That is a torrent file. What you get once you've downloaded it. Is something pretty great.

A few years ago I was reading about what Dan Clowes, comics artist and former Grand Rapids resident, was up to. He had recently just signed on to write the screenplay for a movie, based on real life, about a group of boys so inspired by Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc that they spent eight years doing a shot for shot remake of the story in their homes, backyards and surrounding area using a home video camera. That torrent file above leads to that movie.

I'm not sure if Dan Clowes is still working on that screenplay or if it will ever get made. But the whole thing reminds me of Be Kind Rewind. Which I'm sure most everyone knows is the new movie by Michel Gondry. Which has had a fairly huge marketing campaign behind it. One of the coolest parts of the marketing is the idea of Sweding. Which is basically remaking something you love on your own. It is sort of like doing a cover of a song you really love. Which is something I've always really loved. And I always wondered why this wasn't a more popular thing to do. When I first started playing in bands we learned how to play together by playing our favorite songs together. After graduating from film school I've always thought the coolest project would have been to recreate a scene from one of your favorite movies. Just de-construct and re-construct something. I'm not really sure why it isn't universal. It is a popular thing to do with jokes, you hear a great joke from your favorite comedian, and you might retell it, tailoring it to your needs. Yet trying to paint the Mona Lisa is considered something for hobbiests or hacks. Really weird.

Anyhow the Raiders remake has been getting a lot of press lately, I believe it recently showed at SXSW.

Passage

I drawn using Colors! on a Nintendo DS.

Washington DC is really nice. I felt oddly patriotic while walking the National Mall. In my past I was an extremely patriotic youth as a member and, shortly, adult leader of a Boy Scout troop. Being in DC brought back a lot of those feelings. It might have been that the last time I was there for any significant amount of time I was attending the Boy Scout National Jamboree. Honestly being in our nations capitol, ridiculous thing it is, made me have hope for the future. Which is odd because things now are most probably the worst they have been in my lifetime. But DC inspires hope, this hope often comes in the form of expertly chiseled granite and stone.

DC is also of course filled with museums. We visited our share. Including Air & Space, Natural History, Postal, Health and Medicine. The Health and Medicine museum is awesome. It is on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army hospital, armed guards check your ID and bag and intimidate you about your photographic devices before you even get on the grounds. It really gets you ready to view all of the deformed baby fetuses, ancient prosthetics, bullet shattered bones, children skeletons, hairballs, Victorian medical equipment and complete lack of other patrons. It is really worth going to, it is filled with gross-out wonders.

SPX was awesome, Anthony come out to look at all of the indie comix. I got alot of stuff including two books by Jeff Lemire, who is pretty great. Also the new Jason book, I Killed Adolph Hitler. And some other stuff. I also went to a few panels, which I like. One about the state of the comic strip which I found interesting. After SPX Audrey, Anthony and I went to Yuan Fu Vegetarian the best eatery in recorded history.

Sunday Anthony took us to some flea markets and showed us around a bit.

It was a really great time and I look forward to future vacations.

***

A few weeks ago I fulfilled a dream I've had for years. I purchased a Vespa. What a great day that was. The next day after I insured, registered, and got my motorcycle permit I was riding with my friend Matt and I crashed it. Crashed it. Horrible. I broke a bone near my wrist, and messed my knee up, but didn't break it.

The Vespa is ok, just scratched and a little dented. It can all be easily fixed. But man I got to ride it for like 20 minutes before I had managed to crash it, and break my wrist making it impossible for me to ride it for another 3 weeks from now.

Sucky.

***

I've been reading "Reading Comics" by Douglas Wolk. It is a critical look at comics and what makes them work. So far it is OK. The writer spends alot of time talking about what he will soon be talking about. Alot of wasted words. But it has supplied some interesting insights. I love comics, and so I'm constantly compelled to read the book. I think comics are the most expressive form of story telling available to a single artist, and this book often backs up this idea. It is a good read for those who are deeply involved in reading comics of all sorts. I doubt it would appeal to those who aren't interested in taking a deep look at the medium.

***

I recently watched all of "The IT Crowd" season one. In many ways it is just a standard sitcom. But all of the in jokes, many of which are in the form of set decoration (many of which are references to independent comics), make the show really funny. The jokes about computer nerds, goths, weird bosses, thankless work make the show totally worth looking for. I believe all of the episodes can be viewed easily on Tvlinks.

An American version is going to be released here soon. Hopefully it too will be good.

***

I love the new Kanye West song. And this video for it.

***

Also I am on twitter .

Back to my medical insurance. So I've been having a hard time reading the monitors at work and I realized that it has been over two year since I last had my vision checked. It gets progressively worse as the years go by and I'm sure that one day I will be declared legally blind. This aside I am excited to both use my insurance for the first time, and get new glasses. I've been looking at tons of frames. I want a different pair for everyday of the week. I want to be able to base entire "outfits" on my glasses. But before I spend my entire life savings on a weeks worth of eye wear, I need to get a new pair. So I was thinking...

