Yet Another SNL OC Parody

Memes and video? I'm game, even though I've never seen the show in question. This is all inspired by Faber Fabe's post here, so start there if you don't get it. Then Jason did this amazing one, and Lauren did a cute one. Jennings pissed on the parade, but what the hey, Nick and Jason both urged me to do one, so I trudge ever forward. And I did three.

1. Cockaroach
2. Mickey
3. Hunting

Suicide Food

This is the latest blog I've added to my RSS feed through Google Reader. I think this is fabulous.

I've got a great picture I took in college of an Ekleberry's Chicken delivery truck, which has a chicken in a chef's hat with a cleaver in one hand and under his other wing, a book entitled "Chicken Cookbook". Hilarious.

ISIDTA 22 : Tod of War

ISIDTA 22 : Tod of War
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Kit and I decided to do one-panels referencing our favourite videogame of the moment. He did an amazing job, particularly with the logo to Guitar Hero II. I tried to do a preppy Kratos from God of War. My drawing ability is still that of a child.

My picture is here.
Kit's is here.

Soundtrack Meme

As inspired by BeaucoupKevin.com, a blog I read regularly.

You know the deal, standard "hit random play on iTunes and see what songs come up." This one is the soundtrack for your life, and being both a fan of soundtracks and the possessor of an 18,000+ item iTunes library, I thought it might be fun. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Opening Credits:
"Maid Of Constant Sorrow" by Margaret Lyle Gravitt. A slow dirge-like fiddle version of "Man Of Constant Sorrow". Well that's a depressing start.

Waking Up:
"Father's Got His Glasses On" by Cab Calloway. Well, I do have to put my glasses on before leaving the house.

First Day At School:
"Don't Go" by Bypass Unit. Probably good advice. School was traumatic.

Falling In Love:
"Creature Feature" by Stone 588. A song from a horror movie soundtrack. Very slow and mournful. Probably fairly accurate, considering my love history. The funny thing is, I picked the picture for this post by just looking up "soundtrack" on Google; I thought it might be too morose, but it seems to be quite an appropriate picture so far.

Fight Song:
"Cry Cry Cry" by The Staggers (cover of a Johnny Cash song.) I've never gotten into a fight, but I probably would cry if I ever did.

Breaking Up:
"I Can Dream, Can't I?" by The Andrews Sisters. I still have wistful nightmares about my breakup with my One True Love. Miss you still, Leesa.

Prom:
"Just Cut That Out!" a soundclip from Are You Being Served?, spoken by Miss Brahms. I did cut prom out; never went. (Big surprise, huh?)

Life:
"The Show Must Go On" by Luther Wright and the Wrongs (cover of the Pink Floyd song from The Wall.) Unfortunately, so true.

Mental Breakdown:
"I'm Gonna Follow You" by Pat Benatar. Hilarious.

Driving:
"Theme to American Bandstand" Whaaa?

Flashback:
"Uncle Disney" by Patterson Hood. Weird. I was never a big Disney fan, so I don't really have much to flash back to, just the old Robin Hood movie starring a fox and Phil Harris.

Getting Back Together:
"New York, New York" by Francis Albert Sinatra. Does this mean I should move?

Wedding:
"Theme to Electrawoman and Dynagirl". I'd marry Dynagirl. And I have as much of a chance marrying a fictional character as I do a real live breathing human being.

Birth of Child:
"I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue" episode from 28-11-05. Yeah, I have no clue why this meme thinks I'll ever have a child.

Final Battle:
"With A Little Help From My Friends" by The Beatles. God knows I won't ever make it on my own.

Death Scene:
"I'll Tell Me Ma" by The Chieftains with Brak. I hope I don't die before my mother. (See "Life" above.)

Funeral Song:
"Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" Hilarious.

End Credits:
"Fire And Rain" by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes (cover of James Taylor). Oh god, probably the most accurate song choice in this whole experiment. A fast-and-heavy punk version of a classic folksy song by a Chapel Hill hippie. Absolutely perfect. I am dichotomy.

That's the end of the meme, but just for good measure, the next song that came up was "Dr. No's Fantasy" from the Dr. No soundtrack. There's something appropriate in that for something.

Night, kids.

CageMatch 4-12-07

What a week! Very busy making videos, very little sleep. I had a play to do on Wednesday that took a lot more work than I had bargained for, and then CageMatch last night. The play went pretty well, with a few technical glitches since we never had a tech rehearsal. I made eight videos for that little production. Yow.

Then last night we had CageMatch. This was Scott's last show, so he had an idea of how he wanted to go out. It was up to me to make it happen. Go check out the video here, and then we'll discuss.

So obviously, Scott's idea was to kill Biff off the same way Poochie was killed off in The Simpsons. I couldn't find the English language version to study, only this one. Anyway, Scott and I went back to Biff's home away from home, University Massage, and did the pretape. Later on, we got Bill Henderson as CageMatch President Jack Tunney to dub in the voiceover for the freezeframe. I tried to make the video itself a shot-for-shot remake of the original Poochie video, and it was a bear. I drew the tv frame in Illustrator, built the animation pegholes from a screengrab of the original, and carefully formed the word "Biff" from existing letters in the handwritten message at the end (which is a screengrab of the actual message used in Poochie.)

I then produced a tribute video for the fallen Biff Hobgood, which you can view here. The best part about this was that I found a song on iTunes called "It Was Close" (Biff's catchphrase is "it wasn't close!") I bought the song, but then found out they only say "it was close" once in the song, so I had to remix it to get two instances for Biff to respond to. I used a lot of footage we had shot for the Biff entrance video, but never used. I really liked the slow transitions between the stills from the Biff Hobgood entrance video, which everybody was familiar with but which had a much different feel with the slow fades here. I was particularly happy with the look of the slow-motion "shocker" at the end. I was worried that it might be too poignant though, so I threw in the "shut up" to end the whole thing.

