candlestick on the left that was bothering me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I posted the image on the wetcanvas site. Looking at the image in the computer screen I noticed the top of candlestick on the left was slanting downhill. Oops! I may go and fix it or just leave well enough alone.

Tonight I am going to work on the pots again. I got some good advice from the people on the wetcanvas site, and will try to apply what they suggested.

Here is the set up and the final piece.

Dumb movie and bad conte crayons

I saw possibly the dumbest movie last night. the Dukes of Hazard. I was expecting a dopey movie, but yikes! This was awful.

Saw Time Bandits with my son tonight. I saw it in the movies when it first came out and still liked it. My son thought it was great.

On to the contes. I'm just not getting the hang of the conte crayons. I was way overworking the pot on the right and finally decided to call it quits. I'm going to try one more conte crayon drawing then move on.

Conte drawing...take two

After a miserable first attempt, I turned the paper over and started fresh. Yesterday I plowed in with reckless abandon with the conte crayons. This time I took it slow. drawing ovals has always been difficult for me, so of course that is what I choose to do for my second attempt with the conte crayons. I had a fleeting thought. I have been working so much from reference photos maybe I lost my touch with life drawing. It is much easier (for me anyway) to work from a photo. Time to get out the old sketch book and start drawing from life again.

I didn't finish the drawing last night but here is a photo of my set up and progress. The white in the drawing stands out much more in the photo than live. I think the flash had something to do with that.

Conte Crayons

I tried the conte crayons last night. The results are mixed. I enjoyed trying them and will try another piece tonight. I was a little heavy handed in my use. But you have to learn from doing. I got some good advice for my next piece on wetcanvas from Robin who has posted here. Hi Robin :-)

Fire Flower

Here is my latest flower. I am not that happy with it, but what can you do? I think it a composition thing. There doesn't seem to be one. Maybe if I play with the cropping a bit.

I started out using tube watercolors, but soon found I am not good at mixing colors and applying them, so I went back to using watercolor pencils. I like the watercolor pencils a lot, I'm glad I bought them.

Now on the some conte crayon drawings. I have never used conte crayons before so this should be interesting.

Iris's

Well, here is the first of the flower series. I had planned to go heavier with the inking and put in a background but I was too happy with the piece as is and am afraid to ruin it. It has a stained glass feel to it. I want to push that idea more.

Times Three

I'm still working on the large size flower piece. It is taking longer than I excepted. Over the weekend I had an extra few minutes so I wanted to get down an idea I had for a charcoal piece. An hour and a half later I was still working on it. I finished it last night. It came out pretty different than what I had in mind. That is what is great about charcoal. I can add, subtract and move things around without a problem. Now to finish the flower.

Flower Studies

I have been working on some small flower studies. They were a warm up to bigger pieces. I wanted to try different approaches and see what I like and don't like. Then I sprained the thumb on my drawing hand. I was done with the studies, but now I can't work until my thumb feels better. Here are the studies.

Finished

I finally finished the graphite log drawing. Whew! I don't know how much time I put into it, but it was a lot. Now on to some flower pen & inks.

Working Hard

I have been on a graphite piece that is taking me forever. It was suppose to be for a show at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, but I have missed the deadline. Oh well. The piece is coming out pretty good I guess and since I have put so much time into it already I am determined to finish it.

Meanwhile, with some free time at work I did a test for the next piece I want to do. I want to do a combo pen and ink with a wash. Here is the piece I played around with. This is a mess, but I am happy with what I was able to do. I want to do a couple of more test pieces, then on to the final piece.

Butterfly

Here is the weekly drawing image. I started as quick sketch. But I liked the way it was coming out so I put a little more effort into it. It's not what I would consider a finished piece, but I think it came out pretty good.

A new month of blogging

I'm positive I have read A Bridge Too Far. But I'll read it again because it is good and I like reading anything to do with history.

My cold never broke though to a full blown cold, but it still lingers.

I'm working on a series of ducks right now. I almost have the first one done. I am pretty happy with it. I would post it in progress but I am using charcoal and I am afraid to smudge it when I scan. I don't like to use fixative until I am done, so you'll have to wait.I plan to do two more of the same picture, just different techniques.

