My second post about The Venture Brothers went up at The Best Shows You’re Not Watching today. Check it out and comment if you feel so inclined. Thanks! Kelly
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I’ve got a post about The Venture Brothers Season One up at The Best Shows You’re Not Watching, in honor of the upcoming season premiere on Sunday October 18th. Head on over and check it out. As always, comments on the Best Shows site are always welcome – thanks!
A lot of strange words come together to send people to this blog. I’ve done a bunch of comics (like the one above – and you can see some here, here, here, and here) about the bizarre search terms that have brought people to 1979 Semi-Finalist, but this week I got one of my weirdest. Are you ready?
“Sexually Enchanting Long Legged Ladies”
Awesome.
What do you think someone is really looking for with search terms like that? It boggles the mind.
Anyway, just wanted to share, you may now continue with your day. 
My post on Robot Chicken is up at The Best Show’s You’re Not Watching. Check it out…and check out the “finale” of Robot Chicken tonight on Adult Swim.
So thanks to Kate Harding and Jezebel, I have just yesterday, discovered Dooce. Where have I been since 2001 you ask? Honestly, I have no idea. I thought I was here, you know, hanging out, but it turns out I must have been in outer Mongolia, or the Congo, or maybe just living in my backyard with no internet connection, because this woman has been a major blog presence for EIGHT YEARS and has written TWO books* and was on the Forbes Most Influential Women In Media (#26 represent!) list and I’m just TODAY learning about this.
Frustrating. Regardless, I’m on board now and I’m SUPER on board. I’m going to have to slowly work my way through eight years of posts, but honestly…every single one I’ve read so far has made me laugh out loud. Ms. Armstrong has a fantastic, honest voice that has the huge benefit of being constantly hilarious. I think (so far) my favorite thing about her is how “normal” and like me she sounds even though she has kids. If gives me hope that if I ever have children that I’ll be better able to hold onto that “me” that I like (the parts I don’t like…happy to be rid of).
But I think the biggest lesson I can learn from Dooce, is that people hate people that I think are AMAZING AND TALENTED BEYOND BELIEF. And I don’t understand why they do that. But maybe it will make it easier to bear when they start hating me. I seriously doubt I’ll ever be as famous or prolific as Ms. Armstrong, but as my blog has become (slightly) more popular and I’ve had to seriously consider the idea of my book actually OMG getting published and bringing attention to myself…it’s been hard for me to imagine people actively hating me…even though they don’t know me. I don’t like how that feels (who does?) but it seems like I have have a little more trouble dealing with it than other people (case in point Adam – “who cares what other people think – they’re morons and they usually can’t spell”). Anyway, I’ve gotten a little tiny taste of the vitriol this summer when my blog got some serious page views and I really didn’t like it – but learning that people actively hate Ms. Armstrong somehow makes it easier to understand that some people are always just going to be crazy nutbags. And that I can ignore and laugh at those people…hopefully all the way to the bank like Ms. Armstrong.
I’ll also confess that we have the “Utah connection” and though it sounds like we had totally different experiences (in a nutshell she was raised Mormon and I was not) I totally feel like we would bond over that. Um, that sounds all stalker-y, but I mean it in the most normal non-stalker-y way possible (seriously though, CALL ME). Anyway, this was just a post to acknowledge how far behind the curve I am, and to formally rectify said situation.
Done and done.
*Okay, she only wrote one and edited one, but STILL.
Hello fans of 1979 Semi-Finalist!
I wanted to give all of you heads up that I’m a contributor to the new The Best Show’s You’re Not Watching blog, and this week my first post – a review of the HBO series Hung went up.
Please head on over and check it out. Leave comments about the post there – so that I become their most valued contributor 😉 and don’t forget to sign up to follow the site on twitter if you like what you see.
Thanks for the support everyone.
YAY! Today is our two year anniversary! YAY!
Also, we’re just about to cruise past 150,000 hits…which is awesome considering at the first anniversary we only had 42,000 hits. Which means traffic more than doubled this year. So the blog is definitely growing…baby step by baby step and I wanted to thank all of you for your support in making that happen. Thanks!
Here’s a little something I made for all of you to show my appreciation. 
Yay! What do we think? Anyone? Anyone?
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With TARA MCPHERSON, it’s not just a love I have for her art, it’s also that she so seems like the “whole artist package” with her awesome studio, badass tattoos, and constantly changing hair colors, she just LOOKS like what I think of when I think of modern female artists…or rather of the one I’d like to be (maybe in my next life). So she is of course a shoe-in for Artist of the Week this week.
I don’t remember how I first came upon McPherson’s work, I feel like it was through something silly like Myspace, but whatever it was, I’m grateful for it. One of the things that is a bit revolutionary to me about McPherson’s work is that she seems to mostly draw women. I’m not saying she can’t draw men, I’m sure she can, but she seems to prefer women, and I love that about her, mostly because I feel the same way. Perhaps I’m overanalyzing and she’s just gotten a reputation for drawing women and now that is what people expect and really she’s secretly dying inside to draw some boys…anything is possible. But she puts such love and thought into the women that she draws…I find it hard to believe she wants to be drawing anything else. McPherson is supremely talented, and she has a real point of view, which is sometimes lacking in the supremely talented, but her work, much like JAMES JEAN to me, has something to say. It’s beautiful work, yes, but it’s not just there to be pretty (or creepy depending on what you’re looking at), she is invested in telling a story and for me that’s the difference between so many mediocre artists working today and the truly exceptional ones.
Another great thing about McPherson is that she’s really managed to capture a large market – currently she does fine art, comic book covers, painted illustrations, sketches, posters (many awesome band posters – see above and below!) as well as toys and even a coloring kit. It’s really wonderful to see artists that also know how to market themselves and make themselves successful in such a competitive and unforgiving market. Onward TARA MCPHERSON! I’ve got my eye on a original of hers for someday…if someone doesn’t snatch it out from under me (probably they will). Check out her website (linked above) to learn all about her – and to buy all sorts of goodies – just in time for the holidays.
Who better to kick off my Artist of the Week feature than my good friend and amazing artist ANIS MOJGANI. Anis’ book Over The Anvil We Stretch is finally being released (I feel like I’ve been waiting for centuries) this week.
October 15th is the official launch date and you can find it here, as well as on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and strangely – Target. I have not yet had the opportunity to peruse the book (where’s my advance copy for reviewing Anis!?) but based on Anis’ poetry (slam and otherwise) which I’ve talked about here often before, and his drawing skills, which many have not been exposed to but which are, I assure you, awesome, I’m sure the book will be as amazing as I’ve been dreaming it will be.
So pick up a copy of Over The Anvil We Stretch now, and while you’re getting the book buy a few of his cd’s etc. If I was disciplined enough to make myself listen to his cd (Live: Seattle 2005) everytime I felt my creative energy ebb away I would never lose it – because Anis and his work are inspiring like few other things are.
If you want to learn more about Anis you can also check out his surprisingly epic Wikipedia page.
As an awesome sidenote – I found, weeks after Anis crashed on our couch while in New York, little black and white drawings that he worked on for his book, both on my computer and under my couch. It was like finding little treasure left by a miniature Santa Claus that I could actually believe in…and no Anis, you cannot have them back…