Now it's all over and I'm ready to sleep.

Oh, and the screens for this show can be found, as always, here.

ISIDTA 21 - Alphabet

ISIDTA 21 - Alphabet
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday; it's been quite a busy week. One video project is over, and I'm trying to sneak in time at work today to finish the second video project (which has THREE videos) to get ready for tonight's show. Cross your fingers.

Anyway, here we have this week's art experiment. It's based on something I found on Flickr, but don't have the time to find the link to right now; a guy drew an entire alphabet in an hour, one image for each letter. So Kit and I tried that this week, although we went over the hour. I really tried to rush through this thing, so my stuff sucks as usual. And I was really tired and strung out, so somehow I drew two "Y"s and no "X". Ah well. See if you can identify all the items.

My thing here.
Kit's stuff here.

Wrestling Art!

How cool is this? I had read about this guy Len that was drawing custom monsters, and went and checked out his website. He takes a one-word request, and draws a monster inspired by that. He then mails you the art AND puts up a video on YouTube showing your drawing being made! I'm always wanting wrestling art, so I bought a monster and gave the suggestion "luchador". Click here to see a time-lapse video of my requested drawing being made. The final image can be seen here. I also really like this one. I love Len's style, and it's fun and inspirational to see the drawing actually being created. And what a good idea to make a little cash! Anyway, I was ecstatic with the way my drawing turned out, and am looking forward to receiving it soon.

BTW, my ISIDTA entry will be up later tonight. Kit and I drew stuff last night, but I won't have time to scan it until after I finish at the theater tonight.

Nazibot

This is a pretty amazing little thirteen-minute cgi film from Marco Spitoni at Cee-Gee Net. The plot is described thusly: "An epic battle as WWII Nazi Germany unleashes a 100 foot tall robot on the US." Sweet. The attention to details is fabulous, the rendering is supreme, and the storyline is thrilling and entertaining.

It's a 161MB download, but well, well worth it. This sort of thing could be the future of entertainment; I'd rather pay for a dvd of something like this, with notes and storyboards and tales of how it was made, than go to a brick-and-mortar theater to see the crap Hollywood has been throwing out week after week. And an independent producer/director, with the publicity of the internet, could make a much better margin of profit than the bloated movie machine of Hollywood.

A mirrored link is here.

Kid Koala

I've liked Kid Koala for years, ever since I was introduced to the great animated video for his version of "Basin Street Blues", but I had never seen video of him actually creating his music. Now, thanks to WFMU, I have. This is just amazing. So fluid, so smooth, so confident in his moves. There's a lot more KK stuff on YouTube, including what appears to be a multi-part expansion of the WFMU video that starts here..

I've tried my hand at turntablism back in college. I'd include an mp3 example here, but it's far too embarrassing to see the light of day. Let's just say that this art, like most things, is even more impressive when you try your own hand at it and discover how truly accomplished and talented one must be to create works like this.

Chibi Wrestlers

Here is an amusing little Portuguese site featuring chibi versions of WWE wrestlers.

I'll Take A Slice Of That

This is a darn good idea. I might have to do this (although, analysis of how my life has been spent might be suicidally depressing.)

It's from Flip Flop Flyin', a great blog by Craig Robinson, who is also the creator of Minipops, another dang cool idea. I keep meaning to get around to drawing my own little pixelly celebrity portraits. I did that at one time with the old OMEGA wrestlers (well, New Frontier at that time), but really want to do some things like the cast of QI or Never Mind The Buzzcocks, or maybe DSI folks or something.

Oh, and just as a sidenote, the Wikipedia entry on OMEGA contains many little errors. For instance, Jeff had nothing to do with starting or running OMEGA (other than being the #2 star); that was all MAtt. I don't *think* Thomas came in until after we were already running as OMEGA, but I'm not sure about that. In any case, there are errors there, and I should really butt in there and correct them.

Things That I Watch That You Don't, Part 2

I like a lot of lighthearted film from the Thirties and Forties. In general, I don't know a lot about movies. Also in general, I don't watch movies unless they have lasers or superheroes in them, but I make an exception for classics from the Golden Age of Cinema.

It was through the film Stormy Weather that I discovered the amazingness of Harold and Fayard, The Nicholas Brothers. They're everything I wish I was: handsome, talented, physically fit, and entertaining. In this clip from Stormy Weather, you can see what Fred Astaire called "the greatest tap scene ever filmed." I've seen it a dozen times, but keep noticing something new to be entertained by. The most spectacular part is the bit on the stairs (just like...wow.) but upon watching the clip on YouTube, I noticed for the first time they dance amongst the orchestra, they're actually throwing their legs over the musicians.

Plus, you get my favourite big band guy, Cab Calloway, starting the whole thing off.

ISIDTA 20 : Three Square Meals (A Day)

A day late. Sue me.

Kit and I are starting a new daily strip, alternating back and forth every day of the week except for ISIDTA Wednesday. The title of this new venture (which we came up with on the spur of the moment) is Three Square Meals (A Day) and features the witticisms of two buddies who just happen to be a cheeseburger and a leg of chicken. So stay tuned for punny hijinks. Please add us to your RSS feed or check out the strip every day here.

Hut One, Hut Two, MY EYES!!!

Some of my friends posed the question, "Can Blind People Play Football?" I think they answered the question quite well in this video. Nick Faber is daring, and Austin Nava is partially fearless and partially crazy. I love those guys.

Letters And Space

Led by a post on a drawing blog I frequent, I came across a chain of intriguing animated typography videos as I wandered through YouTube. I love type (although I don't really know enough about it; I know what I like) and I love animation and video, so these are really interesting to me.

