Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recreating Jesus


I often wonder what old JC actually looked like. The famous paintings of him make him out to have blondish hair and blue eyes; quite caucasion...perhaps too Caucasion.

Christians continue to recreate Jesus to fit her or his personal or doctrinal stance on the Son of God.

But it occurs to me that Jesus was likely as dark-skinned (or as light-skinned if you prefer) as President Obama.

Let's get our heads around that for a minute.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Lower Manhattan

Okay...the phrase is funny and people are starting to refer to the nether regions of Dr Manhattan from "Watchmen" as Lower Manhattan."

But, the first time I heard this phrase (note the date 7 Mar 2009) was the next day from my good friend Dan in an email. He said he was looking forward to seeing some fan art of Dr Manhattan I am working on, but he thought my true interest would be in "Lower Manhattan." And indeed it was. I liked other stuff too.

I mean really! I can't remember a time when a superhero (or anti-superhero) movie appealed to me more. But I have to admit, EVERY TIME Dr Manhattan appears in a long shot, I have NO idea what happened!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Happiness NOW!




Turning the whine button off now. And in the further midst of turning off the noise and voices from the world and in my head, I've decided today to be really happy despite my inner ramblings. I am happy because I know whatever negative thinking may be attempting to take root is ABSOLUTELY temporary. It is for you too.

Why write this? Because I know somebody else is in deeper despair than I was feeling a few minutes ago. I am not without work and there is plenty to do as a volunteer for any number of local charities. I have the ability to quickly raise for our company large sums of money and donate my time and resources. These things help my world become a better place.

I am traveling on a future time line which is in itself a mere illusion. I'm fast-forwarding to the place when I am basking in the millions that I'm creating today as a result of my good and faithful work, just by changing my thinking. I have so many resources, I'm not sure which to go with first, so I'm choosing the best thing for this moment.

I choose happiness over depression and action over complacency.

It's that simple.

Create a great day for yourself as I have done.

Eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich on 9-grain bread along with some celery.
Eat some foods that automatically make you feel better immediately. Avoid junk. Eat something healthy and that you'll be happy to reflect on later. Or give of your time to somebody who needs it. It is a scientific fact that our brain LOVES when we are cheerful givers. We feel better when we give, more so than when we receive.

Whatever you decide to do....start by being happy now.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Stem Cell Research

Wow! Another forward move by our President today as he signed the bill to further continue research on a highly controversial topic. The topic has been, like gay marriage, the money-making fear word used to give conservatives additional ways to create fear and make some money along the way.

People, what are we afraid of, really? Some say "the embryos that are 'killed' in the process" should not be made to begin with, therefore, we shouldn't do the research, therefore it's a moral issue. Is that too abbreviated? Did I jump too far ahead?

Hell, if it's a "moral issue" why send our troops overseas and lose even one of them? And you know, speaking of morality and so-called faith-based issues, when conservative Christians make statements about the stuff they fear, it is 1. a projection and 2. it always seems to be a black and white scenario. It's all gray.

About faith-based stuff....First of all, killing embryos as though it's right there with abortion. It's always weird to me when people who faith in their God and heaven and hell say it's a "moral issue." Break it down: When does the "soul" form? (Gee this is a lot of quotation marks, but I don't see a way around it.) If dead babies of any life-stage/progress go automatically to Heaven, you know, the place where God is...no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering place.....then what's the big deal?? We're talking about about embryos or even more-so, the research to give more actual living people H-O-P-E - hope for a better life. Those little life-bearing embryos are there for us.

As far as news items go, at least the gay marriage thing will be in the shadows while our focus is steered another direction by STEM CELL RESEARCH. Let's see...we can one day grow new kidneys, hearts or sheep....wait a second..we already grew a sheep. What do you say the odds are we already grew a few babies too? Albeit, highly secret clone babies but real babies nonetheless.

People, whether we vote for such a thing or not, it's happening in the private sector. We may not be able to, via government means, fund going to Mars either, but it will most likely happen in the private sector anyway.

Some preachers will keep you on the edge of your seat, creating things to be afraid of, while they take your money to give you some hope....while others give you hope reminding us that the God we somehow believe in, is always in charge.

Seriously, it never ceases to amaze how we come up with these fear-based issues, especially those that involve human progress and our planet's evolution. It galls me when the government, our government, uses our tax money to do things I completely disagree with. If I had my way, I'd say send me the check-box list of the ways you want to use my money and let me choose the ones I agree with. But fortunately, I guess we get a voice by who we vote for....at least when the polls are not miscounted. Don't get me started. As for this topic, I agree so do it. Use my money so we can all have a better chance for life or at least growing a kidney that someone else did NOT have to donate.

The best thing I heard this morning on CNN came from the woman who said (paraphrased) "....politicians are not the ones who should be telling the scientists what and how to research. We look to scientists to tell us when they ave a good idea of how to help humanity."

Friday, March 6, 2009

The Daily Show

I LOVE the Daily Show. As much as they are comical, the team actually brings the real news all wrapped up in good-natur'd fun.

