Best Podcasts List

I listen to eight to fourteen hours of podcasts and audiobooks almost everyday. Without them, drawing at my desk by myself gets very dull. Friends frequently ask me for recommendations, so rather than responding individually, I made this categorized list!

I recently counted and I’m subscribed to over ninety podcasts in iTunes, all of the ones I listen to are free. This isn’t a list of everything I listen to, just the ones that I feel are consistently good quality.  I’m going to keep this list updated as I find new ones. And I’m always looking for more to enjoy, so leave your recommendations in the comment section!

ARTS & CULTURE

-99% Invisible
-PRI/WYNC: Studio 360
-NPR: Tiny Desk Concerts (VIDEO)
-PRI/WYNC: This American Life
-NPR: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
-CBC: Q with Jian Ghomeshi
-The Walrus

SCIENCE & ECONOMICS

-WNYC: Radiolab
-Freakonomics Radio
-NPR: Planet Money
-TED Radio Hour
-HSW: Stuff to Blow Your Mind

HISTORY

-HSW: Stuff You Missed in History Class
-CJSW: Today in Canadian History
-LearnOutLoud: Great Speeches of History
-History of Photography

SPECIALTY KNOWLEDGE & FACTS

-CBC: Under the Influence
-Grammar Girl
-MaxFun: Put this On (VIDEO)
-MaxFun: Sawbones
-From Scratch 
-HSW: Stuff You Should Know
  
COMEDY, CONVERSATIONAL

-MaxFun: Stop Podcasting Yourself
-Hang out with Me, Myq Kaplan
-MaxFun: Jordan, Jesse GO!
-MaxFun: My Brother, My Brother and Me
-Earwolf: Comedy Bang Bang
-MaxFun: Dave Hill’s Podcasting Incident

COMEDY, GAME SHOW FORMAT

-NPR: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me
-MaxFun: Judge John Hodgman
-MaxFun: International Waters
-APM: Wits

COMEDY, SCRIPTED & IMPROVISED

-CBC: This is That
-CBC: The Irrelevant Show
-Superego 

STORYTELLING, PERFORMED LIVE
 
-The Moth
-MaxFun: Risk

STORYTELLING, WRITTEN
 
-MaxFun: The Memory Palace
-PRI: Selected Shorts
-CBC: Wiretap
-Slate: Stranger than Fiction
-Librivox: Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece

SEXUAL HEALTH & POLITICS
 
-Savage Lovecast
-MaxFun: Throwing Shade
-Life on the Swingset

FEMINIST & WOMEN'S ISSUES
 
-Bitch Radio
-MaxFun: One Bad Mother
-HSW: Stuff Mom Never Told You

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES & ILLUSTRATION
 
-Escape from Illustration Island
-Etsy: Handmade Portraits (VIDEO)
-Big Illustration Party Time
-Paper Wings

12 Questions

I feel very lucky to have been invited to participate in 12 Questions, an award-winning arts & culture blog with a twist. Each featured artist is asked the same twelve questions and can respond with whatever medium they choose. It's been interesting to read all the answers!

You can find my responses here, http://12questions.us/2013/07/17/meags-fitzgerald/.  I made four little illustrations for the piece. I made this one in response to "Cat person or dog person?"

12 Images of 2012

2012 was without a doubt the best year of my life so far, I was actually a little sad on this New Year's Eve to see it go. I started last year not knowing what to expect and everything just clicked into place. Here are twelve images that touch on some of the highlights. 

From January to April I was studying at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, where I finished a post-degree certificate in Design. Strangely I have no photos that reflect that bout of academia. Though this photo was taken during that time in my old bedroom in Halifax. This is Hank, the cat I had on loan for nine months, he was a total shit and I miss him very much.

 

A highlight from the wintery months in Halifax was that I got my first tattoos, as seen here above a hairstyle that I made up and sport often. 

My birthday is in late April and as a special treat, my friend Krista and I took a two day trip to Prince Edward Island. I had never been before, it was an amazing little vacation and my best birthday yet.

In May I went on the first half of my Photobooth Expedition! I ran an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds I needed to do this research for my graphic novel. I was overwhelmed by the support I received from family, friends and strangers. The first trip was to Los Angeles for the International Photobooth Convention, followed by a trip to Montreal to visit Auto-Photo's warehouse.

