Posts Tagged ‘memories’
3 items.
I had a very rich and fulfilling weekend on Saturday and Sunday. So stupendous was this passage in time, I’m left virtually without anything to complain or comment on!
I can say that Cami and I went see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Saturday evening and it’s easily the best film I’ve seen so far this year. It’s very smart and doesn’t compromise. It has Charlie Kaufman’s signature all over it. And while Jon Brion’s score was a little loopy/creepy at times, the film was balanced by several moments of levity and true, human emotions.
Kaufman is brilliant in terms of placing his characters in outlandish situations while still grounding them in a realistic environment. Everything from the everyday clothes they wear, how they haphazardly decorate their apartments – even the non-Hollywood, unflattering lighting and lack of make-up create a very credible universe.
Great performances all around. Director Michel Gondry was able to extract something very innocent and pure from Jim Carrey. Is this the kind of person Carrey really is? Mellow, unassuming… LIKEABLE – when he’s not performing? Remember when Robin Williams finally realized he should tone it down a notch and how much easier it became to watch him? Same with Carrey here.
I left the theater with a lot of hope. I think at it’s core, Eternal Sunshine is a very optimistic film – probably one of the most romantic pictures I’ve seen in a long time. I like it message that, essentially, all the little idiosyncracies about your partner that annoy you are fundamentally meaningless in the big picture. The fact that people would be so willing to throw away love over such trifles is one of humanities great follies.
Of course, compounded with the central message of nurturing love are several great ethical debates about emerging technologies and their applications without testing. In many respects, Eternal Sunshine could be seen as a cautionary tale! The movie works on so many levels – comedy, romance… even horror in some parts. I can’t wait to start talking about it with other people who have seen it.
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Dec20
So the holiday season is upon us? Anyone about to go off the deep end with all the crowds, craziness and crass consumerism?
Yeah, that’s a jolly holiday greeting.
This is something totally unrelated to the comic, but I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas last week and it didn’t occur to me until just this year that the center of the piece ALSO has to do with the commercialization of Christmas. Everyone else wants the glitter and the tinsel and ol’ Chuck Brown is still trying to find the true meaning of the season.
I don’t know why it struck me so profound – especially since I’ve seen this cartoon a million times. I guess the fact that people have been dealing with this issue since 1965 was both a relief and concern. A relief to realize it wasn’t a modern affliction. Concern for wondering when it will plateau.
The further I go in life, the more I realize that Peanuts creator Charles Schultz wasn’t just a drippy sentimentalist, but actually quite the subversive little raconteur.
I realize this has nothing to do with today’s comic, but I just had to speak my mind for a minute.
Regarding the comic, it wouldn’t be totally out of bounds for real life Tom to fill in the blanks of the holiday season with scenes from a Chevy Chase movie. That’s not to say my holidays are boring or unmemorable. It’s just that my extended family is pretty small, so we usually avoid the petty conflicts, drunken debauchery and shoddy re-gifting that seems to plague other families this time of year. Friends with larger broods tell me to count my blessings, but I have a distinct feeling I’m missing out on some pretty ripe comedy in those situations.
I predict this week’s blogs will be similarly off-center as we come closer to the big weekend celebration. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to get Wednesday’s strip up on time.
You see, Tuesday is my birthday and we’re going out with the family to celebrate. Since I work on Wednesday’s strip Tuesday night and I haven’t worked ahead, Wednesday’s strip will probably be a little late. I’m just warning you now in case you’re stuck at work on Wednesday, desperate for entertainment, banging your head against the keyboard when you should be (in fact) filling out those T.P.S. reports. Just a head’s up.
Luckily, unlike my fellow cubicle-jockeys, I’ve taken Wednesday off to recover from Tuesday’s festivity. Once up to speed, I should have the time to work at home and make sure Wednesday’s comic appears at… some point on Wednesday.
:: VIOLENTLY CHANGING GEARS ::
Hey! New sponsors! Everyone be sure to check out Still Untitled. They’ve recently updated their look and have a new web site. I met the crew behind SU when I went to the Minneapolis FallCon comic book convention in October of ’03. They’re good guys and need your support.