I might get lenses put into these vintage frames I have. I've been collecting vintage glasses for awhile, but since my head is so freaking huge I have a hard time finding ones that fit (This doesn't prevent my from buying vintage frames where ever I find them though). These frames do fit though, and I like them pretty well. What do you guys think? Anyone ever had lenses made for vintage frames before? I never have.

None the less the prospect of getting some new glasses has me excited as does paying my co-pay.

***
Also I got a Wii, everyone go buy one.
***
Finally got a DS It is the best gaming system ever made.
***
Also I am the slackiest blogger ever..... I am sorry.

Also recently I've been trying to collect older hip hop and rap albums that I like. I'm not huge into hip hop, and I know next to nothing about it, but I do like many of the older groups. And this weekend I found a bunch that I wanted.

They Might Be Giants- Flood (not a hip hop album)

Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince- Rock the House

Run DMC- Raising Hell

Fatboys- Fatboys

I found all of these albums at the flea market. The 3 hip hop records only cost me 5 bucks total.

I think my luck might come from the fact that I'm not collecting things because of their value. I've always hated that. I collect this stuff because I want to hear it, or watch it, or read it. Not bag it up and let it collect dust, hoping to one day sell it at a huge profit. To me collecting is way to personal an activity for that. Those people aren't collectors they are investors.

When scrounging through records this kid with a huge goatee was standing next to me looking for old thrash and speed metal records, and loving it. He turns to me at one point and goes "I seriously love this man, coming here is where you find the good shit." and then he gives me the hugest grin, I just said "Totally man" as I contemplated buying an Oingo Boingo album.

Family Films on Vimeo

As time went on kits took on a more important role. As a boy scout I did a lot of backpack hiking and making my gear into an efficient kit was very important. As a teenager with a crappy car, it became important to have a “fix your car in the parking lot” kit. As a college student who lived off campus it became important to have a “all the stuff I need for the day” kit. Now that I work full time and commute a fairly long distance I’ve made a new kit, my “work pack” kit.

1. This is my bag. I think it is made by a company called ultra force. I bought it at an army surplus store, it is an all canvas bag. Lots of pockets inside. Best bag I have owned so far, and it was like 20 dollars.

2.I always have a book with me 9 times out of 10 it is a comic.

3.Digital camera. You never know when you need to take a picture, or want to. I carry this with me always. I don’t have a cell phone, if I did the need to carry this wouldn’t be as great since I’d more than likely have a camera on my phone.

4. Pens and pencils. In order. A 2 ended sharpie, fat on one side, fine on the other. A red ball point pen, I use this for script corrections at work. 5mm mechanical pencil, mechanical isn’t as practical as a regular sharpen style pencil since they break as stuff I’m willing to risk it though. Lastly I have Uni-ball Signo .28mm this is the best pen I’ve ever owned it was until recently the finest pen tip, there is now a Uni-ball Signo .18mm which I hope to get soon. These pens are usually imported from Japan and are kind of hard to find, but they are awesome and I suggest everyone get one. I use this to draw in my sketch book.

5. A small LED flashlight. You never know when you will need one.

6. My ipod. 30gb video.

7. Reporter style moleskine sketch book, which I use for sketching.

8.Mini moleskine sketchbook, which I mainly use to write down stuff I want to remember. Like movie titles or band names, stuff I want to look up later, things I have to do, and ideas that come to my mind.

9. Gameboy Advanced SP. I haven’t upgraded to a DS yet, that will come soon.

10. Headphones. These are cheap Koss ones that fold flat for easy carry around. They are more comfortable to me than the ear buds.

11. Ipod ear buds. Uncomfortable, but discrete.

I also usually have a lunch box, and some glove/ mitten hybrids, occasionally a video camera, and a scarf. But not always so they weren’t included.

This is a video of my 50 minute car ride home from work. Pretty boring for my first video. But it is a start.

It has been awhile since I've been to downtown Detroit. In high school I went there frequently to see shows and stuff like that but haven't really been much since then. I always liked Detroit. And this recent trip was really cool. We rode the people to every station, and got off at every station to take a look at it. The people mover might be the sorriest of all rail transit, but it is still pretty cool and it is cool to ride the whole thing and stop at every station. I shot some video, and Jen and Audrey took pictures. It was really great. And a cool way to see all of the new projects Detroit has going. I have to say they have really done a great job making downtown nicer. I'm sure it has been at a great expense, but it really does look nice down there. Anyhow, it was a pretty fun day, and it was really great to see Jen on her small trip home.

