LONELYPOND PRESENTS

And what do you do on a rainy weekend?

I’m thinking: MOVIES. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day has been sitting on top of the TV in its red Netflix envelope since before the Olympics. Time to watch. May also need to watch Steamboy (finally) as I’m hoping to arrange a Lego photo shoot with the person I borrowed it from (it’s for the GeekDad 88 Lines for 42 Geeks project; you should get involved.) Already finished two illustrations for it — I’m trying to learn to work with Inkscape but it’s getting increasingly frustrating. I think that may be a too much stuff on my computer issue.

Back to movies: An Education is playing on the big screen downtown (yes, we have one of those vintage movie theatres with a balcony. It’s great!) this weekend. Trying to convince Gayle to see it. She wasn’t thrilled by any of the Best Picture nominees this year.

New stuff: My nephew-in-law is in a band called Hollow Shoulder. So far, they’re up to two songs and preparing a t-shirt order. Check them out. I recommend listening to My Enemy.

Finally (been a little tempted since The Web Files covered the show in episode #26) caught The Bannen Way on Crackle. Actually, what I finally caught the first two episodes; have to purchase or rent the rest and I think I will. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s stylish and I really enjoyed it. I like action, especially action with a wink and a fast car and an occasional brunette. The Bannen Way suits these requirements exactly.

Lightning Thief was an awful movie that butchered a fun book, left out major characters, altered several key features of the plot and just wasn’t any fun to watch at all. So I reread the book for last week’s book (I’m trying to read at least one book a week between now + the start of Merchant of Venice). Still fun. Still not Harry Potter but fun.

How To Train Your Dragon (also based on a series of books) looks like it will be a much better movie going experience. I may even smuggle in high end chocolate.

Gayle just showed up with lunch to start off the rainy weekend so enjoy your weekend. See a movie or something. Thanks for stopping by.

Haven’t talked Shakespeare in a bit, but the calls about Merchant of Venice (#merven) auditions are already starting so it’s moving back into the mull over space in my brain. And my holdover obsession from my last reading is RINGS. Three of them: Portia’s, Nerissa’s and Shylock’s.

Shylock has a ring, you say, I missed that. If you did, go back, because I can’t get the thought out of my head that it is THE pivotal moment for his character. As Shylock is having a meltdown over his daughter’s disappearance with his goods, having only just paused that to finish his meltdown over the unfair treatment of Jews and moneylenders, his fellow moneylender Tubal reports he saw a ring Jessica traded for a monkey. Shylock’s wife had given him that particular turquoise ring before their bethrothal. Tubal’s revelation comes at the end of a scene mixing Shylock’s rage and thirst for revenge over his daughter’s betrayal with Antonio’s ill fortune and the opportunity it affords Shylock to settle a lifetime of grievances (III i) This scene changes the whole tone of the play and Shylock’s interaction with the world around him. And Shakespeare tosses in this moment of sentiment/personal history/real emotion(?) after Shylock’s totally over the top, playing to the balcony seats, possibly staged and well rehearsed rant*. So we come to the make or break scene, but while most seem to focus on the big dramatic “Hath a Jew not eyes” speech, I find myself focusing on what Shylock says after, when left alone with his only peer in the play and discussing the trigger of his raging sorrow (Jessica’s betrayal). Taming of The Shrew (#tamingshakespeare) taught me to only pay as much attention to the “BIG” speeches as the play actually requires so what I find myself wondering is not does Shylock bleed but does he shed a turquoise tear over wife’s loss and daughter’s treason.

And now to the shredding. Well, it’s going to take an exceptional actress to convince me that Portia’s not just a bubbling fountain of egocentric, self important, smart ass cruelty. What she does to Shylock could be justified as over protectiveness of Bassiano but then I stumble over the cruel trick she and Nerissa play on their newlywed husbands. First, they give Bassiano and Graziano rings and make them swear never to take them off, give them away, etc. Then, Portia and Nerissa, disguised as learned doctor of laws and his clerk, demand the men give them the rings as payment. Later in the final act, Portia and Nerissa claim to have lain with the doctor and the clerk by virtue of their possession of said rings. Oy. I must say the men show remarkable forbearance. Almost (only almost) more than finding a Portia, I worry about finding a Bassiano who can make Portia seem lovable. And Portia never bothers to explain that it might be a response to some of Bassiano’s protests of his loyalty to Antonio during the trial. Shakespeare often leaves a kick in the teeth for directors in Act V (if he hasn’t earlier aka Act I, sc ii of The Tempest, which should just be a prequel titled The Duke Of Milan).

