Posts Tagged ‘rip off’
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Oct21
THE WAY TO A MAN’S HEART IS THROUGH HIS TRIVIA
October 21st, 2005 |
(7 votes, average: 6.71 out of 10)
I wanted to do something kind of romantic for today’s incentive sketch. It seemed like this would have been the natural conclusion of today’s strip if it were five panels instead of four…
The punchline for today’s comic was originally going to be something different. Something to the effect that Cami suggests Tom read more books and Tom storming off in a huff.
But after drawing the third panel and the pure look of glee on Tom’s face… I decided to go another way with it. I’m happy with the result. As fun as it is to wring humor out of the foibles of marriage, I also like to promote the fact that Tom and Cami have a very well adjusted relationship.
That goes for INSIDE the comic and OUTSIDE as well!
So, Shopgirl comes out today and it kind of snuck up on me. Back when I read Steve Martin’s original novella back in 2001 or 2002 (got it as a Christmas stocking gift, if I remember correctly) I thought about how great this would be if it were a movie. Martin writes in a very economical style. Things are very precisely described and there is never much superfluous conversation between the characters. It was ready-made for a port to the big screen. Four years later, here it is.
For those that haven’t read the book, it’s essentially about an older man (Martin) with great wealth and fine taste forging a relationship with a very disillusioned (and heavily medicated) young woman (Claire Danes) who sells gloves at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. In many ways, both people are looking to have aspects of their lives fulfilled by the other person. It’s kind of a right place, right time scenario. But as things evolve, the two uncover that they are not the perfect fit they built each other up to be in their heads.
On plot alone, Shopgirl is going to get a lot of comparisons to Lost in Translation. The situation likely amplified by Martin and Bill Murray’s Saturday Night Live connection. Still, I have high hopes that the movie will do a good job communicating Martin’s trademark dry wit sprinkled with a dash of melancholy. No one captures the prefabricated detachment born of the utter irreality of Los Angeles better than Martin.
With hope, Cami and I will see Shopgirl sometime this weekend. We both loved the book – one of the few we actually agree on!
Wait, that’s not right. It’s not so much that we don’t agree on literature as we don’t read the same kind of literature. Shopgirl was one of those rare books that had crossover appeal in our household. Ironically, Martin’s follow-up "The Pleasure of my Company" also earned a similar distinction.
Needless to say, we’re fans. Our radar is up for this one.
I’ll be back later with a familiar reminder. Or, you could cut right to the chase and order a t-shirt, hoodie or baby-doll tee before I close off that section of the store October 31. Your choice.
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Sometimes you just want to pitch one straight up the middle, you know?
Of course, now upon inspection, I might have pulled out this gag to sell it a little more. The delivery of this one… it just feels like a “what’s in the news?” late night kind of thing.
The Golden Compass comes out on Friday and I couldn’t be more bored with the idea. Gordon saw a sneak preview of it last Saturday, so we talked about it a little bit on Monday night’s Triple Feature. I was dead serious when I confessed that I thought The Golden Compass was the sequel to The Chronicles of Narnia. Can you blame me? Winter scenes, witches, talking animals. A little too similar for me, I guess. But what can I say? I’m a dullard. I don’t read “books” – whatever those are.
Curiously, unlike Narnia which rankled some atheists for it’s detection of Aslan the Lion as a Jesus-like figure for leading a land out of sin. Now her comes it’s spiritual (pardon the pun) brethren in The Golden Compass and the shoe is now on the other food. Religious groups claim the film promotes atheism because the books written by Phillip Pullman depicts organized religion as evil. Pullman himself has made comments in the past describing himself as an atheist and deliberately “…trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”
For me, personally, religion fits nowhere into the equation of either Narnia or Compass. I’m not overtly religious in my own life, so I view the conflict from an outsider’s perspective. Looking at it from a distance, I ask myself, “Aren’t these pretty heavy themes for children’s fantasy?”
Granted, most fairy tales have bleak and violent conclusions. So it’ s not as though children can’t process the weight of good and evil in a literary allegory. But why does everything have to be politicized to such a degree?
I think I have some more thoughts swirling around in my brain on this one, but I might hold off until Friday to set them loose. They might get me in trouble. We’ll see.
Until then, thanks for stopping by the site. See you again real soon!
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Jared will go to great lengths when it comes to distracting Tom while he’s reading the paper.
I know I had a little mini-rant about One Missed Call in Wednesday blog and pretty much said I wasn’t going to give it the time of day. But it was during a special Wednesday edition of The Triple Feature talkcast (download it if you missed it) that I hit upon this particular idea.
Alluding to a joke I wanted to make about the movie in the comic, my good friend Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies basically said “Don’t bother because everyone else is already thinking it.” So, to diffuse the situation somewhat, I purposefully am setting the joke up to fail. There’s nothing witty about comparing One Missed Call to The Ring. Any 5 year-old could make the same observation. So let’s all point and laugh at the obvious instead. Besides, I love an awkward pause.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to perform my civic duty and take part in the Iowa Caucuses. It was my first time attending and it was an enlightening experience. I felt good energy leaving the precinct hall and was pleased when the candidate I’ve chosen to support – Barack Obama – won the state with a resounding 37% of the vote.
More so than just my candidate of choice winning big, I was pleased to see so many Iowans turn out on a cold January night to do their part. Over 300,000, I believe was the last estimate? That’s astonishing. At our precinct alone there were nearly 500 people compared to about 120 four years prior. I think it’s representative of exactly how important this next Presidential election will be. People are hungry for change and they are motivated now more than ever to do something about it.
Wouldn’t it be great if President Bush’s legacy ended up motivating the American people into electing the most energetic and progressive leader since Kennedy in an effort to reverse his policies? That would be a trip.
But I shouldn’t stand up on the soapbox too long. While I think political discussion is vital to the health of this country, I don’t mean to exclude anyone and this is a somewhat one-sided conversation.
Back to movie news, Cami and I are going out with friends on Saturday to see Juno. Yes, it finally came out here in Iowa. This is one of those movies that has been slowly making it’s way across the country, but is lagging far behind it’s buzz. It gets released in the big cities as part of some preview weekend so it can make the Oscar cut off date, then it goes a little wider, then a little more before finally reaching the hinterlands. Meanwhile all the critics have had their say about it and you feel woefully behind the times for not having seen it yet.
That changes soon. I’ll let you know what I think of it on Monday.
And with that, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Talk to you soon!
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