WE'RE LIKE TIGERS IN A CAGE

KARAOKE WATCH!

Tonight, Mason and I hit a farewell party for Scott McCloud, who has been in Portland for about a week now. There we talked to Jacquelene Cohen (formerly of Top Shelf, now at Dark Horse) and the cool artist Erika Moen, who works for Fashion Buddha, hosts for the soiree.

From there, we traveled to the Boiler Room, where our favorite karaoke jockey Dr. Love (he of Cinema Queso) was working the decks. Almost instantly after arriving, some drunk dude told me I reminded him of the Keymaster, but when I asked, "Rick Moranis?" he seemed very confused. We think he meant the Pagemaster. He then proceeded to bug me for several minutes about how you burn .avi files of bootleg movies to DVD. It was strange.

The place was packed because it was the day before a holiday, so most of us only got one song in. Mason pumped out "Bossa Nova Baby," Joëlle sang "All My Loving," and I had a blast singing "A Town Without Pity." I also duetted with our friend Sonja on "Something Stupid," and Andy joined with David Bowie's "Modern Love."

More on my Flikr account.

Current Soundtrack: all my Client tracks on shuffle (see my LastFM profile for which ones)

Current Mood: mellow

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

"YOU STUPID DOUCHE NOZZLE. YOU TRULY DON'T FUCKIN' GET IT, DO YOU? YOU POOR MOTHERFUCKER. YOU'RE GOING TO MISS EVERYTHING COOL AND DIE ANGRY." - Patton Oswalt imitating a dumb heckler

This first part was written on June 6 but never posted, because I felt others were all saying it:

Next person to ask me if I am going to see the Transformers movie, or worse, whether or not I will take him to the screening (it has yet to be a "her" in this scenario), gets cut out of my life completely.

What is wrong with you people? It's amazing, because to a man, you've all made an appeal to my sense of history for why I should see this movie, and yet you have no sense of history yourselves. This is Michael Bay we're talking about, the guy who made Pearl Harbor. He can even turn actual history into sludge, and yet you're trusting him with what you all tell me is "your childhood." First of all, you zygotes, the Transformers are from my childhood, not yours. Most of you are younger than me, so you're Johnny Come Latelies as far as I'm concerned, so don't try to school me on my childhood. I'll school you by transforming my five fingers into a fist and removing your teeth. Second, even if it is your childhood, all the more reason for you to stay away from this piece of crap. Even if I let you get away with your claims that the cartoons and comics weren't appallingly bad (seriously!), by what criteria are you thinking this movie will be what you want it to be? Getting Michael Bay to direct Transformers is like hiring a child molester to babysit your kids, and yet you all clap and say, "Oh, sweet! I'll pay $9.25 for that!"

Would it really kill you to walk away, to say, "No, this is not mine, this is theirs, and I'm not going to support it." I can already hear the apologists starting. It's like the Star Wars prequels all over again. Instead of just manning up and saying, "They screwed me," you're coming up with all the reasons why it's going to be okay. The most common already is, "Well, I really like Shia LeBeouf. I'll go for him." You really like Shia LeBeouf? What for?! Look at this guy's oeuvre. Wow. He spun a successful Disney channel show into cinematic gold. One stinker after another, and it's like he's a goddamn genius to you people. Allegedly Disturbia is pretty good, but I'll live comfortably never finding out as I watch Rear Window for the umpteenth time.

Just face it. Look at what Hollywood has shown you from Transformers so far and be smart about it. They are doing to your childhood what they did when they made Gene Kelly sell cars and Audrey Hepburn shill pants. It's advertising necrophilia, and they are having their way with your memories in a most unclean manner. And they won't stop as long as you keep letting them get away with it. Can't you let your good times rest in peace?

It's over, people. Stay home!

Today is July 3rd...

Now that all you sheep have dutifully followed the herd and gone to see this movie, you're all freaking e-mailing me about it. "Dude, it's not that bad." Say it in a meathead voice. "Dude, it's not that bad."

You know, I guess I can kind of forgive this collective amnesia that has forgotten that Michael Bay used to be the punchline of every joke about bad movies, because now that he's been replaced by Brett Ratner, we wistfully dream of a time when he was our whipping boy and think, "Oh, that wasn't so bad, was it?" So, let's just let this slide.

