Another Bugs & Cranks article...

...here.

ALSO! I was interviewed about Hired Goons. Check it out.

ALSO! Doin' a rewrite for script #3 for NMT.

ALSO! Will finish "Everyone Loves Gears #14" this week. Promise.

ALSO! Got my bike tire fixed.

ALSO! Jamming with a different possible band this week.

Lots of silly stuff going on. I really don't have much to talk about at the moment.

I wanna give a shoutout to my nurse pal who had to deal with a crack addict this weekend. I hope they pay you in the zillions.

-paul

Albums purchased recently: quick reviews (COC, Pelican, Torche, Metallica)

I was going to type up a long rambling thing about some of these, but life is short and I don't want to ramble on too much. I realized I was typing COC's life history and you know what? I'll just talk about the album.

3rd script reading and excess emotional baggage.

Taking a few moments to think about what went on a few nights ago. I can't lie to myself: one of the reasons I'm not drawing as much is those damn video games. Damn you, Ratchet & Clank! (a review of the Ratchet & Clank games for the PS3, coming soon.) But I was also spending a lot of time in front of this very computer (other than the last two weeks, of course) working on a 3rd script, the 2nd being The Voice and not being read at the moment.

3rd script is a parody and I belted out the outline in minutes yet had a rough time writing along with that outline.  Losing the computer for two weeks didn't help (and before C2E2, so I was too busy to write even if I had time to get the computer fixed right away). I was allowed to borrow a laptop, work on scenes from what I could remember, and then continue when I got the computer and attempt to finish in two days.

Computer trouble, stuff.

My computer decided to be difficult and hold all my music that I love to listen to hostage. Though I still buy CDs, this made it hard to listen to stuff while I type. Also, I wasn't able to type anything. And I have a script due Sunday. Which I will be finishing this weekend now that my computer is back in action. In that time, the Goons did two shows. Not sure how many we'll be doing anytime soon, as Monty is having a baby in July, so we'll be taking a break. I do have two musical projects I'm working on. I have to get back to typing. Excuse me. -paul

So I seriously thought I was going to die.

Dropped a cast member off. Headed home. Looked for a place to park. Got to an intersection, stopped. Someone else pulled up, i got there first, so I went through. The other car, some silver beater sports car that hasn't been stylish in quite a while with a big dent in the front right side, gunned it. Then he stopped as I went past him, and honked his horn. He turned to follow me. I went around the block and he kept honking his horn. I was a half block away from my place and I'm being followed. All I'm thinking about is I hope he doesn't start shooting. I can't imagine what his beef was. I stopped. He did that thing where he stopped at the end of the curb and not the stop sign before the crosswalk, like a lot of people do. I stop at the stop sign. Anyway, I stop at the stop sign nearest and now he's at my bumper. I go through the stop sign and he goes through with me, I guess me stopping meant he could go through with me, like a funeral procession. Like MY funeral because he's going to KILL me.

We Are Wyld Stallyns, some other stuff.

#1: I found my iPod. Ignore previous comic strip.

#2: We Are Wyld Stallyns just started at Theatre Wit, 1229 W. Belmont in Chicago. Click on the link to read more about the show...and to get tickets (plus, links to half price tickets!). I wrote the music for the band that fights Bill & Ted.

I thought I had more but i'm really tired. I should update more. Sleep now,
-paul

I lost my iPod. Waaa waaaa waaaa. The Paul Show #88.

Blog alert: Valient Himself

Check this site out. Click on the link in the title.

Not sure why, they came highly recommended from respectable sources, but Valient Thorr just didn't grab me at this week's COC show, at least not like Torche did. They weren't bad, I didn't DISLIKE them, I don't want to say anything that I didn't like about them because I'd be doing so out of ignorance and (as someone who used to review bands that I was unfamiliar with) that would be unfair. I do not want to write them off or turn anyone interested but also ignorant of their style away from them.

BUT IN THE MEANTIME, the singer has a blog, Valient Himself, and most of it is about old crappy movies (and some good ones). Low budget Sci-Fi channel, Up All Night, the kind of thing even The Asylum is too competent for. He writes hilariously (and of course, very well) about these movies. So kudos to his blog for KEEPING ME UP ALL NIGHT because I can't stop reading about his movie choices.

