Joy.

I just saw a pdf of the first couple pages of my comic fully lettered.

This is a very good moment.

Rob

U.S. "Succeeding Brilliantly" in Iraq, sez Cheney

In other news:



Rob
(Yes, he really said that.)

My Letter to Dunkin Donuts

Skippy's right: It's time to fight fire with fire.

Here's what I wrote. I didn't feel the need to summarize the whole brouhaha, and got right to the heart of the matter:

Just a quick note to let you know that I won't be buying any Dunkin Donuts coffee or doughnuts until your company publicly apologizes for knuckling under to ridiculous pressure from Michele Malkin, implying that all Arabs who wear a kaffeyeh (all Arabs, really, is Malkin's point) are terrorists or endorse terrorism. Pulling the Rachel Ray ad due to Malkin's stink was the worst kind of cowardly, and stupid and offensive besides. Malkin exists to drive wedges between people; by playing into her hands, your company has implicitly agreed that Arabs should rightly be suspected of terrorism.

I know in my heart that's not what you meant to do; you simply meant to avoid controversy. But sometimes controversy seeks you out, and a publicity hound like Malkin is always willing to target an innocent company for her own ends. I'm sure you'll get many letters like this one, so at this point, there's no avoiding the controversy. The only question is, which side of it are you on? Do you side with Malkin and her fear-mongering, or are you willing to stand up against the fear and distrust she engenders?

Thanks,

Rob Staeger

P.S. I haven't seen the powdered vanilla creme-filled doughnuts in my local store for a while. Have they been discontinued? If you do apologize for this misstep, could you bring them back?

If you want to write to Dunkin Donuts, here's their contact form.

Rob

Dear Dunkin' Donuts

Seriously? Knuckling under to Michele Malkin? What are you, idiots?

What does Helga think?


Yeah, me too.

Rob

Caught the Westbound

Folk troubadour, raconteur and activist Utah Phillips died last week. The Times has an obituary.


Hallelujah, he was a bum... and when he sang, it was easy to remember that we all are: We all need a handout, a leg up, or someone to stand by us sometimes. He was always a good friend to those in need.

Rest in peace, Utah. We'll miss you at Fest.

Rob

Saved: The Aisle Seat

MightyGodKing reminds me of something I already knew: Saved! is a really cool movie. I should see it again one of these days. (And I should check out more of his recommendations, come to think of it; I doubt Kathy would be upset if Nick of Time showed up in the mailbox...)

UPDATE: And he's dead right about Beautiful Girls, too.

Rob

Person Nick of Time

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Best. Episode. Ever.

Kathy, flipping through the Tivo menu, tells me, "Unboxed has Sweeney Todd."

Amazon has a downloadable movie service through Tivo called Unboxed. This doesn't occur to me.

No, I'm thinking Kathy's talking about one of my least favorite Food Network shows, Unwrapped -- essentially footage of food traveling on conveyor belts through machines that mix it, mold it and wrap it. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all. And one is more than enough.

But I swear, if they ever did an episode on Mrs Lovett's Meat Pies -- I'd watch that in a heartbeat.

Rob

It All Makes Sense Now

The glaringly obvious was pointed out to me in this week's Lying in the Gutters column: Steven Moffat, the writer responsible for the most intense and time-twisty episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen, "Blink,"


is also the writer of the excellent British sitcom Coupling, which routinely plays games with pacing and order of presentation to virtuoso effect.


Quentin Tarantino, eat yer heart out.

Rob

OMG Drama!

Ragnell and Kalinara have been have been really stressed lately, so they kick the shit out of a poster for asking a question.

I think it was the "Thanks" that did it. That's so out of line.

Rob

Teh Awesome

Movie stills don't often geek me out.

This one did.


From AICN, a photograph of the 1940s precursor to the Watchmen, the Minutemen.

Rob

Blasphemy

After some preliminary experimentation, I'm beginning to believe I like margaritas made with freshly squeezed oranges and lemons better than those with freshly-squeezed limes.

This calls for further study.

Rob

Walking With the Big Dogs

Went on a nice hike through Alair State Park yesterday -- me in my new boots, Kathy in hers. It's an easy walk -- there are some uphill slopes, but when I looked in the guidebook and saw the word moderate (even as in "easy to moderate") I nearly laughed out loud. A comfortable, relaxing walk.

We crossed paths with two women walking their dogs. Two of the dogs were big -- one was a husky of some sort, and the other was equally brawny. A third dog, a chihuahua, trotted along beside them.

