Archive for September, 2002
20 items.
I don’t know how many of you read Troy’s Bucket, but if you don’t, you should. They’ve got a great joke about Monsters, Inc. I wish I would have thought of.
Regardless, Beaner has made the suggestion of a locals-only get together of fans of his strip and our humble operation. By local, he means West Des Moines, Iowa.
Beaner says he’s gotten a few e-mails from other locals commenting on the strip. What I want to know is, WHY AM I NOT GETTING SUPPORT FROM THE HOMETOWN CROWD? Seriously, I haven’t gotten any e-mail from anyone in West Des Moines or even Iowa for that matter.
So for the two of you out there that read this strip, get on it.
On a more serious note, for those of you who read Theater Hopper and are from West Des Moines, how interested are you in having a little get-together like Beaner suggests? I just don’t want to go down to Limey’s and be the only one there you know.
And while we’re on the subject of West Des Moines boy-done-good, when is a certain successful cartoonist going to give me a shout-out in one of his news posts? Beaner got a plug. Where’s the love for Tommy?
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Just so everyone is on the same page, the third panel is supposed to be Robin Williams from his Mork & Mindy days. I only bring it up because I know some of the other readers probably can’t figure out why Robin Williams would have a mullet and wear suspenders.
To be honest, back then, neither did we.
With that out of the way, I need to report that I just got done watching The Soprano’s season premier and I can’t stress enough how nice it is to have television that isn’t insulting.
Unless of course, you’re Italian-American. Certain associations claim they propagate negative stereotypes. This open letter to HBO, for example.
You know, I don’t remember any association for idiots knocking down Norm MacDonald’s door back when he had a TV show. Then again, they probably couldn’t find his house.
My point is this: I cannot for the life of me understand why any organization that would try to silence programming that is by far superior to any other piece of tripe the slap on the screen. These are the people who tell the teacher they forgot to assign homework at the end of the day. They’re ruining it for the rest of us.
Does this mean I support unfair stereotypes or generalizations? Of course not. But if I was going to do a TV show about overweight housewives, there would be certain stereotypes built into that. Conversely, a show that revolves around something as ingrained into our culture as the Mafia may have some associations already attached to it. To cut a swath too far outside the box may render the show beyond the realm of suspended belief. What? Are we supposed to assume that mob guys sit around eating fine cheese and discussing the annotated works of Shakespeare? I think finding them at a nudie bar is much closer to the truth.
For those of you who don’t get The Soprano’s, I highly recommend buying the first two seasons on DVD. You’re really missing out.
What this has to do with Robin Williams or One Hour Photo, I don’t know. Kinda got off on a rant there
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Today’s strip features the introduction of a new character. Everyone, say hello to Nick! Now play nice.
Let’s not confuse Nick with our other theater employee Jimmy. Nick happens to be based on a real person. He’s a college buddy of mine – one of my best friends. So don’t start lumping him in with the fictitious characters because he wears a bow tie and vest.
Besides, I plan on featuring Nick in strips outside of a theater setting.
Nick lives in Minneapolis just like some people I know and he actually works in a theater. He’s a projectionist at the movie theater at the Mall of America. I draw Nick with a bored expression because he’s about 20 times too smart for this job. He’s a recent college grad just getting his start, so if anyone has use for an awesome writer in the Minneapolis area, let me know and I’ll pass along the message to him.
The more astute readers out there might have picked up on the hint of Comic Book Guy I injected into the character in panel three. This is wholely intention as I feared I hadn’t made a Simpsons reference on the site in a while. Plus, it seemed to make narrative sense.
I was going to make mention of the season premier of the Las Vegas Real World that debuted last night, but it’s a waste of effort and I’d rather leave room for Jared’s blog.
In the meantime, everyone should be listening to Tomahawk if they aren’t already. Mike Patton is illest!
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You’re going to get a lot more out of today’s strip if you have either seen or are a fan of Monsters, Inc. Remember: A child’s touch is toxic to monsters!
IMHO, it was an utter travesty that Monsters, Inc. was beaten out by Shrek for the Academy’s first Best Animated Picture Oscar last year. I’ll bet my life savings that 20 years from now we’ll still curl up on the couch to watch Monsters, Inc. over Mike Myers and his overplayed Scottish brogue.
I was hoping to try something different with the strip and go at it without dialogue. I was curious to see if I could pitch a small story-arc without words. I think for the most part it succeeds. Sometimes it’s good to stretch creative muscles you don’t utilize all that often.
