Archive for February, 2007

so much for that idea…

Published at February 23, 2007 in Fluff. 1 Comment

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Charles Schulz and Peanuts. I was born at the pinnacle of the commercialization of his creations. If it had Snoopy or Charlie Brown on it, then there’s a good chance that I owned it at one point or another in my life. The same can be said of the television specials and movies. If Charlie Brown or Snoopy were in it, then, yeah, I probably saw it. The one that still tops my list after all these years is, of course, Charlie Brown Christmas.

Several years ago, I thought it would be a cool idea to stage a live performance of CBC to benefit local charities. I mean, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown! has been a favorite of theatre-goers for decades, why not Charlie Brown Christmas? I had never heard of such a thing before and thought it would be a novel draw for families at holiday time, Not to mention a great way to raise money for local charities. But, having no experience with performing arts, outside of a year building sets in high-school drama, it remained a pipe-dream.

Fast forward to 2006, casual conversation with some friends dredges my idea up from the depths of my stagnant memory. One of the friends present received her BFA in Theatre and works as a Performing Arts Coordinator. She thinks the idea has merit and, together, we agree to explore the idea further. Many Googles later, we find the musical arrangements for piano, here, which offers that the script is for hire and the oh-so-precious info to do so is located within. She orders it, and we wait. It arrived this week, and inside it says for info on hiring the script go to….wait for it….snoopy.com. So we go and find out that, according to the FAQ page:

Q. My theatre group would like to do “A Charlie Brown Christmas” this year. How can I go about obtaining the rights?

A. We understand the interest in the community for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” however at this time it is an animated special only and not authorized for play usage.

So why did we have to pay for the piano arrangements to find a web address that would ultimately tell us that the script is not for hire, even though the people selling the piano arrangements say you can???

Ohhh, that’s right, we live in Amerika, where it’s common accepted/expected business practice to profit from screwing someone else!! Oh well, Shame on Me!

Great weekend!

Published at February 20, 2007 in Aestheticismo... and All for Naut. 2 Comments

In spite of the freezing temperatures Saturday, I was up and moving by 5 am, and was in my studio working by 7am. Friends of mine in Havana, FL have a house in the country with a great barn in the backyard, and are allowing me to use it as my working studio. I spent a good twelve hours there, Saturday, and it was a welcome reminder of exactly what has been missing in my life of late. Paints, brushes, Good music (Woodstock 25th Box set), and some good old solitary confinement while I work. I zoned out completely allowing myself to be consumed by the work at hand. My mind cleared and I entered that familiar meditative/vegetative state where I was oblivious to the world. Best way to lose twelve hours that I’ve found so far!

Has anyone heard of this guy?

Published at February 15, 2007 in Aestheticismo... and Fluff. 0 Comments

About four years ago I found a book in my local comic shop. It was nothing I had ever heard of. A sharp little black and white published by NBM called Boneyard by Richard Moore. The cover is what grabbed me. On the cover was a picture of a man being backed against the wall by a woman. The man is visibly troubled. The woman is clad in nothing more than two deftly placed starfish and some fishing net. Her arm curls around his head, fingers tousling his hair.

No. It’s not porn. It seems Boneyard officially resides in the category of Horror/SciFi/Humor. The woman on the cover? She is strikingly well proportioned. The only thing is….she looks like the daughter of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. With breasts, that is. Large, supple, heaving mounds of….but I digress. Boneyard is a delight to read. I’ve bought every issue since finding that one, and I never get tired of it. The saddest part about the book is that it only ships four times a year. So on the one hand it’s hard to stay invested in the story because you have enough time to forget the last one before receiving the new one, but when I do find it in my “hold-file” at the store it never fails to make me salivate. It is so completely different from anything else I read and could quite possibly be one of the greatest books being written right now.
Quite simply, it’s a story about a graveyard, it’s recent inheritor/owner, Michael Paris, and the residents of the graveyard. There’s Abbey, the vampiress, centuries old, but with that girl-next-door charm oozing from every pore. Glump, the megalomaniacal and eternally failing demon who has an unhealthy obsession with Star Trek. Hildy the Witch and Ralph the Werewolf, little menace and much humor. Oh, and that previously mentioned sea-ductress, that would be Nessie, the swamp creature. Seems she has the hots for any man that’s not her Frankenstein-esque husband, Brutus. Take a representative of each respective monster mythos, give them a liberal helping of humorous self-awareness and you round out the rest of the cast. But it still refuses to take itself too seriously, spurning and spoofing the many cliches of sci-fi and horror stories as backdrop to the budding and disastrous, slow-burn romance between Michael Paris and Abbey the vampire. Well-written and well-timed jokes keep it upbeat and Moore’s unassuming drawing style make it pure joy in black and white. HIs figures (especially his women) are superb and the wealth and variety within the visuals keeps you turning pages.
If I haven’t sold it yet, I probably can’t. But if you’ve never seen/heard of/read Boneyard, you should. The early issues have been collected as graphic novels so you don’t have to worry about back-issues. And those are in full-color! If you get a chance, pick it up, it’s worth your time, and your money.

Charles M. Schulz 11.26.22-2.12.00

Published at February 12, 2007 in Aestheticismo.... 0 Comments

What would he do?

