Category Archives: News

Amazing Strangers, Art, Bob Smith USA, News, Union Square, Wendell The Garbageman

Limbo

Amazing Strangers

Wendell Headley art
Wendell Headley digitized in Adobe Illustrator for Amazing Strangers logo

We’re almost completely back. There’s been a few tolerable days at the park between 45 and 50 something degrees. Some footage has been shot, and almost everyone’s falling back into their designated compartments, waiting. Impatiently waiting. You can see it in their eyes. Signs grumbling through his routine not quite spritely enough to be smacking me on the back of my head and calling me a dildo butt. Roman is lurking around, but ducking out of my camera’s view. Jeremy’s annual promise that this is the last year he’ll be doing Free Hugs. Matty Ice is dizzily wobbling around in his oversized winter coat. Even Qween Amor stopped by to chat a bit. No sign of Wendell yet. The first Wendell sighting is when it’s official.

For a few years now I’ve been trying to figure out a better symbol for Amazing Strangers other than that Coney Island-like face. For some reason it was a puzzle that confounded me for a long time. What face or image sums up the Square? Then, a week or so ago it hit me. Just before I was drifting asleep, I had an epiphany. And it was Wendell. Wendell is obviously the face of Union Square! It took some time to figure out how exactly to draw that trademark hat of his, but eventually I nailed it.
The new face of Amazing Strangers. I hope he’s alright with it.

Amazing Strangers of Union Square NYC logo

Speaking of which, I’ve also been getting inquaries from you people asking how it might be possible to donate money to specific Union Square Strangers. And I’ll tell you what won’t work. Giving me money to pass on to them. I can’t imagine what my life, the videos, and a day at the park would become if I turned into the guy for them to come to for dough. And I can’t imagine there’s any sort of charity specifically pertaining to Union residents. However, if you’ve got a workable solution, I’m open. Until then the best I can tell you is to go to Union and hand it to them yourself.

Bob Smith USA

girl in pin teddybear suit with green balloon art
Sasha Janegs digitized in Adobe Illustrator

If you haven’t seen the documentary I was in from 2004 “Bob Smith USA,” Neil Abramson (the director) has set up a place on Vimeo where you can watch for just $1! It’s hilarious, and strongly recommended viewing.

Right now I am at Astor Place Starbucks. It’s pouring rain outside. I’ve been doing some art. This lovable picture of my friend Sasha is some proof of that. And just like everybody else mentioned above, I too am in limbo. Impatiently waiting.
And we wait.

Tick tock, tick tock.

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Amazing Strangers, Anthropology, Blog, morgan, 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.

Art, Blog, Dressup Games, Freelance, News, Portfolio

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.