I spent only 25 minutes drawing this, with one attempt at each drawing only. It took me longer to scan each piece of paper and arrange it into a singe image.

For confused readers, you need to keep up with Strip Search, the web comic artist reality talent show. Every week two of the artists face each other in a head to head challenge. They each have to draw a comic strip in 90 minutes, based on the combination of two randomly drawn words, with the loser going home and the winner staying in the contest to win the big prize. Viewers at home are encouraged to do the challenge themselves. This week the words were Dinosaur and Roller Skates.

You can compare my attempt to the winning strip:

And other home challengers:

My favourite among the entries I’ve seen so far, from cakeburger.com:

Has a good point. I do believe any comedian should be able to joke about whatever they want. However, I think he does a very bad job with it. He talks about “every joke needs an exaggeration” but picks the wrong target. He somehow thinks the comedy should come from associating with the perpetrator, and looks at his story. This casts Carlin close to the role of the rapists in the minds of the audience, rather than the victim. I didn’t find it funny at all, and actually quite disturbing. I don’t want to have an exploration of why people rape each other near the North Pole, especially if there is no pay off, and the arguments don’t make sense. I’ve never seen rape as something someone would do because they couldn’t get sex elsewhere (though I don’t want to get into a discussion about this here).

I don’t think Carlin would be able to get away with that kind of material if he wasn’t in a room full of his fans, who are willing to clap along with it. This isn’t a knock against him, because I do material in my show that I know only works at the end, not at the start of the show, because by then I’ve won them over.

Wanda Sykes

Very funny. She casts herself closer to the role of the victim, and lets everyone come along for the ride in a world where rape is either no longer possible, or if it is, it’s a mild inconvenience. Even gang rape is just a bit annoying, and only from a cleaning up point of view. It’s very clever.

Also, even though the routine is about the threat and impact of rape, she doesn’t ever mention the word rape. This means that she never has to worry about the “Should I do comedy about rape?” question. She is skirting around the edge of the issue in the way that the audience (with lots of females) are totally comfortable with, and recognize from the treatment of the subject in the real world. Everyone is in on the word game. This is the opposite of Carlin, who uses his comedy as a blunt object, almost violent in his affront on the audience.

Dave Chappelle

Again, he casts himself in the role of the victim. However, he doesn’t cast himself there right away! This is his genius, and why I think his comedy routine is the funniest (for me). He starts off by bringing up the idea of serial rape, which isn’t funny.

“But…”

And this makes all of his audience lean forward. How is he going to do this? How is he going to make this funny?

For a start, he does it by showing how weird it is to talk about it, constantly, in his body language and his pacing. It’s genius. By showing how uncomfortable he is with it, he’s identifying with the audience’s mind set. Then, after making them cheer that it was man rape not lady rape, he calls them out on it. Great move! It means that he’s put everyone in the room into the same boat. We’re all uncomfortable about the topic of rape, but we’re going to do this anyway, okay?

He then covers the shame of rape from the point of view of both men and woman victims, again uniting the audience, and himself with them.

Luke’s Verdict:

While Carlin thinks he’s being clever by addressing rape in a comedy routine, Chappelle and Sykes are actually clever by pulling it off. I can understand why someone watching Carlin’s routine would be offended (and I was offended, partially by how badly he handled the comic elements of the material), but it’s really hard to be offended by Chappelle and Sykes, because both are doing comedy about being the victim, rather than the perpetrator, of the violent crime.

Dave Chappelle wins, but only because he hit the subject head on, acknowledged the issue and the audience, and still made me laugh out loud.

