Well, what have I done tonight — gotten my character killed three times in World of Warcraft because I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what to do — the highly amusing part of that is that I got talked into it by my 7 year old nephew and presumably he’s managed to survive. My mistake was not scheduling an in-game family meetup so that someone with actual experience/weapons/healing spells would have my back. Then there’s the listening to last.fm, reading the twitterific window when it pops up, trying to animate a new Christmas themed cartoon in both ToonBoom Studio Express and FlipBoom and not having any luck at either — although I love the crispness of the colors and lines in Studio Express and should probably sit through the tutorials…but I’m best at the apprentice approach, following someone around and learning by doing, then diving off the deep end before I’m totally comfortable and going from there. What else, pre WOW, there was the researching Quebec History in 1889 — Bulldogs (the Hockey Team that apparently invented the net(hockey, not inter, although it was in French so no guarantees), landslides and “warehouse stores” in Montreal.
And then there was the Lisa Loeb song that made me think writing a country song was the solution to my possibly late night rain induced mood so I caught up on my other blog and am here admitting that writing not drawing is what calls to me tonight…maybe haikuing
How in the heart does a song start
Take the heat meets the beat
Then the beat meets street
And the street rides the heat
While the beat pounds on
A song jaunts
to the street heartbeat
turn the heat on
riding the beat
while the heart street
hums
Not a haiku and no one could turn that into a country song; last.fm’s gone Blossom Dearie, which is the best name for a lounge singer ever…close race with Eartha Kitt, which is the best name for a Catwoman ever.
Anything else tonight — one of my twitter peeps is fascinated by parallel universes which will probably lead to strange dreams, watched Big Bang Theory on DVD — had a marathon over Thanksgiving — Beau had never really seen a full episode. As I was trying to sleep Thursday night the soundtrack in my head was a combination of the Friends’ (Beau’s a big fan) theme song, the BBT theme and the Northwestern (we’re going to a bowl game, baby) fight song, so I think he watched them long into the morning.
Googlequested for ToonBoom Animate reviews (couldn’t make the launch party), clicked back through blog trackbacks and ended up with speculation — last.fm pause RODRIGIO y GABRIELA are amazing; see them and be awed — that there might be a Wizards of Waverly Place movie; Disney’s setting their New Year’s Eve party on the Wizards set, advertising started tonight. I want Disney to have a special holiday treat of showing High School Musical 3 on TV so Flash will stop wandering sadly with her tail in its melancholy pose whenever they play a Zac Efron video bit from the current movie. Also spent some time on the iCarly website looking for news of new episode as I suffered iCarly withdrawal on Saturday, but only read Freddy’s not terribly convincing Black Friday tale and couldn’t text a “shirt suggestion.”
So, is that everything or at least 2:36 a.m.’s worth. I suppose so. Now I’m off to find something to read. Have to dig out a Ngaio Marsh book — I suddenly remembered that the Roderick Alleyn/Agatha Troy courtship was one of the things that inspired In The Bleak December. But now is not the time to start reading a mystery. They keep me awake. There’s a song thought: The mystery of you sneaks through my night and steals my sleep away. So sneak quieter or be less mysterious. Your choice.
Good night all. (Lenny Welch “Since I Fell For You” — I love the way the song swings through sadness and madness — hey, he’s a Jersey guy…so many of the cool cats are. Did I just write cool cats — alas that’s what’s you get at this turn o’ the hour. So I’ll be turning myself in.)
Doing the egomanical insomniac Googlesearch dance and happened to stroll into Dublin — you can really travel at night, even without the broom, which must be kept fresh for curling or Quidditch — Dublin in the form of Pieces of Stew, which led me to the blogroll which led me to the Ray Foley Show blog which led me follow FoleyRadio on Twitter after assuring myself they were usually 140 bits of at least moderately amusing which led to and I’ll have to quote “The Pointy Adventures of Jean-Claude Supremo” which has great pictures, which led back to Stew which led to looking at the November Dublin Gigs entry, where I was hoping to find new music but Lykke Li’s already on my last.fm list, Top Gear Live would require non insomnia fueled travel so that brought me to Fionna Regan at Vicar Street on Nov. 28th
which led to — as these searches often lead to funny, yes oddly funny things occasionally having to be translated from the French– one video and then another.
