We're Going To LA!

Donna · 13 Oct 08 :: 20:47

Sisterdebmac wrote:

Too bad Miss Donna hasn't been around in a while. You guys could've hooked up for a movie or dinner or something.

Damn it!!! My computer has been dead, I would have loved to hook up. Anytime anyone is in town, send me an email and we can meet. So glad to be back!!!!! Missed you all, so much happenned it is going to take me foever to catch up.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:07

Hey Donna, sorry to hear about the computer. It's great to see you back.

domesticelefant · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:16

Well done, Tina!

Donna · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:24

Glad to be back...sounds like you guys had an awesome time! I am freaking out reading and listening to it. I have that bubbly freak out feeling in my stomach for you guys. SO exciting, and I am so jealous, but so happy for you guys.

TeeJay · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:33

I'm still working on the audio interview. It's taking a LONG time to make it sound good. I think it's gonna be weeks until we can post the whole of it.

And, yeah, we sure had an awesome time with a capital A. I'm not exaggerrating!

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:40

I would help you but it takes ages to load the interwiev in Audacity. Sorry.

TeeJay · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:49

It's okay, it's kinda complicated to edit it too. It would take forever to explain how to edit it to someone who's never done sound editing, especially when I don't know the software you're working with. I barely know the software I work with...

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 13 Oct 08 :: 21:52

Yeah, but I'm trying to work with it. Well, I guess I'll help next time then.

BiggestChrisMarquetteFan · 14 Oct 08 :: 05:37

Glad to see you back online again, Donna. : )

CappuGirl · 14 Oct 08 :: 07:37

Wow, I just read that story. It was long but it was so capturing I just had to read it all at once. You girls most have felt like you were on cloud number nine!

TeeJay · 14 Oct 08 :: 09:18

Oh yes, we were really amazed by it all. But it just all went by so fast, mostly we didn't even have time to be nervous or anything. I think the only time we were really nervous about meeting any of these guys was before we met Chris, and only because we had to wait in our apartment for about an hour for him to turn up. That day we had time to be nervous. And we felt kinda stupid about it too. Of course there was no reason for it, Chris is so easy and natural to be around. Oh well...

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 14 Oct 08 :: 15:49

I was nervous before meeting Becky too, for some reason. But it went away as soon as she approached us in the foyer. She's very sweet and open. Not even the tiniest bit intimidating. In other words, NOT Grace. It's not that I was expecting to meet Grace, I just really didn't know what to expect.

domesticelefant · 14 Oct 08 :: 17:31

I think I was nervous with quite everybody. LOL But, well. My English is not as great as Tina's, so I always had to think about what to say and when I was ready it was too late already. I'll try better next time.
BUT I sat next to Michael Welch in the car, that was cool!

CappuGirl · 15 Oct 08 :: 07:15

TeeJay wrote:

I don't like giving people the direct link that much because it just looks so weird, all squished to the left. But I guess it doesn't matter as long as people can read it. Sure, I'll post something on the front page too.
-TeeJay

I liked the linked version better. I like to enlarge the text when I'm reading something very long. It won't hurt the eyes so much. On that linked version the enlarged version looked better.

TeeJay · 15 Oct 08 :: 09:22

You know, maybe I should make a second version that looks good when you link it directly... I'll get on that tonight.

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 15 Oct 08 :: 18:17

My trophies, I hung them yesterday. There is the autographs we got during our trip along with the ones Tina and Deb brought me in 2006 and 2007. Maybe not perfect, but I still like it.

TeeJay · 15 Oct 08 :: 19:28

Looks fantastic! Now that I see it, I actually think I'm missing my blue Amber/Chris pic. I can't recall seeing it when sifting through my autographs. Did any of you guys take it home with you by accident?

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 15 Oct 08 :: 19:52

It wasn't me. I put everything of my stuff in the envelope I got from Jill to make sure that it would not get mixed up with your stuff. I hope you'll find your Chris/Amber autograph, I'm so happy with mine!

BiggestChrisMarquetteFan · 16 Oct 08 :: 04:44

I really like your autographs, Anne. : )

CappuGirl · 16 Oct 08 :: 06:07

BiggestChrisMarquetteFan wrote:

I really like your autographs, Anne. : )

Yeah, loooks good.

TeeJay · 16 Oct 08 :: 08:50

Turns out Deb has my Amber/Chris autograph. Glad it didn't get lost.

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 16 Oct 08 :: 17:01

CappuGirlFin wrote:

BiggestChrisMarquetteFan wrote:
I really like your autographs, Anne. : )
Yeah, loooks good.

Thanks! I like them too! I also asked him to sign my TTC DVD but I didn't hang that of course.

Tina, that's good to her that your autograph showed up.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 22 Oct 08 :: 16:01

The book by Jonathan Ames, The Alcoholic, has been turned into a Vertigo graphic novel. And AICN reviewed it...