Instead, look at how people are defending this excrement. (And if you're reading this and getting all pissy or proud that it's about you, guess what? You're not special. You're actually in a club. I'm hearing this junk regularly. Though, you can all thank this guy for breaking the camel's back. (You know I think you're cool, Plas, don't cry.)) The first thing that follows, "Dude, it's not that bad" is, "It's just a summer popcorn movie." Note the word "just." That four letter word means so much more. There is a reason Radiohead used it as a title of a song where the central line in the chorus was "You do it to yourself." The word "just" is the shorthand abbreviation for "It's really a piece of shit and I am kidding myself." If you can't say that sentence without the word "just," you're lying to me and you're lying to yourself and there is a special place under Satan's ballsack that tingles every time you tell that kind of lie.

I'm a goddamn cinephile. You don't think I like summer movies? You don't think I like things blowing up and people's head exploding and other such gory nonsense? But as with anything, there is good nonsense and there is bad nonsense. The good is the kind where you say, "That was a great summer movie." The bad: "It's just a summer movie."

Then...and this part I love...I'm going to pause and savor it's imminent arrival, like I would at the airport when my long lost love is finally returning home...

"You just have to turn off your brain and bleh bleh bleh blah bloo."

You know when I turn off my brain? Right when I hear that phrase. And you notice the word "just" in there? The other key word is "have." The only time I have to turn off my brain is when I know I'm in the middle of something horrible and it's the only way to get out of it. Like when your mother tells you that you're an abomination and she wished she had fished you out of her uterus with a spoon, and you start thinking of happy things to make you forget the harshness. It's what happens when someone perpetrates violence on your mind and you have to leave your own body in order to keep from breaking down completely.

If a movie requires that you ignore that it's insulting you, that means it's insulting you. A truly excellent entry in the "dumb fun" movie genre asks nothing of you. It lulls you into the good time it provides and requires no caveats. It never makes you feel stupid just because it might be stupid. That's the beauty of it. Movies like There's Something About Mary or Let's Go To Prison, they just make you laugh. They don't lower your standards to do it. 28 Weeks Later killed things real good, and though it had plenty of story holes, they didn't degrade the visceral thrills I got in the action sequences. And then something like 40 Year Old Virgin or The Host transcends by being the best of both worlds. I'll watch it a million times because when I'm just feeling like being silly, I can watch it for how silly it is; if I want something more, I can watch it for the jokes and/or action and the deeper subtext.

Now, ask yourself, is there anything about Transformers that is really more than meets the eye, or is it only more because of the excuses you're about to make for it?

On a final note, if you want to relive your childhood, relive your damn childhood. It's still there. Go back to what you originally enjoyed. Isn't the whole point of reliving your childhood that you're returning to simpler times? How does watching a movie that updates said simplicity with an overcomplicated script, taking the sleek designs of the old toys and giving them a million moving parts, do that?

Answer my rhetorical questions if you must, but only if you can honestly say that if you were replying to me verbally, you wouldn't begin with at least three buts. "But, but, but...dude, it's not that bad."

Current Soundtrack: Patton Oswalt, Werewolves & Lollipops (Ironically, Oswalt is such a geek, I bet he's seen Transformers already. Wanna wrestle?)

Current Mood: irate

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

YOUR JAMIE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

As mentioned last week, it was time for me to read over and finalize what constitutes the first complete draft of This World and Body, previously referred to as Jamie S. Rich/Joëlle Jones Book 3. It's a 170-page graphic novel that I guess takes us back to relationship territory, but more mature, darker, and a little bit racier.

The writing was kind of rough-going. Though this is the first complete draft, it actually is labeled Version 3 on the file. The first version got about halfway there before I had to reexamine what I was doing and try a different tactic. I still like that early stuff, it's compact and visually moves quite effortlessly, but it's also overly ambiguous and maybe too aloof. The second version ended up being the near-complete story, but with some holes and a lack of thorough formatting. Version 3 firms all of that up.

I actually read over the second version last Wednesday in lieu of going to the Platform Festival that day, but didn't really get to come back to the manuscript until yesterday. It took two days, but I have now printed out a copy to give to Joëlle and get her feedback.

Honestly, I was kind of surprised by how it turned out, and I ended up liking the script quite a bit. If I had to classify it, I'd say This World and Body is like an elegy for what has come before. Naturally, I didn't think in those terms as I wrote it. I'm not one to plan that meticulously when it comes to theme and sartorial intent. I prefer to let that sort of stuff grow naturally from the story, which to me is the most important. It's only later that the work contextualizes itself for me, and then it's only a matter of understanding what I did both to evaluate what to do with it and look ahead toward what is next. In terms of my bibliography, it's probably the most cynical book I've written, but it also has the kind of ending that I like, where whether someone is suffering a punishment or has found a kind of happiness (or both) is really up to debate.

I don't know. We'll see what happens with it. Joëlle has several things on her docket before this will come up on the schedule, so there will be plenty of time to ruminate.

