Paw found this one for me, which I enjoyed particularly since Liverpool station was a frequently used junction for me when I wanted to check out things to see and do in Jack the Ripper's old neighborhood.

In which I explain my relationship with heights...

...from a great height.

Sorry Mom, but it's kind of undisputed!

HYDRA

Because this entry has many head(er)s, get it? No? Oh.

(That's okay, I don't either).

The Webshow Meet

So that went down on Monday. It had ups and downs and I learned a whole hell of a lot that I'm struggling to retain. That last bit may make me sound a bit dim but hoo dog did I have to eat a lot of alphabet soup (re: acronyms for things I'd never heard of before).

The actual amount of people that showed was pretty disappointing. It's maddening, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of real feeling of community amongst these sorts (in Toronto). I was particularly pissed to see that a person I know who complains regularly about this lack didn't show. Now, the people who did show were quality, but I cannot blame the organizer for getting disillusioned - though it didn't help that he'd had a terrible technical problem arise earlier in the day which looked to cost several hundred dollars to fix.

I gave my presentation, but it was as much for shits as anything else. Still, I enjoyed doing it.

The ups came from the fact that I learned a lot from the other presenter about what is happening regarding the government and it's views on "New Media", that loosey-goosey term for Innernet Stuuuuuf. I'm going to email the presenter soon and ask her if she'd be willing to send me a list of the names she mentioned so that I can then do a little of my own research and then try to spread the good work - for these names were names of people and organizations which are currently flapping their gums in a way which will have a profound effect on the future business viability of Canadian webshow entertainment. Expect more on that if I am able to get this in order.

I also made a pair of very useful contacts and for that, if nothing else, I'm glad I went. Here's hoping that the rough plan of trying again in four months, after more promotion, works out and I get a second chance to present to a bigger audience.

Nostalgia

It's no small coincidence that I've got an episode of the show on this topic coming soon. Lately I have been hip deep in the stuff. It's hard to say why, I'm pretty happy with stuff right now and I'm rather looking forward to what this year seems in order to deliver. I think that perhaps part of it is how quickly last year seems to have passed, but mostly I think it has to do with how cleary demarcated my adult life has been so far. My early twenties were DownTown Ottawa and then a very thick line was drawn between then and now, that line being Fourteen Months In London of course.

I don't know what's up with that, I don't know what's up with that but I reckon it's responsible for this wordy entry.

Cursing

People who know me would never accuse me of being the sort to go around sticking bars of soap in other people's mouths. Outside of certain contexts (i.e. teaching a kindergarten class) I think that words are just words and it's the way they are used that gives them meaning and/or power. Lord knows I certainly don't shy from crude or unusual and crude ways of expressing myself.

But I wonder, am I getting worse?

What stirs up these thoughts is something that happened as I was getting off the subway yesterday. I started to get out of my seat and the train shuddered in a way that led to me mashing my left knee on the handrest of a bench. This was pretty damn hard, hard enough that I had a noticable limp for the next fifteen minutes or so.

"Ow, fuck" I exclaimed as I excited the car. Okay, whatever. But then, blessedly out of earshot of anyone but without having made of point of being in such a space, I took a step that aggravated it and chased the earlier curse with "Fuck, fuck, fucking shit, fuck a child in the eye this shit hurts!".

Uh huh...this is probably nothing to worry about. I'm doing everything in my power to get to earning a living by my writing. I get bored with conventional phrases when I hear them come out of my mouth and so for that, and other writing related reasons, I often try to spin something a different way. Maybe that was a result of this habit? Maybe I just need fiercer cursing to register in my brain as cursing?

Maybe this isn't the thing to think about, but instead I should worry if I start saying that stuff so others can hear - well, others who don't know me well enough. I'm obviously not ashamed of it to the point I won't put this up on the Internet for anyone to read...

Urban Sexploitation

Last night I was taken on my second swing at Urban Exploration, although don't go getting impressed or anything as it was even easier to get into than the Brickworks. Basically I've had more trouble entering and risked greater injury by trying to enter a relaxed state of mind than this place. I'm being vague because I don't want to attract further attention to it, lest this lead to it being properly guarded or even locked. Why mention this shit at all then? Because of two reasons.

1) I was scouting a location to hopefully film in later this year.