Jesse, who I know via the SFFaudio podcast made it, based on my Work It Out Yourself video:

Although the hat comes from an image on my website:

Today I’ve been super busy with work and getting ready for a 5 week overland truck safari through east and southern Africa. As such, the only writing I’ve done is the packing list. So here it is, as I wrote it, checked it, and packed it, but otherwise in a random order:

new padlock
new blanket

6 soft beanbags
1 large ball
6 clubs

White tape

Travel adaptor
*2
Stereo power * 2
Multi Plug

Goggles, nose clip

coat

Passport
Cards from wallet
Money belt * 2

cash
student ID
Driver’s license

Papers for Kenya – booking voucher with final receipt
Yellow fever cards
passport photos
insurance policy

Photocopies of documents

iPhone *2
iPod Nano
iPad
iPad Charger
cables *2

Sunglasses

Laptop
laptop charger
Crumpler
laptop case

Headphones * 2
Spare headphones

Battery Charger
3 * spare batteries

Camera bag

Camera 500D
Camera 60D
Camera Charger * 2
Spare battery * 2
SD card adapter

Flash
Cable
Clamp
Filters
Umbrella
Stofen
Velcro strap

Wide angle lens
Zoom lens
18-55 lens
Remote switch
IR remote switch

SD cards:
16 GB
16 GB
8 GB
4 GB

GPS tracker (*2?)

head torches

Juliane’s Time Machine
lens case?

Archive video Hard Drive
Archive Africa Hard Drive

Cable for hard drive * 2

Stick drive

Gorrilapod

GoPro Camcorder
GoPro Screen
Camcorder waterproof cases
Tripod Adapter

Binoculars

Pens
Clear plastic bag
Toothbrush * 2
Toothpaste * 2
Razors * 5

Shower Gel * 2

Suncream * 2
After sun

Toilet rolls

Lighter
Washing line

first aid kit
pills
wipes
tissues
quetips

mosquito spray * 4
insect repellant

nail kit
sewing kit
condoms
knife

knives and forks
sporks
cups
bowls
plates
water bottles

sleeping bag
sleeping bag
sheet

pillow
pillow

Luke Clothes:

sandals
boots

scarf
waterproof coat
Warm hat
Fleece

sun cap
sun hat

Swimwear

light jacket coat

black trousers
greybrown trousers

socks * 5
pants * all!
tshirts * 7
short sleeved shirt 2
shorts 3

Wear:
green trousers
black jumper
tshirt
belt

Juliane’s Clothes:

sun hat
sun cap
sandals
sleeping pants
black shorts
sleeveless shirts green * 2
sleeveless shirts white * 2
sleeveless shirt black
sleeveless shirt blue * 3
tshirts white * 3
long sleeved shirt green
thin cardigan
blouse white * 2
blouse green
blouse patterned

blue scarf
pants white cotton * 4
pants white * ?

bikini
sports bra

small socks * 8
longer socks * 3

shorts sandy
trousers (3 quarters)
shorts denim
jeans
linen trousers black

black dress
grey dress
black and white dress
linen skirt black

trainers
walking shoes

fleece

“It wants a profile picture.”

“Use the same one as your Facebook profile, as you look cool with the camera in your hand and the way it covers half your face makes you look mysterious.”

“Really?”

“Hell yeah!”

“What should I put in the ‘I’m really good at’ section?”

“Put the video of you juggling in different places around the world. Girls will love that!”

“Really? I thought it was a bit nerdy.”

“You have no idea, do you?”

“Hmmm, okay. Six things I can’t live without? Well, my laptop, obviously…”

“Don’t say your laptop!”

“Why not? It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought, and without it I wouldn’t be filling out this stupid OkCupid profile… How about ‘I can’t live without hugs’?”

“Perfect.”

“I was joking.”

“Hugs is cute.”

“You should message me if… You want an interesting adventure.”

“I’d message you.”

“The truth is I’m looking for sex.”

“If the girl is also looking for sex, she’ll interpret that as interesting and adventurous sex.”

I just watched a Beatles tribute show by a band called The Beatles Experience. It’s hard to judge how good a tribute band is when they are playing such music. Even the worst karaoke performer can get the everyone joining in with Hey Jude, and it takes really bad audience not to at least shake it up a little when they hear the a band knock out twist and shout. I don’t want to compare The Beatles Experience to a karaoke set, they were way better than that, but there’s no doubt that it’s the material that is the real strength, and the real attraction.

