Weekly Dose of Mark

Sunday, October 12th 2025 • 10/12/2025

Freelance Fandango started slow on Monday. I was studying Japanese when Penny came in with my painting of Frank the Rabbit in a Field. Frank is a character from the movie “Donnie Darko.” I’d done the painting as a joke. After I introduced it as a print, it became one of my top sellers, and I’ve sold hundreds. Anyway, she gave the painting back to me. It did not pass muster for display at the hospital because it was too creepy. I held no hard feelings. I’m comforted that one of my other paintings, based on another movie, “The Giant Behemoth,” did make it onto the walls. However, I have yet to turn that one into a print. It doesn’t have enough pizzazz.

The next person through the door was Stan. A few minutes later, Chris came in, and this time his wife joined him. She’d brought in a large manga digest. I’d seen it last week when Krista and I were in the bookstore adjacent to Uwajimiya. Manga digests are notable for being printed in black and white on pulp paper and for being big, the size of an old phone book. What was unique about this one is that it was printed in English. Chris’s wife explained to us that this was a new company hoping to start the same digest format in the US. This first issue was a free promotion. Readers were to vote on their favorite stories inside. The stories with the most votes would go into further development. She’s spent a great deal of time studying Japanese, and I think she is more fluent than either Stan or me. She took a look at my Japanese notebook and thought my writing was excellent.

Every year, the city of Tacoma celebrates local artists in October. One of the things they do is offer studio tours on weekends. Krista said it was this weekend and said I’d love to go and do it. We couldn’t visit them all, but we did pretty well by adding group locations like galleries to the list.

Our first destination was Wedderman Architecture, run by Jenniver Weddermann. We wanted to check out her place because her building is located on Yakima, the same street we live on. And for decades, the building was a grungy biker bar, which we never dared to step inside. The rows of hogs parked outside it made it look more like a biker’s clubhouse than a bar open to the public. A couple of guys bought the bar from the owner and were going to turn it into a restaurant when the pandemic hit. They were lucky and were able to sell it for about the same price they paid. Jennifer said it was a bit of a mess on the inside, with trenches dug into the floor for unknown reasons. She remodeled it, and it looks super modern and cool. There’s a drop-dead gorgeous mural that goes on the side of the building this summer and only enhances the overall look. Jennifer told me that she’s done welding workshops before and has a back area set up for metalwork projects. I asked her if she would be open to collaboration, as I’ve been doing more public art, but don’t have the means to make the metal parts in my tiny garage. She says she’s very open to collaboration.

Our second stop was the Proctor Art Gallery. Sharon Styer was there leading a workshop. It was the first time I’ve seen her in person since she broke her leg. Krista fell in love with a couple of the paintings there, nearly all of which were extremely affordable. She took one home as it works perfectly with the very first piece of art she bought decades ago at the Ballard Hospital when we lived in Seattle. I’d met the owner, Pamela Phelps, at the last Tripod Slideshow, where she was one of the three presenters. I told her how much I enjoyed her presentation. She became interested in the type of work I do. And she was very encouraging, suggesting that I create affordable art. Being a part of the gallery is pretty easy. Artists take turns manning the gallery. The gallery takes a more modest cut than other arrangements I’ve heard about. We will have to go back there and get some more. It’s great stuff.

We then visited SPUN Clay Arts Studio and Gallery. Jennifer from Spaceworks was there helping out, and I introduced Krsita to her. There was a group pot that visitors were working on, so I added a little something to it. Krista and I got excited and talked about possibly doing some of the workshops they have there. Krista’s been wanting to work with clay for years, and I love the medium.

Our last visit was to the studio of Steven Grice. I met Steven about three years ago at Arts at the Armory. We might have run into each other earlier, but that’s the first time I definitely saw him standing next to his work. I absolutely love his art style. He calls his studio Sweetlygrotesque, and his paintings are the type I would love to do. His garage, converted into a studio, is very inspiring. He credits his wife for helping him organize the space. We talked a lot about the different shows. He doesn’t do as many as I do, but he’d be great at them. Of course, he’s charging more for his originals. But they are fantastic, even at the prices he’s currently offering. Steven is an undiscovered gem in the art scene, yet to be recognized. I was drooling over his notebooks. I promised to send him links to some conventions I attend, of which he was unaware.

This week’s dreams:

Oct 6 #idreamt one of the companies that manufactured dreams was bought out by another dream company. Initially, they intended to sell all assets and fire all employees, but then decided some would be functional as recurring dreams.

Oct 7

# Idreamt I became a drummer in a rock band. Apparently, if I get super-high on mushrooms, I become possessed by a very talented drummer named Carol. I don’t recall much else, except that Carol was having a blast.

Oct 8

#IDreamt that a boy was given the challenge of building a model of a two-story house with LEGO. However, it was wobbly as he built the walls using 1x2s instead of the basic 2x4s.

Oct 9 #idreamt ghosts could be at two locations at once, the netherworld and where they died. Sidewalk ghosts tend to gather and play a simple game, reporting how many people walked on their location during a day.

Oct 10

#Idreamt a few years after, as a near-extinction event, our tiny community voted that I take a group and form another community. I wasn’t thrilled. But since we’d agreed to abide by our laws, I’d honor the commitment.

Oct 11 #idreamt when spirits in the afterlife met their forms and their surrounding would form to the time and place they were in life. Other spirits would be joined, reinforcing the theme. Oddities occurred when those out of time or relation came by.

Oct 12 #IDreamt I was a spirit drawn to a claustrophobic mall in Korea, where a group of high school students on a class trip were shopping. I materialized as a student wearing a puffy silver coat. I was dumbfounded by the language barrier.

Anime we finished watching this week:

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter, 12 episodes (2025) Rating: 5

This anime started strong, but we found the writing growing increasingly vacant and the premise growing thin. Towards the end, it became a bunch of girls squeaking at the camera in voices so high I felt like I was watching a bad episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks. While it is set up for a second season, the spouse and I have agreed that if it does come back, we won’t pick it up.

This week’s movies:

77. Oct 7. Werewolves (2024) Rating: 4

I’m a fan of werewolf movies, but I did not like this one. If I wanted to see a plot that is just a bunch of running with the occasional death, I’d watch an Italian Horror movie from the ‘70s. Because then I’d be sure to see something odd or provocative. This Hulu film repeated tropes.

78. Oct 9. Clean (2025) Rating: 5

Can Adrian Brody be an action hero? I think so. And he does a fine job taking this script as far as it would go. Yes, there is a dog, but it doesn’t have a name, so no extra point there. What I like about it is that you can keep track of the body count (or injury count). I like the way the movie is handled. Aside from a good performance, I did not find any new takes on the revenge genre.

79. Oct 10. Brick (2024) Rating: 6

A German sci-fi film that canters into horror with its claustrophobic atmosphere and gruesome events. I enjoyed the double plots, which explore the theme of seeking an escape from imprisonment. What I don’t like is the plot hole that I won’t bother to mention here because I want to see if it annoys you as well.