| Dechnical Tifficulties |
[Dec. 14th, 2009|09:35 am] |
'K, a couple big things happened last week, not least of which was a hard drive crash on my laptop.
Between that and the blizzard that hit the midwest, it essentially wiped out another work week.
Fortunately, it seems (fingers crossed) as if all of my data was backed up. But getting everything back on the machine’s new hard drive has been a bit – shall we say “entertaining.” Not least because the new hard drive came loaded with a new operating system, and many of my old discs are still in boxes somewhere from the move.
I *hope* to have new strips up and running by this coming Friday, Dec. 18, Monday, December 21 at the latest.
On the plus side, there’ll be some news about something that’ll soon make sure DorkTower.com web site problems, etc., etc., are – if not a thing of the past – at least far more infrequent. There’ll be other big news as well. I’ll probably pst that this coming Thursday.
For the moment, it’s been incredibly frustrating, and I’d like to apologize for the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the web site this month. In 2010, I hope that the thrice-weekly schedule of comic strips will be hit, and hit regularly and well.
On the other hand, I’m not a kid in Darfur, so I really can’t complain too much about anything…
Also at the start of the year, some more big news, about what’s going on with everything: the Dork Tower comic strips; Dr. Blink comics and more; the Dork Tower comic books; My Little Cthulhu; Mythos Buddies; Munchkin; Out of the Box Games; the Dork Tower puppet project; where my mind’s at; and so on. Kind of a State of the Cartoonist address. I’m working that up now to post New Year’s Day. It may need to be broken into a few parts.
In the meantime, thank you SO much for your patience these last few weeks. Please check back in lter in the week, when I hope things will be starting to run a bit more smoothly. I’m working on making everything sharper, smoother, faster and better at DorkTower.com.
John
PS – please excuse any typos. I’ve got to run off for a plane, and don’t have time to proof this in my usual haphazard way… |
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| Green Sunday |
[Dec. 13th, 2009|11:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
It was a good day to be wearing green in the NFL.
The Jets won their morning game convincingly, even with Mark Sanchez nursing his knees back in New York City and Kellen Clemens playing abysmally in his stead. Hardly mattered. Gang Green's running game was hitting, and the defense played lights out. Of course, they were in Tampa Bay playing this year's Bucs, so it hardly counted. Josh Freeman, the heralded Bucs rookie QB, looked just awful, but maybe some of that was Rex Ryan's D. Still, these Bucs are so bad they ought to make them go back and wear the creamsicle uniforms until they start playing better.
The Jets are still in the playoff hunt, but just barely. They pretty much have to win out, and with the Colts and the Bengals on their schedule, I think that's unlikely. And next week they have to beat Atlanta, who have a bad record but gave the Saints all they could handle today.
Green Bay won as well. Another "green" team.
And, sadly, this evening the midnight green Iggles of Philadelphia defeated my Giants in a heartbreaker. All the talking heads are saying what a great game it was. Pfui. It was an EXCITING game, yes. The G-Men came out stumbling and spotted the Iggles to a two touchdown lead, then battled back for the rest of the game. Every time they closed the gap to one score the Eagles would get punch in another one and widen it again. Finally the Giants managed to take a one-point lead at 31-30... only to have the Eagles get a long TD on the very first play after the kickoff. The scoring continued after that, and finally ended 45-38 in favor of Philadelphia. The Giants racked up a ridiculous number of passing yards, and both teams left points on the board. McNabb missed one wide-open receiver who was streaking downfield for what should have been a certain touchdown, receiver Mario Manningham of the G-Men had two endzone receptions disallowed for having one foot out of bounds, and his fellow wideout Hakeem Nicks had a couple of TD passes bounce off his hands. There was also a Giants linebacker who dropped what would have been a certain pick-six served up by McNabb. It too bounced off his hands. (And weirdly, it wasn't a pass after all, but a forward fumble, but after our LB dropped it players on both teams just ignored the live ball lying there on the grass). There were fumbles, a punt return for a TD, an freaky pass broken up by an Eagle that caromed off his thigh into the hands of the Giants tight end... lots of crazy, colorful, thrilling stuff. Both teams played hard.
But a great game? Pfui. For fans like me, who appreciate defense, it was far from that. Neither team brought their defense, from what I saw. The Giants certainly proved themselves unable to stop the Eagles. After ranking as the best defense in the NFL at season's start, our D has fallen apart. Especially the pass rush. McNabb had all day back there. Eli played one of the best games I have ever seen him play -- his stats were off the charts, and would have been obscene if Manningham could have stayed in bounds and Nicks could have caught the balls that were bouncing off him -- despite the fact that he was under pressure every snap. McNabb, on the other hand, could have filled out and filed his tax return in the pocket on a couple of those plays. What the hell happened to the Giants' fearsome pass rush? We have the same players as last year and the year before. With added depth; by rights we should be better. But Bill Sheridan, our new defensive coordinator, does not have them playing the same agressive attacking style that Spags did last year, that has made a world of difference. Sheridan needs to go. I want my Big Blue D back. I like winning games 13-10 much more than losing them 45-38.
