newyorkette

When I sell a cartoon, or see one published, I like to put up my rejects for good measure! So, first, here’s a link to my latest cartoons to appear in The New Yorker, this week a Halloween-themed one, and earlier, a childhood/artist-themed one. If that’s not enough, here’s a IQ-test game called “I don’t get it” from the Cartoon Issue, in which one of my old cartoons makes an appearance!

Now to the rejects!

I tried to come up with some images for The Bubble Lounge, one of my illustration clients, because I didn’t like the photo they asked me to use for a champagne delivery promo I was working on for them, but both my ideas were rejected!

Oh well! Here they are:

This one was inspired by a Japanese delivery truck logo I once saw in Tokyo.

And this one just popped into my head, inspired by a Le Monde graphic  for newspaper delivery used in their subscription ads:

WARNING: Don’t click on this link below till you’ve read the results of my calls and clicks!

Okay, so I have the day off today, never mind all the errands I have to do, but I decided to do my civic duty and check that the voter assistance websites and phone numbers were actuallly assisting people, since on the last day of in-person registration, they totally let us all down by giving out false information on pre-recorded (and out of date) messages, with no live operators to back them up, since it was a Saturday. Mind you, I know where and how to vote: I’m doing this to see how the system would work for someone who doesn’t know.

The first thing I did was a Google search of “voting in New York”. I came upon this phone number, listed on a few sites: 1.886.VOTE.NYC
This is the WRONG number. The correct number begins with (866), not (886). See what happens if you dial the (886) number. Imagine what you’d do if you were a less spirited person facing that crazy loop: give up, or perhaps just listen to the conspiracy theories that have begun swirling in your head?

If you find the official voter assistance website, you’ll see three options for finding out how and where to vote:

Search with the Online Poll Site Address Locator

Call the Voter Phone Bank at 1.866.VOTE.NYC

E-mail your complete home address to us at vote@boe.nyc.ny.us and we’ll e-mail your polling place location back to you. (Please put in the subject line the borough in which you reside.)

The third option is seductively easy. So I tried it. I clicked on the link, and a window opened up in my own email browser, into whose subject line I duly placed my borough, “manhattan”, and into whose body I typed in my complete address, as directed. See what happened:

From: carolitajohnson
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 10:37 AM
To: *VoterRegoutsideEmailAddress
Subject: manhattan

[imagine my complete address here, which I’ve deleted now for this post because I don’t want to give it out to the world]

Here is the reply I got:

> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 12:50 PM, Cathy Basham 
> wrote:
>> GO TO WEB SITE
>> WWW.VOTE.NYC.NY.US
>> AND CLICK ON POLL SITE LOCATOR
>>

Hey! Why not just reply, “run around in circles, puny voter!”

So I replied:

>——-Original Message——-
> From: carolitajohnson
> Behalf Of carolita
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 12:58 PM
> To: Cathy Basham
> Subject: Re: manhattan
>

> Thanks for nothing, lady.
>

And to which Cathy Basham replied (note the expressive of anger/impatience all-caps answer):

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 12:59 PM, Cathy Basham wrote:
> WHAT DID U WANT
> U SENT NOTHING BUT YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS
> YOU ARE WELCOME
>

And to which I reasonably replied:

On this website, which I presume you know about:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pollingplaces.html
there are the following instructions:
E-mail your complete home address to us at vote@boe.nyc.ny.us and we’ll e-mail your polling place location back to you. (Please put in the subject line the borough in which you reside.)

It does not say to include a letter of introduction, and a Hi How are you?

-carolita johnson

 

I have not heard back. Poor Cathy.  I guess she didn’t know that all those emails would be forwarded to her. What surprises me is that I’m apparently the only one clicking that link and following instructions.  Way to get the word out, Voter Assisters!

Anyone else feel like writing to Cathy?
Here you go: CBasham@boe.nyc.ny.us

Other problems include:

– outgoing recorded message lists outdated information (such as voter registration information for past elections, as old as 2007). – assister answering all my questions with “it’s on the website.” When I say “no it’s not,” she says, “yes it is.” Repeat. – assister not knowing what “ex-con” means (when I asked if ex-cons can vote), or assister who knew what an ex-con was saying “only if they have finished their jail sentence and are no longer on probation or parole.” Which is not true. Parolees cannot vote, but probationers can.  Or so says another website.  Anyone know better?  Tell me. – assister saying no political t-shirts or buttons allowed within 100 feet of the polling site, in contradiction to what I heard on the radio today.  Anyone? – assister replying to my question of “what if it’s 8:59pm and I am on a line around the corner behind 200 people?”, with “I doubt that will happen.” When I insist is is happening right now in Florida, she says, “if you are on the premises on line, you will be allowed to vote, even if it’s after 9pm.” So I ask, “is around the corner outside considered on the premises?” And she simply repeats her first answer. Anyone?

