The Purest Communication

Had a discussion that was a little more than a volley and a little less than a debate with my good friend Scott last week: what's the purest form of written communication?

He says poetry. I say comics.

I'll admit that I've wholeheartedly bought into every manifesto Scott McCloud has ever spouted about the wonder and necessity of the medium. It makes sense: cave paintings, hieroglyphics, even words themselves are all, when you truly get down to it... comics. But what's a comic? In my opinion, any set of sequential illustrations (however naturalistic, stylized or abstract) formulated to communicate an idea or event to a viewer is a comic.

The beauty of comics is that they can be as elaborate or as simplified as they want to be. Like prose or film or friggin' radio plays, comics are just as powerful a medium of communication as anything else.

What's the most important piece of information an airline company can communicate to you while you sit on the tarmac, waiting for takeoff? Well, obviously, it's What To Do In Case Of An Emergency. The airlines could have written out a detailed description of exactly what you need to do to survive a sea landing, but they chose to, instead, place a little comic at the back of each seat to explain what they mean.

I probably love comics a little too much, I'll admit it. It's a passion I've never managed to shake (or "grow out of", if you want to be pretentious about it).

So why aren't I doing them for a living?
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Occasionally, Carey confronts me about the things I write on this blogger. "You exaggerate," she says, "It didn't happen like that. You twist the story around or leave out important bits to make it funnier or more clever."

I suppose that's true. I can't really blame her for protesting, either. The poor woman's been exploited and misquoted to pieces on this little corner of cyberspace.

I've had a couple of conversations with Gary, a fellow blogger, about the mysteries of this strange practice of weblogging. In the "diary" sense of a blogger, who cares about journalistic integrity? It's my thoughts on my life, does it really matter if I exaggerate or abreviate? On the other hand, there's the whole "published for the whole world" side of it, which makes it a bit more complicated.

But, whatever, it's everywhere. More and more, I'm finding old friends and casual acquaintances that have their own bloggers. Gary does, of course, and so do Jon and April (even though they're not exactly faithful with updates). But a quick poke around the web and it looks like Andy's got a blog, Joe's got one, Gabe, Dave, Megan, Drew, Eric, Adam, Jeremiah & Marcie... even Dallas has a weblog for pete's sake! Then, there are always the folks who manage to maintain their own website, journal or no journal, like Nate & Deb, Andrew, Kary, Kirk, Damien, Steve... ah, I'm leaving out hordes of folks, I'm sure..

It's everywhere. But I love it. I spend far too much time reading blogs, I'll admit, but I'm genuinely interested. In a weird way, I wish everyone would keep one.

By the way, if I weren't so lazy I'd probably set up a links page on my own website, but who has the time? After all, I've got blogs to read.

posted by Jeremy Bear 8:40 AM

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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

You're out of excuses! Buy! Buy! Buy!

Drunken Monkey is done, proofed, approved, and off to the printer.

First of all, if you're interested in my one lousy DM page, but don't want to brave the grimy horrors of an actual comic book shop, Rich Stahnke just informed me that issue #2 is available through a comics retail site that I've actually used in the past: Discount Comic Book Service. They're not only carrying the comic, they're discounting it substantially.

There.
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My latest complaint is with Democrats. Here goes:

Now, granted, I live in one of the most liberally-charged corners of the country, so I expect some anti-Bush, anti-Republican rhetoric. Long before election day, I expected the outrage, the doom-saying, the reports of dubious vote-counting practices and intimidation techniques. A fool could have seen that coming from miles offshore... but one thing I didn't expect was the giddiness I'm hearing from leftist media voices. Not an "optimism despite...", but, rather, a childish glee at the fact that so many people, both here and abroad, hate George W. Bush.

Yes, really.

A few days after the election, Michael Moore posted this note on his website. I was stunned. This man is actually celebrating the fact that a great deal of respect has been lost for the office of the Presidency of the United States. He'd rather be personally vindicated than bother to build or encourage. He's content that a lot of Americans hate who he hates.

I haven't seen Farenheit 9/11, but I can't imagine ever taking it seriously as a documentary, given Michael Moore's track record of fact-bending, half-truths and, now, personal vendettas. He doesn't want to report, he just wants people on His Side and, frankly, I don't have the patience for that.

