Eleminternet -or- Baker Street Irregular

To illustrate the greatness of what you can find on the internet, I link this excellent and easy find. It's a collection of copyright free Sherlock Holmes radio shows starring my favorite team Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, as well as Sir Sir John Geilgud and Sir Ralph Richardson along with many other actors.
Basil Rathbone is my favorite Sherlock. When I think of Sherlock, Basil's voice, face and mannerisms all come to mind. I do wish Nigel Bruce's portrayal of Watson was a little less vacuous, but the personal friendship and camaraderie between Basil and Nigel shines through and only adds to the validity of the characters. I heard a story where they would both intentionally walk on each others lines during the live broadcast in the attempt to throw one another off, which usually only served to throw off the ancillary actors instead.
My favorite parts always seem to be the initial meeting of the client, in which Sherlock seemingly divines deeply personal aspects of the patron, only to immediately reveal the divination only to be a higher attention to detail, which all of us could have if we just practiced it. An intelligent character who challenges others to be intelligent. Ah, bliss.
Although the collection is far from complete, (wiki says that Basil and Nigel made 200 radio shows alone) there are many hours available. Download or just listen online. The copyright has expired, to the benefit of all of us. The game's afoot.

In addendum, there will be a new Sherlock Holmes movie released in 2009 which stars Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock and Jude Law as Watson. Although the title roll going to Robert Downey Jr. is very encouraging, it also lists Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, which means there will be a love story in it. Does everything that Hackywood do have to have a fuckin love story in it? Sherlock was about the game of solving the crime, not getting the girl. If you had to put one in, it should have been Watson since Sherlock was, as a point of character, a confirmed bachelor, even counting Irene Adler. His interest in her was more of criminal intelligence than sexual lust.
As immediate evidence that the internet can provide embedded in this very text, have a listen to the first 2 minutes (or the whole thing) of this read of A Scandal in Bohemia read by the great Basil Rathbone himself.

Don't screw this one up, Hollywood. Please, he said to deaf ears.

Animator Chuck Jones

As a spotlight, I could mention his academy awards, his being voted 4 of the top 5 Top 20 Cartoons, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Personally, I could mention how I can spot his style as easy as I can hear George Harrison riffs in a song, or how he defined Tom and Jerry over all the animators that did T&J over the years. I could also go the easy route and post videos of "What's Opera Doc" and "Duck Dodgers in the 24th & 1/2 Century". Instead, to let him speak for himself and his style to speak for my adoration, I post two of the more obscure (if anything Chuck did commercially was obscure) but no less loved cartoons.
Ralph Phillips's Boyhood Daze

and A to Zzzzz

Deep Thoughtentosh or G42

It's true.

and while I'm at it...

I bet it doesn't beat "Shawn"

...but awesome.

Bye Bye Bettie

The queen is dead. Long live the queen.

Bebop Dream Team

The internet rumors are circling about a live-action Cowboy Bebop movie with Keanu Reeves as Spike. Since I have neither have any desire to see Bebop live action, nor any faith in Hollywood to do anything right, (they have, they've just done much to much wrong) I offer here my dream team for a live-action Cowboy Bebop movie.

Spike Spiegel - Christian Bale

He's a very good actor. He know action. The three things that the character calls for is Martial Arts (Batman Begins), Slight of Hand (The Prestige) and enjoyment of a serious situation (American Psycho). He's got the look and the voice and he'd be an ultimately better choice than Mr. Men Don't Leave. In the research, I've also seen Hugh Jackman's name floated, which would work.

Jet Black - Ron Perlman

The perfect look, the perfect voice, and if he's not given one-liners to say, Hellboy isn't that far off from Jet.

Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV - Ivana Baquero

She's an excellent actress. When she played in Pan's Labyrinth, she was the right age and looked just like her, sans the red hair. That was two years ago but I bet she can still play younger.

Faye Valentine - Christina Ricci

Two Words: Ghost and World. Two more words: Fear and Loathing. Plus she already played Trixie so she's got experience in Anime to live-action.

Julia - Uma Thurman

Perfect.

