Of course, this week you get quite the treat as I decided to do two comics... one for here and one as a guest post at Apropos of Something, so check them both out.
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Saturday, November 4, 2006
Circuits and Circuses: A Culture Kills Comic
Derived from the Flash formulae of Strip Generator
Of course, this week you get quite the treat as I decided to do two comics... one for here and one as a guest post at Apropos of Something, so check them both out.
Of course, this week you get quite the treat as I decided to do two comics... one for here and one as a guest post at Apropos of Something, so check them both out.
Friday, November 3, 2006
Week 25: Pageant of the Transmundane
Well, this week's winner sort of helped me come full circle on the weekly cycle I keep with the comic and the awarding of the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award. If you remember the comic, you may have an idea of where this is going, and it is not a journey for those of you who don't like a bit of dirty-minded fun with a autumnal/halloweeny theme to it.
Naturally, it starts with one of those "Am I really seeing what I think I am seeing?" moments. And upon further investigation, it was indeed as mystifying as it first appeared. You see, Maven down on the Thought Nuggets farm discovered a little old recipe for Candy Corn... but made up into a couple of interesting and perhaps functional shapes for those into sexual experimentation. Does candy corn taste any better in that form? I don't want to know.
But for giving me quite the jolt after Halloween, I am proud to award Maven her second Homie.
Congrats and keep on finding those nuggets.
The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.
Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.
Naturally, it starts with one of those "Am I really seeing what I think I am seeing?" moments. And upon further investigation, it was indeed as mystifying as it first appeared. You see, Maven down on the Thought Nuggets farm discovered a little old recipe for Candy Corn... but made up into a couple of interesting and perhaps functional shapes for those into sexual experimentation. Does candy corn taste any better in that form? I don't want to know.
But for giving me quite the jolt after Halloween, I am proud to award Maven her second Homie.
Congrats and keep on finding those nuggets.
The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.
Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.
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Another confession: Dreaming
I almost always dream of celebrities. But not in the way that sounds.
You see, when I dream, people I know are often played by actors and actresses in those weird ethereal dramas, and in my dream symbology, the same actor or actress usually reprises the role of that person in my life every time they appear (of course, there have been some recasts over the years). I don't know how my subconscious does the casting either, so at times I have to struggle to figure out why this new character has appeared in the dreamscape, though I think a similar quality either physically, in terms of mannerisms or speech patterns is probably what determines the casting.
And no, these are not dirty dreams I am talking about either, these are my normal-type dreams, which are weird in their own way. Of course, when I do make this admission to people, they usually have one question: who plays me in your dreams?
That is usually a question they don't want answered because either there isn't a person to associate with them because they've never come up or the person who does represent them is not as spectacular as they hoped it to be, mainly because the people who take those roles are not the 10 million dollar salaried superstars, but rather an eclectic mix of character actors, up and comers and stand-up comedians... sort of like an indie film.
And the odd thing is, I don't associate those actors and actresses with the people they represent in my dreams when I watch them in a movie or on television in my waking life.
Now my question is: does anyone else dream like this?
You see, when I dream, people I know are often played by actors and actresses in those weird ethereal dramas, and in my dream symbology, the same actor or actress usually reprises the role of that person in my life every time they appear (of course, there have been some recasts over the years). I don't know how my subconscious does the casting either, so at times I have to struggle to figure out why this new character has appeared in the dreamscape, though I think a similar quality either physically, in terms of mannerisms or speech patterns is probably what determines the casting.
And no, these are not dirty dreams I am talking about either, these are my normal-type dreams, which are weird in their own way. Of course, when I do make this admission to people, they usually have one question: who plays me in your dreams?
That is usually a question they don't want answered because either there isn't a person to associate with them because they've never come up or the person who does represent them is not as spectacular as they hoped it to be, mainly because the people who take those roles are not the 10 million dollar salaried superstars, but rather an eclectic mix of character actors, up and comers and stand-up comedians... sort of like an indie film.
And the odd thing is, I don't associate those actors and actresses with the people they represent in my dreams when I watch them in a movie or on television in my waking life.
Now my question is: does anyone else dream like this?
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Thursday, November 2, 2006
I am trying to understand British Television
Something very odd occurred to me last night: I really don't understand British television.
I don't mean I don't understand the society that is being portrayed or the diction that is being used, but rather, I don't understand how things are scheduled based on the fact that every series I've ever seen that originated from their airwaves is less than 10 episodes in a series, though 6-8 seems to be the median length of a series.
I mean, think about it:
Blackadder - 6 series of 6 episodes each(with some extra specials).
Chef - 3 series which produced 20 episodes
The Young Ones- 13 episodes over 2 series
The Office - 14 episodes over two series
Red Dwarf - 52 episodes over 8 series
Spaced- 14 episodes over two series etc.
Whereas in the North American market, a single season is usually longer than the length of an entire run of a particular British show, and I am sure that the third season of the American version of the Office is going to be more than 14 episodes, and for the most part, we know what day, time and months of the year it is going to be shown every year, and I am just wondering how British television works... do they announce which series are going to be on throughout the year at the beginning of the fall season, or can one be surprised to find a new series starting in a time slot that a familiar favorite once occupied?
