Penny for Your Easter.

As if talking insentiently about how long I can hold a button down isn't torture enough for my Facebook friends, I do somewhat irregular cartoon called Penny for Your Thoughts starring Cajun Bon Vivant Penelope Bell.

The usual format I have settle on is a news broadcast with host Ravy as the straight man and Penny as the sidekick wiseacre. Though when I have (steal) a good idea I go outside the norm(?) do a standard(?) Ravy type comic.

For the fan of this blog. Here's a behind the scenes look.

 

You should see the spelling suggestions for Facebook and blog.

All New C64: Is it worth it?

My Mom was the real computer geek until I bought my first $1000 solitaire machine. She actually used the C64 as a computation device. She was on it all the time doing newsletters for the library and going online with Q-Link. She was downloading games and music back in the late '80's early '90's.

Me? I was just playing video games. Some of which were actually better than what was on the NES. Plus Commodore games were a helluva lot cheaper than the NES carts.

When words comes by me that the C64 is making a comeback, memories came flooding back.

Then reality set in. First off one of the major selling points is playing all the old games. Whoopee. You can do that for free now. As buggy as the emulators are, I've managed to get most of the games I want to play. Then reading further it comes with some games. Probably a select few of ones nobody liked and you probably can't add in those downloaded roms.

Then there's the C64 OS. Which is a Linux distro. What we need, another version of Linux. (A friend of mine was complaining about all the variations of Windows. One word: Linux.) On top of that when you order your very own C64, it doesn't come with the C64 OS. It's not ready. Instead you get some weird version of Ubuntu.

Now the coop de gracie: an Atom Processor. You have got to be kidding me? No? You're not? Really? Atom? That has to go. So I look up the motherboard to see what other processors will fit into it. I can't find out. It appears that the CPU is soldered into the motherboard! If I get a new C64, I'm going to have to replace the Motherboard too?

You see, I want the All New C64 not just for the nostalgia or the nerd cred. I need a compact test bed with off the shelf parts. A laptop doesn't fit this because the drivers needed are proprietary. The ones that run the motherboard and video card. I'm currently using a Compaq that I rescued from the trash. I can't get XP drivers for it, and the Win 7 drivers I don't think are working. Vista? They work, weirdly enough.

I need to be able to throw Windows 7 Ultimate 64 on the C64. Can it handle it with an Atom Processor? I'm having enough trouble with an AMD 64 Athlon X2.

Looking at the price guide, I see you can purchase a barebones system for $250. It doesn't come with the motherboard and Atom I was just bitching about. It also doesn't apparently come with a power supply. I can get all that for an additional $350.

While I wouldn't mind buying the fine craftsmanship that went into building the case, this isn't 1982. We expect more for our dollar in today's terms. I just don't know if it is worth it.



(So, how much did I spend on Rosenkreuzstilette again?)

Ravy 2011 Pg 17.

Click Here.

In a city of hundreds of thousands, Op would have to accidentally hit on the one woman that would be the absolute worst choice to sleep with Toni.

You Highness.

Rated R
(They got that one right finally.)

After years of fomenting jealousy at his older brother's exploits, Prince Thadeous is sent much against his will to help re-rescue his brother's bride after she is re-kidnapped by the evil wizard. Along the way Thadeous grows from princely playboy to all around hero.

So I got my wish, lots of boobies. Generally far away shoots, covered in mud. But plenty of close ups of severed wiener. Just what is this Hollywood obsession? Or more precisely I'm worried about me. How in the hell do I keep finding this stuff? This movie overall was not fun to watch. The only real laughs I had was at the very end with Thadeous's line to Isabel “I was just about to finish thinking of you.”

Was this supposed to be a serious movie with bits of comedy? Well, it fell far short of Princess Bride. Was it a satire on the fantasy genre? It fell far, faaaaaaaaaaaaar short of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. (There was a shout out to the Great Mel Brooks movie at the very end.)

Dollar theater for Your Heinous.



For those of you that must obviously be gluttons for punishment and stuck around, here's me adding to the review, putting it in this entry and not making a “new” post just one minute shy of this one.

I found the part where Prince Fabious's knights betraying our heroes and siding with the evil wizard very ingenious and really caught me off guard. And the fight with the hydra was kind of unique in that the hydra was actually what's his name hand in a cauldron. When one of the snakes heads was cut off, so was the bad guy's fingers. You'd figure after one was cut off, he'd stop. But no, like any bad guy he just can't help himself and lose it all.

I did find mistake: The Isabel swim scene. At one point she was in the water, then she was out of the water, dry, and then diving in. Natalie Portman in a metal thong. (Oh my!)

  By the way, this is from the trailer. In the movie she wasn't wearing this much.

Academia Waltz: Decades ahead of its time.

