What if...

I call this one DECEMBER 26th.

enjoy. and do share.

Whatever shall I name you?

Here is a little comic strip I've been toying with periodically. It's the Christmas Edition. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Eat, Drink and be Mary.

Blast from the past - 2006

To start us off here I'll be posting some stories and comics that people have liked from various places I used to post. Here is an old story I wrote after a long but interesting day in the greatest city in the world, Chicago, from November of 2006:

I love this damn city. It seems like every time I have a bad day the city refuses to let it pass without making me smirk.


Today I woke up in Bridgeport which if you have not been to please stop by for a week and just watch the glorious tapestry of double parked cars with Kerry/Edwards stickers that I guess just wont come off driven by someone named Joey, Bobby, Frankie, or Hector. A place where "this fuckin guy." is considered both a complete thought and social commentary.

I proceeded to go to the Pants Shop where the owner was overly excited to see a customer under 400 pounds and went on to tell me that the ugly plaid pattern inside the coat was the new style "you know, like burberry". Super. He's a nice guy and the thing fit so I bought it.

Stopped by my work in the Oak Lawn area which a is another treat. This is the land that time forgot. A land where the South Side Irish Catholic men are free to wear 'that' sweater and Ditka moustache so thick it could conceal a weapon. I was at work long enough to have the gentlemen who were accosting my customers in the parking lot and asking them to help with credit card fraud tell me that my asking them to leave for the second time constituted harassment. That's just quality reasoning.

After I signed the complaint and the nice policemen took the two gentlemen away I went to a memorial service for a former employee who lost her battle with cancer. It was a scene directly taken out of the Blues Brothers for me as I was in a bit of a funk but the Baptist Choir at Mt Eagle Church in Chicago is one of the best I've ever heard. Lit me right up and I think I recognized one of the guys on keyboards as a pretty popular Radio DJ.

Left there for a first meeting with ***cheap plug begins*** Baron Von Awesome ***Cheap plug over***comedy troupe to discuss ideas for videos and cartoons. On the way I got lost in Wrigleyville (what a super place to not be able to leave for a life long south side sox fan). When I called for directions from North Halsted my severe lack of direction and inability to see street signs at night (broke my glasses 10 years ago and never replaced them) led me to describe the intersection I was passing as such, "I'm at the corner of Halsted and giant rainbow dicks....just help me!"

On my way home from this meeting (when i meet new people to talk about what i find funny i always imagine them registering me on watch lists for everything when i leave) I took Lake Shore Drive. This is one of the most therapeutic streets in the world. There is not a season that it is not gorgeous. No matter how many times i take that route I find something new I love about it.

As I squeezed into the smallest parking space possible in my very diverse and tolerant neighborhood I thought about the city and how I only saw the tiniest of cross sections that day. I stepped out into the cold took a breath and overheard a man shouting at a woman saying, "Then Fuckin LEAVE but CLOSE THE DOOR." I went inside smirk firmly in place

***FOLLOW-UP: I now live a couple blocks away from those giant rainbow pylons on the North side of the city. I will always be a South Side Irish kid at heart but I love my new neighborhood and love the city even more every time I move. From Gage Park to Little Italy to Uptown to Bridgeport to Buena Park to Old Town.... Love it, love it, love it. I was only with Baron Von Awesome for a short time (enough time to do some videos, a spoof commercial and a spoof of Law & Order and a couple performances at The Spot ) but they're still plugging along and i wish them well. Especially since one of them is now my roommate.***

Hello and welcome to 'Really Tom?' There will be no rhyme or reason to what and why things go up here. I'll simply share anything and hopefully people will enjoy. To start this thing out I will be posting some things I've posted previously before I had my very own blog to give a taste of what is to follow.

Feel free to give me feedback, brutal if necessary (hopefully not the ONLY option.)

I'll also be sharing and pointing to things I find and enjoy like other people's and places pages and blogs I frequent.

Thanks for stopping by.