The Johnny Bacardi Show

Hang on, I'm gonna skip around from topic to topic. I haven't done a rambling post in some time now, intentionally that is, so here goes.

After looking at several of the San Diego Comicon reports online, I can see that a very good time was there for the having, and many did just that. However, on the other side of that coin, I come away with two observations. One, after looking at the pictures posted at 4CR, one of which I stole and posted above, I'm not so unhappy about not being able to attend. That is one humongous mass of humanity, and I'll bet it was heck trying to get around. Second, I have rarely felt as much like an ancient old geezer as I did when I was looking at some of the Pants Presser's photos, and saw the pic of Scary-Go-Round's John Allison, not to mention some of the pros I've seen in other places. Allison, whose SGR and Scareodeleria online comics remind me a lot of Friends as done by Charles Addams, writes and illustrates with a tone and skill which would belie his apparent callow youthfulness. Then again, he may just be a really young-looking 30-year-old. Who the hell knows. Anyway, if you would viddy these photo reports I've been gazing upon yourselfs, go here. And here. And here. Ian Brill has some interesting reports as well, not to mention a dynamite-looking page design.

Some, not a lot, of interesting announcements from the big companies came out at the SDCC, and as usual I found myself most intrigued by many of the upcoming Vertigo projects. I keep thinking I'll list them and post my thoughts on them and other Comicon announcements, but I'll probably keep thinking about it and thinking about it until several months have gone by and it will be beside the point.

What am I listening to today, you may ask? Besides the voices in my head? Stone Temple Pilots' No.4. Camper Van Beethoven-Key Lime Pie. Deep Purple-Who Do We Think We Are?. Bjork's Vespertine. Just can't warm up to that one. Another I've been listening to today is Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily. Now Natalie is an artist who has always appealed to me despite my better judgment. Her music on her own (that I've heard- more on that later) and with 10,000 Maniacs was usually listenable, despite often being somewhat bland & slick. Natalie's contribution was usually the most problematic- her lyrics are groaningly pretentious when they're not stiff, clumsy and awkward, and she sings them in a voice that more often as not reminds me of Zsa Zsa Gabor, dahlings. You know- "They say I must be vun of the vonders, God's own creation". Anyway, even after all this, there's something in the sheer stubborn determined earnestness of what she does that wins me over, even though I fully recognize that I should know better. Case in point, the righteous lather she works herself up in way back on 1987's "What's The Matter Here" from the In My Tribe album. She is positively fervent and convincing as she reads a child abuser the riot act, and that song more than any other made me tolerant of what she's about. Tigerlily was her first solo release after she dumped the other Maniacs, and it's a low-key affair, quiet, folky and often even jazzy in places. Of course, you remember the hits, for good or ill- "Jealousy", the aforementioned "Wonder", and "Carnival", with a jazzy, laid-back vibe that I liked. I don't think this is a bad album, but outside of those songs and about two others, the other tracks just don't make much of an impression, and I think that's why I didn't go out of my way to pick up its follow-up Ophelia, or the two or three albums she's done subsequently. Oh well, maybe I'll remedy that someday. And that's what I've listened to today. So far.

Go here for morethanweimagine.com, the official Mike Nesmith lyric site. One of my favorite Nez songs and lyrics: St.Matthew.

Saw a couple of movies over the weekend, well, actually one and a half. The one, S.W.A.T., the Sam Jackson/Colin Farrell profit-taker which managed to keep me diverted for most of its 2 hours plus. Lotsa shooting and explosions and attitude, completely predictable in every way, but all in all a passable way to kill some time if you're in need of that sort of thing. Later that evening, I caught a screening of the John Cusack film Max, about young pre-horrible dictator slash struggling artist Adolf Hitler's art dealer. I had heard about this odd film for a while, but this was my first opportunity to view it. I wish I could tell you what I thought about it, but I fell asleep before it was over, at about 2 AM. It's not that the film was dull, actually far from it- it was very interesting and well acted. But at some point I laid my head back and shut my eyes, and I was done. Hopefully, it will come on again and I can finish it. Only my twisted mind could process such disparate films in the same evening. Maybe that's why I went to sleep- my brain overloaded. Also over the weekend I was delighted to see the season two premiere of Showtime's Dead Like Me, which, despite showing a little rust in a few subtle places, was still very enjoyable. Can't wait to see where it's all going this year.

Haven't done any sports rambling for a while, either, so here goes. My White Sox are dead but just don't know it yet without Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas, out until September at the earliest. The body's still stumbling around, but it won't be long before it collapses, and the first sign was the loss to the Twins last night. My fantasy team in the money league is the same way...injuries and bad luck have completely negated my hot start and now I find myself in 5th place, 24 points out of 1st and 6 1/2 out of fourth. Stick a fork in me. Ricky Williams? Oh jeez. As with Barry Sanders, he was perfectly within his rights to walk away, but his timing couldn't have been worse. Fortunately, I'm neither a Dolphins fan (quite the contrary) or his fantasy owner, so I'm not as bent out of shape about it as some, I'm sure, are. Speaking of the NFL, my Atlanta Falcons open training camp today, oh boy oh boy. And that's the sports post of the week.

I've posted another sketch on my sketch blog, first in a series that I hope will keep me drawing more often. The plan is to do a "Comic Book Character of the Day" series, in which I shall do a daily drawing of a, that's right, you guessed it, comic book character. I take requests, so go over to the JBSB and make it known! I'm kinda toying with the notion of accepting commissions, in case there's some sucker, I mean some nice person crazy enough to commission me to draw them something...but I haven't decided what to do about that yet. I'm also trying to get a couple of spot illos done for a story written by recent burglary victim Rick Geerling of Eat More People renown. Go visit his Amazon wish list, link at his site, and buy him something, mkay?

On a personal note, nothing new on the job search front. There have been a few things pop up lately, and I've dutifully submitted resumés for each and every one, but have had no response so far. I even had the frustrating displeasure of submitting a resumé for a graphics job with Plus Mark, a Franklin, Tennessee American Greetings affiliate. That's not the bad part, obviously- here's what made it such an incredible bitch- I was contacted a few days later by someone from their HR department, and she left a message. Now, I work roughly 8 to 5, then drive 40 minutes home and stop by to record voice tracks for my radio station job. I get home about 6:30-7, of course too late to return the call and have any hope of speaking to her. I call back anyway, and leave a voice mail message telling her when I can be reached at home. She calls back a couple of days later, of course when I'm not home. Complicating things is that the Daily Snooze has a "no long distance phone calls" policy, which makes it impossible for me to call her during her office hours.. I return the call, and leave another message including my number here at the Snooz (something with which I'm VERY uncomfortable, since I have no privacy here) and even my email address, if she'd care to contact me that way. Since then, nothing. I've called several times, even borrowed a friend's cell phone and called during what should be her office hours, and left messages every time...but have never reached her in person. This went on for about 2-3 weeks, so I can safely assume that by now they've hired someone who's a bit easier to reach on the telephone. This just pisses me off no end. People, I HATE the gorram job search process.

That's all I can think of right now. Kinda slow at work today, can't you tell? Maybe more later.