People breaking wind in the cabin of the airplane. Maintenance delays causing me to miss my connecting flight, which means that I am stuck in Ohio for New Years Eve, missing the New Years party of the year.
Things I like about flying:
Witty remarks from flight attendants. The nicest person working at the airline, Kelly, who kindly found me a flight for tomorrow morning. A friendly shuttle driver. A free night at a hotel so fancy, they give you a fresh gooey cookie with your room key. Two beds, a leather couch, and a chaise longe. And meal vouchures and free transport to the airport.
I'm loading Ricky Gervais Show xfm episodes onto my ipod for the plane tomorrow. While I'm waiting for it to load, I've decided to click on each episode one fourth into the program to hear what they're talking about. This is pretty funny out of context b/c I know it's not much saner in context.
Ep 11-22-03 Stephen: sorry, mum. Can I call you back? You know you wanted me to meet more women? Ricky: and you know how you sent me that 30 quid for my birthday?
Ep 11-29-03 Ricky: what's the fish doing up there? Karl: it's just sat there Ricky: no, I mean why did it go up there?
Ep 12-06-03 Karl: it's like the chat we had last week about a giraffe having a long neck.
Ep 12-13-03 Ricky: you're going to be disappointed again. It's not going to be like a baby with 4 legs running around, running up the curtains.
Ep 12-20-03 Ricky: we call him a bald little manc twat, but a national magazine can say that! Aw, bless his little round head.
Ps. Disappointment of the day: the word "potation" has to do with drinking, and is not a cross between a creation and a potato as I had so hoped.
The Ricky Gervais Guide to the Future is out today on iTunes. When asked what he'd do if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Martin Luther replied "Plant an apple tree." Karl Pilkington replies "I've always wanted to kick a duck up the arse." Brilliant.
I'm browsing some of Tom Milsom's songs because I still have a few bucks left on my iTunes gift card. There's a song called "We Made a Film" that has the lyrics "We'll be the men that we wanted to be / our own Wright, Frost, and Pegg / but much better, you see."
Here are some pictures of my Christmas. We had a nice Christmas meal and presents, you know, the traditional Christmas stuff, here in New York. It's my first Christmas away from home, away from my family, but I will be back in WI in the first week of January.
Please note the three consecutive posts: this one, the Doctor Who review, and my drawing.
Part 1 of the Doctor Who special End of Time played this week. It's special for two reasons: One, it's David Tennant's last episode in Doctor Who after four years. Two, it's the return of the Doctor's archnemisis, the Master.
First off, I thought the acting was quite good. John Simm, who plays the Master, gets to really go completely crazy this time around because the Master has really lost his marbles now. He's also the emo version of the Master, so he's sporting the bleached hair and hoody. The character notes how funny it is that he's the master of disguise trapped inside the body of the prime minister, one of the most recognizable faces.
The story caught me off guard. I don't know if I misread the Sound of Drum/Last of the Timelords episode or if they purposely misled us. (Spoiler alert) I assumed that Lucy had shot the Master because she knew he had told her to because he knew he could come back to life using that ring of his. She wears red nail polish, and at the end, a red nail polish hand picks up the ring. I assumed it was Lucy. But in fact, it wasn't her that picked up the ring and she really did want to kill him, as was hinted at when she made a grossed out face after he kissed her in season three finale. It almost felt like whoever wrote this epsisode had nothing to do with the writing of the other episode and is fabricating the answers to the clues. I don't really know.
But it's a really good episode. More Doctor/Master moments, which was lacking in season 3. I liked when the Doctor can actually HEAR the sound of drums inside the Master's head and the Master realizes that the sound isn't just his insanity, and that it is real. The heartbeat of a Timelord? I suppose to heartbeats would sound a bit like that.
I haven't done much of this, but I took photos of my large scale drawing as I was doing it so you can see my drawing process. This is a family portrait I did for my roommates for Christmas. As you can see, I start with outline, then faces, then clothes and hair, always working from left to right.
