FAMILY TREE

PORTRAITS ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH AS FAR AS POPULARITY GOES. THE OWNER OF THESE TATTOOS CHOSE TO GET THESE A COUPLE YEARS AGO. PORTRAIT TATTOOS WILL NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE. PORTRAITS WERE MADE FAMOUS BY SUCH ARTIST AS JACK RUDY, MARK MAHONEY AND FREDDY"COYOTE"NEGRETE. NOW THERE ARE UP AND COMING PORTRAIT TATTOO ARTIST SUCH AS JOSE AND CHUY.NOT JUST ANYONE CAN DO PORTRAITS. SEARCHING FOR AN ARTIST LOOK FOR THE SKILLS NOT THE LOWEST PRICE. IF THAT FAILS CALL YOUR LOCAL TRAVEL AGENT AND COME SEE ME.

PROOF - R.I.P

CHECK OUT EMINEMS BROTHER NATE KANE. BLASTED OUT HIS BACK PIECE IN TWO DAYS. TRIP OUT ON THE JOE LOUIS FIST MONUMENT IN DOWNTOWN DETROIT CITY. THIS THE SECOND PIECE HE GOT FROM ME. HE WANTED TO CUT OUT THE BULLSHIT AND GO STRAIGHT FOR A BACK PIECE.

THE LAST LAUGH/ SECRET STASH

WE STASHED A COUPLE OF OUR PERSONAL COLLECTION OF BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITION "LOST ANGEL" TOYS THAT ARE IN STOCK AND FOR SALE AT THE LAST LAUGH STORE LOCATED AT 129 E 6TH ST
LOS ANGELES CA, 90014(BETWEEN MAIN AND LOS ANGELES ST)
YOU HAVE TO SEE THESE TOYS IN PERSON. DON'T MISS OUT AGAIN! GET YOURSELF ONE....

THE CHEST PIECE

THIS IS THE CHEST PIECE THAT GOES WITH THE BACK PIECE I BROUGHT YOU YESTERDAY. RAY IS SICK WITH IT WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING WORK DONE AND SITS THROUGH A SESSION LIKE HE IS GETTING A HAIR CUT.. LOOK OUT FOR HIS RIB CAGE PIECES WHICH I WILL POSTING SOON.

CHASING THE DRAGON

THIS IS ONE OF MY LONG TIME CLIENTS WHO HAS BEEN LOYAL IN HIS PURSUIT TO GET A JAPANESE BACK PIECE. SINCE THEN HE HAS BLASTED OUT HIS RIBS AND CHEST.. HE DOES EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AND IT SHOWS WHEN YOU SEE HIS COLLECTION.

THE PASSION

THIS IS ONE OF THE HOMIES WHO WANTED TO DEDICATE HIS BACK TO THE PASSION AND CENTER IT WITH THE SACRIFICIAL CROSS TOPPED WITH A CROWN OF THORNS AND FRAMED WITH ANGELIC CLOUDS TO ENHANCE ITS SIGNIFICANCE. YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG WITH DOING A PIECE THAT CAPTURES YOUR BELIEFS.

PROFILE: DANNY D & BUGS GONZALES

WE BROUGHT YOU FLICKS OF BUGS AND DANNY D'S TOOLS OF THEIR TRADE.. HERE IS A PROFILE SHOT OF THEM AND A COUPLE OF ONE OF "THE MANY" THEY HAVE COLLABORATED ON. THEY HAVE ALSO COLLABORATED ON STORE FRONT PIECES FOR UNDEFEATED, SUPREME, STUSSY AND THE "LAST LAUGH" WHICH I HAVE FEATURED ON MY BLOG BEFORE...

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

I JUST WANT TO WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE TIME WITH YOUR LOVED ONES. AS YOU KNOW "THE LAST LAUGH" WAS OPEN ON CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE "FINELINE" T-SHIRT HIT THE SHELVES. I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU WHO CAME OUT TO PICK IT UP, IF YOU HAVEN'T PICKED UP DON'T SLEEP CAUSE THEY ARE GOING FAST. I HAVE ALSO BEEN WORKING ON A FEW "TOP SECRET" ITEMS FOR YOU LOYAL ONES, SO STAY ToONd FOR THE UPDATES..

Have An Ollie Jolly Christmas!

I wrote about legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston back in April of this year at the time of his passing. Though Ollie lived to a ripe old age, as well as outliving all of his fellow members of "The Nine Old Men", it was still a very sad occasion for me. Even though I had only met with both Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas on less than a dozen occasions, these two wonderful artists had kept in touch with me through the exchange of Christmas cards each year. I actually ended up on Ollie's list several years earlier than Frank's, so my cards from he and his wife Marie date back to the year 1985, just a year after I had started my own Disney career up here in the Canadian office before later relocating down to Florida's Walt Disney World.

These earlier ones in my collection are my favourites. (Click on them to see them MUCH bigger!) Ollie was in his 70's and there's still a real vitality in his drawings, similar to his rough animation in his years at Disney. There's also a running gag in these about poor Marie having to wear the mouse ears. I've only included some of the cards which feature Ollie's sketches by the way, as there are several later on where he instead printed humourous photos of he and Marie, where Marie still had to pose in the mouse ears! There are two (of three) cards here that show Ollie transforming into a deer while he and Frank were putting a great deal of labour into writing their book on "Bambi".

