When the good, the bad, turns ugly

Life being the sweet bowel of cherries that it is over in this country I often find myself staggered and saddened by what is going on over seas. Sure I make it a point not to believe everything I read, and when it comes to the daily free rag newspaper frequently seen on the train, you can almost be certain that the “journalistic integrity” is not going to be fervent. However seeing as it is every where and every day I thought it would make the perfect topic for this rant. Ironically the “Vent Your Spleen” section in the paper I’m referring to only allocates enough room for a casual tweet.

First of all it needs to be said I like that there is a paper out once a day, with the inevitable decline of print media they’re doing surprisingly well, and second, who doesn’t love the sublime convenience of burying one’s face in some idle gossip to avoid eye contact on a sardine packed carriage of exhausted commuters?

There’s the usual clap trap about celebrities, a few random trivial facts that neither insult nor really help your intelligence, tourism, food and sport with the big story of the day glossed over somewhat in favour of room for a bit of extra fluff. But what I really mean to get to is a section called DOOM & GLOOM!

 …uhh excuse me?

I can understand not wanting to be exactly subtle when describing the nastiness behind the human condition but DAMN!

I naturally find myself drawn to this section it offers some valuable heart palpitations and stress for my crowded ride home, the miniature horror story captions in this make the obituaries for the 9/11 victims read like the wrapper of a fantail. Taking into account the bias of the media producing this I get the impression after reading it on and off for the last 3 years or so, it should really be named “LOOK WHAT THE TERRORISTS DID NOW!” with not a week that goes by without something going wrong.

Of course that’s all just perception but the older I get I begin to find myself shedding the knee jerk idealism this was driven home yesterday when shortly after the humanitarian ships were boarded by Israeli commandos I witnessed a big protest march through the CBD, as I munched on my burger watching Lebanese and Turkish flags go by I knew, this issue is not going to go away and now it has come to us.

A quick disclaimer

Please note, it takes more energy for you to spam email me than it does for to delete it.

Total Eclipse of the art(ist)

Well it had to happen sooner or later the perfect storm of teen hormones that is the ‘Twilight” book/movie franchise, which despite being an essentially bland retelling of an old concept, seems to only be gaining further momentum and about to hit our shores.

This series was never made with my demographic in mind and frankly the argument that the book was better than the movie is not up for grabs. I have neither seen nor read either and when it comes down to it the counter arguments leveled in rebuttal to fans ”OK did you buy the books? Did you pay to see the movies? How much did each form of media earn, i.e which made more movie or book?

Now do you think that anyone cares that your opinion of the material has been reduced to such an overused, trite throwaway line?

It’s much like saying the same thing about Mel Gibson’s movie “Passion of the Christ”!

But I digress.

Well its gonna be something tomorrow, stars Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart will be coming to my stomping ground Luna Park for an advance screening of the latest in the series of what is concidered in the vampire genre equivalent of Bambi.(Considering vampire protagonist Edward Cullin drinks deer blood is fitting) Hopefully this will garner some interest from some fan girls. Stewart plays Bella Swan, the archetypal damsel in distress combined with angst wrapped up in the high school every-girloutcast format.

 Lautner on the other hand is the bad boy who’s currently trying to steal Bella away (This info has been gleaned via osmosis) from Edward who I mentioned before is a vampire, however as the rival/ally the character he plays is Jacob Black- a werewolf.

I’ve seen clips and Jacobbeing able to transform in broad daylight without the use of the full moon looks more like an oversized Husky.

Then again Edward too, has all the traditional weaknessess and flaws of being a supernatural creature of the shadows conveniently shelved so he has extra time to “sparkle” in the suns rays.

Again I make no bones that this was never intended for my eyes still I do applaud the phenomenal success it has had and at the end of the day… 

  …it should be good for a laugh.

Bring back the Buff(y)

Tags: Bella Swan, Edward Cullin, Jacob Black, Kristen Stewart, Luna Park, Taylor Lautner, Twilight, vampire

It’s a nice day for a wet winter

Yep just like bears and squirrils go into hibernation so must I use the current weather conditions to relax a bit, but with deadlines looming I’m glad I’ve got reserves stored. I’ll be working on a few things away from the park over this weekend.

Everything is Tweet

I will be heading into Luna park Sydney this evening to briefly drop off some new material which will appear soon in the caricatures section of www.eddyer.com. As part of a 2 month long complete overhaul of my public base of operations the Luna Park Cartoonist Booth and my website.

Updates pending are:

1. The ability to follow me and my work on twitter/EdTMDyer
2. New Youtube clips featuring the process of my work
3. Online webcomic (to be announced)

Tags: caricatures, Luna Park, twitter/EdTMDyer, www.eddyer.com