This week, we had our work holiday lunch where we ordered a ridiculous amount of Chinese food and had some good chat with our office and the other office, making us a table of eleven.
I also went to the kids' winter sing, which was a bit of a shambles because they underestimated how many parents there would be and didn't have mics and amps, but I should have known by the phrase "First Annual" on the program.
Anyone curious about the job hunt, I have had a couple interviews. Got turned down by one after making it pretty high up the candidate list, but it wasn't really my area of interest anyway. Still waiting to hear back on another.
Projects I've been working on include a large scale drawing (more on that later), my mysterious interactive novel coming out next year online, and episode two of the podcast.
Merry Christmas.
New Doctor Who preview. This Saturday (26th) on BBC America.
John Simm, one of my favorite actors, who plays the Master in Doctor Who (as you can see in the above clip), has announced that he will be playing Hamlet on the stage in Sheffield. Both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant (who have played the Doctor in Doctor Who) have been Hamlet onstage.
Big news, Wisconsin! I am visiting for the first week in January. Why not? Snow's general all over Ire...America.
Everybody else on the net is making lists. I guess that's what you do at the end of the year amid your Christmas shopping and shoveling. I wanted to make a list, but there have been TERRIBLE movies out this year. I can't even pick a good one. Lots of good books I read. The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott being my favorite, though it came out years before. Television wasn't that great either. Torchwood season 3 was probably the best of it.
Let's look to the future.
Best things coming in 2010 (or the end of 2009)...
1. Karl Pilkington's travel show
2. The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO (Here's a different clip than the one I showed before)
Katie, I hope you enjoy your birthday and enjoy your birthday website even more!
2. New drawing.
It's a little messed up because of the fold in the middle of the journal. Sorry. This is my bedroom in New York.
3. New Book Review NightWatch part 1 of 3 Click here for the review. I have to say, I thought the movie was a lot better.
4. Nerdfighter News
John Green, author of Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and An Abundance of Katherines, is going to have a baby. Well, not him exactly. His yhetti. Which doesn't really make sense if you haven't been watching his vlog.
Do you like the new blog layout? The jellyfish are a little random, but I took this photo at the aquarium and thought it looked cool. There are only three things I know about jellyfish.
1. There's one in 7 Pounds with Will Smith. 2. There's a Tim Dorsey Book called Nuclear Jellyfish. 3. Karl Pilkington hates them because one stung him and since they are 98% water, he wants to add 2% and make them water.
2. New Story
In this blustery December weather, I wrote you a spring-time story. You can read MAY DAY right here. It's a Lutheran story. See if you can tell why.
3. New Drawing
I'm reading the book NightWatch, so I decided to do some NightWatch drawings. This here is Anton (played by Konstantin Khabensky in the movie) from a scene in DayWatch.
4. Splice
As many of you might know, Vincenzo Natali is my all-time favorite director. I've been waiting for his new movie SPLICE. I've just found the website, which has an awesome video: http://www.splicethefilm.com/. Also, del Toro is producing it, which must be a good sign.
Here's a clip from the film:
UNIMPORTANT THINGS
As mentioned in a previous post, I have a cold. Therefor I am completely in the right to be medicated. I am probably in the wrong to be operating a Blackberry whilst medicated.
There are some things I've decided to tell you about that I'm sure I wouldn't bother with if it was a sane hour of the night.
1. Musings on dreams
It's weird enough when you see something on tv and then dream about it. It's super weird when you see two things on tv and your dream combines them. It's super duper weird when those two things are Dawn of the Dead the zombie flick and Graham Norton the camp talk show.
So what I ended up with was a reality show like Britain's Got Talent hosted by zombie Graham Norton who would eat you if you got voted off. Don't do drugs, kids. Even if it is just NyQuil. On second thought, don't do zombie movies in any proximity to Graham Norton.
2. Musings on laundry
The second useless thing I wanted to share was that you shouldn't put winter gloves in the dryer. I think the picture says it all.