Vicious - David Bowie

Yes. THE David Bowie. Not A David Bowie. Ya, ok. So I got lazy at the end and went for the easy one. Still...

Better pics

Looking at my pics from my WOW character, I saw I needed new ones, cuz she looks so much cooler than when I took the previous snaps. This is Dharmas. She got a big staff.
Horde Life, brothers.

Newmation

Got a new animation up. It's for a little extra incentive post-interview for a company called noodleStream, which would let me animate for a living. Animate and educate both, so cross you fingers, pray, sacrifice a goat or whatever yer pleasure, cuz I want the job. I post it here cuz it's funny to me. Especially Uncle Scratch whupin my ass. See it here.
noodleStream Job Animation
'N' don't forget to call noodleStream up to tell em how awesome I am.

Who's got time for blogging?

Not me. Not with the "New Economic Reality" rearing up to whup everyone's ass. I'm too busy selling my soul to the man. Well, at least there's a WOW expansion pack 0.01% of the entire population of the earth gave $35 bucks for. Now I have to wait 10 minutes to log on to my alternate reality. Hey, you. Get offa my cloud.

That's right. I'm a girl in my alternate reality. An undead girl. With magic. Wanna duel about it?

Left-Eye Sight - a mix

Since my left eye sees the past, I thought I'd turn it's gaze on youtube.
The Ocean Blue - Ballerina Out of Control

The Ocean Blue is a mix between The Smiths and XTC. Andy Partridge had better lyrics, Morresy had better angst. These guys were a guilty pleasure cuz I knew they weren't cool, just college-band angsty. Especially driving around downtown late at night before Bricktown was built over the ashes of the angst-heaven of dark, empty streets and boarded-up buildings.

NWA - Boys in tha Hood

Easy muthafukin E. Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Yella. Back then, I was a boring, suburban, white kid givin those beats my doe and identifying more with them than I did the kids in my hood. Now Easy's dead from the bug and Cube is doing boring, suburban, white movies identifying with the lifestyle I rebelled against by listening to NWA.

Rocky Horror- Time Warp (again)

By far, I've done the timewarp more than any other named dance ever. I've done the timewarp in my underwear more than maybe I want to admit, but at least I know I can fill it out better than Barry Bostwick. I'd like to say that I wish I had all that money back that I spent on seeing that movie, but I never paid to get in. Man I miss those people sometimes.
It's just a jump to the far left.

Dead Milkmen - I Walk the Thinnest Line

It was dark and scared the squares, so I liked it. Still do.

Smashing Pumpkins - Hummer

I lasered a groove in this track I played it so much. This was a favorite when made the turn north on Clines Corner which marked my favorite leg of my favorite road-trip. Ow! My nostalgia!

Jane's Addiction - Stop

Not that anything is too personal to post, it was a toss-up between this and Porno for Pyro's "Pets". The latter has more personal meaning for me just from when, not what. This was first, which is the only reason it made the cut and it's apples and oranges as far as I'm concerned. Hello, hearing-loss.

Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher

I used to speak the language of big-band jazz. It wasn't all about the rock. This version is the one I grew up with, and grew to love... which is great cuz it's still Cab Calloway. With the bonus of my hero, Tom "Bones" Malone wailin on the destructo-machine.

XTC - Summer's Cauldron
I can listen to it any time, but a late afternoon in July always makes it taste better.

cheepeats - or - Om nom nom

Hunger is the best spice, but even Kerouac wrote extensively about the finer points of eating quality food.
I had 2 really good meals recently as close to equal in delicious as to make no odds. The first was the Lafayette Chicken & Shrimp from the Longhorn Steakhouse chain which was awesome. I've never been partial to chains, but it was very tasty. You can hardly go wrong with chicken topped with melted cheese, really, but it was expensive, coming in at just under $15 bucks alone.
The second was a concoction I made from hunger and thrift. It was a 18.5 ounce can of Cambell's Chunky® Sirloin Burger soup with a half-lb of browned (not overcooked), lean ground beef added for that extra hungry... and it was amazing. Couple of slices of bread and butter and I still can't get over how good it was. It cost me around $2 total. Win.

+=

Butchered! -or- Damit Susan!

