I figured I'd give it AGO

The AGO renovations finally finished and it's free entry for the smelly masses during the initial weeks - so I thought I'd see if I could get my smelly mass in this morning.
The second photo is where I began my line-up journey. It extended forward to the intersection and then left to the front of the AGO, where it snaked a couple of times. Though intimidating to look at, once the doors opened I was inside within about five minutes - so no complaints there. I think there was a pretty capable staff of paid workers and volunteers on duty today.This crucifix/compass really did it for me. I haven't much interest in religious artifacts until you make them double as gadgets.
This is a bad photo (cameras aren't allowed - I'm a dick - so I had to take some shaky numbers while attempting to be surreptitious) of a good subject. There were many, many ornate model boats in the AGO's collection but this and it's contemporaries hooked me in the most due to their being prisoner ships. That is to say they were made by prisoners of the British, mostly French sea men, who would use the bones from their meals for parts.

This inscribed Atlas was also a treat. Fact is though, there were many treats! That is what happens when you have five floors and a basement filled with art.That is what happens.
As for the building itself...it's spacious, mostly white walls and glass...and very trick to photograph from the inside. But a couple of features I can show in a decent fashion are the attractive rear staircase which connects the fourth and fifth floors...
...and one of the rear-viewing seating areas, on both the fourth and fifth floors, which were in constant demand.I read some articles recently which rabbited on comparing the AGO - and by extension, Toronto - to other galleries and, also by extension, other cities. London came up the most often as a kind of competitor/measure of what to aspire for and speaking as a fellow who's been to the Tate, Saatchi and other famous London galleries...I think the AGO measures up just fine.

Some of the articles tried to reposition Toronto as a "more reserved" city, as if "Oh we don't do Greatness here, that's just a little loud for our distinguished Canadian tastes". Well, if that didn't feel like a rationalization for a euro-inferiority complex then I don't know what does!Fuggit, the AGO has a strong collection housed in a well designed building that was a pleasure for me to spend almost four hours in today. Whether you live in Toronto or plan to visit, I'd say it's worth the fee they'll start charging soon.

[----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Meanwhile I finally got a new video up at Handful Of Minutes and have plans to continue doing so at a reasonable pace. Instead of the weekly updates, however, I'm going to have a "when it happens" schedule until early next year as I know the rest of 2008 is just going to be too chaotic for me to promise any more. I'll still aim for once a week, but shan't go making big promises and raking myself over the coals when events prevent me from fulfilling them.

After a two month break, it felt good to slap something up again!

For those who give a shit

Here's some test footage from that camera I discussed in my last post. I think the sound is good enough for Handful, do you agree?

Talking Cat Author, New Camera and also SWEARS

Tuesday night was special for millions, if not billions, of people all around the world. The reason for this, of course, was that I got to have a brief chat with Chris Onstad while (and after) he signed my copy of the GOF book.The best part of the evening came before this photo was taken, however, when I completely snubbed Onstad because I failed to recognize him walking along with Ryan. This is attributable to two things:

1) Unlike most webcomic authors, Onstad has never done conventions or even much in the way of being photographed. This book tour is his first ever series of public appearances, seven years after he started the comic and with his popularity already well established amongst the usual circles.

2) The one photo I ever saw of him was from an interview with The Onion AV Club, a photo which my memory decided to switch to a high-angle-looking-down perspective which made him appear about 5'6 when he is more like 6'3.

Speaking of The Onion AV club, here's an interview with Felicia Day - who is mostly known for a pair of web series called The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - which I found handy in the context of Handful.

SEGWAY

So I'm testing another camera, this one being more upscale than the Flip Mino knock-off but still decidedly in the realm of "consumer toy" rather than professional equipment. But for now I only have consumer dollars, though it sure would be nice to get the show to a point where I can sell merchandise and/or solicit donations which could go towards professional equipment!

Inspired by yet more nice comments which have come as a result of that young British fan's showcasing the Great Lakes episode, I have desperately been trying to whip together something for this weekend. Long story short, I seem to have to uninstall and completely reinstall my editing software - rarrrrgh.

But on the other fag, despite the fact that this camera (that links to pretty much the same model, just replace the "SDHC" after the slash with "PC") comes with it's own terrible editing software that insists on being the only way to get reasonable files off the camera....it just might be what I go with. At the very least, it's much closer as there are a reasonable amount of features (i.e. low-light compensation, backlight compensation, a pseudo-directional mike called a "zoom mike") and palatable video/sound quality for what I want to do. Also it is cheap enough that I could stomach going into a little debt for a second one and a tripod.

Assuming I get the editing software thing resolved today I will at the very least be uploading some of the different slices of test footage I've done and if the planets align I'll even have a new episode of Handful up!

Oh wait, I'm not sure I got in the swears I promised (sorry mum).