Pulp Fiction dialogue - very, very nice. Great timing, great colour, great choice of movement. Led me to...
Fight Club dialogue - fun to watch, marred by several misspellings and incorrect transcription. Led me to...
Tramp - again, nice colour choices, type combined with graphic forms to follow a jazzy blues song. Led me to...
The Lions Roar - probably my favourite of the bunch. Great rich colours, gritty textures, and a great blend of type and graphics. Led me to...
ABC Movie of the Week - included for amusement's sake. Ya gotta love the Sixties. Reminds me of other great tv idents of the era. In the 1970s, you really knew you had to stay tuned when CBS played this.

It's A Man's World

James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti. Amazing.

CageMatch 3-22-07

Another night, another CageMatch. I was really happy with the video concept for this one; it was in the vein of the "story" videos like SUMO, CCCP, or Children of the Atom. Go check it out here, and then come back and we'll discuss it.

Watched the video? Good. The challenger this week was Mother Goose Project, so I decided to got with a storybook format. I plucked some fantasy paintings from my usual sources, and modified them to fit the theme. I thought it turned out well. The overarching dragon menacing the castle worked as a funny symbol for IO's team holding the CageMatch title in DSI's own house. I looked at a lot of pictures of fantasy-style armies before I selected the one to make into Southern Cross. I had taken a few new pictures of Jeremy, but of course couldn't find them when I needed them, so that's the same damn face shot I've used over and over again. I was quite pleased with the DSI logo on the shield, the way it was perspective-ized and shaded. There's an adjustment layer for brightness over the logo, which is controlled with a gradient mask to make it smooth. I also loved the way the CageMatch Champion badge turned out in the bitter king picture; it perspective-ized quite nicely. The identity screen for Mother Goose Project, as well as some of the other amusing screens from the video, can be found in the CageMatch set on my Flickr page.

Then there's the music. I always try to make the music thematically appropriate for the videos, but also try to give it a little hidden meaning as well. PT Scarborough was the coach for Mother Goose Project, so I was quite happy to find an appropriate song from one of his favourite artists to use--Mark Knopfler starts us off with a tune entitled "Once Upon A Time." The dramatic music that kicks in at the turn of Southern Cross is the "Save The Oracle" music from God of War, the best videogame ever made. It all builds to a remix I made of "Mama" by Genesis. (Oh, and this isn't in the video, but the entrance theme I chose for Mother Goose Project was "Hey Mama" by The Blackeyed Peas. Get it? Mama, Mother Goose? I know nobody notices the entrance music, but I always try to make those appropriate as well.)

Frequent viewers of CageMatch may note that there is always a different, apparently random sound that plays during the DSI id flash at the top of the video. Actually, this is always carefully selected (sometimes painstakingly so) and has some reference to the rest of the video. Last week's was fairly obvious, but this week's amused me. Can you figure out the reference for this week? First person to correctly identify it and leave a comment on this post gets a $10 Amazon gift certificate! No, really! IT'S A CAGEMATCH CONTEST! BEEYOWWWW!

WRESTLING THIS FRIDAY!!!

As you loyal blogfans learned in this post, I will be making my triumphant return to the wrestling ring this Friday, March 23rd, at the Union Pines High School in Cameron, NC. I've been invited to be the face commentator for an AWA Power Pro show. It's THIS Friday, people! Get up, and get down there!

I just got off the phone with the promoter, so I have a few more details for you ham-and-eggers. The belltime is 8:00, not 7:00 as I guessed at in the previous email (so maybe it'll be easier to make it down there now, right?) The show is called The Night of Champions, and will feature a defense of the Power Pro tag titles in a fourway tagteam bout, an AWA Light Heavyweight match with a great guy, Kirby "Krazy K" Mack, the AWA World Tag belts, and a big Royal Rumble-style battle royal for the Power Pro title, which will end as a TLC match! In addition, a guy with a gimmick I love, Dexter Poindexter; an old friend of mine, Christian York; and the hometown hero (yes, he'll be a face, guys--cooperate!) Cham Pain. (Oh, don't worry--the heel in that confrontation will be Otto Schwanz.) I also just found out that one of the special guests will be Tully Blanchard's former valet, Baby Doll, who I had a HUGE crush on when I was >ahem< younger. So you might get to see me mark out. The first match is going to be two high fliers who I hear are good, Kamikaze Kid and Ultra Dragon, so get there on time! Oh, and due to legal reasons, you can't advertise that certain people will be making a (non-wrestling) special appearance, but let's just say that we may see guys whose names rhyme with Deaf Tardy and Cannon Gore. (Actually, those would be two great gimmicks; I should talk to Grog about that.) So come see all that, see me in the ring, and later on buy the dvd with my running commentary on the matches. Don't be a pencil-necked geek; support your not-so-local non-comedy sports entertainment.

The website for the promotion is here, and you can get directions on that page to the show. (Take US1 until you see the exit for Vass, 690 I think, and it'll take you to the school.)

Click here for a larger view of above pic of me and Willow the Whisp.

Chris Ware

I don't really know Chris Ware. I've seen his books at the comic store, but have never picked one up. I'm attracted by the crisp, sparse-but-potentially-detailed art style, and the amazing use of colour, but the subject matter doesn't really grab me. I think I'm going to grab something of his at this week's huge Chapel Hill Comics sale, though. (Any suggestions?) I love the way he uses clean lines and simple vector-inspired shapes to create an attractive image, as well as his clever compositions that invite you to just stare and ponder and investigate. So much comic art these days is all flash and no substance, comic books full of complicated-looking drawings that both overwhelm and dull the eye, resulting in a quick read that leave you feeling you wasted your $2.95 (or more!) on a five-minute experience that you quickly forget. Chris Ware's drawings make you want to look at them for a long time and appreciate their structure.

Anyway, all of this rambling was inspired by the animation Ware did for an episode of This American Life on Showtime. Very nice.

I think I might try to do some stuff in this style. I really like it, and it might be cool to try and do some lucha-style comic strip with a clean vector look.

