(and that's all I am)
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| I Am What I Am (and that's all I am) |
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Wednesday, February 26, 2003 Flashback post from my journal: Saturday, September 14, 2002 I met up with Alan and Laura in Austin today and made the rounds to interesting places: Austin Books, Monkeywrench Books, Half-Price Books (two locations), First Federal Comics and Vulcan Video. Vulcan being our last stop before Alan and I headed back to Fredericksburg, we decided to rent some videos. Being men of exquisite taste, we picked up Mad Monster Party, Candy, Marquis, George Lucas in Love and Comic Book Confidential. Each one of these is worth checking out. 
Mad Monster Party is the 1967 Rankin/Bass non-Christmas feature-length movie. The big-name stars are Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller. Other interesting credits: Harvey Kurtzman co-wrote the screenplay and Jack Davis did character designs. Mad Monster Party indeed! There are some great jokes and its much more ambitious than the holiday specials Rankin/Bass are best known for. 
Candy (1968) is a goofy sex romp with an all-star cast (starring luscious newcomer Ewa Aulin) and a screenplay by Buck Henry. I'd seen most of this years ago on tv in the middle of the night and had been wanting to see it again ever since. It's basically a conquer-the-doe-eyed-virgin fantasy, but done stylistically with a lot of great laffs and barely any nudity. John Astin is his usual spectacular self as twin brothers. Walter Matthau is hilarious as a sex-starved, blindly-patriotic army general. Ringo Starr is pretty bad as a Mexican (!) who doesn't sound Mexican. Marlon Brando is, of all things, a new age guru whose accent flips back and forth with each sentence. Anyway, there are lots of kooky characters (from the book co-written by Terry Southern) and other stars include James Coburn and Richard Burton. It's silly, but funny and actually pretty sexy in parts. 
Marquis (1990) is a French film that fictionalizes the prison life of the Marquis de Sade. All of the actors are humanoid (and played by humans), but with animal heads and characteristics. The special effects are pretty impressive. Also, the Marquis has a huge penis with whom he chats and who is named Colin. Really, it must be seen to be believed. The character designer, according to the video box, is the "French Jim Henson" (think Dark Crystal rather than the Muppets). As Alan says, this is one of those films that blurs the line between art and pornography and that's definitely part of its charm. 
George Lucas in Love is the nerdy short film that was all the rage on the Internet a couple of years ago, but I just now saw it. Definitely recommended for Star Wars geeks and I enjoyed it. The guy who plays the George Lucas character reminds me a lot of Jon Cryer in his mannerisms. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/26/2003 01:08:00 AM Tuesday, February 25, 2003 Song playing in my head when I woke up: "Is It Your Place or Mine" by the Statler Brothers ################### On Sunday it was almost 80º here. On Monday the high was in the 20s. Today looks to be about the same. That, for those who don't know, is what Texas weather is like, especially in the winter. ################### Sunday was my birthday. Woo-hoo! Another year and I'm still alive! Annette and I went into Austin and ate Indian food, something we hadn't done since, coincidentally, my birthday last year (hi, A&J). Oh, man, was it good... I think we could eat vegetable korma every day. After lunch, we hopped over to Austin Books where I happily spent the birthday money I got from my folks. I picked up Expo 2001, SPX 2002, Bogus Dead, the Scatterbrain collection and the latest Treehouse of Horror and Annette got issues of Lenore and Peanut Butter & Jeremy that she was missing. ################### Last night while watching the local FOX affiliate the message "Previously Recorded" appeared on the screen for a couple of minutes. Apparently, somebody at the tv station thinks King of the Hill is usually broadcast live, I tell you what. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/25/2003 11:36:00 AM Friday, February 21, 2003 Song playing in my head when I woke up: "You Can't Be Too Careful" by Moxy Früvous ################### I dreamed last night that I was staying at cartoonist Jim Siergey's house and his wife had left me a note in the bathroom which read: "Rick, please aid by putting data into bags." The contents of the bathroom were all covered in bags of sorts and there was an elaborate system for using everything. Also, I showed Jim a toy I'd bought that had his drawings on it. ################### Flashback Post from my journal: Friday, September 6, 2002 While out and about in Austin today, I saw this college kid waiting to cross the street at an intersection, standing in front of the curb. I never quite understand how that could ever seem like a good idea. Anyway, another guy who had to turn at that intersection yelled out his window, "If you'd get the fuck outta the road, it'd be easier to drive!" Wanna know what the pedestrian's comeback was? "Faggot!" He actually came back with "faggot". Unbelievable. Never mind that it wasn't witty or even mildly succesful. I just had no idea guys still used that as some kind of catch-all insult. Christ... Who said kids are growing up faster everyday? ################### 
