Introduction to the Alchemy Index

The Alchemy Index

The Alchemy Index is a journey through space and time with artwork influenced by Thrice's four volume EP series released around last year. Covering all of the 24 songs on the album, we take an exploration through Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. I have combined my interpretations visually and mentally using simply paper and colored pencils. Each week, I will be posting a new picture every other day (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), and below each drawing will be lyrics and the song from Thrice's Alchemy Index.

Vol I: Fire

1. "Firebreather" 11/3
2. "The Messenger" 11/5
3. "Backdraft" 11/7
4. "The Arsonist" 11/10
5. "Burn the Fleet" 11/12
6. "The Flame Deluge" 11/14

Vol II: Water

1. "Digital Sea" 11/17
2. "Open Water" 11/19
3. "Lost Continent" 11/21
4. "Night Diving " 11/24
5. "The Whaler" 11/26
6. "Kings Upon the Main" 11/28

Vol III: Air

1. "Broken Lungs" 12/1
2. "The Sky Is Falling" 12/3
3. "A Song for Milly Michaelson" 12/5
4. "Daedalus" 12/8
5. "As the Crow Flies" 12/10
6. "Silver Wings" 12/12

Vol IV: Earth

1. "Moving Mountains" 12/15
2. "Digging My Own Grave" 12/17
3. "The Earth Isn't Humming" 12/19
4. "The Lion and the Wolf" 12/22
5. "Come All You Weary" 12/24
6. "Child of Dust" 12/26

I hope you enjoy this series as much as I have, live long and prosper.

- Jon-o Gazdecki

Halloween: A Season of Pokemon Master and Robots

Robots and Pokemon Masters

Robot-o-Tron (2004)

Pokemon Master (2003)

As this upcoming Halloween holiday approaches, I have came to one conclusion... over the last few years I have been alternating between a robot and Pokemon Master. Weird eh?

2003: Pokemon Master

2004: Robot-o-tron

2005: Pokemon Breeder

2006: Homeless Robot

2007: Washed up Pokemon Trainer

2008: Math-Core Robot

My mysterious friend (left) from Las Vegas

Retro Jon-o : DWDP Episodes 21 - 23

Retro Jon-o

Down With Dirty Pizza (2003)
Celebrating 5 years of clean pizza!

Episode XXI: Saving Ryan's Pizza

Bang, boom, doom! Yes that is me on the front line saving the lives of others as me and my rag tag team deliver the pizza to Private Ryan. There I went back into time in the Delorean (my dad designed the real model). Thanks to Doc Brown it was really easy to get back in time. So here's the story when I went to WWII... It was a most dangerous attempt because we had to get Ryan's pizza before it became dirty, and we surely don't want that to happen, do we? Well this how it all went down, unit after unit of dirty pizza went down after we destroyed them, it was a horrible sight and time was running out, as if it was always running out. As we blasting through the death jungle, the weirdest thing happened. We came across Mr. Ohnstad, I have no clue why or how but he was there eating pizza, but we had no time to stop, Ryan's pizza must be saved! Too bad the Terminator didn't want to do this job, too bad he's an emo, self-centered cry baby, who every time we save the day or almost save the day, he download his emo chip, and away he goes. Crying, crying, and listing to emotional music, such as Cutting Crew and other sad stuff. If you're going to ask, yes we saw Hitler, and we didn't kill him, the dirty pizza did, that's the true story about World War II, the dirty pizza killed Hitler, and during that time Hitler gave birth to Lizzie Mcguire, then Lizzie Mcguire throttled herself into the future... But yeah... Hmm... Well if you're going to ask another question, yes we happened to deliver the pizza to Ryan and he was all happy because the war in Europe was now over and he could go home back to the pizza parlor he worked in, with the all-mighty great Poop! Adios!

Episode XXII: The Scorpion Pizza

I believe today was a hard day at work for many reasons...
1: I got sent farther back into time.
2: Lizzie Mcguire is on a rampage.
3: Pizzas back then were like pitas
4: Why was Mr. Ohnstad there during WWII?
5: I forget...
6: The Great Poop smells when he was a young lad.

