preparedness month

Found out that September is National Preparedness Month and thought I'd have some fun with that at Powell's. With the recent rash of books on how to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse, the alien invasion, the robot uprising, along with a whole section of books for surviving in the wild, I figured it was a good time to take being prepared to the next level.

Here's the top panel I put together...



I was able to reuse an image I'd created for my First Contact display a while back...



There on the left side is my version of the letter-to-the-editor that Billy Pilgrim wrote in Slaughterhouse Five--one of the number of alien-related books I was displaying along with First Contact. Here's a blog post on that display which shows the original use of the letter. And here's an earlier blog post about the display in which I explain how to create an alien out of a cat and George W. Bush.

Then I found some blueprints and played around a bit with them to simulate some sort of plans for hiding and evacuation during the zombie / robot / vampire / alien apocalypse. Made quick work of it because part of that area of the display was going to be blocked by books. Here's a picture of the final display--including the annoying shine from the window glass and excluding the book that someone removed at the request of a customer that day. The customer bought the book, which is good, but I always have mixed feelings when I see those empty book holders. Yay - the display is effective... boo - now I have to go get another copy to put in the window. I've had a lot of that with this display, actually, and I've heard there are a lot of people asking questions about the books. I wonder what it is that people are getting more prepared for... survival in the wilderness or the undead.

making an alien

Recently I started reading the very wacky book First Contact by Evan Mandery. It's written in the tradition of--actually as an homage to--one of my favorites, Slaughterhouse Five. It's alien satire and social and political commentary, peppered with references to Woody Allen and the Simpsons (for instance, the greatest legal mind in the Orion galaxy is Lionel Hut-Zanderian).

Of course, I decided I had to do a display. Something that highlights First Contact but also touts other alien satire masters like Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I decided to go with a sort of Area 51 theme with old UFO photos and "top secret" files proving that the evidence that the aliens have indeed made first contact with earth is found in these books.

So I needed to make myself an alien. Copyright and download issues limit where I can go alien hunting, and so I set out to create one using some graphics that were available to me. I'll post more of the display down the line, but first:

How To Create a Spaceman Out of a Cat and George W. Bush.

The reason I chose Bush is that a lot of the action in Mandery's book takes place in the White House between an unnamed President (who is the spittin' literary image of W.) and his assistant Ralph.

The reason I chose a cat is that... well, the original photo already looked a bit like an alien.


Love him. This cat is courtesy of Kaibara87 on Flickr Creative Commons.

He's so cute I almost hate to show what I did to him. But if you want a good looking alien you have to start with a good looking cat. First I had to remove the ears.


Aliens never have ears. Why do aliens never have ears?

Then some quick warping to make the eyes big and saucerlike and give the head that traditional alien shape.


[Once when I was a kid we were at the supermarket and saw one of those Weekly World News -type papers, and it said, "Is Your Pet a Space Alien?" We bought it. Not to do research--we already knew Sylvia was an alien.]

Alright, here's the part in our program where I have to bring in ol' George. This was a screen capture, I believe, courtesy of BlantNews.com, via Flickr Creative Commons.


Alright, using my intergalactic body melding method (clone brush), I borrowed the skin of W. for my alien...


Easy Peas-Yldarian.

A little less sharp since the picture of Bush is so much smaller, but no matter. It's workable. Those are George's smile lines.

Alright, now you find an old photo, craft the two together, make it all sepia and...


Voila--a decidedly feline spaceman caught on film.

More to come.