The Lost Week

I've spent the last week glued to the television. Not too unusual, but I just couldn't take my eyes off the coverage of hurricane Katrina, and the events afterwards.

I used to live in Gulfport AND Biloxi, MS and I still have several friends on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans. So, as I watched all this horror unfold, I was more worried about specific people's well-being. There was a lot of guesswork, trying to think if "so and so" would have left town, or stayed...and wondering who's house was still standing, and who was recently made homeless.

A week later, I've gotten in touch with all of my close friends and have gotten up to speed on a majority of their prediciments. Here's their stories:

Jeni.
Jeni was the first to contact me after the storm, via email. She lived in Gulfport, about five blocks from Highway 90, the interstate that runs along the Gulf of Mexico. Her dad lives in Little Rock, AR, so she and her two roomates were safe there. She later found out that her house and car both survived the storm. Her car-port did not. A few trees crushed it. Her two roomates went down to the coast last weekend to survey the damage, and while there, their neighbor-who was running a generator to supply power to his elderly father's oxygen-was beaten and robbed, and the generator was stolen. So, Gulfport doesn't seem safe to go back to yet.

David.
David lived in New Orleans, and was able to evacuate to Shreeveport, LA with his wife and two young girls,where his wife has family. Even though he thinks his house made it (it wasn't in the "bowl" that remains flooded to this day), he is already thinking of looking for work in Shreeveport and not looking back.

Sean.
Sean lived with his folks in Biloxi, and their house was demolished. They had made it out okay, and I THINK are in northern AL somewhere. His folks had the house paid off, had homeowners and flood insurance, so they should be okay. But all of their stuff is gone. Neighbors have reported to them that they found some of Sean's Dad's model train and baseball card collections in the rubble. He had an entire room full of that stuff.

John and Ted.
Two friends in New Orleans. I don't know much about their situation, other than they made it out, before the storm.

Pat and Kat.
A married couple, with a baby due any day now. All I've heard is that they're ok. No idea if their house made it or not, but they were pretty far inland...

Charley and Diana.
Another couple...all I've heard is that they survived.

Carter.
My old boss. He stayed in his apartment, about five blocks from the beach. The buildings around his got wiped out, but his apartment stood. Lucky guy. The story is Carter was hiding in a closet during the Category 5 storm with one hand on the doorknob, holding it shut, and the other clasp around a bottle of Scotch.

Anway, glad they all made it. I've heard that my old company might just shut down Coastal operations, and that would put a lot of these guys out of work...but there would be no better time than now to start over.

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DVDs

I've watched a bunch lately, but here are a few of note.

Constantine.
I hadn't read a bit of the Hellblazer comic it's based on, but thought the movie was pretty good. While I won't be adding it to my DVD library any time soon, I would recommend it as a decent watch.

Sin City.
Antoher comic book movie from a comic I'd never read. I was familiar with the "idea" of the comic going into it. I thought it was super. Really good. Hyper-stylized, and ultra-violent, but all serving the genre and characters. I want more, and I think I'll be rewarded with more, because I believe they've already begun production on a sequel.


Little Britain: Series 1
An awesome character-driven sketch comedy show, starring two guys as everyone. The 8 episodes are presented as a sociologial documentary on the people of Britain and we visit and revisit the same characters over and over. Most characters have one "joke" about them, but somehow remain funny though the entirety of the series. I think watching them a week at a time would keep everything more fresh than watching the entire thing in one sitting. I would look forward to a second series, but would hope that new characters and new "quirks" would be created.

This seems like the case, as in the final episode, most of the characters were undone in one way or the other.

If you're a fan of British humor, hypnotists, gays, transvestites and monster trucks, I give Little Britain a very high recommendation for ya.

Without A Paddle

Not funny.

Too Bloggy

I've been informed (in the real world) that this blog has become too bloggy.

I just decided I should utilize it, since I haven't been watching any DVDs lately, on account of me being busy with freelance work.

Saw The Nein tonight. A great band from North Carolina with Dale Flattum (formerly of Steel Pole Bathtub...and also a poster-maker) and Casey Burns (another illustrator/poster-maker). They were fantastic. I'm currenlty skipping the after-party. I'm afraid I'll have trouble rolling out of bed tomorrow as is, and don't need extra party-time tagged onto my night.

So lame.

Anyway, that's it for today. (Is that a 'bloggy' enough way to end this?)