I am still searching for a full-time job. Thanks to everyone who has been supportive through this. I did have my first interview this week. Unfortunately, I got a cold at the same time. I think it's because of the rain on Wednesday that was so intense, it turned my umbrella inside out and shut down the train (yes, these two things are of equal importance). I will keep you updated on this front.
2. BOOK REVIEW
NaNoWriMo is over, so I am back to reading. Read my review of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury. I am currently trying to read NightWatch again. I'm such a style snob. But I will get through it this time, hopefully. I'm writing a new story as well, but might not feel like finishing it until the sinus pressure eases off.
3. Karl Pilkington gets his own travel show
I cannot contain my excitement. Karl can. Apparently he's in Egypt hating it at the moment. You can read the online announcement on the BBC News site HERE. Quote from the article:
"I can't wait to get started. Not because I'm excited but because the sooner we start, the sooner it will be over," Pilkington said.
4. ONLINE VIDEO
So, I'm fascinated with the way that online video has both transformed elements of our society and created a new community of people much in the same way that the internet did when it first came out. Many people don't realize it because they just use YouTube to watch dumb little videos, but it does so much more than that. So I have no shame in thinking that this is cool: (ignore the talking sock)
Last night, I went to a book launch for the translation into English of Von Kleist short stories. There was a very interesting discussion about the art of translation, something I didn't know much about until this internship. The translator and some of the audience members were talking about how there can be different sides of your brain that connect with different languages. Also, if you're fluent in multiple languages, it's kind of a "controlled Schizophrenia." You can be someone else by speaking another language.
They also talked about how translation is the best way to study a text, and that all writers should experience the process of translating a text. Almost makes me wish I would have kept at French. I don't know why, but foreign language classes have always been intimidating. There can be the best teacher and the best classmates, but there is always the possibility of getting called on to say something you don't know how to say.
After the reading, there was a crowded reception where I mingled about with people that I did and didn't know. I stayed around until nearly nine (it started at 6:30) chatting with some people before I made my exit, to both the event and the internship, but I will likely make it to other book signings.
It was 64 degrees and sunny here in New York. December is a lie! Though we'll get snow soon enough.
It doesn't feel like December. Crimeny, I've been in NYC for 6 months now! I think November went so fast because of NaNoWriMo. Now I'm down to one internship and upping the job hunt.
Media related things...
I downloaded Ricky Gervais's Guide to Law and Order (iTunes customer service rocks, btw). I think the best bit was Ricky's story about his security guard, which prompted a role play where Ricky was a robber with a hostage and Karl was the negotiator trying to talk him out of it.
I finished watching Black Books. The first season was best, but it was all good. Great role for Simon Pegg in one episode.
Book News: Ray Bradbury's literary agent died this week.
This year, for the first time, I participated in National Novel Writing Month. I completed a novel just under 60,000 words. I wrote it so fast, I don't even have a title for it yet! The working title is Luddites, but I'd be happy to take suggestions. I will muse on the pros and cons of this activity at a later date. Right now, I will give you a one-stop post to read all nine chapters of this novel.
Synopsis:
When a girl from work tells Tian she has a friend who is three thousand years old, she is thrown into a world of luddites fighting for their rights to make books in a future where trees are an endangered species.
Have I mentioned this book was started in rebellion against books like Twilight? And I suppose Buffy, and Angel, and Torchwood, etc. Read and you'll find out why.
I started laughing quietly to myself in Bible Study this morning because I just figured out after all these years that Deep Thought from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is supposed to be a mechanical version of John the Baptist. How slow am I?
I just saw the new Doctor Who episode Waters of Mars. Strange little twist. The story itself was nothing special for Who standards, but it also plays on the theme that the Doctor has a theory that there are some points in time that are fixed. It also sets up for the double episode grand finale. There's a teaser trailer at the end. All sorts of people from the previous episodes including John Simm with white hair.
Why have I not heard of Black Books? I went Christmas shopping and saw it on the discount rack. Three seasons of it. Reasons why I knew it would be good:
1. It's about people working in a bookshop 2. It's British. 3. It stars Bill Bailey. 4. It was created by (and stars) Dylan Moran.