Hooray for Valient Himself! Check it out!

Corrosion Of Conformity - live at Double Door - Smarch 7th, 2012

I can't write about Corrosion Of Conformity impartially. I would like it to be known that if they put out an album of nothing, of complete silence, I would purchase it and champion it as the best damn tribute to John Cage ever.

(waiting to let that gag sink in...)

I have been very fortunate to have been given attention from the band regarding tour info and album stuff over the last decade and a half. So, yay me. And kudos to them, as they must have the patience of a saint to put up with me. I can't even put up with me. Maybe bumping into me only once a year makes it easier on them, who knows. I'm not bragging, I just dig the band, they are cool people and hopefully my incredible bias toward them won't cloud your decision to buy all their albums.

But you should buy all their albums.

Their latest is their self-titled. It is only a throwback to their old Animosity days in that there's three members instead of four. And maybe like the old days, the music seems to change almost randomly in each song and the riffage comes from left field.

Oh, the riffage. I wish Animosity and Eye For An Eye were recorded like this album. (This is blasphemy to all the fans from BACK IN THE DAY who saw COC create their scene as well as an entire new subgenre of music. Back off: I was 8 at the time.) The guitars never sounded this mean and angry before...and In The Arms Of God was pretty angry sounding! My favorite track, showcasing the talent of the reformed classic lineup, is Time Of Trials. It goes from wild n crazy to slow and heavy and it doesn't drag on forever. It's also the last song, which is perfect for the sort of album that when it's over, you feel like you didn't hear every nuance and you gotta go back again. Well played, COC.



I'm not sure what I can say about the album other than I dig it. The youtube clip here is two songs, The Doom which is heavy with a bit of thrash before switching to a bluesy jam, and then the previously mentioned and amazingly awesome Time Of Trials.

SO, live. This is only the fourth time I have been able to see them since they 'reformed,' once before at Riotfest 2010 and then twice last year. Sadly I had to skip out on their Champaign gig for a theater meeting. What can I say, I know they put on a show and last night was no exception.

The first band was "A Storm Of Light," and they were followed by "Valient Thorr" and I got to the club as Storm was finishing up, and I didn't know what to really make of Valient Thorr, such as whom to compare them to or if what I saw/heard was close to what they usually sound like. I don't want to say the wrong things about these bands and upset a fan with my ignorance so I'll just link them and you can check them out.

TORCHE, however: wow. A friend described them as Foo Fighters meets...someone really heavy, I don't know. (Maybe he said Helmet, as in the angrier material.) I don't know if "Foo Fighters" applies here either. Maybe something stoner rock meets Mastodon? I was super impressed. Whatever it was, it was aggressive yet groovin'. I totally dug it and rocked out a bit. They played some stuff from their upcoming album which is due in late April. Click on the link for their site and you can listen to a song from that new album. I picked up the EP "In Return" and listened to it ALL DAY. It's only 19 minutes long but it rocks super hard. I am listening to it now and am mad that I'm not headbanging, but it's hard to type that way.

COC: Finally, new material. They played some of the songs last year (MoneyChangers & Your Tomorrow). A good portion of the set was from Animosity (Loss For Words, Mad World, Consumed, Holier, Hungry Child) and there were a few more new ones (Psychic Vampire, Rat City, Leeches). Part of their set as a trio is opening with some of the instrumental Bottomfeeder from Wiseblood and then playing part of Vote With A Bullet (with Reed singing), so the highlight for me was the band playing the whole title track from Deliverance. It slammed. They were full of a lot of energy. No time between songs to rest up, just one after another and it stayed intense that way. They were also very animate, much more than when I've seen them on bigger stages. I wonder why that is, even years later? These sort of things create a better mood for both band and audience, I think, and that was the case last night. The crowd ate it up and rocked out. Older punks & metal heads & pretty much everyone else in the room joined together by the power of rock headbangin' together.