Oddly, despite the loss, the Giants may still have a better chance of making the playoffs than the Jets do, provided the Cowboys continue their traditional December collapse. But I am not holding my breath. Next week's game against the Redskins has the look of a classic trap game. After getting up emotionally for the big games against Dallas and Phillie, the Giants are all too likely to suffer a bad letdown against the Skins and get upset, which would effectively end their season. I've seen it happen before. And Washinton is better than its record. And even if they get past the Skins, the Vikings are waiting at season's end. The only silver lining in the clouds over the Meadowlands is the fact that the Giants own the tiebreakers over the Cowboys, so if both teams finish with the same record, New York goes to the playoffs and Dallas stays home. But right now Dallas is a game up.
Life is magical... but full of pain. |
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| Olympic Torch |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|06:28 pm] |
I. Got. To. Hold. The. Olympic. Torch. Today.
That is all.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! |
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| My friend Leon's Open letter to ABC. Please share. |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
TO: ABC
FROM: Leon Lynn
RE: Desecration of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
12/8/09
Dear ABC,
How could you?
For years and years I have awaited the network broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as the true herald of the holiday season. I brought my kids up with the same tradition -- one which has been made no less special for us by the fact that they happen to be Jewish.
Tonight we sat in horror and watched what you have done to the single greatest cartoon ever made.
How many minutes did you cut out of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" so you could run more commercials?
Gone was Sally's materialistic letter to Santa, which finally sends Charlie screaming from the room when she says she will settle for 10s and 20s.
Gone was Schroeder's miraculous multiple renditions of "Jingle Bells" from a toy piano, including the one that sounds distinctly like a church organ.
Gone was Linus using his blanket as an improvised slingshot to knock a can off the fence no one else can hit, complete with ricochet sound effect.
Gone were the kids catching snowflakes on their tongues and commenting on their flavor.
Gone even was poor Shermy's only line. He thought he had it bad because he was always tasked to play a shepherd. He had no idea.
And why were all these classic scenes cut? To plug more ads into the show, of course. To sell burgers and greeting cards -- and to relentlessly plug the insipid-looking new Disney "soon to be a classic" show immediately following. (I didn't watch the new show, by the way. I was laid far too low by what had just happened.)
Cramming all of these ads into the 30-minute broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" required major edits to a cartoon that has spent 44 years now trying to remind us that Christmas is supposed to transcend crass commercialism.
Do you have no sense of irony?
A couple of weeks ago I noted that you can now buy a plastic replica of the pathetic little real-wood Christmas tree Charlie Brown brings home from the tree lot otherwise monopolized by shiny fake trees. I thought we had sunk as low as we could.
Obviously I was wrong.
Oh, and by the way: The sound was half a second behind the picture: They were not synched properly. I thought this was pretty sloppy for a major TV network, but I was willing to look past it.
What I cannot look past is the chopping to bits of a genuine classic, not just to pump more ads at us, but in direct conflict with the message that has made it a classic.
When I was a kid, the annual broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was a holiday unto itself. It was the only time we ever saw ads for Dolly Madison snack cakes, for one thing. But more importantly, it actually framed the coming holiday for me in a meaningful way.
The shepherds in their fields had no corporate sponsors. Nobody had bought the naming rights for the manger. The infant Jesus did not have an endorsement deal lined up with a particular line of swaddling clothes.
Instead he came, the story goes, to preach universal love, and the abandonment of false ideals like the acquisition of gross material wealth in favor of something far more valuable.
You have not just lost sight of this, or turned your backs on it. You have stomped it into the mud.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
But I bet you aren't. I bet you're way past that.
Count my family out for next year.
Sincerely,
Leon Lynn |
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| Christmas Special |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|03:33 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
The end of the year is almost upon us, and the holidays are bearing down like a freight train, so it must be time for a Christmas sale.
From now until the end of the year, I'm offering special discounts on three of the hardcover books offered on the Signed Books page of my website.
The Meisha Merlin trade hardcover of TUF VOYAGING, with a cover by Michael Komarck and interior illustrations by Janet Aulisio, normally sells for $29.
The Bantam Spectra hardcover reissue of WINDHAVEN, my collaboration with Lisa Tuttle, sells for $26 on the website.
And INSIDE STRAIGHT, first volume in Tor's new Wild Cards triad, goes for $27.
You can also get all three of these books for $69.
But those are the normal prices. From now through the end of the year, as a Christmas special, I'm offering each of the hardcovers for $20, or all three for $57.
