website
twenty after two in the morning
Man, I feel good! Just wait until you see what I'm doing to the website! a complete re-do of the COMICS main thing, the SW4 mini-site completely comprehensive, plus all kidns of new photo galleries and a new members-only area. Watch for new website stuff in the coming weeks. You're gonna love it!!
processing orders
half past noon
Man oh man, Christmas time again! I'm looking forward to it as always, but I never like having to slow down for a few days. Here's what I have on the go right now: processing orders for the new book, assembling packages for submission to distributors, update the website with an SW4 mini-site and updates Shoppe, digitize three tapes of prank calls for the PCU playlist, organize another even bigger party, and create a gigantic fifth issue. What a busy boy am I!
Gwen Stefani album
Holy Smokes! I am absolutely in love with the new Gwen Stefani album, childish lyrics and all. What a great package. I love how she went the other way on how other people would have expected a solo album to go: instead of going for one unified sound, she addresses the dichotomous nature of her personality by roping in a heap of friends and mentors to help articulate all the facets she wishes to explore. A great record.
It feels good to go downtown, sit in the mini coffee shop at Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street and relax, taking in the surroundings. I love to pause and enjoy the moment in that spot whenever I'm over that way. But I can't get too carried away, like I've got time for time off or anything, I've got a lot of work to do to get the fourth issue out into the world the way we're going to AND put together SW5 for February. It may sound like a long way away, but a week can fly before you know it if you're not REALLY careful. Plus there's the bump at Christmas.
The more I think about the party yesterday, the more fond of it I grow. But I can only enjoy the moment for a moment. I've got to get moving!
4 event was a huge success
Should I have put December 6, if it's so late into the wee hours?
Today's 4 for 4 event was a huge success. It was so fun. So many people came to see the bands, and so many new people have been turned on to the Sean Ward Experience. Every one of the acts delivered with flair and gusto. Everyone was dancing and laughing and the same thing was overheard over and over: "This is Hoppin'!" "This is hoppin'" is going to be my new catchphrase.
Much love and thanks to everyone who came out. Everyone had such a good time! You all looked so good! I'll get the pictures up as soon as I can!
I'm sleeeeepy
It's very late and I'm sleeeeepy. I'm fully figuring on having to spend an all-nighter tomorrow night getting all the last minute stuff ready on the book. Then I've got a couple of days elbow room to get the party ready. My eyes and ears our working the promo magic are telling me that response has been top-drawer. It really looks like we're going to have a fun show. Which is great because Laura Austen has informed me that her projections are in 3D.
Attention Hotmail users
Attention Hotmail users: do you know how many e-mails you're not getting? About three-quarters of all the e-mail I send to anyone with a Hotmail address, even when I'm replying to something they sent me, comes back saying "operation timed out" or "undeliverable, try again later". I can't be the only one experiencing this. Bill Gates says that spam will be a thing of the past in something like two years. Yeah, by cornering the market and getting everyone on hotmail, and then not letting anyone's email through at all. I can't wait for Gmail to launch. I can't help but feel like it's going to take shit over. At least with people who know what they're talking about. Let the middle-class suburbanites have their Hotmail.
Today is my birthday
Today is my birthday! And I cannot even acknowledge it for how busy I am getting things ready for the 4 for 4 event. Miss Kaydi is cooking up something in the way of celebration for the week following the party, but I have no idea what's up. But today is all about drawing and scanning and tracking down t-shirts. The task now is to decide what I'm going to show you for an SW4 preview on Friday. Busy busy!!
drink way more water
I keep finding that between four and seven PM I'm useless. I get all drowsy and spend more time than I'd like face down on the table taking some weird nap. I've been hearing from many directions lately that drinking lots of water is good for that energy level in the middle of the day. I used to drink way more water even than the recommended amount but in about a month I've been drinking almost none. So as an experiment this weekend, I'm keeping a big ten-litre jug of water in the studio with me so that it's handier than going down to make coffee so that it'll be there and I'll just drink it constantly. This is science!
