Posts Tagged ‘stress’
4 items.
I think if I didn’t make a joke about this weekend’s newest disaster flick, The Core, you would think that I was feeling ill.
Today’s comic reflects my opinion of the behind-the-scenes machinations that brought this atrocity to multiplexes nationwide.
The producers of The Core are about five years too late if they’re still trying to ride the wave of late 90’s disaster epics. What Independence Day wrought has long since subsided.
The plot alone is too ridiculous to take serious. It echoes a period in cinematic history where people thought radiation could make bugs huge.
…and this was scary.
The premise of The Core is that our government has implanted a weapon into the center of the Earth, using it to trigger earthquakes against enemy nations. Somehow, this “don’t fool with Mother Nature” brain fart causes the core to stop “spinning” (yeah, right) and then cause electro-magnetic super storms that ravage the surface. The only solution? To drill through the crust and destroy the machine with NUCLEAR WARHEADS, thus jump-starting the planet and returning everything back to normal.
I think anyone who buys a ticket to this movie should get a free swift kick in the ass with every purchase. Everything about this movie flies so flagrantly against everything we know about science..NAY! COMMON SENSE!… that anyone who aids it’s success during it’s theatrical run is effectively dumbing down the rest of the population by association.
Harsh words? You betcha. But it’s how I feel.
I’m very excited to go to Planet Comicon in Kansas City. I received an e-mail from someone else in the Des Moines area who said they were going, too. They even asked for a sketch if they bumped into me! That’s weird. Here I am prepping myself to get into total fanboy mode, and someone comes along telling me they dig what I do. Have I crossed the other side? Have I become one of… them?
Nah. I’m still gonna have Lou Ferrigno sign my forehead.
One last note: Aric over at Fish Strips is undertaking a huge new storyline where all of your favorite web comic all-stars are making cameos. Aric was cool enough to find room for both Tom and Cami, so you should check out his good work.
Aric has been laying low for a little while, but I’m totally digging his new direction. It’s good to see him jump back in with both feet!
Now, if only my character can catch a knife in the eye, I will know I have made it in life.
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For any of my co-workers that might check this site, I don’t want them to think that today’s comic is an autobiographical reflection of how I view the workplace. On the contrary, I really like my job – so my take-home stress is marginal. I just wanted to do a comic with Cami in it where she had a chance to play a more positive role. This, as opposed to the more scolding archetype I’ve cast her in of late. She’s more nurturing in real life and I wanted to focus on that.
Plus, it’s fun just to do a quiet character piece from time to time!
This week’s new movie releases look pretty thin. Did they really need to make a sequel to Agent Cody Banks?
Not sure what I’m going to do with myself this weekend. Cami will be out of town visiting The Mall of America ™ in Minnesota with her Mom and her sister. Jared is going out of town visting friends and my parents are skipping town for a brief visit to Kansas City. I wish I could say I had more people to hang out with, but that’s pretty much it. I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands this weekend.
I have a haircut and an oil change for my car lined up for Saturday, but after that, who knows.
I noticed that Schindler’s List came out on DVD yesterday. Is it shameful to admit I haven’t seen it? I was 13 when it came out in theaters, and no one would take me to see it. By the time it was out on video, everyone I knew who *had* seen it said it was too depressing to sit through again. A great movie, no doubt. But too painful to experience repeatedly.
It’s probably time for me to right the wrong of never seeing Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece. I should look into that for Saturday night…
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Dec27
Everybody kind of gripes and grouses about the stress of the holidays. But for some reason, once Christmas rolls around, we think it supposed to end there, don’t we?
But it doesn’t.
Traffic still sucks, lines are still long, everyone and their brother is trying to shoehorn themselves into a movie theater and God help you if you need to return an item without a gift receipt.
The events in today’s comic essentially befell me on Sunday when Cami and I went to see The Life Aquatic Steve Zissou. Normally my baser instincts would have screamed “STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!” at the prospect of fighting the crowds over a holiday weekend, but the lure of a new Wes Anderson movie was too strong to resist! Pray to the altar of Bill Murray!
What was annoying about the whole thing were the lines. First you’re funneled into this massive line, roped off with those little nylon straps. Of course there are only two people working the register. After about 20 minutes, you get your tickets.
Then, deciding it might be nice to have popcorn, you go to the concession stand and wait in line another 20 minutes. “Oh, wait! We have to pop another batch. Oh, wait! We’re out of ice for the drinks.”