THE ALCOHOLIC OGN
Writer: Jonathan Ames
Artist: Dean Haspiel
Publisher: Vertigo/DC Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
As an avid reader of all things Vertigo, I've tried to do my damndest to keep up on their periodical releases of Original Graphic Novels (OGNs) that have been streaming out from them for the past several years. Just like with the monthly series the imprint produces, it's rare that I find any of these to not be worth the time and money investment. Sure, most of these tend to fall in the "middling" area, becoming the kind of read that was nice for an enjoyable afternoon walk through and that you put back up on the shelf possibly to revisit in a few years at a slow time - your CAIRO's or SILVERFISH's and SLOTH's and so on - but still worth the effort all the same, especially when you occasionally get something classic like PRIDE OF BAGHDAD or IT'S A BIRD out of the pack to really show you how these can pay off if you're willing to give them a try.
Well, THE ALCOHOLIC here is a might bit better than middling, though it's definitely not a PRIDE OF BAGHDAD. At the end of the day, it's just another great installment of this line of OGNs that has rarely disappointed me.
THE ALCOHOLIC is a story about a man so real he has to be fake, Jonathan A., who is, as they say, "a real piece of work." A writer by nature and desire, Jonathan A. is as confused as they come - sexually, commitmentwise, socially - which makes him a walking disaster of a man as he tries to deal with all his conflicts and awkwardness, let alone the titular addiction that plagues him throughout his life as well. What really makes this book work while it plays out, through the words of the Jonathan A. in front of us, is how dreadfully upfront he is in describing his life and inadequacies to us. The brutal honesty of his life and the situations he's found himself in because of his somewhat destructive and gullible nature make everything so horrifyingly hilarious until you sit back and think about how, well, how fucked up these events kind of are. Watching as Jonathan goes from sexual confusion and inadequacy as an adolescent, combined with his reliance on substances to confront those and the world around him and seeing how it all culminates in a man still trying to find himself as he nears middle age really does makes THE ALCOHOLIC a fantastic exercise in demonstrating human weakness and drama at its finest.
All that said, though, there were a couple points of this work that I thought were a little off. One is that I think parts of this book, and Jonathan's life experiences that show up, may have been a little too much. We already have possible homoerotic tendencies, alcoholism, adequacy issues, drug use, abandonment issues due to his parent's deaths, and on and on and on...and then there's a problem with flatulence at one point due to his tension. Really? After all that, all the deep issues, we basically work our way down to bowel problems from it all to go with it? Sure, it leads to some funny bits, as something like that usually tends to do, but with everything already piled up as is I really don't see the need to go towards material like that. Also, it seemed to me like some of the spoken dialogue was more an afterthought than anything, that the word balloons in some of these conversations were more there just to get through a couple seconds of a scene than to really drive any of it. More a nitpick than anything of course, but given how word heavy this book is from the captions already, it just seems futile to fill it with some verbal minutia. I wasn't exactly thrilled with some of the real life events pushed into the story as well, but I mean more the Monica Lewinsky appearance than anything. Ames' use of the 9/11 attacks was a very poignant one, of course, and he did well to have his own Jonathan A. take stock of his life and that around him, but the Lewinsky spot seemed more there for an anecdotal sex joke than for any real point. Again, all little nitpicks, but these are few things that took me out of an otherwise captivating personal tale.
Getting back to the positives of THE ALCOHOLIC, I have to sing high praise of Dean Haspiel's pencil work. I've always been a fan of his, mostly from exposure to his corroborations on Harvey Pekar's comics, but his style of cartooning is a perfect match for a work like this. Doing what a cartoonist does best, everything is rendered down to the perfect point of "detailed simplicity". Just the right number of lines are put into each of the scenes to pull of the mood in the setting, or the emotion on all the characters faces, or the right shading for atmosphere (with big ups to Lee Loughridge for dropping the grays); just the right amount of everything is put into each panel for them to be at their most effective and then move on. Add in a little creativity with the panel work to stop them from looking a little too standard with a little overlapping here and a dab of juxtaposition over here - just enough to give the eyes a curve ball to look at but nothing overly liberal to completely distract- then you have yourselves pitch-perfect art to go with the story being told, an event that always makes an already good read even better.
Just like its lead, THE ALCOHOLIC isn't perfect by any means, but it'll draw you in just the same. Jonathan Ames has made Jonathan A.'s life such a train wreck of emotion you can't help but feel sorry for him and pity him while at the same time chuckling at the kind of foolhardy situations he finds himself in because of his transgressions. THE ALCOHOLIC will show you just how dark things can get and just how quickly they'll come to drown out the light if you let them, all while making you HAHA! at the absurdity of it all. This is life at its most unhinged, and it's at least worth that afternoon to watch unfold, for better or worse, for your viewing pleasure. Pop the top and enjoy.
Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, and a Blogger Account where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.

TeeJay · 22 Oct 08 :: 18:06

That's cool, but am I missing a connection? What does that have to do with our LA trip?

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 22 Oct 08 :: 18:47

We saw Jonathan at Litquake. He was my favorite storyteller after Amber.

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