In June my parents who live in Edmonton and my sister who lives in Montreal came out East for a visit. Together we went to Newfoundland, it was the first time any of us had been. I was blown away by the province, its history and charm, it's so unlike anywhere else in Canada. I would go back in a heartbeat. Below is a photo of Cape Spear, the most Easternly point of North America.

In July and August I continued my Photobooth Expedition to Europe. This was a last minute idea that I concocted while in LA. It was spurred on by a rare exhibit of photobooth art. My trip started in Brussels, the exhibit was at Le Botanique, featured below.

After Brussels I spent a week in Paris conducting interviews, it was exhilarating and very good for my French skills. From there I went to Amsterdam, for more interviews and to visit an old friend. A huge highlight of the trip was visiting one of the world's largest private collections of vintage arcade machines, complete with a rare photobooth model of course.

From there I went to the south of France. I stayed with an artist couple in the Roman city of Nimes and attended the Rencontres de Photographie in Arles.

I finished the interviews I needed with quick trips to Turin, Florence, Cesena and Milan. I spent most of my time in Italy on trains. I headed back to Halifax and within a few days I exhibited at the Dartmouth Comics Arts Festival. Soon after I packed up my things and said a tearful goodbye to my east coast friends.

En route to Chicago, I stopped in Toronto for a week partially on photobooth business and partially to help my little brother move. After much ado I finally arrived in Chicago, I'd only been in there for a few days when I got a phone call about acting in a short film in Toronto. So shortly after settling into my new apartment, I headed back for the Nuit Blanche weekend.

Chicago in the fall was lovely. With the help of old and new friends, I easily nestled into my new neighbourhood, the Ukrainian Village.

I can't begin to explain how fortunate I feel for my time at A&A Studios. I learnt so much and met some great people. Amongst the many projects from those months, I re-built an old photobooth, which I'm now the proud owner of! It's seen here, without it's back, being used in an experiment.

Leaving Chicago, I made some quick trips to New York City, Burlington Vermont and Montreal. 
In December I came Edmonton to have surgery on my jaw. After some initial hiccups the healing has been smooth sailing. I'm here now, working on a grant application, submissions to publishers, editing an animation, doing freelance illustration and working on a visa application! A&A Studios has offered me a job and if all goes well I should be moving back to Chicago for the long term at the end of February. 

I'm anxious to see what 2013 has in store.

Drawing Factory

Last week Picnicface’s Canada was released in bookstores across Canada and I final got to see my drawings in print! I did these illustrations in February but I wasn’t able to show anyone, so it feels new and exciting. The book also happens to be hilarious, and a good gift idea for comedy lovers, but maybe not for historians.

And speaking of illustrations, during the last two weeks I’ve converted my bedroom into a drawing making factory. I’ve been very productive and made a few new pieces I’m really happy with… however I’m not quite ready to share them yet.

In the meanwhile I thought I’d complete this survey that’s been going around some blogs. I’m such a stickler for lists!

♥ buying.... this necklace! I bought it two weeks ago on Etsy from Noble Town Vintage and I’m waiting for its arrival.

♥ reading… just finished Hark A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton and just started Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli.

♥ listening... still in the Halloween spirit I’ve been listening to Youth Lagoon and Dead Man’s Bones (check out this song).

♥ going... to the Strange Adventures afterparty for Hal-Con (Halifax’s sci-fi & comic convention).

♥ eating... veggie, gourmet sloppy joes and homemade cookies.

♥ watching... I’ve had a Philip Seymour Hoffman long-weekend. I watched Synecdoche, New York on Friday, Doubt last night and Capote tonight or tomorrow.

Two Hands Two Crowns Contest Winner!

Jack from the United Kingdom is the contest winner! I like his stream of consciousness approach to list writing and I also want to personally try some of his suggestions. His list is posted below (for the North American readers, in the UK candy often comes in paper or plastic tubes.) Jack picked the lion button for his prize.


ways to make art in everyday life

-Put sweety tubes on your pets legs for an interactive "robot" installation
-While waiting in a ticketed que imagine you are playing the national lottery (to increase chances of winning take many tickets)
-Video the suffering from a hangover and edit it into an "Exorcist remake"
-frame used loo-roll as expressionist painting
-Cut holes in the crotches of your trousers to make effective and fasionable jumpers.
-Speak at half your normal speed, hey presto a David Lynch eerie dialogue
-Talk to a stranger
-Be very, very messy when applying mustard and ketchup to things
-Walk slowly backwards with a video camera then watch it rewind to create the effect of walking forwards.
-Walk forwards with a video camera then watch it in rewind to give the impression of walking quickly backwards
-When using skype on an Ipad put it to your ear and pretend you are a midget with an Iphone
-Pretend you are a giant by treating your Iphone as an Ipad


Thanks to everyone who contributed a list, more contests to come in the Spring!

