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Digging into the childhood creations again…
TOADMAN.
See a trend? As a child? I was very into reptiles and amphibians. So I made a few heroes based on them. Unlike Turtle Man, he only had one origin. He was always a guy in a suit. I was fascinated by animatronic work as well, I though stuff like the Henson puppets for Labyrinth were so cool. So I thought it would be cool to have a hero who built a suit that mimicked the appearance of an animal. The idea was that the suit, while protective, had the feel of a toad’s skin. Oddly, I never made the flesh “bumpy” or “wart” like. Next week? Sentient squirrels.
“I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us.”
Seriously, I love this line. I could not stop laughing.
I mean, I suppose it’s possible. Lord knows, there are petty people who instantly despise people they perceive as conventionally more attractive than themselves. I’ve had friends who disliked women for the reason that there were lots of guys that found those women attractive (whether it be a celebrity or someone we know). According to the girls, they were innocent and wholesome. Saints even. They patiently waited for water and the attendants skipped them. They politely knocked on the door of an occupied bathroom, and after the passenger exited he walked over and cursed her out. It was so not their fault, and they got blamed.
Now, Southwest claims they were being disruptive. They were in a yelling match cursing out other passengers. And I have to ask…isn’t that their right as pretty people?! Aren’t pretty people supposed to be able to be rude and look down on those less attractive, such as myself without consequence? Southwest reacted pretty poorly if you asked me. You keep pretty people on the plain so people are not stuck looking at us average, bland people.
You know…Southwest is hiring flight attendants…I should apply…I mean, getting paid to kick pretty girls off the plain? Imagine the revenge I could have against all those girls who ignored me!
(Okay…kidding about that last part. And to be fair, they could be telling the truth and they did not instigate the issues. But their line of logic might be a bit problematic, especially in garnering public. “It’s not my fault I am hot and you are ugly!” Certainly, Southwest’s has a history of apparent “Modesty” enforcement that borders on ridiculous)
Okay, I am sure many, many people have blogged about those “Head on, apply directly to the forehead (repeat 87 times)” commercials. I won’t harp on the irritating nature of the original ads. I’ve now noticed they are running ads where a guy pops up on scream to declare how annoying the ads are, but how great the product is. My only thing…is this really an improvement? The guy’s tone is possibly more annoying than the original ad, for one thing. Seriously, he sounds like he is ready to deliver a beat down. If you are going to acknowledge the irritating nature of your ads, why not make said new ads entertaining? Have some fun with it!
“I saw one of your ads, and it gave me a headache…but I applied Head On directly to my forehead and the pain went away! Thank, Head On!”
When you are a customer in a store that is going out of business and is having a liquidation sale… and you are upset with the deal you are getting…exactly what ind of threat is “I’m never coming back here!”
In the Christian Rock Music world…
(update: For those asking “Larry WHO? Here is a good overview from Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Willman)
MESSAGE FROM SOLID ROCK - PLEASE READ Hello everybody. Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art. Several of you friends here got to come and visit with him in the last couple of weeks and were a great source of help and friendship to Larry. Ray Sievers, Derek Robertson, Mike Makinster, Matt Simmons, and a few more. Thank you guys. Larry appreciated your visits very much. And he greatly appreciated the thoughts, wishes, support and prayers that came from all of you Army members on a daily basis. Thank you for being part of his small circle of friends over the years. Yesterday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry's computer: ________________________________ I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. My brother Charles is right, I wont be here much longer. I cant do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again. Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again Somewhere beyond the sky. I pray that you will stay with God Goodbye, my friends, goodbye. Larry ________________________________________ Thank you to all of you who were so nice to my brother over the years. Kristin and I will post funeral information in the next day or two. Right now we're not able to function very well, but the whole family is here... our mother Margaret, our sisters Nancy and Kristy, Mike Norman and his new wife Tiffany, and Silver. We miss him beyond words. Thank you for everything. Peace to you all in Christ, Charles Norman
So this Friday I thought I would do something slightly different. This is a character from my childhood. He is called Turtle Man. See, when I was a kid, I would draw up my own 
comic books, photo copy them and give them to people. According to one uncle, he has saved them all.