Also don’t forget our current THorum advertiser Music Television Sucks – an excellent collection of music videos free for you to download. Y’know…. because MTV doesn’t seem to play them anymore.
Just one last note, I’ve received a few panicked e-mails from people asking where are the t-shirts the ordered for the pre-order period that ended December 10th. I want to let all of you know that they are on their way, but that I cannot deliver them in time for the holidays. I made this known back on November 24th when I put the shirts back up for sale.
Please understand that I do not have the up front capitol to buy a bunch of shirts in advance. Nor do I have a place to store them. I am also not in a position to sit on any merchandise that I can’t move. So basically it’s one-in, one-out and that’s why I take pre-orders. You tell me what shirt you want, I tell the printer, he ships them to me and I ship them to you. I wish I had a better system in place, but that’s how things are for the time being.
Those of you expecting shirts will hopefully see them in your mailbox before the end of the year. I sent the artwork to the printer on the 10th. He told me he would probably print them up the following week and send them this week. My turnaround should hopefully get them out the door next week. If anything changes, I will be sure to update you on the situation in this space.
Regardless, I want to thank all of you who have ordered shirts from me in the last two months. Your support of the comic both financially and as FANS who are proud to wear a Theater Hopper design impresses me to no end. Frankly, I’m amazed any of you are interested in what I’m doing. It’s a great validation and I appreciate it. Your patience, support and understanding mean everything to me.
Incidentally, the next pre-order period ends January 7th. It’s a little longer than previous pre-order periods, but I need a little breathing room to get around the holidays before sending another batch.
This blog got a little longer than I anticipated. So I think I’ll just end here.
Thanks.
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Due to the fact that I am currently suffering from a head cold that makes me feel as if someone has injected my cranium with rubber cement, I had a hard time coming up with a joke for today’s comic.
Having covered Gamer on Wednesday, Extract and Something About Steve were the only new movies left this weekend worth discussing.
Since it would appear from the trailer that Something About Steve is a joke unto itself, I was really only left with Extract. And since I couldn’t think of a good joke to go with it, my mind turned to the most visible piece of marketing for the film – a short video of Beavis and Butthead introducing a clip and then talking about the inequity of prostitution (I.E. no one wants to pay men for sex)
Extract director and Beavis and Butthead creator shared the clip with David Letterman on The Late Show Tuesday night and made the rounds online shortly thereafter.
I worried that the joke in the comic played a little too inside. If you hadn’t seen the video, you would have no idea what Tom was talking about. I also hate to make you read the blog in order to understand the joke.
But then I figured if you weren’t a teenager in the 90’s, you probably wouldn’t get the joke anyway. So let’s have a little fun with things and have Jared pull his shirt over his head and announce “I AM CORNHOLIO!”
You can’t please everyone, so you might as well please yourself, right?
Switching gears for a moment, I wanted to give everyone a head’s up that I’m taking next week off.
As you may or may not know, I’ve been unemployed since June and, frankly, my severance is starting to dry up with no strong job leads.
I’ve made the decision to position myself as a freelance web and graphic designer. To do that, I need to design and build a web site where I can show off my portfolio and attract clients.
So I’m taking next week off partly to get the freelance business off the ground and partly to give myself a break from the grind of the comic. I haven’t taken any time off (I don’t think) since the beginning of the year and I need to recharge my batteries a little bit.
I’ll be sure to point everyone to the new site once it’s up and running. I might actually try a little networking with you guys to see if you know anyone who needs a site designed in the next few weeks. Thank goodness web design is the ultimate telecommuting job.
I have two guest comics already lined up and I’m asking around for one more. If anyone out there is interested in trying their hand at a guest comic, there’s no reason I couldn’t publish it on Tuesday or Thursday. So send me what you have to theaterhopper@hotmail.com and we’ll see what happens.
That’s it for now. Thanks for checking up on me this week and be sure to check out the site next week for some guest comic mayhem!
Have a great weekend!
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