I’m back.

I’ve been everywhere.

I’ll post about it soon.

JJ is the best.

i’m at the beach. the screen on my phone is broken, but i can still answer calls. you’ll hear from me eventually. i have some basking to do. 

bros

hos

and average joes

first things first:

ok, whatever—i’m over it.

so this  morning i spilt/ spilled (whatever you call it) coffee all over my banksy book. banksy is over in my mind, but this is still an awesome present from my brother a while back and it has cool pictures and makes me look cool as a designer by having it on my desk. so anyway, i wiped it all off and it looks fine. AND SMELLS GREAT! whatever, it’ll probably rot.

my next 4 weekends are booked. out of town to various places, including wrightsville beach. this stresses me out. why? well i’m going to have a great time at the beach and a great easter, but i’m thinking i’ll have to make some mid-week trips to other various places. braveyoung and advent are playing on a tuesday night. it’ll be well over an hour drive, but i wont see these dudes for probably another 8 months. this is crucial. hey, anyone want to give me a ride to boone? tonight? tomorrow night? any night? thomas—you would…

this morning around 7:15 am i screamed “SKKKREEEEAAAAAAAUUUUUUOOOOOO” at the top of my lungs. i was still in bed. my calf locked up in an eye-opening cramp. it was awesome. it still hurts.

i’m supposed to buy a pair of chaco’s for this summer. i hate those things. i’ll stick with vans and no socks. smell? trust me—they wont care.

welp, here is the entire summary of my day:

trick daddy:

“aha ok? whats up? shut up.”

So Devin and I went on a ride last night just as usual. Went down the greenway, peeped some little league games and then headed back towards the plaza.

Devin admits he’s a sucker for people getting his attention while on rides. This proves to be true. As we’re exciting the greenway, this “rough” looking character waves over for Devin to come closer. Devin stops and talks to the hygiene impaired gentleman. The man mumbles about a bike frame he has that is broken. The guy is trying to sell parts off of it. It obviously is some sort of scheme so I start indicating “time to go”.

Sketchy dude # 2 gets off of the bench and gets very very very close to Devin. Now this guy is probably pushing 65 and incredibly drunk. He explains how he is merely trying to take a closer look at Devin’s tattoo. Sketchy guy # 1 also gets up and gets on the other side of Devin. By now Devin is super tense and i’m gently placing my bike on the ground getting ready to deliver the sucker punch of the century when they try something. and then…IT HAPPENED…BAM!—nothing. Absolutely nothing. Devin just backed his bike up “welp guys, we’re gunna head on”. and that was that—sorry for the build up

A few folks have inquired about “that mix cd or whatever you made for that gangster bash thing”. Ok well here it is. This is the Girl With Paws mixtape that I made for J Staff’s birthday bash. It’s a hand crafted collection of samples, beats, accapellas, found mixes, and pure birthday goodness. Number 8 on the mix is a song put out by my buddy Jake Troth, who deserves his own entire entry—i’ll get to that.

Alright here we go, here is the album and download link. enjoy!

“Girl With Paws”

1. Intro
2. It’s Your Buckday
3. Beirut Killah
4. Knackked Up
5. White Winter Hype
6. Stilettos Own The Sky
7. Don’t Hurt ‘Em
8. Everybody Loves You (Jake Troth)
9. Outro

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Today is Graham Flanagan Bennett Jr’s birthday.

I haven’t gone public with my journals (i.e. update this blog) in a long time—this is my apology.

This past weekend I spoke at the Design School of Appalachian State University. They brought me in to speak with the current students about my experience in getting a job. TWAS A BLAST. “No one is hiring” “we’re all screwed” “i’m moving to Africa” ::standing ovation::

No, really— it was wonderful to see kids I havent seen in a while. I was fortunate enough to speak along side Austin Saylor. Austin was the other genius involved with out most important Graphic Design related backpack through Costa Rica:

I’ve been in Boone almost two weekends a month for the past few months. Why The Woods has so much going on right now. The first international group trip is underway. The crew will be flying out to Uganda on May 12th and spending the majority of the summer teaming with Wine to Water and placing wells into Wadupe, Sudan.

I’m am so very excited for this and cannot wait to hear from the group about all of their adventures!

Interesting facts:

My brother is getting married on May 9th.
I have gone back to some songwriting as of late.
I have officially become a lunchtime regular at Phat Burrito, they know my name, my order and my artwork.
Boone, NC is the firefly capital of the world.
I could care less about television or “March Madness”.
I have yet another family like community—this time in Charlotte, NC.
I need to slow down.
I feel the weight of “much needed time” with so many far off friends.
I’ve been cranking out tattoo designs for folks left and right.

I am currently looking for more freelance opportunities—whether it be design, photography, illustration, music, entertainment, parent sitting (thats right, i’ll entertain your folks), basically anything.

I’m growing tired of this motorcycle for hire stuff:

Now i would like to plug my talented friends in no particular order:

these folks have upcoming shows:

http://www.myspace.com/camaratamusic
http://theduggdugg.blogspot.com/ (Art Show!)
http://www.myspace.com/timmakesmusic
http://www.myspace.com/kidmonsterz (Tim again)
http://www.myspace.com/jeremycurrent
http://www.myspace.com/andycherrymusic
http://www.myspace.com/giantnc (BraveYoung) (you know who)

I’ve been filling up sketchbooks endlessly, taking photos, and producing all sorts of awesomeness. One of these days i’ll take the time to share them all with you. But for now, here is a taste:

alright faithfuls! i’ve come back! now be excited!

__thomas

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas or whatever. I have been pretty horrible at updating this thing—between traveling, holiday events and hanging with folks that are in town for Christmas, etc.

I’d like to bring attention to this year’s Christmas for a Cause event. I was lucky enough to be in Boone and help out this year. Trevor Owens did an amazing job putting this thing together. All the proceeds this year went to fund our Wadupe Well project through Why The Woods. You can find out more info or get a copy of this year’s CD here.

Also, I launched my company’s Holiday site http://www.burkeholidayrecipes.com/ the password is “snowflake”. I had a fun photo-shoot with of all the employees—things get wild at the office when you mention Christmas props.

For those of you on the list for my Christmas Holiday mailing, know that in total there were over 140 people to respond with an address. This means $60 in postage alone, i’m picking up the cards from the printers tomorrow so they should be in the mail soon. Some of you probably won’t get them by Christmas but know that they will come and they will rule and you will be blessed and and and…

Oh YEAH! one more plug: Alicia wrote an awesome Christmas song! The recording really doesn’t do it justice, but there a kids in the background so it makes everything awesome! Alicia Camarata

Wow, what an awesome game. Trey and PJ came down and we met up with Coach Magazu’s Wife (Magazu is the Panther’s Offensive Line coach, his son Dominick currently plays for App State) for an awesome night of football.

Panther’s dominated 38-23 and kept the crowd hype the whole time. Mrs. Magazu kept us entertained and apparently we are to start a singing quartet at the begining of the year.

We had a nice little meet and greet afterwards amongst the likes of Julius Peppers, Steve Smith and former Panther Mike Minter.

Thanks to the Magazu clan for having us along—twas a blast.

the entire photo set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33208047@N02/sets/72157610902596093/

I’ve been busy traveling and such but i’m going to try and have this regularly updated. If this is not possible, just come and hang out and you’ll get the better version. 

Recent goodies: var-art exhibit and my bike.