Sit up straight, kids. Cuz I’ve got big news.
Mitch Clem is in the house. Tanned, rested and ready to rock – NOTHING NICE TO SAY IS BACK!!!
It looks like Mitch will be updating whenever he damn well feels like it, which I think is a smart move. But just to see that guy back in the game puts a big smile across my face.
Visit his site now and show him the love.
A medicine cabinet. In the dining room. Why? Were the previous owners of my house insane?
When my wife and I took possession of the house we thought “Oh, they left that ugly mirror.” Well, as it turns out, the ugly mirror is a freaking medicine cabinet.
This weekend was very, very long. I am due to pick up my wife from the airport tonight. Hopefully she did not stray from the beaten path and become ambushed by backwoods pot farmers.
(Note to Kentuckians: I have been to your state several times. It is very nice. I am not trying to make fun of it. Please give my wife back.)
I filled the loneliness of the weekend with movies. As promised, I will quickly recount the list.
Picnic at Hanging Rock: Overall, I have enjoyed the Peter Weir films I have seen. Gallipoli is a favorite and one of the few things that can make me burst into tears. They all have one thing in common, however. They move very slooowwwly. Though it captured the essence of a 1900 Australian school for girls very well, the story lacked punch. Since it is based on a true story, all the things you want to occur to make it a nice little movie do not happen, because life doesn’t work like it does in the movies.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: I loved the book. I wish I could say the same for the movie. Watching this movie was like listening to Vogon poetry. I had to watch it in about four sittings, because this BBC produced mini-series was quite boring. The animations are good and script is obviously well written, as it draws directly from the text, but the rest is terrible. I can get past the Red Dwarf budget, but the camera shots are wholly uninteresting. The acting is forced and sometimes seems like the actors do not know their lines. I think I could have read the second book in the time it took to sleep through this one, and I know I would have been better off.
Heart of Darkness: This made for cable movie draws from the same source as Apocalypse Now. Set in Africa, ship Captain Marlow is hired to restore the link to a remote ivory trading post and find out what the deal is with the leader of the outpost, Mr. Kurtz. Tim Roth is great as Marlow and John Malkovich does well as Kurtz. The whole movie is somewhat spoiled by the fact that I’ve seen Apocalypse Now and therefore was not shocked or surprised by any of the plot points. It is worth watching though.
Roman Polanski’s Pirates: This is a well done film which has a spirit that mostly makes up for the lack of story. Walter Matthau is great as the pirate.
The Celebration (Festen) : What starts out as an odd look at a fairly un-likeable family gathering for a reunion degenerates into a deeper look at the family’s extraordinary dysfunctions. The movie is a bit boring at first but turns into a car accident from which you can not look away. Don’t watch this one with your family.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: Very good. Fun, exciting. The special effects are very well done. It doesn’t have the “HEY WE ARE GOING TO DO SOME SPECIAL EFFECTS NOW, LOOK!” that some other films have. Johnny Depp is awesome. I wish I would have stayed in the theater after the credits, because there is an additional scene. This movie stands with Finding Nemo as the best movies I’ve seen this year.
That’s all for now. Video Warehouse is calling to my movie loving soul, so I’ll probably pick up more films soon.
I just wanted to tip everyone off to the new happenings on the Bonus Materials page.
I’ve recently received some great fan art from T. S. Tennant of Counting the Cracks and Mikey McCollor of Still Untitled. They’re both really cool and you should check them out right now.
And if you have an extra minute, scroll to the bottom of the page for a couple of Guest Strips I’ve posted. One of them was for Zach over at No Pants Tuesday, but he never posted the damn thing. So now I’m beating him to the punch.
The other was for Absath< at Ctrl+Alt+Del – a recent submission for his guest week opportunity.
I had a blast making both and think they might even be funnier than what I do normally around here!
I thought it was odd that just as I was doing a comic about Henry Rollins that I should catch a rerun of his performance on Sessions at W 54th on Trio last night. It seems a little too obscure to be coincidence…
I must be tapped into The Force, or something…
Tom Hanks laughs hysterically at a huge hole in his floor. I feel comforted. Watching the Money Pit was just what I needed. The plumber has left and I am no longer in danger of flooding my basement with raw sewage. A bright orange extension cord runs from the bedroom, across the dining room, and into the kitchen. This powers the refrigerator, which holds tasty morsels of food we cannot eat. The rest of the kitchen is without power. The might of The George Foreman Grill knocked out our breaker like it was a blind superflyweight senior citizen.
The electrician is coming later. In the meantime, we will just eat out. Again.
Our new house is cool, ‘cause – hey, it’s a house! But I think our checkbook has a hole in it.
Anyway, I watched 18 Again. It was fairly entertaining. The kid acting like George Burns reminded me of my friend Tanner Taylor, the Minneapolis piano player. To our readers in the Twin Cities, you should really check him out, he’s great.
I have discovered a new proverbial candy store: Video Warehouse. They have so many movies there that I have not seen. I plan to rent a mother load this weekend. My wife is traveling to the commonwealth of Kentucky, so I get to go on a movie binge. I’ll let you know next week how it works out.
Yes Tom, as it turns out, there are four states in the union who think they are too cool to be called states. Kentucky is one of them.
I was checking my site statistic logs this morning and nearly fell out of my chair when I saw I had received over 1,000 hits before 9 AM.
Then I checked the referrals and learned they were all coming from Ctrl+Alt+Del. I did a guest strip for Absath and I guess he put it up.
I kind of wish I would have known this was happening today. I feel like the host of a party and the house is a mess and my hair is still wet because I just got out of the shower and the rump roast is burning in the oven and… JETSON! YOU’RE FIRED!
In any case, I open my doors to the fans of Ctrl+Alt+Del. Please feel free to look around. Start at the begining, if you like. I hope you enjoy your stay.
Just please try to refrain from making out in the coat closet. However, if you like what you see and could extend me a little vote love over at Top Web Comics, I might look the other way!
Well, it’s moving day in Jaredandpattiland. The movers have completed their duties and we are left whith piles of stuff. Now we just have to figure out where to put everything. That’s the fun part, but I am anxiously awaiting the day when I can relax and start living a “normal” life again.
Last night I was cleaning red paint rollers in the bathtub and red water began creeping up from the basement drain. I was a bit crazed as I ran through K-Mart at 9:55, trying to locate shop towels and a plunger. The old man I asked to assist me in procuring these items tried to show me some sort of super plunger, but I just grabbed the cheap kind, said “thanks”, and rushed to make my purchases. Back at home, the red water had receeded, but moral was at an all time low.
I hope to catch Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend, but I’m not sure it will happen.
P.S. I am a big Johnny Depp fan, so I especially dig this strip!
For those of you who are confused by the appearance of the dude in the blue shirt up above, don’t freak out. He’s not some random dude I just stuck in there for kicks.
That’s my good friend Nick! He’s appeared in a couple of other strips in the past, but I use him sparingly because, y’know… he lives in Minnesota.
But, yeah. Comb through the archives for more Nick-tacular action.
