Letters to Holly

Friday, April 3

Cooking with Villainy 5

Doom at times hankers for comfort food, sustenance which soothes Doom's troubled brow (upon which genius rests) and transports Doom to the glorious chamber of sleep. It is at these times Doom summons the Comfort Cookbook, the culinary grimoire within which one finds the greatest collection of recipes dating back to the ur-chefs of the first human tribes whose evolution has resulted in Doom, the apex of human development. Of course. OF COURSE.

This night, Doom seeks the succor of sweet potatoes but wishes to be unencumbered by the fattiness of butter and the heft of brown sugar, the common complements of the sweet potato. It is here in the Comfort Cookbook that Doom unveils the one answer that Doom requires: Zesty Italian Sweet Potatoes and Chicken.

As ever, Doom allows for some degree of customization of the recipe. Doom is kind and generous. This cannot be questioned. You may replace chicken with some other similar protein vehicle, if you must. And in this, you should again be grateful to the largess of Doom. But in all other matters of this process, do not dare deviate.

Doom commands you to activate your oven to 375 degrees.

Doom commands you to place your protein vehicle in an ungreased pan.

Doom commands you to prepare 1/3 cup or mayonnaise or similarly textured salad dressing. Doom prefers Ranch; you would do well to emulate him in all ways. To this, add 1/3 cup of Zesty Italian dressing and a tablespoon each of rosemary, basil, and oregano. Mix them together thoroughly.

Doom commands you to brush the protein vehicle with this mixture and place into the ready oven for 30 minutes. In the interim, prepare two medium-sized sweet potatoes by peeling and slicing them into 1-inch pieces. While you await for the initial 30 minutes to end, Doom invites you to contemplate your role in Doom's kingdom and the protection of his subjects from the arrogance of the Accursed Richards. He seeks you harm, my subjects, and Doom will not allow it. Doom is ever vigilant, and his unsleeping army of Doombots protects you as you go about your daily duties, all for the betterment of Latveria and your rightful ruler.

Doom commands you to turn the chicken after 30 minutes, add the potatoes, and pour the remaining dressing mixture upon the dish. Do not waste the precious compound. It is delectable, and Doom will not see a drop ignored.

Doom commands you to bake again for another 30 minutes. You may use this time to put quill to parchment and compose a ballad to Doom. Doom appreciates your outpouring of sincere affection for your king. Also, epic poems describing the inevitable downfall of the Accursed Richards are welcome and will entertain Doom in the quiet hours of the night.

Doom commands you to remove the dish upon the end of the second half hour and consume.

Doom commands you to crave and devour.

+ + +

In a news story that's a blockbuster to a certain contingent, a virtually finished work print of next month's Wolverine movie is available online in pirate torrent sites. It's happened before. The Ang Lee Hulk movie was leaked, but that was a print from earlier in the production process. This Wolverine print is practically the theatrical release, and the FBI has been contact to track down the person who swiped it and put it online. Twentieth Century Fox is allegedly concerned about box-office results, as the online pirating community is often seen as closely connected to the very fanboys the film wants to lure into theatres.

Personally, I don't think it will affect the take that much as I'm confident the casual female audience will show up in droves. Virtually every woman I've talked to who was dragged to see the X-Men films by her boyfriend went ga-ga over Hugh Jackman with the hair and jacket and muscles. They'll make up for any indignant or sated online viewers who stay away from the cinema. Your Sister, for instance, asked if we were going as soon as the first commercial ended. In fact, she asked again last night when the commercial aired during a House rerun.

I won't watch the film online, but now I have to avoid certain sites or risk having the movie spoiled.

Picture of the Day
This should be wallpaper size.

Thursday, April 2

Good Taste

Lost just won a Peabody Award, the electronic media equivalent of the Pulitzer. Here's what the website says:
Lost (ABC)
ABC Studios
Breezily mixing metaphysics, quantum physics, romance and cliffhanger action, the genre-bending series about a group of air-crash survivors on a mysterious island has rewritten the rules of television fiction.

Also winning were NPR, YouTube, NBC's coverage of the Olympics, and Turner Classic Movies.

I ran once more, stopping at two miles but going at a full gallop. I then hung up all the comic art in the new frames. And then made dinner. And shod a horse and build a damn and carved Elvira out of butter. Just another night.

Culinary Pictures of the Day
A larger version is here on her blog. I found this via Slog, the Seattle Weekly mass blog, and it has a great idea: a comic anthology of recipes. Short recipes have appeared in indy comics within the past ten years, notable Scary Godmother and Scott Pilgrim. I'd love to do one of these.

