LONELYPOND PRESENTS

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.

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

Howdy…

Can you guess the character?

Haiti: such a terrible week. Fortunately, most of the world is acting in a compassionate fashion. We donated through Episcopal Relief and Development, which has a strong ground presence through the Diocese of Haiti, and will continue to do so after the immediate crisis is over. I hope you will consider donating if you haven’t yet.

Greetings, o most loyal and amazing blog visitors. Happy 2010. I’m going to give you a fairly thorough round up as I would really like to be taking a couple of weeks for some R + R while it’s cold and all my baser instincts are saying, “Stay under the covers, it’s warm.” I am not particularly good at the R + R things so I may be forced to resort to things like read all the Harry Potter books, read all the Sarah Caudwell books, read all the Terry Pratchett Watch themed books, read my MFK Fisher + Elizabeth David, dig out my Raymond Chandler and Peter Cheyney, read through the pile of newspapers, watch all the movies I’ve borrowed from friends (Tristram Shandy, Bubba Ho-Tep, Steam Boy), watch the movies I watch every year and skipped in ‘09 (the original 3 American Pies, Tomb Raider, Bring It On, The Bandwagon, Strictly Ballroom, etc.)

So to tide you over, there’s the new Blink Kitty Love, all the old Blink Kitty Love, the band website and this:

Lunch With Tristram Stuart who feeds people from discarded food to highlight wastage.

Article about really cool jazz pianists CD collections I can’t afford.

The FT’s this year in culture quiz…

Stefan Stern’s suggestions for movies to watch and pick up business tips from this season (for the rest of you who don’t do R + R).

Very cool story about a native Gypsy theatre experiment/troupe in Spain. I am always amazed by the effect theatre can have on both audience and performers.

Umberto Eco’s latest looks to land on a list of fun reads.

Hoping to catch Nine at the local cinema…doesn’t look like Orson Welles and Me or The Station will make an appearance here; bumped Moon to the top of the Netflix queue and may soon give in to the buy Star Trek and/or Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie DVD urge…also on that list, the Cary Grant double feature — The Bachelor and The Bobby Soxer and Walk, Don’t Run, which I just saw on TCM and laughed at the frequently priceless moments.

TV: Zeke and Luther’s I, Skatebot episode looks cool, a bit worried about Wizards vs. Werewolves (Wizards of Waverly Place) — perhaps too soon after Wizards vs. Vampires and what will be left for Max, Wizards vs. really grumpy mythological creatures left out of the Twilight series — not really watching much on Nick at the moment except for late night What I Like About You, Top Gear kicks off a new season soon (Gayle very excited), I still miss Warehouse 13 and I really need to spend more time reading.

Merchant of Venice (#merven) planning not kicking into gear — but it’s early yet. Trying to get an artist for the logo, Gayle’s scheduling shows, I’ve decided to have people audition with their cool electronic gear (cell phones, laptops, etc.) Need to read through the play again; concerned about the Bassiano/Antonio axis –and no, I don’t mean in the gay way, just in the everybody’s always so concerned about Portia and Shylock, but hey without these two, I’ve got two right side wheels on a vehicle that needs two on the left as well.

The Lonely Pond Productions, Inc. annual meeting went in unexpected directions. But Google Wave worked well when the snow prevented travel. I need to put together scripts for a short live action adaptation and a few animations. And mull over movie related issues some more.

And Sarah Hemming’s “Twelfth Night” review left me grumping about people who weight down comedies with misery so I have been considering exactly how tragic the characters of Malvolvio, Sir Andrew, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, et al are. And her Rope review makes the show sound like an excellent experience to have in a theatre.

Speaking of Hitchcock, there was a Vanity Fair photospread (thanks @njtam, a fellow Hitchcock fan) of modern stars in classic Hitchcock scenes…the women do better than the men, who seem to suffer from not being Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart.

My current favorite breakfast is oatmeal with hot apple cider for a drink, my current most likely to be worn shirt is this one (it amuses Gayle) and I heard this amazingly goofy song at one of our favorite restaurants that Google has been no help with finding the title of…the lyrics as we can remember go something like this: “you’re good cause you don’t do things like (or that) you should…you’re cool cause (cuz?) you don’t do things by the book.” Sounded like a guy singing, it was a Spanish-Peruvian restaurant where music usually has spanish lyrics, it was chanty, and if you drop the title/artist in the comments, there will be a reward.

