Posts Tagged ‘California’
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Today is the day of the big California recall election. If you’ve been watching the news, maybe you’ve heard about it.
I don’t know how much I can add to the cacophony of opinions on the matter, but I will say this: Only in California could a candidate like Arnold Schwarzenegger run for governor and be taken seriously. If he tried to pull something like that in, oh, Nebraska, they’d laugh him right back to Austria.
It’s a scary thought that Kindergarten Cop could be in charge of the 5th largest economy in the world. The decisions he makes in office could potentially affect us all.
I think Ah-nold has a pretty good shot at winning this thing. They say name-recognition is the largest deciding factor at the polls come Election Day. Whose name is more recognizable than Schwarzenegger? Well, if you can spell it, that is.
So what if the man has some skeletons in his closet. I think all of us can agree that a man who (as an actor) has performed scenes disposing enemies in some of the most gruesome ways captured on film might have a misogynist streak in him.
And don’t forget this is California we’re talking about. The state that insists on giving Robert Downey Jr. work no matter how many times he turns up stoned and passed out in the backyards of complete strangers. Arnold’s misadventures in groping look like me parking in a handicapped spot by comparison.
I’ll be monitoring the election tonight. You should too. It’ll be a fascinating and wholly terrifying examination of the democratic process.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this fun fact that I found on the Internet Movie Database:
Did you know that the Mattel Toy Company started to make some Conan the Barbarian action figures, but after viewing the film, the executives realized that they couldn’t afford to be associated with a film with such graphic sex and violence. They gave their doll blonde hair, called him “He-man”, and thus created He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Who ended up with the better deal? The world may never know.
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So, Arnold Schwarzenegger is now the new governor of California. Good work, left-coasters. You’ve now supplanted Florida and that whole “hanging chad” debacle as our nations greatest embarassment.
I think voting a former Austrian bodybuilder into the highest office of your state probably wasn’t the wisest move, but it’ll make for some great late-nite fodder for the rest of us.
Some might view the Schwarzenegger election as a triumph of the openness of American politics. I view it for what it is – a big, freaky circus greased with the money of special interests who thought they could win over the worlds 5th largest economy with a little star power. Looks like their bet paid off.
In less scandalous news, Cami and I are finally getting around to seeing School of Rock tonight after work. I missed it over the weekend since I was at that convention, but I’ve heard nothing but good things.
Frankly, I don’t see how it could fail. I’m a big Jack Black fan and you know that director Richard Linklater will do it right. I’ve enjoyed all of his movies immensely.
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After Monday’s comic where Jared complained that Ben Affleck had fallen of the grid, a few readers brought it to my attention that his real-life counterpart recently made an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher. The show was aired live on Friday, April 7. So much for a low profile.
With egg on my face, I quickly fabricated a solution. One that will unfold in a dramatic story arc over the next few comics. A few people probably know where I’m going with this, but I want to keep it a surprise for the rest of you. My response to the situation was a little glib at first. But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, you guys are really going to enjoy the result. It was kind of a happy accident, but I’m really excited about this.
Something else I’m really excited about is this:
A picture of Cami? Well, yes. That IS very exciting. But more specifically, It’s another preview image from the cover of "Theater Hopper: Year One!" What could Cami be so worried about? You’ll have to wait until Monday, April 17 to find out! That’s when we start the pre-sale for the book and unveil the whole cover for your viewing pleasure.
I know you have very little to go on, but the cover parodies a very famous movie. Hopefully, if I get to do a follow-up book, I can carry out the theme of parodying movies for the covers – each of them tying into the year of the comic they represent. I have some fun ideas on deck. It would be a real treat to draw them.
One way you can help ensure future books (besides placing your pre-order, of course!) is participating in our Theater Hopper Street Team! I outlined the concept on Monday, but it’s deceptively easy! All you have to do is get five of your friends to pre-order the book. Let me know their names, and if everything looks good, you win a $20 gift certificate to Fandango.com! The first 25 people to complete this challenge also get a FREE Theater Hopper t-shirt! Pretty sweet, huh?
For more details about the program including talking points and a four page sample to share with your friends, click here.
Response to the Street Team has been strong. You guys seem to think it’s a pretty cool idea. That’s great! But there are also a few of you who have reservations…
To that I say, "Get creative!"
Rounding up five friends doesn’t mean that you have to convince your roommate, his girlfriend and your bowling leauge to buy the book. They can be complete strangers! If you’re a regular at another forum community, let them know that the book will be available on Monday, April 17! If you have a MySpace or Facebook page, share the details there! Write about it in your blog or from your LiveJournal account! The important thing is that you SPREAD THE WORD! I assure you that you’ll find Theater Hopper fans in the darnest places. Keep them in the loop on the book and you’re looking at earning your reward for participation with the Street Team in no time!