UPDATE:
after trying several websites and phone numbers, this is my recommendation for the best, non-partisan information information online: rockthevote.org, and for the best by phone, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), where you can “oprima el numero 2” if you need spanish-language help. You can make sure you’re registered where you think you’re registered, as well as ask any question—they’re very patient—, and report any abuses you may encounter.
If you’re registered but simply don’t know where to vote, try a google maps search: maps.google.com/vote

I totally have to give credit to SNL tonight for this pun. (I’d put up the link but it’s not up yet.)

UPDATE: I found the SNL link!  I think she says “terriers”! Not sure, but that’s what I heard!
Crazy McCain Rally Lady

I made up and distributed a bunch of flyers of the above for my own neighborhood when I learned people could still register in person today! It seems people have been getting misinformation from the 800-NYC-VOTE helpline, which only has a recorded outgoing message saying that the deadline to register is Friday, October 10th. Which is not true! Deadline for mail-in registration was yesterday, but deadline for in-person registration is today, by 9pm in NYC.

So, with twenty minutes left, I decided to put it up on the website, just in case. You never know! Click here for a link to a PDF file with all the addresses, mostly schools, where you can still run in panting for breath to register in the home stretch. Addresses begin on the second page, by borough.

And if you get there even one minute before 9pm, don’t let them argue with you, deadline is 9pm tonight. Give ‘em hell if they try to stop you.

I did a variation of this portrait of Obama (see above) for a client, and decided to make a t-shirt too!  If you buy one, proceeds go to the Obama campaign, unless otherwise requested (like if you’re a McCain supporter, and prefer me to keep the proceeds, because nope, I won’t send them to the McCain campaign, ha ha). 

Very reasonably priced!  To see the, “you betcha!” on the back, and/or to order a shirt, click on the image below! There’s also a poster!

 

Me and fellow TNY cartoonist Michael Crawford at TNY Festival HQ, in the Acura Lounge, which commissioned me to draw this backdrop above, as well as the caption contest drawing below for this event.

In case you were curious, the image was the client’s idea, and below is the first draft, which was modified to the above as follows: – client was afraid it looked like the people were going to be run over by the speeding Acura, so crosswalk and clear “walk” signal on street sign were added, while pedestrians were instructed to look both ways, even though they had the light – client was afraid butterflies and birdies might end up splattered on windshield, so all flying objects were directed by flight control to fly in a safer zone – client was afraid the bunnies might be run over, so bunnies were sent to “live on a farm upstate” (meaning, I cooked them into a nice stew and served them to my children). – client didn’t like “bush” in back seat, so “bush” promptly relocated to the roomy trunk, while the flowers growing in the street were picked and placed behind the cartoonist’s ear in a coquettish manner – cartoonist refrained from submitting a version with pedestrians bodies flying in the air after being hit by speeding Acura, and multiple bunnies flattened with tire tracks plastered on street.

Hooray for Photoshop!  And FYI, I did not provide a caption myself.  

Can anyone guess where I read this, last night?

“[she], seeing the house laughing, began to laugh herself. The gaiety of all redoubled itself. She was an amusing creature, all the same, was that fine girl! Her laughter made a love of a little dimple appear in her chin. She stood there waiting, not bored in the least, familiar with her audience, falling into step with them at once, as though she herself were admitting with a wink that she had not two farthings’ worth of talent but that it did not matter at all, that, in fact, she had other good points.”

 

Answer: Zola’s “Nana.” 

I just thought that was a funny coincidence.  Click on the image for the article I got this pic from.

To be fair, nobody actually asked me for this (or the other, previous) Paul Newman drawing! I drew it the day I read of his demise, and then thought, why not see if TNY needs a drawing. They didn’t, so, that’s why this one is “rejected.” It was well-received, though—and I must add that Max has been monitoring my progress in portraits and Photoshop very patiently!