From the MARDL YouTube channel, two new videos for ya:

“The Joy of Pulp”

“Luis-Gabriel Leal- PhotoShop Artist For Hire” (a video I made for my brother-from-another-mother)

I don’t think I did too badly, considering these were my first experiences flying solo with Windows Movie Maker. What do you think?

Dave Stevens has passed away.

Forgive me if this seems odd, but his death has definitely affected me. His style, dynamic and yet so classic, was one of my all-time favorites. But more than that, The Rocketeer comics were one of my prime initiations into the world of pulp-style adventure. Stevens’ “good girl” art introduced me to the classic pin-up style of days gone by and Bettie Page.

He’s been a part of my pop-culture life since it crystallized… I drink coffee from a Rocketeer mug, for cryin’ out loud.

Look, I could write volumes about Dave’s work and his passing. I’ll just leave it at this: he will be missed, and there won’t be many more like him.

Have any of you heard about this movie coming out, I think in May or something, it’s called “Illinois Jones and The Kindom of Crystal Gayle” or something like that? Looks cool, but I dunno… it might suck…

Of course I’m kidding. Indiana Jones has been lurking at the back of my mind for so long, I can fart the “The Raiders March”.

Okay, not really, but that would be kinda funny.

The point, anyway, is this: Indy has been a part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. I can distinctly remember going to see “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” with my best friend, Brendan O’Connell, in 1981… only to find all the showings were sold out for the rest of the day. I had one of those “hear the chime, turn the page” read-along-to-the-record adaptations (although the chime sound was replaced by the sound of Indy’s whip). I had an Indiana Jones action figure, that was stolen by the neighborhood bully… in his place, he left a pants-less Dungeons & Dragons wizard figure. Jerkstore.

So here I am, feeling like a kid again as I wait breathlessly for “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” (unfortunately long title, I think). As I watched the trailer a few weeks back, my wife gazed in awe at my idiot-grin, my slightly misty eyes, and she didn’t get it. That’s ok, I get it.

And as the juggernaut grows closer to opening day, I can’t help but get a little giddy. It’s the return of my first pulp-hero (who was pulp before I knew what pulp was), and there’s a ton of promotional items I can’t help but ogle. New Indy toys (finally, a chance to replace that long-mourned stolen figure). New Indy comic books. And yes, I may even buy the Indy cereal. It looks like Coco Puffs with marshmallows… good stuff.

Oh, man. This is a new low for me, isn’t it?

God help me, I’m a marketing whore!

Guess what I got?

Betcha didn’t know that I used to play bass guitar, didja? I did, and for a long time, too. Took lessons and everything. At one time I had two basses, plus a sequencer, drum machine, a 4-track recorder, a keyboard, and a mess of effects-pedals, too. I’m not going to say I was great, but… if you were scouring the suburbs of Florida in the late 90’s looking for a third-rate New Order rip-off, you could do a lot worse.

Anyway, financial strains forced me to sell off my equipment about 4 years ago, and I hadn’t picked up anything with strings in that time period. I had been putting off buying another bass for the last couple of years. This year, with our bonus checks hot in our hands and with my wife’s encouragement, I got this sucker.

And it’s a 5-string, too. So, not only do I have to get used to playing all over again, I have to get used to that big-ass B-string at the top, which gives it an extra low-end sound.

But I don’t mind, because it feels so narcotically good to play again. You can probably see the grin from here.

1. My wife makes the best tuna sandwiches in the world.

2. The live action “Tick” was so much better than I remember it. I loved it immensely the second time around (on DVD)

3. Finally, our Christmas decorations have come down. We were planning on keeping them up until our big January bonus check came again, but I think we realized we weren’t plugging in the lights anymore. Basically, we had a tree and a bunch of gaudy things in our house that would still look gaudy until after next Thanksgiving.

4. The book is coming along steadily. I’m about 2/3 of the way through. I had a lot of internal battles over things I considered “too cliche” to put into the book… until I realized “damn it, of course it’s cliche, it’s pulp“. So the cliches are still in, and it makes for good pulp.

5. “Cloverfield” seemed so cool when the first rumbles were heard from the marketing campaign. What the hell happened?

6. My brother-in-law went to jail. Long story short: karma finally strikes!

From the MARDL Youtube channel:

It should be raining.

It feels like it should be coming down in buckets outside, but it’s not. It’s too damn warm for December; while the rest of the county is snowing or at least nippy, I’m battling mosquitos on my lunch break.

Maybe that’s it: the weather. Last night it was very cold for us here, today it’s too warm. That rollercoaster-weather… maybe that’s why I feel so down today. Work is too busy, so much noise that feels like it’s intruding into this weird need, this craving for quiet, comfort. Yesterday was just a tired day. Today, it’s depression.

I don’t want to come across as some whiny emo-kid here. I’m not. I’ve been happy lately, but today is bad. Maybe it is the weather. Or maybe it’s the post-holiday blues. Maybe it’s this job: it’s easy and I have access to a computer all day, sure… but on the other hand, talking to 100+ miserable and mean-spirited people all day gets a bit old and soul-sucking at times.

Anyway, had a good Christmas, got cool stuff, haven’t finished writing the book yet, blah blah blah…

Later.

As this will probably be the last post until after Christmas, I just want to wish everyone out there the happiest of holidays this year.

And, since nothing says “Happy Holidays” more than ridiculously lip-synched performances, here’s some holiday silliness from me and mine to you and yours:

“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues

“(Ding Dong) Christmas Song” by Gunther, a man who seems to be a Saturday Night Live sketch come to life.

It’s a gala event!

The sky is crossed by searchlights!

The paparazzi are out in force!

The stars are on the red carpet!

But that’s down the street.

No, here at Professional Dummy, it’s a quiet one-year celebration. My little corner of the internet, apart from the accumulated cobwebs and hobos, has brought me joy and sadness, aggravation and laughs. I got to talk about where my fear of spiders comes from, the agony of working in a slave camp call center, the guilty pleasures of Miami Vice (pal!), my wife and how she puts up with her man-child, and my favorite obsession: pulps.

I considered dropping this blog a few times, especially now that the work-load prevents me from posting here very often and most of my free time is taken up with the writing of my book. But I persevere because it’s been fun, and I’ve met some really cool friends from this whole experience. It’s been a quiet little blast, and I think I’ll stick around here.

Thanks, everyone.

YEAR ONE: DECEMBER 6, 2006 - DECEMBER 6, 2007

Following hot on the heels of my Challenger Storm micro-hero, here’s my second character: The Cipher:

I can’t help it… these little buggers are addictive.