Well yes the Delorean did break when I attempted to go back into the future, well kind of, I accidentally put 2003 BC instead of AD and I was too lazy to set it back into hyper tron with the Flux Capacitor... But yeah, I bet you don't know what that is but neither do I. Well I ended up in Egypt where people eat pizzas out of pitas, but oh well, I'm cool with that. When I was telling people DWDP, I met this guy named the Scorpion Pizza. He's this guy who's against dirty pitas (cause pizzas were pita type food back then). He was a guy who loved to go around killing the Dirty Pita Police, and that seems a little bit similar to my job... Well he was known for clean pitas and he also chanted DWDP, which was in the same direction as my slogan goes. I believe this man was the creator of the DWDP back in the day. The guy who I'm with is and always be the real, original, Down With Dirty Pizza master, besides me... Well I'm going to hop back into the Delorean to see if I can make it back home, and if I don't I guess this web page will be at least 4000 years when i get home. Enjoy!
PS: DOWN WITH DIRTY PIZZA!!!

Episode XXIII: Willy Wonka and the Pizza Factory

Yikes! Once again... Once again... The Delorean sent me into the 70's where I portrayed in Ronald Dahl's new movie, Willy Wonka and the Pizza Factory. All I knew is that this movie was educational but it sucked. It was about Charlie and his grandpa getting into dirty pizza and overdosing on it with their friends then all of a sudden they wake up at a Clean Pizza Re-hab center (Pizza Factory). I was the rehab instructor because I pushed around former/current dirty pizza addicts, and trust me, while filming the movie, they were real people... Yuk, who would do something like that? Well Willy Wonka showed the kids and Charlie around the factory, showing off his Umpa Loompas, and his pattened formula, The Everlasting Pizza. Wow what a good invention to have. That sure beats his old crappy Chocolate Factory. But sadly Charlie and his Grandpa actually die in this movie, once again the two drink the bubbly and they floated up once again, but this time I made the roof like a fan that pushes up from the bottom and sucks you up from the top, so they paid the price for drinking the bubbly because that's bad for you, sequels can be destructive, and this time i proved them right. Well I wont give away the ending to this movie, but I have to give you a hint, it has to do something with Mr. Ohnstad and hints on his evolution to Mr. Badstad. Oh wait... This movie is at least 30 years old by now... Hmm.... Oh well back to the future!!!

Cosmia

Cosmia

The light from Orion Nebula's will take an estimated distance of 1,500 light-years to reach Earth.

Micah the Mountain Origins: Chapter VI

Micah the Mountain Origins
Chapter VI

In an attempt to get himself off of substance abuse such as mushrooms and inhalant chemicals, Micah started to do civil work for the country to help out his own people.
"I have a mustache, a hovercraft, and a random hiker on me. I wonder what would be best suitable for me to help out this world?" said Micah as he was floating around thinking what he could do.
Looking into his arms, he notice that there were hundreds of cats meowing at him.
"Hmmm..." said Micah, "I have never noticed all these cats before, I bet they sure miss their home."
Taking each cat one by one home, Micah did his civil duties and he still wondered what else he could do.
The hiker suggested to Micah, "I hear Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is speaking in this area called Talega located in San Clemente, perhaps we should go give her a visit and maybe she could help out on this quest to saving the world."
"Ok." Micah said.
Flying over to Talega, Micah went at mach speed until he realized that he couldn't slow down at all. If he was going to keep going at this speed than he might actually destroy some houses with all the energy that was coming out of his hovercraft.
"Oh no! We're going to crash!" yelled the hiker.
"Not again!" Micah said.
Yes, it was true, Micah realized that he couldn't slow down the hovercraft in time ending up him accidentally burning Talega to the ground. They couldn't help but scream watching many people explode from the fiery flames.
Micah and the Hiker once again retreated into the wilderness because they were shocked what exactly happened. One morning while the Hiker went on a hike, he couldn't help but notice the cover of the newspaper...

Talega Destroyed by Micah: Declared National Heroes!

