Eight Arms

Ignoring something so trivial as THE PAST may seem like an easy thing for most, but it's strange, I still have a hard time letting bygones be bygones. No matter what I do THE PAST still manages to snake its way into both THE PRESENT and THE FUTURE. For instance, I intended to write this entry without mentioning that my last entry was... A MILLION YEARS AGO, but there it is. So what does this mean? In order to answer this riddle let me introduce you to JON. Say "hello" JON.

JON: Hello, JON.

JON is an ALIENFROMOUTERSPACE, but he isn't quite as idiotic as this introduction implies. He is only joking.

JON, why make a joke that only you, and frankly, I, would find...well, funny isn't the word, unless funny = obnoxious? Which it does...

JON: I'm sorry.

It's OK, JON. Anyways, I've brought JON here to illustrate a point about my absence. JON, will you help me out?

JON: I'm sorry.

I told you, it's ok. Can we get past that now?

JON: Kanye West for President!

Yes, yes, Kanye's depraved short film directed by Spike Jonze was both awesome, retarded, and conveniently timed near other awesome and retarded Kanye related events, but really let us get back to the issue at hand.

JON: Harry, nobody gives a shit about your PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

existential bullshit. And even if they did, nothing has changed.

You're still in the exact same position you were in when you wrote

that previous entry... A MILLION YEARS AGO,

-minus the brief illusion of-

MONETARY FULFILLMENT.

Thank you JON for making my point beautifully.

JON has EIGHT ARMS, and finds swimming pools fascinating. He's available for office hours eight days a week.

My opinion is more correct than yours.

Pigs can fly. Fish can talk. Pumpkins turn into horse drawn carriages. Unicorns blaze a trail through a valley of the undead. Harry Thompson is finally getting paid. Maybe it's because I put my faith in the Lord.

Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers. -Deuteronomy 30:9

Yes, It's true. I will eat again. There are times of plenty before me. Will they last? Probably not, but who's paying attention anyhow?

Had a good weekend in L.A. Caught up with some family and friends living in the area. Had a brief conversation with a female porn star before she proceeded to really lay some game on Kate. "I really like your Aura. Your hair, it's just so natural. You're such a little school girl. I love it." Kate thinks her boobs were fake. I don't.

Saw Watchmen. Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. Movie felt pretty plastic at times, a little forced, and some of the CGI, especially Doc Manhattans stiff facial features irked me. I was having Final Fantasy: Spirits Within flashbacks all over the place.

Silk Spectre II Actress, Malin Akerman was also a bit of a lame duck. She's got the right bod but, man, her acting, especially while on Mars, just hurt a little bit. I was "eh" about the soundtrack. I love every single one of those songs, but sometimes I thought it was a little too...i dunno...in your face and occasionally discordant with the tone of the film. Trailers did a better job.

I've been reading around the message boards and reviews and it seems that the opening credits have, universally, received high acclaim, which I'm down with. The movie also had some awesome moments. Traveling through Doc Manhattan's past was pretty great and his one moment of freak out in front of the camera was maybe my favorite part of the movie. Though it left me wanting a more emotional Doc M. The few scenes in Vietnam really hit me hard (in a good way). I love the whole alternate history but that's more of a credit to Alan Moore than anything else.

Here's the deal. The movie was screwed to begin with. There was just no way that everyone could be happy, especially me. I mean, honestly, I wasn't drooling all over the graphic novel when I read it, so there's no way that a direct translation to the big screen was gonna honk my horn. (I think that Alan Moore is wrong...in general. He's the voice of a time and nature that I just don't think is going anywhere, but who am I. Also he may be a proponent of fear mongering...anybody, anybody?) The thing is after seeing the movie I actually have a greater appreciation for the parts of the novel that I originally thought were interesting and some that I didn't...so that's good.

In the end all it really comes down to, and this I think stands true for any movie, is "what about that movie will stay with me?" The movie glances on some really memorable/remarkable moments but in the end, I'm not sure it will stay with me, because I'll just be thinking of the novel.

Anyways Batman was way better.

Yes, I did photoshop the above image. Yes, I'm a tool bag.


