Go big... but without the irony

Franklin McMahon does a podcast called Media Artist Secrets. Really he does three podcasts: Media Artist Secrets, Creative Cow Podcast, and The Model Podcast. And he produces another show with girl hosts doing, one assumes, girl things. I really like Media Artists Secrets, as it's mostly practical advice for people associated with any kind of media.

It's "be your own boss" and "streamline your work" and "here's something that might work for you," but much cooler than I describe it. He's a guy with some degree of success in the industry and a lot of talent http://www.fmstudio.com/blog/index.html And he does a great cast about helping people in the same industry get better. That's people in media and multimedia. Get better. Without sarcasm.

The shows are short, about eight to ten minutes, and always entertaining. The Creative Cow podcast is much longer, about an hour plus, with interviews and reviews and the like. But it's never boring. Or stuffy or cynical. It's actually a little inspiring.

I thought (because you care what I thought) I would try to post really over-the-top inspirational stuff this week. Not "here's Jesus!" or "I fed and clothed the poor and wretched" inspiring but "Muderball really kicks ass" inspiring. I did see 'Murderball' by the way, and I'm still digesting it. It's amazing. It's a great documentary with a bunch of great stories. More on that later.

I was going to mention a couple of things. One I've typed about before, and that's Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp's 'The Amazing Joy Buzzards' from Image Comics. That's right, it's a comic book. It may be my favorite comic book of the moment. The premise sounds so goofy: rock and roll band The Amazing Joy Buzzards tour, get into adventures. The goofy part comes in here: their manager is actually a CIA spook, they can summon a genie who takes the form of a Mexican wrestler named El Campeon, they solve crimes, turn into giant monsters, and have arch-rivals called "The Spiders" consisting of a midget boss, a sexy vampire chick, the studly demon guy, and El Campeon's doppelganger.

There's a pull quote on the back of Volume 2, Issue 2 that reads "It's like flirting (and hooking up with) that cute, smart, funny indie chick at your friends party." Flirting is the perfect word for the fun, smart, tone of this comic. Always inventive and refeshing, I devour each issue then re-read till I'm sick of reading, put it done for an hour and read again. And it's like PG-13 maybe. Maybe even PG. Funny, sweet, dumb, smart, fast, slow, brilliant design... man it's good. Hipp and Smith pull off the best car chase I've ever seen in comics. Every time Steveo jacks the car up over... you should read it yourself. In fact, number one can be found here http://www.imagecomics.com/previews.php C'mon "Revenge is a dish best served cold... and maybe bubbling... with poison also." That's comedy gold.

And inspiration pops up in the strangest places http://www.penny-arcade.com These guys, Gabe and Tycho, are video game rock stars. They review video games. That's kinda it. Their site has unique visitors in the millons PER DAY. They have a chairty, Child's Play, that distributes toys to hospitals at Christmas. And they're funny, caustic, and kinda puerile.

I don't follow video games very much, just as a sidenote to tech stuff usually. I often skim their news page just to see what's pissing them off or who they're pissing off, and read the comic. Recently, like the day of the X Box 360 streeting, Tycho's wife had a kid. So in with all the usual nonsense he's writing about meeting his newborn. The entry has the jokes and video game references but it's a little more tender and "soft" than normal. This is the first bit:

"Craven sham that it is, typically the vile consortium of formula manufacturers and department store child photographers has already chosen the Baby of the Year by September, leaving their despicable agents to go on evil vacations or whatever it is they do. But there are times when a spoiler baby, or spiele-katzen, crops up 'round November or so, and a deep fracture forks up their trained facade.

Elliot Jacob Holkins is just such a baby."

Funny, sure, loves his kid like a parent. The next bit made my day. It's the stuff after the Transformers reference:

"I am not trying to jostle for primacy over the birth act, the utter valor of which is indelible - I'm fairly certain the credit is going to the right people. There is, however, a parallel experience that I never hear much about, something amazing and profound about the helplessness, the desperation of events which are perhaps a million long miles beyond your control. I just want to find other fathers and, looking at them across the aisles in the grocery store, hold my right fist aloft. I am with you.

Let me suggest that the hilarious episode of Three's Company which depicts a human birth is not sufficient to prepare a man for the genuine article. I can tell you that Brenna managed this shit like some kind of fucking Amazon warrior priestess. I told her that she probably just had indigestion, even when she was shuddering over a holiday display at Fred Meyer. So it's good that somebody had their shit together.

They handed him to me, eventually. Not first, now - that's not done. The physchological weight of him nearly shattered my legs. This must have been how Ultra Magnus felt, I thought, when Optimus Prime gave him the Matrix of Leadership.

I'm kidding.

I very nearly buckled. Not struck dumb, but struck, as a string might be struck, into sound:

It's me, I said. I'm the one who sang to you."

Having read Tycho for so long, it wasn't a change up I was expecting. "It's me, I said. I'm the one who sang to you." Doesn't that just close it out? Doesn't that just simplify any attempt to verbalize it?

Anyway, I thought it was inspired.

Those were just a few things the last few days that gave me pause. There're so many more real-life things that are inspiring than comics and some video game review guy gushing over his kid, but I'm in a better position to link to those things on a website than I am to talk about the other stuff.

Franklin McMahon signs on with a pre-produced VO guy saying "Make it big... and make it happen." I always need that kick in the ass.