CONTEST RE-LAUNCH!!! Get Published - Be Seen by DOZENS of People!

A little over a year ago, I came in to work rather early (hosting Morning Edition at KVCR, getting up at 3:45am), and saw a beautiful sunrise...while a crescent moon hung on from the night before. This is what inspired the forecast drawing for that day.

In a way, this wasn't a new drawing for me. I mean - it was and it wasn't. It's a stylistic approach to something which keeps cropping up in some of my drawings.  The rolling hills, the mountains in the background...the sun coming through...I suppose it's a look at this region. I live in kind of a horse-shoe of mountains or foothills. Anyway - it's an image that I continue to explore, and it keeps coming back...on a couple more forecasts...

...or this next one, which was simply a reminder for me to announce the correct show.

The next several were for potential cd covers. There are color renderings of these somewhere. These are simply the originals. As usual...fleshing out ideas...in between traffic updates and weather reports.

Now this last one, below. A drastically different style...but there it is again...in essence. With a friend in mind, this was done only yesterday.

(Smaug in the Forecast - 2/24/11)

Now back to that forecast with the sunrise AND the crescent moon.


I invited some friends on facebook and MySpace to download or print the original, color it by hand or digitally manipulate it somehow, then send it back to me. I truly, truly thought that there would be a lot of people out there who would be interested in taking the time to sit down with their crayons - as it were. I also have some friends out there who are absolute whizzes in the world of computer graphics.

But really! Only six people out there...SIX people out there...who opted to take a few moments and make some art. I thank them very much, and each one was fantastic - simple or complex! Here's what I received:

From Mitch - Indio, California. Note how he altered my initials in the lower right :-)

From Patsy - Lexington, Kentucky

"Lola Sunshine" - from Tracy - Boulder, Colorado

From Ross - Redlands, California. Note how he erased the sun - making it more appropriate to when I was going in to work.

From Kerri - San FernandoValley, California

From Carey - Fort Collins, Colorado - last we heard

That's it. That's all I received. But it's open again. Download or print the original, color it by hand or digitally manipulate it somehow, then send it back to me. Here it is again.

Send your version of it to: davidfleming28@gmail.com

Soon there'll be a new tab at the top of the page titled "Forecast Contest". All submissions will be published! I really hope to see this grow into a large collection. It doesn't matter whether or not I know you.

If you've read this...


Please...


Take a few moments...and make some art!

The DavidFlemingArtsColBuffington Re-Re-Post

First, to make it official,
Click HERE to see THE COLBUFFINGTON RE-POST.

So...The world of Arts and Entertainment. Oh what a tangled world wide web we host, when first we practice to re-post.


"Where more people get their news...than they probably should."


This is something you hear from The Daily Show. It also pretty much sums up The Huffington Post. But, hey! More power to her (Arianna). By now she's been re-posting so much news - and opinion - that she appears as a pundit from time to time. But again - more power to her. Maybe someday I'll be looked at for my opinion, and not for any facts I try to put out there. Maybe then I can sell it for a few hundred million.

The Huffington Post is a spot to go to for news of the world...as well as the news you'd find in many gossip/entertainment publications. But maybe that's the appeal though. I'm still working that out.

Much of The Huffington Post is simply a re-posting of news (or gossip) which can be found elsewhere. Well, news and clips from TV shows. This is what caught Stephen Colbert's attention.

He made the point that he wasn't getting paid for any of the clips from The Colbert Report that were being (re-)posted on the Huffington Post. Colbert then came up with the idea of the re-posting of the re-posts. That is, he's re-posting the entirety of the Huffington Post, simply putting a new border around the whole thing, and calling it THE COLBUFFINGTON RE-POST. The Huffington Post of course gave us an obligatory re-post of Colbert's talk of, um, re-posting. This will then of course end up being re-packaged as part of the COLBUFFINGTON RE-POST, which will then be...My God! Will it ever stop???

So here's the thing. I find that what I do is about as important as much of what you'll find in The Huffington Post.  And I want more people to see it...and be a part of it.

I'm talking about cartoons - drawn on forecasts.  

  I'm talking about drawing on people with Sharpies.

I'm talking about this Human Canvas stuff - and more - as something that's just as important as THIS juicy tid-bit from the Huffington. Maybe even more so. Maybe. Like the Public Service Announcement below:

I just wanna put this out there. I am more than happy to be a re-posting source for Colbert's re-posts of the re-posts. All I want to do is be able to put a new banner around it. Something that says:

"DAVIDFLEMINGARTSCOLBUFFINGTON RE-RE-POST".

And then he just has to let people know it's there.