2) It afforded me a sight which I found to be so awe inspiring as to be life affirming. That feeling is worth mentioning, if nothing else in this entire entry. There was something about the mixture of height and decayed decadence (anyone who's been there now knows where I mean) that played a tune

I hope things come together that I can then show you guys this place via the medium of fillum.

Beards

After being beardy since about mid-2002...fully bearded since late 2004...I shaved the whole damn thing off and plan to keep it that way for a while. "BIG WHOOP" you say "WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP" you inexplicably follow with...but it is kind of a neat thing, particularly when coupled with a new haircut/style. I'm now seeing a version of my face I haven't seen since before the second Iraq war. Drinking orange juice was livened up this morning when I actually felt it lap against my upper lip - when was the last time drinking orange juice surprised you?

To further hammer the point home, against my already pale skin I noticed that the recently debearded flesh was even paler for having lived in a hairy cave (uhhhh) these past years. Makes sense, but is odd all the same.

Just shut up and get on with it

Okay

BOOOOOO-TONNES

If all goes well, I hope to be selling these next week!

Ups, big

Posterchild clearly put a lot of work in this - it is easily my favorite thing by him in a while.

Sometimes I like the colour textures...

....of a string of shots in the editing suite. This is possibly the most unusual episode preview I've done!

Cuisiness Bards!

These arrived yesterday, in plenty of time for the February webshow meet on Monday.I realize, of course, that any twat with enough cash on hand to buy a special edition DVD can get his own business cards.Nonetheless, it made me feel like a Real Man to be that twat! I got'em from Moo.com if anyone is interested and yes, I was a little pleased/bothered to learn that it was cheaper for me to get nicer cards from a company in London then at the supposed bastion of the man with few dollars and a need to print - Kinkos.

Feelin' a little juvenile today

This is why I lose my shit sometimes over things like the amount of humans on the planet or people not turning off the damn heat and putting on a sweater. It's why the past few days of unseasonably warm weather scare the living crap out of me. I know nobody wants to hear it, but man it's real.

Who's a big boy now?

Last night I ordered my first ever batch of business cards from these characters. Man, I won't deny that I've pretty much been eating, sleeping and (painfully) crapping Handful for the past week. As I said to a friend on the phone last night, I think the greatest challenge won't be making it profitable...it'll be not driving everyone I know insane by talking about it non-stop!

Addendum
Well sometimes I think about other shows, which I'm tripping over far more than usual in all this webshow werrrrrk. You might like this one, I did.

Manageable Portions

Something that is looking to be my own personal motto for the first few months of this year is "Work smaller, that way things get done". I'm trying to do less projects (sadly, I've had to at least temporarily remove myself from that musical project I mentioned) and then within those projects I'm trying to do shorter things (with some success - i.e. the newest Handful episodes are around 3:30-4:00 long instead of the swollen 5:30-6:45 they were becoming. Now I say SOME because next weekends will be about 6:00...).Well, that goes for painting as well.
For whatever reason, I find it very easy to imitate the artistic style of Phil Hester & Ande Park...
So we get this triple-set of Oliver Queen!

There is not even any mixed media in this post

what

ANYWAYS I have a spare moment so I thought I'd use it to mention a few things here.

1) The Handful buttons should be in my greasy little hands soon, perhaps by the end of this week. Now I just need to figure out the shipping side of things and the inevitable extra step in the process for putting a Paypal thingy in a Wordpress page.

2) I've been asked to be one of two presenters at a monthly Toronto Internet TV and Web Video Group meeting in the last week of this month. Basically I'm going to talk about my experiences with Handful, how it got rolling and give some advice - I also want to try and draw a few parallels between where Webcomics were five years ago and where Webshows are now, then extend that into a possible future for the latter. This should all be going down in front of several dozen people at U of T.

A friend pointed out that this will be the first time that A) I'll see my work blown up on a screen far, far larger then I make it for and B) I'll get to see a "studio audience" reaction past my plopping a pal in front of my laptop. Scary, maybe?

Also it seems I lied about the lack of media in this post. Tom Milsom (AKA the British fan who kindly lit a fire under my arse a couple of months ago) has done something interesting with Englands recent freakish (for them) weather.

