Created for the classroom, but good for anyone who is confused about the nature of science.
I visit badastronomy.com regularly, and anyone who believes the moon landing was faked should too.
Do You Have The Innsmouth Look?
I’ve started scanning in the old issues of The People of Innsmouth, the official newsletter of the official fanclub of The Darkest of the Official Thickets.
Here’s the earliest (except for issue 1 which is lost to the depths of time) and probably the worst issue:
I'll Will Spread UR Bad English All Over Teh Internets
Best turned me on to this site: passiveagressivenotes.com which I check regularly.
We found two recently around town.
The first was on the back of a store on Victoria Drive and Grant St in East Van. The guy is selling the store, and everything in it, but not the property. His advertising is in sidewalk chalk all around the block near where the bocci ball players pee outside Dillon’s window. I wish I had a photo of any of this other stuff, maybe next time. But this note on the back of the store is priceless:
The second is much more passive-aggressive. Found on the front door of Wet Wizard Books (yes you read that right) on Broadway and Kingsway.
He had another good one which has since been taken down (or moved into the store, I haven’t actually been inside) which basically read
Nowhere is there a sign that says I buy books. So do yourself a favour and don’t trouble yourself by bringing in your boxes of books. Unless you have something truly exceptional I won’t look at them.
If you see any similar notes around town and don’t have a camera, let me know and I may be able to swing by with mine.
ps – beware the wet wizard.
Cartoon of the Day IX
Distilling the Fans into Equations
Speaking of super fans….
Being in a band is a weird thing. Being an artist is a weird thing. When you’re an imprint specialist at an embroidery place you don’t get emails from people out of the blue supporting and praising you for your work. You don’t get fans.
I appreciate fans. I even like having fans. It makes me feel good knowing that there are people out there who think I’m doing good work. But it’s very hard to get used to, and I don’t like to be put on a pedestal. I have difficulty reacting when people get fanboy on me. It’s taken me many years to learn how to take praise graciously. I think everyone has skills or talents. Mine happen to be (song)writing, drawing, and singing. I am crap at math and mechanics, but others are whizzes – do they have fans too? Maybe some do.
I’m a regular guy with strengths and foibles. My fans are too. The difficulty I have with fans is that when they goober out on me, I can’t treat them like a regular person, because they won’t let me. The ‘glorification’ if you will becomes a barrier to a normal social process, which I suck at during the best of times. I feel like these people could be my friends because clearly they like the same sorts of things I do–punk rock or Cthulhu or fine art or all of the above–but the exaltation gets in the way.
Above is the graphic from this article on making a living on art via your fanbase.
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
It goes on to describe what defines a “true fan” and basically how to handle them. As I say – I like having fans. If The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets didn’t have fans we wouldn’t still be around. We have never done it just for the money or just for the fans but when slogging through Eastern Canada’s shitty bars after your van has been broken into and your luggage stolen, and you have nowhere to sleep and very little money, that one ‘true fan’ and his friend that came to the show just to see you guys because it’s a dream come true to see you live…well that makes a huge difference.
I would love to make a living off of 1000 True Fans, but here’s where my human foibles and skill limitations come in.
A more important caution: Not every artist is cut out, or willing, to be a nurturer of fans. Many musicians just want to play music, or photographers just want to shoot, or painters paint, and they temperamentally don’t want to deal with fans, especially True Fans. For these creatives, they need a mediator, a manager, a handler, an agent, a galleryist — someone to manage their fans. Nonetheless, they can still aim for the same middle destination of 1,000 True Fans. They are just working in a duet.
I am the world’s worst promoter of Toren Atkinson. Kolja and I were just this day discussing how he tells lots of people how great an artist I am, and how I am thankful for that because I don’t tell anyone. I feel that my time is better spent working on new creative endeavors than crafting schemes on how best to milk the last ones. Certainly I can sell someone a t-shirt and tell them what I’m up to lately, but I find working out financial models and researching publishing licenses intimidating and, frankly, soul-draining. It is this lack of management skills that keep me in the embroidery business, for which Kenn is thankful I’m sure.
