I Let My Fists Do The Talkin’

Didn’t love this one; none of the panelists are on my short-list favorites. Both of the BBC1 series (this season and last) seem heavier and slower than the earlier seasons. Maybe it’s me.

I didn’t have time/motivation to make a Christmas card this year. Luckily, it being the end of the Zeros, I instead give a brief retrospective of cards of the years past. (The ones I already have on the internet, anyway.)

2003. I lost this scarf immediately after making this card.

2006. This is actually Cakey’s Christmas card, but I made it.

2006. Inside: “Hoping your holiday season is relatively free of traumatizing calamity.”

Not actually a Christmas card, but an album you should buy

2007. The Christmas card that changed the course of my career and indirectly dictated what I would be doing for the next 2+ years. (Made for actor Rich Sommer.)

2008. This one was for sale in my brief career as a copyright-violating media profiteer.

2008. We delivered on the promise, too.

2008.

Merry Fishmas, everybody!

Now on the front page of FunnyorDie. Please vote “funny” or write a rambling, misspelled comment about how this is a rip-off of something else and totally lame.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/78266775af/comic-book-weather

I made this back in February as a pilot of a web sketch series for Marvel’s website, which petered out before it started. Anyway… it’s still pretty funny.

I have finally updated my website (there’s actually more on it than this blog)—adding to the about me page and the video page.

It’s actually just archivey stuff rather than making anything new—I put up embedded links to every video I’ve done (except for Captain Conspiracy and We Love Cigars) and brought back links to the portrait projects. But… there’s new graphics. Like this—

Trying to find some technical explanation for this.

When exporting from Final Cut Pro (either through Compressor, Quicktime-Conversion, or just saving as Quicktime) it always massively desaturates the file. I only noticed this happening after I upgraded to FCP6.

‘Welcome to my Study" is full of rich forest greens and burgandies, but on export, it looks totally "nuh."

In this particular case (above), the green-screened figure was desaturated MORE than the background and covered in noise. It looks like something from MYST. Like a layer of gauze on top. (This layer has color-correction and chromakey filters on it.)

All the settings are correct. There’s no compression involved—they’re full-framed quicktimes. I have to uncheck the "make everything look like shit" button if I can ever find it.

Since the number of people who read my blog (on the weekend, no less) is much smaller than, say, those who check YouTube, FunnyorDie or Facebook, I’m considering this a “soft opening.”

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OJCECgDFo
FunnyorDie link: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ab0d6aad0d

I rewatched a bunch of old stuff recently (including this one). I forgot how funny some of the old Channel 102 shows are. And it’s telling how web videos have evolved in just a couple years (quick, loud, immediate) that the thought of having a scrap of narrative in them seems so alien already.

Most people are familiar with Melanie’s “Brand New Key,” thanks to its appearance in Boogie Night as Rollergirl’s theme music.

But, did you know it charted in England as a “reworking”/parody version by West-Country-themed combo The Wurzles entitled “Combine Harvester?”

I heard this song recently and desperately tried to place what movie, if any, it had appeared in recently. (Love Actually? Some Rom Com maybe? {Rushmore—thanks Fountain.})

Here it is performed in a construction site, for good measure.

This just the kind of song that is simple and lovely in a way that makes it so attractive to asshatted souless producers looking to leave their mark by doing the most fucking terrible cover ever.

But that’s where you’re wrong. It’s the perfect song for producers looking to leave their mark by doing multiple versions of the most fucking terrible covers ever.

Some YouTube commentor/unquestionable authority said it was one of the most covered songs with more than 100 covers on record. I’m pretty sure Hawaiian War Chant has that record licked, but the armpit-sniffing guy from Dexy’s Midnight Runners hasn’t gotten around to covering it yet.

(alternate YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAUybTmCB8)

Defenders of Stan takes place in a world where (almost) everyone has super-powers. These are late-night/daytime commercials that would be shown on TV in that world.

SuperLawyers #1 from Dyna Moe on Vimeo.

SuperLawyers #2 from Dyna Moe on Vimeo.

Video coming this week

It’s not complete (missing episodes 2 & 3, we’re looking for them), but I’ve uploaded all of the Cakey! episodes on a variety of sites, but Vimeo looks best.

These were made between Dec 2006 and March 2008, and due to a exclusive contract, was only on a site that doesn’t exist anymore. So, until there’s a protest, they’re here for you. Please share them.

(Also, the “Videos” link on nobodyssweetheart.com and all of MrGhost.net site are still down)

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Birthday” on Vimeo.

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Bakesale”on Vimeo.

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Superhero” on Vimeo.

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Babysitter” on Vimeo.

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Book Report” on Vimeo.

Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: “Goodbye” on Vimeo.

Welcome to My Study #6 from Dyna Moe on Vimeo.

or if you prefer YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tposah48UDs

Designed for an audience of one.

The odd bodies and random movements bring to mind the awkward terribleness (and to me, deliciousness) of the Law & Order video game adaptations.

I don’t have a facebook profile. Maybe you do?

Join this group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40147231206

In everyone’s hooplaing and gazooksing about over this Obama fellow, people overlooked the passing of someone very special. A man from another age who was not equipped for our time. A small man with giant glasses and a passion for talking in a weird stiff manner which supposedly was modeled after Jackson Pollock.

Mister Glasses has died.

Mitchell Magee, my friend and sometimes-collaborator (although not on Mister Glasses despite what people think) did not produce a new episode for this month’s Channel 101 screening and, according to the rules, forfeited his slot on the ballot and was immediately canceled.

Mitch didn’t write or shoot anything this month—the stress of the huge production, scheduling, frequent cast changes, expense of making a show for free while living on a limited budget chips away at one’s enthusiasm pretty quickly. He had been talking about ending the show for months, but waiting until he finished the episodes focusing on each member of Mister Glasses’ entourage and after the NY TV Festival in October. By anyone’s standards (except the absurd Defenders of Stan’s), Mister Glasses had a terrifically long run even if you discount the two Welcome to my Study specials that I worked on (but you shouldn’t because Study is awesome and Mitch wrote those, too).

And now… I will present an interview with Mitch about Mister Glasses.

Dyna: What is the origin of Mister Glasses? It’s an unusual idea for a web series, for sure, which tends to be more on the quick and obvious tip.

Mitch: Well, as you know, Dyna, you were pretty intimately involved with the conception of the idea. The two of us were walking around Manhattan and I looked up at a building (it may have been the Urban Glass House) and I said, look at that—that was made by…you, know…Mister Glasses.” I was thinking of the architect, Philip Johnson, but I couldn’t remember his name. You immediately said, “you should do a show called “Mister Glasses.”