Here on this label you see the Appenzeller people.

I was told they own the biggest brewery in Switserland.
They are smaller than normal swiss people, not as small as depicted on the label but you bump you head to their doorposts.
As you can see, they wear earrings and smoke their pipes upside down.
They celebrate their new year on 14 january and on this occasion they wear huge hats with miniature houses on them, even smaller than the houses they live in.
Some of the Appenzeiler people wear realistic tree suits.
They have no health insurance "I can take care of my own body" the Appenzeller people say.
We played at the Mariaberg in Rorschach, a few miles from the Appenzeller community.
We did not see one of them, which as the Rorschach people say doesn't mean they were not there.
The venue Mariaberg was a former whorehouse closed down in 2004.
Mowing Marcel went to the attic where the whores once lived and left in a hurry.
He took a picture of the roster of the Rorschach whores.

Back in Stuttgart.We've been here with the Daniel Johnston tour and slept in the same hotel. The breakfast brought back some good memories. Here's Rob, having a fine fine breakfast.

We played at a venue called Zwolfzehn. There were some real interesting urinoirs. You can piss a little ball into a little soccergoal. Looks like some real fun but it was kind of dissapointing. You just can't miss.

More photo's here

Here's the last cover for now.
Today the John Dear Mowing Club will go towards Germany and Switserland.
Mowing Marcel, from Appie Kim, will join us. Mowing Sean is busy with his conservatory exams.
when the internet is willing I'll write about it.

4 weeks ago the vinyl company said the 7'' will be ready in two weeks.
They will be ready soon, but now I can't take them to Germany and Switserland tomorrow. Bummer.
My father gave me a box of romantic comic cover postcards. Here is an interpretation of one of them.
The girl in front looks like she lost her legs, now she can't dance with her boyfriend and her mother. And that's sad.
 

I never guessed I was just a....

Wait, Doug! Only a silver bullet can destroy a werewolf!

source here

Doug raised his riffle...

to be continued...tomorrow

I'm obsessed with LinkedIn. I'm building a huge network.
I'll invite everyone I ever saw or talked to or did some business with. And everyone I think I ever have seen or talked to or did some business with. In the meantime I'm waiting for business deals. 
After all this time people finally know where to find me. All the business deals they had in mind... well I'm ready to negotiate.
Got Email! Voltaire is following me on Twitter now. Voltaire? The enlighted philosopher? Great, let's check his LinkedIn profile!

I did it!
Cancelled my TV and internet cable connection.
I just want internet, no TV, but they won't split it.
I can choose from 100 different toothpastes at my supermarket but I can't choose for just the internet. They want me to watch TV. The cable company is abusing their monopoly position.
TV bores me, commercials make me nervous and more important I can't stop watching.
There must be some way to receive just the internet connection.
I got 1 month to find out.
Worst case: posting my daily drawing/log at the WiFi free library.
It's like saying goodbye to a lover.

Today I was interviewed by a Dutch newspaper about the single/silkscreen project.
I think I said what I had to say but these inteviews leave me always with a lost feeling.
A photographer came and shot some photo's while I was playing on the missionary harmonium.
They left with a piece of me.
Here's the last page of my Moleskine book, still waiting for new paper. I have to buy a new Moleskine book.

A clean home can be such a joy!
Why do i keep forgetting that?
Why do I keep postponing this fulfilling job and prefer watching stupid things on TV
Genes? manhood?
I can be extremely happy when I just cleaned out my house and very depressive when its a mess.
Cleaning bipolar.

I had some luck with the annual car inspection. Only the windshield wipers had to be replaced. And that's a good thing because now you can see things when your driving through the rain. On the way back home I began to like my Volkswagen Wave. A temporary thing I guess.
Here's another interpretation of a cover. Like John Dear Mowing Club covering a Dean Martin song.

original here

Sometimes I cover covers. Comics off course. It's a kind of meditation. Then I found this wonderful blog.
Yesterday they posted my contribution!

Now I've gotta take the red Volkswagen Wave to the APK inspection.

Black Cat's real name is Felicia.

I think Black Cat's love for Spiderman was my first awareness of the concept: Love.

I like Black Cat more than Cat Woman.
Ow, and I saw this 'Do It Yourself' Youtube documentary about D.I.Y atrtists on Marco Raaphorst's site.
It's really reasuring to see there's a world next to the exploitation of hope.

Roadtracks festival, Aschaffenburg. Germany.

Sue Ellen is saying goodbye...

Here's the video Ilse made while we visited Daniel Johnton in Texas.

youtube version here!

I don't like drawing girls.
They are always:
Too sexy, or
Too comic, or
Too beautiful, or
Too ugly.
Maybe that's the way I judge girls in a drawing. They're always asking for attention and ruin the rest of the drawing.
Anyhow, I don't like drawing girls.
Here's another Moleskine collage.

Ran out of paper, ordered it, so till then i'm photoshopping my way out of it.

Maybe something for PhotoshopDisasters

Sending these John Dear newsletters is a kind of a thrill. I know it's permission marketing, just read the Seth Godin book. People sign in for these newsletters, so it ain't spam. But it feels strange. I visualize the readers in front of their computer, some readers a little annoyed, some eating leftover spaghetti.
The respons is great. thanks! And I like these mail dialogues. Maybe I put some of them on this blog. With permission off course.

They arrived. All the way from Omaha, Nebraska. My first eBay buy.
The complete series of Beavis and Butt-head comics.
They don't wear their usual Metallica an AC-DC t-shirts but okay.
All in all a good reason to procrastinate(!) for a while instead of writing the John Dear newsletter, make resevations for the van we need later this month to drive to Germany and Switzerland, clean up my house, prepare the Mowingclub meeting this evening, repair my bike and make my daily drawing.

I found a note on which I wrote: "it takes a lot more balls to talk about your problems than beat the hell out of a ghost."
Didn't remember where it came from, a movie, a book, a song? Internet told me, it came out of an episode from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
The whole dialogue here. It's poetry.

The song on the B-side is called 'Secrets are like gasoline' . I picked up the electric guitar since 12 years. Mowing Sean on drums and Erwin Smitskamp plays bass. Together with Erwin I worked out the harmonium part. Karin Camerik does a little backing vocal. She got a great voice and sings much more on 'If the phone doesn't ring, it's me',  wich will be released on vinyl later this year.
This song is about hurting people with secrets.
I don't know the secret anymore but I talked about it to someone who thought he kept this to himself and no-one knew about it. When he realized people knew about this, he literally turned white and fell from the barstool.
Knowing a secret about someone gives you power. This kind of knowledge can destroy friendships. Pretending you know a secret about someone gives you power too. It's the wrong kind of power but it makes the world go round like a big washing machine.

Here, In the cold regions of my home studio, Erwin Smitskamp is playing on the Harmonium.