As a bit of insight into where I am at with this, here is my writing soundtrack:
1. Marion - "Let's All Go Together"
2. Depeche Mode - "When the Body Speaks (Acoustic Version)"
3. The Concretes - "Sugar"
4. Camera Obscura - "Country Mile"
5. Madonna - "Frozen (edit)"
6. Brett Anderson - "Love Is Dead"
7. Manic Street Preachers/Nina Persson - "You Love Alone is Not Enough"
8. Martina Topley-Bird - "Anything"
9. The Bluetones - "Pretty Ballerina"
10. Amy Winehouse - "Love is a Losing Game"
11. Travis - "Closer"
12. Suede - "Untitled [Stanbridge Demo]"
13. Camera Obscura - "If Looks Could Kill"
14. Depeche Mode - "The Darkest Star"
15. Marion - "Your Body Lies"
16. The Cowboy Junkies - "You Will Be Loved Again"

On an odd side note, this morning I watched Cover Girl with Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth. It's been years since I have seen it, though it was one of those movies I had taped off of cable in high school and watched as often as I could. I have always had a huge crush on Hayworth, and Cover Girl always fit well alongside the more noirish films like Gilda and The Lady From Shanghai that had made me a fan. I've only since become a fan of Gene Kelly in the last couple of years, learning to better appreciate his approach to dance and his overall artistic vision, and that could be why I actually feel like I understand Cover Girl now better than I ever did.

I'm always fascinated how the things we see and experience influence us in life and art, and watching this movie now, it's clear to me that it was a much bigger inspiration for me than I had ever realized. So many elements of this seemingly light story of two nightclub entertainers torn apart by the sudden fame one of them (Hayworth) acquires reflect pretty standard tropes that have shown up in my fiction. The way Gene Kelly battles his own subconscious in a dance of wills, and then leaves everything behind when he decides it's hopeless--a kind of Old Yeller approach to love, forcing someone to leave you by insisting you're no good for them--is obviously familiar. Of course, there is also the totemic symbol of searching for a pearl as an omen of happiness and togetherness, not unlike the fortune cookies that bound Tristan and Isobel in Love the Way You Love. I was barely in my teens when I first gravitated to this musical, and yet Cover Girl reveals that the basic foundation of who I am as a writer (and as a person) was already in place.

From the most unlikely sources...

And I still do love Rita Haywoth. Joëlle once asked me one of those fun psychological riddles that everyone uses to suss out another person's personality. She asked if I could form my perfect woman from three classical Hollywood actresses, who would they be. The choice of Audrey Hepburn would surprise no one, I'm sure, and Lauren Bacall is also fairly obvious I would think. The third was Rita Hayworth.

People should post their three in the comments section. Pick your gender as appropriate. Cut-off for classic Hollywood is probably the mid-'60s, when the ratings system started changing and the new auteurs were breaking down the old studio approach. Some classic pictures were still being made, though, so there is some leeway. I would say the ultimate cut-off would be someone whose first film was made after 1975. My blog, my rules. Use your best judgment.

Current Soundtrack: Graham Coxon, The Golden D (it's as bad as I remember); "Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago

Current Mood: thoughtful

MORRISSEY WATCH: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

Uncle Moz has gone all Robert Cohn on us again.

Last Friday on Letterman, he performed his new song "That's How People Grow Up," an intended number for his upcoming 800th Greatest Hits package. Naturally, this puts a lot of pressure on the poor little pop jangle, as it has to stand on its own two legs next to the tried and true singles that were just written to be songs in the catalogue, not for something grander than that.

I hate to point out that "People Grow Up" has ankles the size of toothpicks and they threaten to snap.

Have you watched/listened? It's not a bad song by any means. A tad musically flaccid, and the yowling Kristeen Young trying to be Morrissey's new Ludus while pretending she's Björk really needs to go. But it's all right.

The problem is it sounds like a song left on the floor when they were done cutting Ringleader of the Tormentors. Its lyrics evoke new love coming late in life, death, being tired, etc. It's the themes he was working on that most excellent album, and there is a feeling of been there, done that hanging around "That's How People Grow Up." The needle has gotten stuck in the groove yet again.

Not that we haven't seen this before. Even back in the Smiths, Morrissey's inbetweener stuff often felt like self-cannibalizing. We also could have probably predicted that the car was stalling when the final singles off of Ringleader showed up with so many live tracks as B-sides. That happened once before, for the second single of Southpaw Grammar, signaling that the fount of creativity was drying up. Is it too early to start fearing the next album, or are we perhaps at the edge of another wilderness period?