"How is it that we accidentally ended Sarah Palin's campaign as vice president and we are declared national heroes?" asked Micah while he was licking his mustache.
"Dunno, who cares really." said the hiker, "But hey, it looks like we are invited to some party over in Moscow."
Micah shook his tree hands and said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go to Moscow!"


Micah and the Hiker floated into Moscow where they landed in the middle of Red Square only to be greeted by thundering applause and cheerful joys.
"Wow Micah!" said the Hiker as he patted Micah's snow cap, "They love us! They really love us!"
"Yes we do Micah!" said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "You have done this world a great service and prolonged the human race by at least another 4 years. We didn't need another leader who likes to kill wild animals for fun, that's my job."
Not really understanding what they were referring too, Micah and the Hiker shook their heads and said, "Cool!"
With many Mission Accomplished banners all over Moscow, Micah and the Hiker really felt special that day knowing that they changed the world in somewhat of a good way.

All of the world was filled in joy, except for one man... John Travolta.
At the Scientology HQ in Los Angeles, he walked back and forth in his office looking at the various blockbuster hits he has recently been in the last 10 years.
"This is not right, this is just not right." said John Travolta, "It is I who was created Micah, I should be the one winning the prize of coolest guy on earth, not some stupid floating mountain with a mustache. This all just doesn't make sense to me!"
In his office, John Travolta received a call, it was Tom Cruise.
Tom spoke into the phone, "John, I watched the news. All I need to know is, if everything going according to plan?"
John Travolta said, "Yes Tom, everything is going the way it should be."
"Is she ready?" said Tom Cruise.
Not responding, John Travolta hung up the phone and left the room, walking down the hallway, he glanced into the laboratory where there was this skyscraper looking object with the words S.A.L.L.Y on it.
"Soon Micah." said John Travolta, "I know your weakness...."

After a long day, Micah and the Hiker float off into the sunset to once again start a new adventure.

The End...?

Eighteen seconds before sunrise

Eighteen Seconds Before Sunrise

I was strolling down the pier the other morning walking towards the end with dawn slowly approaching. The topic that we were talking about was on how our faith in God was and for some reason I began to breakdown in sadness. Looking over the railing into the ocean, I turned and said to my friend, "I don't know why but I have been the farthest from God I have ever been in my life. 22 years old now and it seems that for the longest time my prayers have never been answered, again I go unnoticed it seems."
Going into deeper detail by exactly what I meant which I won't disclose, he responded, "You have to look closer at the situation, God has answered your prayers all this time but in calling, you have failed to respond to them. Remember this always: You are given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. Which means, God will put events in your life and how you act on them will change the course of the future. It is not because God isn't answering your prayers, you aren't just acting on them."
Cracking my hand, the sun came over the horizon in the distance and the first rays of light began to shine on us and a I nodded my head. On the way home, I had a montage of thoughts flowing through my head like if it was some AMV on youtube. The person was right, things started to seem a lot clearer to me, and even though I have built walls around making them harder to tear down, I said to myself, "All these years, all these memories, there was you. You pull me through time. Because, for every shadow, no matter how deep is threatened by morning light."
Once again I wake up and realize that it was all a dream. The montage hit into my head once again, and it finally all made sense.

Liquidation

Liquidation

Bagging groceries for hours can seem like a grueling task! Just imagine bagging groceries for six hours straight, how insane is that! Oh dear... Item after item, I just couldn't keep up, I couldn't take it, it was driving me insane in the membrane, so I had no choice but to go over and shop at Ralphs. This was no ordinary Ralphs, it was a unique Ralphs. Everyone that I knew who that I never really knew their name but was their friend worked there and they didn't wear name tags so it was the hardest thing for me to see who they really are. Things finally picked up as over the intercom they started to play POLYSICS, so the entire store became an FSU fest as we were dancing really insanely to the finest of J-POP.

