Ragged Clown

A long time ago, I had a girlfriend and I used to sing to her. Continue reading →

Finger Painting

This one’s for Stan.
In one of the universe’s subtle attempts to mess with me, my grandmother died yesterday on the same day that I finished this painting – Girl Seated in a Cemetery by Delacroix. In another week or so, I’ll be standing … Continue reading →
I have a routine now. I google for an image on my iPhone and prop it on my knee while I sketch it on my iPad. I think that’s enough copying for now though. Time to come up with my … Continue reading →
When I first started fingerpainting, I would slap out a picture in an hour or two. As I got better at it, I would pay more and more attention to the detail and it took longer and longer and became … Continue reading →
I might have to take a break from sketching. This one took me forever. More sketches on Flickr.
I did this one on Monday while waiting for Jazz. I used to have a print of this picture when I lived in London until, one day… I was taking a shower before work in the morning when the water … Continue reading →

Pencil Sketches

I’m planning to draw one of Renoir’s dances every decade. Continue reading →

More Posts by Ragged Clown

This week, I started a new job with a brand-new startup. Continue reading →
I’ve always thought of automats as lonely, melancholy places. Continue reading →
Inside every old person is a young person who doesn’t really understand that he’s old now. Continue reading →
My story pops back into my memory sometimes in those twilight moments between waking and sleeping. Continue reading →
I opened the book and, on the very first page, was the program that changed my life. Continue reading →
What would life have been like if Ken and Bill had headed down to those desolate islands? Continue reading →
Sitting in those pews transports me back through my memories and even further back into the memories of so many centuries past. Continue reading →
Our party was on the front page of every national newspaper. Continue reading →
You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground. Continue reading →
One thousand years later, beer is still excellent and the song is still fantastic. Continue reading →
The sweet spot for his glorious Squeak seems to me to be kids who find joy in creating and exploring. Continue reading →
When I was 20, my girlfriend’s brother bought me Bleak House for my birthday saying “I love buying books for people who will get pleasure from them.” I’ve flirted with Bleak House more times than I can remember but there is always … Continue reading →
Crossing the line is an important milestone in a young sailor’s life. Continue reading →
I’ve been meaning to play with Garage Band since we got the Mac. Today was the day. Continue reading →
In 2004, more preschoolers were killed by firearms than law enforcement officers Continue reading →
It cost me an E string and the skin off the top of my ring finger but I am done. Making music is hard. Continue reading →
I’ve had an idea that answers the question “What are dreams for?” floating around in my head Continue reading →
The Ragged Clown finds his home at last. Continue reading →
I was 15 when all the kids in my neighbourhood snuck into Marten’s Grove to go skinny dipping. It was the first time I had ever seen so many girls my own age in the nude. Continue reading →
Because it’s ALL THE TIME, I’ve come to think of it as the taste of cancer. Continue reading →
We went to see a new oncologist yesterday. Continue reading →
A little while ago, Jeff and I attended a funeral because Julio reminded us that you should always go to the funeral and on the way back we talked about how the one thing religions really do well is funerals … Continue reading →
I read about America’s worst mom when she became famous last year. Continue reading →
But the one subject that they really need to teach more of is rhetoric. Continue reading →
Oyasuminasai! First customer visit. After three train rides, four tickets (costing an average of 8 million yen) and about a thousand miles, Australian Jeff, Polish Mirek, Japanese Yukio and English I arrived at our destination (late) and rushed in to … Continue reading →
You can make something out of nothing but the thoughts in your head. Continue reading →
What was it like to have so much hatred for someone she does not even know? Continue reading →
Said Judas to Mary, “O what will you do with your ointment so rich and so rare?” Continue reading →
For about a year, I drew like a maniac and then one day I just stopped.