It is unbelievable how much crap people have to say about President Obama. I mean, if you truly listen he's intelligent, witty and takes his job seriously....oh yeah...and he thinks out of the box. He addresses us in a progressive way. By progressive I mean you don't have to wade through side-stepping bull s**t as we did for the 8 loooooooong years up till now.

I'm happy he's there and I wish people would let the man do his job. Meantime, Jon Stewart will keep us posted on all the real stuff. I love you Jon...in a manly way. And okay....I love Pres. Obama too.

Okay.....well....back to cartoon land.

I'm just sayin'

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

So my friend says . . .


Paraphrased: "Dude! Okay....I get the blue dog parody thing but...you would-a hit the mark if you actually had done Huckleberry Hound since he WAS the original blue dog. Scooby wasn't....not...nada." (see earlier post)

So I said. "You're on."

Here it is.

Monday, March 2, 2009

B-iiiiird Man!


Time for a little 60s kitsch. If you couldn't already tell, I love cartoons; originally the reason I became an animator. Among my faves are old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. You can imagine how much Boomerang is on in my house. Not to worry, I also love Sponge Bob, Powerpuff Girls, Venture Bros. etc.

Probably the weirdest HB factory work was Birdman. At the height of superhero cartoons in the 60s, NBC had to have their own brand of Space Ghost & Mightor. Sort of the "Shazam!" of its day (okay now we're in the 70s) being that the alter ego would yell out a word and become the super one. Let's note for a second, that Space Ghost never yelled his own name in public. That's just corny. Mighty Mightor is forgiven since yelling his name is kind of a battle cry...am I stretching?? So Birdman flies out of his secret mountain lair and yells "Biiiird Man in his operatic timber.....and we're not sure why. I guess just because it sounds good.

So Boomerang always uses the old HB toons as time-fillers to the next show. The other night, Birdman came on and it had to be the single WORST episode ever. (I'm not talking about Harvey Birdman, Attorney -- it's brilliant.) By the time HB was in to their 1960s hey day, they were really crankin' those babies out. They were probably already shipping stuff out to Mexico or the Philipines, but the drawing continuity was way off model in almost every cut. His head was too big, his body out of scale, his hands were huge...and you know what that means.....I looked for anything to let me know this was not a real Birdman cartoon. At one point I thought, why doesn't Birdman hold up a sign (ala Road Runner) that says "Silly ain't it?"

So in the interest of all that's kitschy, I've continued my entries into 1960s Halloween masks. Everything that had ANY popularity was made into a Halloween costume...still works today right?

Birdman was my next natural choice. Note the usual thing about Halloween costumes is they had to plaster the character name all over it. You couldn't just dress up in these store bought licensed versions. You had to be recognized by adults too. Without the word "Birdman" imprinted who would know what the heck superhero you were. Even Batman had it stamped all over.

I hated that. These days it's called marketing.

The state of "The Economy"

It really bugs me how some people seem to be automatically drawn to using the phrase "in this economy" or one like it. Is it something they actually have studied or have they just heard it on the radio or TV and so use it because they've been told.

"The economy" is a fantasy; a mere concept. If you believe what anyone says about it, especially about spending money, you feed the misunderstood concept like a weed. I'm not saying if you're making less money or are out of work you should charge your life on a Visa card, but I am saying the economy happens because of you, me and everybody. The consumer rules by what we spend, what we don't spend and who/what we support by our dollars. We actually have real P-O-W-E-R!

We could have greener cars if we sacrifice driving gas guzzlers. We change our world by what we buy and the decisions we make every minute of every day. But we have to think first and some of us think we have to be told what to do next. Pity.

The manipulation may be well-intended, BUT it is the consumer who decides how she/he spends. I guess I just want everyone to be comfortable and faithful that everything is going to be fine and the Universe, God will take care of Y-O-U. So don't panic.

The upside? The greatest thing our wonderful President is asking us to ask ourselves is to "roll up your sleeves," "get to work," and "stop buying things you don't need." We have been spoiled as a nation...we have been brainwashed to "keep up with the Joneses" whoever they are. We have been a Saks Fifth Avenue junkie for too long...and you know what I mean.

There are many ways to find your own bliss; a bliss that costs very little to nothing. That is finding the things that make you happy from within, the things that don't hypnotize you into buying something you don't need.

We're going to see many stores and businesses close. People will lose their jobs, but they will find new ones. We be forced to actually THINK about what we really need and it is long overdue. I include myself; one who used to buy shirts, cocktails, comic books, magazines, toys and so on just for the color alone.

We are being called to a simpler life; one that doesn't dictate our happiness based upon the last purchase of meaningless crap we just bought.

We CAN do this. It is easy. But first consider that a change of a lifetime happen is permanent when it is practiced regularly. I preach to myself.

Thank GOD for a president who inspires us to think, do and be better people, by being these things first.

We're watching you Mr. Prez.