Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

I just heard the most awesome thing ever, and it was on my local NPR station, WAMU. One of the classical music CDs they were playing as part of their program “The Big Broadcast” started skipping. And not just a little bit. It sounded like an old 33rpm album cranked up to 45rpms, during an earthquake so the needle jumped every half second.

I normally reserve my hysterical laughing at NPR programs for “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and “This American Life” but it turns out there is something out there even funnier.

After about five minutes, I gave them a call and let them know what was happening. Much to what I’m sure was great disappointment to the other listeners, they did then fix it about 90 seconds later. (Or rather, the station went silent, and then turned on a BBC radio news feed.)

Craaaaaaaaaaaazy radio!

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

Tags: music

My computer's been on the blink for a while, so I've been using Sarah;s, which has led to a pile of post-it notes and scribbled-on scraps of paper gathering on my desk. A lot of these were reminders to post this or that on the blog, which, I obviously didn't do. Sarah spent many hours yesterday trying to revive my ailing machine, which is more or less now acting responsibly. We'll see how long that lasts. In the meantime, I'm gonna play catch-up with a few random mentions of this, that and the other:

- The House of Fun Art For Sale list was updated after we got home from the Baltimore Convention, I just never told anybody because I'm such a savvy business person. We got hit with some unforeseen expenses (inc. a hefty car repair bill, ouch) so I'm offering up some new pieces, a few of them relatively big ticket items, a few of them relatively affordable -- pages from Milk and Cheese pages, Bizarro Comics/Bizarro World, Hellboy: Weird Tales, as well as a few pin-ups, odds and ends and the cover to Dork #6, which was The Eltingville Club issue  (a note to the reader/customer who purchased the back cover to #6 and the Eltingville t-shirt some months back - I have lost your contact info, which is why I did not write you about the front cover. If you're reading this, please get in touch with me, because I feel badly that I screwed that up. My apologies!). Also, we've lowered the prices on a number of older pieces on the list. Several pages have already sold since we added the new artwork, as a few regular customers contacted us, but the list has been updated to reflect those purchases. If time allows we'll be adding more stuff before the holidays and we'll likely put some more layouts and small pieces up on e-Bay as well.

- I am going to be appearing weekly on the SLG Radio show every Thursday, or at least every Thursday SLG head honcho Dan Vado puts a show together. My segment will be taking place in the last fifteen or twenty minutes of the show. We'll talk about comics, I guess. We'll see. So far I've mostly yammered about nothing in particular while Dan tries to get a word in edgewise. It's a live call-in show, so folks can participate if they want. Previous broadcasts are archived on the blog radio site and upcoming guests are announced on the page as well, so check it out.

- Speaking of radio, I don't remember if I posted about Jill Thompson and I having been guests on Robin McConnell's Inkstuds radio program recently. You can listen to the episode here. Inkstuds is a great comic book resource, Robin's interviewed a terrific array cartoonists over the course of its 4-yr run (Happy Anniversary, btw).

- Speaking of interviews, here's one Jill and I did with Crimespree Magazine regarding Beasts of Burden.

- Speaking of Beasts of Burden, here's a preview of the first three pages of the upcoming third issue, which is an Orphan solo adventure. While the orders for the series have been less than stellar, the response has been extremely gratifying, and it doesn't look like retailers are getting stuck with too many copies dying on their racks. We've also received some very nice comments about the series from creators like Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, Len Wein, James Robinson and Eric Powell (all on Twitter), which has been cool as all hell to see, I must admit. #3 ships on the 25th, and hopefully will be a fun sort of palate cleanser after the downbeat second issue. At least that was the plan.

- Geek Alert: Universal Monster movie fans take note - I accidentally stumbled across a reference to The Universal Cult Horror Collection, a set of five lesser-known weirdies including Murders In The Zoo, The Mad Ghoul and Rondo Hatton as The Creeper in  House of Horrors. The set is only being sold through TCM.com (and one other online source, but the price is the same, iirc), it's part of a deal TCM made with Universal to release some films on demand, and hopes are high that perhaps this could lead to getting Island of Lost Souls out on DVD. The films can be bought separately, as well. I haven't seen any of these, I'm sure they're nutty jerk-fests, but I love this stuff. Now, if I could only afford them...

