Auchter's Art

Earlier this week I was pulling into work when a replay of a Renee Montagne interview with the great Mel Brooks came up on Michigan Radio.

I took the the opportunity to sit in the car and listen to the entire thing. It was good timing all around. Like always, he made me laugh out loud, but he also gave me some perspective.

Like most of us, I've pretty much run out of things to say about the election.

Any thoughts — from salient points to outraged rants — have been expressed.

I see many (cartoonists, commentators, Facebook posters) are settling now for "wow, what a messed up election season this has been" reflections. And that's certainly understandable.

In the spirit of today's cartoon, allow me to tell you some things that you already know:

It's getting to be an archaic reference, so for you kids out there: Back in 1975 when Gerald Ford was president, upon arrival on a trip to Austria he stumbled down the stairway when exiting Air Force One.

A common question these days is, "How did it come to this? How did we end up with these presidential candidates?" The simplest answer is, "It's our fault." Would a curious, engaged, and active electorate have generated the current tickets? Probably not.

In 2009, more than 11,000 untested rape kits were discovered in Detroit's abandoned crime lab. Rape kits contain the physical evidence of a victim's sexual assault. When processed, the DNA data generated can be used not only to bring perpetrators to justice, but also to add this information to a national database of sex offenders.

Listen, if you got yourself a big ol’ pot of roiling outrage going right now, I’m not the one to tell you to take it off the heat.

It’s election season and who am I to talk you out of the delicious indulgence of indignation? I’m an editorial cartoonist, for crying out loud!

Who else thought when you first heard Basket of Deplorables: "That's the perfect name for a punk rock band"?

Well I definitely did, and it got me thinking.

Punk rock was in general a reaction to what rock and roll had become by the mid-1970s.

It had more or less bypassed its original audience: the young and the disaffected. Radio stations had become categorized, playlists were standardized, and established acts were given every advantage over the new and different.

My first instinct was to draw the weighty Student Loan Debt object as an anvil.

You guys know what an anvil is, right?

An anvil is a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The block is as massive as it is practical, because the higher the inertia of the anvil, the more efficiently it causes the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece.

Yeah, that's not very helpful for me, either. How about this:

Telling the wife of your boss at a dinner party that she is a racist is not a career enhancing move. Turns out, people don't like to be called racist — even if they are.

Let me explain.

CARTOONIST'S POV:

If you spend more than a few moments with my wife's family, there is a pretty good chance you're going to hear a Caddyshack reference. A quote from the 1980 film will work its way into the conversation — sometimes in context, always funny.

So coming off a week's vacation with them, it's not hard to find the inspiration for the punch line in panel three of the cartoon.

There is nothing quite as annoying as the overenthusiastic zeal that comes with the recently discovered — especially when it has been commonly known and readily accessible for years and years.

So I apologize in advance, but, OHMYGOSH, YOU GUYS! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SOO LOCKS?! THEY ARE AWESOMINGLY AMAZING!!! 

Last month, I finally made my first visit to Sault Ste. Marie to see the Soo Locks.

ARTISTS POV:

In the cartoon series South Park, there is a classic episode titled "Gnomes." In that episode, a high-strung, over-caffeinated boy named Tweek is freaked out when gnomes repeatedly sneak into his bedroom at night to steal his underpants from his dresser. Tweek tells his fellow grade-school friends about the gnomes, but they don't believe him.

There are few universally shared experiences these days. The ability to indulge our varied interests make points of intersection increasingly rare. One of the few exceptions is layoffs. Whether you have direct experience with the swinging axe or just near misses, we are all familiar with the type of "right-sizing" recently announced at Dow in mid-Michigan.

In her later years, my wife's grandmother suffered from dementia. She was the same extraordinarily sweet, wonderful person she had always been, but her short-term memory faded and her filter disappeared. For a time she lived with my wife's family. Their formal dining room became her bedroom — it was easy to keep tabs on her from the adjacent kitchen. 

She would go to her room to watch the TV news, and as my wife did her homework in the kitchen, she could hear Nana talking to the news anchor or reporter as she watched.

Artist's POV:

I've worked in the business world for quite some time now. From private to public companies, startups to established corporations, employee to contractor. I even had my own company for a dozen years. So I think I have a fairly broad understanding.

Artist's POV:

A cop shoots a man dead. Is your first thought to want to know their racial profiles?

A man uses a military assault rifle to kill multiple people. Is your first thought to hope for a reason that won't conflict with your political views?

A neighborhood teen takes his own life with a handgun. Is your first thought to wonder why a handgun was available to him at a moment of despair?

A young woman is gunned down in Chicago. Is your first thought to consider how this might affect gun control statistics?

Artist's POV:

Last month, Rick DeVos complained aloud via Twitter that the state flag of Michigan was "ugly" and "non-useful."

Well, sharing needlessly judgmental observations is what Twitter is for, so we likely would have all moved quickly on to the next snark if DeVos wasn't (a) the founder of ArtPrize, and (b) offering $500 to the best three redesigns.

Artist's POV:

I was trying to work up some righteous indignation about Michigan's fireworks laws and the decision in 2011 to allow in-state sales of the loud, semi-dangerous variety.

Maybe it was being awoken at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday by somebody’s sudden need to express their patriotism very close to my bedroom window.

Artist's POV:

Remember the comedian Sam Kinison?

It's fine if you don't.

In fact, I would advise against YouTubing him. (And I disclaim all responsibility if you do.)

But back in the 1980s he had a particularly edgy standup bit about world hunger and Western popular reaction to it (Feed the World, USA for Africa, etc.). As was his style, Kinison suckered you in with a low-key, seemingly reasoned assessment of the situation, then, BANG!, smacked you upside the head with a loud, audacious screaming rant.

ARTIST'S POV:

There is a scene in the movie Raising Arizona where a couple of delinquent brothers go to rob a bank. They feel pretty confident about their plan because they fancy themselves sophisticated criminals. As they bust in the front door of the dusty, country bank, one of the brothers shouts out, "All right, ya hayseeds, it's a stick-up. Everybody freeze. Everybody down on the ground."

CARTOONIST'S POV:

People ask me all the time, "What are you?" This can be disconcerting. But what they mean is, "As an editorial cartoonist, are you Republican or Democrat? Conservative or Liberal? Socialist or Capitalist? Left Wing or Right Wing?" And so on. My standard reply is that I am not strictly defined by any of those things — I am, if anything, a Contrarian.

CARTOONIST POV:

How much do I like beer? Well, I can tell you this: My wife and I recently traded a large and well-maintained trampoline for a single 12 ounce bottle of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. Those who know me would likely say that was out of character. (Not the trading things for alcohol — that actually is in my wheelhouse.) No, I'm talking about the deep appreciation for something like Founders KBS — a high-end, critically praised consumable. I'm really more of a eat-because-I'm-hungry, water-from-the-faucet, breakfast-cereal-for-dinner kind of guy.