Current Soundtrack: various Colourfield tracks ("Windmills of Your Mind," "Sorry," "Yours Sincerely," "Hammond Song," "Take")

Current Mood: suspicious

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 6

I wasn't sure how much of the Fest I was going to do today. Last night I only stopped in briefly at the street party stuff, enough to see some of the Basil Wolverton art at a gallery downtown--but I had a friend in town and we ended up hanging out instead.

This made sleeping in all the more appealing, so I missed the early morning programs. The presentation by Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas and James & the Giant Peach, was too good a prospect to pass up, however, so I headed over in the early afternoon for that. They showed a clip reel featuring highlights from his films, as well as early shorts and promo spots he did for MTV that just about everyone has seen but probably never realized was his handiwork (I was surprised). He then talked at length with David Walker. I don't know if it was just the angle of the lights where we were sitting, but Selick appeared to have his eyes closed nearly the entire time. It was kind of creepy, giving him this trance-like, hollow look.

The true lure of the session came at the end when he showed us some script doodles, character designs, maquette models, and very brief test animation from his current project, the feature-length stop-motion film Coraline. It looks incredible. I'm stoked for it. (No pics, sorry. They took our phones and cameras before we could go in.)

When it was done, I saw that a band was setting up for tonight's closing party. Except it didn't look like a band, it looked like a bunch of junior high girls. Turns out Smoosh is performing. This may be enough to get me to go to the shindig, but once I get comfortable here in the house, I may not want to go back again. A gap of four hours is a long time between things.

It wouldn't be so long a gap if the last program I sat in on had been better. I lasted less than half an hour in the Internet Shorts Competition. I kind of got what I was expecting: lame political humor, inside jokes, and poorly rendered fantasy stuff. There's a reason I don't watch such things in the privacy of my own home at my convenience, so there wasn't much compelling me to stay.

All in all, if that is it for me and the Platform International Animation Festival , I've had a good time and have no real complaints. I am not sure I necessarily enjoy the nonstop go-go-go of a fest, and can't imagine what it would have been like with a paid pass where I felt I had to get my money's worth, but all in all, it was a good program with a wide variety of material. If it's to be a regular event, this is a very good start.

Current Soundtrack: Smoosh, She Like Electric

Current Mood: drained

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 5

My biggest must-see next to Tekkon Kinkreet was the 1941 Chinese film Princess Iron Fan. Based on a portion of the mammoth Journey to the West, this vintage black-and-white cartoon featured the Monkey King and his cohorts as they tried to pass through the mountains of fire!

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little disappointing. It wasn't horrible by any means (though the image quality was; restored in 1994, I'd hate to see what it looked like before it was cleaned up!), it just turned out to be more of a historical curiosity than the sort of old school 'toon that woos you with its primitive charms. You could definitely see a Walt Disney influence, particularly Silly Symphonies and how they used music, as well as some Betty Boop in the character designs, leading me to think there was a time lapse in maybe what was making it to China. There were several action sequences where a particular movement was repeated a couple of times as if the animators were trying to show off, and even two singalong, follow-the-bouncing-ball songs. I'm glad I saw it, as it's a rare outing of something very few have likely heard of, let alone seen, but not all that I had hoped.

That clip is pretty much what it looked like in the theatre, too. Even that weird panning that made me think sometimes it was a film of the film being projected on teh screen, like how people used to film live TV broadcasts off the TV. We had subtitles, though. Someone also posted the first 8 or so minutes on YouTube if you want to search for it.

While waiting around for my next pogram to start, I sat in on the first four shorts in the 6th round of the competition. Outside of a commercial called "Speech Bubble" (it's balloon, moron!), they were all really good. "Small & Deep Love Stories" (Taiwan; dir. Hsin-Ping Pan) was a cutely designed series of vignettes where things like clocks fell in love and teacups kissed each other. It reminded me of comic strips you might see in an indie anthology. It was followed by "Naked (Sex)" (Netherlands; dir. Mischa Kamp), which combined rotoscoping and home-made art-styled hand animation to illustrate monologues about two young boys and their misconceptions about sex. It was very funny, though not as amusing as the fact that it was entered into the "TV for Children" category. Oh, you crazy Dutch!

Super awesome was "Wolf Daddy" from South Korea, directed by Chang Hyng-yun. It's about a wolf who is a novelist and who has several women show up at his door and drop off children he's sired. It's like a "Fractured Fairy Tale" redo of Miyazaki. But don't just take my word for it:

I should have stayed when I was on a roll, but I was curious about the "Viva Cuba" program, a retrospective of state-sponsored animation from our southerly neighbors. Boy, what a load of dross. I got through a half-hour of music videos that were seemingly cobbled together with clips of long cartoon series, corny gag shorts that felt like they were ripped off wholesale from Mad Magazine, and informational factoids for children before I left. I could see some government messages buried into the material (a strange gag with a black vampire and KKK members, the anti-Imperialist undertone of a foppish French king into S&M, etc.), but the limited animation wasn't appealing enough to weather through the weak writing.

