"The Heist"

Okay, after an intensive sweep of my boxed up VHS tapes, I found some old skool animation I had done for a once-local TV show; the "Fer-Real World". It was basically a 30 minute show broadcasted outta my alma mater, UF. It ran opposite Simpsons on Sunday nights, and as it was geared towards college students, it had a Net viewership of 1... being me. (I've tried to find their website, but alas it appears to have evaporated into the ether of the Internet.) I saw that they accepted submissions so I sent 'em an email and a few days later they showed up at my house to digitally swipe whatever footage I had available. What I had put together in the interim was an animation drawn on 3x5 cards and shot with one of those huge video cameras that takes the whole VHS tape. I didn't have a proper tripod either so each shot was a little off frame. The whole thing gets a "kooky" rating of 10.5, but I think the guys were thrilled just to have some filler. I've since lost the original but found the tape I made by recording the program - adding to the deresolution of the whole project. Anyway, the plot is pretty straight forward, and I think I was a little too hung up on the whole Tarantino crazy that was sweeping the nation and corrupting the youth back then, (in the mid 90's). I also had some black and white footage of my friend Hicks and I running around our apt. complex in alien costumes in a piece dubbed "Alien Laundry" but I'll have yet to find it. So, without further ado, I give you - The Heist

Whimsical Airbound Elephants

So, I know this week everyone's Blogging about the big news stories: life and death cases in the courtrooms, guns in the classrooms, and the eternal debate over which came first the Chick-Peep or the Cross. I however have decided to chuck all that and run away to the circus! This Monday morning as I was driving to work, I noticed around the bend of 62nd Blvd, where my view of the Oaks Mall usually appears, a red and orange tent instead. My first reaction, crazy as it sounds, was that the Mall was infected with termites - and by this I mean the little wood gnawing insects, not the normal patrons of said establishment even though I've described them as bug-like creatures in the past. I've become so accustom to seeing the fumigation tents around whole buildings here in Florida (er Dobieville) that it was my natural first response. That was until I saw the Cannon. Right outside the billowy canopy was an extraordinary large cannon, with flames painted on, pointing in the general direction of the Mall. Obviously, this was not a way one deals with bugs. It was in fact an impromptu stop of the Cole Bros. Circus and they were setting up shop right before my eyes. Of course, then I ended up having to lookit the road and worry about how I was gonna explain being late to work again. On my way back that afternoon, I saw that they had set up a row of booths outside the tent for games and whatnot, had several long white trucks parked in a semi-circle around the booths, and had taped a number of 8x10 red arrow print outs on the light posts leading to the show, as if the 3 story striped tent wasn't a dead giveaway. Liz and I decided that since this was definitely the closest a circus was ever gonna set up shop to us, we should go and check it out... Possibly Friday. The next day, on my way to work, I was craning my neck to see if I could spot a trapeze artist or a bearded lady having their morning coffee or something. Alas all I could see was the Tent, the Cannon, the Trucks, and a large man in a wifebeater eating a hoggie. That afternoon, I hadda stop by the Mall to pay a bill - I'm convinced one suit bought at Burdines is gonna be the lynch pin in my financial downfall. As I was walking across the parking lot I could hear people in the tent 'Ooohing' and 'Aaahing' followed by a muffled applause. I wondered if they had any animals. Wasn't too long ago that I was watching reruns of that elephant who escaped in Manila or someplace and killed a guy with it's trunk or something and it was almost eerie to think of one barreling down the blvd blocks away from my pad. Still my interest was peaked and I was even more excited about hittin' the gig. That night there was a pretty bad storm. I say pretty bad, because there were tornado warnings going on till dawn and we could hear persistent thunder rumbling throughout the night, but we only got a couple inches of rain. The next day, on my commute I was just as surprised to see the whole affair was gone, vanished. They just, as they say, pulled up stakes and left town. Now, as this is more than the obvious but expected procedure of a circus group I shouldn't have been surprised. However, our Friday date was now kaput. We wondered if they had moved to our local fairgrounds, where circus-types are more typical , and to give hope to that thought, at the end of 62nd were three of those red arrows turned around and taped up on a light post facing in to town! I thought I could just follow the arrows and I couldn't miss the big top. (Then again there was the work thing and the lateness). Today, I've found out that their schedule has brought them to Georgia, so I didn't have a lick of a chance to catch 'em anyway. Ah well, easy come easy go, and yet it was kinda fun to think for a moment that the random appearance of a circus could be swept into the air, elephants and all, by a passing tornado. Allowing me to think on more whimsical things.