Also, there are a lot of famous cameos like Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, Nick Frost, Peter Serafinowicz etc. I've also seen the woman on Doctor Who.
1. Small delay at Howard Beach due to the bridge going up.
2. The bridge getting stuck. They had to send out mechanics. Longer delay.
3. The train giving up and going out of service, kicking everyone out.
4. Taxis cost $11 up front. Forget that. I wandered around until I found a bus stop.
5. Missed the bus by 30 seconds.
6. The bus was really crowded because all the people from the trains were getting on it.
7. Got home an hour late.
It was weird being stuck on that train with all those people calling their loved ones. One lady was screaming into the phone DON'T CALL ANYONE! DON'T CALL ANYONE 'TIL I GET HOME! and another guy was complaining about how he couldn't step out for a smoke. I high-tailed it to the bus stop, following hopstop on my phone in the dark (this was 7:30pm) until I found out I was by my church and got to the bus I take on Sundays. A lady showed up in a cab and recognized me from the train. We got to chatting and more and more people from the train started showing up. Finally the bus came. Thankfully, we fit even though we had to stand. After that, the bus went by tons of people without stopping because there was just no room.
I got three job rejections last night, just to top it off. But the good news is that I only had to work two days this week (even though I would have happily worked tomorrow for the extra money).
This Friday, I got to hang out with Katie! She's my London flatmate who I haven't seen in over a year. She had an interview at her dream job, so I really hope she gets it. Plus, we could hang out more if she was working in New York.
We chatted at Starbucks for a couple hours and met her friend Brenna at a Dominican restaurant. Katie ordered first, then I ordered the seafood soup, then Brenna asked if their soups were any good. Our waiter said "The chicken, yes." And I was like "Wait! What about the seafood soup?" And he said, "No." Most honest waiter ever.
Then they gave me an empty bowl with a shell cracker in it. What kind of soup is this?!
It was a veggie brothy soup with a whole lobster hand in it that I had to crack open. Very weird. There were some other animals in it like snails and unidentifiable ones. But it tasted good. What a strange restaurant experience.
It was awesome catching up with Katie. I hope we can do it again soon. We are both looking for jobs in publishing, she in magazines and me in books.
Moon
I saw the episode of Carpool (llewtube.com) with Duncan Jones, David Bowie's kid, who directed Moon with Sam Rockwell. They showed a clip from the movie. I kind of want to see it now.
1. First off, thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. And secondly, happy birthday to Uncle Mike while we're on the subject.
2. I was supposed to go to a meeting tonight, but I got lost so I went home. This is why I don't make friends in the city. I'm lazy and directionally challenged.
4. The book A Time For Everything came in today. This is an amazing book and you should read it if you have the patience for 500 pages and lots of tangents. But well worth it.
5. For my birthday, I went to work where I went to my favorite place, the post office, had Quiznos for lunch, and met Leonard Bernstein's daughter.
6. I don't know if this link will work, but I'll fix it later if it doesn't. Whoever came up with this idea is brilliant:
I think I should do a post talking about all the wonderful things people are using YouTube for like saving lives through charity and creative little things like this and starting businesses. Granted most people just go to YouTube to watching things like David After the Dentist, but there are intelligent and creative people using it as well.
7. I now have loads of awesome new music thanks to Katie. Hopefully I will meet up with her in the city tomorrow. It's been over a year.
8. Anyone heard of Tim Dorsey? His books look funny. Maybe I ought to give it a try. Read the review for Nuclear Jellyfish. Apparently there's a whole series.
9. I have new ideas for stories, but I'm saving them until December when I'm done with my NaNoWriMo novel. Anyone besides Nicole read any? Impressions? The story ideas are exciting. Most seem to come from eavesdropping on people at work. One is bad b/c it was one of those dreams that sound brilliant at 2 in the morning until you try to read your scribbles after you get up.
