Daily Archives: April 16, 2011

6 posts

CrassCartoons: Home Movies

Welcome to the first edition of CrassCartoons. As you all know, I love cartoons, so I thought I would share some of the cool stuff out there with my fellow nerds and adult children. Hopefully, we can do this every Saturday.

First, let me explain that I am not pretentious enough to call this animation.  While some cartoons indeed transcend into high art, that is usually not what I am discussing. I like plain, old cartoons. The kind you watch while hanging out on the couch, eating pizza, and maybe enjoying a bong hit if you are so inclined.

I am not a historian on this topic by any means, and I am not a particularly good fangirl, but I will do my best to find interesting stuff to share. Please send me any suggestions at crasstalk at gmail dot com so I can include them in future installments.

This week I am going to discuss one of my favorite cartoons ever Home Movies, which started running on UPN in 1999, but was picked up by The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim in 2001 (the show ended production in 2004). The show was produced by Soup2Nuts studios, which also did Dr. Katz, and like that show it was originally created using Squigglevision. However, the show went to flash animation from the second season on.

Here’s an example of what Squigglevision looks like from the first season of Home Movies. Note: Contains an awesome cameo by Mitch Hedburg.

Home Movies was created by Brendon Small (who shares his name with the main character) and Loren Bouchard; it was produced by animator Tom Snyder. The series follows the adventures of Brendon Small an eight year old aspiring film maker. Brendon makes movies with his two friends Melissa and Jason and lives in a slightly absurd world of elementary school politics and imperfect adults. Supporting characters include John McGuirk, the soccer coach, and Paula Smalls, Brandon’s down to earth mother. Each episode usually follows Brandon through some sort of kid difficulty and features a movie that Brandon and his friends are working on.

The show features smart, sarcastic writing and dialogue-driven plots. It features the voice talent of H. John Benjamin (Dr. Katz, Archer, Bob’s Burgers), Paula Pondstone (later replaced by Janine Ditullio), and a great rotating cast of cameos by comedians like Mitch Hedburg and Louis C.K. The show also features fun musical numbers that are a preview of Small’s later work on Metalocalypse.

Here’s a couple of fun clips.

Home Movies also has probably the best two gay cartoon characters ever, Perry and Walter.

While the show has been out of production for a number of years, it still runs occasionally on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and clips can be found all over the internet. I will leave you with this full episode, which I think is one of the best, and seems like an appropriate shout out to greater Nerdom to wrap up our first installment.

Watch Home Movies – S3E06 – Renaissance.avi in Animation  |  View More

Yeeeaah, I Meant to Say “Brute Bump Bump Bump Butt”

Somehow I’d lived all these years without knowing the corporate joy of working with dictation software. (I hate to name names but let’s just say it rhymes with “Mac Speech Dictate.”) Trust me when I say I was enunciating.

And how’d things go? A little something like this.

I said:

Hello, I’m not sure if this dictation is working or not. The words aren’t appearing on the screen. Hello, I’m not sure if this is working or not, but I would like words to appear on the screen please. Please. PLEASE! Please, please, please, please. I’m worried now because please is an easy word. An EASY word.

What the machine wrote was:

Hello I’m not sure depletion is working or not at the words to appear in the screenplay hell I’m not sure if this nation is working or not but I would like some words to appear on the screen needs plea plea USENET believes to be for Lee believes leave believes he easily worried if and eat EA is if it is an EEG word if an easy word

I tried reciting part of the Pledge of Allegiance next. What came out was… I don’t know what this was:

If I worked in worked is that if worked a day or way old lady old he only with a don’t lay I know I can say is and I just saved my and make her I am I just stayed out of just a just staying gestating A.D.

