James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was a political theorist, American statesman and the fourth President of the United States (1809-17). Hailed as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison wrote the first drafts of the U.S. Constitution, co-wrote The Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, and sponsored the Bill of Rights. He established the Democratic-Republican Party with President Thomas Jefferson, and served as Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801-09). As Secretary of State, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation’s size. As President, he led the United States into the War of 1812; this endeavor was an administrative morass, as the U.S. had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, Madison afterward supported a stronger national government and a strong military, as well as the national bank.
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States (1829-1837). He was born in the Waxhaws region between North Carolina and South Carolina. A lawyer and a landowner, he owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage Plantation. Jackson became a national war hero after defeating the British in New Orleans during the War of 1812. In response to conflict with the Seminole in Spanish Florida, he invaded the territory in 1818. This led directly to the First Seminole War and the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States. Known as the “people’s president,” Jackson destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, founded the Democratic Party and supported individual liberty. He is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which resulted in the forced migration of Native Americans in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster, the 11th World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time. At age 20, Fischer won the 1963-64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Fischer’s book My 60 Memorable Games (1969) remains one of the most acclaimed works in chess literature. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland; it was publicized as a Cold War confrontation and attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. After losing his title as World Chess Champion in 1975, Fischer became reclusive and sometimes erratic, disappearing from both competitive chess and the public eye. After 1992, he lived his life as an émigré.
Ralph H. Baer (March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-born American video game developer, inventor and engineer, and was known as “The Father of Video Games” due to his many contributions to games and the video game industry in the latter half of the 20th century. Born in Germany, he and his family fled to the United States before the outbreak of World War II. In 1951, while working at Loral, he proposed the idea of playing games on television screens, but his boss rejected it. Later in 1966, while working at Sanders Associates, his 1951 idea came back to his mind, and he would go on to develop eight hardware prototypes. The last two (the Brown Box and its de/dt extension) would become the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. Baer would contribute to the development of other consoles and consumer game units, including the electronic memory game Simon for Milton Bradley in 1978.
Jesse James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer from the state of Missouri. He was the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang, who were Confederate guerrillas or bushwhackers during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers, including the Centralia Massacre. After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, they robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains. The James brothers were most active as members of their own gang from about 1866 until 1876. In 1882, Jesse James was killed by a member of his own gang who hoped to collect a reward. Already a celebrity when he was alive, James became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death.
Frederick Douglass (c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement from Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Douglass wrote several autobiographies in which he described his experiences as a slave and promoted the cause of abolition. After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery. Douglass also actively supported women’s suffrage, and held several public offices. In 1872, without his approval, Douglass became the first African-American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket. Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether black, female, Native American or recent immigrant.
Jules Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction. Early in life Verne wrote for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism in France and most of Europe. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare.
Steve Prefontaine, nicknamed “Pre,” was an American middle- and long-distance runner who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics. He was born on January 25, 1951, in the coastal logging town of Coos Bay, Oregon. Prefontaine once held the American record in seven different distance track events, from the 2,000 meters to the 10,000 meters. He was recognizable for his mustache and his long locks of hair that parted as he ran. Following his collegiate career at the University of Oregon, Prefontaine was preparing for the 1976 Summer Olympics. He died on May 30, 1975, at the age of 24, in an automobile accident near Hendricks Park in Eugene, Oregon.
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father of the United States, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation’s financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the father of the United States Coast Guard and the founder of The New York Post. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 (or 1757) in the British West Indies in the Caribbean. He died on July 12, 1804, following a famous pistol duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, his political rival, in which he was mortally wounded.
Note: Since the beginning of the American Civil War, Hamilton has been depicted on more denominations of U.S. currency than anyone else. He has appeared on the $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $1,000. His portrait has continued to appear on U.S. postage and currency, and most notably appears on the modern $10 bill.
George Washington Carver was an American botanist and inventor. He is known for his agricultural advances and for the promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, that would help sustain poor farmers. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a “Black Leonardo.” Carver was born into slavery in Missouri in the early 1860s. He died on January 5, 1943 and was buried next to longtime colleague Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University.
Michael Stipe is an American singer, songwriter, musician, film producer, music video director and visual artist. He was the lead singer of the alternative rock band R.E.M. from their formation in 1980 until their dissolution in 2011. The band was pivotal in the development of the alternative rock genre. R.E.M. released 15 studio albums, including Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), as well as numerous live albums and compilation albums. Stipe was in charge of R.E.M.’s visual image, often selecting album artwork and directing many of the band’s music videos. Outside the music industry, he runs his own film production companies, C-Hundred (C-00) and Single Cell Pictures. Stipe is also noted for his social and political activism. He was born on January 4, 1960.
Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva, or “saint,” primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. In Japanese culture, where Ksitigarbha is known as Jizō or Ojizō-sama, he is the guardian of children in limbo. Jizō is also the patron deity of children, expectant mothers, travelers and aborted/miscarried fetuses. Jizō statues are a common sight in Japan, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Ksitigarbha means “womb of the earth” and this deity is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six realms between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, or savior of hell’s torments.
Jizō Bodhisattva is one of two garden sculptures in our backyard. Jizō, which I purchased as a gift for my wife, is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. My two-year-old daughter refers to the dense Jizō statue as “the heavy baby.” The other sculpture, Saint Francis of Assisi, is a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King. Happy New Year!
Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone) was an Italian Roman Catholic friar and preacher who renounced a wealthy lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and aid the poor. He is one of the most beloved religious figures in history. Francis founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis in 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated the patron saint of Italy. Francis is also known as the patron saint of animals and ecology (or natural environment). It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4. Francis was born in 1181/1182 and died on October 3, 1226.
Pope Francis, who has turned out to be a remarkably progressive and humane leader, was the first pope to take Saint Francis of Assisi as his namesake. From my perspective, it was a very appealing and revealing choice, and Pope Francis is representing the name well. In our backyard garden, we have two statues. One is of Saint Francis holding a small bowl/birdbath; it’s a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. The other sculpture, Jizō Bodhisattva, is one I purchased as a gift for my wife, Heidi. Jizō is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King.
Note: The 8-bit blue unicorn/rainbow creature I’ve drawn to represent Scott C. is based on some of the smiling entities he painted for his Tender Times show in 2012. Almost everything he creates is smiling. Here’s a fun 8-bit showdown: Scott Campbell vs. Don Hertzfeldt.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. Dylan’s songs defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. His recording career, spanning 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song, including folk, blues, country and rock and roll. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards and harmonica. He has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time; he has received numerous awards including Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award. Dylan was born on May 24, 1941.
P.S. Over the past five years, I’m not sure how I ended up making 8-bit versions of 944 other random characters before I got around to making Bob Dylan. Strange. Though perhaps not as strange as a disheveled 68-year-old Bob Dylan being escorted from a New Jersey shore community by police. Merry Christmas!
Jean‑Michel Basquiat was one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip-hop, post-punk and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, Basquiat was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. His art appropriated poetry, drawing and painting. Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 and died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at age 27, on August 12, 1988.
Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este and the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Initially he was only third in line to the throne, but after his cousin’s suicide and his father’s unexpected death due to illness, Ferdinand was made the heir to the throne. His assassination in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, precipitated Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and Serbia’s allies to declare war on each other, starting World War I. Ferdinand was born on December 18, 1863 and died on June 28, 1914.
Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, political commentator, social justice activist and anarcho-syndicalist advocate. Sometimes described as the “father of modern linguistics,” Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 100 books. In 1967, Chomsky entered public consciousness through his vocal opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and came to be associated with the New Left. He was arrested multiple times for his anti-war activism. Following his retirement from active teaching, he has continued his vocal public activism, including opposition to the Iraq War and support for the Occupy movement. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberal capitalism and mainstream news media. He was born December 7, 1928.
Barney Rubble is the secondary main character of The Flintstones, an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that was broadcast from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. The show, produced by Hanna-Barbera, fancifully depicted the lives of a working-class Stone Age man, his family, and his next-door neighbor and best friend. The show’s continuing popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting. The Flintstones was the most financially successful network animated franchise for three decades, until The Simpsons debuted. In 2013, TV Guide Magazine ranked The Flintstones as the second greatest TV cartoon of all time (after The Simpsons). Barney Rubble and other characters from The Flintstones have been mascots of Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles breakfast cereal since 1969.
Fred Flintstone is the main character of The Flintstones, an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that was broadcast from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. The show, produced by Hanna-Barbera, fancifully depicted the lives of a working-class Stone Age man, his family, and his next-door neighbor and best friend. The show’s continuing popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting. The Flintstones was the most financially successful network animated franchise for three decades, until The Simpsons debuted. In 2013, TV Guide Magazine ranked The Flintstones as the second greatest TV cartoon of all time (after The Simpsons). Fred Flintstone and other characters from The Flintstones have been mascots of Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles breakfast cereal since 1969.
Jizō Bodhisattva – No. 948
Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva, or “saint,” primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. In Japanese culture, where Ksitigarbha is known as Jizō or Ojizō-sama, he is the guardian of children in limbo. Jizō is also the patron deity of children, expectant mothers, travelers and aborted/miscarried fetuses. Jizō statues are a common sight in Japan, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Ksitigarbha means “womb of the earth” and this deity is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six realms between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, or savior of hell’s torments.
Jizō Bodhisattva is one of two garden sculptures in our backyard. Jizō, which I purchased as a gift for my wife, is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. My two-year-old daughter refers to the dense Jizō statue as “the heavy baby.” The other sculpture, Saint Francis of Assisi, is a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King. Happy New Year!