http://kevinmcneil.net Sports Art & Cognitive Dissonance Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:24:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was going to go running tonight when I got home from work, but my wife and kids were sitting out on the porch starting their dinner, and that was just enough to push my lazy self into a chair to settle down with them. That and the fact that ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=117 How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd; --Alexander Pope In all the film talk that I've taken part in or read about over the years,  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has become sort of ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=101 I made a feeble attempt at a watercolor painting the other day. I hadn't used the medium since high school, and even back then I really didn't know what I was doing with it. So you can imagine what it was like trying to use it now. It wasn't a terribly ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=89 Shinedown. Shinedown, for Chrissakes. I was assaulted by this song for most of last summer. You know, "Second Chance". I just saw Halley's comet, she waved... It felt like an unholy piece of corporate rock pap birthed by the union of Daughtry and Nickelback. The kind of song where you hit the seek ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=75 I’ve often lamented in these blog pages about how long the artistic process is. How draining it can be. And it’s true, it’s true. But it’s changing somewhat, and whether that’s due to my own perception/attitude or the simple fact that I’m getting better and the typical stuff that I do ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=66 In the end, it was the casual bat toss after the follow-through. Just sort of a shovel pass to get the piece of ash out of the way, the coda to a compact swing, the dot on the i that was a well-struck sphere of horsehide. I found that it ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=65 A very wise man and I were once having a conversation about the nature of arguments, and our musings led us to realize that the ultimate answer in any heated debate would be to smash a beer bottle against your opponent's face. What kind of comeback could top that, really? Him: ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=60 I’ve been painting a lot recently, and it’s been interesting because I never made a serious pass at it until a couple of years ago, and even then, I approached it tentatively... two paintings in two years. I’ve touched on this before, but it was an elephant-in-the-room situation, something I ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=44 There's a reason these paintings and drawings were all completed within the last month: That reason? I'm self-employed. So the thing I figured I could never do for a living is now my living, even if only as a stopgap. In that regard it's gone strikingly well, I've gotten steady commissions and ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=43 Oftentimes when I'm in the middle of a fairly involved piece, there's a point about halfway through when I stop and think, I could just leave it like this. There's a roughed-out sketchy quality that happens to capture the kinesis of the moment. But as tempted as I am, I ... http://kevinmcneil.net/?p=42