So while many people focus on the three caskets, gold, silver and lead, that challenge Portia’s suitors, I find myself obsessed with three rings.

*I admit to pre prepping the occasional rant while pacing in my office/backyard/empty theatre; haven’t you?

Fragile Vital Scars
Fuck not Shock but Beauty’s Bite
Life Beats Breathless Still

Well, the Olympics are over, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has closed, we’re caught up on Chuck, Blink Kitty Love did not get a Streamy nomination(thanks to everyone and anyone who voted!) and the snow might be melting. So what now? Well, do you want the To-Do list or the quick reviews. Let’s do reviews.

Chuck — loved Season 2. And considering how well they did with guest stars in Season 2, why oh why did they INFLICT Brandon Routh on us (it can’t be only me)? Oy. Yvonne Strahovski continues excellently expressing quiet discomfort over Chuck’s evolution but the whole two people moving in separate directions with two other people plot angle is VERY forced and seems like just an excuse to shoehorn in “GUEST STARS” and rushed choices. Always nice to see Kristin Kreuk, if only they’d put her in the guest part that lasted more than four episodes.

Smallville is back and I’m remembering it’s on Fridays. Watched the morning show episode and enjoyed it, although I really wish they’d stop dressing Tom Welling all in the smooth, stylish black. I don’t like the dark color palette but the characters seem to having a little more fun.

Wizards of Waverly Place — slumping. Alex as go go over the top cheerleader? no no. Good luck Charlie is looking like fun. The actor playing the Dad (

Work on a new Blink Kitty Love — a great title hit me yesterday
Keep writing “The Lady Lost” or “Maybe Turning That Corner Wasn’t The Brightest Idea I Ever Had”
And have some fun, darn it.

Good night.

Ha…that amused me. Enjoying the Olympics, although the curling tournament seems to take as long as the entire Winter Games (did you know a good set of curling rocks costs $1500 (acc. to Wikipedia) and there’s Curling for the Wii). But it’s fun to watch. Little Brother #2 only watches curling and hockey. The last Olympics he claims to have developed a crush on the Japanese curling team; I have yet to inquire about this year’s favorite.

Quick summary of stuff:

Really want to see Judy Dench as Titania in Midsummer. Once again, Sarah Hemming envy strikes. Midsummer is one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays and I’m developing a movie related project (or two).

There’s a new Stirfry Neon chapter. Current adventure: The Lady Lost or What Was I Thinking When I Turned That Corner.

Blink Kitty Love has been dormant for a month while I steep and work on tigers — Happy Year of the Tiger. Almost done with my tiger meditation period, including an excellent animation. Look for it here or the Twitter announcement (aka follow me @lonelypond).

I am considering some Blink Kitty Love changes, taking things a bit more experimental and exploring the world around the band…or just exploring the world and having fun with my unique animation style and humor. I’m much better at contained stories than an ongoing soap opera kind of thing and the best Blink Kitty Loves are when I’m inspired to comment/riff on something happening now. So I’m going to take that thought and see where it goes. I had a lot of fun putting in some hard work on my Year of The Tiger animation and I think it’s the best I’ve done yet. So I’ve been considering what I could do if I put the work into a longer story. The Olympics has me thinking: what’s my gold medal event.

The Lonely Pond annual meeting surprised me — it always does, but this year it wasn’t in the good way. I’ve been mulling over what happened for a couple of months now. We stalled right at the beginning with a restructuring discussion and didn’t get to my grand plans. The rest of Team Lonely Pond wants to be involved and doesn’t want to give up the company or the name, but they don’t want to commit the energy to take us to the level I wanted to go for reinventing Shakespeare on the web. So we’ve put the company on hold and I have consultants available. So I’m scaling back to one project at a time and dealing with the realization that I can do what I want, but I have to be certain that I have the enthusiasm to carry it through by myself. Which means I’m revisiting some earlier ideas that I once loved and are sitting on a shelf for no real reason at all.

