Well Done, Mr. Toles
Tom Toles gets one last lick in on Rudy Giuliani, the only presidential candidate to use actual 9/11 footage in his campaign videos.
Archive for cartoon
Back from the past: Strip Creator
I posted a link to this site a few years ago and forgot about it until now. It’s Strip Creator, a web site that allows the creative and artistically untalented to create their own comics. This one is mine:
This one isn’t mine, but it’s funny.
How I Almost Killed Pancake City
Subtitle: Finally, it’s finished.
I love my family. They are my biggest support network and constantly share their kindness with me. I wonder who reads my web page, but I know my family does. When I ran a contest a few weeks ago, Tina was the first to fulfill the stringent requirements (post a comment) and “won” a cartoon based on a word or phrase of her choice.
Her choice was “space monkey balls,” which I later learned was her variation of my Flickr account name. Time passed. She bugged me about my progress. “Still in the conceptual phase, Tina. I’ll have it done soon. Probably tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest.”
More time passed. I had some difficultly moving past the conceptual phase, i.e. a sheet of paper separated in uneven quadrants. Tina kept bugging me. Finally, to motivate myself and to show my sister how important it was for me to make a cartoon for her, contrary to my lack of action, I said: “I tell you what. I won’t make another post until I finish your cartoon.”
Dumb idea. The overall dumbness of the idea is that if I had the skills to make workable self-motivation plans, I wouldn’t have needed to make that promise in the first place.
The specific dumbness of the idea is that I, an incredibly lazy person, said, nay, promised, laid my integrity on the line, that come Satan’s dominion or a great flood, I just wasn’t going to do the ordinary work I avoid doing until I do the extra work that I’m really trying to avoid doing.
That happened two, three weeks ago? I could check, but again, re: laziness. What finally motivated me is Tina driving four hours to here to celebrate her birthday this weekend. The threat of a face-to-face meeting was a shameful enough thought to spur me to get the cartoon done.
Also, and I wish I was making this up, I kind of don’t have her Christmas gift done yet, and I am hoping this appeases her for a few days.
Ridiculous Moments in Censorship
Evidentially, the President has a potty mouth.
A few newspapers are pulling this Doonesbury strip for using the word “turd blossom.” Which is the President’s own nickname for his top adviser, Karl Rove.
A few other newspapers are editing the strip. Editing it to what, “poop lily”? If I were Gary Trudeau, I would have started with “shit bouquet” and offer turd blossom as a compromise.
(link to the news article)
"Hope There’s Someone" or Why I Subscribe to Salon.com
I have a subscription to Salon.com for two reasons.
One, to read Tom the Dancing Bug a day earlier than the peons who buy The Washington Post.
Two, because someone there has really good taste in music. You may have to watch a short ad to download this song,”Hope There’s Someone” by Antony and the Johnsons, but it’s worth the time. It’s a stirring song that holds up to repeated listenings.
And if you’re looking for a good indie rock radio station, give the IndiePop channel at Somafm.com a try. It’s my favorite station on the web.
Super Unleaded Comedy Fuel
Say what you want about the Bush administration, but give them credit where credit is due: providing the best fodder for comics and cartoonists than any administration in decades.
And for D.C. residents: this.
Cat and Girl
My modus operandi for posting links is to bookmark them, wait a few days until I forget where I found the original link, and then present it as my own discovery.
Like Cat and Girl! The quality from comic to comic is uneven, but she draws from a greater bank of material than most comic creators choose to, and the result is that even when the gags aren’t as sharp as they could be, the strip retains an infectious weirdness about it that make it fresh and interesting to read.
Hodgepodge
* This Tuesday, George Carlin is appearing at the Arlington Olsson’s. Tickets are being passed out at 8:00 a.m.
* This Thursday, David Rees, creator of “Great Your War On” will be signing his new book. Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. 202-364-1919.
* Berkeley Breathed’s Opus has been on a roll these past few weeks. Another funny one today.
* Gary Busey meets George Bush (link from Metafilter). Well done.
* Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire. It’s the angriest and most frustrated that I have ever seen him. It’s sad, because he’s still under the impression that CNN is a news channel, and he sees the show as a symbol of everything that is wrong with the news media. From the questions Carlson and Begalia ask him, it’s obvious that they somehow miss the point of The Daily Show. The heart of his show isn’t a satire on politicians. It’s a satire on the media.
* I was having dinner last night with a group of gay friends. Kerry’s mention of Mary Cheney’s sexuality during the debates came up. We joked at how absolutely offended we were that a person would dare mention that an out lesbian was…a lesbian! And on the TeeVee, of all places! This blog quotes a writer for Salon who wrote a commentary on the issue that I would have made if I didn’t write like monkey shit.
* This is for the certain person who pointed out multiple times that I should have the links open in a new window. 1) You are absolutely right. 2) I AM LAZY! All of your descriptions of how to do this involve work on my part. This is a deal breaker.
* Update: Ralph just showed me a simple way to have links open in a new window. It’s not robot-easy, but it may just be easy enough.
