Angel with a Squirt Gun

 

"Angel with a Shotgun":  The Quaker school version.

Archer listened to The Cab's song "Angel with a Shotgun" on repeat for much of yesterday afternoon.  He acquired the obsession with this song the same way that he has developed most of his preferences in music lately: from watching "Attack on Titan" videos.  He particularly likes a version of the song where it is sped up- becoming something like "Angel with a Shotgun" performed by the Chipmunks.  And whenever Archer is listening to something, so is his seven year old brother.

While I was cringing yesterday, I tried to remember what my favorite music was when I was eleven, or seven...back when dinosaurs walked the earth.  I'm afraid I was on a pretty much all classical diet at the time. But I do remember that one of my best friends in sixth grade had an obsession with Styx and the song "Come Sail Away,"  I should not be too judgmental of my sons' music choices.

Of course, this song is not just about the aesthetics of music for them.  When Archer and Ansel think of angels, they are thinking of the "Weeping Angels" in the Doctor Who series.  The idea of a creepy all powerful alien who can impersonate a stone figure who is now also armed with a shotgun....well, how cool is that?

On a final unrelated note: I set out to draw the requested weaponized angel with the idea in mind that I was going to make it look like one of Bernini's lovely baroque stone angels.  The angels in the TV show are of course clunky cludged together life casts as well as live actors. 

Almost 30 years of sculpting has certainly taught me that I am no Bernini. A few minutes of sketching last night indicated that I am also not capable of drawing a Bernini-esque angel on a napkin.  I ended up using some very different source material, which might have been titled something like a less polite version of  "Cute Young Ladies with Squirt Guns"  I don't think I am going to be any more specific than that as my older son often reads what I write here.  Thus the "angel" on the napkin suffers from modern malnutrition and an awkward pose.