And what of reruns... do series occupy the same slot after their initial run for another go-around or what? I am struggling to comprehend how all these short series get put together over the length of a year, and how things shift around if a show doesn't film episodes for years. This whole thing is a complete mystery to me.
But I am in no way maligning these series for being so short... because to paraphrase Shakespeare, brevity truly is the soul of wit... but this problem has sort of left me witless.
I don't mean I don't understand the society that is being portrayed or the diction that is being used, but rather, I don't understand how things are scheduled based on the fact that every series I've ever seen that originated from their airwaves is less than 10 episodes in a series, though 6-8 seems to be the median length of a series.
I mean, think about it:
Blackadder - 6 series of 6 episodes each(with some extra specials).
Chef - 3 series which produced 20 episodes
The Young Ones- 13 episodes over 2 series
The Office - 14 episodes over two series
Red Dwarf - 52 episodes over 8 series
Spaced- 14 episodes over two series etc.
Whereas in the North American market, a single season is usually longer than the length of an entire run of a particular British show, and I am sure that the third season of the American version of the Office is going to be more than 14 episodes, and for the most part, we know what day, time and months of the year it is going to be shown every year, and I am just wondering how British television works... do they announce which series are going to be on throughout the year at the beginning of the fall season, or can one be surprised to find a new series starting in a time slot that a familiar favorite once occupied?
And what of reruns... do series occupy the same slot after their initial run for another go-around or what? I am struggling to comprehend how all these short series get put together over the length of a year, and how things shift around if a show doesn't film episodes for years. This whole thing is a complete mystery to me.
But I am in no way maligning these series for being so short... because to paraphrase Shakespeare, brevity truly is the soul of wit... but this problem has sort of left me witless.
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Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Best writing prompt EVER!
Anyone who has taken a course on creative writing has probably been presented with numerous "writing prompts". You know, those insipid instruction sets like "Think back to a time in your life when you faced hardship and write a short story as a fictionalized character recounting that experience" or "Create a scenario where two best friends are forced to fight." I always disliked those exercises, and with it being National Novel Writing Month and all, I thought I would recount the funniest set of prompts I ever read.
McSweeney's writer Dan Wiencek came up with a grouping of Thirteen Writing Prompts that killed me (thus the Zombie Matt is writing this now... Brains, tasty brains!), but one in particular stuck with me:
I would read any story that closed like that, and I hope that one or two people out there, when they submit their finished novels at the end of the month have taken that little bit of pithy writing to heart and used that line as their closer.
McSweeney's writer Dan Wiencek came up with a grouping of Thirteen Writing Prompts that killed me (thus the Zombie Matt is writing this now... Brains, tasty brains!), but one in particular stuck with me:
Write a story that ends with the following sentence: Debra brushed the sand from her blouse, took a last, wistful look at the now putrefying horse, and stepped into the hot-air balloon.
I would read any story that closed like that, and I hope that one or two people out there, when they submit their finished novels at the end of the month have taken that little bit of pithy writing to heart and used that line as their closer.
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
This is just to note
That for the next week I am also going to be one of the 5 people guest-posting at Apropos to Something, the first time I've ever guest posted actually, and I already got into the spirit of things with an aside there.
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My best Halloween Costume ever.
I wore this doozy about 3 years ago for an office party.
When I was a kid, I usually dressed up as the undead... vampires, zombies and the like because generally it was easy and it required little effort to pull that off, so when their was going to be an office party where I worked in 2003, well, I thought I would do something a little different. I strolled on over to a shop downtown and put together a costume.
radiation suit costume that was not designed for someone of my *ahem* frame: 10 dollars
Winter coat: It was my old Winter Coat
heavy winter boots: mine
Rubber gloves: 2 dollars
Having your boss swear and drop the phone in shock when you walk into the room: Priceless
Now, I sort of suffered for that shock too, because it was a day in the high 70's-low 80's, and wearing a winter coat, rubber gloves and boots and a polyester head covering and pants is not the most comfortable of situations. To put it mildly, I was dying in it.
But I did win best costume, so I guess that makes up for it. I just wish I would have had the foresight to dress up like this.
When I was a kid, I usually dressed up as the undead... vampires, zombies and the like because generally it was easy and it required little effort to pull that off, so when their was going to be an office party where I worked in 2003, well, I thought I would do something a little different. I strolled on over to a shop downtown and put together a costume.
radiation suit costume that was not designed for someone of my *ahem* frame: 10 dollars
Winter coat: It was my old Winter Coat
heavy winter boots: mine
Rubber gloves: 2 dollars
Having your boss swear and drop the phone in shock when you walk into the room: Priceless
Now, I sort of suffered for that shock too, because it was a day in the high 70's-low 80's, and wearing a winter coat, rubber gloves and boots and a polyester head covering and pants is not the most comfortable of situations. To put it mildly, I was dying in it.
But I did win best costume, so I guess that makes up for it. I just wish I would have had the foresight to dress up like this.
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