There you go. My clouded vision of my favorite band giving me what I wanted and then some, with me walking away super happy and telling you about it. So, while they're still on tour, check them out. They have an official site n stuff and you can buy the album here. I'm not sure what other details to bore you with so please check them out.

Incoming! Shows, projects, things!

Okay, SEVERAL things on the burner right now.

1. WE ARE WYLD STALLYNS! I wrote/co-wrote the music for two songs for the evil metal band in New Millennium Theatre's play. You can find out more information about the show starting off at the KICKSTARTER page for the show. Please check it out and donate a few bucks! I showed the metal band how to play the new stuff and they picked it up right away and are making it their own bad ass of bad assery that I can't wait to hear the finished product and see it performed on stage this spring!

2. HIRED GOONS show! We'll be performing at a fundraiser for New Millennium Theatre on Sunday, April 15th, at Fizz. Details once I have them.

3. HIRED GOONS show! Friday, April 20th @ Ye Olde Town Inn in Mt. Prospect. We had a blast at Poochie's bday party and they seemed to like us so they asked us back.

3.5. I might do something Kickstarter-ish for the Goons. Will let you know.

4. Am working on finishing the latest script and there will be a table read for the other script soon.

5. I drew a strip for The Heckler but I'm not sure if they'll use it.

6. I'm sure I have some other things that I'm doing but as I think about it, really I'm just in the process of trying to get the Goons booked this spring and finishing this script and maybe getting back to drawing.

7. Oh, Everyone Loves Gears #14 has been recorded, but I still have to take pictures and edit the whole thing together. Soon.

Um, this may or may not seem like a lot. It's not a lot to me, as far as volume, though it means a lot. I really feel like I should be doing more things. That's my own fault that I'm NOT, of course. Like drawing.

Sadly, my laziness has been a result from those damn video games you've been hearing about.

The mrs. picked up Batman: Arkham City and though I'm a guy who shouts "Make Mine Marvel!" instead of "Amen" during church, I gotta say that I have more love for the Batman. Or The Goddamn Batman. It's surprisingly...vulgar. The word "bitch" gets thrown around a lot. Other than the non-stop swearing and such, the voice acting is great (except for Talia; holy crap what an annoying character). The Mrs. is even shocked by the amazing graphics.

I played the game on "Easy" because let's face it, I die a lot in these games Usually in the opening menu. And i want to get through the game and not cry myself into a curled up fetal position because all I want to do is beat up Mr. Freeze or whomever. That said, the fighting portion of the game is just kinda pointing Batman at whomever you want to punch and pressing the fight button and he punches them. Again, I didn't play it on the other difficulty level (yet) but sheesh, getting through the legion of goons hiding out in Arkham City is brutal....FOR THEM!

I will say that several times, I was eaten by a shark.

And me with no Bat-Shark Repellent!

So it's really just flying from hither to yon around the city courtesy of a grappling hook and your cape and beating up oblivious goons. Fortunately ascending levels to open up unlockable weapons and attacks is pretty easy (again, I admit now that I was on the "Easy" level of difficulty) which I'm grateful for, as opposed to ever-widening level upgrades that would make having to beat up a ton of similar goons with fewer challenges seem painfully redundant despite being necessary. So, thanks, gamers.

If you think I'm a wimp for praising that aspect, please note that this is a video game. I don't deserve more respect for beating it because the level-ups are simple. I would deserve respect if I did something real, like become a real medical professional and saved real people's lives. I doubt there are real life lessons in Arkham City I could learn and apply in these situations, aside that I am going to ask some of my female friends to wear similar Catwoman suits (along with the same amount of lipstick).

So, anyway, I enjoyed the game. It's easy to get around Arkham City, the side missions are fun, there's only a few frustrating moments. I hate the kinds of games where I have to go BACK in an open free-exploring world and it's a zillion miles away. In Arkham City, it's easy to get around, even if the objective's at the other end of town, and thus I don't feel the need to reset the game because of so much time even MORE pointlessly wasted having to retrace my steps from the last save point (seeing as how I'm already pointlessly wasting my time playing the game in the first place).