Those prices include Book Rate (Media Mail) shipping within the United States. If you would prefer Priority Mail, please add $5 for a single book, or $10 for more than one. Overseas and out-of-country shipping is more; please inquire.
And of course I'm always willing to sign and inscribe the books.
((Oh, and while the supply lasts, the copies of INSIDE STRAIGHT I'll be sending out are signed by Daniel Abraham and Melinda Snodgrass as well. But I have less than 20 of those, so once they're gone, it will be just my own autograph)).
Happy holidays, and good reading.
Note from the Assistant's desk:
Please email grrmbooks@gmail.com with questions regarding ordering or international shipping rates.
As always, you can find our ordering page here: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/books-ordering.html |
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| Marvelous Miniatures |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|11:06 am] |
Just wanted to share some more of the wonderful Ice & Fire miniatures from Dark Sword.
First, some lovely painted versions of Prince Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne, and Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, dueling for the life of Tyrion Lannister. Tom Meier did the sculpts, and Matt Verzani painted these for the Dark Sword studio collection.
Prince Oberyn:
The Mountain:
The Duel:
Tom is always so exacting about scale and size with his sculpts; I love how this pairing brings home Ser Gregor's monstrous size in such a vivid and visceral way. And of course Matt has done a wonderful job with the paint, as always.
And while Matt's been busy with his brush, Tom has been sculpting up a storm in his studio, and we have some great new greens to add to the range. These aren't in production yet, but look for them soon.
Here's Arya:
And Sansa:
Lady Catelyn:
And a personal favorite, Sansa building her snow castle at the Eyrie:
For more information and pictures, visit the Dark Sword website at http://darkswordminiatures.com/ And remember, miniatures make wonderful stocking stuffers for all the Ice & Fire fans in the family. |
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| I've got blisters on my fingers... |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|09:17 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | lennon | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Muskrat Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Look At Me" - John Lennon | ] |
A column I wrote, 19 years ago, when I was a newspaper person in another life.
LENNON’S LIFE, LYRICS TOUCHED MANY LIVES
By John Kovalic
Wisconsin State Journal
About five years ago, I walked out of Paul McCartney’s “Give My Regards to Broad Street” and into the offices of the UW student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal, to type up my careful, considered review of the movie.
“Somebody,” I wrote, “shot the wrong Beatle.”
In the days that followed, as the Cardinal devoted what I’m still convinced were special issues – but may have been merely entire pages – to my hate mail, I decided to crawl underneath my desk and rethink my position. Friends told me Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene had become so violently incensed with my review that he stopped writing about Elvis Presely for a full five minutes to compose a column on how young people these days didn’t understand Paul McCartney.
The Bob Greene reports may have been spurious – I have yet to track down any such column – but if I ever get around to penning my autobiography (tentatively titled “I Wandered Lonely as a Clod”), I’ll probably gloss over what later came to be known as “The Broad Street Affair.”
Instead, I’ll try to focus on McCartney’s recent world tour. Specifically, on a three-song medley he performed in the middle of a block of Beatles numbers at a mobbed Soldier Field in Chicago.
I can’t even remember if he introduced the medley, yet its songs were unbearably wrenching: “Help!” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Give Peace a Chance.”
Songs John Lennon wrote.
To be honest, McCartney’s versions of “Help!” and “Give Peace A Chance” didn’t strike me as anything to write home about at the time. They seemed rushed, and slightly harried. Maybe not dishonest, but not from the heart.
But the emotions I felt as he moved into the opening chords of “Strawberry Fields” were overwhelming.
Maybe it was the deferred hope diffused in “Strawberry Fields” that McCartney captured that night. Or perhaps it was simply his relative difficulty in relating to the lonely pain of “Help!” or the subdued urgency of “Give Peace a Chance” that made the middle song so powerful by comparison.
But – at that moment, during the opening chords of an abbreviated song he hadn’t even written – McCartney transformed his performance from Oldies Concert to Happening.
There seems to be a division among some Beatles fans, between Lennon supporters and McCartney apologists. It’s as if nobody can quite accept the fact that the band that produced “And Your Bird Can Sing” also put “Good Day Sunshine” on “Revolver.”
Every other radio station under the sun will be playing blocks of Lennon’s music today, on the 10th anniversary of his murder. “And Your Bird Can Sing” will undoubtedly be among them.
And at some point, there’ll be a Lennon song – it may be this or any one, it depends on how I’m feeling at the time – that gives me pause, that makes me think back to a cold day during my first year at the University of London, when I couldn’t believe the news.
At the time, I was a staunch McCartney apologist. In a sense – a few movie reviews to the contrary – I still am.
But when I heard the news, I felt cold.
Ten years ago, the BBC pulled its regularly scheduled evening broadcasts in the wake of the murder, and ran the movie “Help!” instead.
At some point today, a radio station will play a song. And I’ll start thinking about how one man can touch so many lives.
(c) 1990, Wisconsin State Journal |
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