And, of course, without fail… the five people in front of you are buying enough food for a family of eight, but they’re the only one carrying it and they’re about 4 hands too short to maneuver the line without any complications.
And all of this was at a matinee.
Next time, I should just listen to my instincts and wait until the Tuesday 10:00 PM showing…
As far as the movie was concerned, I thought it was great but Cami felt like she had wasted two hours. She thought they advertised it differently than what it turned out to be. I suggested that it’s pretty hard to advertise “quirky”. She also felt like it was too long.
It was a disappointment for her because she’s actually a Wes Anderson fan. She really loved Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
I don’t know why it went over for me and not for her. Maybe my geeky fan boy love obscured my vision from the duller aspects. Maybe I just fell in love with its vision so thoroughly I was able to ignore its problems with plot and characterization.
I’ll admit the film can be a little herky-jerky at times and maybe a little too cute for its own good. It plays very inside and the characters seem to mostly be speaking at each other and not really conversing. Probably the most glaring issue for me was Owen Wilson’s Kentucky accent, which dropped in and out of his dialogue to the point of distraction.
Part of me wants to be elitist about the whole affair and say “Oh, you just don’t get it.” But I think that whitewashes the issue. Certainly I think there’s a wavelength to Anderson’s films that you’re either predisposed to or not. But there’s something about The Life Aquatic that is more off-kilter than usual. It’s the largest budget Anderson’s ever been given ($50 million) yet the film feels more internalized than anything he’s done before. As if the narrative thread had been pulled out from under all these little vignettes and the audience is left to piece them together themselves.
Certainly the fact that I’m still thinking about it the next day is a good sign. I really wouldn’t mind seeing it again, actually.
Anyone who is interested in buying a t-shirt, baby doll or a hoodie has until January 7th to do it. That’s when the next pre-order period comes to a close. I anticipate those shirts to be delivered before the end of the month, in case you were looking for an estimate.
No real news besides that. I hope everyone had a happy holiday!
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Dec12
I try to keep the comic timely, but usually as it pertains to movies. I think this might be one of a handful of times that I’ve made reference to any other surrounding circumstance.
I know this comic is a bit odd, but it’s truthful. Things have been stressful lately and both Cami and I are worn down. We work for the same company and we experienced several hundred layoffs this week. Fortunately, we both still have our jobs, but it weighs on our minds. Morale at work is low and we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I’ve been let go from jobs before and it’s never a good feeling – especially right before the holidays. But since we had Henry, there is so much more at stake. It really stops to give you pause. What would you do if you were in that situation.
This is a particularly… adult concern and I know you guys aren’t coming to this site to be reminded of how ugly things are out there. For that, I apologize. But at the same time, I gotta be truthful and if there’s a joke I can attempt to mine from the situation, I’m going to take that opportunity.
Incidentally, the conversation played out in this strip pretty much happened verbatim in our house the day after our company announced layoffs. Everything right down to Snugglebug II: The Snuggling. It got a big laugh out of Cami, so I thought it would probably work in the strip. That’s the long and short of it. I hope you enjoyed it.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but nothing looks good to me in the theater this weekend. Advertisements keep trying to shove the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still down our throats – even going so far as to remind us it will be the ONLY place to see the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer (until the internet gets a hold of it about 15 minutes later) – and I just can’t muster the enthusiasm to see it.
I’m curious to see Gort. That’s about it. Keanu Reeves looks like he’s acting more wooden than ever – which I suppose is in-character for an alien emmissary. But as Owen Gleiberman pointed out in his review over at Entertainment Weekly, “Reeves seems to be trying to wriggle out of the charge that he’s a flat actor by acting flat on purpose.”
Cami’s reasons for not wanting to see the film are much more sussinct. “It has Jennifer Connoelly in it.”
I’m kind of with Cami on that one. Don’t get me wrong, Jennifer Connoelly is fine to look at. But every time she shows up in a movie, my shoulders drop. She acts like the kind of person who NEVER smiles. She seems so serious all the time. She seems like someone who would be a real drag to be around.
I think this weekend Cami and I are going to take Henry to see Santa at the mall – a bizzarre ritual if there ever was one. We took him last year, but obviously he was too young to understand the significance. This year, he totally knows who Santa is by sight (even if he doesn’t totally understand what Santa does). It should be a good time.
That’s it for me. Have a great weekend, everyone and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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