If you think I've I'm a fan of Rosenkreuzstilette, Bloom County is even worse for me. I got all the books, even buying the Bloom County Library editions. I got a paid subscription that delivers comics to my email, and even read it daily from a Seattle newspaper.

Now a while ago I noted that the Seattle edition had entered 1989. Isn't that when Bloom County quit? So I look it up and what do I find? Academia Waltz, the precursor. It originally ran from 1978 to 1979. It's not really all that different, from Bloom County, just has a tendency to have more raunchier nuances.

I timed it perfectly, because one of the first comics I saw was this one:

Making fun of sprite comics before anybody could possible know what one was.

Ravy 2011 Pg 16.

Click Here, and Here, and Here.

Women, can't live with them, can't have great menage a trois with out at least two.

I want boobies, lots of them, and I want them NOW!

This rant is a long time in coming. Since about 2009. Back then I kept going to movies not expecting to have wiener shoved in my face all the time. Even in the Hangover live on screen. These guys are in Vegas for a bachelor party and we the audience get no naked females? At least Watchmen had some boobage, for about five seconds. That's why I loved Hot Tub Time Machine so much: breasts on the big screen.

Now in 2010 I picked up season nine of Family Guy and was quite shocked to see uncensored Peter's peter. What was the message being sent here? What social commentary needed to put out? Can anybody tell what episode we saw Lois or some other female cast member topless? When Peter said to the cutout of Kathy Ireland that he is "out" under the table, that was funny, showing it wasn't.

Recently on American Dad the did the similar joke. First they used a word for wiener that I hadn't seen since a 1980's issue of Hustler Humor. Then they actually showed Stan's wiener falling out of his pajamas. Censored of course, but on the DVD it won't be. What was the joke? That Stan stood there until Francine put it back in his pants, just to fall out again?

Ya'll probably wondering what's my beef? This stuff is many years apart. What set me off?

I finished the second collection and thought that while it was a bit schizophrenic and riddled with ADD, it was a big improvement over the first set. It seemed as if the writer was throwing a bunch of ideas at once in the hopes that the Inukami manga would get picked up as an ongoing series and could fully explore them for many years down the road. I also noted the fact that nudity was next to nothing or just barely out of shot.

"Hold it, isn't Inukami is all about female nudity? Why do you have a problem with that? So far you've been whining and moaning and bitching about wiener." Inukami manga is rated 16 and up, it should have been rated 18 and up. Now I fully reorganize that Japanese sensibilities and American sensibilities are very different. I think that nudity of any kind has no place in comic books and cartoons that can be easily purchased by kids or unsuspecting parents perusing the graphic novel sections of Hastings or Barnes and Noble.

I gots no problem with Hustler Humor or Penthouse or Playboy. I know what I'm getting into. After watching that episode of American Dad I was pissed at what slapped me upside the head the next day. Inukami the anime.

(Editor's Note: As of this writing I am about 20 episodes in.)

The writers decided that what was needed to improve this series was as much wiener as possible and as much male erotica as can be shoved in our faces. If I hadn't read the manga first, I would have quit not even half way through episode one.

I accept that the Japanese are much more open than we Americans about about what we call adult material being seen by a younger audience. There was no warning about what happened in episode one. I was expecting lots of nudity of Yoko and even Nadeshiko, but KEITA!? And almost every other guy in that episode!? What audience are they going for here? Obviously not those of us that read the manga.

Granted, the nudity was "cleverly" hidden by an elephant's head. That got really irritating after more than a minute. If they were really clever, they should have used an elephant's butt to cover up the butt shots. It wasn't just once or twice, it has been through out the whole series. Even ruining a boring episode. The one with the fight on the blimp with the shinigami. I found it boring because it was almost just like the manga. The writers must have been thinking "What can we do to spice it up? We can have magic frogs shot from Keita's groin area!"

Like I said they covered up the naughty bits. I have to admit they engaged in a strange bit of self censorship. It was strange in how they implemented it. At no time did we ever see any female nudity. If the writers were clever enough to use an elephant's head to cover up the guys, couldn't they have used a cat's head to cover up the woman's lower fun part? Or watermelons to cover up their boobs? In the panty thief episode, the main villain eyeballed Tomohane and said no, but was looking forward to it down the road. Thank you for NOT stealing the little girl's underwear. Later on in the ranking episode it was decided to change from the manga. They had Imari and Sayoka just stand there in their normal outfits instead of the sailor suits lifting up their skirts showing off their gym shorts.

However for some strange reason it was perfectly alright to have a little boy naked and uncensored.