Finally, this is the alphabet as the software heard it:

ABCDE and GHIJK era (and no PE you are asked TUV W. at why is the lets try that again a PC the 80 GHIJK and Amanda PQFT you see preview at line and see what you

Then I tried to make it type “burp”, because that’s what you do when you’re 11 and someone hands you a new robot toy to play with:

Brooke bunt brute bump bump bump butt, but but bump

This is all cut and pasted exactly as it came out. I’d still be saying “burp” over and over into a microphone, but the cleaning lady walked in. You’d think things couldn’t get more awesome, but oh they can. I emailed the text to myself and the targeted gmail ad for this gobbledygook text was:

 

Recipe Saturday: Chicken Marsala With Dry Vermouth

The first time I had chicken marsala was at our friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner in 2006. It was delicious, and I’ve craved it occasionally since then. But, I’ve never made it, mainly because I never think to buy marsala wine. But, then I read that dry vermouth can be swapped out for the marsala. And guess what? I just happened to have a bottle of vermouth languishing on top of our refrigerator.

Marsala normally has mushrooms, but I don’t like them and the dish was so incredibly rich that I can’t imagine how it could have had any more flavor. Seriously.

Chicken Marsala With Vermouth

Olive oil

2 ounces of pancetta

2 sliced shallots

4 thin chicken breasts

Flour for dredging the chicken

Pepper

2 teaspoons of paprika

1 cup of vermouth

5 tablespoons of heavy cream (don’t substitute half and half, trust me on this)

Parsley

Saute the pancetta in a tablespoon of olive oil. When it’s browned, drain it on paper towels.

Saute the shallots in the pancetta drippings and set them aside.

Add more olive oil to the pan and heat it until a drop of flour sizzles in pan. While the oil heats, thoroughly mix together the pepper, paprika and flour. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture. Fry the chicken in the olive oil, approximately 7 minutes a side. (I like a lot of color on my chicken especially when making a pan sauce, so this is only a guide.)

When the chicken is done, drain it on a paper towel. Turn the heat off, and add the vermouth to deglaze the pan.

Turn the heat back on low, and add the cream. Then add the chicken and shallots into the pan, reheat the chicken and serve over your starch of choice.

I served the chicken and sauce over couscous, because I am madly in love with couscous right now.

Then I added chopped parsley, for contrast: cold against hot, light against the rich cream sauce. And it was incredible – the salty pancetta, the crisp chicken, the creamy vermouth sauce, the shallots, the parsley, the couscous. When my husband came home I was sated. I couldn’t even eat more than half of the piece of chicken.

Which raises the question, “If you make a dish with bacon and heavy cream but can only eat a portion of it, is it really that bad for you?”

Twitterama, April 15, 2011

The magic of Twitter is that it gives us regular folks a chance to see into the randomized musings and utterly mundane details of celebrities and, well, everyone else, filter-free.  Unleashed from the restraints of their PR flack and armed with a cell phone, famous folks can tell us what they had for lunch, or when they pick up their dry-cleaning.  Just kidding.  Rich people have someone do that for them.  Otherwise, they might be forced to mingle with people who work for a living.

The thing with Twitter is that it’s moved beyond real people.  Fictional characters have Twitter accounts now (more on that in a second).  Hell, celebrities make up accounts for their dogs, which is dumb.   I’m looking at you, Ice-T.   For crying out loud, I have friends who set up an account for their 6 month old.  If you guys have that kind of free time, perhaps you should look into doing something useful, like teaching the kid Chinese, or, better, picking up my dry cleaning.

Or, if you want to spend that much time on Twitter, try checking out the accounts of people who might actually have something interesting to say, like Lord Voldemort, who gives us some advice on how to make it through the weekend:

 

Seth McFarlane gives a new perspective on the Charlie Sheen situation:

um…. maybe?

Continuing on the Charlie Sheen track, the always awesome George Takei has his own ideas;

In another area of the entertainment industry, Roger Ebert gives his opinion on the Atlas Shrugged movie:


NPR, as always, is quite servicey:

 

When I was in college I took a stand-up comedy class.  I honestly think it was a humanities course and not an elective, but I can’t be sure – it was many years ago.

In any case, our professor told us that even if your joke elicits a groan, it’s still a decent joke.  My professor was also about 120 years old, so take that however you wish.  Regardless, I think this may fall somewhere in the groan-worthy category.