So I figured out I'm a sexist pig when I asked Susan to trim the back of my hair.
I don't like paying someone the equivalent of $120 an hour to cut my hair and I can't get the back myself, so I asked a womany feminine female to do it, thinking that they had some sort of natural, in bred ability to cut hair presentably. That isn't the case, so now I look in-bred. Where's my banjo?

Update: Upside - the looks I've been getting today have been priceless.

As far as cuts for $120 an hour... Not gonna badmouth them. Always got a good cut... but it was $30 and always took 15-20 minutes. Even with the shampoo.

Don't worry, Susan. I'm laughing now. That's why I posted it. I think it's hilarious.

Zeitgeist II Electric Boogaloo

Yesterday driving home I heard this story on NPR explaining how best to tell children if you are fired from your job. This is the way Trickle-Down economics trickled down to your kids. Good luck, everybody.

How to live your life filled with fear and other snap prejudices.

$2k road bike + $140 Lycra shorts + $250 spandex jersey + helmet = Riding enthusiast.
$100 mountain bike + $20 cargo shorts + chucks and t-shirt = Molester on a bike.

29th Dhammapada of the Ronin

Careful amidst the careless. Amidst the sleeping, wide awake. The true ronin leaves them all behind like a racehorse does a mere hack.

The latest Girlie Drawlerin

Barb has me do these posters for her Rock 'n' Roll Garage Sale shows. Since I started, I always have done a version of her on it. I've been studying up on my:
Chiodo, Vargas, Masamune, and Welz to brush up my stylized female form.
[WARNING - Links above are definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK!]
Since I didn't have a recent photo of Barb handy, it's a slight departure from her likeness from my previous solution, but I'm quite happy with the results:

clicky for biggie.

Animator Spotlight: Genndy Tartakofsky

He created and animated Dexter's Laboratory, which would be enough to get anyone into the animator spotlight. If that wasn't enough, his next full-on project was the love-letter to Kurasawa: Samurai Jack. I'm paraphrasing when I say I've heard him say in an interview about Samurai Jack that cartoons... "Never had enough action." Not until you came along, Genndy.
He worked for Hanna Barberra, which doesn't get any points in my book, except that he worked in a trailer in the parking lot there, where he developed Dexter, which he created in college. Between Dexter and Samurai Jack, he co-directed and co-wrote for The Powerpuff Girls and the Dexter spin-off Dial M for Monkey.
Then came the best Star Wars since "Empire".
The Clone Wars illustrated the brothers-in-arms relationship between the master Kenobi and an up-an-comming Aniken Skywalker. Action packed, lovingly written and animated with excellent stylization, Genddy took the reigns and made an superb, 2D version of what Episode 2 should have been. IMHO, it's better than all three Star Wars Prequels, certainly better written. Clones die pointlessly while Obiwan and Aniken kick robot ass.

It seems that the biggest theme in Genndy's animation is fighting robots. I don't know if I can name a single thing that Genndy worked on that didn't involve fighting robots in one way or another (like Dexter, Powerpuff and Dial M), if not had it as the main McGuffin (like Jack and Clone Wars.)
Currently, Genndy is working on a mixed-media prequel of The Dark Crystal called The Power of the Dark Crystal. The Jim Henson Company is producing and it's slated to be released in 2009. When I say "mixed media" I mean that it's going to be a composite of animation and animatronic muppetry. Judging by what I've seen previously from Genndy, it's going to be sweet. Henson's are huge shoes to fill, but Genndy's never let me down before.

Here's to the Samurai animator.
Genndy's Wikipedia page

Uh....

My favorite Futurama episode

condensed into 3 and a half minutes.
"Of course I've been up all night! But not because of caffine, it was insomnia. I couldn't stop thinking about coffee."
Ding.

via videosift.com

One for teh 573v3.

Terry Gross interviews Nick Cave and that dude is dry as a dust martini.

Paul is dead

Another true Ronin's battle is over. It's the peasants who win.

Team Hole in the Wall
Newman's Own

My carbon tiptoe.

