This is the dark days, painted greys, only-give-a-fuck-if-we-don't-get-paid
I'm gonna have a shower, maybe a little more food, then I'm going to go to bed, but before I do I think maybe the little happiness in the last post wasn't enough and I should boost the happy count before today ends. So: Five things that are awesome. Before I start I should point out that I only know what one of these things is going to be, the rest will hopefully come to me while I type.
1. Pendleton Ward.
This guy created the animated short Adventure Time! which you've probably seen already, and if not should be shot, then forced to watch it because oh wow I could watch it again and again and it would never get less brilliant. A few days ago I discovered he's made a second short, Bravest Warriors, which is just as cool. Adventure Time is being extended into a full series for Cartoon Network and will start airing next year. I am pretty excited for this, guys.
2. Dinosaurs.
No big surprise there, I think maybe dinosaurs are kind of the epitome of awesome. They are huge lizards that existed millions of years ago. I think Retro might still be in at the moment, and if not I'm sure it'll make a comeback soon. These dudes are about as retro as you get. Also, not only did they star alongside Sam Neill and Jeff Goldlbum is a Steven Speilburg film, they're also the best thing in webcomics. Topataco just released this bad boy as the latest part of its Dinosaur Comics merch range. I want.
3. Canada.
My generation is so fractured that it can't have a cultural home like the fifties had American Diners, the sixties had Woodstock and the nineties had Biker Grove. It seems to me like Canada is fast becoming the centre of whatever subculture it is I belong to. Not so much musically for me, but you can't deny the importance of Canada in indie. I didn't get into The Arcade Fire when they first appeard on the scene. I gave them one listen and discarded them as pretentious indie crap. Apparently, what I should have done is maybe listen to more than two songs by them, or at least have picked better songs. Wake Up plays over the Where The Wild Things Are trailer, which I have heard at work every twenty minutes for the last four months and still I am happy whenever it starts playing. And on top of them you've got the whole Broken Social Scene and all its related bands plus The Clash at Demonhead, Crash & the Boys and Tegan and Sara. There's also those two Avril Lavinge songs I like.
But no, I guess it's more the canadian comic scene I'm talking about. Obviously Dinosaur Comics, which featured in the last section and A Softer World, which I talk about like all the time and have made fancomics of, but also Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, which has taught me more about Canada's history than I will ever need to know. Like, for example, did you know that Canada has history?
Forget all that, though. I am making this all up as I go along so don't expect anything new or interesting. This post is basically just me saying I like awesome things and reminding you what awesome things are in case you forgot. Like, this whole Canada section is aimed at getting you to read Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. They just sum up so wonderfully how a life wasted on music, videogames and thinking about girls might not be a life wasted at all. It gives me hope.
4. Reading
I just don't do it as much as I used to and I really really miss it. It takes me months to get through one book these days, and that's if I don't give up on it halfway through because apparently I don't have an attention span at all anymore. A week or so back I overheard a girl telling one of her friends that Breaking Dawn, the fourth book of the Twilight Saga, was the best book she has ever read. I feel that I owe it to the literary world to read something awesome pretty soon just to cancel that out. I'm thinking that since Dave Eggers did such a good job on Where The Wild Things Are and Away We Go, maybe I would try out one of his works of fiction, like You Shall Know Our Velocity. Which reminds me that I should finish A Heartbreaking Work... at some point.
What are you reading at the moment? I've just started Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, a non-fiction account of how Hollywood changed during the sixties and seventies. Not a period of cinema I am particularly interested in but still quite interesting and well written.
5.
Um. I can't think of a fifth thing that's not Dragon Age, but I've already decided that I'm a little too obsessed with that game and don't want to write about it anymore. This was, in fact, such a big decision that I've already written that paragraph you're gonna read at the end of this post about how I didn't choose Dragon Age and then write about it anyway.
5. Explosions.
Okay, another pretty obvious choice but it's an awesome classic for a reason. Everything awesome I can think of is in some way an explosion or a reflection of one. Our whole life revolves around one giant explosions that is so awesome we've invented a concept just for when we can't see it. We call it 'night' and millions of children the world over are scared of the things that lurk in it, monsters that are frightened away when the explosion reappears. Nothing else on this list would exist without explosions, and I guess in some ways they maybe represent them, like how dinosaurs are a metaphor for the raw power of destruction and reading is like watching a film slowly, but better. And explosions are better when they're in slow motion? I'm clutching at straws here I know, but still you can't deny how cool explosions are.
Also, did you notice how none of those things are Dragon Age? I am trying to control my obsession. Having completed it helps, but then I wanted to do all the origin stories and the mage one is pretty cool so now I kind of want to carry on with my mage character. At least until he gets to level 20, for the achievement, and at that point I might as well carry on and unlock an alternative ending.