Seriously, any suggestions for a first buy? I know that Jimmy Corrigan is his most famous thing, along with the Acme Novelty stuff, but I also know he uses a number of different styles, and it's the clean-line vector-y almost isometric look from this animation that I really like. What to get?

Time Defeats All

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Japanese popular culture?

This clip features comedians trying to move from pedestal to pedestal whilst avoiding the styrofoam hands of a giant clock. Get hit, and get knocked into a pool of whipped cream. Who thinks of this stuff? Brilliant.

ISIDTA 19 - Failure

Today's theme is crap, as in the pictured crappy attempt at painting. I spent about an hour and a half drawing in a picture on this canvas, and then the minute I started putting paint on it, I could tell it was going to be a disaster. I kept marshalling on, hoping I could make it into something passable, but once I got to trying to paint the river (the lighter blue glob) I just threw my brush down in disgust. This was meant to be a double-duty project, serving as both an ISIDTA entry and a submission to the Town's Community Art Project, but both those ideas crashed and burned last night. I just can't paint for shit. I don't like paint. It doesn't do what I want it to. Seeing the globs of uneven paint bleeding all over the place and obscuring my lines just frustrates me. Painting is just not my medium.

So after that fiasco, I tried to draw the Riddler. I tried to do it in the style of this amazing Talos Tsui picture of the Justice League. Due to the style, I figured I should eschew pencil and paper and draw the whole thing on the computer. I tried a similar method to the Batman artist I blogged about a few days ago, using a thin blue brush to do the light roughs, then a thicker black brush to do the cleaner roughs. It looked like shit. I tried throwing in some colour to see if that would inspire me to press on, but I was done for the night. I had lost my fire for the whole night's project. I had never really gotten focus from the very beginning, and decided to go ahead and give up.

Better luck next week. I'm sorry, I'll draw that again.

Crappy painting.
Crappy Riddler.
My old crappy stuff.
Kit's stuff.

The Weird Wild Web

I do a lot of research when I'm making videos. Sometimes when I'm searching Google for information or pictures to use in my video projects, I come across some odd matches that have nothing to do with what I was searching for. This weekend, I had to gather material for the three videos I'm making this week, and I tripped across some absolute oddities. I thought I would share them with you.

Searching for "mexico tv" brought up this. Click the little icons randomly to view odd pictures. They get weirder towards the end.

"mexico test" led me to this disgusting fast food burger, wheras "mexican ha-ha" came up with something much more amusing.

A search for "poochie" gave me a page on custom Simpsons figures. (Maggie as Yoda and Bart as Yosemite Sam were particularly disconcerting.)

Googling "mother goose" turned up this VERY disturbing picture, as well as this saucy number.

This one isn't so wacky, but it is interesting. Searching for "test pattern" gave me this information page about the history of radio and television. The same search on YouTube eventually led me to this page, which has software to create your own custom test pattern cards, based on vintage designs. It's PC only, so I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds fabulous.

Duh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh

I adore this thread. It's a bunch of people reimagining members of the Justice League.

Highlights include this link that shows how a guy drew his version of Batman in Illustrator. I wish I could save it and watch it over and over again!

I also love thissun, thissun, and thissun.

All courtesy of this very fun and inspiring drawing site, which I have only barely begun to explore.

Scott Sullivan Returns To Wrestling

I've been asked to do a charity wrestling show back in my old Omega stomping grounds of Moore County. I met a guy at Matt Hardy's Christmas party who is a promoter and wrestler, and he said he loved my work and would like me to come down and do a show for him. A couple of my old Omega buddies will be working the show, including Marty "Cham Pain" Garner and a man I haven't seen in a decade, "The Nomad" Christian York. Christian was Joey Mercury's tagteam partner for years before Joey (who used to be Joey "The Future" Matthews) went to the WWE and became part of MNM. He's a great guy, and I had really hoped he could've made it to the bigtime with Joey. It'll be great to see him again. I think Jeff and Shannon will be making an appearance as well, although not wrestling. (Hmm...I wonder if Willow Tha Whisp will make an unscheduled appearance? He is unpredictable...)

The show will take place next Friday, March 23rd at the Union Pines High School in Cameron, NC. I'm not sure what the belltime is...maybe 7:00? I'm still waiting for the full details. Come on by and see Ted in the ring, and enjoy plenty of great rasslin' action!

ISIDTA 18 - Richie Rich Redo

ISIDTA 18 - Richie Rich Redo
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

So this week, Kit and I decided to each try and reimagine a classic cartoon character. After flipping through my encyclopedia of cartoon characters, we semi-randomly selected Mr. Richie Rich. I was terribly amused to see how each of us decided to approach the character. I went pimptacular. I thought my Richie was okay, but I was quite happy with Gloria the ho.

This whole thing was done pretty quickly, maybe two hours for the whole project? Richie's right hand sucks, but when I tried to touch it up, I had the same "ink running all over the goache" problem that I did back in ISIDTA 12. I also had to touch up Gloria's left hand and cleavage area, but that came out much cleaner.

See the full pic here and the inks here.
Kit's Richie Rich Redo is here. WARNING: Kit FitzSimons is a horrible, horrible person, and did something horrendous and hilarious for his cartoon.
My old ISIDTAs remain here.

Miscellaney

I think that most of the time, commercials are a waste. They spend millions of dollars on them, and how often do you actually say "I'm going to switch to that beer because I saw it on the Superbowl?" One deviance from that rule, personally speaking, is my choice of shaving cream. Back in the mid-to-late 1980s, Edge was a sponsor of the WWF tv shows, and I've used it ever since. The reason I started buying it is what still runs through my head every time I use it: Lord Alfred Hayes' measured pronunciation of the phrase "Edge Shaving Gel; the first defense...against ray-zore irritation!" I love the way he pronounced "razor".