It is easy being green. You just have to do it. Being "fiscally responsible" made me look very closely at my expenditures. I found that most of what I could trim would also reduce my so-called carbon footprint, which gave me double the satisfaction. I realize some people might find some of these measures draconian. I, personally don't and have even found the tertiary benefit (after frugality and environmentally conscious) of making me physically and mentally stronger. Here are the the macro details:


No air-conditioning.
I did use a window unit 4 days in early august when it was touching 107º outside. That's it. By toughing out the heat and humidity, I could take more of it and found that I could remain comfortable without problem or complaint up to the mid-90's with relatively high humidity.
I do have an attic fan to help me thru the tough spots. That draws a fair amount of electricity, but not anything like the compressor of a 110 window-unit. My lights don't dim when I turn it on.


Mellow Yellow
I don't flush every time. I know this may sound repugnant to some, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, which I admit exist. I estimate that my toilet tank holds 5 gallons of water since I do not have a low-flow. On average, I flush 1 out of 6 "visits". Estimating a dozen visits a day for 18 hours, I potentially save 50 gallons a day. On my own.
As far as the drawbacks, I do have to clean the toilet more often and occasionally get hit with that ammonia smell, but living with a cat (box) for 20 years got me used to that. And cat pee is way worse smelling than people pee.
I flush when I feel I need to, leave the house and go to bed… or the smell is too pungent. The brown always goes down.


Low light.
I don't keep many lights on. The only full-watt bulb I routinely use is my front porch light, which is 40w and has a light-sensor that turns it off automatically in daylight. I am somewhat fortunate that my eyesight works best in low and non-direct light conditions. This means at night, I am able to use mere 4w plugin lights (and desk lamp) to see very well. Each of these have automatic light sensors too. I even have the ability to use a 4w in my bathroom on the wall switch. The rest of my lamps contain only 40w bulbs, are on dimmers, and are only used when needed and not for longer.


Lowest settings
Both my refrigerator and my hot-water tank are on the lowest settings manageable. This summer, I was able to turn my water tank to "vacation" with no loss of comfort and remains there today. The refrigerator currently stands on #3, which only affects the duration of milk storage. I simply do not buy any more milk than I can use in the time it remains potable, which can stretch to a week and a half. Easily done. The pilot on central heat will remain off until it is needed.


Ye olde clothesline
Generating heat is a big draw on electricity. While I do dry shirts and underwear in the dryer (medium setting), I dry towels and jeans on the clothesline. I sacrifice fluffiness and speed for frugality. I don't miss it.


Power down
Leaving the house or going to bed always gets the "power-down" routine. That means the computer (and monitors) get put to sleep and the speakers get turned off. My secondary computer monitor is switched completely off when one monitor will do nicely. I listen to NPR a lot, so I use a mono clock radio most of the time instead of my surround sound system, which draws at least 50w for the subwoofer alone. Doing this along with the other practices of no air conditioning, low lighting and low refrigerator settings keeps my electricity bill slightly over $50 per month. I doubt many other Americans can say the same.


Pedal power
When I need to run to the convenience store or somewhere local, I pedal. It's great cardio. I see much more and get to experience the outside. It heightens my balance, endurance and stamina and strengthens my legs, heart and lungs. It's fun. I estimate I ride about 25 miles a week and saves me a tank of gas a month. If I bike to the store, I take a backpack and don't buy more than I can fit in it.


Most of it is common sense duh. Some of it is a little sacrifice well within tolerable limits. I could always do more. Eventually, I'd love to have some things like a waterless urinal that uses a chemical filter to contain smells. Even a regular urinal would save hundreds of gallons of water a month, since it only takes a splash to clear it and leave my bathroom much cleaner to boot. I'd like a wood-burning stove for heat. Farther out, I'd dig a solar water heater and a wind generator. Wouldn't it be great? What if everyone did the same? It could be done. We could bring our power usage down to the point to where we only generate what we need ourselves. I want to live as cheaply as possible and find that doing that makes me environmentally conscious as well.

The Definitive top ten.

The movies I can watch at any time, and have. I present here, my top ten movies.

Honorable Mention: Apocalypse Now

With the process of making the film as crazy as the film itself, how could I not love this movie. This film made me love Robert Duvall as much as it made me hate Dennis Hopper.
Never get off the boat.

