Umm... Ungh... ONE!

This is exactly how I look when I do a pull-up... except for the onlooker who's all concerned.

No, MY onlookers guffaw. Like, loudly.

Cooking with Braddy: Spinach Artichoke Chicken

You know, if I'm going to keep doing this, maybe I should start taking some food photography classes, cuz my pics usually wind up looking kinda disgusting.

I haven't been cooking much recently, which, I think, has been a mistake.  I've been in kind of a sour mood altogether, due to probably a dozen different factors I don't think I could track down without a spreadsheet.  The act of creation, though, always manages to make me feel better, and cooking is one of the best creative acts I can manage at this point.

Found another recipe on Pinterest a couple of months ago that I really wanted to try.  I've never gotten anything with artichoke hearts outside of a restaurant, and I thought it'd be fun to try at home.  For once, I actually halved the recipe (the original serves 8), so I wound up with a manageable amount of food for leftovers.

The real draw for this dish is, of course, the sauce - cheese, spinach, and artichoke hearts.  It's... it's not bad, but it feels very fragmented, like the different flavors (all delicious) aren't really blended quite right.  I have some sort of resistance to using frozen spinach in my cooking.  I wonder if the added moisture from the frozen spinach would have helped...

Eh, I'm nitpicking.  The recipe was a success, and the chicken's really good.  Plus, artichokes.  Artichokes are delicious.

Big Screen Breakdown: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

These superhero movies are starting to make me antsy, especially the sequels. While Mrvel's films have been consistently pretty good, the number twos in their recent franchises have either been forgettable (Iron Man 2) or just plain bad (Thor: The Dark World). And now, we've got Captain America: The Winter of Our Discontent, an adaptation of what's probably the best CA story since the star-spangled Avenger punched out Hitler. I was super excited, but I worried that the new movie would fall into the same traps as the earlier sequels. Fortunately, that was NOT the case.

• I hope people not as steeped in comic book history can enjoy these movies as much as I do. While it would definitely help to see the first Captain America movie, I doubt it's essential.


• Tonally, this movie's QUITE different from Captain America Número Uno. While the first movie is strongly reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite superhero films, The Rocketeer, The Winter Soldier is far more similar to something like The Bourne Identity. By the way, this is a good thing.


• I know Captain America's the guy whose name is in the title, but The Winter Soldier is almost just as much about Nick Fury and the Black Widow. It's probably the best performance I've ever seen from Sam Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson is just as good as she was in The Avengers.


• The Winter Soldier himself is just as compelling as any villain Marvel's released in the theaters to date. Maybe more so. He's got a personal connection to the hero that makes their final punch out far more than a spectacle. There are deeply intimate stakes beyond just "the world go KABOOM!"


• Can... can Anthony Mackie's Falcon get his own movie? I like that guy!


• Why is Robert Redford in this movie? I mean, he's REALLY GOOD... but he's also Robert Redford. Seems like a strange pick for a superhero film.


• Proof that more characters aren't necessarily bad: I count nine different named characters from the comics. I think fans of Batroc the Leaper might be disappointed, but otherwise, everyone gets just enough screen time and development to make their presence in the movie worthwhile.

• Did I say nine? I meant ten.


• Maybe I'm just getting sensitive in my old age, but the violence in this movie really made me cringe. People die, and since most of the fight sequences are between unarmed characters, the deaths are really personal and sometimes very disturbing. The movie earns its PG-13 rating, folks.


• Best line in the movie: "I do what he does, only slower." I could explain why I love the line so much, but we'd be here all day.


• Verdict: Amurca! AMURRRRRRCA!!!!!

The Host

Dude, I kinda want wings.  Of course, it'd be tough to go through doors...

Just another doodle I put together in a few dull meetings. Oh, and here's another one:

And then here are some more that I pulled over from other sketches and added some detail to digitally.

It's been a while since I posted anything, okay?!

I Want Pudding!

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

Why I'm Still Single 55

Ram Girl Violent

That... that smarts!

I'm really quite happy with this picture. I did the whole thing, beginning to end, on Procreate - the sketching, the background and hatching, even the basic blocking (which I've usually done on paper).  The main difference between this picture and every other I've drawn for scratch on Procreate is the size of the canvas. I cut the canvas in half from its usual size, and I found that gave me much  more control over the shapes I wanted to use.  Good, good happy stuff.

BONUS SKETCH:

BANK!!!

No real story here - just wanted to draw some buildings on the iPad.