THE SIMPSONS NEWS Part 1

500th episode party happened this Monday.  It was a pain because it was on a Monday.  That said, it was fun.

The night started early. The studio became deserted before six o’clock came around.  I was here at my desk working.  I was waiting for my wife to get to the studio so we could drive to the party.  SHE was waiting for my parents to show up to take care of the kids.  They were suppose to show up around five but didn’t quite manage to get there till it was nearly six.

She told me she was on her way, and I tried to concentrate on doing work.  I did some but I mostly spent the time figuring out the best route to take to the party.  Looking in google maps to see how traffic was.

I was a bit anxious because the party started at seven but I knew that by eight o’clock, they would probably start playing the show at the party for all to see.  Often there’s a speech before it and I like to hear what is said.  On top of that, it was the show I storyboard Act 1 and some of Act 2. I didn’t want to miss my section of the show if we got there late.  By the time Alesha would arrive, it would be seven or so.

Well, Alesha got lost on the way over. She knows how to get to the studio but the freeway exit that she’s used to taking to get to the studio, has been closed for months and she doesn’t know an alternative route. I made things worse when she called me for directions, and not knowing exactly where she was, I gave her bad ones.  She eventually she found her own way to the studio.

Off we went, taking the route I had chosen.  It was a twenty minute drive, and luckily, no traffic.  Unfortunately for us, the party  took place in the Roosevelt Hotel, in Hollywood Blvd.  If you know anything about Hollywood, you know that, that area is a pain in the neck to drive around.  We almost immediately began complaining that the party was in Hollywood.  Traffic was a mess, we weren’t paying attention to the directions on the invite, and we ended up getting lost.  We drove up and down and turned around twice before we finally found the place were where suppose to park.

The clock was ticking. It was almost eight and we where going around in circle in the parking structure, looking for parking.  Once we found a spot, we hurried, made our way out and crossed the street by the Mann’s Chinese theater to the Roosevelt were we got our badges to get in and some casino chips.  We had missed the first five minutes of the show. We got there almost on time.  I was happy enough. I got to see most of my Act.  My wife didn’t really see it because she was busy taking pictures of me watching the show.

As soon as my Act was over, we went off to find food.  We found it and watched the rest of the episode.  It turned out great. I really liked it.

Once the episode was over we walked around and said hi to people.

There were two floors to explore.  The first floor had casino tables where people could use their chips to play.  The point was to get as many chips as possible, to trade them in for some prizes. Kinda like Chuck E Cheese’s  but for adults.

The second floor gave a good view of the first floor, had the food, and had other game rooms.  There was a small hall with a bowling alley and booths where you can sit and play Jenga.  There was also a place called “The Game Room” where they had a pool table (with clear plastic 500th episode Simpsons balls), a Simpsons pinball machine, a roulette table, Skee ball, pretzels and Cotton Candy. It also had a window with a fantastic view of Hollywood blvd.  My wife decided she wanted Cotton Candy and we ate it as we sat at the booth by the window looking down at Hollywood. To be quite honest, sitting there with Alesha relaxing as we watched life on Hollywood Blvd go by, made the hassle of getting to the party worth it.

We talked a for a while.  My wife said she was getting tired though and thought we should go.  We got up and spoke to some people and I searched for a few people I wanted to talk to but it was much to crowed to really find anyone.

It was around nine thirty around the time we left. We had only really been there a little over an hour and a half.  It was a Monday after all. My daughter had school, I had work, my parents needed to go home and we had along drive ahead.

We headed for the door, saying hi to people along the way and we caught a glimpse of Kareem Abdul Jabbar playing poker in one of the tables.  My wife took a picture.

We got our door prize on our way out, which was a 500th episode sweatshirt, and headed for the crosswalk to get to our parking lot.  As we waited, my wife began to laugh. When I asked her why, she told me she heard someone from the street address the party goers behind us,

“You look like important people, do you have 50 cents?”

Heh…Hollywood.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS Part 2

In other news, many of The Simpsons crew where interviewed for a newpaper article conscerning our favorite contribution to the show.  I was among those interviewed.

It starts off like this:

“Behold! The Simpsons‘ 500th episode is upon us! The show, titled “At Long Last Leave,” entails the Simpson family being evicted from Springfield. When Marge and Homer try to sneak back into town, they’re shunned by former neighbors and friends. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stars as himself, and Alison Krauss sings a special theme song for the landmark moment.

With 23 seasons in the making, the show is bound to bring out the super-fan in countless bloggers who will list, dissect, and debate their choices for best episode, greatest musical guest, and most hilarious Homer quotations. Here, artists, writers, and crew (past and present) talked about their favorite personal contributions to our beloved Simpsons (the show, the Movie, even the comics).

The Simpsons airs its 500th episode on Sun., Feb. 19, 8 p.m. on Fox…”

To continue reading CLICK HERE

Give the article a read, it’s great.

PODCASTS

I was listening to an episode of The Break with Fr. Roderick and he mentioned a podcast called THE CATHOLIC LABORATORY.  It’s a podcast that episode by episode, breaks down over a 1000 years of Catholic contributions to science. This podcast directly counters the very idea that faith and science don’t mix. Especially since many priest are the “fathers” of many of the sciences we use today. It’s amazing.  I’ve been looking for something like this for a while and hadn’t even realized it. I highly recommend it.

Check it out: CLICK HERE

or simply listen by clicking below:

VIDEO/PODCAST

My friend Raul, the Man vs. Art, recently put out a Man vs. Art episode talking about Richard Williams and his movie, THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER.  It’s a tragic story worth listening to. I highly recommend you listen to it (CLICK HERE).

One of the things the show made me aware of is this new version of the movie.  So I’ve posted it here as well. THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER: RECOBBLED CUT.

ART

Thanks to cutting a major chunk of redundant action, I managed to finish thumbnailing page 6 this week. This leaves me 3 1/2 pages of script to thumbnail. Which is a good feeling.

The big dillemna this week, was trying to figure out how to shoot the  enormous monologue Rob has at the end of the page.  Not being completely certain, I decided to simply come up with a bunch of random shots.  I’ll cut them together in the rough storyboarding stage and see how they play then.  There was also the problem of finding the right place to put in the shot where Rob’s Raven wakes up and finds itself next to his hammer.  Again, I simply came up with the shots and I’ll edit them in where they fit best:

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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