I won the flail on ebay. I noticed that nobody had bid on it so I emailed the seller and asked if I could have it for $20 US including shipping (saving $7.50 US). It paid off.
This coming Friday they’re showing Big Night (Stanley Tucci & Tony Shalhoub) and Yin Shi Nan Nu (Eat Drink Man Woman) at the Placebo Sofa Cinema. It’s $5 for the evening, I’m sure you know. Then on Sunday it’s Tampopo and Delicatessen. On Sunday the 25th it’s one of my all-time favourites Miller’s Crossing with Gosford Park (good old Bob Balaban).
So, think about that for a moment.
As much a reminder to me as it is to you:
As you know (if you’re Anghold, Marlo, Stuey, Yvonne, or select few others) I have gone to a Paperfolders Around the Lower Mainland (PALM) meeting to do origami. It is organized by a very cool nerd by the name of Joseph Wu. He tells me that “CBC will have yet another interview of me on Friday night. On the Road Again, Jan 9th, 7 p.m.” I was looking at origami with Yvonne in a very kawaii Japanese stationary store (I don’t remember what it was called but Y would) at the Metrotown Mall and I think we can all agree that origami is good. I mean to go to another meeting to fold strange new worlds – hopefully this month.
The Thing, The Ring, And Return of the King
Metrotown burned me out – but I felt immediately refreshed once I got outside. The reason we went was to see Return of the King in the nice seats. I liked it (the movie). There were some things about it I really liked and a few things that I felt “meh” about. I hadn’t read the book so it was all new to me. Keep that in mind when I make my judgments. I’m assuming that I’m the last person in my circle to have seen the movie so I don’t feel the need to say “spoilers ahead.”* I really liked the fact that Frodo just didn’t let go of the ring at the end – that he didn’t conquer it in the end – that if it wasn’t for gollum Sauron might have won. I wasn’t too keen on Sam being able to take on Shelob. In real life spiders are really fast. But of course, they aren’t that big. So there is that. But still. Was she toying with him? I didn’t need Aeowyn (sp?) telling the witch-king and the audience that she wasn’t a man – I think we all knew that. I never thought I’d hear myself type this but I got a little impatient about halfway through the movie. Even though there was a lot of action, I got a good dose of it in Two Towers and I felt a little inundated with epic battle scenes. Or maybe it was the drawn-out buildup to those scenes. Or maybe a combo of both. Otherwise, I quite liked the ending and…well pretty much everything that I didn’t just complain about. I would give it a 7 or an 8 out of 10 I guess. The ending had me leaking water out of my face so it’s a good thing I was with Yvonne instead of all my macho jock friends who would make fun of me. Yvonne made fun of me for other reasons but I won’t go into that here. Besides, I’ll show her one day. One day soon – oh yes.
*”And I don’t need to remind you that I rigged the election. But I did remind you. Well, what’s done is done.” – Scudworth.
Cartoon News (Canadian TV)
Just some info for all my fellow local cartoon afficionados:
Teletoon:
STAR WARS: CLONE WARS Saturday @ 5pm, Sunday & Monday @ 9:30 and 9:35 pm
AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE Sunday & Monday @ 9:45pm
FUTURAMA weekends @ 9pm & 1am
HOME MOVIES Mondays @ 10:30 pm
YTV:
Astroboy premieres Jan 31
Dalia forwarded me this opportunity to mentor a child, and I think it would be a really good idea for me right now. In the forward, which was from somebody named Michael, was described a 12 year old girl who wants to learn how to be a cartoonist, specifically manga style. I don’t really do manga, but I went ahead and emailed the contact person (Teresa – “VSB district resource teacher – gifted education”) to find out more info. I got an email this morning:
“She is a talented artist and would like a mentor to show her new techniques in manga such as expressions, clothes and colours. She would like to improve her shading and proportions. If it were possible, she would like to learn about computer programs for colouring and animating. “
I don’t know if I’m the right man for that job. But also in this email:
“L is 11 and in grade 6. Since he was 3 years old he has made a variety of board games – all involving maps, some are historical and some are fantasy. L would like a mentor who enjoys role playing and strategy games so together they could design a game with mythical characters and go though levels or worlds or create a problem solving game that appeals to many types of people. The mentor would keep him on track, test out the games and help produce the game.”