On a separate and final note, Ben Smith connected me to this website: www.garfieldminusgarfield.net.

It's pretty great and pretty much like my life right now. I think I'm gonna start my own pet project where I superimpose myself where Jon Arbuckle aught to be. The website will be garfieldminusgarfieldminusjonplusharry.net


While you impatiently wait for me to write another entry check out these sweet Emilio Estevez yokes: here

bye!

Arsenal

Hey, it's been a while. Right off the bat, I'm going to tell you that I'm not going to be starting where I left off. I am not going to finish the story of my cross-country trip, and honestly the rest must have been a bore, because I don't remember it all that well. Deal with it.

Ok, so here I am, resident of Berkeley, California. Arnold is my governor. It's February and seventy degrees outside. The past few months have been...trying, but I feel like my ship has finally come. There's wind in my sails. The captain has a strong heading. There are pirates in these waters, but I've got guns, huge ones and if you ask me the way to the beach, I'll gladly show them to you.

First:
Go. Steelers. If you're lame and live under a rock you probably still know that the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Otherwise you were probably more concerned with the puppy bowl. It was a devastatingly amazing game, the Steelers game that is, and I had the privilege of being in Pittsburgh when it happened. Hung out with the fam, ate some good food, and had about twelve heart attacks throughout the game. I don't know how, but the Steelers really pulled through on a close one there, and they did it with S-T-Y-L-E. James Harrison is my hero. After the game there were some good riotous moments, and I mean that in the most literal sense. Went to Pitt campus and saw all kinds of cool shit on fire (burning bush) and a few explosions. This was immediately followed by riot police on horses and tear gas, which I'm all about. Someday soon I'll post images of all that for you. Also, for anyone concerned, I hear that Golden Retrievers won the Puppy Bowl (Thanks Katharine).

Second:
Am I the new generation of Science Fiction? Of course. I can't give you all the details yet, but I'm working on something. Something big. Something epic. Is it a space opera? Is it the next Star Wars? No, It's better. Is Hitler involved? Yes, but you shouldn't be worried. Is it going to be done before I'm fifty? Well, I've refrained from asking my magic eight ball that one.

Third:
Don't believe what experience would tell you; grasshoppers can bite. For a few weeks now I've been doing some freelance animation work that will pay big bucks once I finish. Not to mention that it'll add some great material for my resume and demo reel. Great, right? Well, yes and no. Let me explain. I love animation and I think I might have talent there, but technology and time can be so limited in some circumstances that all the fun can be sucked right out. Right now I've got some work making a grasshopper dance to the song "jump around" and it turns out that choreographing a dance is hard, and usually left to professionals. However taking choreographed ideas and applying them to a cg character is SUPER HARD. Essentially I feel pretty confident in my ability to recognize pose, silhouette, position, timing, follow through, and various other animation necessities, but for some reason, bringing all of these things into a well orchestrated, specifically old skool hip-hop dance is alluding me. Also it doesn't help that the character is a photo-real grasshopper standing upright on its hind legs for nearly two minutes. Shmeh Shmeh Shmeh. I'm done whining. Besides I totally rocked my other freelance job.

Fourth:
Animal Collective. I'm horribly obsessed with their new album. It is so choice. No, really, I think I have a problem. I need some good, new music pronto before I do something foolish like carve AC into my cheek. Backwards. Oh yeah, I just brought that back. You guys probably think that I spend all day trying to animate, but the truth is that I'm just dancing like a fire hose to animal collective. On second thought, that's probably closer to what you think I'm doing. I wonder if this is some sort of post-college attachment/detachment problem. In any case you should probably go find their most recent album and the ones before it.

Yawn. I was going to leave you without a single uploaded picture but then I remembered that I found a photo I really enjoyed today. Oddly peaceful. Possibly post-apocalyptic. Sort of looks like they're having a cocktail party. Unfortunately, I doubt anybody had time to get their complimentary booze before the plane crashed. I'm sure they could have all used a drink, but probably not as badly as the birds stuck in their engines. Scratch that, those birds were were probably FUI.


Why doesn't anyone have their seat cushion with them?

Love.

Harry