Where were you 368 days ago?

It was a little over a year ago that I started this little blog and I'm still here. Whether that is a good or not, I'll leave that up to you, but I never thought that I'd do it. While not the most significant anniversary in the world, it really means a lot to me: 368 days, 112 posts, thousands of words (some actually are spelled correctly and combine with others to make a decent thought), not too bad.

Thank you for reading and indulging in my written insanity.

During the last year a lot of things have changed: I moved from Somerville to Brookline, I went from being single to engaged, I don't hate my job as much, I'm in school and I have a brand new website, (excuse me, a little net whoring: click here). Things are looking good.

Today is the Saturday of the Fourth of July weekend, we aren't doing jackshit. It's a gorgeous day out and I'm sitting in here writing and after that I'll probably work on my strip for a bit. I have to start pulling together a list of people that I want to see my strip (that dude that I met at Johana's wedding, and the cartoonist whom I spoke to in November, Sara's friend) and find some websites where I can link my site.

Truth be told, I haven't been getting a lot of hits on the comic and if I want things to grow a bit, I'm going to need more eyeballs. Ryan suggested that I work on putting up two strips a week, but I can't do that now, with work, school, the wedding, trying to go to the gym, there are just too many things. Plus, I want to start with a solid base and work on meeting my self-imposed deadlines. You'd be surprised how quick a week goes by when you need to post things.

I finished another book, one that I bought on Saturday. Buzzed through it in about three days, which isn't any big shakes as I'll explain in a moment. Anyway, here is the libro:

First off, I am a gigantic Kevin Smith fan, for those that don't know, he is the writer/director of "Clerks", "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Jersey Girl". I never saw the last movie, but the first five are tremendous. If you haven't seen them, get out and rent them, especially "Clerks".

I've seen countless interviews with the guy and he seems like a real solid dude, no pretentsion at all. He was a working stiff who made and financed "Clerks" with loans and credit cards and it turned out to be a huge hit. Another thing that I like about him is that he seems to have never forgotten a friend or where he came from. To me that's pretty important.

Having said all of that, there were a few problems I had with the book. One he used my old college trick of making a book or a report or essay look more impressive than it really is. He (or more rightly, his publisher) jacked up the type and squished the margins (all fucking four, that's pretty ballsy) in. The book was about 300 pages, but in reality, it was maybe 140. But in order to justify charging $14.00 for it, I guess they had to make it longer. Whatever, not a huge deal.

This fault is mostly mine, but I had read a good portion of his essays on line. He has an awesome web page that has a Blog and a message board where he chats with fans. Personally, I think that's the balls when someone whom many people respect take time out of their busy schedule to check in with little guys and gals. Here it is, if you're curious: View Askew.

So that sucks for me.

The third thing is that aside from a vicious cut job on Reese Witherspoon, Smith really doesn't deliver the goods as far as gossip. He's a cocktease about it, writing that he heard some cool shit, but he never delivers. I understand why he can't, but it still sucks. Also, he shouldn't be allowed to interview anyone. He sits down with Ben Affleck (whom I like) and Tom Cruise (whom I think is a total tool) and as I was reading it, I actually felt embarrassment. Sure, it's cool to fawn all over your idols, but this was a bit much.

But in the long run he's a writer, not a journalist (that's his wife), and when he writes, he's magnificent. Just some great observations on pop culture, some cool behind the scenes on his movies and how Hollywood really works. I thought that the best parts is when he detailed his regular life. Like I said, I like Smith a lot, he seems like a dude who I would really like to hang with and this book didn't do anything to change that.

I've been sort of putting doing these things off, especially since I started the strip, but I want you to look at this comic strip:



To say that I was surprised when I read this is an understatement, I think someone has kidnapped Johnny Hart and replaced him with Zach De La Rocha. Johnny has always peppered his strips with very strong Christian and pro-American rhetoric for as long as I can remember. And this is a direct shot at the U.S. government, or at least an unofficial part of the law making process.

And in calling lobbyists bribers, he's heavily insinuating that congressmen and senators are actually taking that bribe. And if we go a step further, if the lobbyists have our government in their pockets, that means our country is being controlled by big business.

Not exactly apple pie, mom and baseball, is it? And two days before our nation's birthday! You've got balls, Mr. Hart.

I have to admit, I like it. I really do, not that I think that the United States is run by Big Business, I think it is, but I'm glad that someone like Hart is thinking the same thing. Next thing you know, Bill Keane is going to be asking for "blood in the streets" and Jim Davis will stop railing against Mondays and starting screaming for the impeachment of George W.

Has the world gone Ted Rall on us?

BTW, I won't be in Brookline for the rest of the weekend, I'm going to try and post an Aquaman Blog sometime, but the computer that I'll be near still has a dial-up connection. We'll see how it goes. Have a Happy Fourth, everyone and congratulations to Danna and Rick on the birth of their first child. Mozltov.