"...Wind a watch or bark at the moon."

So, I hadda update the song of the week today. You can still get NWA's Express Yourself by clicking here, but it totally slipped my mind that this was Rather's last week... It wasn't that long ago that I was razzing REM and their new song, "Check Out My New Wa Wa Peddle!!" as I was calling it. Monster was the first album they put out that seemed old hat to me. I had praised REM and idolized Micheal Stipe for being such an anti-idol. Then "Shiny Happy People" and "Everybody Hurts" killed off their underground status, and clinched the group's pop-culture commerciality. Now-a-days your band hasn't made it until you've been featured in a car ad, but as far as I was concerned my REM fandom had kicked the proverbial bucket by the time Monster hit the shelves. So frustrated, I dismissed the album and only listened passingly to "Frequency" on the radio. I forewent (yes it's a word) my ritual of dissecting their song's lyrical message and chalked the whole album up to "SSDD" with an added Wa Wa. By the by, you can read the full lyrics to "Frequency" here. It wasn't until last year that I heard the story of the Rather assault, and it's connection to the song. I've been assuming most readers already know this one, but if you're still in the dark: in 1986 Dan Rather was accosted by William Tager on the streets of New York. Tager was convinced CBS was sending signals to his head and needed to know the frequency in order to block them out. No one's figured out yet why Billy-boy thought Rather's real name was Kenneth, maybe it was being piped in on Tager FM. The song had basically been affixed to Dan's lapel by the time he took the seat behind the CBS news desk for the last time Wednesday night. (He had even stood onstage with REM on the Letterman Show when they performed it in 1994). Although I wasn't a regular CBS News watcher, (I prefer ABC), I did listen to him during the last two Presidential Elections. I saw him interview Hussain a week before the bombing started, a feat no one seems to find as impressive as I do, and I was fond of his many Ratherisms. Some of these are as follows:

"We had a slight hitch in our giddy up, but we corrected that."

"Two hands worth of white knuckle still hanging ten."

"If a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a hand gun."

and...

"Now, ladies and gentleman, if you believe that, you'll believe rocks can grow."

You can also see a video clip of Rather being socked in the belly here. Shows to go ya that the news isn't what it used to be. Find me an anchor man who can give a fair report and take a punch today, and I'll give ya all my REM albums (on cassette tape =). For anyone who's still reading this, the actually frequency WCBS broadcasts on in New York City is 880 kHz. Ciao, Dobie

Amazing Amantez!!!

Okay, before you read another line of this blog, you should all go to the following link to see the great photography work at Amantez Photography! Alright, I prolly should have said, bookmark Dobieville first incase you have a problem getting back here. That is unless you've already made this site your homepage (which I highly recommend). In that case, when you're done just hit the button that looks like a little house at the top of your browser... Everybody back? Okay, here's the good news: Through an online raffle, Liz and I won a $400 credit towards our wedding photos from Amantez Photography! We heard about the contest on the radio from 100.5 the Buzz (also a cool website people should be checkin' out) and they told us to go to WeddingRaffle.com (which is actually the same site as Amantez but no biggie). We filled out their questionnaire, and boom, we're winners! Bit of a culture shock really after being losers for so long ;) We came in 2nd place, (1st place people got a golden chariot and their weight in cheesecake, but we're not bitter). We can use the credit for engagement photos, or roll it over to use for pictures of our actual wedding! I hadda long conversation with Liegh, our photographer, and got a real cool vibe from her. The best part is, we get to keep the digital artifacts of the actual pictures, so we don't have to keep going back to her in order to get more pictures developed! This totally rocks, which is why we'll prolly be using Liegh for the wedding proper. Speaking of the wedding (I know finally!) I'll be updating very soon with new info concerning the meeting of the clans, the location of the events, and all the rickita rackita. Anyway, I gotta go do my happy dance now. Hope everything is going well with all my homies. Ciao!