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Ape Swanson Pyramid of Greatness

Ape Swanson Pyramid of Greatness

Today’s CollabFriday “What should I draw” is a combination of ideas from Adam & Chelsea. Who suggested Ron Swanson and a gorilla, respectively.

Made perfect sense as far as I’m concerned.

Ape Swanson Pyramid of Greatness Desktop/Phone/iPad Wallpaper

iPad, iPhone, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

About CollabFriday

Each week I like to randomly collaborate with whoever is willing. Fridays will rotate reader suggestions (i.e. “What should I draw today”), spontaneous collabs via Twitter w/fellow artists/photogs/illustrators (“who wants to collaborate today), and artist interviews. Follow on Twitter and Facebook so you can participate next Friday!

The Free Will Illusion

Illustration by Troy DeShano

One of my favorite questions over the past couple decades has been that of free will.

The matter-of-fact “free will is a gift from God” that I was fed in Sunday school was based on the premise that if man didn’t have a will to choose, then we’d all be robots and God loves us too much to have made us robots.

Honestly I’m not sure where all the animosity toward robots came from.

I’m pretty sure it had something to do with it being the early 1980s and robots were currently stealing all the jobs that once belonged to hard-working Michiganders. (Probably how the robots now feel about the Chinese, I guess.)

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Odorifous: Bill Ryder-Jones

Bill Ryder-Jones illustration by Troy DeShano
Illustration by Troy DeShano

Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on Bill Ryder-Jones’s new album If… and honestly since then I’ve listened to it at least 3 times. I was so excited when Bill agreed to do this little interview because based on the integrity of his work i guessed that if nothing else, he’d be honest.

And honesty is really what I’m hoping for in each of these interviews.

I’ve never had an interview I’ve wanted so badly to pick apart and analyze. Bill submitted his responses so quickly and with such candor that I can’t imagine he invested too much of his own time on this, yet he manages to express several thoughts I find entirely compelling.

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Rico Suave

I was once quite romantic.

In 8th grade I even made a tape of Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do” for Sara Spittka using one of those old school push-play-and-record-at-the-same-time cassette decks and our VHS copy of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Little did I know our two-week affair was already over (the Bryan Adams tape was probably the final nail in that coffin), and despite my excellent hand-holding skills she now liked some other guy in our class who was better at basketball than me. So I hung my head in shame and shoveled the driveway so I could practice my three-pointers and pray that a new girl might attend our Christian school the next semester.

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Para-“Dice” Graphics

Illustration by Troy DeShano

Mylo Xyloto was finally released for streaming on Spotify and Rhapsody last week, which means I’m hearing it for the first time, and it’s been in pretty heavy rotation around our house.

Which means for most the day I’ve got “para, paradise… para, paradise” stuck in my head.

One time driving through Marquette, Michigan—on the northern edge of the upper peninsula—I spotted what I assume is some sort of graphic design business called Para-”Dice” Graphics.

I can’t remember how the dice rolled on the storefront sign… I like to assume it was snake eyes, obviously.

The new Coldplay is pretty good. I think at this point they’ll never be able to live up to anyone’s expectations again, but chances are we’ll still be singing “para, paradise…” in the future.

Sing along on the Strong Odors Spotify playlist.