Childhood Favorites are Funny Again

When I was a kid I loved Garfield. I can not emphasize this enough. In the early 80s, I thought Garfield was the most colossally hi-larious thing on earth. Okay, I was like, eight. Maybe nine. But still. Every time a new Garfield book would come out, mom (knowing full well of my deep affinity) would try to ensure I'd have a copy. At school, my friends and I would swap Garfield books at recess. I'd trade my copy of Garfield Takes the Cake for Aimee's copy of Garfield Weighs In, and so on. The only one that never left the safety of my bookshelf was Garfield Eats His Heart Out, because it was my favorite, and because I knew that little bitch Holly would probably take it and never give it back. These Garfield book swaps were serious business.

As I've gotten older, my sense of humor has darkened and twisted significantly. Things that amused me as a kid seem so pedestrian now. The antics of a cynical, lasagna-obsessed house cat had all but escaped my memory... until today. Bridget sent me a link that has joined the ranks of my favorite web comics: Garfield Minus Garfield.



Y'all, this is brilliant. From the Garfield Minus Garfield website:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Like I said, brilliant. As a child I never picked up on how, um, quirky the Jon Arbuckle character is. I sure as heck didn't think I'd grow up to often feel like the female equivalent of him, but that's another post. Take Garfield out of the equation, and ol' Jon is (pardon my French) completely batshit crazy.

See for yourself: Garfield Minus Garfield

Dan Walsh, Garfield Minus Garfield's creator, is my new favorite Irishman for this genius creation. Even cooler, Garfield's creator Jim Davis is totally hip to it. Aaaand... Garfield Minus Garfield the webcomic is becoming Garfield Minus Garfield the book.

So, it looks like I'll be buying myself another Garfield book. And that, my friends, is something I never thought I'd be saying at 34 years old... but it cracks me up that I am.

I won't be swapping this one, though. You gotta get your own.

The Mighty Amazon

Every now and then, something really awesome happens to me. Today I was cleaning out the pockets of my padfolio and found a $100 gift certificate for Amazon.com that I totally forgot I had. Rock and roll! So, I went shopping. Here's what $100 at Amazon gets a girl like me:

On the book front, I kept it practical yet interesting. These two books encompass the two main aspects of web design that I am most passionate about: attractive design and positive user experience.

Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm

I am a huge fan of this guy's work. This book has been recommended to me several times, and now I have it! It'll be an invaluable resource for both work and personal projects, and I can't wait to dig into it.



Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug

I'm committed to making sure websites and user interfaces I create are as effortless and pleasant to use as possible, but as new technologies emerge there are new challenges that can potentially impede a positive experience for the end user. This book has been referenced several times at various conferences I have been to, and I'm looking forward to the big picture.



And now for sheer frivolity... MOVIES! These are two of my favorites. Being that both are Criterion Collection releases (cha-ching), I probably wouldn't buy them out of the blue with my own hard-earned scratch.

First, one of my top five all-time favorite movies ever: Down By Law. This is SUCH an amazing film. For starters, it opens with scenes of New Orleans accompanied by Tom Waits' Jockey Full of Bourbon from his album Rain Dogs (one of my top five all-time favorite albums ever). Awesome. Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Begnini are the most insanely and brilliantly matched trio in film history. The shots, the music, the acting... this is the film that made me fall in love with Jim Jarmusch's work.



Second, and another favorite of mine: Fishing with John. A collection of television segments originally aired on Asian television; Fishing with John is... different. Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper, Jim Jarmusch, Willem Dafoe and Matt Dillon (for some reason) each join John Lurie on a fishing expedition, which is filmed documentary style. The voice-overs are deadpan and, at times, subtly twisted. Rumor has it that after filming his episode, Tom Waits was so pissed off at John Lurie that he didn't talk to him for two years. Incidentally, the Tom Waits episode is one of the most entertaining.



I've had a couple people I've recommended Fishing with John to totally hate it. I understand why. It's weird and out there. I love it.

So make it snappy, USPS... I want the fruits of my free money now (but totally didn't spring for expedited shipping)!

Can you feel it, see it, hear it today?

