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I think my heart just broke reading this article.  It's from nine years ago, excerpted from Wes Anderson's introduction to his Rushmore screenplay.  Here, he tells of how he screened the movie for his heroine, the late critic Pauline Kael.  I don't know why it affects me so, but it does.

Hey Look. Turns out, I can use Illustrator.



Illustration for something in the works.

Soooooo.

Anyone else think J. Scott Campbell is a Democrat?

McCain is complaining that the media is ignoring him.

When every time a camera is on you, you say something stupid, it's probably best that the media is not pointing their cameras on you.

Comic time:



MY STUPID LIFE

Panel three represents an actual TERRIBLE drunken sketch I did in Houston two or so weekends ago, except that the sketch I drew in real life also contained a written apology for being too intoxicated to draw a reasonable sketch. It should be noted that, even when sober I cannot draw anything good inks first, I always have to pencil first. Always. It should also be noted that I was not driving the night in question, no worries. Don't drink and drive, kids. And stay in school and eat your vegetables!

Meanwhile, another offering for the Kansas City Pitch:



The theme was "Rugby Boys vs Roller Girls". Good times!

I will NOT be at SDCC this year. First absence since 2001.

I have a bit of a graphic novel to complete. Some friends in town. And this girl is coming to visit me in Seattle:



But you all have fun, suckers.

This year doesn't even matter. It's all about next year.

Oh and incidentally, Street Fighter 4 and Tatsunoko vs Capcom will be playable in my city at PAX which I will probably go to, promoting my actually for sure happening webcomic "Seedless". So don't think you got nothin' on me! I'll be sonic booming steadfastly.

CELEBRITY DEATH TOLL UPDATE

OK, kids. The time has finally come to get out your old "Which Golden Girl Will Die First?" scorecards.

Don't act like you don't have one.

And the winner is —



Estelle Getty

Famous for:

• Being a friend. That specific friend being Sophia Petrillo on "The Golden Girls."
• Despite playing Bea Arthur's mother on the show, Getty was actually a year younger than both Arthur and Betty White.
• Won an Emmy — amid seven straight nominations — and a Golden Globe amid three total nominations for her portrayal of Sophia.
• Also played the grandmother of both Rocky Dennis ("Mask") and Stuart Little ("Stuart Little"). Those are some crazy ass genes.
  
• Oh, then there's this:
  
  

Cause of death:

• Her manager is citing natural causes, but Death Toll watcher R.D. Belcher (excuse me) submits the following:
  
  
  The funny thing is, there was just a huge gay convention in Miami last week. I actually walked in on someone watching gay porn and Golden Girls at the same time. Then, mere days after Miami sees more gays than ever leave town, a Golden Girl dies.

Crypt Keeper Memorial Vital Status As Of Tomorrow:

• is still deaddy

Age:

• 84
• Would have been 85 on Friday.

I am in a very good mood.

Christian Bale was arrested today, on accusations of assaulting his mom and sister.

Apologies for the pun.

If he did do this, then do you think he'll go to jail for it?  He's the goddamn Batman.

After R. Kelly, I no longer have faith in the celebrity justice system.

new drawing of me by me



I have decided, when coloring, it is not worth doing unless it is bright neon fucking crazy colors.

I have also decided, that like, I'm gonna kick some ass.

--

The last couple weeks have been interesting in Seattle. I walk around Seattle a LOT. That's one of my main time-distracting activities. Exploring my glorious city. The other day in Chinatown there was a parade, and I walked by some teens dressed as Naruto characters on the street. I very naturally said "yo Naruto" as I walked by them. They replied, mildly stunned. Good moment. Then today I was at Urban Outfitters buying new skinny pants, and Johnny Onyx from Gingerbox works there now. Awesome. Our culture is seeping everywhere.

I wish I were at Nerd Prom.

I've been recording a lot of covers lately. It's good fun and makes me learn new chords and stuff, which is good as I am naturally lazy, and that includes songwriting. It's too easy to coast on by without actually being very good.

I'm going to release the covers as a digital e.p., just the mp3s, cover/back art etc in a zip file. It's much easier that way and then everyone can get it without any hassle. I think this is a lovely idea. If I ever go through with it i'll let you know!

On another note, I don't feel like I should have to mention this, but it makes me feel weird when I find out people have made assumptions about who my songs are "about". I figured this would happen as soon as I put them up for public listening, but it's still upsetting.

The truth is none of the songs, with the exception of "Kitchen Slowdance" (Cam) and "Congratulations" (Kaylin) are about anyone that I know or dated. They're mostly made up. My life is not that interesting. I've written songs about other people, sure, but I wouldn't put them online. I don't feel comfortable with that type of thing.

By the way Kaylin, Congrats is about you. Cat's out of the bag lol.



Real edit: now that i've been thinking on it I forgot that part of Pills is about Maggie. But only the lines about the guitar. The rest is completely fabricated as per usual

Numfar! Do the dance of new comic!



MY STUPID LIFE

I am sick again. I swear to god, I seem to be on some sort of sick cycle. Every two months or something. It’s awful. If someone so much as sneezes in the same room as me, I swear, I come done with a week long cold where my whole body aches, my throat is dry and torn, and my nose is like a block on concrete, that leaks all over the place. I fucking hate it! I’m really starting to wonder if I have a problem with my immune system, because you should not get sick this often! WTF?

I’m currently drinking down a quart of OJ and I’m about to take some Nyquil and hope it knocks me the fuck out. I can’t even get any work done during the day either because I can barely focus on watching TV, much less actually trying to do some work. I even tried drawing, and that lasted all of 3 minutes before I dropped the notebook and fell asleep. AWESOME.