Anyways, Turtle Man has a jumbled history. He was basically a two time rip off. And shockingly? Not of Spider-Man. One version of the character was inspired by one of my childhood favorites…Green lantern. For reasons that only made sense to my ten year old mind, I thought it would be reasonable that an alien police force would grant rings that turned people into super-heroic turtles. This pre-dates TMNT by a couple years. I am that old.
Another variation of the character was very…Iron Man. He was a guy who put on a super suit to “look” like a turtle. I am not sure why. But I thought turtles were totally neat-o. But in retrospect, I cannot imagine him inspiring fear in the hearts of criminals.
So, on Morning Joe this morning, they noticed that Bill O’Reilly criticized NBC for giving airtime to the Obama supporter who had the confrontation with Bill Clinton over the weekend. They showed some interview footage, in which Robert Holman said he thinks Bill Clinton might have even struck him. O’Reilly is right that it is kind questionable credibility if you are unsure you got hit by someone who was right in your face. But that’s not the shocking part (O’Reilly having a valid point-even a broken clock yada yada). What’s great is that O’Reilly goes on to claim no reputable news organization would give the guy airtime. He notes that it is expected because NBC is clearly pro-Obama. In under and hour, on Hannity and Colms, they had a special guest. Robert Holman. I would presume the airtime was provided because of Fox (along with many conservatives) having their irrational rage and hatred towards the Clintons. There you have it, by O’Reilly’s own admission? Fox News is not a reputable news network.
Uh, strike that…they HAD one good show. It was the only show that could claim to be fair and balanced without lying. Newswatch with Eric Burns was great. It had a panel of columnists and editors who would discuss and dissect the way the news was reported that week-was it fair, was it sensationalist, was it truthful? The Newswatch crew battled it out, comprised of very left leaning folks and very right leaning folks, all moderated without bias by Burns. If the rest of Fox was like Newswatch, Fox’s critics would be fools (instead of dead on accurate). But no, Fox saw fit to dump the show (afterall, it doesn’t fit their format, I suppose). I should have known something was up when they started to shuffle it all over the place. Well, technically, the show still exists, they just decided to focus the show on “The New Media” and claim they felt Burns and the regular cast of the show could not handle the change. Wow…cause covering blogs and Youtube is so much tougher than discussing Newsweek and CNN, huh?
Well, the big rumor over the weekend was that Toshiba was throwing in the towel on HD-DVD. Now, as of yesterday morning, Toshiba was denying this, saying they were just re-evaluating their game plan. By this morning, that is not the case.
Toshiba announced today that they are dropping the format. I am impressed by Sony here. Afterall, they got toasted by VHS in the last major format war. And they won while being significantly more expensive than the competing format. And to top it off? They won while not being ready to be on the market, while the opposing format was ready. HD-DVDs already did everything they promised. Blu-Ray on the other hand keeps saying “just wait!” It won’t be fully ready until the fall. So, that’s impressive.
I’ll be curious to see if Microsoft tries to get something set up for a Blu-Ray player like the HD-DVD player they have. I suppose someone other than Sony might be willing to make one. I can’t see Sony doing a deal with Microsoft for it though, since Sony would rather you just buy a PS3.
Bands we like, that we know don’t quite measure up in the “art” department. We would never stick them in that Hallowed “Greatest Band Ever” status.
I considered including the band I am about to refer to in the “Christian Music That Doesn’t Suck” posts…but that feels like I would be adding them in more because of my fondness for the band, rather than deserving to be in that category.
I am speaking of Crumbacher. The band was named for it’s lead vocalist/frontman Stephen Crumbacher. Their first two Albums (Incandescent and Escape From the Fallen Planet) were catchy keyboard driven CDs. Very electronic…the lyrics…well, okay, thelyrics could be downright goofy. There were songs about “glowing in the dark” and how being a Christian can look so weir to the outside world. Other songs were about not caring what other people think-just follow God. Or how being a Christian and knowing Jesus was a total party. It screamed youth group. I confess, I loved it. You could even kind of dance to it.
When they released their third CD, 1987’s Thunder Beach, I discovered a band that had matured some musically. They had toned down the keyboards and amped up the guitars. The songs were still slightly youth group styled…but even the songs were starting to have some depth. They started to really look at getting through troubles. Granted, everything tied up like a sit-com with faith and Jesus solving all the problems in the end.