I saw 300 yesterday. I thought it was okay; it wasn't stunning, like Sin City was. I liked the gritty, grainy look of the film. I liked the multiculturality of the Persian forces. I liked the nipples. I loved the soundtrack. I loved the animated end titles. I guess it just didn't seem as tight as I would've liked. There were some plot holes and strategy holes and gratuitousness that distracted me from the overall experience. I thought the oracle priests looked far too much like The Emporer from Star Wars, pale warts and hoods and all, and The Immortals were far too Darth Vadery; their masks were certainly reminiscent, and when we first see them, their breathing actually sounds like it was sampled from A New Hope. And Spartans don't throw pro-wrestling dropkicks. (However, huge towering beastmen definitely do pro-wrestling chokeslams. My friend Brantley leaned over and whispered "Undertaker.") Oh, and I kept watching Leonidas and flashing back to Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon. "Hawkmen? ...DIIIIVE!!!!"

I just tripped across this Sesame Street parody.

Two days until you'll never see me again, as I lock myself away with God of War 2.

Good Art Idea

This is a really cool art idea. Flickr guy "Hawkstudios" takes pictures and then draws a little miniature version of himself in the picture. It looks really cool, but it's also a really clever and fun way to practice drawing different perspectives, lighting effects, shadows, etc. I may have to try and start doing this (although obviously in a far cruder fashion, considering the difference in our levels of talent.)

I really like his style, too. Very clean; cartoony but not sloppy, with lots of character.

Oh, and I want these gloves of his.

CageMatch 3-8-07

Had another CageMatch last night.

The video is here.

The identity screen for Southern Cross is here.

I'm Famous

Patton Oswalt just unveiled his new website, and guess who's on it?

Go to the Spores page and scroll down to the bottom. When you get to the Ted page, be sure to notice the clever logo that pops into place around Patton's head at the top of the page.

God, looking back at this picture just reminds me of how much fun I had putting the whole thing together for my buddy Jason.

ISIDTA 17 : Reading, Rhythm, and RED

Okay, this is one of those ISIDTAs where you should probably go read the strip first, and then come back here and read the notes. So go read it!

Did you read it? Good.

Long story. Basically, my buddy Jackson trimmed his beard down to a little strip, and some of his friends said he looked like a communist. I said he looked like a jazz musician, and so we christened him "Comrade Jazzman". Then we got on some weird tangent about how I hated grapefruit, and Jackson slipped into the Comrade Jazzman character, and said basically what's in the first word balloon in panel three. And obviously, it all had to be immortalized in comic form.

Postscript: this was all done with my pad in my lap as Kit and I sat around the living room. I even inked it with the pad in my lap. Jackson will be pleased to know that, while working in these cramped conditions, I managed to spill whiskey on the bristol board.

Kit's ISIDTA contributions for this week AND LAST WEEK are guaranteed to be found here.
My past crap is here.

Postscript 2: Kit asks me to remind you that those are grapefruit, and NOT BREASTS.

Frylock, er, Fryclock

Okay, who's going to get me this clock?

A Novel

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
by Snoopy

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!

A door slammed. The maid screamed.

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!

While millions of people were starving, the king lived
in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was
growing up.

Part II

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the
tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.

At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was
making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in
Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly.

Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas
who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the
daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?

The intern frowned.

"Stampede!" the foreman shouted, and forty thousand head
of cattle thundered down on the tiny camp. The two men
rolled on the ground grappling beneath the murderous hooves.
A left and a right. A left. Another left and right. An
uppercut to the jaw. The fight was over. And so the ranch
was saved.

The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the
coffee shop. he had learned about medicine, but more
importantly, he had learned something about life.

THE END


via The Peanuts FAQ

Shows I Watch That You Don't Watch #1

Welcome to the first in a series of posts designed to introduce you to tv shows that I enjoy, but which you may or may not be familiar with. I do this with the hope of introducing folks to some good entertainment that they may not otherwise trip over.

Y'see, I haven't had cable or satellite or anything else for a decade now. Odd, considering I have a degree in popular culture, but I found it a waste of my money. When I visit friends' houses and flip through their channels, I almost never find anything I would sit down and watch. And yet, just having all those channels was like heroin. In the dying days of my cable subscription, I would find myself just zoned out in front of the tv after work, spending hour after hour blindly flipping through the channels. So I quit cold turkey, and rarely regret the choice.

Instead, I buy dvd collections of old tv shows, watch stuff friends download for me on Torrent or that I get off Usenet, and I watch a lot of stuff on YouTube.

Today, we're looking at something I discovered on YouTube, via a connection with another favourite show of mine, QI. Two of the regulars on that latter show (Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey) are the semipermanent team captains on a BBC quiz programme entitled Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Ostensibly, it's a battle of music trivia, as two teams of celebrities answer questions about bands and the music scene. The entertainment value, however, comes from the fact that nobody really takes it that seriously (well, almost nobody) and there's just a lot of sniping about. The guests are mostly C-list celebrities or big pop stars that have made tabloid headlines lately. The host, Simon Amstell, is hilarious, and a complete prick. He never hesitates to bring up a celebrities problems or shortcomings, and it's hilarious to see how people will take his needling, whether they'll get pissed off or just take it in stride. Jupitus and Bailey are both great comedians and think fast on their feet.

I have all of last season (thank to my buddy Jackson) and all of this season (via both EasyNews and YouTube. A good place to start is with the November 23, 2006 episode, which has some great guests and hilarious moments. The highlight is Doctor Who actor John Barrowman, who is ridiculously handsome, and takes barbs from Simon Amstell all through the show, taking it all quite well and playing along to great effect. The episode is available in three parts on YouTube. A list of guests appearing on the show throughout its run is available on EpGuides.com. Oh, how I'd love to get my hands on some pre-2006 shows!