On the way home, I stopped in at PNCA to see some of the installations: mainly, animated pieces projected on walls. The most interesting was the one you see when you first walk in. It has three different loops of action, and when you walk around to the back of the screen, you discover that the action is being created live. Cut-outs of the backgrounds and characters were put on a spinning wheel, and a camera captures the simulated movement as they turn at high speeds. Very cool.

There is a street party tonight that I may go to, but a friend is also in town. I'm actually pretty burnt on going out. There's been a lot of it this week. If I had my druthers, I'd stay in and watch the last three episodes of Studio 60.

Current Soundtrack: Pulp, Peel Sessions; Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad

Current Mood: exhausted

HEADLESS AND ALL ALONE

THIS WEEK AT THE THEATRE...

* Broken English, an amazing Parker Posey can't even save the debut feature of Zoe Cassavetes (daugther of John)

* Ratatouille, the crowd-pleasing new Pixar movie directed by Brad Bird

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Echo & the Bunnymen: Dancing Horses, a new DVD of an excellent 2005 concert

* If.... - Criterion Collection, the subversive British classic from the late 1960s

Current Soundtrack: Jamie T, Panic Prevention

Current Mood: interrupted

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 4

As I noted was likely to happen, I skipped the Platform programming yesterday to get some work done. I also wanted to go down to the Central Library here in Portland, where Douglas Wolk was presenting a panel called Appreciating Comics. It consisted of comics people of all stripes: Gail Simone, Colleen Coover, Jen Manley Lee, Dylan Meconis, and Scott McCloud. (Rather than me link to them all, go to the library page on the event.) Since this is Portland, there were also plenty of local creators in the audience, like Diana Schutz, Steve Lieber, and more. I went with Joëlle, and we enjoyed listening to an in-depth talk about our art form. I particularly liked how each creator introduced him or herself by showing some of their favorite pages from their own work that they felt used the comic book form to its most unique advantages.

It was also gratifying that the presentation room filled up as soon as they opened the doors about half an hour before the panel was set to start. Many people were turned away, including some professional comics folks. I think just about everyone who got in walked away with a crush on Colleen Coover, though. She's too cute and funny.

I made my way back to Platform today for a couple of studio presentations. The first was from Aardman, the people behind the Wallace & Gromit movies and so many others. The basic outline of the program was talking about the history of the studio from its earliest days up until now, and using the stop-motion Curse of the Were-Rabbit and CGI Flushed Away to compare and contrast various aspects of production, both traditional and modern. It was a decent event, but one downside of the DVD age is that there was very little by way of special information for the speaker (producer David Sproxton) to impart that wouldn't have already been familiar to anyone who has spent some time with animation discs. I'd even wager some of what we saw was from the Flushed Away DVD.

Still, there were some great clips of very early Aardman efforts, as well as neat promo reels. They showed some of Nick Park's live action enactments of scenes from Were-Rabbit, and a great little how-to demonstration on slapstick put together for a silent film festival. (I looked for this last thing on YouTube, but did not find it.) He also brought along the actual clay models of Wallace, Gromit, and the female lead from the movie (though, I imagine there are many different ones.)

After that, it was a program by Pixar Studios, run by Gary Lyndstrom, an award-winning sound designer and the director of "Lifted," the short that is running in front of Ratatouille. Where Sproxton felt like he was giving us something conventional, Lyndstrom really knocked out a special program. To start, he showed the first four Pixar cartoons--"Luxo Jr.," "Red's Dream," "Tin Toy," and "Knick Knack"--all of which Lyndstrom did sound for. Most of them I hadn't seen in years. He followed this with "Lifted," and from there he walked us through the creation of "Lifted" piece by piece, including reference materials and hilarious videos of the animators experimenting with hair gel to create the substance the alien characters would be made out of. He also isolated sound effects to illustrate how unconventional sources can lead to exciting audio, and showed the construction of various shots in the cartoon.

Best of all, though, is he showed "Lifted" again immediately after, and it was amazing to see all these elements at work. I heard the sounds differently, I saw the visual things I hadn't noticed the first time, and most impressive of all, even though he had exposed the seams, the finished animation still flowed smoothly. The true magic was making all of the mechanics disappear.