That is perfect for me. And:
“B is 12 and in grade 6. He has visited art museums, tried computer art, has taken art classes and does lots of drawing. He would like his drawings to have better shading, better poses, more action and be less stiff. For his product B wants to draw a detailed fighting scene of a monster. He would like the mentor to help him with drawing styles, poses, lettering (like graffiti), shading or anything involving pencil sketching/drawing.”
Another good match.
Problems: “Two references are needed plus a criminal record check (free).” and I have to fill out some forms. The forms are fine…except I have no experience with “youth.” The criminal record check – no problem. Two references? Who the hell would I put down as references? I guess employers. Anyway – I think I might give this a go and see what happens. Wish me luck.
If anyone wants me to forward them the info for how to be a MENTORRRRR just email me.
Finally I can talk about it openly.
I made Yvonne and Anghold calendars for Christmas. I finally got the gifts to them today. Anghold’s was called something to the effect of “Ang Hold’s Super-Fantastic Introduction to Dungeons and Dragons by Way of Toren’s Favourite 1st Edition Monsters 2004 Calendar“. It included staples like the beholder and the mind flayer, but also a couple personal faves like the thought eater and the grell. Both Yvonne and Anghold (independently) commented on the fact that the owlbear looked like a muppet (Sam the American Eagle>), and while Yvonne found most of the horrible monsters (like the umber hulk) “cute”, Ang found the purple worm legitimately scary. Heehee.
Yvonne got an altogether different calendar, called:
The 2-Tone Unsteady Players
presents
Best Loved Scenes From
12 AWKWARD MOMENTS IN HISTORY
a play directed by Cecil M. Frankenberry
So, if you can wrap your brain around this, it’s drawings & text of “awkward” instances in the history of the world, as if they were photos from a play on the subject. There was a cast of five actors, Floyd the Near-Sighted Skeleton, Snowgirl, Ewan O’Possum, Hello Cthulhu & the Clockwork Hippie>, plus the director, who, yes, is the Frankenberry from the cereal (he’s branching out from being a spokesdrawing for General Mills & getting into directing). I got a lot of help for ideas from Stewie, Mr. Tice, Rowan and many posts on various sites & forums, plus rummaging through books on hand. I think my favourite scene is the one in which Captain Oates (of Robert Scott’s doomed Antarctic expedition) committed suicide simply by leaving the tent with the words “I am just going outside, and I may be some time.” Although my favourite drawing is the one where they dress up Hello Cthulhu as the Mars Orbiter that NASA lost* and swung him around the stage on a rope, holding a jiffy pop pan in one tiny hand and some cardboard “solar panels” in the other, while a smoke machine belches the “Martian atmosphere” onto the scene.
*because one team used metric and the other team used imperial.
Smart is sexy, don’t you agree?
I like having friends who are smarter than me. It keeps me on my toes.* It’s actually not that hard to do. Oh, muffin, I have my occassional clever idea here and there, but generally I am akin to a post, smarts-wise. The point is this: I have added a few new co-blogger links to the left. Michael Tice is an old friend who lives in Californ-i-a. He is a Lovecraft fan, is a lot of fun (to my knowledge) and is probably the smartest guy I know. He has a lovely and very talented wife, Rebecca, and I wished I lived closer to them (or vice-versa). Secondly, Janet is someone I’ve never met, and I know through Marlo, and again – smart as a whip.
Also, if you’re looking through comments and somebody’s comment doesn’t make sense because it seems to reference another comment that doesn’t seem to be there – it’s because Kirsten taught me how to delete comments. Mwoo-hahahah. Take that, anonymous posters. That’s right – anonymous posting bothers me that much.
*plus hanging around brainiacs and asking lots of questions is a lot easier than reading those dusty old books.
A Stamos-neutralizing idea!
And I thought it was junk mail. I got a letter from the war amps. Once in a while I throw a couple US dollar bills in an envelope and send it off to them. So when I got something in the mail from them I thought it was just another “got anymore cash for us?” form. But instead it was my address label stickers “order.” The second best part about them is that they’ve got a picture of Astar the Robot on them. The first best part of them is that I forgot that I had put “Cloney McStudent” in the name field when I ordered them, so now I’ve got about 60 address labels for Cloney McStudent at my home address. That had me giggling like an idiot for a full minute. That’s one giggle per label, people! Well worth it.
Lastly:
I thought of another good irony today: I don’t know the origin of the word etymology.
“I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.”
– Arthur Dent
I’m not excited about anything right now. It sucks. In fact, there are a few things I am dreading. But I want something to be excited about.
Come to me…
(Sorry kids, I’m not usually in this kind of funk. Am I?)