More hard hitting journalism!

Hello again, I really like talking picture books, so I thought I would show you some of my favorite pages from a few books and tell you why I like them. Lucky you! Starting with this Matthew Forsythe page from MINA - I feel like I don’t need to say anything about why I love this. LOOK AT IT.

Picture book talk! In my opinion one of the most common mistakes people make when buying picture books is assuming classic=good. A LOT of PBs age poorly, and not because of hot-button issues. They just don’t relate to our current world. So here’s a list of 20 years or older books I still love:

Everyone has these incredible threads about books they’ve read in the past year, and I thought I’d do it too, but with picture books, since I’m an aspiring picture book author/illustrator. I highly encourage you to read them even if there are no children nearby. Here we go!

“Oh no! We’re about to fall off the clock tower and can’t hang on much longer! Call that nine-year-old boy and his puppies!”

So I once asked Kayla if she ever had a sea chanty unit in elementary school, and she looked at me with a weird look and called me “California Boy.” Anyway we all used to go to the tall ship Pilgrim in the LA area to learn about sailing, etc. It sank a few years ago.

Okay I like this one the best

How do we feel about this

FASTER CLEANER LOUDER

Just straight up graphic design might be a better way to go for a braddock redesign yard sign, but I wanted to explore this while I had the motivation.

Out of all the Oscar nominees this year, I only saw two of them (yay parent of little kids!). However the two that I saw one Best Picture and Best animated movie, so my track record is on POINT.

Don’t worry, everyone. I didn’t forget about the poster contest.

Excited to receive my first official poll worker assignment, but I have to say… “4:45 am until dismissed” feels less like doing my patriotic duty and more like my dad telling me how long tomorrow’s yard work will take.

Only true dorks know. If you see this, post a vampire that isn’t Dracula

So my crazy theory on why younger people don’t know about older pop culture figures is that they’ve never been stuck with syndicated television. When I was young sometimes Bewitched reruns, etc were all that were on, so I had a healthy diet of 70s shows introducing me to older pop culture

Another Alexandria 250 Poster detail

Last night a far off acquaintance messaged me in the middle of the night with a random podcast clip talking about how the entire eastern seaboard was under threat of being nuked off the planet. Like… what do they want me to do with that? “Thanks, we’re outta here!!!”

Just over here working on my Alexandria 250 poster entry

“It was the best of times, it was the BLURST OF TIMES?”

Big day!

Anyone here on the Arts Commission? I want to submit to the poster contest, but I feel like it’s implying that they want kids to submit physical poster boards of art… Is that the case or could I print out a digital file and submit it? Don’t want to look like the one weird adult in a youth event.

I just wanna say that this place is a little pricey, but is very, very good.

Also someone in my illustrator group mentioned that they liked these sketches, so that gave me enough of an ego boost to share them here.

The bunny sketch is evolving.

Post a picture you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed

I write these in the darkness of my kids' bedroom while waiting for them to fall asleep.

I mean, I’ve been funnier but sometimes you just have to chip away.

Funny enough, my favorite overall isn’t in English: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

Forgive me being all up IN your feed right now, but I'm just trying to lay a foundation over here.

Okay, so I did it. I also saved my lamest joke for its first official post! BTW who do I ask for the privilege of getting this feed posted to ALX Skeets?

Honest question, would people follow an ALEXANDRIA BEEF BlueSky account?

Were you watching the hearing last night and saw AMAZING locally themed t-shirts like GOD BLESS ALYIA’S WASTELAND and WEST END, BEST END and think “I wish that I, too, looked that in-the-know and attractive”? Well I have good news. BUY MY WIFE’S COOL SHIRTS HERE: port-city-shirts.printify.me

Okay last one...

I'm calling it after we hear @beckyhammer.bsky.social , but you should see my drafts folder. Night y'all! Bike lanes forever!

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Concerning.

Now with Alt Text!

Now with Alt Text!

Now with Alt Text!

Now with Alt Text!

Some good points here.

Listen, I'm just want people to hear different opinions.

Woah, the people are speaking up!

Woah, hot new exclusive and VERY pertinent to the moment:

I refuse to provide more context.

So @kaylahornbrook.bsky.social just came up with my favorite feature for THE ALX BEEF: Listing of the day, but its parking spots.

Friends let me know if you want to subscribe to my new newsletter: THE ALEXANDRIA BEEF All of the best local journalism about who’s beefing with who in our thriving metropolis.

What do you MEAN there’s not another election in Alexandria until APRIL??? How else will I see all my fwends???

Five authors I’ve read at least five books by: Haruki Murakami J.R.R. Tolkien Marla Frazee C.S. Lewis Dashiell Hammett (okay three, but give me a break)

I really want to talk about movies today, but I work from home, so I will force the subject here. Based on my physical movie shelves shown, can you pick out my favorite movie?