I am also working on a pencil of a butterfly for the weekly sketch over at wetcanvas. I'll post that up when I'm done. Here is a link to the drawing thread if anyone would like to see the original image and what others are posting.

Monday

Reading - A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan. I think I have read this before. It seems very familiar as I read.

Eating - Homemade chicken soup. However, I added brown rice to it and the rice soaked up all the soup. So I guess it is homemade chicken rice now. Still tasted good.

Watching - The Bad News Bears (the original with Walter Matthau)

Feeling - Like a cold is coming. Bleh!

Working - on a charcoal piece. So far so good. This cold is slowing me down though.

MoMA

Reading - The Artist's Sketchbook magazine. Has an article about making your own playing cards. Not for playing. The idea is to cut out 52 cards and once a week make a card. You can do what ever on it. Paint, draw, scribble, write or all of the previous. Both of my kids want to try it. We'll see how long it lasts with them.

Watching - Not much. The Olympics have bumped the couple of shows my wife and I watch. I have the original Bad News Bears on DVD to watch tomorrow night. Last time I saw that movie is in the theaters when it came out. I hope it holds up. I remember it being pretty funny.

MoMA - I went to and joined. This was my first visit since the renovation. They did a great job. I walked around with a big dopey grin on my face. Some great stuff. One floor was devoted to drawing. My brain overloaded with excitement. Two other displays that caught my attention.

One was a large room that had a video on one wall of a line of about 25 people standing there looking at you. It must have looped at some point but I could see it. There was a young kid who said "Is this it? People just looking at you?" He got a laugh from most of the people in the room.

The other was a separate room. It was a dark hall that walked in to into a dark room. The room was back lit wit ha soft red light giving an odd affect of the walls in the room. You couldn't walk into the room just look into it. People kept bumping into each other coming and going from the display because the hall was so dark. I kept thinking the artist was watching and laughing about the people bumping into each other and trying to navigate around each other. Then I thought that was the real piece.

Snow Beagle

I finally finished Wuthering Heights. It was a slow read but good. Very dark book. I can see why it wasn't a big hit when it first came out.

My art room is starting to get into shape. The walls are painted, but the trim still needs to be finished. It hasn't stopped me from working. Here is a pen & ink of our Beagle, Bailey. This is from the snow storm we just had. He plowed out into the snow, posed for the picture, then ran back inside.

Birdies

Wetcanvas has a weekly drawing thread. I picture is posted and every submits a drawing of the picture. Here is mine. Charcoal on Strathmore paper.

Wet Canvass

I just joined and art forum site called wetcanvass. It is huge. Over 75 thousand members. My head is spinning with all there is to read.

Lots of White stuff

We sure got pounded with snow today. 16". My legs are killing me from walking through the stuff. The snow was over my knees. Here are some pictures when the storm was only half over.

This is our front door.


Snow overhanging the roof of our garage.


Our back porch. I was just barbecueing last night.


Bailey plowing through the snow with no fear.


Bailey getting out of the snow as fast as he can.

Updates

Listening: Cajun music. I subscribe to Live365 internet radio. I've been listening to a cajun station all morning. Love it.

Reading: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Pretty dark book, but good. I love reading books that take place in the 1800's. It gives you an idea of what life was like back then. I find the small things interesting. How people call on each other, dress and so on.

Eating: Home made chicken soup. A little bland but good.

Working: Colorizing some more gags for clickwheel. I hope to be creating new art this weekend. I have al ot of dusting and setting up to do first.

Hank no more

We had to return Hank. He was aggressive. He bit and tore my shirt sleeve and he snapped at my wife. Then we found out another family returned him because he bit their kid. Nice dog. It would have been nice if the shelter told us that up front. We are happy no one got hurt in out house.

Comic Update

None. The floors are done, but we are replacing all the trim. So my art room is not up and running yet. I am working on new installment of Mermbut Gags for clickwheel, but very slowly. I am too tire to put much effort into it.

Hank is home

So far so good. Hank and Bailey are getting along well. Hank even gets along with the cats. Well, one cat so far. The other has been up a tree for a day and a night. We have a tree service coming today to get the cat down.

