I am overrun with nifty stuff to share today, so it’s time to get a long little doggie (and a short little cat), tie our lassos to our lariats, and corral us some grade A link meat.
Today’s vid from me will be, of course, at the end.
First we have this highly amusing cat video.
It’s from a shelter called Tenth Life (very clever) and I love how it combines a gadget-based infomercial style with pretty accurate observations about what it’s like to be a cat owner to make comedy for all the cat lovers out there.
We are legion.
Not sure it works as a way to get people to adopt a cat, except by amusing us cat lovers and putting the thought of having our own cat in our minds.
It also makes me realize how easy it is to copy that infomercial style.
You just need someone to overact hilariously and the black and white filter from literally any video editing program on the planet.
Also in the comedic vein (located directly above the funny bone) is this bit of satire.
Exxon's Definitely Real Ideas To Save The Planet by TheKidsTable
What I like most about this piece is that it manages to tackle a pretty serious subject and satirize it effectively without being depressing.
I mean, it is depressing if you really think about it, but the skit itself is not.
And, like I often say, they made a very effective piece with fairly minimal budget. I am trying to study as many of those kinds of skit as I can so I can learn what simple techniques pack the most impact while still making the piece seem professional.
Because no matter how funny you are, if it looks or sounds like crap, it will turn people off.
Turning from funny to fun, take a look at these gorgeous retro style Star Trek posters.
An artist named Juan Ortiz has decided to do a 60’s-style movie poster for every single episode of the original Star Trek series, and they look fantastic.
I mean, check out this poster for Whom The Gods Destroy (a fave ep of mine) :
Party on, Garth!
There’s shape-shifting Garth of Izar ready to plunge a dagger into the back of an unsuspecting Kirk.
I hope that when Mr. Ortiz finishes the series, he makes them available in a art book, because I would love to have it. I love when fandom meets true artistic talent.
Plus, to be honest, he would make a mint off a book like that. And almost as much just selling high quality prints of each one so you can just get the ones from your favorite episodes.
And speaking of fun, here’s the most fun headline I have read this week : Police Bust “Drug Fueled Sex Party” at Masonic Temple in Michigan
Doesn’t that just fire up the imagination? I picture some sort of hilariously elaborate ritualistic orgy with wearing enormous plaster of Paris animal heads humping and chanting at the same time.
But sadly, reality once more does not live up to its potential. Turns out the Masons just rented the space out to some group that claimed they were going to have a “dance party”, and they did, if you consider the horizontal mambo to be a dance.
And I do.
In truth, it sounds pretty lame. One couple boinking, others filming it, drugs around. Sounds like a very low rent porno company and there’s always something very sad about those.
C’mon people! Sex is fun! Porn should be fun! Look like you’re having a good time!
I would be such an awesome porn director.
We are going to take a turn into the sentimental and moving now. Don’t worry, we will be back at comedy by the end of this blog entry.
First there is this excellent piece of Pekar-esque comic art about a difficult childhood.
I love that kind of thing. The comic book medium is far too powerful and elegant to be restricted to just telling superhero stores, as awesome as those are.
I view it as being like film-making. Anything you can do in film, you can do in a comic book, more or less. Both are all about visual storytelling.
And some things comics do better. That story of a neglectful, alcoholic father might well be too painful if done in film, but the distance provided by comics makes it safer to look into this sad corner of a sad child’s little world.
Our other heart-tugger is a happy story about an actor going out of his way to make an autistic child’s dream come true.
It just reminds me of what a rare privilege and honor it would be to be able to do so much with just a little extra thought and kindness.
I am a total karma whore, and so the ability to make people that happy with relatively little effort appeals to me greatly. If I should ever be so lucky, I will treat it like a sacred trust and do my best to be the best damn superstar I could possibly be.
None of this throwing a hissy fit in public or being rude to my fans shit for me. Stars who do that are repulsive. Get over yourself and be there for your adoring public, or stay home.
And finally, today’s silly, silly video.
It’s another slideshow.
How do you like my pretty and ornate music? There’s nothing quite like harp.
I doubt I will stick with “Sarcastic Slideshow” as a name for these things I do, it was just the first thing that popped into mind.
It’s clearly a slideshow, and so that part will stay. It gets the basic idea of what to expect across. Still images and someone talking.
But it needs something to indicate that it is comedic in intent.
Silly Slideshow? No, too frivolous. Comedy Slideshow? Ick.
Oh well, I will think of something.
Some of those posters have visible evidence of non-vintageocity, like the Impact font with an algorithmically-generated drop shadow, or some of the other ugly modern fonts. Also, like a lot of today’s artists, Mr. Ortiz does not understand the difference between minimalist faces and figures with a high-contrast chiaroscuro (such as you might see on an old constructivist or art deco poster), and badly-drawn faces and figures that are super-pointy and have random black areas on them. It really makes me wish I could go back in time and discourage Bruce Timm from ever becoming an artist. He gave every generation of artist after him, both fans and pros, a set of ugly shortcuts that don’t really work.
I will say one positive thing for Ortiz: he chose good colours. Even the “paper” seems vintage.
On the other hand, we have “Toormina Video,” which also has ugly art, but in a way that I don’t mind as much. His colour choices are also good. I like the brown/orange colour scheme and while the drawings themselves are cartoony, he doesn’t skimp on backgrounds or storytelling (in the sense of visual flow, not in the usual sense of the word). I really liked the panels that showed the outside of the buildings, like the bar, the video store, and his house. They had real atmosphere. I had a definite impression of both the depressingness and yet also the innocence of his lower-class childhood. He didn’t know how sad it was. He just had enthusiasm for the things he liked.
The story itself is riveting and sad, but it’s good that it moves briskly through the decline of the father, allowing us to feel the pain of it, but feel it so briefly that we also have some distance from it.
Nice touch too in having the video store be out of business when he drives past it after his dad’s death.
The ending is nonsensical. Is the girl his daughter? Is the moral that where his dad neglected him because he was too busy getting drunk, he’s neglecting his own child because he’s too busy working? He should say what his point is instead of leaving it there all ambiguous. When storytellers do that I tend to assume that they don’t know the answer either, and they’re bluffing.
Oh, and yay for champagne-coloured Toyota Camrys!
>Some of those posters have visible evidence of non-vintageocity, like the >Impact font with an algorithmically-generated drop shadow, or some of the >other ugly modern fonts.
I should have know you would have strong, well-informed opinions about the posters of Mister Oritz. 🙂
>Is the moral that where his dad neglected him because he was too busy getting >drunk, he’s neglecting his own child because he’s too busy working?
Yeah that’s it. It could have been clearer, I agree. I had to look it over a few times before I could make sense of it.