FUUUUUUUUUCK PROPRIETARY EDITING SOFTWARE THAT WON'T LET ITSELF BE INSTALLED ON ANY DRIVE OTHER THAN "C:" AND FUUUUUUUUUUCK THE COCKSLAPPING SLAPCOCKS WHO WON'T JUST LET ME GRAB THE FILES OFF THE CAMERA IN A REASONABLE FORMAT LIKE .AVI or .MPEG BUT INSTEAD MAKE THE RAW FILES SOME .MOD BULLSHIT THAT HAS TO BE SQUEEZED THROUGH THEIR SOFTWARE'S SPHINCTER TO BECOME A USABLE .MPEG

Count down the seconds until "Software Sphincter" becomes a common programming term! Count'em off!

Erection Day

The election which has more of an impact on our lives than that of our own nation's happens tomorrow.

Finally.

I wouldn't say I'm worn out, but it's been getting hard to remember what I did with some of my spare time when I wasn't obsessively bouncing between the BBC, Crooks & Liars, The Daily Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, fivethirtyeight.com and - when feeling particularly obsessive - any damn news source I can get my hands on.

I read three articles in the Toronto Sun today. The Sun for Christ's sake.

The way I see it is this, yes I can end up being pretty OCD with my interests but this is something else. Bush Jr came into power not long before I left home and his reign kicked into overdrive as I'd barely begun my University degree. So he has basically been the U.S. President of my adult life thus far. Say what you will about the coming end of American dominance, this has been and will continue to be one of the most influential individuals in the entire human race. And though he's a far cry in deeds, I can't say much more about our own slide from Chretien to the breif bit of Mr. Mediocre to Prime Minister "Fuck the arts, fuck the environment, fuck you" Harper.
It's been an adult-hood where I've witnessed the bar just sink lower and lower and lower. Where I've repeatedly felt like the satirical warnings of yesterday have become the terrifying realities of today. I'm not some naive twat that thinks Obama is going to fly around the world dropping "Solve all your problem" vouchers.
But good gravy, I think that he'll be a breath of fresh air after the last eight years. I even think there is a good chance he'll put as positive a tone to the next eight as W. has put a negative one to the last eight.

Turn off your cynicism for a moment and just try to imagine such a thing. It's rather pleasant and uplifting, isn't it?

I'm going to go to an election party at the Bloor Cinema tomorrow night and expect to get as wound up as I've often seen others get while watching the final game of the World Series or the like. The stakes are certainly high enough!----

In other newz, lord but I kind of want this but must pinch pennies for a camera or two and also other important things that are not an internet reference in shirt form.

Hallowed Weiners

Hooo boy Halloween was good this year. My buddy Victor saved me from coming to our party as "Jerk Without A Costume" by whipping up this little number.Alas, the nearest dollar store was all out of toy guns I could have done up to help complete the look, but I ain't complaining.The past week has been something of a blur thanks to the latest in my favorite video game franchise of all time. Once more I am reminded of a friend's suggestion that I look into writing for video games, given the overall trend to graft a cinematic storyline onto even the dumbest, most straightforward 'tard-with-gun simulators being produced. It's an interesting thought but:

1. I know very little about how to get to the point where I'd help write a game.
2. It would involve collaborating with an entire team of writers, not something I'm sure I'm keen on.

But who knows what the future might bring?In Handful news, I succeeded in finding an editor only to have a different rug pulled out from under me. My cameraman is, quite fairly, taking six weeks paid work on a production which will render him incommunicado for that period (for those who don't know how these things tend to go, my pal is due for days that will average ten to twelve hours and which will frequently go for longer. Understandably he will want to use his small amounts of free time to rest!).

So I am leaning even more towards accepting some debt and investing in a pair of cameras along with a pair of clip-on microphones. I desperately need to get more control over the means of production if I'm going to get the show coming out on a regular basis when I get into season two, instead of fits and starts.

But I am feeling encouraged today, thanks to a very kind gesture by a British fan who gets piles of traffic. A couple of days ago he set my "Not So Great Lakes" to be the featured video on his youtube channel page, which has resulted in it's views going to 1,826 as of five minutes ago. This in turn has led to some more subscribers and some kind, thoughtful comments - which are basically as rare an occurrence as air turning to gold.

Seeing London, Seeing Toronto

Look up.


So I followed through on my desire to take more pictures, but I guess I mostly got the desire to literally try a different way of looking at the city.
Not to be mean to Toronto, but in London I could just spin in a circle, tap the button and get an interesting picture - if I put myself in the right neighborhood. I find that isn't the case here.
But I don't want to give up on finding a little wonder where I live, just because it's more familiar.
I haven't spent as much time here as I did in London, but we're getting there. In a little over two weeks time it will have been a year since I returned from London.
To myself I have fairly frequently thought "A year ago I was doing X in London, today I'm doing Y in Toronto". No one comparison is enough to answer "Did I make the right call coming back? Did I make the right call to go in the first place?". So I keep checking and I guess I won't stop until November 14th, a year from the day I dragged my life down the Northern Line and into Gatwick airport.
Trying to answer those kinds of questions is fairly asinine in my opinion, but necessary all the same. Between having received something of a steady kicking for the past couple of months and seeing several projects and working relationships change shape recently...I'm feeling that urge to try and draw out on a piece of paper the perfect diagram of what I'd like to make happen in the months to come.
So take a picture why don't you.