Hank did immediately get into the cabinet under the sink.



But Bailey came over to tell Hank we don't do that here.



The grate on our refrigerator seems to bother Hank. He keeps knocking it off. I put it on, he comes over and knocks it off.



I hope that ends soon. Hank also is constantly on a food patrol. He got to be such a bother during dinner I had to put him outside while we ate. I don't think our food will be safe during the superbowl. We'll have to find a tall table to put the snacks on.

Too much Bob Hope?

Is there such a thing as too much Bob Hope? While staying at my parents this week while our floors were being sanded and finished, (they look great by the way) I have been watching my mom's Bob Hope movie collection. Road to Bali, My Favorite Blonde and Pale Face. Bob Hope is a very funny person. But after a while the humor is the same and can be too much, but Hope is so good at it I never got tired of his humor.

Road to Bali was my favorite. I have to rent the other road movies and see if they are as good.

No Problem

We just got work from a vet. Hank does not have a thyroid problem. Just a weight problem. Good news. He will be coming home on saturday.

Road to Bali

I watched Road to Bali last night. It's a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movie. For a pretty dopey movie I sure laughed a lot. I was afraid I would wake everyone up. I'll have to watch the other now.

Update

I won't be working on anything this week. All my art stuff is packed away and I don't have access to my computer at night so I acan't even work on the clickwheel stuff. The floors are looking good though. I have to find a rug or something to cover my art room floor. I'll be nervous to mark it up or spill something on the new floor.

This Saturday we are going to pick up Hank. The kids are very excited.

Beagle update

My wife took the beagle from the animal shelter to a vet. First the vet said he is likely four to five years old, not two like the shelter said. The vet said he most likely has a thyroid problem. That would be consistent with being overweight, listless and having an ear infection.

We are have the thyroid tested. Meanwhile he got medicine for the ear infection. The shelter offered us a discount on him since he will be the fourth animal we get from them. 1 beagle and two cats already. The zoo is growing.

Editorial Cartoons

If you like editorial comics check out to Daryl Cagle's site. Lots of great stuff.

Tired

Very tired from work. Also the dog has diarrhea. He went in the car and the dinning room rug. He is on a rice diet until he is better. Looks like we are going to get our floors sanded and finished so I will not be able to make any new comics until that is done. I have to get everything out of my art room. I have been making my gag comics in color to add them to clickwheel.

Week End

With the unusually warm weather I was able to get a lot done over the weekend.

Saturday I got the big pile of wood chips spread out, played wiffleball, fixed an electrical plug that wasn't working in our bedroom and took the kids to a bird presentation. We saw a Red tailed hawk, a peregrine falcon, turkey vulture and a great horned owl. Julia was so impressed she wants to go bird watching now and keep a bird list. That night I went to the CTFisherman banquet. Had a blast there. I have a lot of friends there, and I made some new ones.

Sunday I hung curtain rods in my bedroom and in the office. Then I fixed the deer fencing that had blown down, in the storm earlier in the week then dug up some pricker bushes. Played more wiffleball, then cut down the trees that had half fallen in the storm earlier in the week. Our local animal shelter has a beagle up for adoption. My wife and daughter went to look at him. They liked him, so then I had to go look at him. He is very fat, but seems to be a good dog. We will take him to the vet and make sure everything is okay before we take him. I hope he gets along with our other beagle. I don't think it will be a problem since Bailey loves other dogs.

Silly yet satisfying

Thanks toDantoday for the new Mermbut tag line.

Mermbut Comics, silly yet satisfying.

New Scanner

I ended up getting the Epson Perfection 3590 Photo. Got it set and running with no problem. My daughter made the first scan.



It is her stuffed fish named George.

The scanner can scan slides and films so I tryed a slide next.



It came out okay. I may need to experiment a liitle with that. But slides were not something I was that interested in. Nexted I scanned a black and white image, my main use. I was very happy with the results. Here is a pen and ink drawing I scanned to see how well it would hold the cross hatching.

New Comic

I posted my latest comic. Hope you like it.