"Pippi, Pippi Longstocking"... Y'know, if you say it fast, it is kinda funny. ################### Stuff that's hit my mailbox lately: The HoLLywood Eclectern #35 (Ed Buchman), Quagga #4 (Trevor Alixopulos), True Fiction #4 (T. Motley) and Get BenT! #10 (Ben T. Steckler). Look for reviews at Poopsheet soon. Oh, and if you're interested in alternative comix, you might want to check out a new feature article called "What's New With You?" wherein 70 artists and writers discuss their current and upcoming projects in and out of comics. You'll find it at Poopsheet on the Features page. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/21/2003 11:08:00 PM Thursday, February 13, 2003 Song playing in my head when I woke up: "Something Sweet" by Trout Fishing in America ################### 
We live in a country where, if a woman is caught stuffing her bra, she's ridiculed for it and made to feel inferior. Yet at the same time the Miracle Bra and Wonder Bra (etc.) are making a few companies rich. Not to mention cosmetic breast "enhancements". The moral: You're perfect just the way you are. ################### Speaking of boobies, you wanna know something that really bugs me about porn? Whenever the model is doing her thing (nasty or not) while looking right into the camera and smiling. I don't mean a sultry, seductive smile; I mean a big ol' toothy grin. What's up with that? Hey, if she's happy, I'm thrilled for her, but it destroys the so-called illustion. It seems I've seen it mostly in the skankier and/or amateur arenas, but I don't know what that suggests. Do most men respond well to the fantasy that the model is looking right at them? Even though she's grinning away like it's her class picture? Am I the only guy who's put off by that? ################### Stuff that's come in the mail recently: Days of Wine and Anthrax (Dale Martin), Stripburger #34 (Strip Core), Headhunter #6 (Monobrain), Dagloze Krant #3, Yahoo! #10 (Just-Fo'-Fun), Plastic Farm #1 (Rafer Roberts), Lumakick #1 (Richard Hahn), Strange Jungle Tales Presents Leana (B-Brand Comix), Trigger #4 (Mike Bertino) and Cinema Sewer #12 (Robin Bougie). Look for reviews at Poopsheet soon. Also, look for a new feature article up at Poopsheet sometime early next week. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/13/2003 10:16:00 PM Monday, February 03, 2003 Song playing in my head when I woke up: "Dead" by They Might Be Giants ################### I've had a Christian pop song from the '80s (during my previous life) stuck in my head for a couple of days now and it's driving me mad. It's not even a particularly good song. For those of you thinking that God is speaking to me, don't be too sure. Three days ago it was a McDonald's jingle I couldn't shake. Draw your own parallels. ################### Have you been watching the new Star Search tv show? (Huh? No, of course, I haven't; why would you think that?) I have a question: Is Naomi Judd crazy? I mean absolutely insane? Is she high? Somebody, please, explain to me what is wrong with her. Can you imagine growing up in that house? ################### Somewhere out on Highway 10, between Comfort and San Antonio, is a business called "Joy Pipe USA". Nearly next door is "Bee Jay Molding". Juvenile or not, this amuses me every time I go by. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/03/2003 10:56:00 PM Sunday, February 02, 2003 Flashback Post from my journal: Saturday, April 27, 2002 Today we went out to the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival in Denton, Texas (about 30 minutes north of Ft. Worth). It's a pretty good festival and we got to see a couple of bands we haven't seen perform since before we moved to San Diego. The first is Trout Fishing in America, who hail from Arkansas, but play Texas so often they seem local. Trout Fishing in America is among that rare breed that can successfully pull off deep and serious as well as light and humorous. I've been listening to them for around a decade and it was a real pleasure to finally get to see them again. By the way, some may find it interesting that every other album this band releases (they've done around 10) is a kids'/family album – but not dopey, mindless stuff. Kids love 'em because they don't talk down to 'em and I love their kids' music as well. 
The second band is Little Jack Melody and His Young Turks. I've been listening to them for almost as long and was pleased that Annette could finally see them on stage. It turns out she really enjoyed the show, which is great because I wasn't sure she would. Little Jack Melody's music isn't for everybody, of course. I suppose you could call them avant garde, but they draw influence from Kurt Weill/Berthold Brecht (Threepenny Opera), German cabaret music, jazz and lots of other sources. Like many of my favorite bands they can't really be described neatly, which means – like many of my favorites – they're hard to market. But I recommend them just the same. 
As much as I enjoyed those two bands (they made my day), I'm a little bummed because I didn't get to see everybody I wanted to – namely Brave Combo, the Light Crust Doughboys and the Blarney Brothers. Ah, well, there's always next time. The rest of the festival was pretty much the standard: people selling their art, over-priced food, unbearable heat and beautiful women everywhere (Denton, thanks to the University of North Texas, has a nice bohemian art crowd, so cute hippie chicks were coming out of the woodwork). One other high point of the day was running into cartoonist/illustrator/self-publisher Brad Foster (Jabberwocky Graphix), who was offering for sale many, many prints of his work. Brad tells me the Jabberwocky website should be up soon with lots of goodies on it. posted by Rick Bradford E-Mail Me | 2/02/2003 03:34:00 AM |
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