Think the Republicans are just as bad? You're probably right, but this particular rant is against the Left, so get your own website.

And, to be reasonable, this is not most Democrats I'm complaining about. Unfortunately, much like Christianity, it's the loudest ones that ruin it for the rest. I guess I'm just starting to feel a little super-saturated with all the articles and commentaries and talk-radio about how the Good People need to band together to win back the nation from the dark days of the Religious Right.

Feh.
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Otherwise, uh. I dunno.

Going to see Blu tonight, which is a bit of a shame, because I've actually started to like the head of hair I've had for the last week or so. I suspect I'll have her make me look old again. I thought that worked out nicely last time.

Thanksgiving is going to come early this year. Since Carey and I will be in Ohio this weekend, we're having a Thanksgiving bash with Mom and the rest on Sunday evening. Then, a week later, it's Thanksgiving again with Steve and Rebecca Groff. It's rainin' turkeys!

LOT of stuff to catch up on, most of which are personal projects. In fact, thinking about it is stressing me out. So, bye.

posted by Jeremy Bear 8:23 AM

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Tuesday, November 09, 2004

The Hype (and why you should believe it)

A treasured comrade once told me, "Jer, you need to go see Fight Club. In fact, until you've seen it, you can't be my friend." So I did, and now it's quite possibly my all-time favorite flick.

So, now, I put it to you, dear readers:

UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE INCREDIBLES, YOU CAN'T BE MY FRIEND.
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For some reason, this article caught my eye.

Even though my April 1st entry was a joke, I wasn't lying about Carey being a big fan of contests, lotteries and sweepstakes. I've made the case to her many times that suddenly coming into ridiculous amounts of money that we didn't earn would very probably do more to ruin us than solve our problems. She disagrees wholeheartedly.

Reading that article, though, I have to say that those people are exceptionally stupid and it's difficult to see myself behaving like such a moron, no matter how many riches came flying our way. It's a sad fact: those who play the lottery the most tend to be the ignorant and uneducated, often the people with the least to spare on frivolous purchases.
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Congratulations to our good friend Kelly Larned and his new wife Kari, whose wedding we attended over the weekend. It was less than a year ago that Kelly first downloaded her internet profile and, hey! Look! Married!

A beautiful ceremony and reception and Carey and I were able to see some friends that we don't get to see nearly enough... not the least of which: Kent Currie, my old college roommate.

Kent is a very, very interesting fellow who resides in Manhattan and, somehow, has the world at his feet. Difficult to describe, but for as long as I've known Kent, he's just sort of fallen into good luck, nice jobs, cool surroundings and remarkable stories. Alas, he has been unlucky (or maybe ultra-choosy) in love, but he tells me he's ready to settle down with someone, as soon as she comes along.

Best moment of the Larned wedding:

KENT: You know, Jer, I've been thinking about the things I'd like at my own wedding someday. I think it would be really cool to have a few older, seasoned couples come up to me and my bride during the ceremony to give us a piece of advice. Really set the tone, you know?

JER: Kent, I see what you're getting at and, yes, Carey and I would be happy to give you marital advice when the time comes.

KENT: Yeah? So what would you say to me?

JER: ...uh...

KENT: Come on, some advice for old Kent!

JER: ...

KENT: Carey, what about you? What would you tell a newly married couple?

CAREY: "Don't expect much."

Labels: dialogue

posted by Jeremy Bear 10:55 AM

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Inside Edition

Yeah, if you happened to catch Inside Edition late last week, that was indeed my mother you saw.

I really don't mind saying that our family was terribly disappointed with how the segment came out. It was sold to Mom as an opportunity to tell her side of the story, to relate how she had no way to predict her attack, to demonstrate how difficult it is to persevere after this kind of encounter.

Unfortunately, what came across was more along the lines of, "isn't this bizarre?" They capitalized on the shocking bits to create a freakish circus. Looking objectively at Inside Edition, that seems to be their standard M.O., but it's a bit harder to swallow when it's your family they're parading around.

To be fair, they did manage to grab a few genuinely important bits: there was a certain degree of satisfaction and finality to watching Bill plead guilty. It was good to see Mom relating her true feelings about Bill toward the end: "he wanted to destroy me, but he's only succeeded in destroying himself. I find that pathetic." That's my mom, all right.

posted by Jeremy Bear 8:50 AM

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