So if you like bad British pop music, making fun of C-list celebrities, and sarcastic insults, check out Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

ISIDTA 16 : Alien Pets Dog final

ISIDTA 16 : Alien Pets Dog final
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

So this week I was completely clueless about what I was going to do for ISIDTA. At lunchtime yesterday, I communicated my plight to Jackson who said, "draw an alien petting a dog too hard." Why? I don't know. But I did it.

View the cartoon full-size here.
Inks are here.
Kit's ISIDTA will be located here.
My previous drawings can always be found here.

Art Tips Roundup!

The picture is from Roy Lichtenstein's "Meat". Anyway, here's a list of a bunch of great sites I've found recently for art tips, tutorials, and inspiration.

Ten Things Every Beginning Artist Should Know from Empty Easel

101 Projects For Artists And Illustrators from Dani Draws (GREAT jumping-off points and idea motivators!)

What Tools People Use from Comic Tools (ongoing blog)
Where They Use 'Em from On My Desk (ongoing blog)

The International Animated Film Society (just an incredible warehouse of information, including scanned instruction books from the glory age of animation)

How A Mad Artist Inks from Tom Richmond (EXCELLENT two-part inking tutorial. Opened my eyes.)

How Copper Is Made from Kazu Kibuishi. (I've blogged about this before in the tutorials tag, but it's so damn good, let's put it here too.)

Word Balloon Tips from Balloon Tales (they have lots of other good tips and tutorials as well.)

Misc Tutorial Sites:
Computer Arts UK (they have a good magazine too)
Graphics.Com (random, broad, nicely done)
GFXArtist (illustrator-y, painter-y, good basics)
Illustration Class (great tutes, great format)
The Photoshop Experiment (lots of good Photoshop tips as they pertain to drawing)
Itchy Animation (I want to try his Inking In Illustrator method)

One Turntable And No Microphone

Christian Marclay is an amazing sound artist. He toys and tinkers with turntables and records, and produces some amazing sounds. I particularly love the way he cuts up multiple albums and sticks them back together as vinyl collages that can actually be played, resulting in a wild look and some intriguing rhythms.

Check out a brief documentary of Marclay here.

PS: After you watch that, watch the new iPhone commercial. Notice anything similar?

PPS: Better version of the iPhone commercial (including an HD option) available now from Apple.

CageMatch 2/22/07

We had CageMatch last night, and it was a first for us: the challengers (and new champions!) were not DSI folk, but a Level 2 class from IO South. It was great to have outside folk competing, and the guys were as nice as can be. I look forward to working with them again on March 8.

The video was almost silent this week, as I haven't had a voice for over a week now, being sick since the Festival ended. In the end, the humidifier made all the difference, and a last-minute video was made. It was just a series of simple photos and fades, but it did the trick.

I was quite pleased with the identity screen for the IO team, Dead Man Pinata. Believe it or not, I couldn't find a picture of a skeleton pinata. Good lord, I figured there'd be loads of 'em for the Day Of The Dead celebrations, but no. So I drew this little skeleton, adapted from two different DOTD pictures I found (one for the skull and one for the body) and did a quick-and-dirty pattern fill of the white and black sections using paper strips from a Dora The Explorer pinata. (Can you imagine kids beating Dora to get the candy out of her? Weirded me out.) I tried to make it a *bit* 3D and pinata-y by dragging back a black fill of the silhouette and touching it up a bit. The font is from one of my favourite movies, Bloodsucking Freaks.

View the video here.
View the Dead Man Pinata screen here.

Be More Like Kong

Sometimes I wish I was more like Scott Jennings.

Why, you say, would that be? Why would you want to be like a man who, when many people think of him, the immediate word that springs to mind is "asshole"? Or maybe "scary". Or "intimidating".

Well, I'll tell ya why, son. Because Jennings knows who he is, knows where he stands, knows where he wants to go, and finds a way to get there. He isn't afraid to do what he wants to do or say what he wants to say. Jennings is a man of action, a man of adventure, a man of determination. He tries. He succeeds. He kisses girls.

I don't kiss girls. I mean, I have...and I'd like to again. I just don't. Because I'm not a man of action. I'm a man of inaction. I'm not outgoing. I'm not determined. I'm not brash or bold or brave. I generally accept whatever is going on. I try my best not to offend anybody. In fact, I go so far in my desire to not offend anybody, that I push down my own desires in favour of others.

So that's what I admire about Jennings. He dreams. He dares. He does.

I worry. I wring my hands. I wither away.

I think that's one of the main reasons I lost Leesa. She like a man of action. Most women do. I'm not much of a man of action. I love to dote on others, love to do things for people, love to keep people happy. Unfortunately, I don't do the same for myself. I think she liked a bit of assertion, a bit of manly stand-uppishness, a bit of "we are doing this because I say we are, so like it or lump it". I didn't do that, and when she said we should take a break, I said "okay" because I thought that was what she wanted, when really it was her way of challenging me to step up for myself and make her bow to my wishes.

So I should start thinking of myself more, be more assertive, and stand up for my own interests.

Easier said than done. I've known that for years. One begins to worry, really.

Anyway, all of this came to a head because somebody who used to work here at Town Hall wants me to come work for him in the private sector, managing the front desk and designing presentation books and designing computer data management systems. None of it thrilling work, but the pay would be good. So I met with the guy I know, and now he wants me to meet the guy who runs the business. And I'm terrified, because I'm not good at change, not good at thinking of my own future and my own well-being. It's no big deal; it's a coffee conversation about a job I don't really care about, and don't care if it goes either way. But it just struck me as symptomatic of what's wrong with me and why I haven't been happy for years now. Not since Leesa.

I wish I could be more like Jennings. I wish I could be sure of who I am and what I'm made of. I wish I could go out and get a career I enjoy. I wish I could kiss girls.

This is another one of those no-comment posts that are thankfully rare. I usually keep this crap to my silent self. A good place for it.