Pop Culture Reviews + News:

I like Lady GaGa — I’ve been wandering around singing Paparazzi. It’s Little Brother #2’s fault; his taste in music sometimes surprises me. Caught Justin Bieber’s cover “Love Me” of The Cardigan’s LoveFool and it’s simply ludicrous. I hate when there’s an American Idol style remake of song that rolls on Radio FlashCatFlash (yes, I mean you Adam Lambert’s Mad World. Alison Iraheta’s Someone To Watch Over Me seems to be the only one that doesn’t cause me to twitch but that’s a song with multiple covers already and might be my weakness for brunettes showing.)

The Web Files is branching out with their new Buzz edition, covering events + news around the wonderful world of web series. Host Kristyn Burtt has great energy always, but especially when she’s prowling an event with a microphone, capturing the spark of the moment.

Smallville: took a break from the Olympics to catch the Wonder Twins episode. Not bad. I think we might be back on Team Smallville, although their color and emotional palette remains a bit dark for me.

My robot loving buddy @spacehospital is showing episodes from their first season on KoldCast TV. It’s insane fun with puppets, models and special effects.

Starstruck — bah, slow, boring, a really poorly paced + badly written version of It Happened One Night where Sterling Knight plays the spoiled heiress part. Well acted but characters not believable. And let’s be honest: Brandon Mychal Smith should have played the lead in a better written movie. He had one musical number and he brought enough energy to it for the whole movie. Disney once again loses points for their lack of showcasing multiracial actors.

Haven’t seen The Lightning Thief because Gayle wants to finish the book first. Oy. Love the How To Train Your Dragon Olympic themed commercials.

OK, curling calls. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity in this Year of The Metal Tiger.

Aside from that, in an Olympic mood — waiting for curling + snowboarding while watching women’s hockey. Blink Kitty Love has a new post up about their favorite Canadian musicians + Winter Olympic sports.

Getting through Chuck, Season 2 in between sports and LOVING IT. GuestStar-A-Palooza — so far, I think my favorite is Dominic Monaghan in Chuck vs. The Third Dimension — I have never seen Lost so this is just a straight forward nod to good comedy. Gayle was surprised to be reminded that he was one of the hobbits.

Missing working on my new Twitter fiction, The Lady Lost or Turning That Corner Wasn’t The Brightest Idea I Ever Had, but too many other things going on and I really want to get back to it when I can get into a good writing zone.

Loved Phonogram: The Singles Club #7 (5 page preview or review) and am mulling over some art, interpretation and communication thoughts which might steep into something worth sharing. I am currently at the fulcrum of art is an individual understanding/effort/experience but communication makes us a community. And sometimes, you just howl. There will be a Phonogram: Singles Club book with all seven issues collected; it’s worth the read.

But right now, Olympics….I’ll catch up with FT links sometime. Snow delayed mail delivery so there’s a pile to go through. Which is always kind of fun.

Good night, happy New Year and thanks for stopping by.

3 A.M. Antidote Haiku:

Wrote anxiety
haiku so true it panicked
This poem leans laughward

Haiku (Untitled):

Edge of Love Lashing
Curling In Cutting Away
Never Now Always

Well, this is the question that’s been bugging me. Where’s the new Blink Kitty Love? What’s the band up to?* It’s been a month.

Yes, it’s been a month, but I think the whole Streamy push tired me out…Yes, it would be GREAT to be nominated for a Streamy and I really do think that Blink Kitty Love deserves consideration in both the Best Animated Series and Best Experimental Series categories, but I find that the energy required to promote something drains the energy required to create something.

Did you look outside, there’s winter (and snow).

I’m learning how to draw tigers for my two week Chinese New Year artistic meditation — very exciting; I love focusing on one animal a year. Here’s the collection so far and the current year.

Meanwhile, there’s been the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe set, which I am helping with but the designer is an amazing artist who has a vision in his head and doesn’t want anybody else raising a brush near it. I respect that but it is also draining in its own way.

More exciting is that I’ve been discussing (early for me) Merchant of Venice (#merven) with a really cool artist who is planning to do the logo so I’ve been getting up to speed on that (and trying to coordinate a conversation — scheduling is one of the more annoying things to do while also being one of the more important).

So I’ve been drawing less, tweeting less, blogging less and stressing more. Which is just the low point of a natural cycle so it’s time to swing back the other way.

