Boring Old Raphael

"Standing Ovations are now de rigeur in the theater. They used to be rare, awarded only to..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:30:06 -0700

“Standing Ovations are now de rigeur in the theater. They used to be rare, awarded only to extraordinary performances. In straight (non-musical) plays, especially, the highest compliment audiences could pay would be to sit pinned in their seats by the power of the experience they’d had. I can remember a number of occasions when not only did I not want to get out of my seat, I didn’t want to talk to anyone until I had shaken off the effect of what I had seen. No longer — you don’t get the chance. The audience is on its feet even before the first bow, no matter how limp or shallow the piece. They are, of course, giving the ovation to themselves for having been part of a participatory experience rather than a passive one, and for having spent their time and money on it. They’re reminding themselves that they’re alive. Which is not a bad thing, but which makes the extraordinary ordinary.”

- Stephen Sondheim, not a bad thing

sowhatmary: relate v. much I’M ON THE INTERNET.

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:45:33 -0700

sowhatmary:

relate v. much

I’M ON THE INTERNET.

Oh yeah, this looks legitimate. Discarded early drafts of this...

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:24:30 -0700

Oh yeah, this looks legitimate.

Discarded early drafts of this sign:

FREE CANDY!
Building at Corner
<—————————

CHEAP MAMMOGRAMS:
Building at Corner
<—————————

SPEED-DATING
Single? Unattached?
No one who will miss you should something terrible happen?
Building at Corner
<—————————

Meeting For The NO KIDNAPPING Club
Are You A Pretty Lady Who Hates Kidnapping And Wants To Discuss It With Other Likeminded Individuals?
Us too!
We Are Definitely Not Kidnappers!
Come To Our Meeting And We Will Totally Not Kidnap You!
(No Cops)
Building at Corner
<—————————

KNOW HOW TO MAKE A PROFESSIONAL-LOOKING NOT CREEPY SIGN?
We could use your services
Please bring a resume and portfolio to the
Building at Corner
<—————————

Auditions:
Female Singers With Nice Feet
Must Have “Cute” “Petite” Feet
Must Not Get Weird About Us Taking Pictures Of Your Feet
Bring Sheet Music (Accompanist Provided)
Building at Corner
<—————————

HEY LADY SINGERS!
Come Into This Dark Mysterious Building, Why Not
Worst-Case Scenario The Endless Cable News Coverage Of Your Almost Certain Grisly Abduction And Gruesome Dismemberment Followed By Lengthy Trial, Interviews With Cops, Friends, Loved Ones, Lifetime Movie, Book Deals For All, Early Home Movies Taken “In Happier Times,” Etc., Etc., May Bring Some Much-Needed Exposure To Your Fledgeling Musical Career
Building at Corner
<—————————

Look,

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:18:48 -0700

there is a lot to like about the wikipedia entry for the Infinite Monkey Theorem, including the long explanation of the mathematical definition of “almost surely” and the random text generator that, after “2,737,850 million billion billion billion monkey-years,” spat out the partial Henry IV, Part 2 line:

RUMOUR. Open your ears; 9r”5j5&?OWTY Z0d

But my favorite part of all has to be this:

In 2003, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes Crested Macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon in England for a month, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website.

Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five pages consisting largely of the letter S, the lead male began by bashing the keyboard with a stone, and the monkeys continued by urinating and defecating on it. Phillips said that the artist-funded project was primarily performance art, and they had learned “an awful lot” from it.

HAPPY SMOTHERS DAY! (Sing us into the week, Esther Ofarim and...

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:00:29 -0700

HAPPY SMOTHERS DAY!

(Sing us into the week, Esther Ofarim and the Smothers Brothers!)

“It’s almost like women are still only getting a foothold in a...

Thu, 09 May 2013 06:37:53 -0700

“It’s almost like women are still only getting a foothold in a lot of societal niches that men take for granted. But they get that one scoop of ice cream from the endless ice cream pump and all some men can see is that there is one less scoop for them. And until someone comes up with something better, Feminism is the only game in town really fighting the fight to figure this shit out. If [Men’s Rights Activists] want to take up that mantle, they had best start weeding out the trolls and misogynists before they ask anyone to take them seriously. Because they’ve got more of the latter than the former. I’m all for addressing issues that men face. I am a man, of course. But blaming women and feminism for this shit is just as disingenuous as white people blaming the civil rights movement for removing their special water fountains, whites only housing and- gasp!- attempting to address the institutional inequality in hiring and college admissions. Won’t someone think of the poor white folk?

I would argue that this video DOES address men’s issues. Men are hurting themselves with this reactionary, angry, fearful shit. Let’s start with that, maybe, and work up to the portrayal of dudes in cleaning product commercials.”

textsdrugsandrocknroll: I love this. THIS IS WATER - By David...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:58:10 -0700

textsdrugsandrocknroll:

I love this. THIS IS WATER - By David Foster Wallace (by The Glossary)

This is wonderful.

“I would never say that phrase, but I’d defend to...

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:03:00 -0700

“I would never say that phrase, but I’d defend to the death someone else’s right to say it.” - me, apparently.

I’ve been watching a lot of old Betty Boop cartoons. I...

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:47:07 -0700

I’ve been watching a lot of old Betty Boop cartoons. I love how, for lack of a better word, cartoony they are. Faces and hands suddenly appear on inanimate objects, body parts on people morph into metaphors. It really feels like the Fleischer brothers are making up the rules as they go, which is kind of a thrilling thing to watch.