I bought Kingdom Hearts on Wednesday and have had a hell of a time getting it to work on my Playstation 2. I could hear the disk whirring and clicking from inside the machine, but the game would never boot up.
Well, finally – after hours and hours of attempts, I got it up and running tonight. Of course, by the time it was working, I had to sit down and do the strip for today. Right now, the game has been paused and will have to wait until late tomorrow before I can play it. I spent so much time getting the thing up and running, I’m too terrified to shut it off.
Big-ups to Syrath in the forums for suggesting I buy a lens-cleaning CD-ROM and my good buddy Jared for providing an extra one he had lying around the house.
I’d like to rant more, but to paraphrase Zach over at No Pants Tuesday, it’s late and I’m tired. Go sleepy now.
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I was trying to think of a rant to coincide with today’s strip, but it all boils down to one simple issue.
For years, several Hollywood actresses have complained that to be commercially viable, there is a need to make them into sex objects and disavow their development as actual characters. Susan Sarandon in particular has been vocal about this.
It strikes me that sending both Sarandon and Goldie Hawn out into multiplexes all tarted up and recounting their days as loose, 60’s era groupies is not the way to combat these perceptions.
The Banger Sisters has “in it for the money” written all over it. A damn shame because I respect Sarandon as an actress. Maybe Moonlight Mile will do something to restore my faith.
Goldie Hawn, on the other hand, I’ll give a pass because, really, what else does she have on her plate? Not much. Better trot out those over-inflated lips to movie audience before they outweigh the rest of her face.
I guess that was more of a rant than I expected. Whew. Cleansed.
For those not in the loop, Carrington over a Movie Punks has put together a great forum for his website. If you’ve already been to Mitch’s Nothing Nice to Say, then you already know that it’s become quite the hangout for several other web comic creators, including myself.
Why I’m pumping up someone else’s forum, I don’t know. I guess it’s just what happens when you’ve got an audience as large as Carringtons. More power to him cause he’s a great guy and I’m sure as hell having a lot of fun over there!
If you’d like to humor me, you can always post in our forums. I promise I’ll try to get more conversations started in there.
I’m starting to put together a Bonus Material section for the site. Some of the features I plan on including are character bio’s and uploads of some of my old battle comics from junior high with commentary. They’ll make more sense once you see them.
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Sometime when it comes to adding new blog material, I will find myself at a loss. Then I remembered I have something to celebrate!
Over the weekend, I finally joined the 21st century and got myself a broadband internet connection. I was tired of slogging through the 56k trenches and proclaimed an upgrade was LONG overdue.
Of course, like everything else in my life, there were obstacles preventing me from getting broadband in my house. The dilemma were two-fold:
1.) I live in Iowa – the most technologically backwards state North of the Mason-Dixon line
2.) I live in the boonies – effectively crippling what small window I had of obtaining service.
Ultimately I went through a satellite internet service called Prairie I Net. It’s pretty cool. They attach this antenna to your house which pulls in the internet like a vortex from the upper atmosphere frequencies abandoned by UHF stations. It makes for good dinner conversation.
I love my new connection. It’s fast as hell. The only draw back is that they had to drill a hole in my house and snake a wire down from the pitch of my roof. Not exactly conspicuous. Cami said it looked very “white trash”. Ironic, sine this is actually quite a leap in technology.
Anyway, I just thought I would share the happy news.
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I went on a strange roller-coaster trip creating today’s strip.
When I first thought up the idea for a “Drunken Movie Review”, I thought it would be a fun gimmick for the site – maybe a joke I could repeat somewhere down the line. But as I stared at a blank piece of paper tonight, the thought crept in my head that this idea really stunk.
Then the drawings started coming together. Nothing fantastic, which explains the heavy-handed blur technique I borrowed from another site. I was hoping to distract you.
But once I got the dialogue down on the page, things really started taking shape. This was beginning to look like actual hops-inspired conversations I’ve had in my lifetime. It really grew on me. Then again, if I’m wafting too close to “inside joke” territory, let me know in the forums. Snap me back into shape.
A scenario like this may very likely be the case a week from now. Jared and I are going back to our alma mater next weekend for a trip down memory lane at our college homecoming. This time we’re bringing the wives. Look out!
As far as The Four Feathers is concerned, it looked like a movie I wanted to see before I learned what it was actually about. Sorry, but late 19th century Brittish colonialism doesn’t exactly capture my fancy. Plus, I’ve heard bad things: Kate Hudson’s performance is wooden and Heath Ledger looks like John-Walker Lyndh. And whatever happened to Wes Bently? He sure took a dive after American Beauty.