And I think that gets you up to date — and should tide you over for awhile. Wishing you the best of 2010’s. Stay warm.

P.S. Cool toasters…I need one.

There haven’t been Financial Times links because my deliveries have been interrupted by incompetence somewhere in the chain. Twice in two weeks I’ve had to call about no deliveries for three days. I miss reading the newspaper.

More positive notes: My friends @mymhm had over one million hits on their Movies You May Have Missed blog for December. Congratulations. Check them out if you haven’t. If you have, nominate them for a Streamy Award as Best New Show. The other shows/people on my help get a nomination slate are: Movies You May Have Missed for Best New Show, The Web Files for Best Hosted Web Series, Kristyn Burtt of The Web Files for Best Web Series Host, Space Hospital for Best Comedy Series, Rob Poe of Space Hospital for Best Art Direction and the cast of Life With Kat & McKay for Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series. I’ve only started exploring what’s out there on the web, guided partly by the excellent choices made by my friends at The Web Files (Movies You May Have Missed was their 9th episode). It’s a whole new world for entertainment: brave, different and daring.

I’m also voting Blink Kitty Love for Best Animated Web Series…why, you ask? Well, although you will find animated series with more polished animation, I think Blink Kitty Love gives you a total entertainment package with the music, food and other random conversations on the band’s website and the continuing shenanigans on their Twitter feed. Plus, it’s my baby and I’m proud of it. I occasionally think about using a more sophisticated animation program but the simplicity of FlipBoom suits the band and my art style, which always tends to the abstract. FlipBoom is fun to work with without me having to spend weeks with the 500 page instruction manual (hello ToonBoom Studio). And the first or fifth rule of Blink Kitty Love is no stress puppies allowed so keeping it fun is important. Should you choose to vote, I’d appreciate it. Or just continuing following along with my adventures into animation. UPDATE: I’ve decided to push for Blink Kitty Love in the category of Best Experimental Web Series because it is a very grand experiment. Jump on the Blink Kitty Love train; crush just a little, that’s all we ask. A couple clicks here and enter this url: http://blinkkittylove.blip.tv/ and we’ll be your biggest fan.

Speaking of animation, ToonBoom is offering animators preparing a pilot to pitch to the industry access to Harmony and Storyboard Pro for three months. Sounds like a chance for a great collaboration. My latest vision (no, you don’t know what it is yet) isn’t a traditional character driven series but if yours is, check it out.

Lonely Pond Productions’ annual meeting happens this weekend. I’m excited about new ideas and directions. It will be interesting to get feedback from the rest of the Lonely Pond crew. They always surprise me.

Me and Orson Welles isn’t in the area, but I am considering Invictus. Need to see a few more movies before the year’s end. And there’s a couple of exhibits in Baltimore I’d like to hit. Hope you’re enjoying your holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate. Thanks for stopping by.

Peter Aspden on the problem defining cool + if Miles Davis is the solution.

Fashion Bloggers in the front row…Nicola Copping on how bloggers (example @bryanboy) are gaining influence with designers. Fashion Blogs I follow, well @meandmarisa found me on Twitter and I’ve been enjoying their photos and fashion thoughts.

Sarah Hemming talks to set designers about…set design.

Mexican left-wing printmakers took on church, politics + culture. Review of exhibit at British Museum.

Christine Lagarde, French Finance Minster, ranks #1.

Vanessa Friedman on how dressing for the EU President job will be almost as difficult as landing it.

And to end w/ a dinner tomorrow thought: a pumpkin risotto recipe. Also must make single serving apple crisps in these deep, white ramekins we have — feeling inspired by the season and the big nubbly apples sitting in our fruit bowl.

Well, there’s the Greek Food Fest and Shanghai Surprise sitting on top of my TV in its Netflix envelope.

In a bit of a funk, trying to sort out the next project, organize the Lonely Pond Productions, Inc. annual meeting with a bonus refocusing and resurgence. Also trying to turn writing back into something I just do and not something I get stressed about while trying to make a million dollars doing it. I am having a blast writing Twitter Fiction @stirfryneon. It’s not very regular but it is very fun. Also have a Blink Kitty Love that needs to be posted but it also needs music — I really need to write an Animator’s Journal entry about all the Blink Kitty Love music difficulties. Really great response to the Costume Craving episode — and Garageband (Garageband very irritating nearly ALWAYS) totally tanked so there’s no music on that one (oy!). Any comments on music vs. sound effects vs. silence welcome. I’ve been thinking Blink Kitty Love is more like a web comic (but moving) since there’s a lot of reading/words involved and web comics don’t have a soundtrack.