I rarely listen to music on the radio anymore. Morning Edition, The World and Inside Appalachia on West Virginia public radio are about the only things I switch the iPod out for these days. I left my iPod at the house today, though, so I hit scan on the radio as I was driving around. About two minutes in, I hit the scan button to stop and make sure I was hearing what I was hearing. Sure enough, I was reminded why I don't listen to the radio anymore, and was reminded that I am most definitely getting older.

What stopped my FM scan in its tracks? A cover of Faith No More's Epic. I listened in disbelief. It was terrible. Remember when the American version of The Office premiered, and anyone who was at all familiar with the UK version hated it? And why did people hate it so much? Because at first, it was little more than an ersatz version of the real thing. The script was followed nearly word-for-word with different actors; no original humor or dialog. It was too close to the original to translate properly and just seemed cheap and lazy. Well, that's kind of what happened here. It's easily one of the worst covers I have ever heard, and to be a cover of such an amazing track... well, damn.

I'm a big fan of covers done well. A cover done well, in my opinion, is an artist respecting the original-- leaving it untouched; un-molested-- but taking that original and putting a fresh, unique and personal stamp of ownership on it. Examples of this would be Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, The Afghan Whigs' cover of TLC's Creep, Sonic Youth's cover of The Carpenters' Superstar (I had this opinion long before seeing Juno, thanks), Swans cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (Gira's version, Jarboe's drives me up a wall) and-- I know I might get flamed for this and will justify it if anyone wants me to-- Mark Ronson's cover of The Smiths' Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before. These are creative interpretations of the original, not lazy rip-offs.

So, yeah, I am listening to this horrible Faith No More cover and the only thing that is different is the noticeable absence of Mike Patton's (one of the most underrated male musicians in recent music history, but that's another post) vocals. Everything else is a direct lift from the original. Oh, wait, they kind of altered the piano outro by a few notes at the end. As luck would have it, the DJ actually said the name of the band after the cringe-inducing aural trespass had ended. Atreyu? I am spelling it like the character from The Neverending Story, since I imagine that's where the band's name originated from. I am so annoyed, I can't be bothered to look it up. Atreyu. Never heard of 'em, which is probably a sign of my age. Furthering the age issue, I don't care who they are. Probably some Hot Topic phenomenon. Definitely lazy. But who knows, I'm just an old music snob/lady curmudgeon and they could be awesome. Correct me if I am wrong.

I guess that's really what is at the root of this rant: My disdain for lazy "art" and how pervasive and readily embraced it is in today's mainstream culture. There are, without a doubt, innovative and creative artists, musicians and filmmakers producing original and captivating work. Many of them do not go unappreciated in the right circles. What I am so turned off by is the pandering to the lowest common denominator. More and more drivel... less and less effort.

C'est ça. End rant.


Mike Patton saw what you did there.

Bee-tee-dubs, homes, Juno wasn't Zeus's wife.

I think I am one of the last people in the world to finally see Juno.

It's a good movie. It had the potential to be great, if not for one major flaw. Juno is likely the most OVER-WRITTEN film I have ever seen, ever. That annoyed me to the point of almost not being able to enjoy it.

Despite almost perfect casting, a versatile and enjoyable soundtrack and fantastic set design, I couldn't get past how forced Juno's character is. Yes, okay, Juno is a very quirky and cool (compared to other girls at her school) and quick-witted girl. There are ways to communicate those aspects without being so freaking over-the-top.

Conveying personality traits should be transparent to be effective, not based on random interests incongruous with the average American teenage girl glaringly pointed out during otherwise natural dialog between characters. To me, the film felt like an hour and a half of real people handling real topics in a believable fashion with Juno's character popping up like a whack-a-mole declaring, "I'm sixteen and a girl and my favorite band Iggy and the Stooges!" "I'm sixteen and a girl and Dario Argento is the master of horror flicks!" "I'm sixteen and a girl and make references to Soupy Sales, Mott the Hoople and the Thunder Cats!" "I'm sixteen and a girl and... and..."

That's not to say that teenagers can't or don't ever have an interest in --even a passion for-- aspects of popular culture that were current long before their time. But in this case, I felt like it was pitched as Juno's only selling point. That took a lot away from the overall story and the more well-developed characters.

