After spending only a few short minutes on CBC.ca reading the comment section of coverage of the Toronto Judge ruling that Police were far "too aggressive" during the G20 protest / riot crackdown, I am now utterly sure that I live on a continent filled with aggressively terrified Big-Brother wannabes.

An example: "Given London, given Vancouver, this ruling is entirely unacceptable."

People overwhelmingly (in the CBC.ca's news story comments section) defer to personal safety and comfort before anything else. So much so, that any other idea (ie, freedom sometimes costs, but it's worth it) seems regarded as a violent salvo from a bitter enemy.

I shouldn't be surprised. We live in an era of Tea Party Vs Democrat, Mayor Ford Vs Toronto, Stephen Harper Vs a fair-handed political process, right Vs left, us Vs them.

It's always that. Us vs Them.

When did we get here? Was it when George Bush Jr gave the world permission to not "do nuance"? When did we so willfully throw away our capacity for compromise and understanding?

The Toronto Police probably did over-react during the G20 riots. And I expect an investigation (unlikely to ever happen) would uncover political encouragement for said behaviour. But you know what? There were also a good number of trouble-making douchebags at that protest, mixed with with those using their rights to assemble and be heard.

Wait. What? You mean there might be more than one side to this story. Whoa. Slow down. Are you saying that there are two sides to EVERY story?! Can't be! If I have to consider your side, then where will I find the time to worry that someone from THE OTHER SIDE is going to come and rob me of my family and all my awesome possessions?

Is it that we don't feel safe unless we can identify the enemy? There has to be an enemy. Someone we can keep our eye on. Maybe it's a lower social class. Maybe a minority. Could even be folks of a different vague political leaning. either way, we're good at spotting fabricated enemies. They're everywhere!

It's way past time we accepted that we need to grow up. If we truly believe what we say we stand for, then there will always be risk attached to that.

Now we just need to grow up enough to be able to accept that.

Verb the Noun

Two men approach each other on the sidewalk. One has his face buried in a newspaper and doesn't notice the other right away.

Man 1
"Hey! Noun? Noun, is that you?"

Man 2 (looks up from his paper)
"What? Oh, Noun! How ya verb? Doing adverb?"

Man 1
"Yeah - I'm doing totally adverb! Oh yeah - di you get that noun I verbed?"

Man 2
"Yeah, sorry to hear you won't be able to verb with pronoun tonight."

Man 1
"Yeah, sorry about that - I gota go verb the ole noun, if you know what I mean."

Man 2
"I hear that. My noun has me verbing like crazy. Especially on the weekends."

Man 1
"Wow that must REALLY adjective!"

Man 2
"A bit. The worst part is that now when I verb, I also verb adverb adverb."

Man 1
"Whoa, that's adjective."

And I thought I was done with zombies...

That is, until "The Walking Dead" came along.

I'd long been a fan of the Kirkman comic series (Collected in trades. Yes, I'm one of THOSE comic readers.), but had long ago burned myself out on zombies on film.

Damn you AMC, for changing that.

The TV series, "Walking Dead" is simply a bit of televisual perfection as far as I'm concerned. It's a balance of familiar TV tropes, comfortable character protrayals, and the otherwise unremarkable banality of regular-joe characters that is beautifully thrown into sharp contrast against the backdrop of the zombie-infected world in which these characters live.

It is survival fiction done well. It is survival fiction that works very hard to make us understand the human side of staying alive at all costs.

Like I said, awesome stuff. "Lost" can go sit in a corner and be forgotten now.

After watching epidose four last night, I discovered that my zombie love is rising once again. The flames of zombie fan-boy-ish-ness have been fanned into life by watching it executed so skillfully by Darabont et al.

And ya know what? I think it's time for me to share OUR humble little zombie effort once again (and I DO mean humble - we love our little zombie hobby film).

So with that in mind, I give you our own little slice of zombie survival horror: "Bum of the Dead".





Enjoy.
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Rob Rodas - illustrator to the stars...

...or somesuch.

As you may have noticed, "Unadulterated Douchebloggery" has a spiffy new title illustration. This wunnerful, wunnerful pic is the work of one Robert Rodas, illustrator, animator, friend, and now - assistant director. Here's his blog with some awesome samples of his awesome awesomeness:

http://robrodas.blogspot.com/

Rob Has worked with me on a variety of projects over the past four (five?) years, and will continue to do so as we ramp up on (amongst other things) the "City of Ghouls" short film and comic.

So, a big "Unadulterated Douchebloggery" shout-out and thanks to Rob!

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The Toronto Film Challenge

Here's our entry in the "Toronto Film Challenge". The TFC is a contest that sees GTA-area film-makers get together and write, shoot, edit, and finish short films in a 48 hour time period (or 24, depending).

This year, at the urging of my friend and film co-conspirator, Rich, I put together a team representing Favours For Friends pictures. The following film is the result of 48hours of straight film-making. I hope you enjoy it, warts and all. A more refined cut will make its way online in the coming months. But nor now, I present, "Kinsmen", by the Favours For Friends team:



The Favours for Friends team is: Geoff Whitman, Rich Bisquera, Christine Buijs, Andrew Chapman, Connie Daye, MarkMcIntyre, Jim Field, Rob Rodas, Luke Schultz and Stephen Leck.

The Toronto Film Challenge: http://torontofilmchallenge.com/

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It's "Hey! Admiral Ackbar!" Episode Four!

In which youtube fails to defeat the Admiral, and we talk the digestive tract!

So, how come I haven't seen this?

I mean, aside from the fact that it's not 1994 any more.

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Partytruckers of the World Unite!

Once again the lads at Partytruck USA podcast (http://www.partytruckusa.com/) have once again been more than kind enough to give my humble l'il blog a shout-out. God bless their pointy little heads.

If you're here searching for the most recent review of Partytruck USA, then seek out the poast named "Things Are Gonna Get a Bit Mtea Before They Get a Bit Better".

And if you'd like to see the logo I composed for them (yeah I know, a video logo for an audio podcast. Quick, go look up "counter-intuitive" in the dictionary), then you can find it on YouTube here: Partytruck USA animated logo
Otherwise, feel free to have a look around. Postings have been a bit thin of late (work, as usual, gets in the way of sharing my wit and wisdom with the world, it seems), but reast assured that more content is on its way here, as well as at our sister blog, Stomping Ground (http://www.stompingground.ca/).

Thanks for stoppin' by!
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Superman without the amnesia kiss...

This is so elegant in its simplicity.



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Hey kids! It's NOT "Hey! Admiral Ackbar!"

Hey all;
Just a quick blab to let you know that we're taking a skip week for "Hey! Admiral Ackbar!" in honour of Thanksgiving (Canadian edition).  But dry those tears, l'il cowpokes, the Admiral will be back next week to further enhance your life with his cavalcade of learning!
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