Category Archives: News

Morgan Forgives Me

Something I never expected to happen occurred this last week. Morgan forgave the injustice she felt I’d done to her a couple years back.

What happened was, when I first saw Morgan back in 2010 or so, I knew I wanted more. More Morgan. I was dying to draw her (as it’s no secret I’ve got a soft spot for punker girls) and add her to the postcard. I admittedly was also dying to nose my camera into her life some. I still hadn’t even introduced myself when I was handing out the 2011 postcard with her on it.

morgan cartoon
Morgan drawing from the 2011 Union Square Matchgame postcard

I forget who it was that showed it to her, but I do remember seeing her precious reaction. I wish I’d been filming because it got the cutest smile out of her. A smile that read of flattery with just a touch of embarrassment. From that point on she started hanging out and letting me film her. And there was always something to film when she was around.

She has so many standout videos. Her and the gang singing “Brown Sugar.” That’s a classic. Her swooping in and rescuing us from the creep who wouldn’t leave. That was an absolutely priceless moment for me. And once, as we were walking back to Union from St Marks, after she’d almost beat a man with a chain she told me, “I need someone to film my life. Someone’s gotta be documenting the shit I go through.” That’s when she invited me to film her – Whatever/Whenever. I asked her, “If shit’s looking dangerous, and you look pissed at me, should I still be filming?” (something I’d witnessed before). She couldn’t guarantee my safety, even from her, but the answer was the same – “Yes. Film it.” And that’s how it began. I never wanted to break that trust.

Unfortunately she didn’t completely understand what she was getting herself into, and on one particular weekend when she introduced me & YouTube to her new beau Devan, it crossed the limits of what she thought she could handle seeing of herself. The video blew up too, and she was getting recognized, and having even to deal with fans from the site. After all of this, I started to see less and less of her, until finally I’d heard she wanted the video gone. She didn’t want to be filmed any more.

I completely respected that. I would even put my camera away if I saw her after that.

I’m never that surprised when someone from the streets finally sees their video, hates it and regrets ever letting me in. In this case though, it was different. When I’d heard it hurt her I was really sorry. So I’m glad we’re friends again.

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Accomplished January

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo art
Lisbeth (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) digitized in Adobe Illustrator

Today is the day I was scheduled to fly back to the city after an entire month here in the midwest. That is until “The Storm Of The Century” hit and brought everything in New York to a screeching halt.
No open businesses.
No vehicles on the streets.
No food delivery! And certainly no airports. So I’m adding a few more days to this visit.

My initial goals for January were to learn WordPress, build the site you’re looking at now with that knowledge, and do art. Lots of art. All of these things I swept through painlessly, and I want to share with you these accomplishments now.

Lisbeth

I’m not sure how I went so long without ever drawing Lisbeth , but the other evening when I sat down to do so, the sketch took me about 20 minutes. Then it was completely digitized (above) before I called it a night. Tell me this though – How is it that I draw what I consider to be this striking black & white portrait, post it on Facebook, and it gets just 2 Likes? Has she already been forgotten? Was the remake despised that unanimously? What the hell happened? Anyhow, no matter what people think, this piece is one of several proud accomplishments of January.

Danni Daniels

TS Danni Daniels art
Porn Star Danni Daniels digitized in Adobe Illustrator for dressup game

One of the most exciting things that occurred this month happened as the result of a simple pen & ink portrait I drew of this infamous porn star & performance artist. I was dumbfounded when she made it her profile pic on Facebook. Then it turns out she loved it so much that we’re now working on an entire dressup game to go with it! It’s turning into the most outrageous game I’ve ever worked on. And if you don’t know who Danni Daniels is, Grace Jones referred to her as “the white me.” I will surely keep you up to date on this unprecedented project.

The Sauce

Cute muscular girl in fuzzy white cat costume art
The Sauce (close up) Digitized in Adobe Illustrator

I don’t remember how or when I first stumbled across “The Sauce” on Facebook, but when I did I knew I had to draw her. She’s real life Pippi Longstocking all grown up living out her dreams in the Burning Man universe. I’m just stunned by her. Something I don’t think I was able to keep any kind of a secret in this piece.

The Old & the New

The other accomplishment of the month was learning WordPress with the assistance of the Lynda.com tutorials, and building my new site. Yes, I’ve finally dragged myself out of the dark ages of the web.

The old site at normalbobsmith.com shall remain in tact, but I do not plan to post new content there ever again. For 15 years I’ve been maintaining that URL. Can you believe it? Perhaps I’ll turn it into a complete archive of the site’s history? It could include a tribute to the different elaborate front pages I’ve had over the last decade and a half. Maybe adding back the long lost Super Chic pages and the Unholy Army adventures? A complete archive of everything I’ve done there since Sept 2000. That could be really fun.

From now on though, everything’s going to be here. I’ll be adding the Amazing Strangers section next month, a new art portfolio, and lots more. If you’re finding yourself snowed in with nothing to do, check out the “Select Month” & “Select Category” tabs in the left sidebar. I plan to update those areas with some of the best content from the past, as well as some never before seen blogs I’ve recently run across. You see, back in ’08 I actually went and saved all of my MySpace blogs before they erased everything. How many of you thought that far ahead? I’ve already started incorporating them into the backlog. And while you’re at it, take a look at the new store, and the Mohammed dressup games brought center stage for all the obvious reasons.  It’s safe to say I’m really looking forward to seeing where this new site leads.

iPhone app pulled by Normal Bob Smith

Due to a disagreement between me & the application’s writer the Jesus Dressup iPhone app has been pulled.

Let there be no confusion. Apple did not pull the Jesus Dressup app. Christians did not get it removed. I had a gargantuan disagreement with the person who made the application for me and last night, in a heated phone conversation that ended with us hanging up on each other, the app yanked by us.

I’m noticing rumors already starting and articles being written and lots and lots of questions directed at me so I want to nip this in the bud.