In 1988, the Band released it’s final disc, Tame the Volcano. I found this a fun rock album, which still seemed aimed at the youth group crowd. But it was fun. And the band showed a real talent for ballads (both the melancholy Every Now and Then and Once More With Feeling could have been pop radio hits). The title track was a rollicking tune, with “tribal” drums.
And yeah…I still like them, in spite of the fact that if I took a critical knife to them, I could probably eviscerate their work. I was thinking about the band because a couple years ago, between moving to L.A. and back? I lost all their CDs…and have not been able to find replacements. Apparently their CDs are quite rare. Dagnabbit.
Yeah…I don’t know what this is about…
Talented comic scribe Steve Gerber passed away on 2/10/2008. This caught me off guard, as I was oblivious to his health issues the past several weeks. I always had this affection for his character Howard the Duck. I think the reason the movie failed was because Lucas showed no regard for what made the comic work. It was biting social commentary mixed with wacky insanity. Lucas tried to make a kid movie.
Granted, Gerber’s creation was actually owned by Marvel (Gerber unsuccessfully tried to get ownership of the character) so they could market him to Hollywood however they wanted. I just think it would have been more successful with a different approach, rather than a huge joke.
But others are expressing much better thoughts in much better ways here and here.
The members of the WGA are voting tonight. It looks like they are accepting the new deal. Overall, good news.
Netflix is moving exclusively to Blu-Ray now. I find this troubling, as I feeling that much of Blu-Ray’s victory has been a bit of a cheat. It is winning because companies are removing our choices, not because it makes the most sense. Those of us that would like the opportunity to watch Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal films in Hi-Def have had those options taken away. It’s standard def or nothing.
No matter what he did later in movies…I will always think of Roy Scheider as the guy who killed to big mechanical sharks when I was a kid.
Anyone know who did the artwork for A-Ha’s Take On Me Video? To this day, I think that looks cool.
Anyhow, an area where Christian artists have struggled to achieve a feeling of legitimacy and respect has been Hip Hop and rap. Within Christian music, it often forced a rap artist to conform more tightly to a rigid set of rules that were unfair even within the standard confines of the CCM scene. A Christian rapper had to be even more “child friendly” than other artists. First albums often were often affairs that made DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince seem edgy and dangerous. I spoke to more than one artist who wanted to express themselves in songs that addressed racism, growing up in rough neighborhoods, and other social issues, only to be told by labels “Maybe on the next album”. If they did talk about a social issues it was along the lines of wait for marriage to have sex.
And then there are artists who find their own creative voice. For instance Pigeon John. Read the rest of this entry »
But as a fan of THAT show? I would totally love to go to this for my birthday. It won’t happen…it’s not affordable and I don’t really know anyone else who would be willing to go. But it’s fun to wish.
Sawyer would apparently call me Two Bits. Check it out.
Just ask Dr. James Dobson…
And my pal George and I could not agree more…right, George?
Update: Poor Dobson…his choice candidate (Romney) just stepped out of the race!
I am apparently a jinx to my part time jobs. I am not joking here. Every place I have worked part time at have closed their doors. Last night I stopped in at the video store I work at part time…and it turns out our chain is closing our store. Bummer. I had a good deal, now I will need to find a new job that will be as understanding about my schedule.
But then, I better not tell any prospective employer about this closing streak I have.
To create a new super-heroine. The author of the winning entry gets a three issue mini series that they write and is drawn by a comics pro (and lettered and colored and so on).
I did not make the top ten (announced on Monday). While disappointed, I console myself by believing I was # 11. 
But seriously, I want to publicly thank Kris Simons, Jim Valentino and Franchesco (said pro-artist) for such an opportunity. As they said at the start, there are often contests for the aspiring artist, but not the aspiring writer. It’s rare, and they took heaps of abuse from people for everything from their choice of artist to the deadline. For me, it was worth the try. Thanks to the Shadowline crew for giving me a chance.
Today, I am addressing a band with a long History.
Back in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s, Christian music started becoming “modernized.” In fact the Christian “Punk” movement grew out of the Christian “New Wave” movement. One of the earliest was Undercover, debuting in 1982.
Apparently he is really Jesus in disguise!
That image appeared on a church flier stuck to the door of my parent’s house. Seriously…am I alone in thinking that “Jesus” looks an awful lot like Desmond on Lost? Sure would explain those visions he has, huh?
I’m really needing to stop sketching while sitting on the couch. Things that look right at an angle on your lap? Look really wrong later…
