Coffee Time

It's weird when you write something and then something similar happens in real life. Not a good similar, but a sensitive type of similar. You start to question what you wrote and start thinking that maybe it's the wrong time or people may get offended. A thought springs forth from the back of your head that you have to rewrite what's been saved in Final Draft for a while now. Censor yourself.

When you start thinking like this it's time to pull back and realize what you are doing. Art and life are always going to collide in not so pretty ways. Art is supposed to confront all facets of the way we live and the way the world moves around us, and sometimes that involves more than a character slipping on a banana peel. Especially with the Characters in Across the Way, because when they slip on banana peels they do it in a big way. In the coming weeks, part of a character's motivation gets ugly and we're not changing a thing. Guess this can be seen as a warning, but mostly it's just me thinking out loud. I don't like explaining what I write so I'm not getting into details now, and I refuse to get into details later. Just keep reading the story, and if you don't like where it's going you can always turn it off, but I have a feeling that people who read Across the Way know that dark turns are in store.

Now, sometimes art imitates art, and all I'm going to say is that if a page of Coffee Time reminds you of something from a recent movie, that scene was written last year. I swear. If the scene in question doesn't remind you of anything, all the better. Sorry I'm being so cryptic, I just don't want to give the story away and I'd rather talk about this stuff before than after. Anyway, some of the pages that Tobias drew for the coming weeks are awesome. AWESOME I say!

I can't seem to finish the website. There's not much to do, in fact the only thing to do is the store. I know there are a few other problems with the site, but they are so small, and I am so not a web designer that I almost don't care anymore. as long as you can see the comic pages, I'm okay with other things not being in perfect working order. Well, that's not really the truth, I can be a perfectionist with some things, but there comes a point where I let things slide.

A couple months ago you couldn't get me near a pencil & paper to write an episode of Coffee Time. I was obsessed with getting the site up. I had to be. There was a deadline that already had to be changed once, i couldn't let that happen again. Sometimes by sitting there and making it your life, that's the only way shit will get done. But now that I've gotten back into the writing aspect, the stuff I actually like to do, I can't seem to force myself into putting the final touch on the site. I've been procrastinating for weeks now. I don't think we're going to make a ton of money with it, at first it is going to be just donation sort of stuff where you get some desktops in return for a couple bucks. The thing is we do need to start making a little money because we really need to advertise much bigger. Our Coffee Time Comics bank account is running out of Google funds and Project Wonderful doesn't score us enough cash yet to keep things going all the time. Tobias, if you're reading this, when you're done making fun of the mistakes that slip by me, start getting on me about the store. go on strike or something.

Just do it ME! Just do it!

Living in Los Angeles has its perks: Awesome Mexican food, Not too mention awesome Mexican girls, really beautiful beaches close by, the mountains just as close, lets not forget some awesome desert areas also equally close, and last but not least, the New Beverly Cinema. It's a little place without a great sound system or a grand screen, but that shit doesn't matter because it has double features for $7 a pop.

When i first moved to Los Angeles almost five years ago, I would often consider this place to be my best friend. I came here cold, without a single friend in sight, and a whole lot of time on my hands. I discovered the New Beverly almost immediately in the Weekly. I wish I could remember what exactly pulled me in there, but I guess it doesn't matter. I've gotten to see a lot: Chinatown, The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, I Drink Your Blood, Salo, Santa Sangre, Kiss Me Deadly, The Wizard of Gore, Once Upon a Time in the West, and one time I went with my friend and my father when he was in town to see a double bill of Bubba Ho-Tep & Evil Dead 2 while waiting in line right behind Quentin Tarantino. Insane! Then there was a certain point where I slowly stopped going. I got busy with work. I got busy with Coffee Time. And maybe I had a little bit of a life going. But something has brought me back...

Quentin Tarantino has teamed up with the theater to celebrate grindhouse cinema. The New Beverly has been doing this for a while dedicating a Tuesday each month to it, but they have dedicated I think 2 months of programming which is just about over. It's cool to know that these are all Tarantino's prints from his private collection and that he's actually going to be there once in a while to host some of the bills. I wish I had less of life going for myself because I could go to this every other day when the bill changes. So many cool movies, and on top of that, tons of awesome trailers. I went this afternoon to check out The Muthers & Fight for Your Life. Before each film they showed about 15 minutes worth of trailers. It was so much fun & it's so great to watch these films with an enthralled audience who loves this type of film as much as you do if not more.

Walking out of the theater I made a promise to myself to get out to this great theater a little more often. I'm definitely going for the next two weekends so I don't miss anymore of the Grindhouse Festival, but I'm also going to make sure and catch at least a double feature a month. At least. If you're ever visiting LA, make sure you look this place up. I know most people don't go to the movies when you're on vacation, but this is one of the only places to get this sort of experience any longer. Make sure and check it out.

Hey! You! yeah, you right there. What were you doing Friday night? Were you out at your local bar again, sitting next to a guy named Ugly Pete, and staring into your Jack Daniel's with tears streaming down your cheeks? You were weren't you. Well, ya know what would have made it all better? Made all the pain go away...yup...GRINDHOUSE!

This is my kind of film. See, I like plenty of everything, but I've always had a special place in my heart for exploitation flicks made in the 70's. There's just something about them, the feeling that you could make a movie about anything no matter how far out the idea. That's exactly what Planet Terror and Death proof are all about. Complete wackiness. For some reason the american public didn't want that. They wanted more Will Farrell with Napoleon Dynamite's crotch in his face. Now there's nothing wrong with that of course. I'm sure it's a very funny movie. But dammit, Grindhouse is funny on top of being twenty other things. I wasn't expecting box office glory for this, nor do I usually care, but I was hoping that it would make a pretty good dent to assure us that there will be other Grindhouse double features. I love the idea of giving some filmmakers cash to go out there and just make anything they wanted no matter how far out their ideas. Of course I'm not a filmmaker, but it's a dream of mine to eventually be able to at least make a comic in the Grindhouse style. Just completely out there. I'd definitely make some ultra-gory film in a castle with all the old Universal monsters, or make a movie about a bunch of redneck moonshine runners. Anyway, I'm rambling...

Sorry. I'm really writing off the top of my head here. I was working on putting dialogue into some pages today and lost track of time. I'm about to go out and see Isis & Jesu tonight, which I don't even have tickets to just yet. Hopefully it isn't sold out.

Okay, so eventually people will be bidding on the spots you see open on the page and we will have new advertisers. As of right now, the spots I opened up are all clear. Hopefully that won't be for too long and people find us and bid on these spots. These new advertisement are through Project Wonderful, that great advertising service I talked about last month. In most cases these these are other webcomics or small companies at the Coffee Time Comics level of popularity, which ain't much. So what I'm going to ask is that once in a while you give a click to one of these spots. They are people who don't have a lot of cash and are looking for people like you to check them out. If you don't want to...well, I mean nobody is holding a gun to your head, but it'd be nice if you did.

Today's page for Coffee time brings the not so graceful return of Eugene. I missed seeing that kid in our pages so it's good to have him back. See Coffee Time is getting back into it's groove now. Last wee brought back Tanaka and Park, this week Eugene, and who knows who is next. Stay tuned...

I can't really talk about Across the Way's pages yet. They look nice. I can say that.

04/23/07

When Art Imitates...

04/16/07

AAARGH!!

New Beverly Cinema

04/09/07

Go See Grindhouse!

04/02/07

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