The Drag of Life

One of my hopes, in moving from Mississippi to Minneapolis, was that there would be a larger (or existant...even) artistic community that I could be part of and do fun shit with, etc... The artistic community in Biloxi, aside from the graphic artists, consisted on painters, illustrators and photographers who all depicted scenes of the Gulf. Shrimp boats, seagulls, beach-front mansions, old barq's rootbeer signs...

Well, that hope became a reality. Within months of living in Elk River, a far northwestern suburb of Minneapolis, I had aligned myself with a collective of poster artists, signed on to share a studio space with three other artists, and befriended a great guy that was all hooked up with the local cartoonist/comic book regime. I was screenprinting out my ass and drawing comics. All the things I wished I could have done in Mississippi...but never had the drive or supportive community (ie: friends).

Anyway, well this is all well and good, now a year later I can barely find the time to sit and relax for a night. Well that might be hard to believe seeing as how I think I've gained weight since we moved here, it's true. I'm bombarded with poster gigs, big time freelance jobs, comic opportunities, etc...

I can't keep up with the demand of this stuff, and at times just want to stop it all, sit on the couch and watch a stack of DVDs.

But then I need to remind myself: I'm doing things I love. I'm doing SOMETHING. Something constructive. And if no money or recognition ever comes from any of it...at least I did it, and didn't waste my life always WANTING to do something I liked.

Now I should go to bed.

Lull

I've found it difficult lately to get going. To do projects. Freelance work. I'm constantly fighting a pile of "cool" freelance work, but am less and less inspired to get to work on stuff when I get home from eight hours of a day job. I'm not sure what's going on, but I hope I snap out of it soon.

Been real busy lately. Too busy to watch many movies. Did get to see The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Not Terry Gilliam's best work, but it wasn't a stinker either. I'll take Time Bandits or 12 Monkeys over it any day.

Jaime came home early today to meet Big John. He fixes appliances, and that's wonderful because our washing machine was broken. He repaired that, and showed Jaime what was wrong with our air conditioner. She had that all fixed by the time I got home. Whole schmear was $130, and we don't have to go to the 'washateria' any more.

Hot. Tired. Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe I'll do some work then.

REVENGE OF THE SITH

Wow.

It completely blew me away.

Going in I assumed it was going to be the best of the new Star Wars movies. I had high hopes. I was pretty sure the majority of it would kick ass, but I was not prepared for it to get to me as much as it did.

Being a life-long fan of the saga, only now do I realize how much emotional attachment I have with these films. A lot. From start to stop of Sith, I was hooked. I was involved.

Sure, it wasn't perfect. Some things seemed rushed. Some scenes were cheesy. Some dialogue was just plain bad. But the faults to triumps ratio was heavily in favor of the movie's triumphs. I would love to see some of the subplots expanded upon, and hope that the dvd release might include some of the "cut for time" scenes.

Phantom Menace was 20 years of hype come to an end. Attack of the Clones was "going-through-the-motions" filler...but Sith delivers. It bridges the trilogies, and shows you in a very no-nonsense way, the decent of Anakin.

I'm going again Saturday, and I can hardly wait to see it again.

Skip Day

Today's a skip day.

I'm skipping work to take in a Revenge of the Sith matinee. You can't stop me.

I started my skip day by sending out an invoice, a pdf, and enjoying an un-toasted pop-tart with a tall glass of milk. I don't want to fill up on anything, and have to miss part of the movie. I'm giddy with anticipation. I already have more tickets to see it again this weekend with my 10 year old nephew.

I've taken him to all the new Star Wars movies so far, so this should be great.

Netflix...I haven't watched much lately. Saw Super Size Me. That was pretty good, and has definately made me think about the health issues related to fast food in a way I hadn't before. Also saw Bad Santa. Very funny stuff. Saw M. Night Shalala's Signs...and with one dumb plot hole, it was very enjoyable.

And finally, in anticipation for TEAM AMERICA coming out on dvd (wich I know have), I rented BASEketball. Good, but not great like South Park and Orgazmo.

Ok. Need to get ready to see the final installment of the Star Wars saga.

Lazy Me

I should blog while at work. I write a lot there...to pass the time. I've been writing a story a day to Jaime. Today's was about how I would drop-kick a housewife if she tried to steal my cat litter.

Anyway, I've got two reviews I need to write, but just haven't done it yet. Plus, I'm gonna be pretty busy in the next few weeks, and may not even have time to watch a movie. Oh well...