10. Should my blog look more professional now that I'm applying to jobs? Does H R look at blogs? I hope they at least look at my website. I work hard to keep it updated. If you're a job recruiter, leave a note in comments.
Today is my birthday, so I thought I'd look back on the previous year by listing 22 accomplishments of being 22.
1. I got a grant with which I hired an editor for my book. 2. I went to the most amazing retreat ever with JCV. 3. I put on 4 shows: Junebug, Gaelic Strom, Teada, and Ragamala 4. I became English Club VP and hosted open mic night 5. I completed a large scale art project about Ray Bradbury and presented it to my drawing class 6. I created the ENG Club tshirt. 7. I presented a story at Creative Writing Night. 8. I presented at a local and a national conference for undergard research. 9. I got paid to create a website for the band Senor Bop. 10. I started a fictional travel blog. 11. I recorded a couple episodes of a new podcast. 12. I graduated college 13. I wrote 8 short stories. 14. I moved to New York City. 15. I was accepted to and graduated from NYU. My group won second place in book publishing. 16. Found a place to live on the beach and made friends with great housemates. 17. Got 2 internships in publishing. 18. Found a new church and Bible study. 19. Went to Philadelphia. 20. Went to tons of great shows including Carnegie Hall. 21. Met lots of famous people including Spike Lee, Alan Tudyk, Loudon Wainwright, Augustana, to name a few. 22. Started a novel for NaNoWriMo.
I went to a book signing party for HL. It was a book signing, a rock concert, and free dinner at the City Winery. A pretty sweet gig, and it was sold out, which is awesome. From 7-8, we just sat around, a bunch of people from a couple of the offices, and ate food and chatted. At 8, the opener came on. They were intense! I didn't stay for the Levon Helm Band because I had to get home. I live an hour and a half away. Everyone said I should have been there because I missed Elvis Costello, but that would have gotten me home at 12:30 with me having to be up at 7:30 the next morning. Plus I'm not fond of the shady people hanging around this part of the town this time of night. Just now I was trying to write a cover letter to a publishing company to the lovely sounds of "I'm gonna kill you, man! Get over here! I'll kill you!" outside my bedroom window.
In other news, who's been reading my NaNoWriMo novel? Anyone, anyone, Bueller? Well, here's chapter two:
In case you didn't know, I am doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. You can follow it on my writing blog. I have posted Chapter One in 2 parts. I will be posting all of it over the course of November.
I'm trying to keep research to a minimum, but researching the novel today, I found a spray scent that you can spray your kindle with to make it smell like a book. God, I hope this is a spoof, but Wired did have an article on it. They also have a scent called "Eau, you have cats."
I downloaded the newst Ricky Gervais podcast off iTunes. The Guide to society. If you're interested, get it soon, because they take the podcasts down after a while. It's under $2 for an hour of Ricky, Karl, and Stephen. In this episode, they ask Karl if he was in charge of all the laws of the land, what laws he would would take out and put in. He's full of nonsense, as usual.
I know Ricky wouldn't want to hear it, but I actually kind of like the XFM radio show more than the podcasts because the podcasts are so chill. The radio show could get completely out of hand sometime. Don't believe me? Go to Pilkipedia and download (for free) the episode in season two where they try to put Karl in the book of World Records by forcing him to eat hamburgers and stuff grapes down his throat.
I watched Gervais on Letterman and they put up an exclusive of the new cartoon tv show of the podcast! I can't say it's a terribly complex animation, but it's cute, anyway. Check it out here:
If you don't really care to read this post, at least scroll down to the bottom to watch the video of the amazing encore with a special guest. No, it's not Karl Pilkington, but he's still got a round bald head.
Right, so I had a ticket to see Ricky Gervais's Out of England Part II show at Carnegie Hall for the NY Comedy Festival. I was bummed that the tickets went on sale earlier than they said they would, so the best seat available was on the first tier, seat 8, row 57. Since the auditorium is round, seat 8, I knew would be way off to the side, and row 57...I wasn't sure I'd see the stage at all.