 

And even more groan-worthy (with a side of giggle), Albert Brooks delivers:

Writer Seth Madej, friend of the author, gives tips on how to sound smart at parties (follow this guy, he’s entertaining):

This Twitter account is not for the religiously sensitive.  For the rest of us – hilarious (and true!).

 

Death Star PR is always full of good questions:



And finally, Seth McFarlane again, retweeting a nonexistent Twitter account that should actually exist:  

Right on, Seth.

Anyway, enjoy, and I’ll try to keep up on this the best I can.  In the meantime, if you want to recommend some entertaining people to follow on Twitter, please do!

Ten Overlooked Movie Recommendations

Here are ten movies you might not have seen that you definitely should.

Safe

In her first leading role, Julianne Moore portrays a demur housewife who literally begins to do battle with her modern surroundings. While there are periods with very little dialogue, the movie is quite disturbing. As a person that has serious allergy problems, I can relate to the claustrophobia that sets in when you realize your problem is inescapable. In addition, the latter part of the movie is quite interesting because you start to wonder if she even has a problem at all.

(I don’t think this is currently in print on DVD)

Saved!

With Mandy Moore, Jena Malone, and  a grown-up Macaulay Caulkin you really aren’t sure what to expect. However, as someone that has seen the religious right at its most extreme I can assure you this movie, while trying to be preposterous, is actually pretty accurate.

5 Fingers of Death

Anyone that is a Tarantino fan should see this movie if only to see a movie that served as inspiration for most of the Kill Bill films. It is an eye opener in the fact that you see how directors are inspired by certain movies and how they use that inspiration in their own movies. Many people would call it plagiarizing but I think it is just an ode to a forgotten genre.

Primer

An indie movie about a box, a storage place, and time travel. You would think it doesn’t work but for some reason it does. The movie looks great and takes what is usually a grandiose theme down to a more pedestrian level. It also won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004, which kind of tells you what kind of film it is. Basically, not the science fiction film for your Nascar loving, action movie watching, white trash uncle.

The Last Unicorn

Yes, it is a cartoon but it voiced by Alan Arkin, Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges and Angela Lansbury, among others.  The voice acting and music are definitely top notch. Basically the last unicorn, is searching for others of her kind because she fears she is the last.  It is kind of sad for a cartoon but makes up for it with its sheer storytelling power and ends up being quite magnificent and memorable.

The Last Picture Show

In another fictional town (this time in Texas), we see a coming of age story that features a relatively green cast surrounded by veteran character actors. It is a great story shot in black and white that is quite devastating. Being from a small town in Texas, myself, I can say this movie hits the nail on the head and captures the feeling quite perfectly. The cast as a whole delivers stand out performances with an especially great ones from Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, and Ellen Burstyn.  We are also introduced to Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, and get to see a young Jeff Bridges in action.

Here is Ben Johnsons Oscar-winning monologue for your enjoyment.

Dick

Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst befriend President Nixon only to find themselves in the midst of the Watergate scandal. I’ll start off by saying this film is a lot smarter and funnier than you think. Many of the subtle jokes are dead on balls accurate and entertained my aunt, a lawyer, who was very hesitant to watch this in the first place.

*batteries not included

Cute robots, old ladies and awful developers that want to tear her house down. I mean, the robots even make hamburgers! What is not to like?

Drop Dead Gorgeous

USA is a-okay! Amer-I can! These are just a few themes from the past American Teen Princess beauty pageants in the fictional small town of Mount Rose, MN. The movie has murder, hilarity, bad shellfish, and crazy plot points that keep you laughing until the end. In addition, you see Amy Adams early in her career as the promiscuous cheerleader. Also, DWTS contestant Kirstie Alley is hilarious as are Denise Richards, Allison Janney, Brittney Murphy Kirsten Dunst, and Ellen Barkin. See the trailer here.

Enter The Void

I know, I know, no one likes moist towellete come to life, Paz de la Huerta, but this movie rises above her (on a few different levels). This movie is best seen in a theater and possibly on some form of narcotics although it really is a drug on its own. It toys with a few different themes (including reincarnation) and is quite disturbing at a variety of points. Oh, and the credits are great. In fact, here they are!