Archive for ‘Blog’
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Nominees for the 79th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning and I was pleased to see that I’ve already seen three of the five films nominated for Best Picture. That means I have less ground to cover before the ceremony on February 25.
I suppose what surprised me most is that Leonard DiCaprio was nominated for his performance in Blood Diamond and not The Departed. I was also shocked to see Alan Arkin nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine. But that’s a pleasant surprise. Marky Mark nominated in the same category for his performance in The Departed? Not sure what to make of that.
All I know is if Martin Scorsese doesn’t walk away with Best Director this year, it’ll be a crying shame. But I think Clint Eastwood is going to give him a run for his money.
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I didn’t see the Nicholas Cage remake of The Wicker Man when it was in theaters last fall, but judging by this out-of-context collection of clips from the film, maybe I should have!
I’m not typically one to link to snarky internet videos, but this one was too hilarious to ignore. I laughed my ass off at it. When you see Nicholas Cage in a bear suit knock out a little girl, you’ll understand why.
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Do you guys remember when I went to Wizard World Texas last year and they broke into my car? Yeah, well… they stole all of the 1" buttons I had made up as a giveaway at the convention. It was a way to attract people to the booth and it worked pretty well.
Anyway, even though I’m taking a hiatus of sorts, my mind is still in "creative" mode and I was thinking now might be an opportunity to work on some new button designs. I thought I would solicit you guys for a little brainstorming!
The old buttons basically had a movie reel and the site URL laid over it in red and black. Nothing fancy. This time I was thinking of doing some sloganizing. Fun little saying that people who like movies could wear on their jacket, or what have you.
So far I’ve come up with the following:
- No, I don’t want to upsize my combo.
- Please take your feet off the back of my seat!
As you can see, neither of these slogans is probably going to set the world on fire.
Do you guys have any thoughts about ways I could twist these slogans into something funnier or maybe a little punchier?
Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind taking this opportunity to brainstorm a few t-shirt ideas as well. I posted a couple of designs in the THorum last year that seemed to get a favorable response. I’m thinking now is the time to put my nose to the grindstone and produce a couple of them.
Are there other designs you would like to see? Maybe we could adapt some of the button slogans for the t-shirts?
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Before I forget, I want to thank Michael Lalonde from Orneryboy and Wes Molebash from You’ll Have That for their excellent guest strips this week.
Remember that there will be a new strip from yours truly every Friday through the month of February while I free up my schedule to prepare for the birth of our baby boy in a week or so.
Next week we’ll have a guest strip on Monday from a good friend and – something unique for this site – a guest essay from someone that goes by the name of “Tycho” posted on Wednesday. You’ll want to be around for that!
In the meantime, check out the store because I’ve recently started to offer merchandise bundles that have proven very popular! For example, if you haven’t gotten your hands on either of the two books, now you can buy them together and get $5 off! Not a bad deal!
Talk to you soon!
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Since Dave was good enough to introduce the fancy blog commenting system, I thought I would take this opportunity to utlize it for a little feedback.
You guys might remember a while back when I was trying to develop some new shirt designs for the store. As per usual, the design phase takes me for friggin’ ever because I’ll design, redesign, doubt myself and then hang it up. The reason for this is because you kind of have to have momentum in order to produce these things and it’s a bit of a tightrope walk to keep the right amount of inventory in stock. I feel like I kind of have a good thing going on with the handful of designs I’m currently offering. But at the same time, I’m kind of bored with it and it’s time to branch out.
This time I think I’ve got something on my hands. Something that you will like. It’s a refinement of the "Opening Weekend Junkie" concept I was floating around before. I have a few variations I would like you to inspect and, when you’re finished, leave your thoughts on the comments page! Easy!
Okay, onto the designs.
1. The first design is pretty literal. Not too far from the first few drafts with the exception of a TORN ticket instead of a ticket coming out of a dispenser;
2. For the second draft, I thought to myself, "If I were really a junkie, my fonts wouldn’t be so need and orderly." So I tried making things a little more askew;
3. Pushing the askew concept a little more. Throwing the fonts around at different sizes and angles;
4. At this point I started to really appreciate the simplicity of the torn ticket and thought about paring back the message a little bit. Showing a torn ticket and simply stating "junkie." pretty much gets across the same idea without throwing in the "Opening Weekend" prefix. Also, what if you’re schedule is too busy to afford you the luxury of seeing movies on their opening weekend? At least this way, you can say you’re a movie junkie in the general sense.
5. Simpifying further, I thought to myself "Maybe it doesn’t need any text at all! Yes… the design is THAT strong." Ah, hubris.