I'd prefer the "Well Read Room"

These last two are from The Red Room, part of a pseudo-franchise which includes The Green Room, Nirvana and the Java Hut. They're all pretty good places if you want to get a tasty meal for less than $10, listen to good music and enjoy a casual ambiance.
This made me piss myself laughing and has been added to my "Got to Paint" list...it is a funny little portrait of James Barry.

Oh look he's taking pictures again

So yeah we've had a pretty okay weekend in Toronto, weatherwise, and after finally getting a new charger for my camera's battery I'm taking pictures again.
And it's something I really want to take up again. Taking pictures for el bloggo here was certainly an important part of what would motivate me to get out and explore London - to make the most of it.
It's often tempting to feel that, even though this is my first time living here and I certainly have not seen all Toronto has to offer, there isn't much reason to do this here. "It's Canada, whatever...I've seen Tim Hortons before. I've seen the architecture and heard these people before. La dee dah".
But that's a pretty shit way to look at where you live and - frankly - a great way to get depressed! So here's to trying to make more of an effort to enjoy the city at it's fullest and to report back here with some decent pictures - I want to do more on-site stuff, when possible, for Handful and I reckon that ought to feed back into this as well.

Hoo boy! THEFT

Remember that lovely racist comment I got on the General Butt Naked episode? Well it turns out that arse features ripped my video, added some in-video notes and posted it as his own - where it has more views! AUGH

I flagged it as "infringing my copywrights" but I'm not sure what else I can do (other than start a useless flame war, I guess?). It's not the end of the world but it certainly gets up my ass a fair bit!

Just sayin'....longboards!

In other news I don't think I like anything anymore.

Just sayin'!

VEEEEEEEEEEEE BLOGGGGGghghghghghghg

So yesterday I gave the Movie-Pix HD mini-cam a whirl to see if it might be of use for the next season of Handful. Amongst other muckings around, we have this spontaneous...interview?


It's not a bad little fellow, filming in a perfectly acceptable resolution...but it loses quality when there is any serious motion. My pal and sometimes cameraman/collaborator Mark theorized that this may be because it almost certainly only records one frame out of thirty - which would make sense since it's files are ungodly small for filming in high definition at a 1280 x 720 frame rate.

All this might have been okay, except the tiny mike inside it is kind of shitty? On top of that, for reasons known neither to man nor beast, the audio doesn't even show up at all in my editing software. The device comes with it's own proprietary video software but that sort of thing always makes me hell of wary. I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO TAKE A PEEK THOUGH.

On the plus side it can take an external memory card. 8 GB's get's me just over four hours at top resolution and the card only cost $20, which brought the total cost up to about the same as a Flip Mino (which I was first looking at).

In the end, unless I discover some rather cleverly hidden features which aren't even listed in the manual, I think I'll be taking this guy back. It's annoying though, since this is very close to what I want to try using for the show! FUGGIN' UNSATISFACTORY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MAKE FIRST WORLD HULK MAADDDDDDD

Radiohead strikes again

Man, I didn't know you could make a shirt out of recycled water bottles and cotton!

It's bloody expensive, though I don't know how much of that has to do with the way the shirt was made and the fact that it is band merchandise, which is traditionally about 200% above usual prices.

Life has been rather mad for the past two weeks but the dust is finally starting to settle and so I hope to get something substantial up here in the next while. Perhaps a dissertation on THE HORRIBLE URGE TO QUALIFY NOT HAVING WRITTEN A LONG POST ON YOUR BLOG?

Perhaps!

Screw Harper Screw Harper Screw Harper Screw Flanders

I'm usually not one for "Voting strategically", but when it comes to Harper I think it could very well be warranted. Anyone But Harper offers this interesting widget which helps you work out the candidate to vote for in your riding who has the best chance of cockblocking the conservative candidate.


There's a more detailed description here and I must say that this little group keeps good company.

I'm also half convinced "her" child with down syndrome is really her daughters, but hey there's enough other stuff to work with.

Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.
I'm not a big fan of political censorship, Internet censorship or this stupid cow who somehow set the bar for American politicians even lower - so I'm helping to spread this video.

True story.

1234

Shucks howdy, I sure had me some fun joining my friends Victor, Paul and Ryan in The Board Meeting yesterday. I'll share some of the pictures when I can steal'em off Victor (man I can't wait to finally get a new battery charger for my own little beast in a couple of weeks).

So yes, I didn't really finish my thoughts in the last post.

The sabbatical was a success in many ways. I distinctly remember setting myself two goals.
1) Get paid for writing.
2) Make something, anything.

