SKETCHBOOK #3, page 16

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 15

SKETCHBOOK #3, pages 12, 13, 14

I'm posting these three pages together because they're one piece: another strange, absurd story I came up with, this time with an illustration. If I recall correctly, I think I wrote this at Jonathan's house... and I think Jonathan's mom read it and thought I was getting pretty weird.

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 11

free association

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 10

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 9

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 8

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 7

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 6

Be warned: there is some very absurd storytelling to come. I was really into absurdity when I was a senior in high-school. I listened to a lot of Primus and Phish, (keep in mind this is 1997,) I was totally inspired by "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," "Waiting for Godot," and various other Theater of the Absurd entries, and I had just finished reading Mike Gordon's short story collection, which makes no sense at all. In addition to that, Mickey and I had an ongoing series of home-video "comedy/meta-comedy" sketches called "Silly Geese" that we made after school and on weekends with our friends. They were pretty ridiculous, too.

So this (very short) story, the memoir of a man who fell in love with the sound of an E Chord, is just, as they say, the tip of the iceberg. But if you find it really annoying, which you may very well, don't despair: I got over it after a while. I never lost my appreciation for certain types of weirdness, and I probably won't ever, but in the context of writing, art, and comedy, I think the completely meaningless joke or statement that is only funny because it's so out of place lost it's appeal pretty quickly, and I eventually moved on to slightly more contextual expressions. Of course, that hasn't happened yet. We're still in 1997.

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 5

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 4

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 3

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 2

and here's the first real page.

So I was flipping through this one while scanning and realized something that I guess I had forgotten - there is some chronological overlap between this book and the last one. I noticed that this book is mostly late '97, but doesn't quite get to 1998 even though the end of "book 2" wraps up in january of '98... so my theory is that I started book #3 before I had filled up all the pages in book #2, then when I finished this one, I must have gone back and used up the rest of the old one before I got around to buying #4. Or something along those lines.

It really doesn't matter much, in the long run. But it might explain a little bit in the area of stylistic consistency. Or whatever.

SKETCHBOOK #3, page 1

Originally, this title page of my 3rd sketchbook said only my name, but one day, evidently the day I wore an army shirt to school, a pal modified this page as you see above - thus cementing his or her place in history.

SKETCHBOOK #3, cover

certainly looks a lot like the last one.

SKETCHBOOK #2, in it's entirety

Well, that's all for #2. I'll be starting Book 3 soon - I still need to scan a few pages to get caught up. For now, I've uploaded the whole of Book 2 to a Flickr set. Have a look if you're inclined.

SKETCHBOOK #2, page 67

dated 1/23/98