So thanks Stew for the Surf Dublin tour and two excellently amusing videos (also “put a penny in the slot” which makes me think maybe whoever directed the Sara Bareilles “Love Song” video liked it also, although that may be a totally libelous comment as I have no idea what the production dates were for either — and images do occasionally just float down into multiple heads from the ether. But I am allowed one pre midnight bout with slanderous insanity or inanity, yes?
Bon soir(not translated from the French).
Morning after note: I knew the first video reminded me of something — the “Eres La Musica” video Mota did for the Disney Channel and High School Musical 2. Regan’s definitely plugged in somewhere.
A new web movie series about a band in too much love — I’ve had the title in my head for awhile and finally just decided to give it some characters and conflict. I’m a natural percussionist and learning so enjoy; as it says; “someday you’ll laugh.” Welcome to Blink Kitty Love, where fun happens after midnights and crushes go round and round.
well, I open my Tuesday Financial Times of a Wednesday when it arrives and now there is no guarantee that 1. there will be a Wealth page and 2. when there is a Wealth Page, there will be a James Altucher comment on it. He ranges a little and borders on the too personal, but it’s very human and when he finally turns to finance, it’s practical, mathematically sound, sensible advice that doesn’t appeal to people seeking out get rich quick schemes but would appeal to me if I hadn’t signed that piece of paper that said “I will not gamble…and that includes the stock market”(lack of uncommitted funds also helps with that). It’s a long story and does not involve bookies or bankruptcies or anything like that, just…well, like I said, long story. Ask Gayle (brilliant use of pass the buck there; she says can I have that in writing, I say yes, so she also gets all future questions.) Where was I? James Altucher.
Soon after I discovered ( a little surprised) that he was my favorite columnist, he wrote this brilliantly inspirational bit about insomnia and bad ideas. Of course, I was immediately struck by the superb use of the time added to one’s night by lack of sleep — probably the best time ever to come up with stupid ideas — and started to generate my own. The first one was introduce Financial Times columnist to Lonely Pond Productions, Inc. so I sent off an e-mail. Then they took on quite a range (and yes, that means I don’t remember where I put the list) but a memorable one toward the end of the ten requested suggested sort of a strip poker for people who stay to late at work…for every fifteen minute span after 5 p.m., you have to lose an article of clothing. I figured it would at least encourage the non exhibitionists/non voyeurs to go home on the next train. Time to start the new insomnia induced bad idea list: 1. Write rock opera about finance. I’ll list ‘em as they come to me.
I’ve never really liked numbers(geometry rocks) and don’t you hate it when your blog stat flatlines — another advantage to the Withoutabox site — no need to look at the numbers. For those of you worried, not this blog, but the movie blog where I should be writing this post but I’m in the wrong dashboard and if I were in the right one, nobody would read it.
Insomnia rant, take one — or take two and try to get some sleep before morning.
FlipBoom, the ToonBoom entry level animation program, is my favorite way to unwind when not sleeping. Unfortunately, there is too much not sleeping. It’s 3:47 a.m. and Flash isn’t the only one whose schedule is confused. At some point, I need to learn how to use the Studio Express program but for now, I plug in my Wacom tablet, doodle for awhile, learn to do something more effectively, unplug the tablet, open the 20 to 30 second movie in Garageband, turn on my keyboard/midi controller and doodle musically. Then I upload to myToons.
I would usually be writing this sort of thing at my Withoutabox blog, but something’s messed up there so I guess I’ll start talking about the movie business here. Enjoy.
Yes, it’s August and yes, I need one…of course, I also need a beach day but you just can’t pretend a beach appears in the backyard. Snow’s easier, just don’t look outside and stay in the room with the air conditioner…well, more a metaphysical snow day…but I have to make some calls for my next article…did I mention working on the weekend is fun(add sarcastic punctuation). I’m not really good at relaxing. Maybe I’ll pastel. Or read a book. Or watch the animated Hellboy movie finally. If only there were a switch to change the Olympics from summer to winter — curling is soothing. Ah, there’s a break — track down the curling movie and yes, all ye doubtful, there is one: Men With Brooms.