Last night Miss Kaydi and I went to see The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. I was really curious about what it was going to be like and I'm pleased to report that it's awesome. It's packed with life lessons, especially with regards to the evils of marketing to children. And the particular mix of live action and animation towards the end is very well done. And then the one musical number is the bomb. This is easily my favorite cartoon movie since Yellow Submarine. Like Yellow Submarine, the colors leap off the screen. They've done an excellent job with The Spongebob Squarepants Movie.
getting ready
Yeah, getting ready to show off the cover tomorrow. That means fixing up the SW4 mini-site and all of that. Man, I'm sleepy though! And I have a big day tomorrow where my time is tight. I've gotta go down to pick up some money, get some cover proofs, come back and continue work on the book, then it's off to see The Spongebob Squarepants Movie! Opening Night! Me and Miss Kaydi will be each other's date for that.
Russell Tyrone Jones
three in the morning
Man, staying up late to color the cover is fun! You're going to love it.
Off topic, here are some mistakes people surrounding me commonly make:
Comfort for Security
Context for Content
Opinion for Fact
Circumstances for Destiny
Choice for Freedom
It's another sad day as another of my heroes has gone to chill up in heaven. My favorite rapper, Big Baby Jesus, Dirt McGirt, the one and only Ol' Dirty Bastard, died yesterday. One would be not out of line to raise an eyebrow when I call him one of my heroes, but Russell Jones is one of my biggest artistic influences. His two solo albums (who actually counts that one that came out while he was in jail?) are brilliant, and his larger-than-life personality demonstrated an awe of life itself that, although I may not go about it the same way, I find inspiring. What I learned from the Dirt Dog is to always be yourself, trust your instincts, be full of surprises, break rules, be an original. It's tough to admire someone's talent so much and have to watch him struggle as Mr. Jones did. Adult life was not an easy endeavour for Ol' Dirty. There's not much room for dreamers in this world and the Dirt Dog was squeezed to the margins a long time ago. Don't just live life, live the hell out of it. That is the lesson I will take from the life and legacy of Russell Tyrone Jones. RIP 1968-2004
religion
This guy's on television telling me about the first English translation of the Bible. What a gorgeous object that it. The pages are a couple of feet tall and it's all in painstaking handdone script with ornate borders and goldleaf. I remember one time just for fun I did a search for "bible" on Ebay and there was all of these ancient copies that are hundreds of years old selling for thousands of dollars.
Speaking of religion, I'm noticing that many, many of my recent conversations find their way to the place where Religion, Astronomy, Science, and Math all become the same subject. Am I correct in believing that more and more of us young people are talking about this stuff or am I crazy? I was saying today that my figurative concepts of Cosmology and Quantum Mechanics is like this: You could go up to the top of the universe and eventually go up and up and up and out your own mouth, or you could look through a microscope and zoom in and zoom in and zoom in until you're seeing yourself looking in a microscope.
Last night I went to sleep thinking about how big the sun is. Then with that in mind, how much bigger is the whole galaxy, or the stars in the middle of it since we're way out at the edge. This is crazy!
Now that man on TV is telling me that the Catholic priests burned all the English bibles and hunted down the dudes making it! It was all an underground posse running by night going "Yo, I translated it so now you can know God's word yourself instead of having to just trust the priest. Word!" History is fascinating.
US Election night
three in the morning
This US Election night is some funny shit. Over the last few days, something occurred to me. If Georgie wins, how much of it will have to do with the fact that through this whole campaign ordeal he looked like he was enjoying himself. He was always smiling and always had a spring in his step. Johnny always looked worried and tired and as if he thought he was in over his head. I think at the very beginning he thought this was going to be an easy stride and then didn't feel up to the task of fighting the fight when it got tough. It doesn't help that the Republican Party just kept fighting dirtier and dirtier all the time. And although I have no real preference for one candidate or the other, I am loathe to see Bush re-elected just on account of how much bigger his balls will grow and what weight he's going to throw around for a few years while we wait it out. Hrrmph.
There was something else I was going to write about but now I forget what.
feels good to be drawing again
two in the morning
Aw yeah! Ed Wood just started on television! Man, it feels good to be drawing again. These new SW4 pages look great. I'm really excited to start hyping the release but this one's going to be a bit more elaborate an affair and I can't make anything official until certain details are sorted out. I will tell you that it's got a cartoon Sean Ward story AND the much-demanded return of The Changing Color. After Halloween, I can't wait to strap myself to the drawing board and get this thing out to all of you.
ten to three in the afternoon
I used to work as a cashier in a grocery store about five years ago. I once had this woman come through my check out who said she had just moved and that she had to get everything. Her order came to almost $700. Over the time it takes to ring through an order that large, you really get to know someone.
one a-clock in the afternoon
I'm sick. I had to keep laughing because I watched three hours of TV last night, feeling to crappy to do anything else. I was all hot but I'd start shivering if I took my blanket off. Perhaps one of you can come over and make me some soup and get me some videos to watch from the video store. I want that Einstein documentary that is always out every time I want to watch it. Maybe you'll have better luck.