I skipped out again on the evening events. Let's just say, something else came up. Joëlle Jones got to see the new Harry Potter film, and I'm doubly cool because I got to see it with Joëlle Jones, who is so kick-ass we should just call her Hermione. Weep in envy, muggles!

Special thanks to the mega-swell Sam Humphries for hooking us up!

Current Soundtrack: various Arctic Monkeys and Erasure

Current Mood: relieved

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CAN'T YOU JUST ADORE HER?

Much belated birthday card scans. Joëlle Jones and Terry Blas both made me cards featuring our dear Audrey.

Joëlle

Terry

Inside: "Hope Your Birthday Isn't One of Those."

Current Soundtrack: Mandy Moore, Wild Hope

Current Mood: bitchy

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

ARRANGEMENTS OF SHAPES AND SPACE

Matt Fraction put out the call today to have people take pictures of their desk space. Unlike most of the people, I didn't clean. They totally cleaned. I showed the carnage in full.

For the full set of photos, including Matt, Warren Ellis, Laurenn McCubbin, and more, jump in the pool. The above actually contains explanatory notes when you view it on Flickr.

Current Soundtrack: The Good, the Bad & the Queen B-sides

Current Mood: indifferent

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 2

Today was the day with the event I was most excited about. I headed down early to make sure I could get in to see Tekkon Kinkreet, the anime adaptation of the manga Black & White by Taiyo Matsumoto.

This film definitely lived up to expectations. A surreal story set in a squalid future (or was it the past?), it involves gangsters, super fighters, and two homeless brothers who rule Treasure Town. The Cat Gang, using the monikers Black and White, basically live as if the world is their oyster, but their connection has some deeper, metaphysical overtones that lend the movie a philosophical weight. They are the yin to each other's yang. The movie is a genre explosion, including exciting action and a completely mindblowing third act. The animation style preserves some of Matsumoto's line work, but pulls back on the detail to a degree, giving it life, movement, and color. It's mainly hand-drawn animation, with some effective use of CGI.

Interestingly, Tekkon Kinkreet was directed by an American, Michael Arias, and he came out for the screening. After the film was done, he sat down with David Walker for a thirty-minute chat.

I stuck around after for the third round in the competition of short films. Ten movies from around the world, and naturally, a mixed bag. The best were "God On Our Side" (dir. Uri Kranot & Michal Pfeffer), a cut-and-paste film from the Netherlands that showed the horrors of war by taking pieces of Picasso's Guernica and bringing them to life; Ian Gouldstone's "Guy 101," a British-produced student film cleverly using online icons to describe an online encounter, which takes a strange turn that held the audience in a tight grip; and Sweden's "Never Like the First Time" (dir. Jonas Odell), animating four different real monologues about how the speaker lost his or her virginity, using a different style each time.

Also noticeable was Andreas Hykade's "The Runt" from Germany, which was an unsettling look at the personal travails of rabbit farming, and Nick Mackie's "Cold Calling," a British man's real audio of him giving crap to telemarketers. On the bad side were two other films from the UK. Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley's "Who I Am and What I Want" was poorly drawn and nigh incomprehensible from a narrative standpoint, and it's bodily function jokes just got more obvious the longer it went on. The Welsh-produced "Dreams & Desires - Family Ties" (dir. Joanna Quinn) was better drawn, reminiscent of Bill Plympton in its style, but overly frenetic. Plus, a gauzy soundtrack made it impossible to understand the thick accents. I was also annoyed by the fact that Quinn established a POV of her main character running a video camera, but then allowed the scenes to morph into fantasy. You can't lock down the conceit of a real-world POV and then suddenly have angels and orgies.

The screening was almost marred by the fact that I had sat in front of three industry insiders who talked rather loudly about how they had seen most of the films before the lights went out, and then proceeded to complain about the ones they did not like during the actual showings. Tip of the Day: You never want to sit by industry insiders at an industry function of any kind. They are full of themselves and won't shut up. Don't sit next to me at a comics function for just that reason. I'm unbearable!

Also, slightly overweight bald men who like to wear baseball caps, listen up. If your cap is going to make you sweat and itch so you have to pull it off every five minutes to air your dome, don't wear it. And don't sit in front of me at the movies!

Anyway, not sure how much I'm actually going to catch in the next two days due to other things. If you don't hear about more of this Fest until Friday, don't fret. That's just the way it is.

Current Soundtrack: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found: One Kiss Can Lead To Another [Disc 2]

Current Mood: alone

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

IF THE JAMIE SHOULD FAIL TO FALL APART

As noted in my last post, yesterday I put some time into revising the script for Love the Way You Love vol. 6, the last currently on the schedule. I actually wrote the first draft a couple of months ago, when Marc Ellerby was first going to start vol. 5. My process on the book was to be sure I wrote a new script just as he was starting the preceding issue, that way there would never be a lapse.

