AH-OOOGAH! BLACK AND WHITE FRANK, PUPSHAW and PUSHPAW at jimwoodring.com

DeLuxe sets with limited edition letterpress prints available at http://jimwoodring.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/index.html

A QUICK FUSE

PROF. FOXGLOVE: Dynamic! Dense! Intense! In the moment and of the moment!

KEVIN: You may beat me on the face with your shoe, if you like.

GLORIA: Oh, that poor frog! His skin will be blown off.

JIM: No, he'll just be deaf for a few days.

PROF. FOXGLOVE: It's like nothing being done in Paris.

GOODBYE GOLDEN TROUT

The katsura leaves are releasing their sweet aroma into the arboretum; the bats are greedier; the far-away snows are dwindling. I have one little brown spot on the back of my left hand that I rub lovingly, telling it, "Welcome, welcome."

HONEY LET'S ADJUST

Yesterday we were swimming in Lake Washington, and the water was so unusually clear that I had the misfortune of seeing the lake's giant erection rising from the lake floor beyond the Madison Beach raft. This sometimes happens when there are a lot of people swimming there in the summer... all those people frisking about in the water just excites the old lake something terrible. I've never heard of anyone actually being molested by the primordeal stiffy, but the mere sight of it is profoundly upsetting.

STANDO DEI

This one might have gotten by you on the first ro-round, and the terms of my contract dictate that nothing be left to chance, so I'm placing it again before the public eye. You enthusiasts, you knowers of Frisell, you may think you know what is happening here. But please inspect this one carefully. Notice the swapped identity of the infant; notice that the lamprey brain has been replaced by a shark brain. And please notice the "cockeye" effect where no eye exists. No need for you or me to go out on a limb when this sort of thing is being done for us.

THE GREATEST NANCY TATTOO EVER DRAWN

As seen on BOINGBOING. Get the full story at story:http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/23/zen_sluggo_tattoo.html

A QUICK FUSE; Group Discussion #5

PROF. FOXGLOVE: It's very dark.

JIM: The scan... plexiglas...

KEVIN: The leg is different.

JIM: It was wrong... the belly-white calf didn't show in the twist.

MARCOS: It's suffocating.

THE BLESSED MOLESKINE

A QUICK FUSE, group discussion #4

PROF. FOXGLOVE: Hm. I don't think I like this. There's something unwholesome about your approach... I don't know how else to put it.

JIM: Gee, I'm sorry you feel that way.

HUH?

A chain of stores in Minneapolis, Schinders, is having a contest this month; send them a written description of a dream you have had and you could win some of my books! I just now found out about it and frankly I'm a bit flummoxed. Here is what they tell me:

About the contest: It's free. All that's needed to enter is a name, an email address, and a description of a dream. The email addresses are used only to contact winners, they are not collected for use in a mailing list, or to be sold or used for any other purpose. The description of a dream is used to tie in the contest theme of the books, and for our own edification. The only commercial aspect is the contest is hosted by a retail chain, who gains some exposure from the contest.

Huh! http://www.shinders.com/jimwoodringcontest.html

A QUICK FUSE- Group discussion #3

PROF. FOXGLOVE: Well! Progress has been made.

SUSAN: Yuck.

JIM: This part is still being worked on... the little guy will have more grit.

KEVIN: It's so awkward.

SHARON: And what about value and composition? How can you get your values right without having other values to work them off of?

JIM: Uh, I can go in later and adjust the values to make 'em work.

PROF. FOXGLOVE: I suppose that's one advantage of a tightass style.

JIM: Tightass indeed!

PROF. FOXGLOVE: Pardon me?

JIM: I don't like sloppy art.

CHUCK: Sloppiness is freedom. You're a tyrant!

PROF FOXGLOVE: Hmm... interesting.

JESSICA, JESSICA, REBUILD MY CHURCH

I would give almost anything I possess if I could have the genius to create a picture like this. But who did paint it? I wish I knew! It was on a calendar a realtor gave us.

A QUICK FUSE- Group discussion #2

PROF. FOXGLOVE: You've changed the sketch. But it looks a little...

KEVIN: Overworked? Murky?

PROF. FOXGLOVE: It's murky, and there seem to be two... or did you change...

PEGGY: It's a p-p-pa-palimpsest!

JIM: Well, just ignore it, can't you?

PROF FOXGLOVE: Ignore it? Why should we?

CARLOS: Yeah, why should we?

IF I DID NOT WORK THESE WORLDS WOULD PERISH

And I wouldn't get paid.

THE END OF THE LINE

Frank the Cat, AKA X-Ray Frank, AKA The Barrel, was mercifully released this morning from a plethora of misery-inducing health problems including old age, kidney failure, diabetes, arthritis, skin cancer and resultant surgery, and obesity. He was about 16. As a young cat he had a bland but agreeable personality and performed several ingratiating tricks, such as pulling himself along a rug using only his front paws. He also had an uncanny ability to wink just when the moment was most appropriate. It is our hope that his journey across the universe will land him in a happier situation than he found here. Sic transit gloria mundi; goodbye, old fellow; we enjoyed your company.

INTERLUDE

Now children, it says in the books that you may say to yourself, "I am not this body. I am not this mind. I am eternal. I am one with THAT." But what do we think it means, children? Are we like the electricity that makes our electric fans and garage door openers go? Are we at heart an insensate impulse that only lives when it blossoms in flesh and thought? And what does "eternal" mean? Does it mean we live for all time, or outside of time? Do you have these answers, children? Oh, if you do I wish you would tell me. Please, please tell me, children!

A QUICK FUSE- Group discussion

PROF. FOXGLOVE: What is this, exactly?

JIM: It's an idea sketch.

PROF. FOXGLOVE: An idea sketch.

JIM: Y-yes. For a... uh...

PROF. FOXGLOVE: A picture?

JIM: Yessir.

KEVIN: Kinda gutless, ain't it?

JIM: It's just a sketch... a first, you know... just the first idea.

ELAINE: What is that thing with the firecracker on it?

JIM: It's a plant, a seedpod... a fruit.

STUART: Is the frog's foot supposed to be caught between those rocks? Because, let's face it, it doesn't, you know, read. It doesn't make it.

JIM: It will when I'm finished. It's leg will be all twisted and awkward.

PROF. FOXGLOVE: Ah! That will be an improvement.

SHOTGUN POPCORN

As I write this my wife is going through the house with an old-fashioned fly-swatter, smacking mosquitos. They are so bloated and logy that they are easy to surprise and they pop like blood-filled grapes. The house is so full of cracks and crevices that we can't keep 'em out. When they come down near your ear at night with that insinuating, bratty whine, oh boy! Don't you love it?