"I am not really a gamer," says the guy who just spent days playing a video game. I have been pretty picky about the games I've purchased. "Oh, get Skyrim/Uncharted! You'll love it!" No, you don't know me, I probably won't love it. I'll love a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end. I won't love feeling like I'm PLAYING a movie. You don't play a movie. I like playing War For Cybertron not because I feel like I'm involved in some interactive art presentation that I need to defend against Roger Ebert's dismissal of video games being art; I just like to pretend I'm a robot smashing the crap out of other robots. So for a few hours I liked being the Goddamn Batman.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" the wife shouts randomly from another room.

I enjoyed the living heck out of the Ghostbusters game because I got to be a Ghostbuster. I would enjoy the game over another forced movie (without Bill Murray), but this is only because of my obsession with Ghostbusters. I would not recommend it as a work of art to be compared to the movies or discussed at a book club. I am enjoying the "Ratchet & Clank" series because I enjoy the gameplay, I think the characters and even the enemies are cute, and the presentation done very well. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it but I admit that I wouldn't have picked it up if not for it being bundled with the PS3.

That is not an admission that I'm wrong about video games, even though I'm enjoying that particular game that I wouldn't have otherwise even given a thought about. Now it's it my life at the moment and I'm enjoying it. Score one for video games.

I would just be doing something else with that time, and it would produce something that would exist that I could call my own and even with my shoddy workmanship I could share and maybe be proud of. That's how I feel about video games, and about what I really should be doing with my time.

But, still, I'm the goddamn Batman.

Everyone Loves Gears #13

Working on a script for theater company. Woo.
-paul

I managed to not watch a single second of the Super Bowl.

My title is not one of snobbery. "Oh, I don't OWN a Television," answered the snob when all you wanted to know if the Cubs won. Or if The Simpsons was any good. Jeesus H. Criminy, I don't need a diatribe over why I'm an inferior slack jawed yokel because I like to watch Futurama on Netflix, or, you know, the news.

I have a fleeting interest in football, In that the Bears won the only Super Bowl that ever matter and we had to sing THE SHUFFLE after the Pledge Of Allegiance in grade school that week (not kidding). I watched THE GAME last year at a friend's house. I don't recall the year before. I watched the last Bears' appearance. I may have attended a few parties for the free food for the games before that. Before THAT, we'd show the games at the Brew & View, and I'd hang out in the lobby if the game sucked. And before THAT, I'd get as many episodes of MST3K that I hadn't seen yet and veg out on them all weekend.

Anyway, I will give people a hard time because they tuned in for the commercials. I don't listen to NPR for the pledge drive. ("Oh, I don't OWN a radio," continues the snob.) They (advertisers, networks) will air the commercials for the next few months. Also, thanks to internet, we knew about the return of Ferris Bueller. Artificial hype was created because dumbasses who never heard of IMDB ("oh, but I don't OWN a web browser...") can't look to see if an actual sequel to "Day off" is being produced. What, it's not? Of course not. Entertainment Tonight would've had that covered the minute the ink dried on Edie McClurg's contract to appear in the film. Shut up already. It's for a car commercial, a wise choice for Matthew Broderick. We don't need to keep talking about it. We can stop giving them free advertising.

One of the best things about the Super Bowl is that every other place that isn't a bar is empty. We went grocery shopping at a usually crowded claustrophobia-inducing grocery store filled with great deals and dozens of lunatics, this time virtually empty of other customers. Hooray for us!

Got home, played Super Paper Mario, enjoyed life. Yes, dear snob. You thought I was on YOUR side, dismissing the popular television event TO MAKE A POINT, but NO, I was playing mind-numbing proletariat-crushing VIDEO GAMES. Take THAT.

Super Paper Mario (Wii) is a ton of fun, by the way. I downloaded Paper Mario (SNES, on the Wii) and that one is pretty fun, but Super Paper has real time fighting, which I guess eliminates the critical difference in this RPG-ish sub-series from the other Mario games. It's also a lot easier. I think this game might be for much younger kids and not guys in their 30's. It might not even be for guys. I refuse to be embarrassed by it. It's silly fun, the enemies are adorable, and sound effects induce plenty of "awwww"s. Yes, my wife loves watching me play it.

