newyorkette

But are they like the Mets? That’s the question.

Due credit must be given to this painting for inspiring the parents.

Also, this Oscarina also appears at The Huffington Post today, here.

Well, in NYkette’s news, we had a caption contest at The New Yorker, and you can still vote on your favorite caption, here.

And we’ve had a few Oscarina’s in the Huffington Post! I try to make sure there’s on there every Monday. I call it “Political Monday at Oscarina.”

This one is about the middle class worker’s duty to strike:

I’ll always think of this as Roy G. Biv day, you know why? Of course you do, if you ever had to memorize the colors of the rainbow in the right order: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet—ROYGBIV, or, Roy G. Biv, as we art students say to ourselves when we try to remember. Nice guy, Roy.

Congratulations to New York, where we can all be gay in every sense of the word now, as equally as anyone. Boo to you Ruben Diaz, but as this is a democracy, we have to uphold your right to dissent from common sense if you must. Do everything else right, and I’ll be okay with you. But you better do everything else right, bud.

I’ll have to repost this Oscarina (as seen on the Huffington Post recently) in honor of it all. Blow it out your asses, conservatives! (click on the image if you need it bigger).

Oscarina’s getting more and more “likes”, and has appeared a few times on the Huffington Post’s comedy site, notably today, regarding the marriage equality struggle in NY.

Also in the news, I’ve created a page on Facebook, for those for whom newyorkette is not enough!  Please feel free to go there and “like” away. I need at least 25 likers before I can get a username, they say.

I haven’t been submitting much to The New Yorker due to working on more personal stuff, but I’m getting back in the groove, and you will be seeing me there again soon, if they haven’t given up on me in disgust, thinking I just got lazy.

Meanwhile, here’s the lastest Oscarina, for your entertainment. Click on the image to open a larger one if you can’t read the text.:

Or are parents unfair? Oscarina’s latest on oscarinaland.com.

Oscarina never hides her feelings.

Click on the image for the larger version at oscarinaland.com.

Just kidding. Although I did do this latest Oscarina while on Claritin, having finally caved and gone for the allergy meds, what with the cherry blossoms poisoning the air!

By the way, for anyone subscribing to Oscarina previously, your link may be obsolete since I accidentally deleted the entire website and had to start over again from scratch. So, please update! I’ll keep posting here until everyone’s on board, then you can go to  oscarinaland.com for your Oscarina.

(click on the image to see the larger image at home on oscarinaland.com)

As always, Oscarina can be found at oscarinaland.com!

This week I did an Oscarina that I only got silly with after publishing. Silly sometimes comes later, and I like silly. So there are two versions. First and second, below.

And as always, Oscarina can be found at oscarinaland.com.

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I forgot to tell you I’ve been working on a new weekly cartoon, called Oscarina! She’s been getting a pretty good response so far, which surprises me, actually. She’s just a pet idea I had about a grumpy little girl who happens to look and think a lot like me when I was a little girl. Big coincidence! Ha!

Anyway, here’s a sample and a link.

The first Oscarina (click on the cartoon for a larger version in situ):

The ERS’s production of Gatz was one of the more moving theatrical experiences in my life, so when they asked me to donate some artwork for the benefit auction, I was only too happy to do so. I ordered some mypenguin “naked” editions of The Great Gatsby from a Waterstones bookstore in London (because Penguin wouldn’t sell directly to the USA for some reason), but they took so long to arrive that I ended up going to Barnes & Noble to buy whatever edition I could find of The Great Gatsby, and drew on them. I was so pleased with one of the drawings that I had it turned into a rubber stamp to use on the mypenguin books whenever they finally arrived (long, sad story! they don’t use tape on their packaging in the UK, it seems! they are all so polite over there that they just ask the books to stay inside the box, and off they go!).

Here is one of the three books that DID arrive (the fourth is still AWOL —hello, Waterstones!), with my rubber stamp on it:

The ERS’s production of Gatz was one of the more moving theatrical experiences in my life, so when they asked me to donate some artwork for the benefit auction, I was only too happy to do so. I ordered some mypenguin “naked” editions of The Great Gatsby from a Waterstones bookstore in London (because Penguin wouldn’t sell directly to the USA for some reason), but they took so long to arrive that I ended up going to Barnes & Noble to buy whatever edition I could find of The Great Gatsby, and drew on them. I was so pleased with one of the drawings that I had it turned into a rubber stamp to use on the mypenguin books whenever they finally arrived (long, sad story! they don’t use tape on their packaging in the UK, it seems! they are all so polite over there that they just ask the books to stay inside the box, and off they go!).

Here is one of the three books that DID arrive (the fourth is still AWOL), with my rubber stamp on it:

(Click on the goat above, and then on the blue “view calendar pages” link, or here, to see each month’s animal.)