So that made me think: what would be the “greatest” tribute band be like? Would dressing and looking exactly like the Beatles do the job? How about playing every song note for note, perfectly?

Here’s my outline for the ultimate Beatle’s tribute experiment. I’ll call them the Real Time Beatles.

• Get four guys, all about the right age.
• Make sure they don’t know too much about the Beatles, but immerse them in popular music from the 50’s.
• Make them play together in a club in Germany for years, but only other people’s music.
• After enough time, let them learn and play only the very first Beatles songs.
• We know when the Beatles wrote each song, and when they performed them for the first time. Only let the Real Time Beatles learn those songs after the correct time has passed since the previous song.
• Over the years, they learn and perform only the songs that the Beatles knew and played at the same point in the band’s career.
• I’m sure we have the set lists from many of their concerts, so the Real Time Beatles can play those same sets on the correct dates.
• They have to change their hair and clothes to fit with photos of the band at the time.

One of the main reasons the Beatles stopped doing live shows was that they became too popular. The screaming fans would scream so loud they couldn’t hear the music, and the band on stage couldn’t hear the music either. But the Real Time Beatles won’t have that same problem! They can keep doing live shows, but incorporate the material from the Beatles albums that was never performed live.

And then, at the moment that the Real Time Beatles reach the point where the Beatles split up, keep the band together. At this point they will be some of the most knowledgable authorities on the Beatles music, having learned every song in order, and progressed as musicians to fit the mould these songs have provided. We can then feed in music from the solo careers of the Beatles.

At this point they can start writing and performing their own music.

Will the music be any good? No idea. The experiment is one of nurture over nature, with four random musicians who live the same musical lives as the most popular band of the century. It would be a fake continuation of a band who played the same music, but without the fame and accolades. At least the music would be interesting. Right?

Mainly I like the idea of the commercial interest in the Real Time Beatles. If you book them in the first year, the set list would be limited. “Can you do this and this and this?” “No, sorry, we’ve not released Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band yet.”

And if you want to book them for a certain date, they would turn up with a pre-selected set list and outfits. “Yeah, sorry, I know you want us to do these other songs, but this is the date of our Mets stadium show.”

“Look, we’d love to a gig next weekend, but we’ll have to do it without George. He’s going to be unconscious in a drugs haze.”

“If you want us to perform Long and Winding Road, you’re going to have to book us again in three years.”

“The Frog Song? Are you high?”

It would be cool to set up some famous photo shoots too. A recreation of Sargent Pepper’s album cover, but with different famous people as cardboard cutouts. Abbey Road zebra crossing walk. That would be fun.

Or maybe all this is only interesting in my head. Such things normally are.

I love to read comments and feedback about my blog posts. Please email me, I reply to every message: luke@juggler.net

In 2009 I listened to every bit of music in my iTunes library as sorted by track name, and in 2010 I did listened to the entire thing as sorted by by track length, and again in 2010 sorted by play number.

It’s a fun little project, and makes me take notice of the music I have in new ways. Over the past month I’ve listened to every track as sorted by date added.

What did I find out this time?

Of the four ways I’ve listened to all my music in order, it was the one that had the greatest effect. Listening as sorted by track length told me a lot about the kind of music I own, but by date added it told me a lot about me. Changing tastes of music is only the smallest part of it.

Mostly it’s about the triggered memories. This is a great way to relive your life through your memories, in order, as triggered by “Oh shit, I remember buying this!” or “I know where I was the first time I heard this track, and ripped it from that CD!”

If I looked through a diary, that would work, but most people don’t keep diaries. But everyone has a collection of music. Listening by track name is just a whimsical thing that only someone like me would do, someone who has almost unlimited free time, gives in to random impulses, and bloody-minded enough to stick with long term projects.

I think everyone should listen to all their music as sorted by date. Then again, maybe most people aren’t like me, and might not get anything from it at all. Who knows.