This thing is a really crazy realistic statue on the platform of one of the people mover stations. Crazy realistic.

Since I have nothing really worthy of blogging about. I'm going to post, again, what comics I’ve been reading lately.

1: Louis Riel by: Chester Brown. This is a great book. It is about Louis Riel, a sort of Canadian political rebel leader. This biography follows only his political life which includes membership in the Canadian parliament and eventual hanging. The book is drawn in Chester Browns version of Orphan Annie style, which is really good, fine lined drawing. The book is a quick read, even though it is 272 pages long and full of dialog. Chester Brown includes a huge amount of footnotes to correct any historical inaccuracies. Anyhow this is a really good book worthy of the price, and at very least worth checking out from the library.

2: The Mourning Star by: Kazimir Strzepek. This is the first volume in a new series by Kazimir Strzepek. This book is about the survivors of a world after a comet collides with it. There are races and sects and chaos. It is drawn in a pretty cartoony style, which I am a huge fan of. This book is mostly just an introduction to the main characters and the setting. It ends just when things start to get interesting. The book itself is kind of expensive, $13 which is alot for someone who isn't a comics fan or collector. It is a really nice feeling book, made with card stock textured covers and designed by Jordan Crane. If you like collecting I suggest getting it, otherwise I’d suggest waiting until it one day becomes a single volume.

3: Astroboy 6,7,8 by: Osamu Tezuka. Osamu Tezuka is the Japanese Walt Disney. Astroboy is like his Mickey Mouse. These are fun reads. Alot of them are about racism and the horrors of violence and hate but wrapped in a light hearted package. Good stuff for kids to learn from a loving robot boy. Tezuka has been doing comics for decades and his latest work is much more serious. These books are old and I think you'll be able to find at least a few volumes in any library system.

4: American Splendor by: Harvey Pekar. This is the new American Splendor. They are pretty good, there are 4 issues to date. Alot of great artists work on the series, Gilbert Hernandez, Bob Fingerman, Dean Haspeil and more. Alot of the stories are pretty funny if you life hearing Harvey Pekar go on and on about being retired and his faults and such. I do like this, so for me it's fun. There isn't really anything new here, the series hasn't made any huge bounds, it is what it was just a really solid autobiographical comic.

5:Acme Novelty Library 17 by: Chris Ware. The newest issue of Chris Wares comic, continues the main story line from the last. It is great, and amazing, and you learn more about the characters. He makes fun of Frankenmuth MI. It is great. and Chris Ware is amazing. And the book is a work of art worthy of proud display.

6:Wimbledon Green by: Seth. This is a long comic all drawn in his sketch book. It is about Winbledon Green the greatest comic book collector of all time, who himself is like a superhero. It is a pretty great. And is really nothing like Seth's earlier work. Most likely because this was just a fun thing for him to do for himself in his sketchbook. But now it is published and other get to read it and see how funny Seth is.

7: Epileptic by: David B. I haven't finished this book yet, I am correctly reading it. So far it is really good. The art is pretty great and distinctly European. American artists just don't draw this way. I like it a lot so far. And the rest of the indie comics community has been freaking out about it's greatness for years. So whatever that means to you I don't know.

***

In other news. A video camera has been purchased, so I am one step closer to blogging with the aid of video.

I hope to change all of this. By implementing GTD or "getting things done" the work of David Allen. Productivity nuts treat this book like the samuri treated the Art of War, it is that good. Actually I don't know if it is that good, I myself have never read it. But I've been reading about it for years. Mostly on blogs like lifehacker. I know alittle about the system the book outlines and it seems simple enough. Take everything you've got to do write it down and put it in a bucket. Take an item out of the bucket, read it, if you can accomplish the task on the paper within a few minutes then do it. Otherwise file it. Do this until the bucket is empty. Then go do the longer, filed stuff. Seems pretty simple. But I make all sorts of promises to myself that I never seem to keep. But using free time effectively seems like something worth putting forth the effort for.

So assuming that I keep the promise to myself. I hope to blog here more, especially video blog. And I hope to complete my comic which I am always talking about but never following through with. I did buy a new sketch book and that seems like step one towards the comic....

-kyle

Audrey and I are in Washington DC right now at our hotel, after a day at SPX. SPX is a really great convention, today Audrey and I attended a workshop sponsored by the Center For Cartoon Studies, and a panel starring Calvin College grad, Kevin Huizenga, Grabrielle Bell, and Anders Nilsen. The panel was about "Thinking" in comics. We also managed a pretty large haul of top quality work.

Here is Audrey with the Haul.

And our friend Jason was also at the expo, he has a booth and was selling some of his comics.

Next year Audrey and I are hoping to be able to get a booth ourselves and have some comics to sell.

All and all it was a great experience. Even the part where we got lost in DC looking at monuments from our car.