When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't row 57, but box 57. So actually, I ended up in row 3, seat 15, which was a great seat even if there were two rows of people in front of me.
The opener was Todd Barry. Ricky's rich enough, he could probably get whoever he wanted to open, except Robin Ince who won't travel with Ricky anymore because it makes his hair fall out. Ricky can get whatever he wants, so I'm sure he even picked the pre-show soundtrack because it was fantastic music, and Ricky's such a DJ at heart, he's playing songs on his blog now.
Todd Barry was hilarious. He was only on like 15 minutes, but he kept people in constant laughter. It was a clean set, too. He's a New Yorker, so he talked about New York food and trying to find apartments and smelly deodorants.
After he got off stage, a video came up of Louis C.K. (who co-starred in The Invention of Lying). I'm not even going to tell you what he said because it's really gross and there might be people reading this with some dignity left in them. But I will tell you that the video ended with footage of Ricky barfing into the toilet multiple times. I could tell this wasn't going to be a clean show. It's weird that Ricky's standup is so divergent from the personality you hear on air (I've listened to tons of episodes on his XFM show). He TRIES to come off as a bad person for a laugh.
Anyway. I tried to guess what Ricky'd be wearing. I bet it would be a black t-shirt and drawstring black pants, possibly black jeans. I was right. It was black jeans and a black t-shirt. Who does he think he is, Neil Gaiman?
He came out to an overwhelming applause and screaming that made him lose his composure slightly. Then he regained it and said "You lucky people. You've got tickets to see a legend. Pardon my french, but you lucky mother fucker."
Ricky said in his blog that it was supposed to be 95% new material, but I'd heard lots of variations of this material before, not in his standup, but in his podcasts or interviews.
He had an entirely new set of fat people jokes, which is what he started off with. He went on to talk about people who give charity gifts in other people's names as Christmas presents. This joke was clearly inspired by a conversation with Karl about giving an African family a goat for Christmas. Ricky blatantly stole the comedy right from Karl's lips! Tisk tisk.
Speaking of Karl, he did talk about him a few times, much to my delight. There was a part where Ricky wanted to make comments on the Book of Noah. He's done his criticism on Genesis in his Animals tour, but this time, it wasn't about Creation. It was the Noah Book--Bible for Kids version. So it was a critique on this particular book, not so much on the story itself. This book had been given to a much younger "Rikki Gervais" for good attendence back in Sunday School. The drawings look like they're done by an 11-year-old with crayons (it was on the slideshow). The drawing's definition of evil is pulling someone's nose. God calls it wicked and decides to destroy the lot of them. Karl said it sounded like God was gay, having an overdramatic hissy fit. When Ricky said that all those animals couldn't be in one giant boat because they'd eat each other, Karl said "But when you're in a crisis, everyone pulls together." Brilliant.
He also did a story about telling old people perverted jokes when he was drunk and one about drink driving (which he's gotten in trouble with the press for at previous shows), and finally the 5% that was lifted from a previous tour: Animals are gay. He has a book (and showed us the slides) about how there are "gay communities" in every species. He showed us the drawings of various species of gay animals having sex and read the introduction that said "The evidence is compelling." The punch line of course is that none of these drawings are PHOTOGRAPHS, so there is no evidence. At one point, he laughed at the pornigraphic animal drawings on the slide show and said "In Carnegie Hall!"
Then he was off the stage with a big round of applause, only to come back in a tuxedo along with an expensive piano. Is he going to play the piano? No! It's Elmo! When Ricky was on Sesame Street, he fell in love with Elmo. (Watch the 2 minute clip here). They chatted a bit and then they sung a duet! Can you believe this? I mean, I know that Ricky could sing when he was younger because he was a singer in a pop group, but he can still sing really well! Oh, it was great and completely unexpected.
Ricky: I fuckin' love you, Elmo Elmo: What?! Ricky: I said I love you.
I'm reading the book NightWatch, so I decided to do some NightWatch drawings. This here is Anton (played by Konstantin Khabensky in the movie) from a scene in DayWatch. 
