No Touch Monkey!

NC-17 This comic contains nudity, cartoon sex, and historical factoids which might be considered blasphemous to certain religions. If such things disturb you, you probably shouldn't watch this.



I've posted this link every year since I started NTM, but much to my disappointment the e-sheep domain is no longer active.

Luckily for us though The Interweb Remembers Everything, so sit down boys and girls and learn the real meaning of Christmas.

Labels: Comics, Story Telling, Taboo, Worth your time

This is a quote from the book Night Watch which I'm currently reading and this quote really stood out.

The context is that there is a revolution brewing in the streets of Anhk-Morpork, and commander of the watch Sam Vimes knows with certainty that it's going to fail via Time Travel knowledge.

There were plotters, there was no doubt about it. Some had been ordinary people who'd had enough. Some were young people with no money who objected to the fact that the world was run by old people who were rich. Some were in it to get girls. And some had been idiots as mad as Swing [a character], with a view of the world just as rigid and unreal, who were on the side of what they called "The People." Vimes had spent his life on the streets and had met decent men and fools, and people who'd steal a penny from a blind beggar, and people who performed silent miracles or desperate crimes every day behind the grubby windows of little houses, but he'd never met The People.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed in any case. The found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up.

What would run through the streets soon enough wouldn't be a revolution or a riot. It'd be people who were frightened and panicking. It was what happened when all the machinery of a city faltered, the wheels stopped turning, and all the little rules broke down. And when that happened, humans were worse than sheep. Sheep just ran; they didn't try to bite the sheep next to them.

Labels: cool, Only Human, Story Telling, stupid-people

The Secret History of Star Wars is a new full-length e-book exploring the writing and creation of the Star Wars saga. Culled from over 400 sources and filled with quotes from people such as George Lucas, Gary Kurtz and Mark Hamill, The Secret History of Star Wars traces all the way back to 1973 to examine how the first 14-page treatment that began the series came to be and was slowly built, draft by draft, year by year and movie by movie. Covering a period of over four decades, you will discover how George Lucas got his ideas for the original film, how Darth Vader was made into Luke Skywalker's father in 1978 and forever altered the arc of the story, what happened to the infamous third trilogy in the series and how the prequel stories came to be. The book also reveals the style and method of Lucas himself and how his personal life affected and shaped the story, for better and worse. This is a book which challenges many legends surrounding the series and places the films in a new light. For the more casual fan this will be a mesmerizing read and for those who think they know everything about the series, prepare to be surprised!

500+ pages of intense scholarship. I was drawn in when I saw it and jumped around. It is very interesting, and if you are a fan of Star Wars or one who always wonders what it could have been, it's well worth looking into.

Labels: Gosh_Wow, Story Telling, The Geeks are my People

After hearing so much about it, we finally watched Into The Wild last night.

Wow.

I'm resonating with vibrations of joy, sorrow, memory and regret.

Chris McCandless was my contemporary and he lived a life I only dreamed of at the time back in 1990. While I was floundering around with the early stages of Alcoholism, Career Confusion and the lost of my first serious relationship, Chris had given up everything and hitting the road.

Here, have the fitting mood music of local band Blue Dixie (1992) 05-GetOnTheRoad_64kb.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

I knew people like Chris in College and I badly wanted to be them, but I lived in fear of the unknown, imagined obligation, debt and that Alcoholism thing I was talking about. Even though I smoked a lot of weed, I was still wound too tight.

The closest I ever came was listening to my Blue Dixie- About Time (archive org) cd wanting to just keep on driving, and driving...I was sad, lonely, hated my town, broke and without prospects...but I turned around.

Now 18 years later I'm sitting on my couch feeling the ache of the echoing call for adventure. Tomorrow I get to go to my office and work for 8 hours.

Life is a mixed bag, and we are the sum of total of our choices. One shouldn't live with regret, but still. Of the two paths in the wood, I took the one more traveled. Chris is a reminder, like remembering to let Death be a passenger on your left shoulder. If you want to live, then live, because one day you die. The End.

Here is the original article that later became the book Into the Wild, now go out and watch the movie and remember.

Labels: Gosh_Wow, Multiple Media, Story Telling, The Cap'n

We spent the night at my sister's house last night to baby sit while she went out to a bar for St. Patrick's Day. I brought my Looney Tunes Vol. 1 over to entertain the kiddies.

This morning we were watching some more when I saw Porky Pig in "The Wearing of the Grin" in which some leprechauns royally fuck with his head. While it's not as wildly weird as a Tex Avery toon, it is a Chuck Jones and pretty damn funny.

So it was off to youtube for this one in honor of St. Patrick's Day.



Enjoy

Labels: Fun Stuff, Story Telling

The Santaland Diaries

The longer version is at the bottom of the page

Labels: a, Story Telling

Rush was in town last night. We've been waiting all Summer to try and nab tickets day of show.

Blip thoughts from the day:

My friend Kevin teaches me how to keep checking ticket bastard for ticket releases. At 4pm Bastard pulls the tix from the website, time to call.

Do we want Row EE Left section at $51 clams each? Yes...Bastard adds an additional 16 fucking dollars in service charges per ticket.

We are off to the show. Ale tells me she read on the website that parking is an additional 20 fucking dollars! The venue is situated in an office park, but all cars are guided past the office lots to the distant venue lots. 3 tiny, tiny cones attempt to stop me from parking right next to the venue. They fail as I drive around them. No signs mentioning towing...all is well. 20 Dollars is saved.

In line at Will Call looking for Kevin. Who's that? Oh shit, it's my estranged Step-brother (8 years and counting w/o contact), quick look the other way! Whistle softly and rotate away as he walks by.

We watch him pass by for the entrance line. We pick an alternate line.

Showtime. Row EE Left. Good sightlines to the stage.

1/2 Hour in a couple arrives, we are in their seats? All tickets are pulled. They are identical except that ours says LFTL and theirs says LEFT? After some confusion, they move to empty seats in the middle of the row. I notice they paid more for their tix.

I get a soda and check with an usher what the hell LFTL means? It means Left Left! What? I look to where she points and it's EXTREME left. A tiny section with only 4 seats per row which would put me and Ale actually back outside the roof covering.

I walk up there just to see what EE Left Left looks like. AA, BB, CC, DD, EE Holy shit it my estranged stepbrother! I mumble a "Hi" and keep walking.

I report all this to Alessandra using my best attempt at bone sound conduction. It's doesnt work and it's rehashed at the set break as I fear the couple will wise up and ask an usher to have us booted from their spot.

The rest of the show, for me at least, is shrouded with a grey cloak of low level anxiety.

Thanks to our awesome parking, we scoot out immediately from a lot which has been known to keep concert goers stranded for hours.

I would call the show a moderate success. I enjoyed the show, but didn't get to ROCK as hard as I would have liked due to my stupid, stupid mind, while Rush did indeed lay it down HARD!

Labels: Story Telling

I had seen this a few years ago but had forgotten about it until I saw a low res repro posted at a used bookstore yesterday. Since I am still thinking about story telling using the International Icons (that odd event story I'm still waiting to tell), and the artistic use and design will really influence how I design and illustrate my own story.

Fantastic work by Needmore Designs

Labels: Gosh_Wow, Story Telling, Visual Thinking