I achieved both and so I guess I'm pretty satisfied! I wish I'd been able to find someone else to do the editing on Handful. As much as I enjoyed challenging myself in quite possibly my weakest area, at the end of the day I'm not trying to become an editor/tech support guy...I'm trying to become a successful writer/director! So it is without any great dismay that I've begun looking for someone to take that over and, blessedly, I got a lead yesterday that might pay off.

I can also fairly say I made pretty good use of the summer weather, there was no languishing in a beige bin while gay children busied themselves under a shining sun. I wrote a fair deal while sitting under a tree in either Kensington or Trinity-Bellwood parks and so that was another little personal goal that was met.

But man I could have done without winding up in such dire money trubbles. I guess I could have escaped them if I'd been willing to go back to temporary office work to sustain myself, but I felt that after almost two years of the shit...well it's called temporary for a reason. Even though I've ended up back in retail to rebuild my coffers, it's at least at somewhere I can feel like an adult and maybe even a little classy at times. Plus I saw a rich woman punch her husband in the gut, then face...so I guess some of my friends predictions that this would provide good writing fodder were pretty apt. My coworkers are pretty A+ too, which is always key.

But I think that the next step is to focus more on writing, get the second season of Handful made and ready to upload before the first episode is put up and to start applying for writing grants like crazy. Money from the gubbermint to live on while I scriptwrite? YES PLEASE.

Grants are a side of the industry I haven't thought about since just after I got my degree and I might have gone longer still if my pal Mark hadn't started applying for some himself. Most government grants aren't open to folk who're less than a year out of school, so that mixed with my feelings that I didn't have enough "chops" to have a chance of getting anything and led to my ignoring grants for long enough to plum forget about'em.

But it's been a couple of years and now I've got film and show ideas bursting from a fat binder and several notebooks. I've got a little bit to show, between my trailer and Handful (and that short film I've gotten paid to write, once it's made). I'd also like to think my writing has improved!

You know what, I will.

I will think that.

I've slapped together a three to four month plan and as long as I don't eventually get up to a five-year plan I think life won't feel too fleeting.

Wimmin and Werk

We men sure like to draw them! It's part of how we try to own them, own them with OUR MAGIC OWNERSHIP EYES. Neither of these are done, but both were started this weekend and I'm finally returning to the reg'lar workforce this Thursday so I don't know when I'll be finishing them.
Which I guess means my unintentionally extended writing sabbatical is over, having run about three months and three weeks. I am pretty okay with what happened, though I wish I'd done more but isn't that always the way.

Regardless of your opinions on poly-ticks

This gets oddly hypnotic!

RADIOFACE

As if in answer to my post yesterday - and I assume it is because I am AN ONLY CHILD AND THE WORLD REVOLVES ARRRRROUND MEEEE - there is this interesting episode of a new British webshow called Radioface.

To be quite honest...

....this phenomena is a big part of why I decided to leave England. I was lucky enough not to be victimized directly, but it had a profound effect on my psychological state at times and it was easy to tell when you were talking with someone who was wound up about it in one way or another - regardless of the topic actually being discussed. Folk often asked me about the cameras and what effect they had on my mindset, but really it was the effect they (and all that comes with them) had on people I interacted with.
This is also probably why I'm overly quick to get fed up with the highly reported Toronto crime "scene". Putting out thirteen trillion images and twenty kajillion words worth of media for every dick who stabs another dick doesn't do anything to make me safer, you dicks!

We all know Youtube comments...

...tend to be the lowest form of Internet discourse, just after a manatee slapping it's blubbery dick on the keyboard while reciting Mein Kampf. Check it out folks, the first highly offensive comment on a Handful video! (Speaking of which, there will be an update later today, I've decided some content with a forgivable error is better than nothing).You can go swear at this guy here, if you like. Anywho, I gotta go click "delete" now...

Turn up your speakers for this one

Do you like voice actors? Have you watched a movie trailer in the past thirty years?

MAYBE YOU'LL LIKE THIS THEN

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

So I just saw this and I think it's worth a little blather. First I'll paste in the opening plot description from Wikipedia and then we'll get to my own thoughts.
----

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlet Johansson) visit Barcelona for the summer, staying with Vicky's distant relative Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband, Mark Nash (Kevin Dunn). A Narrator (voice of Christopher Evan Welch), present throughout the film, describes the two friends: Vicky is practical and traditional in her approach to love and commitment, and is engaged to the reliable but unromantic Doug (Chris Messina). She is in Barcelona getting her masters in Catalan Identity, a project spawned by her love of the works of Gaudí, and is emotionally moved by Spanish guitar. Cristina, on the other hand, is spontaneous and unsure of what she wants in life. She is just out of a relationship and wants to get over the bad time she had making a 12-minute film about Love.