Writing Right: One Month Mark!

I’ve been practicing writing and drawing with my right hand for one month now! One of the things I’m doing to measure progress is recording a video of myself drawing the Two Hands Two Crowns logo on the first day of the month. The new video is up, check it out! Also here are some lists related to my new pass-time.

AMBIDEXTROUS OBSERVATIONS:

1. It is surprisingly fun, I look forward to my lesson every day!
2. When I practice in a waiting room or on a bus, people can’t help but stare and formulate ideas. I assume they assume I grew up in the wild and just enrolled in elementary school.
3. Cursive is easier than printing because you don’t have to lift the pen, however is doesn’t look as neat.
4. Its very annoying to write while wearing a watch, I’ve started removing it before each lesson.
5. When drawing with both hands, even if my brain can send two messages to my hands, I still only have one set of eyes.
6. I hold pens differently in my left hand than I do in my right, soon as a let my right hand hold a pen the way it wanted to, things got easier.
7. When using both hands simultaneously, drawing is easier if the hands are mirroring each other, however, when writing it is easier if the hands are doing the same action.
8. I’m mildly better at basic mental math, perhaps this is because of my left brain is more simulated.
9. It’s not hard to make your printing look perfect, but very difficult to make it look perfect while writing at a reasonable speed.
10. On February 9th, CBC’s radio program Q featured Gwendolyn Bounds, a specialist who talked about the benefits of handwriting on the brain. This made me feel infinitely superior to the average person.

NEW EXERCISES FOR THIS MONTH:

1. Designating one day every week where I only write with my right hand.
2. More simultaneous exercises, both mirrored and identical motions.
3. Start making the switch from pencil to pen.

The image above is of a simultaneous lettering, when I did it I kept my eyes mostly on the right sheet, trusting my left hand to know what it was doing. Normally (when writing with just one hand at a time) my penmanship is at least twice as good as what you see there. It seems by ordering my brain to do two tasks at once, each task is executed at half its normal quality. Interesting!

Two Hands Two Crowns Giveaway to Best List!

My new website is up and I feel FANTASTIC. I owe many thanks to talented web designer Scott Borys for putting up with me for a second time (Scott also programed my first website.) Designing it and setting up my Etsy shop occupied so much space in my brain for so long that I feel very exhilarated to move on to new projects. Firstly I’m helping with the new online photobooth art gallery, Fotomaton.org. Secondly, I’m doing the illustrations and cover art for a new book. And thirdly I’m designing the t-shirts, posters and a mural for an improv festival happening this spring. (More on these as they unfold.)

And for the next three months I’m going to do a new weekly series on the blog. Each Sunday I’ll showcase a photobooth strip I’ve found along with a narrative I’ve fabricated. Stay tuned for what I think are riveting photos!

And now the CONTEST DETAILS!

In celebration of my new website and the Two Hands Two Crowns shop on Etsy I’m giving away a Beast Button (of the winner’s choice) to the Best List. The list must be original and related to Art, Design or Craft in some way. Post it below in the comment box. There’s no maximum number of entries per person and the “judging” will close on Wednesday March 2nd at midnight EST time. I’ll be judging the entries with my experience as a self-proclaimed list-connoisseur but there is no rubric. Be creative, have fun and good luck!

Design Philosophy

Recently my cousin asked me to help her design her bedroom. I don’t have any training in interior design but I’ve always made my bedrooms shrines to my interests at the time. It definitely started as a teen when I needed a safe haven to escape my large and loud (and loveable) family. When I was 15 I asked my sister to drive me to the paint store so I could secretly paint my room while my parents were camping with my brothers. Since then I’ve helped friends and siblings out with their rooms and tried to make the most out of less than desirable living situations while I was a student. Here are snapshots of four of my bedrooms over time. The last one is my current room, which is a work in progress.

Here’s the list of things I wrote for my cousin and another list of things that have been occupying my mind as of late.

INTERIOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
-Your living space is a reflection of your head space
-Space should be clearly divided into the functions it serves; don’t apply your make up in the same spot you do your homework
-To avoid things getting messy and unorganized, make sure everything has a designated place
-The bed should only serve one (or two) functions; don’t eat in bed, don’t work on your laptop in bed, don’t use your bed as a laundry hamper
-Think in clusters and be mindful of composition
-A good palette should have two or three neutrals to ground things but don’t be afraid to have several catching accent colours
-Search for one of a kind items in junk stores, you will love it more if you restored it or it has a story behind it
-Big box stores are fine for finding your furniture but your decorations should be personal to you
-Hang photographs and fill the room with personal touches, like art work from friends
-Have multiple lighting arrangements so you can change the mood when your room is serving a different function
-You don’t need to invest a lot of money in a nice nest but you will need to invest a lot of time

THINGS I WILL HAVE WHEN I’M A REAL ADULT
-A different pair of prescription glasses for every day of the week
-A library in my house, with a sliding ladder
-Either so many children or so many cats
-Someone to do my taxes for me
-Investment property somewhere far away
-Beautiful tattoos on my arms
-A studio/ office in my home that nobody but I (and maybe my cats) are allowed in
-A photobooth

Stay tuned to the blog, my website will be ready this week and I’ll be announcing a Two Hands Two Crowns product giveaway!

More Lists

Here are two lists I’ve written in the last two days. They aren’t quite complete but I think the general idea gets across. Also, in the comments from the previous post Marco requested I provide photographic evidence of my black, white and red years. I don’t normally post photos of myself on the blog but I will make this exception, here are three photobooth pictures of myself, circa 2003 (there are so many more examples but oh my god, they are embarrassing).

THINGS THAT AREN’T SCARY IN MOVIES BUT ARE TERRIFYING IN REAL LIFE:
-Reality turning from black and white to colour
-If a stranger (no matter how attractive) decides unbeknownst to you that they love you and vigorously romantically pursues you
-The thoughts that all locks could be picked in seconds with a hairpin
-Getting hit with a baseball while watching a major league baseball game
-Someone that decides to disregard all of their professional aspirations and start a longterm relationship with a prostitute they’ve known for a few days
-Finding a snake in your boot
-The casual use of very strong drugs
-Sitting in the passenger seat when the person driving only looks at you instead of the road
-Magic


NAMES I WOULD GIVE MY ENEMIES’ BABIES, IF GIVEN THE RESPONSIBILITY:
-Olga
-Poop
-Quintavius
-Adolf
-Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
-The Chosen One
-Eggwine
-T.E.R.R.O.R.I.S.T
-Carrot Top

Living List to List

I’ve been chipping away at a mountain of work. And though I’ve been working 14 hour days on various projects I haven't completed much. As of right now, I may not have a lot of finished pieces to show for all these hours but I do have a wastebasket full of checked-off daily to-do lists.

Some people have religion, I have lists. I believe they are the most efficient way to manage daily and long-term goals, nevermind being a fun categorical tool! My personal touch when making To-Do lists is two columns of check boxes. The left column is to be checked off once the item has been started and the right column for when it’s finished, to convey the maximum accuracy of your progress!

Though of course, not all lists have to be To-Do lists. They are, most definitely an unrated creative form. I have a few book projects in the works write now and when I can’t find 30 minutes in a day for creative writing I try to at least write a list to get some ideas out. Here are two pretty standard lists (as far as subject matter goes). I will post more (perhaps crazier ones!) in the upcoming days while I chip away at my mountain.

THINGS I WILL LEARN, EVENTUALLY:
-to be perfectly ambidextrous
-flawless French
-basic carpentry
-the names and appearances of about 50 fonts
-advanced carpentry
-how to swim
-how to service a wet chemical photobooth
-how to play the guitar enough to justify owning a guitar
-how to dance, cool

EMBARRASSING PHASES THAT OCCURRED BETWEEN AGES 12 AND 17:
-When I was a hockey fan and occasionally wore my dad’s oversized Guy Lafleur jersey to school.
-The time I learnt everything I could about all the Canadian Prime Ministers with certainty that the knowledge would come in very handy, all the time.
-When everything I owned had to be Anime, no, really, EVERYTHING.
-When my fashion philosophy only had room for black, white, and red clothing, preferably striped garments featuring diagrams of the human heart
-When I wanted to be a writer and titled my first finished novel “Determined Destiny”
-That time I bought a guitar
-When I used Sailor Moon as inspiration for how to style my bangs


The image of my magnet board features magnets from the Regional Assembly of Text in Vancouver, a very fine store indeed.