On my way to work this morning a tree fell and hit my train. There was no damage to the train, but the tree took out the overhead wires. Metro North called for a diesel train to come pull us, but another tree fell across the tracks and stopped the diesel. While they were clearing that another tree fell across the tracks ahead of us. My usual one hour commute on the train turned into a four hour ride.

At home we lost power but only for about ten minutes. The schools lost power and had to send the kids home. We had three trees fall from the storm earlier in the week. The only damage from this storm was out fence blew over.

The Tapestry Trilogy

Just finished reading the Tapestry Trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay. I didn't think much of the first book, but went ahead and read the second one. The second book was much better. The third book I couldn't put down. It was a pretty good series. I'd recomend it to you sci-fi readers.

Comic, scanner, dog update

Finished scanning in the art for my new comic. I have to scan at work since my home scanner no longer works. But,I forgot to take the scanned art home to work on, so I lost another day. I should have the comic out by the end of this week.

I tried to buy an epson Perfection 1670 Photo scanner today only to find out they no longer make that model. Oh well, back to research.

Our beagle has tried for months to catch a squirrel in our back yard. Well his hard work finally paid off today. Yup, he caught one. He brought it back to the house. My wife made him drop it and got the dog in the house. The squirrel was still alive but in bad shape. It didn't take too long before it did finally die.

Comic Update

I thought I would have my new comic out by now, but the going has been slow. I had a killer week at work and have been too tired and brain dead when I get home to work on it. But it should be out by the end of next week.

Also since I have become a clickwheel artist I have been reformatting some of my older stuff to add to the site leaving little time for the new comic.

Clickwheel.net

Clickwheel.net is a new service where you can download comics to your ipod. My comics have been added to clickwheel, or are in the process of being added. Footprints is up now and I have more to come.

There are plenty of other comics on the site. I don't have an ipod so I can't check out what is offered or see how my comics look on the ipod.

Go check out the site, it's really cool, and it's free.

Fun Trivia

Like trivia? I have been going to a web site called fun trivia for some time now. It's a great site. They have 2 hourly trivia contests going. Global trivia which is every 4 hours I believe. Plus tons of other trivia.They even keep tract of you stats.

Also you can belong to groups. I started one called the Mermbuts. Go check out the site. If you join let me know and you can join the Mermbuts. It's all free. No comitment or anything. If you join then stop playing, no big deal. It's all about having fun.

Big Bass

My daughter had a good time fishing. On the way home she said she couldn't believe she made the whole outing.

The fishing was slow, I only caught three bass, but one of them was the biggest I ever caught in that pond. Here is a pict:



My daughter kept giving the fish I caught names. This one was Flippy.

Going Fishin'

Kill Bill Vol 2 wasn't as good as Vol 1. Maybe it didn't live up to my expectations of seeing it. It was still good though.

I am about to watch Sid Caesar's Show of Show's collection. I haven't seen it in years. I hope it holds up. But when you have Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner writing for you, how could it not be funny?

Yup, I'm going ice fishing tomorrow morning. And for a rare surprise, my 8 year old daughter asked to go. I'm going to a spot that produced a lot of fish for me last year. The couple of times I have gone out this year have not been productive.

The Giants are playing the Panthers in the afternoon. Also my local Art Guild is having an opening. It will be a busy day tomorrow.

Working

Yup, I got the title thing to work. Just had to chose the option for it. Not too difficult.

Saw Kill Bill Volume 1 last week. Thought it was great. I'm about to pop in Kill Bill Volume 2. Can't wait.

MIA?

The title option is missing for creating new posts. I'll have to look into that and see what is going on.

Music: Listening to Troubadours of the Folk Era. It has such artists as, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Odetta, Donovan and so on. Pretty good.

Working on my new comic. It is taking a while but should be pretty cool when it is posted. (I hope)
My current one, footprints, is getting a lot of traction. My friend Cat Garza posted a link on his blog. Then Scott McCloud posted a link on his blog. Then T Campbell posted a link and so on. I'm flattered that they liked my work enough to post links. Thanks all.

Here I go.

I'm going to give this blog thing another try.

Just discovered a new band, Cake. I guess they have been around for a while, but I heard them for the first time today. I like what I have heard so far.