So if anyone wants to volunteer to be my manager, please step forward. You can probably totally take advantage of me because I’ll have no interest in how much money you’re skimming off the profits as long as I have a roof over my head and can afford to eat out every night.
Kudos to Erica Henderson!
Fan video!
The God Who Wasn't There
This is a poor trailer, but I’m interested to see what the film is like.
A Spirited Discussion
I guess I could have included this in the previous post…
The Spirit of Film
I’m worried.
I knew about The Spirit before I started studying how to make sequential art (AKA comic books), but the crime-fighter’s creator, Will Eisner, is well-known in the industry as setting the standard for that kind of storytelling. I haven’t read too much of The Spirit, but what I have read was quite charming and fun.
Hold on for a sec. In my comments on my Iron Man review, I got called on giving Superman Returns two more stars (out of 10) than I gave Iron Man. I admit that Superman Returns had a lot of imperfections, including a let-down ending. And as I said in the comments, I am a lot more forgiving to films that I consider to have “a good heart.”
It’s hard to explain what that means. Part of it is the general message of the story. In a book by Peter “The Hulk” David on writing, he (Mr. David not The Hulk) says that although Spider-Man plots the adventures of a superpowered teen with spider powers, what it is about is “with great power comes great responsibility.” It seemed to me that Iron Man was about “the answer to guns is more guns,” but maybe that’s just me. That was only part of the problem I had with the movie, but like I say, if it had a better heart, I would have rated it better, like I did with Superman Returns even though as pointed out there were a lot of weak points in the telling. Despite those flaws I think that Singer’s “does the world need Superman?” vision was somewhat redeeming.
The stories of The Spirit, noir crime-fighter from the 1940’s, seems from what I’ve been exposed to have a good heart – full of humour and pathos and everyday white collar earnestness. But now I learn that it’s being made into a movie written and directed by Frank “Sin City” Miller. In case you don’t know what I think about Frank Miller, completely apart from his ability to draw comics, let me put it to you with this quote of his:
“9/11 did change everything: the West is confronted with a fascist, misogynist, homophobic, genocidal blood enemy that is dedicated to the annihilation of everything civilization has achieved in three millennia. At the very least, my idea of what makes a true villain has changed. An existential threat to everything in the world that’s worth a damn clarifies the mind…Look at the world. Almost half my country equates flushing a Koran down a toilet with sawing the head off an innocent contractor, or using airplanes those barbarians could never have invented to slaughter thousands of my neighbors.”
As if he’s one to talk about misogyny and homophobia (re: 300).
I intend to be extremely faithful to the heart and soul of the material, but it wont be nostalgic. It will be much scarier than people expect, Miller told Variety.
Well, I am scared.
ps: the quote I used is in reference to a Batman comic Miller is working on called “Holy Terror, Batman!” a propaganda piece where Batman fights Al-Qaeda.
Sham-Rock
In case you were wondering, the rock show went really well. I printed up my new shirts – yes, this one – and sold a couple, along with all the CDs I brought except for a few copies of Great Old Ones. The new costume worked out fine and I didn’t take the helmet off until the second last song. Calamario also looked great in his new betentacled outfit. Adam PW Smith was there to help us with the lights and take photos, and when he gets back from his vacation he promises to send me some pics which I’ll share of course. The Get Away Sticks opened for us and The Dreadnoughts closed the night. We got the middle slot. Most bands prefer to “headline” the show but since we are all old farts, as are our friends, we prefer to get home early so the middle slot actually has the largest audience, I find. Nevermind that I had to stay through the entire lineup to get paid at the end of the night, The Dreadnoughts were quite entertaining and also had many a squid motif. A large stuff Care Bear (TM) with a shamrock on it’s tummy was tossed around like a ball in the audience. Deanna knows the bear’s name but I don’t.
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