I’m pounding the digital pavement just as hard as you guys to get the word out about "Theater Hopper: Year One!" so we can make sure we get as many pre-orders as possible. But if you represent any kind of media site and want to ask questions about the book or the Street Team, please e-mail me! I am making myself available for interviews!
Save the date, everyone! Pre-ordering our first book will be here in less than a week!
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I was looking at my map overlay statistics from Google Analytics recently. It tells me roughly how many visits are coming from individual countries around the world. You can then narrow the focus down to states and even cities.
Anyway, I was looking at my map overlay stats from February and was a little disappointed to see that Iowa ranked 24th on the list of states that visit Theater Hopper most often. Where’s the love from my home state heroes? I know there’s only, like, 30 of us with an internet connection, but c’mon!
Interestingly enough, the most traffic I receive comes from California. By a wide margin, actually. Almost double that of it’s closest competitor, New York.
So that means I’m really big on the coasts in the two largest entertainment markets, apparently.
How am I supposed to interpret that? Am I seeing this traffic from California and New York because they are states with very high populations? Or are these industry people checking out what I do? Individuals that could possibly open the door to a little networking and help me circulate the comic among more industry professionals?
People who follow web comics know that if your comic is about video games, it’s almost a certainty that it will become a success. Lots of gamers spend time online and media for them is geared toward that.
To that end, I never understood why movie comics hasn’t reached the same kind of instant appreciation. There are just as many movie fans online and all of them have strong opinions that they like to share. Is it quality that’s keeping them away or something else? Have movie comics failed to capture the imagination of media professionals in the industry that could help get the word out?
That’s why I’m throwing down the gauntlet. If you work in the movie industry, I want you to contact me. If you work for the media that covers movies, I want you to contact me. I want to start establishing connections, networking – even if it doesn’t lead to anything. How well known is Theater Hopper in the circles you travel in – if at all? I’m more curious than anything else at this point. Let’s start a dialogue!
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At this point I’m trying to build Jimmy back up into the selfless person we all know him to be, so I figured his reasons for working at the theater where he was so brutally dumped needed a dash of sympathetic irony.
I really wanted to go more in depth with Jimmy’s realization of what he lost and his expression of how much Charlie meant to him. But at the same time, emotional hand-wringing is like standing still from a pacing standpoint.
So the idea is that Jimmy is paying for his sins at the scene of his greatest failure. It’s also the scene of his “rebirth” into the nice guy we’ve come to know him as.
I don’t know if there’s much more I can say about it than that.
Be sure to listen to The Triple Feature this evening. We record live at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. With any luck, our good friend Joe Dunn will be back in the saddle this week after missing out on our Oscar recap last week.
Odds are good we’ll be talking about Watchmen, since that’s about the only thing going on in movies this week. So if you’re looking forward to seeing it, spend an hour with us as we pontificate its importance.
One other thing – and I know it doesn’t have much to do with movies – but does anyone plan on watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when he takes over for Conan O’Brien tonight?
I’m not a big fan of Fallon’s, but I’m interested to see if he can emerge from this as his own man. So much of his shtick to me seemed stolen from Adam Sandler — what with his bits on Weekend Update with his guitar during his early days at Saturday Night Live. He seemed to mature a little when he was promoted to reading “the fake news” on Weekend Update a few years later, but he was pretty much Tina Fey’s puppet.
He did the movie thing. No one bought into it and he’s become almost a curious footnote in comedy known more for cracking up during sketches on SNL than actually being funny himself.
But I’ve been reading a lot of the press surrounding the show and it seems like he’s very enthusiastic about the show. Some of the stuff they say they plan on doing sounds a little unconventional in the late night format, but they really seem to have their sights set on the next generation of fans.
Conan O’Brien will always be *my* late night guy. I remember staying up to watch his first show and even though I was only 15 years-old, I could tell how awkward and nervous he was. A bunch of his jokes bombed in that first week. But the shows got funnier and he honed his own self-deprecating brand of wackiness and now he’s moving on to The Tonight Show. He graduated.
I guess the point I’m making is that if someone like Conan O’Brien can make it – a performer NO ONE thought would be around after a year – is it possible Jimmy Fallon can do something positive for himself in late night?
So what do you think? Will you be watching tonight? Do you have any bias against Fallon? Do you feel like you should watch – like it’s a tiny historic moment? Leave your thoughts below!
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