The 1993 card shows Ollie as he and Frank were working on their next book about "The Disney Villains", which is an overview of all of the villains that were developed for the films, not all of which Frank or Ollie had necessarily worked on so it's not as in-depth as their previous books. This also was their final publication, as they had now both hit 80 and were starting to feel their age. Ollie in particular was suffering from arthritic hands and therefore finding drawing a more painful task too, and you can see that his line is a little less sure than it had been, yet there still remains that vitality and feeling of inner life in these little sketches. 1995 marked the debut of Gypsy and Frisky, the two beloved dogs that Ollie and Marie had welcomed into their home. These two characters remained a fixture throughout most of Ollie's later Christmas cards.

The photo of Ollie at the top of this post is from his 2005 card - the year that he received the National Medal of Arts for his long artistic career, presented to him by President Bush at a ceremony at the White House in November. As you can imagine, this collection of Christmas cards from Ollie and Marie I cherish very much, especially now that this wonderful man has left us to be reunited with his beloved Marie. Ollie Johnston was one of my biggest artistic heroes and was extremely generous to me back when I was just a kid with a dream of working for Disney one day. I am grateful for the tremendous legacy he has left us, and my personal memories of having been fortunate enough to have known him as a friend.

Merry Christmas to you all, and thanks for continuing to drop by The Cave!

LOST ART

I JUST VISITED MY CLUB BROTHERS AND LONG TIME FRIENDS DANNY D AND BUGS GONZALES. NOT ONLY ARE THEY CUSTOM CAR PAINTERS THEY BOTH HAVE BEEN STRIPING FOR 20 PLUS YEARS. ITS ALWAYS GOOD TO BE ABLE TO MEET UP AND DISCUSS THE SCIENCE OF LOWRIDING. I WAS ABLE TO GET A FEW GOOD FLIKS OF THEM AT WORK AND SOME DETAIL SHOTS OF SOME OF THE TOOLS. WE ARE CURRENTLY COLLABORATING ON A COUPLE TOP SECRET PROJECTS AND I WILL BE BRINGING YOU SOME FLIKS AS WE MOVE FORWARD...

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!!

HERE IS A THE NEW DESIGN I DROPPED JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS. YOU CAN COME PICK IT UP OVER AT THE LAST LAUGH. WE ARE OPEN ON TUESDAY 12/23 AND ON CHRISTMAS EVE 12/24. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CALL THE STORE AT
213.488.0313
THE LAST LAUGH
129 E 6TH ST
LOS ANGELES, CA 90014

Roy Nelson Christmas

From The Chicago Daily News, 1930's.

Walt Scott Christmas

Happy Holidays!

"All the Noise, Noise, Noise, NOISE!!"

Yes, sad to say, but I tend to get a little Grinchy this time of year. Mostly it's due to the drudgery of Christmas shopping. It's not that I don't want to buy gifts for family and friends, mind you, it's just that I end up having a tough time trying to find stuff that I think they will like. In fact, it always seems that I see all sorts of books, CD's and DVD's that I'D like instead! So it does feel like I'm trekking through many a store over and over before I settle on the right gifts to buy for others.

But my main complaint about Christmas shopping is making my way through the overcrowded malls and having my ears assaulted by all of the crappy contemporary Christmas songs! I'm afraid that my tastes in music have always been a lot closer to my parents' generation than that of my own, and in fact as a teen I always preferred the records my Dad played around the house far more than what my peers were listening to at the time. As such, I never did develop a taste for the rock music of the day, although a lot of the pop/rock on the radio back then certainly was a lot more tuneful than what's on nowadays. Which brings me to my complaint.

Why do all of the untalented, similar sounding, young pop/rockers of today feel that they need to release their crap versions of Christmas songs? They all seem to sound the same, as their trilling crap voices meander around the notes without ever really hitting their target, adding in a lot of inane "Yeaaahhh"s to fill in any pauses between the lyrics. And then there are the mindless rappers who have cut melody out of the equation altogether, trying to force in ten times as many words (most of them unintelligible) than the original composers had written in the first place. And all of this tuneless, appalling crap is being blasted at high volume out of every clothing and electronics store that I am forced to pass by.

Now to be fair, there are a few stores and restaurants where I can hear old chestnuts from glorious Christmases past sung by the likes of Bing, Frank, Dino, Sammy, Ella, Peggy, and Nat, but even then there still seems to be a few contemporary crap songs thrown into the mix just to rankle my nerves. Incidentally, why is it only at Christmas that the great singers of the past are allowed to be heard in public at all before being placed in the box of mothballs again for another year? If one didn't know better, one might assume that Bing Crosby had recorded "White Christmas" and nothing else during his entire career!

So there you have it - the reasons for my annual Grinchy demeanor. Please let it be Sinatra singing as I sit down to a plate of roast beast...(sigh)

And speaking of Frank and Dino, here's some fun Christmas music by the all time kings of cool - a surefire remedy for curing Grinchiness:

NO BLUES

CHECK OUT THIS PIECE I DID ON SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER ATIBA. HIS TATTOOS REFLECT SOME OF HIS INFLUENCES AND HIS LOYALTY. THE LATEST PIECE WAS OF THE LATE GREAT MILES DAVIS.