At an art exhibition, they notice the artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). Cristina is impressed with him at first sight, and grows intrigued when Judy and Mark tell the girls that the artist has suffered a violent relationship with his ex-wife, María Elena (Penélope Cruz). Later that night, the girls notice him across the room in a restaurant. He approaches their table and abruptly invites them to accompany him to the city of Oviedo, where they will sight-see, drink wine and, hopefully, make love. Cristina accepts at once, but Vicky is skeptical and refuses. She is eventually convinced however, and the pair accompany Juan Antonio to Oviedo on a small private plane during a storm...

----

First off, this is a good movie to get you talking afterwards if only because it is very difficult to watch this without being drawn to trying to figure out how much of yourself there is to be found in either of these two women who sit on different sides of the fence when it comes to love.

Secondly, even though it seems ripe for having a bunch of simple characters that embody certain arguments and nothing more...this pitfall is carefully avoided. Bardem is introduced as a musk-laden, life affirming Spanish Lothario to be sure...but as you get to know him, other sides to the man come out. The two girls may be presented by the narrator as basically being "the reckless, passionate one" and "the uptight, overly planning her life one" but they two show elements of the other (as best friends often do) while also showing sides that are something more than their core element or the exact opposite of said core.

Allen shoots their story in some of the most picturesque Spanish cityscape and countryside you'll ever see. I've often said that if you can't afford a trip to Japan, that renting Lost in Translation is a cheap substitute and I'll say the same about this film with regard to southern Spain. His knowledge of their art and architecture is frequently injected into the narrative without being overbearing or coming off as Allen wanting to show off.

His relatively hands off and trusting style of handling the cast pays off handsomely when you consider the talented roster. None of the drama slipped into melodrama and everything felt quite natural. The character of María Elena might be a bit much for some people, but I found that she was fleshed out enough for me to not just think "Here comes the crazy lady" every time she entered the room.

I've heard several people sing the old song about how "Woody Allen's finally got It back!", but given that this was said about Match Point and a few of his other films of the last fifteen years...well I just think that there are fans of his that need to move on from Annie Hall the way there are Radiohead fans who need to move on from OK COMPUTER. I feel it's a strong effort and I was pleased to see that all the work he's been doing with Scarlett Johansson seems to have helped her become a more interesting actress. Sure she's playing something of a sultry sexpot once again, but compare her character in this film to the one she played in The Prestige and I think you'll see what I mean.

I highly recommend bringing a friend with you and a partner if you've got one (certainly, judging by all the couples in the audience when I was there...I'm not the only one who thinks this is a good date movie) and to go for a meal or a drink after, somewhere you can discuss what you've just seen. Me? I'd see it again in theaters and I'm certainly going to have a peek at it on DVD if the price is nice.

----
MEANWHILE: My friend Sara got a role in a neat little music video you might like. Warning: The music is actually pretty good!

I went to a friends film fundraiser last night

and it was a good time, though both my friend and I wished more folk had come out. A lot of folk were busy, though my pal Rob still had me drop some dollars into the donation box on his behalf so hey, and the reasons were generally just.

But I caught through another friend that the reason some weren't coming was because they too led the Poor Artiste Life and that hey why should they come give money to a guy for his project when they need money for theirs?

GEE I DON'T KNOW FELLAS/LADIES, MAYBE BECAUSE ONE DAY YOU MIGHT WANT FOLK TO GIVE MONEY TO YOU?

Plus, Christ, it's not like these sorts of wingdings happen every day of the week or the suggested donation was more than the cost of seeing a movie - hell, it was actually a chunk less than going to see something at the AMC. Oh well!

It certainly got me thinking about what I'll do in months to come. I'm loathe to commit to anything just now, as I'm still wrapping up a couple of things, but I know that I want to push forward the feature length making of Tonight We Fall In Love. It's a fair guess that I'll need to raise "money" in ways other than tugging on the arms of organizations or individuals with large amounts of discretionary income. Heh, it'd be nice to think that Handful might have enough of a following by that point that I could raise some cash via an Obama style micro-payment dealie but that just MIGHT qualify as getting ahead of myself...especially since, though the technical problem has been solved, it was solved at a late enough point to make putting off the proper episode until next Friday a mandatory act (for the sake of quality).

I want I want I want...

Who I Am and What I Want, David Shrigley from Richard Summers on Vimeo.

I want to be able to figure out how to get around what seems to be a lighting problem in the remainder of the Handful footage so I can not have to cut the first season (already short) very very short...

I want to get onto some new projects...

I want to eat bones and shit ghosts...

Vixy

One nice side-effect of making Handful is that I have learned a great deal and found many new, useful websites in my efforts to make the show more visually interesting than just my mug in front of a brick wall. For this coming week's episode I wanted to insert a clip that I had found on Youtube. After securing permission from the owner, I had to learn that .flv is the filename suffix for all flash compressed videos hosted on Youtube and it's many compatriots. From there I learned the hard way that my editing software doesn't know what to do with the shit!

So I poked about a bit further and found this magnificent site - Vixy - which not only facilitates the downloading of online flash compressed video but it converts the bloody .flv's into far more usable formats such as .mov, .avi and the format in which I always upload the show (.mp4).