I did remember to catch Smallville: Absolute Justice. Their viewing numbers must be a huge increase over other weeks since I think everyone I know who has ever loved a comic book watched it. Smallville has caught a lot of interest now, so we’ll see where it goes. There were some great moments in Justice - Dr. Fate putting the mask on tops the list, a moment of heroism that made you catch your breath, and the newsreel footage was excellent. It was nice to see heroes without the shades of murky grey that Smallville likes to muck everything up with. I hope this can continue without the presence of Geoff Johns’ writing. But WAY TOO MANY COMMERCIAL BREAKS, CW. You abused your audience’s tolerance there. There are other ways to make transitions.

Looking forward to The Lightning Thief opening next weekend. Finally got the books back from my mom because Gayle saw the movie trailer and said do you have the books?

What I have been reading is the Hopeless Savages collections. Finally ordered the second and it’s better than I remember (I have all the original issues but I need to sort my comics out and find them). I was initially turned off by Bryan Lee O’Malley’s art, so different from the first series, but decided to give it another go now that I’ve had the “fall in love with Scott Pilgrim (or maybe Kim Pine) experience.” I recommend both series; there need to be more comics like that. Read ‘em.

*The band continues chatting on their Twitter feed and their blog so you can still continue the Blink Kitty Love love while we’re all hibernating (warning: food cravings may occur). And I do have some live footage I’m planning to experiment with (warning: food cravings may occur) soon.

Stay warm, darn it.

The band (Blink Kitty Love) weighs in on Kathryn Bigelow’s Directors Guild win so I’ll quote them here (original post):

Yes, we’ve been hibernating.  It’s winter, we’re mammals, get over it.  We’ve been indoors, keeping warm, with a stack of DVDs and an even bigger stack of cold cuts, french bread, condiments, trimmings and everything you need to make a Dagwood sandwich because, well, he is the master.

And in honor of Kathryn Bigelow’s historic Directors Guild of America win for directing Hurt Locker, we’re going to pick our favorite movies by female directors (the good thing is women directors can’t be covered in 4 or even 5 movies; the bad thing is for big budget productions, it wouldn’t take many more). So congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow, good luck with Oscars and we hope you inspire more women to bring their visions to a screen near us.

Ty  mood: feeling fine

Strange Days  directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Tammy  mood:  colorfully exotic

Frida   directed by Julie Taymor

Tinker  mood:  armed, dangerous, darn cute, etc.

D.E.B.S.  directed by Angela Robinson

TK  mood:  known for other things (and still can never just pick one)

Yentl  directed by Barbra Streisand

A League Of Their Own  directed by Penny Marshall

The Big Bang Theory seems to be losing the group cohesiveness that has powered their comedy for two seasons of nerdalicious comedy. Insert two girls, let Sheldon out on his own and leave Raj by the side of the road and you have a Big Bang Theory that tilts dangerously to one side or the other and needs rebalancing.

Sheldon is in danger of merely existing as a collection of tics. The more he does things, the less funny they are becoming which is a criminal misuse of Jim Parsons’ comic genius. Tonight’s episode, The Einstein Approximation, badly misfired on the Sheldon front — the blogosphere seems to be trending this way as evidenced by another review — although there were a few funny moments. My brother and I were having a discussion about The Big Bang Theory this weekend and he was saying that just focusing on Sheldon’s oddities doesn’t make for the best humor. Gayle has been saying (prompted by the four writers on Wizards vs. Werewolves; The Einstein Approximation listed 3) that the more writers listed, the less successful an episode is. Opinions?

The universe, well parts of it anyway, can’t seem to get enough of the Jonas Brothers so it will be interesting to see how Nick Jonas and The Administration album sells. He’s put all the tunes on MySpace and thanks to overplay of the video on the Disney Channel, I find myself singing “Who I Am” (better than “Starstruck” though). VMan the magazine had a Nick interview with lots o’ arty photos (they seem to specialize).

I am currently working my way, one red Netflix envelope at a time, through the first season of Chuck, which I love. The third season also entertains, but the music seems to have gotten much more intrusive over time. But it’s nice to have something in the action zone that I can watch.

Caught part of Castle tonight. Now I understand why some writers have gone on the record as saying they want to be Castle, but I still do not understand the appeal of Nathan Fillion. So I’ll just stick with Chuck.

Gayle (?!?!?!?) came back into town and informed me that Lois has gone brunette on Smallville. I was already planning to watch the two hour Justice Society Absolute Justice Smallville movie event this Friday; maybe now I’ll remember. Beau (aforementioned little brother) has started watching Smallville again after 2 years of not so maybe some of the spark is back. Stay tuned.