Rifftrax: Reefer Madness

Recently, I went with my good friend Katie and her friends to the Fathom Event’s presentation of Rifftrax: Reefer Madness Live. After seeing both of their live events- Plan 9 From Outerspace and Rifftrax: Christmas Special- I expected teary eyed hilarity to ensue. Being a long time fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax in general, I believe these live events are a fantastic way to bring the culture together in a more social and less digital interaction. This performance I felt very pleased and then thoroughly disappointed.

Because Reefer Madness is not long enough to be a feature film, Michael, Bill and Kevin added a few shorts to the beginning to keep you in the seat for the full two hours. The shorts were beyond hilarious; I often felt the need to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep other patrons from mistaking me as a hysteric. I never thought I could be so entertained by a PSA on grass’s artistic uses.

Once the PSA of the evening had finally come on, the mood switched to one of confusion with smatterings of forced laughter. I wondered during the film if I had exhausted myself and was all laughed out, however I found that not too many others were laughing either. The jokes were a bit stale and related specifically to subjects that went over the head of the demographic. Is it that they believed stoner comedy has some way equated itself with observational humor? At the end they even said that they read some jokes that were submitted by the audience. I don’t know what they were smoking. *bud um tss*

Regardless, I felt no reason to tear down the walls and scream to the world about it. I just remember leaving the theater feeling a bit strange, like seeing a movie that had a bland, vague ending.

I still look forward with indescribable anticipation for the Halloween special, the Vincent Price version of House on Haunted Hill. Two minutes laughing the way they make me laugh is well worth the price of full admission.

Made My Day

My father just made my day.

We were watching an episode of Cash Cab and betting on whether a group of girls would be booted. The final question ( and nail in the coffin) pertained to Kurt Vonnegut and more to the point the answer was his novel, Slaughter House Five.

My father insists that no girl would read a book called "Slaughter House Five" and that is why they got it wrong. I said "No, it was a fair question because Vonnegut was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century...wait... I'm not having a conversation about literature with you."

He continued to insist that the title was the reason for the girls ejection. "Do you even know what the book is about? Do you even know who Kurt Vonnegut is?"

"Yeah," He said, "Rodney introduced me to him."



We laughed. "Well have you read anything of his?"

"I know he wrote Fahrenheit 451!"

"That was Ray Bradbury."

"Eh, what-do-I-know?"

Freedom Train

I hear that freedom train a commin’ round the bend…

New Job!
New outlook!
New future!
New…book!

After much anticipation my copy of the Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need had finally arrived…..and then I finished it. I guess that is the problem with manga…you can get through it very quickly.
I was genuinely surprised to see the entire book was in manga. I would have figured that it would have been more like a career strategy guide with bits of manga scattered throughout to keep our generation’s 22 second attention spans in check.
By no means was it a short book, concise is a better word, its length was appropriate and it kept me interested throughout. The lessons learned were not something that needed to be memorized, highlighted or crammed; they existed merely to be an introspective and retrospective method of achieving personal and professional zen. It’s six lessons are well thought out and inspire actions based on achievements in a career and happiness.

Stop by the artist’s blog to check out some nifty stuff.

Edit: I just noticed the shopped computer behind him has a missing corner. Ha!

New Dev Art Account

The new Deviant Art account is up as promised...

http://faolun.deviantart.com/

I posted things in it I put in my portfolio for school... tell me what you think.

Edit: I've also added a nifty new gadget that will show you recent works. Also clicking the eyelash pic will take you there as well.

Cleaning House

I recently came back to the blog here. I made sure to eliminate all those pesky Youtube vids that I posted on here in the past. You know... the ones that had nothing to do with anything. If I feel like posting them, I will be posting them at the bottom of the post in the form of links as opposed to embedded windows (that is unless it is uniquely important to whatever I am talking about).

In new News...

• I've made an application to Kutztown University's Commercial Design department. I look to attend there in the fall.
• I'm going to attempt to make a new Deviant Art site for my new works; I'll post a link on here when I complete it.
  
• I've been running a Steam Punk 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign. My players have no healers or controllers, so if you want in, let me know.

Stay tuned for new stuff.