Donna Barstow Blog #2 Posts

chicken or egg cartoon

Oops, did I spoil the cartoon? For Illustration Friday: propagate is the challenge. And chickens do that.

This is an easy idea to tinker with, if you’re good with words. The ending to Which came first, could be anything, and I think I’ve come up with half a dozen gags over the years. But politics has been a big part of my life this last year, working for Slate, so these hens have that on their mind, too.

I’ve been thinking recently about New Yorker cartoons vs Editorial cartoons – which I’m spending most of my time doing? now. New Yorker cartoons are easy, so easy that anyone can do it, and they can and do, with the little caption contests. I haven’t looked at the contests in years, but there are many clever entries, I’m sure.

“But I can’t draw,” they sigh. That’s what she said.

That’s what I said. I wanted to write them, not draw them, but I sent ideas to a couple of New Yorker guys, they said they didn’t buy gags, and I gave up on just writing right away. I’d have to learn to draw. Sigh.

In the Biz New Yorker cartoons

My Gateway FPD 2185W, Gateway FPD 2185W Widescreen High-Definition – LCD 2121″, just DIED 3 months after the warranty expired. I was so shocked (literally) that I got sick.

I ordered it in 2006 at the same time as my Gateway computer. I’m a tough shopper, and love to do research and understand everything. One thing I knew I wanted was a very quiet computer – and 3 years later, this is the quietest computer I’ve ever heard, even with a 500g hard drive and 2 gig of RAM (did I say that right?) Although it gets a little noisy, when the fans start going when I use Photoshop… I’m still not sure if a better video card or more memory would help me out there.

user-friendly computer, user-hater monitor cartoon

I also wanted a widescreen super-sharp dealie monitor, and? if you got a monitor with the Gateway computer you got a good deal. The FPD 2185W was the best or 2nd best monitor at the time, and it cost $600, and $100 less with the computer so I happily chose that one.? I loved that monitor – -crisp and sharp, with never a problem. I told everyone how great it was!

But what kind of crap monitor just blows like that?! No warning, nothing at all. The reviews here at Amazon Gateway FPD 2185W Widescreen High-Definition – LCD display – TFT – 21 say it all:

DO NOT BUY THIS MONITOR!

As has happened to many others, my monitor went dead (blank screen / can’t turn it off) a little after the warranty expired (after a year and a half). This was a very expensive monitor and Gateway knows that this model is defective, yet they refuse to admit this or do anything about it. Also, like many others, this is definitely the last Gateway product of any type that I will ever buy. I hope others follow suit.

He’s right on that. I’m not even looking at Gateway for my next one. (Turns out Gateway is now owned by Acer anyway.)

Of course, once it breaks, you’re dead if you don’t have another monitor just lying around the house. There was no warning, just black. I couldn’t get online to even find anything out. Used a neighbor’s computer and right away found this blog on Gateway Monitors (which should have been called Gateway Monitors Suck.) Anyway, turns out it is 8 cheapie capacitors that go bad, pfft. Easy to fix, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO SOLDER. Oh, yeah, just get my solder iron out from under my drawing table here…I’m so screwed!

Tech Tips for Artists

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they RENEWED them. Or they used to. When they read them hardcopy. I drew this in my minimal phase. One of my favorite cartoonists in the New Yorker was Ross.…

New Yorker cartoons

I have to say a few words about this season’s Bachelor, starring Jake (the pilot, not Body By Jake, who is a famous personal trainer here in LA. Maybe all over, I don’t know.)

alg_jake_pavelka_bachelorFirst of all, he is so not my type. He should be, blond and blue-eyed, fit, with a nice balanced body, okay hair. I mean, look at my 3-year long and counting crush on Derek Hough, right? But Jake, no. It’s all I can do to muster up even finding a photo of Jake to post here…

He was boring on my Jillian’s show, and looks to carry on his legacy on this one. I really don’t mind his putting God first. I do, too. But it’s no sense of humor, no interests besides flying, riding his stupid motorcycle and doing dangerous stunts, and a kind of judgmental attitude he seems to have. But prove me wrong, Jake, I don’t mind.

The 25 women tonight are all jumbled in my head, like a bowl of hard candies in wrappers.

I don't Watch TV

Don’t lies involve prevarication, entanglements, and just plain trouble? Especially when you lie about the food! Fortunately for this excellent waiter (who reminds me somewhat of the excellent and rather…

New Yorker cartoons

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Time for a new cartoon! Actually, although the color is new, this is quite? old – one of the first cartoons I ever did, and part of a series I did with coffins. I was surprised, death is a fairly common topic with cartoonists – I heard Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker, say that he gets a fair number of dead cartoons each week.

old song in graveyard cartoon
Raindrops keep falling on my head...coming from a coffin under a tombstone

Don’t get me wrong – I hate this song. I don’t like songs in my head, or humming the same one for days. I can’t remember who sang this…Neil Diamond? Someone will know. And it rains a lot where I come from.

This cartoon is for Illustration Friday‘s topic, unbalanced.? Nothing like a coffin cartoon to prove I’m that! This is from my morbid collection, which I only bring out to show special guests. And you.

New Yorker cartoons

Well…this is one of the few good new shows this season, so Glee is on my must-watch list. But tonight proves what a schizophrenic show it is; it’s trying to drag in both adults and, well, all the rest of you.

glee_sexy willThey alternate between grown-up situations, like adultery (or thinking about it, as Jimmy Carter would say), compromise in ethics or one’s goals, and life -changing decisions, and for the kiddies, after school specials, problems like who gets the solo, what is “really cool”, and how to come out to your father over and over and over. (Kurt is a great singer, bad actor. Everything he says is camp, flaming, and not believable. Especially when he tries to do the loving, fashion-whore son.)

Will is the main character. He’s the teacher of Glee Club. I like that he has flaws, is not socially adept at reading people, or at least women (his wife’s non-pregnancy), and his pig-headedness. Yet many viewers complain that they wish the show would drop all the teachers. Someone show them the way towards the CW.

Also, it’s so so so gay. Not to mention politically correct. Yeah, I know, some of it’s on purpose. It’s the major part that is so tedious and repetitive.

I don't Watch TV

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