Those are pretty much the designs to choose from. For those of you who want to see the ticket stub in more detail, you can click here.
So, what do you think. Which of these designs would you wear if any?
Be gentle. Remember what I told you about the second-guessing?
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I’ll make this brief because I know you’re not here to read my ramblings. But I wanted to thank Jerry for his time and generosity for writing his guest essay. When I put the wheels in motion for my partial hiatus – my paternity leave, if you will – I took a long shot and asked the guys over at Penny Arcade if they would be interested in participating. I wasn’t expecting anything, but I figured “The worst they could say was ‘no’.” Imagine my surprise when Jerry responded and he offered me this essay.
To be acknowledged (for lack of a better word) by someone who inspires you creatively is an incredible gift. That Jerry went beyond the pale and made his words personal means that much more. What Jerry has shared speaks directly to me. He offers sound advice about fatherhood in a language I understand – movies. Naturally, it’s hilarious to boot.
If you’re new to the site, I encourage you to stick around and thumb through the archives. Chances are if you type a movie title in the search field, I’ve made fun of it. If you’d like a quick sample of my best work, be sure to check out the Top 50 comics as voted on by my readers. They know what’s good better than I do. If you like what you see, I update every Monday, Wednesday and Friday just like Penny Arcade. So add us to your bookmarks and check back every now and again.
Tomorrow is our due date. No baby yet and no plans to induce, but the time is growing close. As you can imagine, we’re really excited. What can I say? It’s been a pretty good week!
Thanks again to Jerry. I hope you enjoy his essay as much as I do.
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By the way, I almost forgot to point you to another one of guest artist Joe Dunn’s excellent comics – Turtle Vs. Bunny.
You guys are familiar of the fable of The Tortoise and The Hare, right? Same idea, except with rocket launchers and various levels of Spy vs. Spy-like subterfuge.
What’s great about T-V-B is that you can effect it’s outcome by either buying merchandise or sending in pin-up artwork in support of your favorite four-legged critter, so it’s very interactive. I can’t think of another web comic doing anything like that.
Anyway, it’s all good fun and you should really check it out!
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Hey, guys. Don’t forget to listen in to The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 p.m. CST over at TalkShoe. You can either stream the show live or download the TalkShoe client that lets you participate in the show by leaving messages in the chat room or calling in and talking to us LIVE!
I didn’t get a chance to help out with last week’s show, but I downloaded a copy of the show from iTunes and Multiplex author Gordon McAlpin did a great job filling in as moderator while I was away. Kudos as well to Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies for making it a great show!
This week we’ll be talking about Zodiac and the films of David Fincher. Also (although I haven’t cleared it with Gordon and Joe) I imagine I’ll be railroading the conversation with stories about Henry and his introduction to the world. So if you want to call in and ask me questions about the experience, I will certainly indulge it!
It’s been two weeks since Henry was born and I view tonight’s talkcast as well as my return to a thrice-weekly comic schedule as a re-introduction into our (digital) society. Be there!
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Do you guys ever get the itch to see a movie you haven’t seen or thought about in years?
I was driving to work this morning, the clouds were gray and it was drizzling. Aimee Mann’s rendition of “One” came across my iPod and I thought to myself “I think I want to watch Magnolia when I get home from work today.”
I can’t describe the feeling accurately, but it felt like an itch in my brain stem. Magnolia was a movie that Cami and I had seen in the theater that left me dazzled. A few months later, the movie gathered this negative buzz for being pretentious and I kind of lost the will to settle in for an extended period and watch it again. When it came out on DVD, I bought it anyway because I’m a Paul Thomas Anderson fan and a completionist when it comes to my movie collection. Shamefully, I admit I’ve never watched it since purchasing it.
But now I have the itch and I think I really want to see it again. I might fast-forward through the Tom Cruise-as-sex-guru pieces because, frankly, I don’t want to take my sense of disbelief for that long of a walk. But the rest of the ensemble performances I thought were excellent and I kind of have this new found respect for John C. Reilly after Talladega Nights and his cameo performance as Sasquatch during the hallucination sequence from Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny.
Of course, if this rain tapers off, I might slip out of the quasi-depressed mood required to make watching Magnolia a truly rich experience. So we’ll see…
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Okay, I need some direct feedback on this. I’m a little self-conscious and I need to see if people will recognize the person I’ve drawn for a t-shirt I’m putting together.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS MAN?
I don’t want to provide any clues as to who it is or why I’m drawing him. I just want to know if people looking at it will immediately recognize him and say “Oh, that’s so-and-so!” Otherwise, the joke in the shirt I’m designing won’t work at all.
So, who do you think this is? Leave your comments below!
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