-I've got something like seven new Fun Strips done or almost done. I've gridded up a batch of strips and pages to work on whenever the ink's drying on another job, so who knows, I may have some Dork-type comics to show you folks sooner or later. Still trying to get more done on that Milk and Cheese strip I started and posted a bit from a little while back, but it's slow going. 

- I'm also working on a pin-up for a charity auction that has been fun, little cartoony versions of as many old Marvel Comics villains as I can remember the details for. It's a small piece but I'm trying to get as many figures in as possible, I think I have thirty or so right now. I'm trying to see how many characters I can draw more or less by memory, and then I'll get the reference out and see what I screwed up, and complete the details on the characters I don't know well. Some characters I can't even lay a single line down for, so they'll need reference. In my head I can see The Mandarin and Klaw, but on paper...nada (besides the sonic weapon -- weird!). But it looks like 80% of these bums are still floating around in my memory banks while I forget my social security number and my own phone numbers. Maybe I'll scan it as it stands and post an in-progress image. Or maybe not.

- If the November issue of Nickelodeon was the swan song for the magazine, I'm depressed. If December turns out to be the final issue, still depressed. We had a gag panel in the November Nick...what a bummer to see it end. And just when Emily started reading it, of course.

- I've been reading a lot of Spider pulps, my first Avenger pulp, old horror short story collections, some Fritz Leiber SF short stories, some Robert Bloch, some recent young adult fantasy series (The Magic Thief and The Last Apprentice), some David Goodis crime novels, some lesser-known (to me, at least) Black Lizard crime reprints (The Vengeance Man, You Play the Red and the Black Comes Up), some Jim Thompson, and some Blackjack manga. Nothing heavy, nothing too depressing.  The Lawgiver is planning a house move, and is culling his library, so I've been hauling bags of old paperbacks over here to digest and then donate. I'm keeping the Spider paperbacks, though. It's been a lot of fun, and a lot of it is research for projects, so it's sort of work, as well. Some days I just want to stay in bed and read until I fall back asleep, like when I was a kid on a rainy day. 

- I'm doing a lot of stuff for Bongo right now, and for the foreseeable future --, and it's time I got back to that. 

Latersville, all.

Tags: art for sale, beasts of burden, bongo, books, fake tags, inkstuds, jill thompson, the mandarin
Current Music: Bill Kelly's Teenage Wasteland/WFMU.org

While heading up to a friend’s shindig this afternoon, it hit me that if I took the Baltimore-Washington Parkway up to the top of the Beltway (instead of the George Washington Parkway up to the side of the Beltway), I’d drive right past IKEA. And since I recently used up the last of my lingonberry preserves, well… a trip to the IKEA “grocery store” might be in order.

If you’ve never had lingonberries before, it’s a tiny bit hard to describe them. They’re a little tart but sweet at the same time, and they’re an essential ingredient on swedish pancakes. (Places like IHOP actually offer a lingonberry syrup for their swedish pancakes.) As I’ve been on a pancake kick lately (and really, why not?), more lingonberry preserves was a must.

I actually picked up two other similar foods that I’ve never eaten before, though; cloudberry preserves, and gooseberry jam. I have no idea what either of them taste like, but how can I resist something called a cloudberry? It sounds like what Frodo and Sam would have picked off of bushes on their trip to Mordor. Or maybe something Mario would eat to get a temporary power-up while trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. I, for one, can’t wait to try them. (A gooseberry doesn’t sound quite as interesting. But in the interest of trying something new I bought it.)

If I had been going directly home I suspect I would have bought stuff out of the frozen section, too, but I was saved by warmer temperatures outside this weekend. Perhaps next time I’m up in the area…

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

Tags: food

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

http://confessions123.blogspot.com/2009/11/because-of-my-poor-education-i-know-its.html

BECAUSE OF MY POOR EDUCATION

I know it's been quiet, but hey, I told you I was knuckling down and getting to work. In addition to some freelance stuff, I spent the last two weeks focusing on the first draft of the second Spell Checkers volume, which I completed Tuesday night. Nico will be done with volume 1's principal art in a handful of weeks, and we're going to keep rolling right into volume 2.

