putting the j in jjosh

This month’s banner is from the Christmas card that Maxine gave me…there’s something I love about the surreal look to those characters, like they’re right out of a dream…

by Lucy Knisley, in a roundabout way via

Stöllen. better late than never.

This is the first year I made the traditional Granger/Sommer recipe without my mother being there to offer direction (i.e., "without adult supervision"), and I think they turned out pretty delicious. I didn’t really mess with the recipe — I added extra rum (just because) and the only candied cherries I could find were green, but other than that, it’s the classic 1 pound of butter, half a box of powdered sugar, candied fruit-style recipe. I’m going to give one to my mom and one to my aunt and get some official reviews later. One thing I need to remember for next year is that it really does take ALL DAY to make them.

I like meteor showers…I’ve had some great viewing experiences with the Perseids and the Pleides…once at my great Aunt and Uncle’s cabin on a mountain up in CT where there is no electricity, we saw tons and tons of shooting stars…

and once with MT, MA and EB we drove out to Sky Meadows and snuck under the barrier to have a midnight picnic and saw lots of shooting stars…I think it was MA’s first shooting star? Highlight was when we suddenly heard the sound of a pack of coyotes howling at the moon, loud, and not that far away…

Until today I’d never heard of the Quadrantids, but spaceweather.com has this to say about it:

"Although the Quadrantids are a major shower, they are seldom observed. One reason is weather. The shower peaks in early January when northern winter is in full swing. Storms and cold tend to keep observers inside."

Well yes. Even though it is awesome to imagine Earth intersecting the remains of an asteroid/comet that blew up 500 years ago, I think the cold will be keeping me inside tonight. That and because it’s NYC, I’m imagining I’d have to go wayyyyyyyy out to get away from the light pollution. There’s apparently a shower-viewing event going on in Pelham Park(?) in the Bronx, but yeah, I’ll be home.

And before you say it, I know, I know, "the old Josh would have gone."

Even though I’m trying to take it a bit gently on this New Year’s Day, this hit me the right way…

via

I’ve checked in with a bunch of webcomics over the years, ever since the internet started saying that webcomics would be the new salvation for the comic book world. But none of them have ever held my attention for more than a few episodes (webisodes?). I liked Cat and Girl, and have already expressed my love of Wigu, but none of them have captivated me the way Dash Shaw’s "Bodyworld" has. Earlier in the Fall I read his "Bottomless Belly Button" and thought it was fun and ok (all the characters are drawn normally except for one who’s got a frog head). Maybe a bit too much in the comic-self-confessional genre for me.

But "Bodyworld" is fantastic. An oddball mix of z-movie alternate reality, semi-sci-fi teen drama with a little kung fu action film mixed in, "Bodyworld" has got something for everyone: weird hallucingenic drugs, strange semi-steamy love scenes, nunchuks, aliens. Super highly recommended…

even though they’re set up in opposition, it still seems like they both believe in love…

Malcolm McLaren “Love Will…(Keep Us Together/Tear Us Apart)”

via Fluxtumblr

Ny fog

pavement & tile

possibly the greatest modern Christmas song ever.

Wow, and that video’s kind of great too, right? I have this real soft spot for Robert Earl Keen. When I was living in England, from 81 – 86, I used to stay up late and set my tape recorder recording when John Peel would start his show. That was the only place to hear hip hop and I was so into rap and breakdancing and stuff. I would dub the rap tracks of the show and build these great 80’s hip-hop compilations. No clue what happened to these tapes.

I couldn’t care less about all the other stuff he was playing, I was just waiting for the rap. The other stuff was "really weird". Years later when I was in high school and really into listening to Top 40 radio, I came across one of those tapes of John Peel’s show. At that point I wasn’t really into the hip-hop OR the "really weird" stuff. But there was this one song that I couldn’t stop listening to. I put it on a mix I made for myself and listened to it over and over. I knew I didn’t like country, but this didn’t seem like country, even it did have that little voice-break bit when he sings a few of the phrases. And it was a waltz. And it had a TROMBONE!

Even now when I hear it it speaks to the ridiculous high school romantic in me; it just totally hits that late-night feeling, and it’s old-timey and sweet, and the narrator is obviously more confident in his story-telling than his romantic prowess. But by the end, all is right with the world. Damn this song is sweet.

Robert Earl Keen – No Kinda Dancer

Stolen?

So this is the fourth year that DJ BC (the guy responsible for the Beastles) has put out a compilation of various artists’ Christmas mashups…under the "Santastic" banner, this year’s is called, cleverly enough, Santastic 4, and includes a great tribute to Kirby-era Fantastic Four art (above). I got each of the three previous ones, and they were pretty hit or miss, but from all 3 I’ve been able to cull about an hour’s worth of solid Christmas mashups. Last year I was so looking forward to this year when I could add more and finally get it to the level where I could give out a full-length Christmas mashup CD…

but this year’s is crap! I don’t get it. There’s really only one on there that is any good, and mostly what it is is delightfuly weird:

Radiohead – Nude Christmas (Solcofn mashup)

unlike, say, two years ago when DJ BC himself dropped this gem:

DJ BC – Imagine Christmas

So now I have to wait another year! Gah!

Maybe I need to crank out some of my own…

Let me tell you, it is fairly rare for me to make some promo at work that I feel really proud of. I mean let’s face it, most of the time promos are "tune in this Friday at 10" and that’s it. We’ve been doing some interstitials recently and that’s a whole ‘nother ball game ‘cuz you get some time to actually tell a story, which is great. And sure, if you get a good budget and time and creative approval, you can make a good promo, but those occasions are few and far between.

Which is why I’m so stoked to have made this last week (let it load fully before playing):

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can you tell the bike is locked to the sign