I think the fact this movie came in 5th place behind Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever says more than anything I could hope to accomplish.
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At some point last night, Theater Hopper crossed the threshold of 5,000 unique hits to the site. This blows my friggin’ mind.
Right now, we’re averaging about 100 unique hits a day. This number is well beyond the realm of friends and relatives looking at the site. To be aware that so many people have made the site a regular stop is really cool.
It some circles, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I find it very note-worthy. Let’s put it in perspective: Theater Hopper has only be operating for a little less than 2 months and has racked up over 5,000 unique hits. My other site has been around for a year this October and is still hovering around 4,500. Wow.
Sometimes it’s hard to guess just how many people are out there looking at what you do. I worry about people getting the jokes or thinking what I’m doing is lame. But to have a readership that is not only stable, but growing – well, I just wanted to say “thank you” for validating what I do.
I know I’ve talked about it in the past, but reaching this landmark has really inspired me to get working on the Bonus Materials section. If you’d like to give me some feedback on what materials to make available to the fans, please head into the forums where we can discuss it.
Once again, thanks. I’m having a blast doing this and I can’t tell you how much it pleases me to know others are along for the ride!
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Sep27
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
September 27th, 2002 |
(19 votes, average: 8.26 out of 10)
There is so much to loathe about Harry Knowles and his crappy excuse for a web site. Probably so much because there is so much of him to get around! If you’ve never seen a picture of this guy, let’s just say when he sits around the computer… people move it out from underneath him.
He’s fat, okay?
I find Knowles one of the most contemptible personalities of the “dot com” era – right up there with Matt Drudge and The Hamster Dance.
Like a lot of people, Knowles found fame and fortune not because he provides anything of substance, but because he got there first. Knowles is the embodiment of every geek stereotype there is. A fat virgin living with his parents basement, squawking so loudly about matters so inconsequential, people just had to turn and look.
Amassing a following of those like him, Knowles built his empire around the hard work and weaseling of others. What scoops did he ever gather on his own? He’s in the middle of Texas, for crying out loud!
I think the Aint It Cool News phenomenon really reached its apex around the time Knowles start portraying himself as some kind of internet success story and the parlayed that into some kind of faux-celebrity. I remember him guesting with Roget Ebert in the interm after Gene Siskel had died and before he had been replaced with that dolt Richard Ropert.Watching him butt heads with Ebert in some act of cool defiance, I thought to myself, “This is it. I’m watching the end of irony.”
Knowles is the worst kind of “rags to riches” story because he has no compunctions about being flown out on the studio’s dime to see some crap movie and give it a passing grade. As long as they’re handing out extra-extra large promotional t-shirts and the free briquette is being offered, why not belly up, as it were?
In my opinion, the minute Knowles decided to turn himself into a brand — host conventions and have books ghost written for him –, he should have developed some journalistic ethics. His whole “I’m a fan” defense is bull – masked, I might add by his persistent refusal to update the look of his site past the standards of 1996.
Knowles is a cyst on the movie-loving community. And I’m not preaching from the mount when I say this. I’m a fan with my own biases and opinions just as he. But the minute you start to exploit the system that is putting food on your table, you’re no longer one of us – you’re one of them. You are no longer reacting to manufactured buzz, you are helping to create it.
Eventually, I see Knowles loosing it all — never knowing the taste of the validation he so clearly seeks.
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Today marks an important occasion in the history of Theater Hopper. Today we have reached our 25th strip! Huzzah!
Extra-special, so-rare-its-only-made-in-Canada icing on the cake is that we’ve also cross the boundary of 5,000 unique hits since opening our doors way back on August 5. I simply couldn’t ignore this achievement you made possible and decided to enact a plan to return my gratitude.
So, in celebration, I’ve decided that there will be FIVE (5) strips this week instead of the standard three. I know you are all going to dig it. There’s going to be a storyline and everything!
Now, keep in mind that every moment I spend working on these extra strips is time that would otherwise be spent playing Kingdom Hearts. The fact that I would set aside such an awesome game for a little extra entertainment on your end should clear up any mysteries as to where my priorities lie!
Be sure to check back every day this week for the next installment in the arc. You won’t be disappointed. It’s just a small token of my appreciation to you the fan who has helped to make this site such a blast to work on!
THANK YOU!
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