I thought about the gorp we had in our fanny pack. It's good to bring along a snack.

Rob

Return of the Niño

The second part of Chris Eliopoulos's webcomic, The Bravest Niño, is up at Top Shelf 2.0. It's all-ages, and mighty cute. There's other good stuff there, too--Leaning Rabbit gave me a big grin, for instance, and URAQT is a great (somewhat adult) one-pager--but for some reason this story about a little boy and his furiously hot peppers has touched my heart.

Rob

My Reach Exceeds My Rasp

I have no voice.

I spent yesterday afternoon talking -- well, it turns out, shouting -- in a noisy bar. And then last night in a Mediterranean restaurant, chatting the night away and watching a friend belly dance. It was a great night, but my throat is wrecked.

And I hardly even notice. I've posed on message boards, comment on blogs, and posted on my own blogs as well, and it doesn't even occur to me. I'm communicating just fine... or no worse than I usually do, anyway.

But then I go say hi to my wife, or make a phone call, and this inhuman croak comes out of my head. It surprises me every time. At this point, I can't even sing along with Tom Waits.



Rob
(He got himself a homemade special...)

I Finally Saw Walk Hard

The management of this blog encourages you to do the same.

Rob

Webs Woven

It's not enough to write a book anymore... there's a whole lot of ancillary promotion that goes along with it, and much of that is online.

Which means I can link to it.

Neil Gaiman's upcoming Graveyard Book has a new website up. It's got an interview with Neil, some illustrations by Dave McKean, and certainly there's more to come.

I've also been spending time at Jeri-Smith Ready's website for WVMP, the radio station where her vampires deejay. Out of all the deejay playlists, I surprised myself by going to Regina's first -- the only one more unlikely would be Shane's 90s mix -- but I've also been enjoying Monroe's, and am looking foreward to giving Spencer's and Jim's a listen.

So. Two websites to check out. Some good music to listen to. What're you hanging around here for?

Rob
(Oh, hell, now I'm on Shane's... I've had a jones to hear Morphine's "Buena" for a week now, and there it is...)

No Neck Joe

Slept wrong last night. My neck has been killing me all day. I've got tilt, but not much rotate. I have to turn my entire body to see very far to either side. You should have seen me backing out of my parking spot tonight.

It reminded me of No Neck Joe, that lovable neckless kid who was constantly being teased by cruel bullies. I can't find any videos on YouTube (neither can the animator), but there's one on MetaTube. Hopefully this will explain to Kathy why I'll shout "No! Neck! Joe!" on odd occasions.




Poor little No Neck Joe.

Rob

Flat Interview

Over the course of three days, I watched Interview with Steve Buscemi (who also directed) and Sienna Miller. Buscemi plays Pierre, a reporter who'd rather be covering politics than interviewing Katya, a flavor-of-the-month starlet; Miller plays the starlet. Because of a coincidental car accident that makes the movie possible, Pierre winds up in Katya's apartment, and they have an evening of conversation in which each of them twists the truth a bit here and there.

I saw the "twist" ending -- something one character has assumed, and another is hiding -- from a mile away, so it lacked a certain amount of punch. And when all you've got are two characters in a room? You need punch.

Interview is based on a Theo van Gogh film, and there are apparently some differences in the ending. It's never bad--Miller and Buscemi both seem believable characters, if ultimately cyphers--but I was expecting more intensity. As it was, I stopped the movie twice before I finished it (which admittedly killed some of the momentum it would have built otherwise, but if it had enough momentum in the first place I'd never have turned it off).

Rob

Crank

An important announcement:

This.

Weather.

Is.

Crap.

Seriously—I stopped hibernating for this? Wake me when it's not March anymore.

(Consider this an open thread to gripe about this damp, chilly, gray. mood-altering weather that would make any self-respecting groundhog shit his pants and die.)

Rob

Okay, now they're trying to make me laugh

Here's the latest in a series of horrible covers for DC's Titans comic: Here, pretzel-loving Princess Koriand'r notices a few stray crumbs on the corner of Nightwing's mouth.


This cover is somewhat better than Joe Benitez's recent efforts, but ugh just the same. For Christ's sake, someone rob a bank or something. Anything to stop the kissing.

(Curious to what the inside of this book's like? Kevin Huxford documents the atrocities of issue 2. Not for the faint of heart or the sharp of vision.)

Rob