Dream Kings

The Ancient Evil Deity of Bad Programming described elsewhere, prevented me from attending the avant premmiere of Terry Gilliam's latest film.So, instead of what was intented to be a triple homeage, the post will be limited to two of the three Dream Kings who graced the Athens International Film Festival.
The "Mirrormask" was, first and foremost, good news for anyone involved in the comic book community.A movie adaptation of a comic book is one thing.An entirely original project bringing to a mass audience the familiar grand vision of two of the most prominent creators of the field on the other hand, speaks volumes about the extend comics are entering center stage.
Of course, both Neil Gaiman and Dave mc Kean have always been men of many talents, excelling in the areas of prose, novels, illustration, design, and many others i forget.But still...their unigue vision survived intact and translated so well on film, that it was at times difficult not to think of the film as a "3-d moving comic book", and i mean that as a complement.
Any sane movie goer will attest that nowadays "children's movies" are far more intelligent and enjoyable than movies aimed for "adults".You have to search into an emparassingly large quantity of "catwomen" to find something with even one tenth of mainstream "Little Nemo"'s entertainment value.
Multiply that by a factor of 10, and you get Hayao Miyazaki. .
The man who brought us "Spitited away", continues an astounding career with "Howl's moving castle".
All the familiar elements of traditional fairy tales are there, plus THAT extra measure of Transporting Feeling that upgrades something from "genre film" to "thrilling experience".
My deepest respect to the afforementioned gentlemen, and a premature vote of confidence to mr. Gilliam, a man who flirted with financial disaster one too many times, (watch "Lost in Mancha"for more info) but always made the leap of faith from grand heights.
And, to quote mr.Gaiman, when you fall "sometimes you wake up.Sometimes the fall kills you.

And sometimes you fly".


Hail to the Kings!

Fun.Lots of Fun.

After the first disastrous day,things gradually returned to normal,and visitors of the Babel festival enjoyed the customary goodies of ten years now:
Finely dressed comics,well drawn women,friendly beer and tasty artists:

Rain.Lots of Rain

The ancient, evil deity of Bad Luck went back to work, as he does every odd numbered year.On '99, the festival coincided with a big earthquake.On '01, the opening was on 9/11.And now a phenomenally big downpour (by no means an event of equal scale as the previous),made the opening of the festival impossible.Fun as it was to be trapped in an unlit exhibition area, we were soon forced to leave due to safety reasons (electric wires covered with water are NOT as sexy as "ms wet t-shirt '05).
To make a long story short, no pics today.

Comics.Lots of Comics

The ancient, evil deity of Bad Programming,carries out his evil plot of putting two youth friendly festivals on the same dates, for a decade now.That didn't stop either of them from being phenomenally succesful.
After a 7 day immersion in the Athens International Film Festival,(more on that on Sunday) i 'll spend the following 4 days in the equally international Comics Festival created by "Babel" magazine, in which i am participating as well.
The familiar line-up of local and international creators, fanboys,accidental tourists and old acquaintances will sure provide many opportunities for humiliating photos of said participants,for which the internet is always the ideal host.
Stay...um...(tuned? what is the cyber equivalent of that?)

10 things you really don't want your kid to end up being

1.Orphan
2.The "SlattySuzan" you met in a chat room
3.Playboy centerfold (if he is a boy)
4.Playboy centerfold (if she is a girl, you are the father, and
masturbated three times before you recognized her underneath
all that make up and photo retouch.)
5.known to the opposite sex as "pizza face"
6.The one guy who opens all the "enlarge your penis" mails
7.Being shown in the news with pixels in his face
8.Reality show host
9.Totally unlike you
10.exactly like you

scientific observations that really matter

"I 'd like to have an argument, please!"

The following text belongs to an individual signing as "easier_rhino" in a splendid cartoon forum which i would link you to if i wasn't a selfish bastard who wants to keep all good things to himself.
It's a text i wish i had the wit and patience to write, so i 'm gonna pull some strings so that it can replace the ten commandments in every school, court,public place, Charlton Heston's house and anywhere else they still value the ten commandments:

OPEN NOTE TO PEOPLE WITH OPINIONS:

Why exactly do you think that it's a good idea to call people names? Or insult people, at least in ways which have little or nothing to do with the topic of your argument?

Schoolyard taunts don't really make your point any more well reasoned, or stronger, or more persuasive, or even more intelligent. And unless they're really really really really really really good ones, they don't make it funny either. The only thing that insulting people does is cause your opponent(s) to foam at the mouth and insult you, plus anyone who's undecided to think "Gosh, this is juvenile."

I speak to all, liberal and conservative. Calling Bush "Monkeyboy" or Ted Kennedy "Drunk" might seem amusing, you have to be preaching to the choir for anyone to laugh. If your only purpose is to say something insulting and you're older than about 13, you should really examine your life closely. If you don't have a cogent argument and just want to smear someone, it's usually bleedingly apparent from reading what you write.

Same goes for rehashing old feuds. The fact that George Bush served in the Air National Guard has very little to do with his economic policy. It might say something about his character, but if you want to debate that, debate it. The fact that Bill Clinton did not serve in the military has very little to do with his feelings on education and wellfare. Again, not necessarily nothing, just very little. There are more effective arguments against Iraq than to mention that George Bush was a poor student at Yale. There are better ways to counter these arguments than to point out that John Kerry and John Edwards are obviously homosexual. Do we judge George Washington's legacy by the fact that he never once denied smoking marijuana?

Like Monty Python once said, an argument isn't the automatic naysaying of every point your opposition makes. Ah, it makes me think back to Socrates, and his famous speech to the court: "Nuh-huh, stupid Sparta-lover!"