I don't know much about this Diablo Cody woman who wrote the screenplay, but my perception is that she used the Juno character to project herself onto the big screen. Ellen Page is an incredibly likable actor, and I would love to see her in something where she's not being used as a vehicle for someone else's ego.

Kind of a rant, kind of a rave. That's all.


Iggy Pop: Not from England. Master of the junkie anthem turned cruise line jingle.

Design and the Elastic Mind

Note: Many of the external links in this post go to a Flash-authored site. Completely annoying, yes, but the content is worth checking out. I promise.

Wow. I desperately, desperately want to check out this exhibition at MoMA.

Design and the Elastic Mind

It runs until May 12th. I've never been to New York City, much less the Museum of Modern Art. But I am going to try to make this happen. Especially after reading this review of the exhibit over at Core 77.

Where my New York people at?!

Despite my enthusiasm, some of the works featured in this exhibition freak me out. There are some prototypes of concepts that just don't sit well with me, but that I'd love to see nonetheless. Granted, the imaginings that make me nervous are merely that-- imaginings. If there is one thing I appreciate in life, it's imagination. However, were something like RFID tagging on human beings ever to become a mandated reality, I'd be one of the first people heading off to the hills to live in a cave. Nonetheless, I love that someone has the type gray matter in his or her head to envision and translate into something tangible such an idea.

That said, I fear visualizing an (even more) Orwellian future. Although not a tinfoil hat kind of girl, I am very private. Despite this public-facing blog, despite my varied online activity, I am reluctant to reveal too much of myself to anyone other than people whom I feel close to and have a strong sense of. Which is such a contradiction, given that I can be found on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, here, my personal website (if I ever get around to re-designing and re-launching it) but these accounts aren't so much a social thing for me as they are my attempt to keep ahead of the curve as it applies to my career. Yes, there is an interpersonal aspect of social networking and folksonomy-driven sites that I enjoy... I have friends and family all over the country that I love to keep in touch with. I like to know what people I care about are up to. But what I really get from these various accounts and interactions is simple: Knowledge. Ideas. Collaboration. The banter I engage in and follow with co-workers and other webby-type people on Twitter goes much further than a welcome diversion on a stressful work day. My profile on Colour Lovers isn't to make color buddies, but to stay abreast of color trends and to store and create palettes for future use in my designs. The Internet is an amazing resource, and as I gradually overcome my reluctance to make myself present "out there" the more I benefit professionally.

Because of these things, the Harvesting the Internet segment of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition is what interests me most. The exhibition's website shows several Google Earth mashups, which thrills me to no end. About two years ago I was working on the fourth redesign of alabama.gov. During this time, I teamed up with our very talented and motivated lead developer, Robert. The goal was to create an interactive mapping segment of the portal with limited resources available to us. We didn't have a dedicated GIS or mapping agency to work with, so we had to be creative. Robert found a way to work with Google's API (before they openly made such an API publicly available) to sort of reverse-engineer Google's mapping features to fit our needs. I then skinned it and incorporated it into the overall site design. If I am not mistaken, alabama.gov was the first state government web portal to integrate Google maps into the site. Technically not a mashup in that whole Web 2.0 sense of the word, it's something we needed to innovate for ourselves and I am very proud of that. alabama.gov's mapping feature allows visitors to the site to locate everything from libraries to blood donation centers to locations of Alabama's 'moon trees' in one spot. To see similar and more sophisticated web applications being showcased in an exhibition at MoMA thrills me to no end.

But, I'm a design geek like that.

A design geek who shudders at the thought of paper as we know it being phased out for digital versions, but who (in her dreams) would absolutely love a 3-D printer so that she can design and print out her own custom fruit bowl, for the real!

Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go...

Loitering at the Shop 'n' Rob

It appears when I made that wrong left turn in Smuteye, I ended up in Springfield.

Here, Have Some Nostalgia on Me

Hey, remember the sputtering little line-drawn fellow from The Great Space Coaster? I had forgotten all about this strange interstitial segment until this evening. When I was a kid, I thought he was just speaking gibberish. Now, it is quite clear that he speaks in Italian gibberish. How hot is that? Almost as hot as the nightclub jazz playing in the background.

Here's a memory refresher:



And here is more than you ever realized you've wanted to know about La Linea: Wikipedia entry