Remote Wonder at the Horseshoe
Last night I went to see my current favorite band Remote Wonder at the Horseshoe. It's incredibly satifying not only to see my dear friend Christian Rogers finally having found his calling, but doing so incredibly well with it. At the end of their performance they received the loudest and longest ovation I have ever seen an unsigned act get in all of the tons and tons of shows I've ever seen. I'm really proud of them, and I'm very happy that I was the one who got Christian performing again and introduced him and his keyboardist Jill when the pair of them played with an incarnation of The Sean Ward Players. A show that good makes me long to get back on stage again.
The evening made me nostalgic for the good ol' days when I wasn't such a serious professional, all getting up early and taking care of business. I remember when Christian and me used to, for example, stay up all night smoking hash, watching the entire ten-hour Beatles Anthology, and drawing comics. Back then we were only talking about all the things we were going to do and now here we are doing it. It will be glorious when we can sit down, raise a glass, and toast to having DONE it. But the only way there is for me to upload this right now and get back to work.
economic crap
'bout five in the afternoon
I asked the Big Man why Toronto's getting the economic crap beat out of it. Nine-Eleven, then the Blackout, then Sars, then a mild summer, and now no Leafs season (not that I'm a sports fan or anything, but the bars and hotels are gonna feel it). I asked the Big Man what's the deal and he just kind of shrugged and said "engh" and waved me away.
SW3 is in two more stores as of today! Be sure to pay a visit to The Comic Stop and The Book Exchange. They both on Dundas West, a block and three blocks west of Keele, respectively. Go spend a few bucks there and tell 'em I sentcha!!
new comic books and T-Shirts
six oh five pee ehm
Yesterday was Canzine but there aren't many pictures on account of the fact that it was way to crowded to even move! But it was a fun time and we got to see some friends from past years and meet tons of new ones! I hope everyone enjoys their new comic books and T-Shirts. No time for a real entry here, just a quick update. I'm behind today! Laying out SW4, you know!
THE SEAN WARD MOVIE REVIEW SPECIAL
ten past eight at night
Now I've finally got the website finished in it's complete form! It's never really done, but at least I've got all of the sections up. I totally blew today barrelling down on it but it was a compulsion. It missing sections was driving me crazy!!! Please send an e-mail to all of your friends and tell them to come check out the new site.
And now it's time for... THE SEAN WARD MOVIE REVIEW SPECIAL! Over Thanksgiving weekend, I watched a few movies with the family and here are my short reviews.
BAD SANTA
This movie is total garbage. There is no redeeming quality to this movie, and that is saying something being that Bernie Mac is my favorite and he's one of the stars. If they were going to make a farce about a poorly behaved mall Santa, it probably would have been funny but they keep trying to play it straight and the whole premise is entirely implausible. This is one of those situations where you have to think about how many people it takes to get a Hollywood movie made and released, and you wonder how that many people could have gone along with this without anyone raising an objection. It's even worse when you consider that it's directed by the same guy that made CRUMB and GHOST WORLD.
OLD SCHOOL
This one was my dad's pick. It's got a few chuckles and the performer at the party was a nice surprise, but it's not a classic of this kind of comedy the way OFFICE SPACE or HALF BAKED is.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
This movie is the bomb. The mind, memory, and the construction of personality are all subjects that interest me tremendously and this movie seemed to get it just right. I loved it. It ended and I had to shout. That's how good it is. I just wish I could have seen it in theatres. Interesting to note that it's directed by the same guy that directed a few of the better White Stripes videos.
COMEDIAN
This is my top pick of the weekend. It's inspiring like you wouldn't believe. On the surface it's a documentary about Jerry Seinfeld putting a new act together and mentoring a newcomer to the scene, but it works much better as a documentary about work ethic when you've chosen the road less travelled. I loved it. I'm going to watch pieces of it again before I have to take it back.
And those are my movie picks of the weekend.