Continue reading →
Our hero awakes. Startled by the noise and the stranger in his room, he sits bolt upright in his bed. Continue reading →
It has come to my attention that there is a whole continent of people who have never listened to Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds. This is a crime against humanity. The War of the Worlds is … Continue reading →
I didn’t know the solo part in the middle so I made shit up. I fired the drummer. Continue reading →
Life, if well lived, is long enough — Seneca Continue reading →
I read The Quiet American when I was still entirely in love with the romance of South East Asia. Continue reading →
When I hand portraits of my heroes, Francis Crick will be up there with Bob, George, Winston and the others. Continue reading →
We arrived early enough for a beer and the biggest pizza ever shared by two and, once we had our nasty little tickets in our sweaty hands, we ambled up to the stage and picked out a comfortable spot about … Continue reading →
Roger Ebert has written a powerful, meandering essay about shame. Continue reading →
Three atheists tell their stories. Continue reading →
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance three times. The first time I read it, I thought it was the best book ever and it got me reading Plato and interested in eastern religions and philosophy. I also … Continue reading →
Hearing the reports and interviews about the San Francisco plane crash brought back a long lost memory. I had just turned 21 when I joined the nuclear submarine HMS Revenge. I was one of two petty officers responsible for all … Continue reading →
If you never take a chance, you’ll never win. Continue reading →
Tom lent me the Game of Thrones to read recently. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I couldn’t help but think that – if you take away the thin veneer of magic and fantasy – it reads a lot like the … Continue reading →
He hovered, and stayed still, striding on the crumbling columns of air, curved wings jerking and flexing. Continue reading →
I used to sing this song every day to my first baby clown. Continue reading →
I’m not really sure why they call him Slowhand. My hands were much slower than his. I gave up trying to copy the last two measures of the solo and just made something up. Sunshine of your LovePerformance by The … Continue reading →
There is a beautiful, sprawling tree on top of a hill by our house. It has a rope swing and someone has nailed boards into the trunk to make it easy to get up to the crown where a splendid … Continue reading →
Timoth Garton-Ash describes in The Guardian what he sees as the root cause in the difference between the US outlook on the War on terror and the European outlook. He compares the pro-war conservatives in the US with the militaristic … Continue reading →
Remember, rememberThe fifth of November.Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reasonWhy gunpowder treasonShould ever be forgot. A long time ago, there was a King of England called King James I. In the years before James came to the throne, … Continue reading →
Footscray. Council estate. Fancy grammar school. Parents divorce. First in class. Run away to sea. Engineering apprenticeship. Girlfriend. Falklands patrol. Girlfriend. Sonar engineer. Polaris submarine in Scotland. Patrol North Atlantic. Midshipman. BRNC Dartmouth. Quit. Backpack (California, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, … Continue reading →
It’s over a hundred years since World War One. Everyone involved is dead. Continue reading →
Everything I know I have learned from a book or figured out for myself. I wish I had someone to learn with. Continue reading →
A charming meditation on the wonders of old age. I’d previously read Mr Klein’s wonderful little book of philosophy jokes — Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar — but didn’t realize until halfway through that it was the … Continue reading →
Diversity is good for software companies. It helps us make better products. Continue reading →
I compared notes with some friends and we agreed that lots of people don’t know how to talk to someone with cancer. We thought a few tips might help. Continue reading →
Fuller’s Extra Special Bitter is the second best beer in the world. Continue reading →
Better to go down in glory, adventurers to the very end, than to wait for the end to come to us. Continue reading →
Who made it big? Was it George? Or Andrew? Continue reading →
Bob’s post about liberty reminded to to finish a post I started about 3 years ago. Most people think of politics in terms of left and right. In America, there are liberals and conservatives and anyone in the middle is … Continue reading →
A couple of years of ago, Beckham left ManU for Real Madrid and, a few days later someone new showed up wearing the No7 shirt. “Who is that?”, I wondered. Within about 3 minutes, I said “I think we got … Continue reading →
I just got through reading Charles Murray Real Education so I was perfectly primed to be alarmed by this passage Teachers can’t prepare for the content of the tests and so they substitute practice exams and countless hours of instruction … Continue reading →
My list won’t surprise you if you know me well. Continue reading →
Python. It’s not quite Ruby. Continue reading →
Since I have access to all the songs in the world I told Rhapsody to just play me some songs that you think I might like. Rhapsody thought I might like to listen to some Kate Bush which was nice … Continue reading →
Because you’re my best girl and the best you’ll always be.
I bought The Golden Treasury of English Verse and a harmonica as my only mementos of civilization when I set off to go backpacking around the world. I’m not entirely sure why though because I couldn’t play the harmonica and … Continue reading →
It started with a random comment on a blog. A few months back, I blogged about a rather famous party at my school and, last week, Helen left a comment. It’s always exciting to get comments on my blog- especially … Continue reading →
A Buccaneer scholar is someone who takes responsibility for their own education. Continue reading →
I still love my tattoos. Will you still love yours in 60 years? Continue reading →
I finally made it back to my room, giftless and tired, with two hours remaining before our next installment of eating and drinking. I was looking forward to just relaxing in the bath but, when I checked my email… bling-o! … Continue reading →
I’ve been reading a lot recently about how leftists are supposedly disappointed with Obama because he was not leftist enough and centrists are disappointed because he was not centrist enough. I’m disappointed, but none of that rings true with me, … Continue reading →
Why is that these two statement evoke such different reactions? I hear they are making a movie of The Lord of the Rings. I hear they are making a movie of The Lorax. Those of us who are fans of … Continue reading →
Spoilers Ahead! Before I read the book, I had always understood Lolita to be a sexually precocious teenage girl who seduces an older man. In this scenario, Humbert is technically guilty but it’s still possible to have a little sympathy … Continue reading →
I hear the song as a wistful reminiscence of beautiful ways and a mournful expectation of the winter to come. Continue reading →
Like I wasn’t gonna get the new GarageBand for iPad?? It’s pretty good but VERY frustrating. There are tons of bugs and it’s a little too slow to keep up with any kind of complex strumming. I lost my whole … Continue reading →
The third post in which I blog my reactions as I plough through Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. This was the first section where I was listening to most of the albums for the first time and … Continue reading →
Little Red Rooster Too lazy to crow the day.

Ragged Clown

It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing…

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Finger Painting

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Pencil Sketches

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