After shopping, I went over to my friend's house who just recently moved into an apartment and I was helping her unpack her things and organize everything. As she was cleaning her Mouse Trap board, she looked up at me and said, "Hey put on some tunes!" As happy as I was, I put on one of my favorite songs which was only on one disc. "If you want to come on down, with your bones so white..." With the song playing, everything seem so perfect for me knowing that after a long day of work my friends were cheering me up as always. I stared out the window and I watched the freight trains pound, into the wild, wild night... very romantic. Until... she opened the CD player and tossed it out the window and said, "This music is SH*T Jon-o! How could you put on such ruckus in my house! And if you want to come on down? Sounds like bullsh*t to me. How would it feel if I gnaw on your bone, good wouldn't it?" Not knowing what to do, I got excited, again, because she had Justified, so I put it on only to find it wasn't Justin Timberlake... "Yeah! Justing Rimbermake, this music is so good!" Letting out a big sigh, I left the house to go to my next destination.

I ran into members of my family on the street as I was running in fright from what just happened at my friend's apartment. Being told that we were going to Pick Up Stix, I became content to eat with people from church, I felt a little bit relieved. Looking over, I saw P.F. Changs next to me and I quoted Towelie, "How spicy would you like your Chang sauce?" My brother just looked over at me and said, "What are you saying? How dare you say something like that, so inappropriate." We finally made it to Pick Up Stix after walking through various alleyways and I saw a bunch of families group together and our group was so big that they had to move us to the parking lot, which really wasn't that fun because the ground really smelt like asphalt. Over our heads, there were various helicopters looking for something and it was really distracting me because they kept flying lower and lower knocking over our food, but no one seem to care. I couldn't help but think they were suspicious of me because I had a box cutter in my pocket. Being safe, I took it out and hid it in a large pile of sand which (hehehe) was conveniently next to me. Instantly, a spotlight shined on me, oh dear, it was the box cutter!

"With your hands up, please put your hands on the chopper and don't move!" said the helicopter pilot who was at least 50 feet in the sky. Not understanding what was going on, the kind man shot his gun at me and it bounced off of my chest. Looking up, I said it what it seem to be, Portuguese, "You won't like it when I am hungry." The pilot looked over at his co-pilot and they both nodded at each other. In a heartbeat, things started to look like a Micheal Bay film as I started to turn green and everything began to explode. I clapped my hands, said yeah, and jumped really high into the sky as I appeared to be fifty feet taller. The world seem like a seamless dream of lead as I could see everything for miles. There were carnivals everywhere around me and they all seem to be falling apart as if it was supposed to be my fault destroying everything and I said, "Hey that's not my fault!" Clapping my hands again, I flew over the buildings and attempted to escape the men trying to feed me McDonalds in the helicopter. It was a glorious sight as I could see parts of Europe in the distance and futuristic towns but there was an invisible wall blocking me.

Jumping for what seem to be only about 30 seconds, I saw a girl down below on the ground, "Hey, come hide in here!" Instantly, I became normal Jon-o again and I followed her inside this building which looked like a fishing dock you would find in Maine (a beautiful state). "Over here!" she said as I followed her in the building, "Hide in here, this is the expansion pack area." Expansion pack? That didn't make sense to me, opening the door, I went inside only to find another whole which I really didn't notice that would fit when I was outside. Everything seem to be empty and I went around and notice that it still really seem like this would work. I went behind the opposite side of the house that I left into this new world and looked down this valley to see a statue. Climbing down to see what it was I notice that it was the Prince and his Katamari. Behind me came the girl who helped me escape, "We lost a lot of good men that day, including the Prince." I nod my head and looked over at her, "Where are we?" She looked up and said, "The real world, the Prince destroyed it, so we had to build a new one." "I must go." I said, and I did.

Leaving the real world, I went back to the Ralphs which I originally was shopping at. For Reasons Unknown was playing this time, and I thought, wow what a day. Right in the parking lot, a co-worker came up to me smiling and said, "Hey buddy how is it going?" I looked over at the co-worker, "It's been a long day." What surprised me was that he was texting a friend of mine and I said, "Who are you messaging there?" A synth started to play from his car as the song changed from the CD player, "Don't worry about it." I looked at the phone what my co-worker was writing and it said... Liquidation.