Booze-fest

This picture was made with assorted photo textures. It illustrates a story about elephants being sedated with ALCOHOL when they are transported in certain countries.

Booze-Fest


Speaking of BOOZE, 2006 has come and gone and along with it my least favourite holiday of all. Some people express frustration with the pressures of Valentine’s Day or Christmas. I even know one reactionary curmudgeon who dislikes Halloween. But for me NEW YEAR’S EVE is the holiday I most like to dislike.

Other holidays are criticised for the rampant materialism and crass marketing, but most have some idea at their core that I can relate to. Boozing up and hitting the town so as to have your tongue down the throat of a drunken stranger at the stroke of Midnight just isn’t a worthy goal…

…besides which, how come it never happens for me? Boo Hoo…

I have tried to get into the spirit of the occasion. Gone off to wherever you have to go to get boozed up, and watch the fireworks displays… I’ve put on the fancy clothes and shelled out the money for a posh “New Years Eve bash” a few times. I’ve always ended up stranded with hundreds of booze-addled people trudging over broken Champagne bottles and fighting for taxis at 3 am.

The times that I’ve enjoyed New Year’s Eve have been those spent with a few friends who did something else. Like a dinner party. One time I even saw in the New Year while sitting by a campfire under the stars when camping in Death Valley. I liked those particular New Years Eves because they were a bit more reflective. If the traditions were different, New Years Eve COULD be a moment to pause and reflect on the past, present and future… but all that often gets obscured by booze, belligerence and broken glass…

Anyway, I have been engaged in a bit of reflection of my own recently. Not just over the events of this last year. I’ve also thinking about events from many years before, as I continue to sift and sort and scan my photo collection. There are already 3 galleries online and I should have another up soon.

Happy New Year, everyone!

13 thoughts on “Booze-fest”

  1. I agree whole heartedly Jamie! It’s ALWAYS a let down, too much build up. The best ones for me have always been the quiet ones as well. Oh… well, there was that one time in Vegas, but the was the millenium and the exception to the rule.

    Happy New Year!

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  2. Jamie- Happy New YEar… I love the skin texture, it looks real- In a cartoony way. That wrinkel on the bottom left of his gut is GREAT…

    sam

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  3. John>> thanks for hearing me out. I have 160 posts in this here blog going back till 2001, and I somehow avoided any RANTS until now… But what is a blog without at least one rant?

    Sam>>I am glad you spotted that particular part. I fiddled around with it for quite a while to get it to work.

    Reply
  4. Marcos Mateu>> thank you for visiting and leaving some pleasant remarks. that is a great website you have, by the way.

    Mr. Blecha>>Hey man! New years Eve in Londinium must be pretty hectic; a reasonable quantity of alcohol gets sucked down there even on a regular night…

    Glad that you like the photos. I will have some extra galleries up once I have sorted through all the stuff I have recently scanned.

    The textures are either
    A) regular old paint splatters that are scanned into Photoshop and then combined with the line drawing (which is mostly pencil but sometimes ink) or..
    B) Some photo textures that i have messed about with in Photoshop. That was the case with the picture in this post.

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  5. One of my most pleasant memories of my year in Korea was New Year’s morning atop a mountain at sunrise- for the Koreans get up at dawn to see in the new year, which is actually far more meaningful, makes a lot more sense, and sets a good precedent for the year to come. Luc agrees with you about New Year’s Eve too. We are usually in bed asleep by about 10pm….

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  6. Yes, it is difficult to take in a holiday with such mega-expectations. Imagine what it’s like to have this day, in addition to being a drunken glass broken fest that has a built in kiss attached to it, ALSO be your BIRTHDAY. And to repeatedly not be kissed at “that moment”, but know that you are also not being kissed on your birthday…oh my. Life would be sad if it weren’t for the humor and irony of it all. I have to laugh each year when I think of how, for one reason or another I end up un-kissed, on this unfortunate holiday that is also my birthday. Oh lord! haha

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  7. Julia>> Oh dear, having the world-wide snog-fest fall on your own birthday does add an EXTRA level of angst to the proceedings doesn’t it? Hopefully the next one will be better? I guess it could be worse though; my pal Carol’s birthday is on valentine’s day.

    Reply

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