Oh, for the record, the clip I nabbed off of Youtube is not this.

Armstrong & Miller

A marvelous discovery that was passed along to me today...



The song's seem a cornerstone but they do more than that!

Hawt Dawg

Thank goodness for blogs that raid other blogs - thanks to getting linked to on Fleen, Handful has been linked to by comixtalk.com today! This also might be the beginning of my being known as a "DIY magazine show creator". Well, that's certainly not the worst title to have.

Neat

Oh hey sweet

Handful just got linked to by Fleen - this is the benefit of covering something with a bit more general appeal than cannibalistic, late '90s African warlords or polygamist cults!

WOOOOOOOO *FLOP* WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *FLOP* WOOOPWOPWOPWOPPO *FLOP*

So it occurred to me the other day that I need to get a part-time job again. Something about money? But there is also the forced structure, I think.

This is when you work.
This is when you do not work.
Do not fuck with this or we will be forced to make your limbs bend in ways they ain't supposed to and also, maybe, tell your momma convincing lies about what you do in the evening.

A useful moment of clarity hit me last night. I realized that I'd been working (on my behalf) basically 10+ hour days for eleven days straight. The show. Scripts. Job hunting all over towne. I had basically been waking up, usually after a fitful nights rest that was made so by waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep due to having Too Many Things racing around my head, and then alternating between running around at 100kph or collapsing in a heap until I was recharged enough to go back to the former.

At the start of this writing sabbatical the thing to do was make sure I didn't just laze around, write three sentences and consider it a full day. Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way. This is not apocalyptic, but I figured it's been a hundred years since I wrote a "Bloggy Bloggerton" style post and oh what a treat.

Meanwhile, both the show and that script I've been developing for a fellow have passed over their respective humps. I can now start looking at What To Do Next and it is pretty exciting! I just hope I can get a nice lil' job at a nice lil' bookstore so I can get out of the house more, interact with more strangers and basically get a little more balance going on.

ALSO
This is a pretty good read with a pretty good point.
1 2 3 4

Orange

I recently dug up this little number I did during the last Christmas holidays and stuck it in a cheap photo frame. It shouldn't be hard to believe it was inspired by a Vogue photo shoot. In it, the model had the front of her hair dyed a different color in each picture - this generally matched the background and even her clothing. I never really considered coloring in any other parts of this, but it has a sister painting which I started to fill in and my put up here later.It sucks a little, but I won't be able to do my usual weekend drawing/painting relaxation routine as I've got to be 100% ready and rehearsed to film the last episodes of Handful's first season on Sunday. Still, I'm steadily getting better at training myself to do enjoyable, productive things to relax. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with just crapping out in front of the television, video games or Internet distractions - it even sort of has to be to done once in a while - but awhile ago I set myself the goal of gradually shifting the balance of my relaxation activities from that category to the kind that leaves me with something for my efforts and I'm glad I did.

It's tricky, though, as it's not enough to do something productive - you have to make sure you're not getting lost down the path of Yet Another Skill To Try and Perfect. Otherwise the relaxation portion, the having-something-you-can-forget-about-when-you're-not-working-on-it bit, goes right out the window and then what are you doing?

I can't believe that after this Friday's Handful update we'll already be halfway through (Sept 12 will be the last update). If nothing else, this experience is certainly helping me refine my definition of what I want to do for a living.

I also can't help noticing how this blog has been transforming from a record of what I'm seeing to a record of what I make for others to see.

Hrm.

Movin' on up

Click To Play

So this Friday was the last of the episodes from our first batch of filming. I've just started looking at the footage for the next episode and the difference is like night and day - and not just because we got rid of the desk. Tonight I'm doing another interview and that too should be improved by the moderately hard-won lessons of experience.

It all makes me want to go back and call a Mulligan (or something). But oh well, it's the natural trajectory for this sort of thing. I can't think of one television series or webcomic I've enjoyed that didn't get a lot better after that initial period where the writers were still figuring out their voice and all that jazz. It would be just a tad presumptuous to think myself above this process!

"What Writers Make"

One of the trickiest things in being self-employed, or so I've learned from my parents and their many self-employed friends that I've met over the years, is setting a price for your services. You want to entice someone into hiring you or purchasing your product, but you also don't want to cheat yourself or even drive people away with prices so low they assume what you're offering is crapola.

For this last script I've been paid for, I basically did a calculation based off what I knew the producers budget to be (approx.) and what my own personal monthly expenses are. But according to the GUVVERMINT I should be charging $23.82 an hour. Well, at least until I hit 55 and then I should charge a little less as my doddering old brain won't be able to churn out tales like she used to.