When I finished it, though, I kind of looked at the final page and thought, "What the fuck did I just do?" Sometimes, you finish something and you know it's good. You Have Killed Me, The Everlasting, vol. 4 of Love the Way. Those I knew. I finished them and I knew.

Other times, you type "The End" (or, as it were, "# # #") and you have no clue. Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is one I got done with and felt kind of perplexed about. Did I hit it? Or did it hit me? Only time and a future reading can answer the question (it's one that must be answered by the author, outside opinions can only do so much). For Horizon?, I was pleasantly surprised. Even in the many later readings, sections of the book made me cry (though I only have now come to realize it's because that section is a letter from myself to me as much as it is a central part of the narrative), and the novel managed to surprise me the right way. When I am done with this blog post, I am going to read the first draft of This World and Body in hopes that it won't inspire me to want to throw myself off a cliff in a bad way (the writing is lame), but make me want to throw myself off a cliff in the way I'm supposed to (it's a dark, dark book).

So, Love the Way You Love #6. It's a strange one. I have a character come in and kind of act like the angel from It's a Wonderful Life. There are no fantasy elements, but what I mean is this guy shows up and he leads Isobel around and talks to her and they kind of hash over what has happened between her and Tristan. As I was writing, the scenario kind of took over the writer, and dialogue between them felt like it was coming independently of me--which is very cliche to say, I know. I hate when writers speak of their characters as telling them what they want to do or anything like that, for me it's really that something more metaphysical called "story" takes over. I often liken it to reaching into the air and snatching the tale from the sky, or plucking it from a tree.

The problem is, when that happens, the work flows easy, but when I'm done, I'm completely baffled by what has come out.

Thankfully, I'm rather pleased to say that vol. 6 is pretty fucking good. Whether I knew I was doing it or not (I can't remember, honestly), I think there is a lot of symmetry between the first issue and the last. Things get resolved, discussed, recontextualized, and everything feels right. Tristan is the hero, and he's totally swoonworthy, and I think what Isobel goes through is honest and true. If this is it, if there is no more (and I do think I'd like there to be more), I believe readers will be satisfied. They get their promised happy ending, nothing is really left dangling, and all is right in the Jamieverse. (Maybe for the last time, too, if my notes and plans continue to take the path they're taking. What is that line about "writing songs I can't believe"? Not that I don't believe these others, they were all meant (I did say "honest and true"), it's just I'm changing, yeah? Bear with me. I know I'm being complicated and vague.)

I think we're talking October for this, so not too far off. Oni has a provisional page up for it, though I wasn't sure that was the cover and the page says September. I'll keep you posted. Plus, if you read that description, you will have a #5 spoiler in your possession!

For now, though, I'm a goddamn genius.

Currently Reading: The Nightmarist by Duncan Rouleau

Current Soundtrack: The Glove, Blue Sunshine

Current Mood: cynical (no, really)

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 1

Last night was the opening party for the Platform Animation Festival in Portland. I had gone down midday to pick up my badge and various stuff, including the super swell messenger bag they packed all of the pre-reg' goodies in. The guy handing out the materials recognized my name and pulled one of the most regular faux pas (pases?) comic book editors encounter.

"I like your comics," he said.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Are you still writing?"

"Of course. I've had a bunch of new stuff recently actually."

"Really? Are you still doing comic books with Chynna Clugston? I love Blue Monday."

This is a step up from the usual, "So, as an editor, you do what? Write all the bubbles?" First of all, if you call them bubbles, you're an idiot. Second, I'd like to know, if I introduced myself as an editor at the New York Times, would they ask me if I wrote all of the articles? If I said I was an editor at Simon & Shuster, would they inquire what novels I write? Is it that hard to understand how a comic book editor is an editor like any other?

Anyway, I didn't make the first night round of shorts. I had thought I would, but I got to working on revisions of Love the Way You Love vol. 6 (more of that later), and when I looked up, it was too late. I did go down for the party, however, as my DVD Talk editor was going to be there, and they had free champagne, which was the perfect mask for my otherwise dark mood. A few other people I knew showed up, including the whirling dervish Plastorm. (Check his blog, he saw last night's cartoons and can give you the skinny.) He had a friend named Slater, but it was loud in the party hall and I heard it as "Spider," and so baffled everyone with my seemingly rude question, "Is that the name it says on your birth certificate?" Later we goaded Spider (that's his name now, I decided) into hitting on a young lady he was admiring, and as he did so, hung back and did a play-by-play commentary as he impressively worked his way into a group conversation, eventually jettisoning the other members of the group. It was a special kind of work. We thought it was over when a guy in a strange combination special needs helmet/Mexican wrestler mask tried to move in on the action, but he was thwarted, too. It was an inspiring sight for two married guys and the walking dead to witness.

