Houston, you're perfect please don't change a thing.

It's nothing personal. I still love you and I always will. (how? let me count the ways! without rhyming!) Your skyline. Your cumulus clouds. Your summer that lasts from early March until November. Your ridiculous spaghetti webs of highways. The fact you can drive 45 minutes away (at 60mph) from downtown and still be within city limits. You know what? I don't even care your traffic runs from 7am to 7pm - driving around at 3am is where it's at. Down Allen Parkway. Or through Montrose. Or in The Heights. Also your Rice University rocks for bajillions of reasons but ultimately: 2 pubs and a 24 hour library? BAM. Your exhaustive list of restaurants that are open awesomely late. Your young yet impressive music festival and your burgeoning concert scene.Your obscenely cheap housing market and remarkable standard of living. Your resistance to the plague of unemployment. Did I mention the weather? Because yea, the weather fucking rocks. Also you pretty much house all of my extended family and friends, so that's a plus.
Despite all of this, it's time for me to move on and go be my own person in different city for awhile. But seriously, no hard feelings. I will defend your clogged highways, dense humidity, and blood-boiling summers til the very end. 'Cause it's worth it.

Lastly, anyone who's ever driven down Allen Parkway at night knows it's imbued with mystical powers. Today's playlist is brought to you by songs that I like to skip ahead to whenever I find myself on it: they are guaranteed to make you feel invincible if played in tune to the road's epic curves (trust me, this is based on extensive mixed cd testing. Results may vary on other streets).

Grooveshark or Dbox

Supermoves - Overseer
Mausam and Escape - A.R. Rahman
Phantom Pt II (Boys Noize Remix) - Justice
Power - Kanye West
Rock is Dead - Marilyn Manson
E Pro - Beck

Born Free - MIA

Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
Come Down on Me - Lemon Jelly
Fuckin' in the bushes - Oasis
Halfway Home - TV on the Radio
Rhinestone Eyes - Gorillaz
Ledmonton - Clues
Party Hard - Andrew W.K
Wake Up - Rage Against The Machine
The Parachute Ending - Birdy Nam Nam

and with that, Grooveshark wins the funnest-way-to-make playlists award. *pours one out for Seeqpod* yea, I used the word funnest.
image cred: me! being a creeper on the mandell bridge over 59.

Things I learned today

Do not take Nyquil in daylight. You might think you just really want to sleep but I guarantee at some point you will need critical thinking (and/or conversation) skills and you'll be at a complete loss.

Why even bother folding your clothes into a suitcase? They're just going to return it to you with everything wrinkled, ruffled and smashed in on itself. I mean yes, SAFETY, but I spent obscene amounts of time meticulously organizing it. ALL IN VAIN (#firstworldproblems, I know) On the bright side, I now have a reasonable excuse to look like a homeless person - I was having trouble coming up with a good one on my own.

Everything works out. Usually. And jesuschrist people, beiing mean to the workers at baggage claim doesn't accomplish anything. I don't understand how some of us think that yelling or threatening magically makes suitcases appear any faster. You just gotta smile, nod and hope for the best. One of my bags was lost but now it is found! See? Everything works out in the end. Now I can go back to seeing the world as muppets. 

Pete and Pete is pretty much a show about pedophiles. Or at least, Little Pete has a habit of befriending lonely middle aged men. Sorry about tarnishing your childhood memories, but someone had to say it.

Late night brain splatters

On constellations and an ethnocentric interpretation of science
How crazy is it that ancient Greeks were able to map out stars by weaving mythological narratives out of what was, for all intents and purposes, a massive game of connect-the-dots? Seems like their science was more about patience and imagination than anything else. (Though they were definitely onto something-- imposing semantic significance is super effective way to store information. Plus it's useful in discerning cardinal directions. But I digress.) Makes you wonder in what ways we've infused our culture into the documentation of modern scientific discoveries. Because we definitely do. The existence of Americium, Californium, Berkelium and Einsteinium on the periodic table are just the tip of the iceberg. Honestly, I'm pretty excited to see which of our theories/assumptions/models will be deemed arbitrary by people-of-the future. Basically any chaotic or quantum system, yea? also binomial nomenclature. On second thought, that's a can-o-worms I am not fit to be opening.

If you haven't heard The King of Limbs yet, fortheloveofgod stop reading this and go do that now.
I know I can't compete with the billions of reviews about Radiohead's new album that've been thrust into the interwebs over the past few weeks, however, I can recommend that you give the album a good listen in the shower. Particularly the song Feral. It's phenomenal. But if you're impatient and don't feel like waiting for your monthly cleansing, here, appreciate this deliciously trippy visual interpretation of the song by Steven Murashige.

He recommends "Lights off, HD on, Play loud." I second this.

*Cue that one Phantom Planet song everyone knows*
Heads up dudes, I'm finally following through  two years worth of blog posts and moving to the West Coast! This is going to be quite an adventure and I can't wait to bore you with details! Til then, listen to this way cheerier Phantom Planet song. Or check out Aaron Diaz (of Dresden Codak)'s tumblr where he explains and explores some theory supporting aesthetically strong comics. OR watch this incredible rap battle between Abraham Lincoln and Chuck Norris. Those are your only three options.

Buy My Paintings (PLEASE) Part Deux

Hey-o friends!

First off, thank you all for your kind words. Seriously, your support has meant a lot and I really appreciate it :)

"Caffeine" 10x14in

That said... Guess what time is? Time for me to beg you to fund my funemployment in exchange for paint splatters! wheeee! So if you want a painting, email me: cristina dot tortarolo at gmail and we can talk specs.
[For people who requested something last summer that I wasn't able to get to: I'm really really sorry- ended up getting a job and running out of time. If you're still interested let me know, I just don't want to make any assumptions.]

"Get In" 16x20in

While I started out mostly doing characters from movies I think I'm finally ready to move away from that. But whatever, who am I kidding, I'll do pretty much anything :3 Lately I've been illustrating quotes and that's been really fun. (You can check out past stuff here) Also anything from graffiti is fair game.

"Auguries of Innocence" graffiti

If you have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what you'll want we can chat and figure something out. I'm just. that. desperate. :)

"Sound and Fury" graffiti

Rough estimate-wise, I'm thinking a $10 base + $5/hour. So depending on size and the complexity of the image it'll probably fall somewhere in these ranges:
~50in^2 $20-30
~100in^2 $40-50
~200in^2 $100-120
This is definitely something we can talk about more in depth via email per individual case. Just throwing around some general numbers.

"Doors of Perception" 8x16in

Lastly, I've decided to set up shop on Etsy, so that's where I'll be posting anything random that doesn't get sold. Heads up.

Thanks dudes! Much love,
tort