For those that haven’t taken advantage of my “Get someone’s goat” heifer.org offer, there’s the “Critter Calendar,” which contains an animal drawing per month, taken from my heifer.org collection. Some of these drawings are no longer available as originals, having been given away as part of the offer, so this is your chance to have them as a print. Only $17.00 each, two dollars (the profit after cafepress.com’s production fee), will go to heifer.org as a donation before January 1st. I hope to sell enough of them to at least buy a goat for $120.

Personally, I have already bought a goat in my parents name for Christmas, as have a friend or two. I highly recommend this charity—you have probably already received their catalogue in the mail. Check it out!

Click on the pic to see the winning caption. (I don’t choose the winner, in case anyone wants to ask me about it—I leave that to the New Yorker!)

I haven’t done a T41 in a while! Well, here’s one. More TK.

Inakaya:
A fancy Japanese place on 40th street, right next door to The New York Times building. I’ve had numerous occasions to treat myself to a seat at what looks like a sushi bar, but it’s since it’s not all sushi, I’m not sure what to call it. Maybe a robata/sushi bar?  In any case, it’s great to sit there, because sometimes you can catch a frozen but still living crab fidget a little in it’s grave of crushed ice, which is kind of creepy and neat, like watching the end of a thriller about crabs. But it’s also fun because the guys preparing your food will pass your robata orders to you on a long wooden serving paddle, while yelling something purportedly uplifting. Every time they do something there, they yell something out in Japanese, and everyone on the staff joins in. You walk in, they yell, you sit down, they yell, it’s kind of like letting hapy people in a Japanese boot camp serve you. It’s amusing when you get up to use the toilet and they yell something, which I’m sure only happens when they think you’re leaving. (I don’t think they’re saying, “enjoy the super high-tech wand-washing fountain toilet with the heated seat and automatic hiney-dryer.” But they might be. Yes, by all means use that toilet! You’ll be in there all day marveling at the technology.

You’re wondering what robata is? It’s Japanese BBQ. I really like the sweet potato robata, but the okra is also delicious, not gooey at all. My favorite thing to have for lunch is the chirashi sushi lunch special, $18, which comes with soup or salad. I always get the miso soup, which is rich and delicious. If I’m hungrier than usual, I’ll order a side of robata. I’ve also had the bento boxes, which are copious and delicious, but a little more expensive. The cheapest one is still plenty filling.

Inakaya is pricey, but worth it. They do have lunch specials, which are in the high but reasonable range if you’re looking for something extra-special, as well as someplace a little quieter than the rest of the places midtown. I once met a friend there for drinks and sat at the bar for quite a while alone while she was delayed, and felt very comfortable with my little wooden box of saké, and some robata. It’s definitely a place where you can feel at home alone.

That’s a picture of me above at Happy Hour, where they pound “mochi” and let the guests participate. They also share the pounded mochi amongst all the guests present. Full disclosure: I was not alone when I did the pounding (I don’t drink alone at Happy Hour!), but I go there for lunch mostly alone.
Inakaya: 620 Eighth Avenue (Aka: 231 West 40th Street), New York, NY 10018
(212) 354-2195

It’s having a cartoon in the “Cartoon Issue” of The New Yorker!

On a sadder note, Leo Cullum, one of the great New Yorker cartoonists, passed away this weekend. He was a true gent, a swell guy, and a brilliant cartoonist, and I’ll be sad not to see him around anymore. Links to articles on his life and his passing here, and here.

I did this little strip to help promote Adam Wade’s wonderful, exquisitely funny show. Go see it, you’ll laugh a LOT. He is a sixteen-time Moth storytelling slam winner, and was my teacher this summer at the Magnet Theater. After seeing him, you might want to take a class with him yourself.

This weekend on Studio 360’s “Aha moment” segment you’ll hear me! I’m being interviewed about my own “Aha!” moment. The work of art was the movie “Holiday,” with Cary Grant as Johnny Chase, the idealistic young man who wants to “retire young, work old.”

I’m very grateful to Britta Conroy-Randall and Jenny Lawton at Studio 360 for patiently helping me remember not to bump the microphone, not trip over my words, and not repeat myself unless requested to. One little correction to the intro, the discussion with my dad happened when I was a really little girl of about 8, not when I was a teenager!

Click here for the interview.

illustration by carolita johnson

Here’s the latest of my cartoons in The New Yorker magazine. They’re both cartoons I drew a while ago, which may be evident from the drawing style. Sometimes a cartoon waits a little while before being published, for no particular reason other than that there are a lot of cartoons waiting to be published, so someone has to wait a while. It’s nice to see cartoons I forgot about! Much better than getting them back in a “kill” envelope.

and:

In case you’re wondering why clicking on one cartoon links to the New Yorker’s website, and the other links to the cartoonbank, the older cartoons are no longer accessible to me on the magazine’s website, so I have to link to the cartoonbank instead.