HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD

Today is my father's birthday, and we all wish him a happy one. He was born seventy-six years ago in Brooklyn, New York.


Frank Sinatra, from "It Happened in Brooklyn."


On the lighter side, Rev. Vinny Cipacella of Brooklyn offers his abridged version of Catholicism.

(Click the arrow even if it says "no longer available")

BROADWAY MURAL VANDALIZED

You won't be seeing this picture on Broadway!

Mark Campos told me the Broadway mural has been vandalized, and the segment I illustrated -- the jazz trio shown above -- was razored from the wall and stolen. The piece was an illustration of the Nat King Cole Trio, blown up to 6 x 6 feet, on a vinyl banner.

To quote Campos in the LiveJournal: "Art thieves have vandalized the Friends of the Nib mural at the old Jack In The Box location on Broadway. A segment of the mural, which is printed on vinyl banner material, was razored out of its place on the wall and removed. Below is a picture of the missing segment, which was created by renowned local painter and illustrator Robert Rini."

The missing link

"Renowned" might be going too far, Mark, but thanks for putting the word out. I participated in the mural project with my fellow Friends of the Nib (including Mark), and the project was sponsored by the city, Sound Transit, to beautify a boarded-up Jack in the Box. The artwork would have been up eight months on a highly traveled block of Broadway, in Seattle, if the vandals hadn't ruined it. Write if you know anything.

More pictures of the mural HERE.

LOVE IN THE YEAR 2000 TRAILER

I did some concept drawings for an indie film, "Love in the Year 2000." It's a strange, sci-fi story about love in a future world. It is currently in production -- in spite of the ironic date in the title -- and I'll have more about it soon.
Here is the trailer for the film that includes some of my artwork. For more about the movie and my concept art, click HERE.

WORDS & PICTURES

Jim Woodring at the KBOO studio

When we were in Portland last month for a Friends of the Nib art show at Floating World, artist Jim Woodring and I were interviewed by radio station KBOO. SW Conser and Bill Dodge have a regular show about comics and art called "Words and Pictures." Anyway, our interview airs Tuesday, March 11th at 9:30.

LISTEN to the interview here it on the home page, http://www.kboo.fm/node/6276











Bob Rini, a face for radio

Check out more of Jim Woodring's visionary artwork here. To see more of my artwork, look here. For more archives from the "Words and Pictures" radio show, click here.

INTO THE MYSTIC

Back in 1978, I hitchhiked from the Pacific Northwest down the coastline into Mexico. I was just twenty-two, ready for adventure and romance, finally free from school and family and society and my own doubting mind. That's how I felt, anyway. I stayed in Mexico several months. I learned enough language to get by, made some friends, played music, climbed pyramids, drank tequila on ancient cobblestone streets, and pondered the great questions well into the wee hours with all the vigor of a twenty-two year old. My senses were wide open. I fell in love with the place -- the mountains, the towns, the music, the people. I fell in love with a girl, too, and thought that might last a while but things change quickly at that age. One night, near the end of my stay (I must have known on some level it was time to go home) I found myself wide awake in San Miguel, tinkering with an old black radio.

The radio was a piece of crap, and I fiddled with the controls and adjusted the antenna and scanned past the usual heartbreaking Norteno laments, wedding polkas, the off-key brass of mariachis, until I finally found something familiar - faint at first, then louder, coming across the Gulf from some mega-tower in Louisiana. I can't convey the feeling, sitting there alone at the kitchen table in the middle of the night. It wasn't exactly homesickness, and it wasn't sadness, but more like a feeling of distance. Great distance, and time. The song played clearly and faded away. Van Morrison, Into the Mystic.