This is not an important update in the new KVSM blog. I have abandoned the LiveJournal to the Russians a long time ago. I have not yet decided to discuss my Transformer collecting here though.

Nothing new artistically. Because I've been playing video games. No, wait:

-I'm in the process of booking some Hired Goons shows.

-2nd script has been reviewed...by me. I may just draw it whether or not it gets produced as a stage play. Yay.

-Everyone Loves Gears #13 & 14 have been written, with most of the dialogue recorded.

That's it. Talk later.

-paul

The Cubs Convention!

I asked Brad of The Heckler if he needed an extra hand at his booth at the Cub Convention this weekend, and he said sure. So that was cool.

If you're not familiar, The Heckler is a satirical site and occasional publication that originally was aimed at Cubs fans. It spread to cover other Chicago sport teams and then in the last year or so started to make fun of teams in other markets as well. I remember seeing it for the first time and laughing my ass off. People take their teams a little too seriously, myself included.

Anyway, I had done the Heckler booth dance a few times before. Hand out copies of our print edition, try to sell shirts. It's usually non-eventful from my point of view. A good number of people from Iowa telling us how much they love the Cubs, that sort of thing.

What I never get is why people DON'T want a free paper. Well, I guess I can see that.
Someone has I'm sure handed me plenty of free things, but usually flyers and ads are tossed out. If someone is handing me a free humor magazine, sure I'll take it. I need a laugh. I love 'zines. I pick up any of them when I'm travelling, be it the alt-weekly or someone's photocopied zine at a record store. Why not? Even if they aren't discussing something local, it's always a bit of local flavor, and always an added bonus when there's a comic strip I've never seen.

So why not take a free magazine so you can read something while waiting in line to meet former Cubs Frank DiPino & Vance Law? (note: I don't think they were actually there. Or that you know who they were.) A lot of "no thank yous" which is polite for "get that outta my face!" and, okay, you don't want to be hassled. But sheesh, it's free! And sports needs more humor. When I'm at a game with friends or my wife, we never stop with the dumb jokes. Everything deserves even a bit of a snicker, even the guy on your team throwing that no-hitter. Even sports I don't care for have a rich history and much of it unintentionally funny in contexts years later. If I had a Mad Magazine/Onion style sports mag in the 90's, I wouldn't have stopped paying attention to all of them during that bleak period (except for the Bulls, of course). So this sort of thing should be cherished.

The stories of the weirdos and drama are best left to Brad because he's the face of The Heckler and the local sports everybody seems to know him and respect him. If they don't, they're jags, and then they're his stories, not mine. I'm in the booth handing out papers and I didn't see much of nuthin', other than that Harry Caray impersonator who gave us his card and then left without doing his impersonation. I did walk around a bit. Not a lot of great stuff on super cheap discount and I didn't have much to spend on anything there, but I was happy to get a t-shirt in the style of '84 Cub jerseys with "Sandberg" on the back, so I never have to get another sports related clothing item again. There, the only thing I bought at the convention.

Be sure to subscribe to the Heckler for various silly sports stories throughout the year. I'll be doing more strips for them this year, they won't appear on this blog, but I'll let you know when they appear on that site.

In the meantime, the other cool thing was that Jody Davis signed this strip for me. It's based on something that happened when I was 8, when I met him on the field. Forgive Chug's enlarging head. I'd like to claim license to exaggerate, but we all know that I can't draw.

New-ish Paul Show strip / The Heckler @ The Cubs Convention

I drew this over the summer when we had a sale at the store I work at. I set up a drawing table and printed out some of my panels and let people draw their own strips. This was mine, done at the store in one sitting.

IN OTHER NEWS: I'll be at the Cubs Convention this Saturday, January 14th. Stop by The Heckler's booth if you're going and buy my comic book, Chug-Chug: Inaction from me, please.

I do a spit take as Carlos Zambrano gets traded to the Marlins.

Click on the link to see my latest contribution to Bugsandcranks.com.

-paul