Roadsworth

Getting talking with some folk at a party last night, I brought up my show and this Friday's interview with Posterchild as well as the Vespahead thing etc. One of the people I was talking about brought up a character I'd never heard about - Roadsworth. As his name suggests, all his work is done literally on the street. Apparently he was arrested a few years ago and presented with an impossible fine, which was later dropped when the city of Montreal ended up hiring him to do work for them.

Lo and behold, there is an NFB documentary on the guy - enjoy the trailer.

WIPED

So for the first time in a while I did a little sketching, from this photo. It's as if I've been shoving all my time and energy into something, lately.

But thankfully one other project is over it's biggest hump, a short script I've been putting together for a fellow who rather kindly paid me for the first draft. That certainly felt nice.

Background, Check

Here are the backgrounds for Friday's episodes, in case anyone would like a look at them without my ugly mug in the way. This is from episode one...And this is from episode two..In other news I CANNOT STOP LOOKING AT THESE PHOTOS. I want to paint every single one of them!

*Puff* *wheeze*

I just went jogging and, trust me, this comes back to scriptwriting.

When I was much younger and had made up my mind that I would spend my life writing, my Dad took notice. He came up to me and pointed at his then-rotund (and still hairy) midsection and said "Oliver, if that's what you want to do then take heed boy, take heed of what I hath wrought in my years at the bench".

I may be paraphrasing here.

But yes, like some corpulent ghost of Christmas future, dad's gut was giving me a message - those who sit down for a living are particularly susceptible to becoming grossly unfit. A few years later Dad would start going to a gym and minding his diet better, at this point in his late fifties. I'd like to think the new generation can learn from the previous one, so at twenty-six I am trying to take dad's gut's message in a little earlier. I've been able to slip by on my absurd metabolism for years but, about two years ago, I noticed a small yet perceptible slowdown - like a cheetah that notices it is still outrunning the lion but by just a little bit less each year.

Being around the home and writing or editing as much as I have these past few weeks, I began to notice another little slowdown. Add this to my meeting someone fit enough to make me do a spit-take when I saw her snare-drum of a stomach and this ends up with me pushing my little legs around the neighborhood this morning. It felt good and I stopped after the point at which it would have been embarrassing to do so. A man can't ask for much more on his first day at it (said the bishop to the actress).

Anyways, enough of that - I'd rather not be the type to exercise for one frigging morning and then spent hours waxing on about how the visceral ballet of the battle of the bulge made them feel more in tune with sister Nike. Keep an eye on this spot for some of the shit I learned while getting the show up in order.

Pretty suitable for my 500th post!

They clutter cities and countrysides. Make lots of different noises. Produce a variety of odors. The world would be very different without them. You love them, you hate them. Sometimes you make love to them while hating them

Human beings.

If you know any, please tell them all to come check out In a Handful of Minutes – the web show which reviews something other than the usual crap – and to pass it along to any human beings they might know. We have a Facebook group which may aide in this purpose! Plus you can download it as a podcast, if you'd like to see me leering at you while you're while riding the bus.

Episodes are hurriedly uploading now...

Give it up...

Somehow I found time for this...

Like a lot of watercolors, it looks best at about two feet away - but that doesn't work so well with the point n' click camera!

On the cusp...

Yes, it's finally happening - go here for some exciting news and something you should bookmark/add to your RSS feed!

I would like to politely ask that any of you who were thinking about kindly linking friends and enemies to the page to wait until the debut on Friday. Folk'll be more inclined to remember to come back if they get some proper content on arrival. What I've linked to right now? That's just for little old you.

At first I thought...

...this probably wouldn't work in a city. But maybe there's a way around the difficulties posed by a higher density population?

I don't like Russian Metal music...

Blatantly stolen from Tom.

GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.

....but I do like over the top tributes to Mikhail Gorbachev which re-imagine him as a zombie-fighting barbarian.

Write what you may or may not have done

I could not agree with the sentiment of panels 3 & 4 more, even if I designed a machine whose sole purpose was to augment my ability to agree.

I should be so lucky...

...as to wind up being so totally indifferent to old age as my father, who has found himself on the cover of Fifty-Five Plus magazine expressly for his choice to live like A Human and not the kind of demi-human so many folk resign themselves to being after they've been around long enough.

Addendum: I think my favorite line from the article is where Karen Secord, the author, describes my father as being "propelled by intellect, a quick wit and a fierce sense of self" (emphasis mine). Though I wouldn't argue the first two, it's that third quality which I feel really hits the nail on the head - not only as part of the assessment of my father but in identifying a necessary trait for making the most out of this quick jaunt across the Earth we've lucked into.

Transcript: AHAAAAAAHhhh....oh phew......oh ho ho HO HO HO HO HA HA HEE HEE

Holy cow I just about shit a brick! Not one hour ago I finished writing the "Webcomics: What's up with that particular medium of entertainment?" episode of Handful and then I see that Yahtzee has done an episode on webcomics.