Some more notes:

• When you sort all the tracks by date added, if an album has the same time and date (to the nearest minute) it then lists the tracks alphabetically by name, not by track number. I’m not sure why, but it meant that I listened to albums in an unusual order. Unless, of course, the track names were “Track 1, track 2, track 3, etc.”
• The first track, for the second time, was “5 seconds of almost silence”, a track I use to separate music track on CDs for my show. It’s also the shortest track in my library, as well as the most played.
• Next is a whole load of music that I copied direct from my old PC onto my macbook when I bought it back in February of 2008. This includes 311 songs, 20.2 hours, or 1.5 GB of music. A lot of this is from my collection of CDs from the previous decade, but from CDs I didn’t still have with me physically.
  What did this mean? This batch included a LOT of memories. Stuff I’d downloaded for specific shows, CDs I’d borrowed from friends at university and ripped, some music from Pola’s computer, and lots more.
• The next main batch of music is from a few weeks later, when I wanted to have the titles of every track listed, rather than just “Track 1, track 2, track 3, etc.” Instead of doing anything manually, I just ripped all the CDs I had, let iTunes grab the track titles from the internet automagically, and deleted the previous files.
  This included a lot more music that Pola and I had bought together, or that we both liked so that we’d carry the music with us on road trips in a CD carrying case. Good times!
• Once I had an iTunes account, much of the music I bought was through that, and not CD. A lot of these were impulse buys, or buying new albums from favourite artists. Also there are many EPs and albums that I bought after hearing the music on a YouTube video, and iTunes is usually the easiest way to grab it.
• At the EJC in 2008 I organized the EJC Open Stages, and put in lots of CDs to rip for the artists appearing on stage. Also someone gave me a USB thumb drive with a big collection of ska music and other stuff, and it somehow got imported into my iTunes library. I liked most of it, so kept most of it.
• Some CDs that someone gave to me. Those were ripped.
• Some music from musicians I work with on cruise ships. Well, to be honest the style of music normally isn’t to my taste, so I don’t keep the music in rotation, except for a very few artists.
• Oh look, all of Jonathan Coulton’s Thing A Week music. Mixed memories of my own attempt to make a song a week for a just six weeks, rather than for an entire year.
• And then quite a few albums bought at the suggestion of various girlfriends and friends who are girls over the last two years. Lots of memories there too!
• Albums and EPs by musicians I met on my vacation in New York in September 2010. Those guys were all super talented! I still buy their new music as and when it comes out.
• Various nostalgia trip! Downloading albums I owned on CD, cassette tape or (I’m not kidding here) minidisc when I was 20, but since lost. Groove Armada are still cool, right? Basement Jax? Air’s Moon Safari? Jamiroqui? Love it! That reminds me, I should find some Orbital and Leftfield again some time. This way I can get double memories, of when I first listened to that music, and also when I buy it again 10 (or more) years later.

Whew! A lot of memories. That will do for now.

But what next? Listen to the whole iTunes library as sorted by… release date? That might work, but only three quarters of my library has the year of release. Beats per minute? Only a few dozen tracks have that info attached. Genre? Album? Artist? Those are a bit boring. No matter, I’ll think of something.

The inspiration (way more entertaining due to funny animations):

“Three minute hero is the new underground open stage in berlin, right on the platform of the ubahnhof schönleinstrasse.

Songs, breakdance, stand up comedy, performance whatever you want to show you can!! only limitations are the three minutes between trains arriving at the station.

Wanna show? Simply come up and you get a slot in the show. Just passing through? Well, you can always take the next train.”

Hosted by Duo Desolato.

Guitar and singing!

Hint: nobody asked permission to do this! How long could it keep going until security turns up?

Quick! Make it look as though nothing special is happening!

Magic!

Juggling!

I performed some music and juggling, but of course I don’t have photos of me.

Dancing!

Drunken singing!

Party!

Oh shit! Security! Length of show: one hour and 30 minutes.

The BVG security allowed one final act. Andy Snatch closed the show with a club routine.

Later at the Another Country English Bookshop, playing Jenga.

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