August 13th
Today is National Filet Mignon Day so I'm going to explain what Filet Mignon is. Naturally I am going to be talking about meat butchering so if you don't want to hear about that, just skip today and read about Garbage Boy. And I'm going to go over this really basically for anyone who doesn't know anything about meat.
So when they are cutting up a meat cow, butchers are very precise about how they cut the beef because the flavor and texture of the meat is different all over the cow. In particular, the loins of the cow have an excellent texture and flavor, but they also don't take up as much of the cow as other cuts. The smallest, most tender tip of the tenderloin is the Filet Mignon. Because of how little of the cow it makes up and its quality, Filet Mignon is usually the most expensive cut of meat from a cow. And that's why food people make such a big deal about it, it's widely considered the best cut of beef you can get.
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August 14th
Today is another Kablam day, so let's talk about Garbage Boy. Garbage Boy is a short about A young sanitation worker with the amazing creative ability to make his own pet from garbage. The short has a great 2.5D collage animation style I think looks great.
Garbage Boy was created by Stephen Kroninger, an artist known for his collage art. Kroninger had worked on a number of books for both children and adults, including illustrating the Barbara Park book "Psssst! It's Me . . . The Bogeyman". Most of his artwork today is political in nature, usually making fun of unpopular political figures not worth discussing here.
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August 15th
Today is the anniversary of the Calorific Rays album "Cold Call Hotline". The album is a rock opera told alongside illustrations from cartoonist Patrick Chipper the linear notes. The album tells the story of a paranormal investigator looking into a mysterious phone line, discovering both love and a surreal mystery on the other end, only to end on an ambiguous and bittersweet note.
This is probably the C-Rays best concept album, with its story being in that weird gray area between oddly specific and very vague that leads to a lot of nerds arguing about what it all means. Personally (and this is spoilers), I think Samantha and The Line ended up on the run together while Jordyn died.
[ASSOCIATE NOTE: Personally I still think none of them died, they just all stopped being real people, but Jordyn's boss couldn't hurt them anymore and that's what matters.]
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August 16th
Today is a Kablam day, so Let's talk freaks. Little Freaks is a cartoon about four kids with weird mutations who have to defend fashion from a supervillain. The best way I can describe this short is that it feels like a TV-7 Venture Bros D-plot.
I want to start by saying this is not the Joe Russo of the Russo brothers. This Joe Russo worked on Green Jelly's "Cereal Killer", unless that's a third Joe Russo. Aaron White has only worked on one other thing and it was a music video that was also a collaboration with Russo. This music video was for "Tu Veneno" the titular track off of Natalia Oreiro's second album. From what I can tell, neither worked on anything in the entertainment industry outside of this short and their one music video.
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August 17th
Today is a Grab bag day, provided by Nat.
In Fresno California, 2007, a man named José was woken up by his dogs barking wildly. He checked his security camera and was shocked and frightened to see an unexplainable pair of creatures on the street. These new cryptids, who came to be known as the Fresno Nightcrawlers, appeared as quick-moving, long legged beings with almost no defining features at all. All his attempts to find out what these things could be were foiled, and no one has had any better luck either.
The Nightcrawlers are a fascinating case of a modern day cryptid that doesn’t have any link to a historical story. You can directly trace everything, from who originally saw it to exactly how people tried to figure out if it could be faked. And the original video is so weirdly haunting to me- The Nightcrawlers' movements are eerie alone, but how they look is so strange too! Many people have guessed they’re aliens because of that unusual look. Fresno isn’t a place with a lot of forested/empty areas like a lot of other cryptid places have, so it’s curious to think where these guys may have come from… We may never know!! I hope that one day they see fit to trot on by someone’s window again!
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August 18th
Today I'm talking about another Kablam short, this time it's "Emmett Freedy". This toon is about an ugly child who is caught in the middle of a lice scare after he gets cereal in his hair. The whole short is in a deranged stop motion style that I have mixed feelings on. like it looks ugly and I don't know if I like it anyway or not.
Tom Megalis is a Greek American animator and voice actor. "Emmett Freedy" is his best known work, but he has also worked as a radio show host in Cleveland and voiced an old goat on two 90's episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He hasn't worked on any major projects outside of live action indie movies since his time on Kablam, but I did however find his YouTube and he re-animated a bit of "Emmett" in a traditional/digital style.
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August 19th
Today is National Sandcastle and Sculpture Day, and sand sculpting is definitely a craft worth a holiday. I'm far from an expert or a professional or even a proper critic, but In my mind the point of sand sculpture is to show up at a beach with whatever tools you need, whether a plastic tool kit or actual digging machines depending on your scale, and making art with whatever sand and other materials are on the beach. That's being said, with a bit of practice and skill it's possible for people to do incredible things in the sand.
I remember when I was younger, enjoying a beach holiday and there was a lovely dolphin sculpture on the beach. I don't know who made it because there was no artist or signage present, but it was beautiful and I think about it a lot. Also I realized I haven't been swimming in years and I need to get a new wetsuit.