Allen profile picture

Allen

Artist/Musician interested in meeting new friends and connecting to new business.

About Me

Hi! I'm a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and musician working in the Memphis, Tennessee area. I'm interested in locating more professional freelance work and continuing to pursue my musical interests to avoid a slow death chained to a desk in a cube farm. I play drums and percussion. Currently I'm working with Rocket To Euphoria, Smoochy Smith, sometimes: Bob & Susie Salley, Maria Spence, Jim Mahannah, Gary Phillips, Kenny Hays, and anyone else in town that calls me if I'm not already booked.

My Interests

My beloved, my kids, my family, nature,fine arts, music, photography, earth sciences, earth conservation, paeleolithic history, ancient history, archaeology, population control, ecology, animal rights, culinary experimenting, helping my lady in her garden, listening to live music, playing live music, recording music, having dinner parties for family and friends I love, traveling, being close to nature away from cities, spending as much time as possible with my family and friends, swimming underwater, riding motorcycles out in the country.

I'd like to meet:

Characters. People that are not full of ca-ca. People that don't take themselves too seriously. Individuals that can appreciate knowing a man in his fifties that owns and frequently uses his remote control fart machine. People I can learn stuff from that aren't necessarily out to teach things. Painters that will show me how to land a paint brush right where it's suppose to go. Soulful folks with vision and inspiration. People that still believe humans have potential beyond war and stupidity. Someone that will trade me a working electric car for some of my better watercolors.

Music:

All styles, except most modern country. Steely Dan, The Beatles, The Zombies, The Kinks, Miles Davis, Hebie Handcock, Cozy Cole, Oscar Peterson, Fats Waller, The Allman Brothers, Derrick Trucks, Alison Crouse, Diana Kraull, Louie Armstrong, Sarah Vaughn, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joss Stone, Al Green, Robert Cray, local song writers like: Jere Voegeli, Maria Spence, Susie Salley, Kenny Hays, John Kilzer, JoJo Jefferies, Roger Wild, Otis Cole, Gary Phillips, and great Memphis musicians like Jimmy Arnold, Steve Newman, Mike Adams, Smoochie Smith, Tom Lenardo, Jim Mahannah; (don't get mad if I don't list your name). Memphis has great players, performers and writers!

Movies:

Too many to mention, but here's an attempt: All of Frank Capra's films, Cool Hand Luke, Bonnie & Clyde, Three Days of the Condor, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Star Wars movies, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The 13th Warrior, all of Laural & Hardy's shorts and features, The Marx Brothers films, the Indiana Jones films, Grand Hotel, The Thin Man series, ...too many to list.

Television:

Currently: My Name is Earl, The Office, The Unit, Discovery nature specials, The History Channel.

Books:

War and medieval history books, the Jean Auel series, archaeology, paeleontology, some science fiction, and catalogs. Lots of mail order catalogs and magazines.

Heroes:

My dad, my mom, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, The Beatles, Buddy Rich, Mark Gable, Debbie Gabel, Vermeer, Jan Van Eyck, Leonardo Davinci, Louis Armstrong, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Muddy Waters, Neil Armstrong, Carl Sagan.

My Blog

Grocery store navigating.

Okay, so I'm picking up a few things that didn't make it on the list for the last grocery store visit and it got me to thinking. Derranged shoppers live everywhere. What chaps my ass are those clueles...
Posted by Allen on Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:11:00 PST

Exactly when did I lose control?

Sometimes I feel like Rod Taylor in The Time Machine. Remember that mid sixties movie George Pal animated? Way cool for the mid sixties. There was a scene when Rod was watching his house cru...
Posted by Allen on Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:04:00 PST

Surviving a typical Memphis gun battle.

Usually, I don't work at my day gig on Fridays. But last Friday I had to cover for someone else. The work day was typical until my drive home. I was headed back to the crib while discussing band pract...
Posted by Allen on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:03:00 PST

Dogs, Dander and Doo Doo.

Our family is growing. We've taken in a rescue puppy we named Pearl. She was 19 pounds of mangy bones when my beloved scooped her up off the pavement outside a local deli on a cold Febr...
Posted by Allen on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:49:00 PST

Old Age Ain’t For Sissies

It was graduation weekend and my nephew just completed his BA. The graduation events required two days of carting around elderly family members and working out logistics for meals, get toget...
Posted by Allen on Wed, 14 May 2008 10:58:00 PST

Screaming in restaurants.

It's hard to remember the last time Denise and I had a quiet conversation over dinner in a restaurant. People scream their guts out in friggin restaurants these days. It seems like its everywhere. Scr...
Posted by Allen on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:18:00 PST

Sixty-The New Forty (Not my saggy ass!)

In 2027 will senior citizen centers hire bands that can play "Stairway to Heaven," "A Day in the Life," "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Tied To The Whipping Post?" Even better, in 2047 will nursin...
Posted by Allen on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:34:00 PST

Learning to live with cats.

It's a new life in the big house now, with my beloved fiance and her two aging kitties. Coming from a long history of dogs as four-legged friends, it has been a challenge. For me, it's the first ...
Posted by Allen on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:54:00 PST

New Years Eve gig

You know you're getting old when....Okay, this isn't anything new, but I swear every time I step into a bar for the last couple of decades, there are younger and younger rubbery-bodied little fetuses ...
Posted by Allen on Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:36:00 PST

It's My Birthday!!!

Today, I turn 54. The completion of fifty four years on this planet as the carbon unit know by a few as Allen Rankin. Birthdays should be a time to reflect on one's history and hopes for the future. I...
Posted by Allen on Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:58:00 PST