The President's Red Phone

Last Tuesday I worked as an election inspector, which meant a long shift sitting in the gymnasium of the grade school I attended in the early 1980s.  It was a slow election, so I had ample time to look around the place and trip out on nostalgia.  I sketched this on my lap in short bursts over the course of the day.

I remember being fascinated as a kid with those basketball nets, specifically the collapsible framework of pipes and cables which held them to the ceiling.  At the start of first grade gym class we were usually directed to sit in a group on the floor under one or another of the nets, and they always seemed impossibly huge and heavy hanging above me.  I imagined they could fall down and squash me at any moment.

The basketball nets were noticeably less forboding this time around, but still interesting.

Pencil on paper, 8x10".

Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815-November 27, 1852)

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was a writer and mathematician who worked on Charles Babbage's early mechanical computer.  Her work in what she called "poetical science" led her to a legacy as the first computer programmer, and continues to inspire generations of hackers today.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

I have some post-it notes illustrated with Tom Servo of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." For today's daily doodle, I added some more Servos to one.

Alan Turing (June 23, 1912-June 7, 1954)

Turing was a pioneering scientist in the fields of mathematics, logic, cryptography, and more. His work was fundamental in the development of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Prosecuted and ostracized for his homosexuality, then a criminal act, he has been posthumously pardoned.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

I just scratched this little fellow out while half-listening to a TV show my girlfriend was watching.  I don't know who or what he is, but painting him made me feel a little better.

Callie and Izzy is an upcoming webseries it’s been my pleasure to be part of.  The show is by Nicola Rose, with whom I’ve previously worked on The Media Show and the musical Aisle Six.

More info coming soon, keep an eye on it!

My homemade Tom Servo hanging out at the movies in 2004.  This display seemed to catch his interest for some reason.

He's a totally functional puppet, built out of most of the same parts as the MST3K crew used (or, where unavailable, fan-made replicas of same.)  I'll put up some clearer pics of him soonish.

My "Save the Clock Tower" flyer prop replica from Back to the Future.

A couple versions of the actual canonical flyer prop, as used in the film's production, have been in general circulation for a long time; you can grab them and other free printable BTTF props here.  I had one on my wall for ages, but was never really satisfied with it.  It's filled with placeholder text, unreadable on-screen but nonsensical in real life, and certain other details don't ring true; there isn't a date on the newspaper's front page, for one thing.  So, I created a new flyer from scratch, correcting errors and replacing the filler text with original newsprint written by myself.

This was made without re-using anything directly from BTTF; even the photo is something I heavily 'shopped from this free one.  I wrote the article text with lots of nods to BTTF continuity as well as some other obscure references and in-jokes, friends' names, etc.  (There's a secret signature of mine hidden somewhere which isn't the "Rob Vincent, Dot Net" or "R.T.F. News Wire" bits, which nobody to my knowledge has found yet.  If you see it, contact me or leave it here in a comment and claim some geek points!)  If you wish to customize or replace the article text, the font is Times New Roman 18pt bold.

Printed up at 300 DPI on the right shade of pale blue paper, these result in a prop replica which I feel is a lot neater in real life than the genuine prop.  Alternately you could print it on white paper, photocopy it, copy the copy, and so on to soften the edges and approximate that 1980s multi-generational xerox look before finally getting it copied onto the blue paper.

There's still a bit of work to do on this before I'll consider it finished.  For one thing, I had to improvise the masthead text with a calligraphy font that isn't all that good a match if you look closely; if I can't find a closer font I'll have to remake the text from scratch someday.

These were a big hit when I dressed as the "Save the Clock Tower" lady for a Halloween parade.

2021 edit: Wow, this blew up. Nowadays around half of the Clock Tower Flyers for sale online by shady prop dealers are my version, which you can still get totally free here. If you paid anyone for a copy of this flyer, you were ripped off.

This did, however, lead to something nicer; my version was found by actual Back to the Future licensee Doctor Collector, who were impressed enough by my work on it that they negotiated my services to rewrite the news text from scratch once again for their authorized version of the prop which is part of their “Back to the Future Time Travel Memories” box of replica items from the BTTF universe. If you have that kit, which is full of so many very cool things any BTTF diehard would enjoy, you have an all-new and official version of this flyer which was written by me.

It wouldn’t have been cool on either of our ends for Doctor Collector to just reuse my free fan-art in their version and sell it, but through their very kind efforts at reaching out to me I found myself actually writing authorized BTTF-universe material. That’s an achievement I won’t soon forget.

Sometimes upon encountering a captcha the obvious captchart gag comes immediately to mind, and won't leave one alone until one finds the right photos to 'shop.

Public domain sources: 1 2

Carmen "humdog" Hermosillo (d. August 10, 2008)

Artist, writer, researcher, and poet Carmen Hermosillo was a participant in online communities, from BBSes, the WELL, and other early electronic forums to modern social networks and virtual worlds, and studied their place in our lives.

Hermosillo is portrayed here with one of her many virtual avatars.

Acrylic on canvas, 7x5″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.