Next up: burying Kelley Seda in script pages!

IN THEATRES...

* An Education, the Nick Hornby-penned coming-of-age tale makes a real star out of Carey Mulligan. One of my favorite movies of the season.

* The Men Who Stare at Goats has a great cast--George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey--but doesn't have a complete script to match.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* The Dead, John Huston's final film finally comes to DVD, so why did Lionsgate screw it up so bad? Ten minutes missing? Did you leave it in your horse and buggy? Update: I just got an e-mail from Lionsgate and they are issuing replacements. I've added info to my review in case anyone needs to do a trade-in. Very good news!

* The Who, the Mods and the Quadrophenia Connection, an interesting but ultimately flat look at my favorite Who album.

* Will Ferrell: You're Welcome, America - A Final Night with George W. Bush, a numb satire that seems to want us to think Bush was innocent and stupid rather than destructive and disingenuous. Where were you guys over the last eight years? Certainly not in this country!

Current Soundtrack: The Daily Show, 11/3/09

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * Criterion Confessions * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * GoodReads * The Blog Roll [old version] * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich

Well, a sudden influx of work has turned the tables on my plans to do a daily journal comic for November. I'd rather get the next Rabid Rabbit story done well, as my extra-curricular activity, so that will be my focus at the end of the day when the 9-5 arting is done. Which usually ends up being more like 10-10. :)



Here's some color to add to the previous rough.

Tags: photos, sketches, watercolor, working
Current Location: United States, New York, Brooklyn
Current Mood: lots on the mind
Current Music: Etienne Daho - Epaule Tattoo

I have just received the ARCs (advanced reader copies) for ROSE SEES RED, my new YA novel! Out on Scholastic Press in Summer 2010.


(click for full size!)

In the spirit of Stephen Elliot and what he did with his most excellent book The Adderall Diaries ARC, of which I was a lucky enough person to get one in advance, read it and mail it on to someone else to enjoy, I am going to experiment and do the same for ROSE SEES RED.

Are you game!?

If so, and you would like to receive the galley and read it way before other people and you love receiving delicous packages in the mail, like I do, why not email me your snail mail address to misscecil (at) gmail (dot) com (or you can post it here, on livejournal only I screened the comments)(just include your email, too)

Then, the magic happens!

I will mail out an ARC to the first few people who respond. You will receive the book in your very own mail box! Then you have one week (or two - but no more!) to read the book and then your job in the magic is that you should mail it on to someone else who wants to read it (I will email you the address of the person you should mail it on to, that is why you should make sure to include both snail mail or email) (if you are a young person, please make sure you let your parents know and get their permission!)

I think this should work. If you are confused. Just email me again.

And you know, if you like the book and you want to talk about it here or there or anywhere, you could do that, too! Or perhaps, when it comes out in 2010, you could purchase one for a friend or for your local library or something like that! Cause you got to read it early and for free! Yeah!

This Sunday, November 8, I'll be appearing on a panel at King Con, at the Lyceum in Brooklyn! Here is the info:

KIDS' COMICS: SUNDAY 11AM-11:50AM

Remember that old cliche, "comics aren’t just for kids anymore?" In the era of grownup graphic novels and gritty anti-heroes, are comics for kids at all anymore? Join a new generation of cartoonists creating work with a youth-centric focus as they discuss the past, present, and future of comics for kids. Moderated by Brian Heater, the panel will feature Matt Loux, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Sara Varon, and more!

I'm not sure exactly where in the building the panel will be located, but it should be clear when you arrive. I won't have a table, but I might have a few galleys of SMILE in my backpack. If you're a librarian, educator, or journalist, come see me after the panel and I'll hook you up!

Tags: appearances, brooklyn, conventions, king con, lyceum, panels, smile

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.