(Yeah, the walking dead would be me. What of it? Like you couldn't smell the rot all over me. It was nice of you not to bring it up, though.)

Naturally, I forgot my new camera, beginning the string of what I am sure will be a long line of me forgetting my camera.

Current Soundtrack: Echo & the Bunnymen, Siberia

Current Mood: morose

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

NEW FRENCH GIRLFRIEND

So, Paris is soon to be all abuzz with love for Douze Raisons de L'aimer by Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones.

Joe Nozemack brought by some copies today, and I decided to do that trendy thing and take a picture of them, simultaneously showing off my new digital camera and that I'm a published author in France.

I have to say, I'm pretty thrilled. The book is a tad bit larger than the U.S. edition and hardback. I only got three of them, so no sharing. Sorry. I guess German and Brazilian editions are also on the way. I am not sure if anyone knows good ways to find foreign editions of U.S. books, because I am pretty sure there is a Spanish Dark Horse Book of the Dead I've never seen, and there is also a version of Sexy Chix that Joëlle and I really want to find. (Colleen Coover posted the vastly superior cover on her journal here. Glenat is publishing it, but I can't find order info on their site.) Oni takes care of us, though, it's just these anthologies that we never see (nor get paid for...ahem).

The reproduction of the art is awesome, and it amuses me to see certain phrases in French. I can kind of make out what it originally said by reading the balloons in a bad accent. Needless to say, Reason Huit threw the translators for a loop. That's where Gwen tells jokes. I used Babelfish to sort out what she says over there.

1. What did the leper say to the prostitute? You will take your foot.

2. What is the #1 advantage of a nymphomaniac compulsive eater? She is always ready to pass the pan.

3. What is the most common means of contraception in the world? To be gross and ugly.

Compare and contrast to the original version for the humor. I don't even know what the second one means. Is that some French idiom? And the third one is so much softer than the harsh joke she tells in America. I understand the need to change some things culturally, but are domestic violence jokes actually appropriate in Europe, and so people would say, "Oh, that's not so bad. Why's Evan upset?" I'm not mad, it makes me laugh. (Besides, there are some mangaka who may have read one of my rewrites on their books and wondered what the hell happened. I can just imagine Kou Fumizuki putting a line from Ai Yori Aoshi into Babelfish to find out what Tina means by "Beer O'Clock.")

My favorite line of the whole thing to see in French, though? "Mes nichons serant durs et je pourrai couper du verre avec." Haw haw!

Sadly, the best joke they could have pulled didn't happen. The ends scene goes to black and you see the single word "Fin," my nod to my beloved French New Wave filmmakers, and a bit of pretentiousness on my part. (It even says so in the script: "because I'm a pretentious fuck.") How hilarious if the French version had translated it back into English? "The End." Like a John Ford western!

Anyway, cheers to the folks at Treize Étrange for the effort in putting the book out. It looks smashing!

Current Soundtrack: Dot Allison, We Are Science

Current Mood: giddy

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

FAST AS YOU CAN

Well, after several sleepless nights and a rally cry to the Internet, most of which was still spending all its time giving lip-service to things they don't like rather than praising what they do, we created our own little slice of awesome here in the Love the Way You Love world.

And by "we" I mean me sitting back and watching Marc haul ass and recruit folks out there who took the time out of their own busy schedules making good comics to give us a hand. Big thanks to Sarah and Zach Trover, Steve Rolston, and Chynna Clugston for pitching in on the graytones. Seriously, what an awesome thing! And to Sophie for apparently pulling Marc off the window ledge.

What does this mean? It means Love the Way You Love #5 not only puts the book back on schedule, but it will be out for Marc and I to tear up Comic Con International next month (and then in stores most likely the week after, August 1). It's going to be Marc's first U.S. con, so the boy deserves to have a newly minted comic sitting in front of him at the Oni Booth.

And what can you expect to see?

Aren't you glad we cut your wait shorter?

(And, yes, that's two con debuts for me. Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is also on track for the show. Barring acts of God, printing plants, and customs officials. Oh, and yes, Joëlle Jones will be there, too.)

Currently Reading: Clubbing by Andi Watson & Josh Howard; Good as Lily by Derek Kirk Kim & Jesse Hamm

Current Soundtrack: Manic Street Preachers, "Your Love Alone is Not Enough" B-sides; Amityville, downloads

Current Mood: ridiculous