I hate this…

Originally posted at DanCrum.org

more later (probably anyway), but wtf is up with wikipedia being down? i can't even begin to explain to you how much this impacts my day-to-day life.

saw the dark knight yesterday and it exceeded my expectations, which is amazing.

afterwards rebecca blew up at me and stormed off so that's fun!

now i'm reading the hobbit for the millionth time. i don't still have the aim log because i'm at work now but i was discussing the tonal difference between the hobbit and the lotr trilogy with darcy sensei last night and it went something like this

Me: the elves are weird in the hobbit
Darcy: yes, they're a lot nicer
Me: even Elrond in the hobbit is all "hey lets have a party and chill out"
Me: and then in Fellowship you see him and he's like YOU ARE ALL GOING TO FUCKING DIE

fake edit: try reading the rivendell scenes in the hobbit imagining hugo weaving as elrond it's hilarious trust me

Avatar is over. I cried a few times. It's really weird, it feels like someone died. I'm sad that it's over and that I can't spend any more time with these characters, but at the same time monumentally happy for what it is, what it was, and what it meant. I felt the same way after reading Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, and sortof similar after seeing Revenge of the Sith (that was a little different because, I mean, we all knew that Star Wars wasn't anywhere close to going away).

In the aftermath, which I will not recount here because most of you haven't seen the last 6 episodes yet, I really hope that Michael and Bryan keep this going. I want them to go full-blown Tolkien on us here. They've laid the groundwork for an amazing world, and I really hope that we can see more. They mentioned that they had ideas for making new show set in a time other than Aang's, and I hope that they do. I want to see this world twenty years from now. Fifty years from now. A hundred years from now. For once I am hoping that those in charge of marketing decide to cash the fuck in and approve assloads of content, because this world is fantastic and more needs to happen there.

I want this series to go on for years. I want them to build on what they created and flesh things out. Hell, I'd be happy with a comic series if not a show. I just want more stories in this world. I want more history, I want more breadth, I want to know what happens after episode 61.

Part of me is actually sortof mad at them right now. I don't think they fully understood what they had on their hands, underestimated themselves, and Nickelodeon had no idea what to do with a property of this calibre (the ridiculous hiatus is a testament to that). I fully, completely respect their decision to do one whole story in the three seasons. I applaud them for sticking to their guns, telling the story they wanted to tell, and doing it so well. I just wish they had seen how amazing the world they were creating was. There are so many unanswered questions, and so many little things that hinted at depth that was never elaborated on. They need to realize that this show isn't your average Nickelodeon property, and start putting out material geared to the people who want deep, challenging, mature plots and a greater sense of history.

But maybe that's just me. Tolkien spoiled me with the wealth of information that he created to tell what, in his world of unparalelled detail, is just one story of many. Star Wars spoiled me because it produces such an overwhelming amount of content (admittedly both good and bad) that there's always something new there to absorb. I want Avatar to be the next franchise like that. Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have a mint waiting in their heads if only they want to let it out.

In short, Avatar is 100% fucking awesome, and is in my very elite pantheon of ultimate works of fiction. The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Bone, and Avatar.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080720/ap_on_re_eu/wto_quoting_goebbels

GODWIN!

I have luck today that tomorrow is my Friday. So I only work three days this week. Joy. It's amazing how exhausting one day can be. The last two days have been terrible, but the good is in them being done and over. Yesterday I had some troubles and I don't think I dealt well. I ended up crying and every time I cry I choke up and can't say a thing. So people start asking if I am okay and what can they do to help and such and I'm frozen unable to respond, with tears streaming down my face like a grown child, a baby. I cannot control my emotions sometimes. And so it leaves me wondering if I am improving as a person or becoming less able to handle anything. No answer for that because I don't know. I try to learn from this stuff, but it is still really hard to control the bad emotions, the anger, and the fear, and the anxiety. Today I tried, as yet more troubles and time restraints plagued me, to remember that this is all not that important ultimately, that I shouldn't stress over things to the extent that I do. And for the most part I remained calm today despite the franticness. I was even able to make appropriate decisions, and I feel confident in my choices today. There's a mark of a good day even if it tires you completely.

So, last week I had a few wonderful days off. I took Logan to an interview in Stead last week and while I waited for him I drove around, absorbing the oddness of the place. It's a bit like Lancaster in it being a little place between tumbleweeds and hopelessness. There's a lot of old abandoned buildings. Old abandoned military buildings and schools boarded up, empty, monuments of a dead time. And many of the houses are old military housing so they are small worn-in, uniform, functional places and they retain something interesting in that. I tend to like old houses so I find it intriguing, where others might find it terribly depressing. Stead itself I do find a little depressing, but little desert towns always are.

While I waited I found a Strawbucks and bought an iced coffee and played Phoenix Wright. It was delightful. That day I started a new obsession which is iced coffee. I can't get enough now. Anyway Logan got the job and I drove him to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on my days off. Despite it sounding like a chore, I loved every day of it. We'd get up early, make coffee or buy some (iced coffee from McDonald's or Strawbucks) and listen to music. I may just like spending time with my brother and waking up early on my days off. And iced coffee. But they were such good times that I am sad to see end. He's buying a car this week and I won't have to drive him anymore and well it's better to not put so many miles on my car. I've been listening to The Clash a bit lately. That would be another marker of this time. I never was interested in The Clash, but now I've enjoyed a bout of them. I've decided that my favorite songs are bass driven songs. Maybe that is a silly statement. I don't know enough about music to know how to state it.

I'm certain that there was more I wanted to say but I need a shower. Like I cannot relax until after my shower so there's that. I may go for a run, you never know, do you?