A good episode too, mind! I watched it, I enjoyed it. But mostly I was relieved that...
1) I put up that preview of the Ryan North Interview when I did, thus proving I had the idea to do a webcomics episode on my own and that I'm not aping Yahtzee.
2) That Yahtzee focuses directly on gaming webcomics, while I'm looking at the whole spectrum.
3) He's also doing a tongue-in-cheek "How to make your own" thing, while I am taking a different tack.
4) Despite some qualifying remarks in the closing credits, he's obviously taking a big dump on Tim Buckley - which is a perfectly fair thing to do with Tim Bucklebottom - and his webcomic that serves as a perfect measure of the worst in gaming comics...particularly the comedy/drama switch thing.

Oh and uh hey I got to be in Ryan's alt text today thanks to this shirt. I knew it would be good for something other than saving people's eyeballs from bursting due to a manliness overload at the sight of my pecs.

9,000 Corsets and One Man Scratching His Head

One thing that is happening while I am building steam towards launching "Handful" is that I am looking around at other shows and trying to judge what brings in decent traffic. As I was browsing through my folder of Youtube videos I noticed something that really caught my eye - the third part of my Dirk diddling in "The Movies" currently has 9,037 views.


At first I remembered, at least seven months ago now, figuring out that somehow a bunch of members of a corset enthusiasts forum had kept tripping over it - most likely while searching out things more closely related to their joi de vive (sp?). But seven months ago it was around 900 views and wasn't toooo much further ahead of the other episodes, which you'd expect to get roughly the same amount of accidental search traffic. But for it to multpily tenfold is still pretty surprising and the contrast between it and the other three episodes is stark

Views as of this moment
Ep 1: 443
Ep 2: 979
Ep 3: 9,037
Ep 4: 679
Ep 4 Redux: 286

They all have the exact same title but for the episode number. I have to wonder what mysterious X factor I am missing! Meanwhile, the view count for my first crack at directing is currently 637 - I guess my problem was not naming it "Tonight We Fall In Corsets"? Or maybe "Tonight We Britney Nipple Slip Corset"? Surely one can take succor in the thought that, were he of the modern era, Alfred Hitchcock would have had these concerns weighing on his thick, furrowed brow.

P.S. I'm older and I didn't write a damn thing about it here? OH WELL. BLOG FAILURE I GUESS. UM, "THE DAYS SURE DO GO BY QUICK HUH?".

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry...

Mr. Oliver Thomas Coles Brackenbury and Mr. Ry-an North

Oh ho ho....needless to say (but I'm saying it anyways, apparently!), I have edited this in something of an intellectually dishonest manner. The proper interview, and any others I do, will edited in a more straightforward and honest fashion.

Toxic Pacific

I wrote about this a little while ago, but I thought I'd point out that the VBS series on the giant plastic conglomeration in the southern Pacific gyre is now up to view.

Here's part one.

And I must stress, VBS's journalism just isn't the same creature as VICE magazine - which I find to be steadily deteriorating - and shouldn't be pre-judged on the magazine's merits. Give it a chance, I doubt you'll regret it.

Seven Words you probably can't say in Heaven

George Carlin dying can be fairly described, as I'm sure he'd say, as bullshit.

The days...

Jesus jumped up Christ I cannot believe I'm already on the last week of this six week sabbatical. I'm reminded of a cynical bit (as if Shannon Wheeler can write any other kind) from the old Too Much Coffee Man comics. Basically TMCM get's wound up about the progression of time and how it races by when he's engaged in projects (satisfying or otherwise) but that the only way to stretch it out is to waste it by doing nothing (or at least nothing personally satisfying).

I'd like to provide a rejoinder but I don't have one at the moment. Perhaps there's one in here.

Unlikely Alliance

I have to say, I'm rather keen on this "Unlikely Alliance" project by the WeCanSolveIt group. If they are still taking videos two or three weeks from now then I'd certainly like to have a go.

That's how you know!

Man, I've spent almost the entire day editing (and look to be continuing doing so until bed). About mid-afternoon I had a real "Oh good God what am I doing oh man oh lord oh geez. I should just get a simple life that I can manage, maybe where I sell half-used batteries in a store inside an incomplete strip mall located at the corner of some suburb where the children die young and their parents just can't stop fiddling with themselves in public"...moment.

That's how you know you're learning new things and pushing out against the boundaries of your abilities folks!

CLUE: The following picture is part of what I'm slap, slap, slapping together.

Last preview for now...

...if all goes according to plan, I'll be uploading the first proper episode in very early July.

Not having millions of dollars...

...with which to purchase the rights to images and clips, I've been looking through the Internet Archive, everystockphoto and PicFindr a fair bit. Just thought I'd toss them handy links out to anyone else who wants to include clips without getting lawyers calling them - it can happen even when you think you're playing it safe, such as the recent trip up of Red in Tooth & Claw accidentally getting some David Attenborough clips mixed in with their show...then having to re-cut EVERYTHING THEY'D DONE. Good times.

Good times I would like to avoid.

Meanwhile, here's my first mess around with introduction credits for the show!