10. Brazil

Darkest of dark 1984-ish future with the definitive non-hollywood ending. Robert DeNiro the ninja vigilante plumber, jackboot police, Gilliam's extraordinary visuals. What's not to love?
We don't make mistakes.


9. Cowboy Bebop

Purely personal. Not the greatest story or the best written, I'll admit. But the personal investment with the best-written television characters made it number 9. I actually saw the world differently when I walked out of this film like it injected my brain with animation. Seriously beautiful with the climax at a halloween parade. Seriously.
Is it a dream? Or is their world the real one and the world where I was, the dream?

8. Yellow Submarine

An animated psychedelic vehicle for Beatles videos with unique, Peter Max style animation. Definitely in the top ten.
My dear friend... let us not forget that heaven is blue. Tomorrow the world!

7. The Incredibles

Best. Superhero. Movie. Ever. Starts with a superhero fight that introduces the characters, gives back story, establishes relationships and kicks ass at the same time... all in 8 minutes of the opening credits. It took Pixar to figure that forehead slap out. Duh.
Designers note: chock full of future-retro mod style awesomeness and it also features the coolest business card design ever. Oh, Mirage, you fashionable, toothpicky vixen.
No capes!

6. The Matrix

The action movie that changed action movies. Still the best 20 minutes in action movie history. I'll never defend Keanu's acting. I will defend the choice of this movie. 2 scenes are directly pulled from Masamune Shiro's Ghost in the shell, which is a kick-ass movie in itself. Even my chosen quote is an excellent direction to Hollywood:
Stop trying to hit me and hit me.

5. Howls Moving Castle

It's beautiful. Like most Miyazaki movies I see something new every time I watch it. The starring role is an old woman. It's steampunky. Even though it's relatively new to me, it breaks the top 5 because I want to animate stuff just as beautiful. I hate to say it, but Studio Ghibli's partnership with Disney (distributing) was the best thing they could have done. Mainly because Disney has no say in the story or animation. They did, however, make it possible for the english dub to feature Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, and awesome performances by Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal. It's deep, sometimes dark and has themes that you would never find in a Disney movie. I'm almost sorry it couldn't go higher than number 5.
I'm such a big coward, all I do is hide. All of this magic is to keep everybody away. I can't stand how scared I am.

4. Seven Samurai

Ronin. Poor but noble. A story so good it's been remade innumerable times. I hold it as gospel.
What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?

3. The Godfather (1-2)

Both count as one 5+ hour epic. Epic.
BadaBING! You blow deah brains alovaya nice clean suit.

2. Casablanca

Classic. Rick is one of the all-time greatest movie heroes. Dark, hard, smart and wounded. Smoking is as prevalent as the great dialog. It features one of the hottest women of all time, has Nazi's for villians and a great ending that has never become cliche.
Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor.

1. Bladerunner

A dark future where there is no daylight and all the rich people have moved off planet?? Yes, please. A dark, hard, smart and wounded hero? More, please. Super future noir with flying cars, asian neon and smoking? Seconds on that. A private-dick apartment covered in Frank Lloyd Wright tile? Absolutely. Oh, Did I mention that Deckard's first name is Rick? Did also I mention all of this being a vehicle for fighting / loving goth style robots? Looks as good today as it did in 1982. Nothing comes close.
The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you, you're the prodigal son.

The path of the true ronin

I wanted to embed the video of Jim Henson's beginning. I'm doing commercials now too and hope to achieve a fraction of his creative success. I'm not the salesman he was, so it will have to be my independent shorts to currently highlight my creativity, and my paid work to highlight (and strengthen) my technical abilities. You were a true ronin, Jim. Love the dark violence too. Shoot that muppet in the head! Shoot it!

Theme Meme

Since George and Kev both have tributes to NY today, I figured I would add my own of my own taste. Here's to the city I have never visited.


Nuff said.

I cannot wait to fight robots in the streets.

Especially ones like these.



Like fighting Striders but x2+2 and for real. Wicked.

Use the Force, Fark!

3 of my favs from an Epic Photoshop Thread.