I just spent this entire time trashing the anime of Inukami. Let me tell you what was done right. When they stuck to the manga and/or explored side stories or throw away bits from the manga the writers of the anime had a 90% success rate. The story of Kayano and Hake was top notch. The date between Keita and Gokyoya gave a purpose to a character that really had none to begin with. The fight between Yoko and Kaoru's Pack was superbly animated and the expressions on Yoko's face made me believe that she was out for blood. Also she kept her clothes on.

Now my final question: I was asking myself this by episode 2, why is Yoko's shirt still on?

Addendum to the above rant.

After writing and posting all that, I realized there was a little more I wanted to talk about and completely forgot to. I could just go in and edit, but I want to try an experiment. We'll find out if it worked in a few minutes.

In discussing nudity in American animation I wanted to talk about other examples and not just pick on Seth MacFarlane. I'm not talking cable channels or film festivals, mainstream studios have subtly done nudity since the at least before the 1920's. (There was a time not so long ago when you could say things like "The 20s" and people would know that you meant the "1920s." Now you actually have to say the 1920s.) Felix the Cat came up in my research. He came out about 1919. No clothes what so ever. This goes on with Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers (and their sister Dot,) and of course Disney.

When looking at this I realize the major difference between Family Guy and Rescue Rangers: they're animals. For some reason it is perfectly alright to have Chip and Dale running around with shirts and no pants on; but not have Peter hanging out around town. I think because off the fact that Baloo and Kit are anthropomorphic bears make the fact that they have no pants on acceptable to the general population. If it's a human character, instant no-go. I don't really have a problem with it, I'm not going to go all fundamentalist on you all, (I believe that there isn't much mental in fundamentalist.) But, I will have a little fun pointing out the inconsistencies: Rebecca Cunningham and Gadget wore pants and coveralls, oddly though Launchpad had pants but not Gosalyn.

The many decades of having cartoon animals in human form eventually allowed today's media to push the envelope.

Another good thing I wanted to say about the Inukami Anime is that the writers did a good job with subtle touches of character. I caught this one right away: Keita left Igusa alone and teased most everybody else. Most notably Tayune. While not explicitly stated why in the anime, but from reading the manga and just a wild guess at what the character bible may say; that since Igusa is scared to death of men she can't properly defend herself from Keita's lechery. Tayune can beat the crap out of Keita, so he picks on her all the time, and does get his ass beat all the time.

One final point: Can any body think of an instance where Francine and Hayley are topless, facing the camera, and uncensored?

It Worked.

What worked?

When I first started this blog I was pretty damn ignorant with the more intricate details of the settings, and I would have to agree with most that I still am. I thought I was always stuck with the time and date given by Blogger. Not so. After a year I tried scheduling a post a day out and it worked. Then I tried a week out and I was ecstatic.

One day I was having to fix some older posts because I messed up some information. When I reposted them the were in the original location and not up front. I found it interesting because it doesn't junk up my blog with out of date posts and new posts.
Well, no more than usual.

I've noticed that when people fix a post on their blogs they'll usually post a new entry saying they screwed up and not even fix the old post or even add in an annotation about it. The problem with that is what if someone finds that old page with bad information and not the new one with the good?

This week after posting the above rant about Inukami I realized later that I had forgotten a lot. I could just easily re-edit the post, or do what everybody else does and make a new post that would would appear above the old one.

I decided on an experiment: Could I possible make the post with the additional blubberings appear below the original? Turns out I could.

Not a very useful trick. But as usual I found it interesting.

Ravy 2011 Pg 15.

Click Here.

Just like the mall: One bathroom located at the other end up the damn stairs.

Ravy 2011 Pg 14.

Click Here.

Bob Kevoian said it best: "This room has a one wiener limit!"

I am Number 4.

A world has been destroyed and the last few survivors and their guardians are on Earth. Three so far have been killed and we start the movie with fourth one on the list.

Graphically this movie was pretty good. That's about it. I was seriously yawning throughout, I almost got up and left. I could not get into these characters at all. It was so predictable: main guy falls in love with Earth girl, they have to part, old wise dude dies, alien babe realizes powers comes to rescue at just the right time, nerdy kid falls in love with alien babe and gets continuously rebuffed, kid's dad helped the aliens, and school bully turns good.

You're not missing much. There are much better aliens hiding on Earth shows than this. Like all those episodes of Star Trek.

A couple of little points: throwing a license plate on a fire does nothing to hide the pressed lettering, also that fire wasn't anywhere near hot enough to melt out the center. I know, I've actually done this many years ago. Of course the evil aliens sniff the burned up plate and track them right down. Amazing how fast they found the good guys. Took them years to find Number One, then Number Two, and Number Three. They get to our heroes in the matter of days.

Why are the bad guys taking them in order? What if number 123,456,789 is right next to them?
"Soon, it will be your turn. As soon as we track down 4 through 123,456,788."

I am Number Snore is best viewed (if you don't have anywhere else to be on a Friday night) on a movie channel.