Sets and Framing

Two items!
1) A favorite t-shirt was on it's last legs, but luckily the design was still intact. So with liberal help from my roommate Christina, I cut and stretched part of it to wrap around a length of cardboard from one of those terrible Wal-Mart Art things. The result is pretty damn nice and I hope I can get another five years out of the $20 it cost me in the first place.2) For the first time ever, I filmed an episode of Handful in my home. The lighting wasn't what I'd like, but the sound was decent and the final product is one I'm rather proud of - particularly since it includes footage from In The Field. The set up was pretty ad-hoc, to say the least, and I thought you all might be amused to see it. The tall fella is my pal (and cameraman for that episode) Rob.

Les Boo-Tonnes

So I'm looking at a cheap way to wiggle my toes in the merchandise pool - one inch buttons. Here are the four first designs I'm looking at. Thoughts and opinions are always appreciated. Unless they are racist, I mean Jesus Christ.These first two are pretty firm in my mind, but the next two...not so much? I love the idea of this fella...
...but am open to fiddling with it's design, I feel like I could do more with it. This next one would be cut so that the button would be entirely the face (and frame) of the pocketwatch. I think the image is sharp, but is the idea?

My friggin' Dad

Has been sort of ramping up his kite related stuff for the past decade and now....now he wants to do this.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

IN THE FIELD, STILL

IN THE FIELD

ON-LINE

So I finally made use of a couple of photos from this great series.

For the record, "Sound-Dust" is the name of what I will always consider to be one of the most beautiful records ever made.

Two Thousand and Feelin' Fine?

Russian Dolls from Made in Mundo on Vimeo.
This...this is just here.

Moving on!

I hate to trot this old trick, but if Present Oliver turned around and told Oliver Circa Dec 31st 2007 that in a years time he'd be where he'd be....he'd be pretty pleased!

Good or bad, 2008 has been nothing if not busy and eventful for me. Despite becoming a "victim of the economy" a couple of weeks ago, I feel really optimistic about the coming year. I have crazy fun plans for more Handful episodes, which oughta come out more regularly when I'm not getting let go just before the holiday season and then moving into a new place right after. Urban Exploration! Nostalgia! Pillow Fight League! Burlesque (finally)! and more? Yes! Why, there is even an episode where I might just get to bully a lot of my friends into wearing one of my shirts.

Oh and uh yeah I am moving into a new place, basically ten feet from my current place. I am greatly looking forward to it, if only because it is a three bedroom that was plainly intended for a family as there are two kids bedrooms and one, huge mummy/daddy room. Guess which room I'm taking? I did some measurements and I will be able to set aside enough space to fudge my own lil' studio for filming Handful - another tick in the "Things Which Will Help More Shows Get Made, More Often" column. I've also recently found my damn tablet again, which will be helpful for when I want to doodle up images either for a regular show or one of these terrifying things.

I also enjoy how Handful is making me get out and not only look for new things but try them. Maybe I would have tried UE regardless of Handful....but I can't say that for sure. I certainly wouldn't have gone out of my way to learn about terrifying lakes or done a fun interview with Ryan North. So hopefully this is a preview of when I will be a Big Scriptwriting Man who gets sent around the world on adventures by studios.

Also, it's incredibly tenative at this point buuuut, I might be writing a musical? And getting the wheels turning to make the feature film of Tonight We Fall In Love? There are other things too, but it's absurd to mention them at this stage. The point is that the fire has some irons in it.

With moving into the new place I am committing to Toronto for at least another year and...honestly, at least another two. Why at least two? This is because I have moved an ungodly amount of times since I first left ma and pa's porch, manfully steeling myself against the sound of my mother sobbing as I strode out into a world which could produce something like this. I'd like not to be thinking about moving or the possibility of moving for a while, so valuable time and energy can be freed up for the important things.

So yes, the results are in: Between London and Ottawa, I find Toronto to be the middle bowl of porridge. Good size, enough interesting stuff and a good group of people to get up to shenanigans with. Let's hope I'm piping the same tune in 356 days time.

To close, here is a great sign that my pal Victor spotted (and nabbed) while we were walking along the street.
I can only hope the person who wrote this will eventually learn the error of their "racism" or at least figure out how " " should be used.

We need more ads like this one, I feel. Also...do you think the wretched bastards who are trying to get people to think coal is cotton candy...well, what would their reaction be to Santa dropping coal in their stocking?