Hayashi Bomb

Insane.

Do You Like Grapefruit?

This makes me do the laughing.

Animated GIFs of phone conversations between P. Diddy and Bjork. It's the same kind of funny one gets from the hilarious Touchdown Turtle.

ISIDTA 15 : superheroes

ISIDTA 15 : superheroes
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Ok, this week's drawing is a little cruder than I had intended it to be, because I somehow managed to slash open my finger on a tin of leftover chicken pot pie, and so my drawing ability has been dealt a bit of a blow. (It's the index finger on my right hand, a most important finger for many activities.)

Also, I've just noticed that this is the first post I've made to the blog since LAST week's ISIDTA! Well that's sad. Thing is, I've been miserably sick for a week, and haven't been much in the mood for posting or much of anything else. I've been in and out of work for the past week. Even more seriously, my voice is practically gone, so I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to get on stage for CageMatch this week. Erg.

So, on to the commentary. This idea just popped into my head while reading Dean Trippe's Butterfly. I pencilled the various elements in my sketchbook, as best I could with a bum finger. Then I scanned 'em into the computer, composed the panels and inked them with a Photoshop brush and the Wacom (since I could undo my many screwups). And voila.

View the cartoon full-size here.
Here's one that might fit better on the screen.
Kit's ISIDTA can be found here.
My previous drawings are here.

ISIDTA 14 : Green Onions

Green Onions
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

This week's ISIDTA was an experiment; Kit came over and we had the Kit Is Twenty-Seven Birthday Challenge, where we agreed to each draw a four-panel cartoon, handing off our sketchbooks after each panel so that each person alternates drawing a panel. We had a time limit of 10 minutes and 27 seconds per panel, which we quickly agreed to lengthen out to 15 minutes and 27 seconds. We got a random suggestion from a newspaper, which was "tests rule out all but green onions." Neither of us used onions.

When I went to scan this this morning, I had forgotten that my copy of Photoshop had gone belly-up, and I couldn't scan anything. (It's a completely legitimate copy; I have no idea what happened--the application icon turned to a document icon, and now it won't work. I'm pissed.) Anyway, that's why this looks so weird; it's just digital camera shots of my moleskine. (Well, it also looks weird because each panel was drawn in fifteen minutes by two crazed Challengers...)

Kit's entry into the Kit Is Twenty-Seven Birthday Challenge can be found here.
My previous ISIDTA entries are here.

Eh, It's Just Puppets...

My pal Nick Faber reads this blog, and he's also starting to get into stop-motion animation. I just tripped over this great resource, and instead of just emailing him, I figured I'd put it up here so that a) he could read it, b) I could remember where it was, and c) others with like mind might enjoy it. So anyway, Nick check this out.

Found via the fine folks at Ward-O-Matic.

Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over

So the Seventh Annual Dirty South Improv Festival has come and gone. Whew! I'm not sure I've ever worked so hard in my life. I produced nine different videos for the Festival, ten if you count the huge revision I had to make for the Festival opener, and two of the videos didn't even get shown! I took Thursday and Friday off of work, and still almost didn't finish my stuff on time.

Everything I was involved with went well. Friday's ComedySportz show was okay. It didn't end well, and I felt forced into calling it a tie, which sucked. Oh, and in trying to install the Mr. Voice software on my laptop, the system crashed and corrupted the disk, and I had to wipe the drive clean and reinstall everything. That ate up a good five hours. (Wade, it wasn't the software's fault; my laptop was already acting wonky.) Got to see Fit SitzKimons on the way out; it was very cool to see him back at a DSI event, even if only as a spectator. Hopefully he'll be able to mend some fences and come back where he belongs, as one of the biggest talents and hardest workers in improv. In the meantime, we're getting together on Tuesday for a birthday celebration (his) and a fun ISIDTA experiment; so I'm looking forward to that.

After ComedySportz, I had a little break before CageMatch, and hung out with Jackson, which was cool. To tell the truth, I was really worried that the Cat's Cradle show would deplete my audience, but we held the start of the program for ten minutes, and ended up with a standing room only crowd of about a hundred odd people. So that rocked. The best part was the huge contingent of Siegel-Prov supporters that showed up in true wrestling fan style carrying posterboard signs supporting Dan and Dave. The videos went over quite well, and really seemed to charge up both the audience and the performers. The Impatient Theatre Company won the Triple Team Terror match, so I got to show my Frank Sinatra video, which the crowd seemed to like. The Siegel-Prov entrance was mindblowing. The crowd was ready to see them, and the video whipped them into a frenzy. Dan and Dave ended up winning, which was nice. I was happy that they finally got the Ten Grams Of Gold that didn't exist when they were champions before.

Afterwards, all the teams were really kind. They seemed excited that I had made each of them a dvd with all the videos on them, and they were very complimentary of the way I ran the show. I ended up hanging out with Chris Biddle of International Stinger the next night, and he told me how much fun he had doing CageMatch. Several people commented on the great interplay that Scott Sullivan and Biff Hobgood have on stage, which was gratifying since I'm never sure what the hell is happening when we're up there. All in all, I think I hit my goals on the DSIF7 CageMatch; I really wanted to show people from around the country how a CageMatch show can be done with style, with all the videos and characters and whatnot, and I think a lot of people will go back home with CageMatch as one of their big memories of the Festival. Thanks to Scott and Tommy for helping put out such a great product, thanks to HARSH, International Stinger, and The Impatient Theatre Company for putting on such great segments, and a special thanks to Siegel-Prov for always being so kind, generous, thankful, and damn funny. Todah rabah.