Wednesday, April 1

If I Had a Hammer. And a Screwdriver. And Some Spackle.

I bought new frames for the hallway comic pages. That required removal of the original screws and anchors and spackling over the holes. Also, I had to measure for new screws and anchors and hammer and screw those in place. The new frames are nice, and maybe tonight I'll be able to get the artwork back on the walls.

Your Sister was making something with cabbage, and I asked to eat the leftover head half. This is bumpkin coleslaw. I grew up loving the taste of lightly salted raw cabbage. I also did this for lettuce. My Parents had to buy extra heads of each. Your Sis was totally dumbfounded. She never saw someone do this before. She didn't know even how to approach cutting cabbage for snack-sized portions. I gobbled it all with spackle dried to my fingers, and, boy howdy, if that ain't redneck glory.

I'm back to copying ad photos for my daily drawing exercise. I need to call my theatre contact soon to set up the audition and rehearsal schedule.

Picture of the Day
Dr. Manhattan and Janey before the accident. The movie's been perceived as a flop, but I predict gigantic sales of the DVDs. A DVD of the pirate story and the filmed archived footage of the Under The Hood autobiography has been on sale for two weeks, but I'll wait for the monster DVD set to come out this summer.

Tuesday, March 31

Officially Official

Wind makes running suck out loud. I was beat up by the time I put on the brakes at stately Debacle Manor. As I drove to work today, I clicked the odometer to measure out my usual course. It's actually longer than 3 miles, meaning I'm surpassing the 5k length when I run it.

As I hung the new comic page on the wall, I got fed up with the flimsy frames we bought. I'm getting new ones. I have decreed. So mote it be.

I had a small epiphany about the play. The script calls for almost all the props to be carried in by one character. She hauls in shopping bags filled with presents and paper plates and napkins and party implements. But we're doing this as reading theatre, and one hand will be busy holding her script. Fortunately, all the props are used at the lone table. If we get a floor-length tablecloth, we can preset the props behind the table. When the actress sets down her now-empty bags behind the table, she can set them next to the props. When anyone reaches for the props, it will look like the props are coming from the bags.

I picked up the remastered version of Pearl Jam's Ten, their debut CD from the very early '90s. I haven't listened to it in years and years. It holds up. The lyrics are overwrought in places, but the new mixes clean up the instruments right nice. "Jeremy" remains THE song from the CD, and despite radio stations playing it into the dirt, it retains all its integrity. It's an unabashed rock song, and it's a better social commentary than Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun."

Picture of the Day
I was emailed pictures of the anthology. It meets daylight this week at an Athens convention. I'm in here somewhere. They didn't tell me there was a lumberjack motif, and I hope I'm not the only artist who didn't draw Paul Bunyan in his comic.


Monday, March 30

Another Page Done

Here's how old we are: We watched a documentary on crossword puzzles on Friday night. It was good and involving and fun and well-made, but still ... it's a film on crossword puzzles. It's called Wordplay.

The rain kept us inside virtually all weekend. I accidentally discovered a new drawing style Saturday morning just by doodling next to the computer. I wish I had discovered this about ten years earlier. It's quicker and cleaner than, say, the work below, and it just fell out of my pencil.

We hosted a small dinner party and watched Young Frankenstein. It's never not funny. The jokes are less funny than the facial reactions to the jokes.

Throughout the weekend, I made lists for the play I'm to direct. I noted all the entrances and exits, props, and sound effects. I'm seeing some issues with all the props and the handheld scripts. But I don't think we should try to memorize this. We'll adjust the props instead. I tried my director sales-pitch on Your Sis, and she seemed to get the conceit of a sitcom episode.

Comic Page of the Day
Here's the completed noir story starring Your Sister. I scanned it into Illustrator, added the text, printed out only the text and effects, cut them out, and pasted them to the original art board. It's now hanging in our hallway.


Cultural Observation of the Day
The angle against gay marriage has shifted away from the quotation of Biblical verses against homosexuality and toward those that promote maternity. NPR had a story last week about the Quiverfull movement wherein families have as many children as the mom can produce. The rationale is that the brown people are out-breeding the faithful.

The nationally syndicated evangelical radio show I hear during my commute is also claiming now that children are the divine obligation of spouses. If a couple, like us, decide against children, then we are allegedly embracing the consumer culture instead of the culture of life. We are decadent. So there, we have been denounced, which is in no way like the proclamations of the zealot Islamic countries that are the bane of such Christian broadcasts. At all.

Anyway, just keep your ear to the ground in classroom discussions. I don't see this gaining much traction in the mainstream audiences because it dumps all childless marriages in the same stewpot, regardless of the reasons why no kids are created.