Believe me, I can appreciate a well-formed insult. It should be original, of course, appropriately vitriolic, perhaps even a little brutal. But the point is that it's not much of a logical argument.

Vis:
"I think we should get out of Iraq because Georgie Porgie can't tie his shoes, so how can he expect to be commander in chief. He's too busy on his ranch cutting brush."

Hey, I might agree (you'll never catch me saying one way or the other, though) but it's still not much of an argument, and it's not much of an insult either. If, on the other hand, one simply wants to be insulting...

Vis:
"George "Dubya is the only thing I know how to spell" Bush is a two-timing, capitalist-worshipping, fascist-thinking, flag-waving, drug-intake-denying, crony-supplying, right-wing, no-brain, terrorism-ignoring, gun-toting, WMD-imagining goombah without the basic human decency to save a drowning child if no one was looking, and he smells bad too."

Now that's not an argument (and I neither affirm nor deny the sentiments involved). That's an insult. Op-Ed, rather than Socrates, so to speak. I respect that (in fact, I own a book called "The 776 Nastiest Things Ever Said" which is full of them).

With regard to cartoons, I love them all and want to bear their children (as soon as technology allows, of course), and my comments above were solely directed at those argumentative souls who wish to convince us their points are valid by means of sophomoric insults rather than actually making those points.

As a final note, I acknowledge that there is such a thing as satire, which can be both insulting and argue a point. Many of my favorite cartoons fall into this category. But there's a difference between Oscar Wilde and calling Ted Kennedy a drunk or spelling George Bush with a dollar sign.

That is all. Tonight's dinner will be creamed chip beef on toast.

Easier Rhino

PS: Please don't write replies to this post saying "yeah rite on man i think bu$h is a nazi we should get out of iraq u r so rite." Or the other way round. Life is too short."

Are you KIDding?

(This one is for fellow greek blogger "pitsirikos" (the greek name for "kid"),whose succesful satire blog brought him the generous reward this great country customary offers to anyone who rises above the average: envious name calling.)

Τhe W.C. test

'tween Towers

Click on thumbnail to enrage:


These cartoons are already four years old.Four years-almost half a decade-is a long time.Long enough to start and end a world war.Can anyone, whatever his beliefs,honestly point out the merest progress towards whatever each side is supposed to be fighting for?

Fcukc yoo, Omasa

Back when i took my first steps in the "information highway" (which, incidentally, was back when it was called exactly that), i found all my worrisome misconceptions of this devil's invention instantly confirmed: all those "enlarge your penis" and viagra e-mails surely meant some sort of spy-cam peeked at my very personal life,unfortunately one of those (very few, no matter what you 'll hear from my ex) "it's the first time that happens to me, hon, i swear" nights, fed the facts to those fiendish ad organisations, and they are luring me to the world of "improving my manhood".
Than i (thought) i wizened up: increased sophistication to the ways of the web only led to more sophisticated misconceptions: when the "shy sluts getting fucked hard" started giving way to things like "Shy Sluts gtteting fucekkd hard" i thought that what was happening was spammers were deliberately misspelled words to get past spam filters.Far from it.
I finally put 2+2 together.
It's another evil plot by "the Terrorists", those elusive dark skinned bastards set to destroy Our Ways, jealous as they are of everything that makes the West proud of drowning our people in more technologically advanced waters (did those thirld world Indonesians have toxic thingies in their Tsunami? of course not!)
This evil plot is aimed against our proud english language.The elaborate plan is to make you mentally connect sexual pleasure with bad english.The grammar will become progressively worse, until, without realising, you 'll end up getting sexually aroused reading extensive passages from the Koran.Then you ''ll have become one of Them.
Nice try, Osama, but you know what? Your poorly conceived plan is doomed,mothufacka*,'cause you left out one small but significant detail:
You never did solve the problem of my erection.




*(see? it;s getting to me already).

Peace restored

I know who killed Kennedy.

Don't you? Everybody and his uncle has a conspiracy theory these days-it's like a car:It creates more problems than it solves, but without it you are a social outcast.
As Dan Brown found out when he went to get his royalties checque,Conspiracy is the new deity.It replaced the old one, New Ageism which replaced the old one, Communism, which replaced the old one,Jesus.Each new religion, as is historically evident, doesn't totally wipe out the old one.It rather prefers using its symbols and customs repurposed, adding insult to injury.Thus it is ok to be a devoted Christian who draws parallels between Christianity and Marxism,taking a sneek peek in today's horoscope while discussing how "the jews were tipped not to go to work that 9/11" in your feng-shui arranged house.
You want further proof? Ever broke down the word? Con-spir-ac-y.
"Con" is an abbreviation for "Communism". "Spir" is of course referring to the "Spirit" of New Age. "ac" is the initials of "Allmighty Christ", and in the end we got the "y" as in "Y are the shadows all wrong in the "moon landing" photos?"
There, you see? I 've created a new conspiracy theory.That's why this new religion kicks ass.Because it delivered the promise of the common individual's participation like no one did before.
So, throw me whatever you got. Show me how we never set foot on the moon, and with the same convincing tone enlighten me on how we not only went to the moon, but what we found there is kept top secret.
Show me everything. I want more.! want in!I don't want to become a social outcast-i want to belong.

I want to believe.

dixie dried

The after-math of a disaster

Of course not you, i meant the others!

(click on image to enlarge.Click ctrl+alt+dlt to get a life)

"I' d rather "china syndrome" than "kyoto protocol", thankyouverymuch