ComedySportz on Saturday was MUCH better than Friday. The crowd was bigger and had more energy, and it went off without a hitch. Zach was kind enough to bring my niece Amelia on stage for one of the games. My favourite part of ComedySportz was flirting (or trying to flirt, more likely) with the cute redhead sound-and-light tech, Holly. You can sorta see her off to the side in this picture. She was really cool, has mad theater tech skills, is amusingly sarcastic, and is mighty hot as well. I gave her my email addy. HAH! Like anything will become of that...

And then at 9:30 on Saturday, it was time for PT Scarborough Is A Movie. This was actually the show that I hyped up the most. We made 100 PTSIAM buttons to give out to all the performers, along with flyers in all their goodie bags, and I plugged the show during CageMatch. Well, word got around somehow, and the theater was sold out for PT's show, which was sweet. PT and I made a little surprise intro video for the show, featuring PT's favouritest movie of all time, Back To The Future. That went over well, but didn't get the huge pop I thought it would, probably because a lot of people didn't know it was PT. Eh, who cares. I made it for PT's amusement more than anything else, and he seemed to love it. It certainly got him jacked up for the show, because he KILLED. Bigtime great show, and I think he got an even better reaction than the all-star headline act. We did Bullitt, and PT worked wonders with it, making up phone sex chat callbacks, hesitant assassins, and one annoying fan. Definitely one of the top highlights of the Festival.

It was very cool to see Jackson come out for both CageMatch and PTSIAM, and Scotts came to see PT's show as well. Thanks for the support, guys.

Then I teched The Bat, which went well, and got to play my We Are From The Dirty South song at the end, which seemed a good way to usher people off to the party. I actually WENT to the party, which was amazing. Got to hang with the aforementioned Chris Biddle, Corey Brown, Dave Siegel, and EITAN!!!! Came home about 2:30 am, and couldn't get to sleep until 6; I was still wired with adrenaline. After all my responsibilities were over, my immune system crashed, and now I'm sick. Woohoo. Stuffly and sniffly. And tomorrow, back to work.

So a good week's work done, well-received videos and performances, and now, rest. I'm off to Nyquilize myself. I'm really happy with what we did this week. Zach did an awesome job of pulling off the impossible to make this Festival happen. Amazing.

Here's some of the videos I made for the Festival, for your viewing pleasure.
CageMatch preview
CageMatch show open
Siegel-Prov entrance
Impatient Theatre entrance
HARSH entrance (which didn't actually get shown--a YouTube exclusive!)
International Stinger entrance (also didn't get shown)
PTSIAM show open

Enjoy.

ISIDTA 13 : a quick one

ISIDTA 13 : a quick one
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Here's a visual pun of sorts for you, representative of the offering itself. This week has been incredibly hectic as I prepare videos for the 7th annual Dirty South Improv Festival, and I didn't have much time to create something for this week's ISIDTA, so I threw together this hasty cartoon during lunch yesterday. Hopefully next week's will be better.

See the cartoon here. Get it? 'Cause the kid has a ball, and there's a circle painted on the ground, and the other kids are playing, and the police guy was playing, but now he can't play anymore. Get it? I'm such a card.

Better art can be seen on Kit's ISIDTA blog here.
My other stuff is here.

DSIF7 Preview

Not a lot of posts lately. I've been crazy busy (or crazy withdrawn, depending on the day). The latest bit of busy-ness has been preparing for the Dirty South Improv Festival, taking place this week in Carrboro. It's a pretty big deal, so they tell me. I'll be doing a special CageMatch this Friday at 11:00 pm at the DSI Comedy Theater. I'm also producing PT Scarborough Is A Movie the next night at 9:30. There should be video goodness aplenty for both shows, with any luck (if it doesn't kill me). Here we have the preview trailer for CageMatch. I'm trying to make it a blockbuster of a show. We'll see if anybody shows up.

For the kiddies (well, anybody really, but it is family-friendly) I'll be part of ComedySportz on Friday and Saturday at the ArtsCenter at 7:00 both nights.

The videos have been a real bear lately. I've been trying to do them in Final Cut on my new Mac Pro, but I'm not used to the program yet. I actually lost all my work twice while making this CageMatch trailer; I finally gave up, so this version is a little squooshed and distorted. I think it's a memory problem (I need more memory for the Pro, but it's like $1000 per stick). It's sort of disconcerting that all my work gets lost when the memory craps out, though. Tonight I have to reedit, or re-create to be truthful, a video I made to introduce the Festival. My first attempt really didn't have the feel that the theater wanted, so I have to start almost from scratch with a new music bed and a rerecorded v/o. Argh. Then there's six more CageMatch videos to make, and a little pretape for PTSIAM. Sleep? Hah!

A Gift From Patton!

a gift from Patton!
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Sometimes good things do happen. (Not often, but sometimes.)

Remember the present I made for my buddy Jackson ("A Kinda Patton Christmas"?) If not, check it out here. Well, Patton loved it, said it made his year, and guess what? He sent me a present for my very own! I was quite surprised to get a package in the mail containing Patton's actual cast jacket from the upcoming Brad Bird movie Ratatouille AND a Patton-made dvd of the entire Comedians of Comedy series. SWEET! Thanks, Mr. Scoops!

It was very kind of him to do this for me, and I really appreciate it. The truly great thing is that I really like the jacket, and it fits me quite well. It's the kind of thing I would buy myself, except a) it was free, b) it's a real cast jacket from a real movie, c) it was a gift from somebody I find to be really entertaining, and d) it reminds me of good times with good friends.

Check out me, the coat, and the bootleg dvd here.

PS: Here's a trailer for the movie. I'm sure me and Jackson will be first in line. I'll wear my coat.

Smooth and Fine

I am horrendously jealous of how easily this guy can a) quickly draw an amazing human figure without so much as a pencil guide underneath, and b) effortlessly get such a beautiful line variation from a brush pen with such precise control. I'm sure it took years of practice to get this good, but I still am horrendously jealous. If I could draw like this, I'd be cranking out wrestling animations every day.

Drawing da hoboes.