Sexy shower coughing so hard it hurts time! G'night all.
Edit: Guys I forgot to mention - Pendleton Ward's first name is Pendleton. How awesome is that?
1. Pendleton Ward.
This guy created the animated short Adventure Time! which you've probably seen already, and if not should be shot, then forced to watch it because oh wow I could watch it again and again and it would never get less brilliant. A few days ago I discovered he's made a second short, Bravest Warriors, which is just as cool. Adventure Time is being extended into a full series for Cartoon Network and will start airing next year. I am pretty excited for this, guys.
2. Dinosaurs.
No big surprise there, I think maybe dinosaurs are kind of the epitome of awesome. They are huge lizards that existed millions of years ago. I think Retro might still be in at the moment, and if not I'm sure it'll make a comeback soon. These dudes are about as retro as you get. Also, not only did they star alongside Sam Neill and Jeff Goldlbum is a Steven Speilburg film, they're also the best thing in webcomics. Topataco just released this bad boy as the latest part of its Dinosaur Comics merch range. I want.
3. Canada.
My generation is so fractured that it can't have a cultural home like the fifties had American Diners, the sixties had Woodstock and the nineties had Biker Grove. It seems to me like Canada is fast becoming the centre of whatever subculture it is I belong to. Not so much musically for me, but you can't deny the importance of Canada in indie. I didn't get into The Arcade Fire when they first appeard on the scene. I gave them one listen and discarded them as pretentious indie crap. Apparently, what I should have done is maybe listen to more than two songs by them, or at least have picked better songs. Wake Up plays over the Where The Wild Things Are trailer, which I have heard at work every twenty minutes for the last four months and still I am happy whenever it starts playing. And on top of them you've got the whole Broken Social Scene and all its related bands plus The Clash at Demonhead, Crash & the Boys and Tegan and Sara. There's also those two Avril Lavinge songs I like.
But no, I guess it's more the canadian comic scene I'm talking about. Obviously Dinosaur Comics, which featured in the last section and A Softer World, which I talk about like all the time and have made fancomics of, but also Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, which has taught me more about Canada's history than I will ever need to know. Like, for example, did you know that Canada has history?
Forget all that, though. I am making this all up as I go along so don't expect anything new or interesting. This post is basically just me saying I like awesome things and reminding you what awesome things are in case you forgot. Like, this whole Canada section is aimed at getting you to read Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. They just sum up so wonderfully how a life wasted on music, videogames and thinking about girls might not be a life wasted at all. It gives me hope.
4. Reading
I just don't do it as much as I used to and I really really miss it. It takes me months to get through one book these days, and that's if I don't give up on it halfway through because apparently I don't have an attention span at all anymore. A week or so back I overheard a girl telling one of her friends that Breaking Dawn, the fourth book of the Twilight Saga, was the best book she has ever read. I feel that I owe it to the literary world to read something awesome pretty soon just to cancel that out. I'm thinking that since Dave Eggers did such a good job on Where The Wild Things Are and Away We Go, maybe I would try out one of his works of fiction, like You Shall Know Our Velocity. Which reminds me that I should finish A Heartbreaking Work... at some point.
What are you reading at the moment? I've just started Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, a non-fiction account of how Hollywood changed during the sixties and seventies. Not a period of cinema I am particularly interested in but still quite interesting and well written.
5.
Um. I can't think of a fifth thing that's not Dragon Age, but I've already decided that I'm a little too obsessed with that game and don't want to write about it anymore. This was, in fact, such a big decision that I've already written that paragraph you're gonna read at the end of this post about how I didn't choose Dragon Age and then write about it anyway.
5. Explosions.
Okay, another pretty obvious choice but it's an awesome classic for a reason. Everything awesome I can think of is in some way an explosion or a reflection of one. Our whole life revolves around one giant explosions that is so awesome we've invented a concept just for when we can't see it. We call it 'night' and millions of children the world over are scared of the things that lurk in it, monsters that are frightened away when the explosion reappears. Nothing else on this list would exist without explosions, and I guess in some ways they maybe represent them, like how dinosaurs are a metaphor for the raw power of destruction and reading is like watching a film slowly, but better. And explosions are better when they're in slow motion? I'm clutching at straws here I know, but still you can't deny how cool explosions are.
Also, did you notice how none of those things are Dragon Age? I am trying to control my obsession. Having completed it helps, but then I wanted to do all the origin stories and the mage one is pretty cool so now I kind of want to carry on with my mage character. At least until he gets to level 20, for the achievement, and at that point I might as well carry on and unlock an alternative ending.
Sexy shower coughing so hard it hurts time! G'night all.
Edit: Guys I forgot to mention - Pendleton Ward's first name is Pendleton. How awesome is that?