Quick reviews:

Spice World — more fun than I remembered, although I needed subtitles to understand Sporty Spice through the accent. Roger Moore’s part was a hoot. I think Spice World might be the secret, never revealed source of 21st century culture.

Read latest Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals. He obviously has lessons/wisdom to impress upon his audience so it’s not a laugh riot; it’s one of the other kind of Terry Pratchett books, but it is worth a read. Also reading Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, v. v. funny.

Quick TV shout outs: Jonas has really earned their J-14 top TV show ranking. They’re having a blast, the Joe and Stella romance is spot on, and the last episode where Macy and Joe break in on Stella and Vandyke’s date was perfectly pitched comedy. They have finally figured out what to do with Macy. Go Team Jonas.

Have been off iCarly, but iQuit iCarly looks like a must watch. I’m hoping that Wizards grabbing the Emmy will inspire some iCarly improvement.

WIzards of Waverly Place: Chronicles of Moises was a fun, solid, three part episode. Jake T. Austin is growing up funny and Wizards does multi part episodes really well. I want to see Justin explain to the Van Heusens that he let a mummy mind control their daughter.

I keep meaning to watch smallVille and forgetting they’ve moved it to Fridays.

Big Bang Theory continues excellent, although the football episode was not as funny as I had hoped it could be. Seemed less organic and more staged. Sheldon vs. Wil Wheaton rocked; Penny and Leonard survived their first fight and they are slowly sorting out a comic niche for Raj, which is nice. On a Big Bang Theory kick so may finally have to buy Season 2 on DVD. Now, that sounds like a weekend plan.

Enjoy yours.

An article about how Armistice Day turned into Veteran’s Day. And as I was clicking through a link to Doonesbury from @zephoria, the social media maven I follow on Twitter, I discovered that Doonesbury on Slate hosts The Sandbox, a milblog with posts from service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve been reading and the posts are full of philosophy, practical advice, history, humanity, survival tips, Disney discounts, humility, bravery, isolation, comradeship…

I almost ended up in the military twice (although my mother and a buddy of mine in the ROTC program claimed I would have ended up out or in a military prison for insubordination.) In high school, I was interested in and recruited by Navy ROTC, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do for the four years of college and thought it a bad idea to commit to something for five years after that. And then when I got to Northwestern and saw the hours my buddy got up to do PT and drill team, I figured it had been a good decision.

After college, I didn’t have any grand plan, thought travel might be fun, and returned to the military thought. The Marines didn’t want me, not in shape enough, so they suggested the Air Force. The Air Force offered Monterey, foreign languages and adventures. But I was gay, no doubts or apologies, and I wanted to see if anything would develop with Gayle. I wasn’t going to lie. A buddy of mine had lived an entirely double life because the military was something he could not be separated from and gay was something he couldn’t get over — and there was the handy girlfriend who refused to notice. I watched him do it for four years of college and some years after and it was a terrible thing. We once had a half serious discussion about marriage so he would have a cover and I would have health insurance and could keep writing or whatever it was I wanted to do.

A friend from high school led the hidden life with separate mailing addresses. And I sat there in a military recruiter’s office, very curious but unwilling and unable to lie for opportunity.

Over the years, I have read so much about the treatment of women and gays in the military and sometimes I thought, perhaps my mother was right; I would have clocked the first person who yelled in my ear at 0 dark thirty or used a word I didn’t care to be referred to as.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was never a solution. The time has long passed for its reversal. The Advocate reports today, very fittingly, that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is to be included in next year’s Department of Defense Authorization Bill. The Advocate has also been running excellent articles on gays in the military, their supporters, Congressman and Iraq veteran Patrick J. Murphy, and even one article with an undercover reporter trying to get the view of the average straight soldier in the PX.

So thanks to veterans everywhere for supporting freedom, this country and the Constitution. And I hope that one day soon, this will be a country where we really will be free, with equal rights for every citizen. And I can finally marry the woman I had hopes of getting to know better many years ago.