Patrick Alexander's Personal Internet

National Young Writers’ Festival

National Young Writers’ Festival
30th September – 4th October 2010

If you’re going to be in Newcastle for NYWF, or one of the other ‘This is Not Art’ festivals, or if you, you know, live there, it seems reasonable to assume you might want to come to one of the events I, me, am involved in. They are…

  • going to be entertaining and/or fun
  • all on Friday October 1st, as it happens
  • these:

Staple Manor hosted by: Rebecca Clements and Patrick Alexander
Time: Friday 11:00am – 1:00pm
Venue: Staple Manor
The program will tell you something about ‘pulling up a cushion’ and hanging out with Rebecca and me in a vaguely creative way, but NO, in fact, we have something awesome planned: A COMIC-MAKING WORKSHOP/LESSON SOMETHING. Yes! You don’t need to know how to draw, nor will we be teaching anyone how to draw, so you don’t need to not know how to draw, either. What we hope to convey in this workshop, in the least prescriptive way possible, is how to put your pen down on a piece of paper and move it around and then have a comic. So come along and learn the anticlimactic secrets behind hit webcomics like Raymondo Person, KinokoFry, and Hilarity Comics! (Other cartoonists very welcome indeed.)

Microfiction Write Off
Time: Friday 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Royal Exchange
Live, competitive writing of tiny stories, hosted by me. Yesss, I get to be a game show host! From the program: “
Have you got a sharp mind and a quick pen? Can you create compelling characters and complex narratives in just a few sentences? Join 12Words and battle it out with on-the-spot micro narratives, judged by a live studio audience.” Sounds like a dang time!

Drawing Jam
Time: Friday 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Venue: Festival Club
That should say ‘Comics Jam‘ because that’s what it will be. If you come to Rebecca’s and my Staple Manor workshop, you can then come here and engage your sexy new comic-doing abilities, alongside actual geniuses such as me again, Rebecca Clements again, David Blumenstein, Christopher Downes, and Kirsten Reed, who is not a person known to me but I bet she’s brilliant.

Sketch the Rhyme
Time: Friday 8:30pm – 10:00pm
Venue: Festival Club
From the program: “An interactive hip hop gameshow where speed drawing meets rapping meets live hip hop beats. Artists sketch on paper that is filmed and projected live. Rappers freestyle about what the artists are drawing. The audience is invited to participate as the improvisation is structured into games.” Yeah, this is gonna be amazing.

*

Hmmm, I believe I will be tired by the end of Friday, yes.

Sound Club Sweet

Enjoy cute tune!
Use in your videogame!
Neko and wan-wan, hello!

[ DOWNLOAD .ZIP (37 MB) ]

Maybe not exactly a chiptune album, but a chiptune album in spirit. Cute, beep-boop-videogamey tunes that tell a story, possibly about the kitty and the doggie on the cover, but that’s up to you.

If you’re not downloading the .ZIP already… have a listen!

01 - Cooperation


02 – Daydreaming – with Rebecca Clements


03 – Where are we?


04 - Wandering and Wondering


05 - Everything Fits Together


06 - Death


07 - Mr Fun


08 - Für Rebecca


09 - Collaboration and Friendship – with Rebecca Clements


10 - Ready for Anything


11 - VICTOLY!


12 - The Journey Home


I wouldn’t mind terribly at all if the music of Sound Club Sweet compelled you, through tears of joy, to pay for it. If you enjoy it; if you find yourself listening to it more than almost never, please consider making a PayPal donation. (I suggest $5.00, but whatever’s good for you.) There’s absolutely no obligation, but it does help me to pay the bills and devote time to more entertaining projects like this one. Thank you!

Sound Club Sweet began in November 2009 as a handful of tunes created for the TIGSource.com ‘assemblee’ competition. I just created some music and threw it out there, for anyone to use in his or her game. In the same spirit, you are welcome and encouraged to use the music of Sound Club Sweet in your videogame, or any other project. Please ask for my permission first, but don’t worry — I’ll probably say yes. ‘Looping’ versions of all the tunes are available here: [ DOWNLOAD .ZIP (17 MB) ]

Relevant links:

Thank you! Have a cute time with Sound Club Sweet.

– Patrick Alexander (パッチ)

Donation Postcards

Recently, for a couple of months, I offered original, custom artworks to readers of Hilarity Comics who made PayPal donations to the site. And here they freaking are!

(I also added these to my deviantART gallery, with little descriptions that I couldn’t be bothered repeating here.)

Happy New Decade

That’s a nengajou commissioned by my friend Justin in Shizuoka (the city I lived in, in Japan). I was so pleased with it that I asked Justin if I could use it for my own New Year’s emails. Thanks, Justin!

2010 is the year of the tiger, so eat lots of Frosties I guess? Or you could enjoy the Japanese tradition of choking on mochi:

Because of mochi’s extremely sticky texture, there is usually a small number of choking deaths around New Year in Japan, particularly amongst the elderly. The death toll is reported in newspapers in the days after New Year.

It’s a new decade. The year 2000 was ten years ago — what the hell? Where did ten years go? From time to time a young adult will email me and say something like, “I grew up with your comics.” What? What? How is that possible? What does that mean?

Various Illustrations

Everything Says Hello (2009)

This post was originally a portfolio page, but I’ve changed my mind about how to organise such stuff on this website. You can now consider this gallery an overview of the last few years, up ’til the time of posting.

The illustrations below are sampled from both personal and professional work, including a number of commissions for private clients. If you’d like to see more of this sort of thing, visit my deviantART gallery, and/or read some of my webcomics.

YES, OF COURSE Patrick does commissions. Apart from his usual comics and illustrations, he would especially like to design character stationery, and make art for videogames somehow. Just putting that out there.

Jam

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Made by Rebecca Clements and me, Patrick Alexander. This is our tribute to Michael Jackson; I think it is the best tribute.

Thanks to Jake, Komala and Wander.

‘Me on 3′ application

Originally added to YouTube 21/8/2009.

My application video, to be a host on the national broadcaster’s new kids’ channel, ABC3. It had to have a ’3′ in it, if you’re wondering what that’s all about.

I didn’t hear back, so, this application was NOT SUCCESSFUL. I know! Unbelievable.

Thanks to Doug Bayne for camera-doing and good advice.

Extra special thanks to SACKS COFFEE ROASTERS, for letting us take over a corner of the café for a few hours. It is a good café; please visit it and tell them we sent you: 343 King St, Newtown (Sydney).

http://www.sackscoffee.com.au/

Music:

  • Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – Little Spanish Flea
  • Capsule – キャンディー キューティー (Candy Cutie)
  • Angelo Badalamenti – Laura Palmer’s Theme (Instrumental) (from Twin Peaks)
  • Naofumi Hataya – Guitar Showdown (from Space Channel 5 part 2)

Exclusive Interview

Originally added to YouTube 12/12/2007.

I filmed this months ago, in summer. I suffered many mosquito bites. For you, I suffered.

Basically, I had this video in my head, so I went and made it. I really like it.

Unchained Bananas

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Originally added to my YouTube channel 29/11/2007; later removed “due to a copyright claim by WMG.” Now it is here, for everyone’s bewilderment, once again.

Why Did You Grow A Beard?

Originally added to YouTube 28/8/2007.

More than any other song in history, ‘Why Did You Grow A Beard?’ by They Might Be Giants best captures that most animal of human emotions: RAGE.

This is a scientific fact and not open for discussion.

This song appears on Cast Your Pod to the Wind, a bonus disc that came with The Else, that is also available on iTunes apparently!