Published at February 9, 2007 in Fluff. 0 Comments

After 7 years, my friend Chris Klotschkow moved away. He got an incredible offer to move to Raleigh, North Carolina, and I wish him well. One night, many years ago, Chris and I got into an argument. I proposed coining an acronym (can you coin them?), “WWBD” was my suggestion for an alternate to “WWJD“. Initially he saw the humor but we devolved when I posited that in some possible future, the possible accumulation of artifacts relating to “him” are so many and so diverse that it might be assumed he existed at one point, maybe even taught in history classes, enough even then to produce a following? We fought over breakfast at the Village Inn about it, and walked away friends. He thought it utterly impossible that in spite of any future (not even something like Beneath the Planet of the Apes, y’know, where the mutants live underground and worship the warhead?) no one would ever: A) Believe that Batman was real, or B) That a past civilization worshipped some demagogue of justice…”Yes, and in the late 20th century, the canon of monotheistic hosts worshipped by that era’s peoples included Jesus, Buddha, Vishnu, Mohammad, Elvis, Brahman, Yahweh, and someone named Batman…”

Nuh-uh, Didn’t happen, No way- Chris is one of the greatest debaters I know- even if he’ll never admit I’m right.

Manhwa Angst

Published at February 7, 2007 in Aestheticismo.... 0 Comments

Have you ever had the experience of being in a relationship with someone, taking that person for granted, losing that person in your life and subsequently realising they were the best thing that ever happened to you? No? Yes?

Don’t worry about it, it’s irrelevant. Manwha is Korean for comics, and can be likened to Japanese Manga, and Chinese Manhua in its various forms, styles and storytelling. Outside of the random issue of Shonen Jump I’ve browsed at a friends house, personally, I’ve never found much about any of those to hold my attention. Okay, so maybe some Dragon Ball, anyways, I recently bacame aware of Netcomics and their large amounts of online comics-where I was formally introduced to the first three chapters of “The Great Catsby” by Doha. This is not to be confused with Sailor Moon or (insert lame manga here). He uses simplicity and a subtle visual language to communicate larger messages. Anthropomorphic and (sometimes) abstracted animals represent characters residing in contemporary times. Large, engrossing backgrounds fill the spaces around the characters, giving readers not too unclear messages about the location of the story and its rare, tempestuous beauty. Couple that with a story so realistic you want to cut the heart out of the protagonist’s chest, yourself, just to save him some grief. The plot takes cues from “The Great Gatsby”, adds a Richard Linklater mentality, and has enough potential to be a John Cusack property. Translation is less than stellar but, you’ll find that out for yourself. If you make it through, it does payoff in a beautiful and timeless, train-wreck of a story, about youth, employment, and the things we do for love.

Good Times!

Published at February 7, 2007 in Fluff. 0 Comments

At the suggestion of an acquaintance, I attended the MURDERFIST show at Brother’s tonight for some sketch comedy-Decent show-The troupers put on a good show, inspite of some awkward bits, don’t get me wrong, I was smilin’ on the inside, but little made me laugh out loud-The last sketch where one person is placed outside and the others take suggestions from the audience as to why she’s late was a lot of fun-that girl is talented! Maybe next time I’ll learn her name. Troupe totals about 8 people. Highlight was a group called Michael Patrick and the Shufflers- Three guys, one on keyboard, the other two took turns with an acoustic guitar and a banjo, respectively. Couple songs only-Lead looks like a hippie and a beatnik had a child and raised him in conflicting cults of personality-half tiny tim, half bob dylan really…the other guy looked like a lumber-jack who moonlighted as an idiot savant- good sound, though-Played what sounded like an old irish ballad to boot- overall a goodtime and a needed change from the usual tallahassee fare-MURDERFIST performs every Tuesday night at Brother’s, for those interested.

Aqua Teen “Terror” Force

Published at February 1, 2007 in Aestheticismo... and Politicismo.... 0 Comments

CNN reported on a series of “Bomb Scares” in Boston recently that turned out to be nothing more than an advertising campaign for the Cartoon Network’s Late Night “Adult Swim” program, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”. Two men were arrested and millions of people from Bean-Town lived in fear of a possible terror attack that every public official, with possibly the exception of Teddy Kennedy, felt the need to weigh in on and point fingers about. However, although statements were made and apologies issued, there were nine (9) other cities in this nation that were exposed to the same type of guerilla marketing devices- WHO did not freak out over it! So what does that say about Boston? What does it say about the other cities? Is Boston extremely paranoid? Or extremely vigilant? Are the other cities extremely oblivious? Or simply less paranoid? Maybe it’s just a question of who’s more pop-culturally savvy?
Anyways…
Boston wants Turner Broadcasting Systems (parent company of Adult Swim) to pick up the bills for the man-hours and resources expended in yesterdays scare. Frankly, I think Boston should be paying Turner for what has come off as an excellent testing of Massachusetts Law Enforcement in action. Now they have had the experience of multiple potential threats within a major municipal area. You want to know if Homeland Security is working? I think yesterday should be a good indicator!

…not to mention, Aqua Teen Hunger Force just got the best Advertising ever-hope Turner at least picks up the bill for the lawyers- FREE BERDOVSKY AND STEVENS, NOW!