I love a good laugh, I do. I have a great sense of humor, and I believe it's better to consider ridiculous things as humorous than tragic. However, I can't help but see the tragedy of modern humor. Comedy Central movies circulates around weed jokes. Stand-up circulates around stereotypes and gratuitous cussing. And theater movies are all pointed towards either grade school students or college students who do nothing but party. Now, that's not to say I don't watch these comedic sources and don't occasionally chuckle, but the distance between laughs is ever-increasing as it's just not that funny anymore. If this path of boiling down comedy to its easiest and simplest chunks continues, we'll have nothing to look forward to but "Dude Yer Drunk 7" the latest stirring chapter of a man who yet again decides to get close to his friends by going out for a drunken adventure . . . one . . . last . . . time! Now, don't confuse my rantings as a criticism of analyzing the elements of humor. I believe comedy should be analyzed. I believe studying comedy makes better comedy. The early greats did more than just ridiculous acts, the taught themselves what was funny and what was not funny and designed their shtick accordingly. Slapstick, the running gag, deadpan, straight man, all are concepts come from the early study of comedy. Now, the use of such devices may or may not be to one's comedic tastes, that's up to the comedian, but there's so much more to humor that's still quite funny that has nothing to do with hyperbole and inappropriate use of cuss words. I'm not some religious fanatic against "bad words;" I'm just saying it wears thin and can get to be overwhelmingly unnecessary. So please, some more intelligent comedy, please! Word play, characterization, satire, non sequitur, visual gags, whatever you gotta do, but please, please, just work a little harder to give us a better quality comedy!

Let me first say, I used to watch chick flicks. As a teenage boy, I enjoyed the odd Meg Ryan or Sandra Bullock movie. French Kiss actually added Kevin Kline to my list of must-see actors. (If those pilates lunges haven't been challenging enough for you, check out Kevin's performance of Pirate King in the Pirates of Penzance.) Now, that's not to say I didn't know certain names I had to stay away from. (Julia, would you like to do another movie? *stomp stomp neigh* What's that? More screen time for horses? You're the boss.) But I wasn't hesitant to check out a chick flick just because it was a chick flick. Now, between movies about Manhattan designer shoppes, McConaughey's 1001 I-love-the-jerk-I-am to I'll-change-cuz-I-wuvs-yous transitions, and every actress on SpikeTV's Top100 Most Mollestable thinking because I stumble in high heels and can't carry a cuppa 10 feet without spilling it on the next AberFitch coverboy that she must be plain and a loser at love just like every other girl in America, I wonder how these perpetual disappointments always seem to get paid.
Now, I'll try to stick to my original topic, as this is inspiring so many other rants, but I just don't understand how you could go from quality work like Roman Holiday, Can't Buy Me Love, Little Women, Pretty in Pink, and heck, I'll say it, Hope Floats, that you could endure 10 Days, Devil Wears Prada, Princess Diaries (and sequels), Confessions, etc. I'm not saying they all have to be Oscar winners. You can have the odd While You Were Sleeping, You've Got Mail, and ok, maybe even an occasional Where The Heart Is. But leave out the What Women Want, What A Girl Wants, Legally Blonde, and the like from the genre, and you might actually get guys to go to those kind of films again without announcing "lifestyle" changes to you later. Now yes, there is the guy's comedy to address, and believe me, next rant will be all about dumbass comedies, but first, I'd like to conduct a little experiment. By far, the most common face I see amongst these kinds of films is the legendary Matthew McConaughey. So let me ask you ladies out there, in your vast collection of DVDs, between the Casablanca classics, the Pretty Woman traditionals, and the special-audience-only Exit-To-Edens in your library, just how many of them feature the shirtless flavor of the day? Let me know on the poll, so I can truly see if women are buying these kinds of films nowadays. And guys, show your support by commenting with the kinds of chick flicks you actually used to enjoy watching with your lady friends. Remind us all how a date movie could actually make us feel good about the man-woman dynamic. I'm eager to see the results. Thanks.

Didn't get that 5th grade level yet, but I'm working on it. I DID manage to get two graffiti jackets done up for my sister and her roommate. Their birthdays are real close together and I've been in a craft-making mood, so I decided to take the the new graffiti style I've been working on and apply it to a couple of dark denim jackets. Incidentally, if you're thinking about doing the same, you might want to consider something other than a denim jacket for your canvas. It took me three cities and I don't know how many stores to find two. Simple denim jacket, you'd think would be easy to find. Now I know better. Pick a platform you see all the time. Anyway, I've included pictures of my work. I'm actually pretty impressed with my first attempts. I'm certainly enjoying the graffiti look, and I'm hoping to get wildstyle under my belt.
I'm also working on ornamental engraving styles, especially scroll leaf. I'm hoping to implement the style into a vectorized shirt design I have to get done in a couple of months. If I get it down, it may work for other things I have in mind. Real world, by hand engraving though, might have applications as well. I'd love to add just a bit of embellishment to almost every metal surface. That'd be awesome.
So yeah, even though it's February, I guess I'm still making a lot of resolutions. First and foremost, though, would be to make some money with my art. I'll be making a lot of my artwork available through here, and feel free to suggest artwork to do. I'm struggling with ideas, but am looking to do an entire zodiac line. Probably more than one line. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for your visit.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, but December always makes me think about what plans I haven't accomplished. In January, I always make plans for the year, and I'm sure to in 2009, but December comes around and the important ones seem to go undone. Oh, it's not like I accomplish NOTHING over the year. This year, I actually solved the Rubik's Cube. Memorized the meaning of each Tarot card. (For divination, obviously.) I learned how to paint ceramics. And I'm sure if I hurried, I could squeeze in memorizing the meaning of all kanji up to 5th Grade level. But I can't say any of those were on my list of things to do for this year. I'd much rather lose some weight, sell some artwork, build my EV bike. Oh sure, things get in the way, things I could easily blame, but nothing gets in the way quite as much as me. I make progress, I've learned a lot of new styles in pursuit of my art, and I've learned a lot about what goes into bike building and . . . OK, so there isn't much to learn about losing weight, I've just gotta get up off my lazy ass, do my stretches, and jog a bit. Yeah, that's my biggest hindrance--getting up and getting stuff done. And yeah, it's easy to type here and psyche myself up to do it, but it's hard to build myself standing on the brink, looking at my daunting ambition and pushing myself over the edge. To do that once is hard, to do it every day feels impossible. But there's really nothing for it. I just gotta get in the habit of giving myself that last little shove. OK, well, it's kinda too damn cold to go jogging just now . . . uhm . . . so let's aim for that 5th-Grade kanji level.