If Stephen Colbert is interested in getting his name known - maybe speaking in front of the president, or getting a book out someday - we should talk. He should mention this idea of the re-RE-re-post of the re-re-posts on his show. I CHALLENGE him to do so! (That's a full-on, Bill O'Reilly "in ya face and extra loud to over, over compensate for other insecurities and/or other mis-givings, but we won't get into that here" chal-LENGE!) With my following, I'll bet I could even bring some 20 or 25...maybe even 30 or so more viewers to his TV program - though he might do okay without my people going over to support him. Or if he just encourages 20 or 30 to come my way. That would be even, I suppose.

He DOES owe it to me though. I did, after all, vote for him in the whole naming of the space station thing. NASA was wanting a name to reflect the beauty of exploration and cooperation. They offered an online contest. Thanks (in part) to my vote, the name Colbert...was chosen. The named modules are Unity, Destiny, Harmony, & now...Colbert.

And if Colbert mentions this on the show...I'll be more than happy to (re)re-post, and get a link to it here. Especially if the Huffington Post does a re-post of it first. His people will have to let me know though, as I miss some details when watching on my cell phone.

Thank you Arianna, and Mr. Colbert...the ball's in your court.
If I need to get a petition together with 5 or 10 names on it...or even more...I will.

So...like the above cartoon of Your Brain on Speed Racer...

Any Questions?

I'll be watching. But I have to charge my phone.

The Human Canvas - Marci...Fade to Back

Okay. Several interviews to get to. I'll be talking to jazz vocalist Jules Day in the near future. Also, Andy Fraser - if I haven't blown my welcome on that one (we were gonna do it in October). A couple of others, Stanley Clarke AND John Jorgenson - both, having been done, are a few months old by now. Jules, by the way, has a gig coming up at the First and Hope Supper Club in Los Angeles. February 25th. 8:30 pm. It's a Friday. Just so ya know.


Meantime...back to the Human Canvas...quite literally. Now first of all, thanks to Marci for the title of this one...Fade to Back. I was going through some e-mail, and found a few photos of Marci. Remember Marci? This is Marci.

If you missed the beginning of this, a click HERE will take you to it.  Marci was good enough to send a few photos showing the progression of how quickly these things fade. Here's a look at the entire back-piece, a few minutes after I finished.

This next shot is after one - maybe two days of sleep and washing.

And after one more...

I'm still working out something to "erase" immediately, but my best attempt so far resulted in what looked like a big, horrible bruise. We'll show that soon.

In a way though, it's the "permanence" of the ink - as it's being done - that makes this an interesting study...and continuing experiment.

When you make a mark...it's there...you have to work with it.

But they can turn out quite nicely.

Ya think?

Jules Day - a future...and current...jazz great!

Most of my recent entries haven’t been album or artist reviews, but rather a showcase of SOME of the continuing adventures with The Human Canvas. Between this, and a recent week (or so) of fundraising at KVCR-FM, well…I feel like I’ve been away for a bit.

(photo by Alan Mercer)

So. My latest entry? Jules Day…A few notes…While it’s fresh on my mind. You’re going to hear of her.

Mimicry at an early age led to finding her own voice - this is what I’ve been able to gather from what little info is out there.

(photo by Alan Mercer)

When Jules was quite young, it seems that her grandfather, Kyle Peterson (founder of the Twin Cities Jazz Society), would have her learn jazz standards, one by one, by listening to records (or given her age…possibly cd’s). She would return able to sing it in the style of the person she heard, with the phrasing intact. When she was eighteen, she left Minneapolis to pursue a recording and singing career in Los Angeles. Fast forward a few more years now, and you have a person with a love for a type of music which started around 100 years before she was born. You also get someone who has clearly been influenced by many of whom she used to imitate. Jules became someone who sings with her own voice. She also became someone who would be headlining clubs she would normally be too young to get into. According to her website, she starting headlining some of these clubs when she was 20. She's 23 or 24 now.

Whether you go You-tubing, or see her live, you’ll hear a bit of Billie…a bit of Lena…you’ll hear influences from many past greats resonating in her voice. But these are only influences. The voicing, the phrasing, the inflection, and shaping…all belong to Jules. You’ll see it in her face…and in her body language. She’s not just putting on a performance. The feeling…and the mood…is there. She has a wonderful stage presence as well.

I had to dash immediately following the performance, so we didn’t get to chat – as we had spoken about, but it was Valentines Day. I was with my wife, at The Hip Kitty. The evening was ours. Jules and I have already sent messages back and forth about setting up an interview. We’ll have another entry after that. In the meantime…go see her. Go to her website or to her MySpace Music page. Find her on Facebook. Find her on Youtube. Get her discs – she’s just released her second.

(photo by Alan Mercer)

Again - She’s gonna be a name that people will know. You should too.