The highlight of this particular cartoon is Cab Calloway as Ko Ko the Clown singing the Saint James Infirmary Blues in the middle of everything for no reason. The animation number is rotoscoped over actual footage of Cab Calloway dancing, and the mix of real movements and surrealist animation gives the whole thing an uneasy dream-like quality.

Dance us into the week, Ko Ko the Clown!

Just to say that I'm a massive fan and your ending to the film was beautiful- you tied it up so well! Was there an idea behind Adam in the space suit besides the "adventure-temptation"?

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:50:38 -0700

Nope, you pretty much got it.

(MILD SPOILERS AHEAD)

I wanted to explore how real people would be affected by living in this very unreal world. I think it turned out pretty cool — as if the characters from Chioke’s section somehow wound up in Dave’s section and didn’t know how to get out of it, but of course I didn’t know anything about what Chioke wrote at the time.

I got the character list like everybody else, but we didn’t get the character’s relationships to each other, their ages, or their genders (for the characters with gender-neutral or foreign-sounding names like Adayit, Yustus, or Police Officer 2). I had to take some real stabs in the dark, and luckily I guessed a lot of things right. I don’t think my section would have landed nearly as well if it didn’t have Chioke’s section as a foundation, but then again, if Chioke’s section had been different, everything else would have been different — who knows what kind of pages I would have gotten? As open-ended as this process was (or maybe because of that), it’s weirdly hard to imagine any other possible version of this movie.

Also, thanks! Glad you liked it!

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

Also, PS, for everybody who’s getting sick of all these answer posts clogging up your feed all day, I’m only planning on doing this today, and maybe answering a few leftover questions tomorrow, and then this blog will return to its regular semi-weekly schedule. SO HANG IN THERE, THANKS.

The music in this film is great! What was the composition process like?

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:08:00 -0700

That’s a question for Jesse Novak!

But I agree!

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

also, i am probably going to buy the download of the exquisite corpse project because i was a huge OE fan back in the day and it looks good but i'm a bit hesitant because i'm a poor college student and for $5 i could get 80 oz. of OE instead so try and push me off the fence

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:59:08 -0700

Oh man, I totally remember being in college and five dollars being a lot of money. I think you’re going to like this movie, though, and I think you’re going to be glad you spent five dollars on it, because the money is going to cool people who want to make more stuff that you will like (us and Splitsider), as opposed to just, you know, wherever.

In addition to the entertainment of watching our movie, and the ability to watch it over and over again as many times as you like and share it with all your friends, you also get to feel like you’re part of something. The same way you felt when you used to watch our online videos, that you knew about something cool that not everyone knew about, that’s how you’re going to feel when you watch our movie. When Caleb Bark is a big star, you get to say, I bought his first movie for five dollars before anyone knew who he was.

Still, though, five dollars, man. I get it.

SO, here’s what I’m going to offer you. I want you to buy our movie for five dollars. It’s super easy; you can do it right here. If, after you watch the movie, you think, “Man, I really would have preferred the two forties,” let me know and I will paypal you ten dollars. That’s twice your money back, enough to buy four forties.

I am dead serious about this offer and it is open to everyone (let’s say, for the next week). If you buy our movie for five dollars and then after you watch it, wish you hadn’t, let me know, and I will give you ten dollars. I’m happy to make that offer if it gets you off that fence, and I’m happy to pay that money to anyone who doesn’t like it, because I appreciate people trying things outside their comfort zones.

That being said, I think you’re going to like it.

I think it’s worth five dollars.

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

what are your favorite olde english sketches looking back, also which one do you think you contributed the most to?

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:42:44 -0700

Um, I guess the sketches I contributed the most to were Peanut Butter’s Birthday and the two Boxer vs. Raptor sketches, where I literally did everything, without even telling the other guys I was making a sketch.

Those sketches aren’t very good though. Pretty much everything I think of as a “good” Raphael-written, Raphael-starring sketch (for example, Totally Crazy, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Michel Gondry) was done through an incredible amount of collaboration with the other OE-members and outside collaborators (like Jesse Novak, who contributed immensely to all three and who also scored our movie), as most of our best sketches were.

The other time I really worked on my own was for Olde English: Rules, a major forerunner to The Exquisite Corpse Project where we put on a show filled with sketches based on assignments and challenges we had given each other. (The one sketch from that show that makes any sense out of the context of that show is Blind Date, which went on to gain some popularity on youtube.)

You can watch a reel we put together based on the show here, and some of the full sketches here. In our Splitsider interview, Ben talked about that show:

What he wrote was terrible, cause how could it not be, but an interesting phenomenon we discovered is that, the audience loved it, even though it was terrible. And from a comedy perspective, that’s fascinating, because usually if you write something bad, it will bomb. If they were to just see the sketch that he wrote, they would hate it. Why wouldn’t they? They would say, why did I just watch that piece of shit? But with the added context of knowing why it was terrible, they could find it funny. They were in on the joke and they liked it. And that was really interesting to us. So this feature was basically an attempt to explore the format, and what effect it has on the audience to share the creative context with them.

As for which sketches are my favorite, I talked about that a little here.

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

Which Olde English sketch do you hate the most/react to the worst?

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:52:00 -0700

I wouldn’t say I hate it, but I am more than a little embarrassed by our Diablo Cody sketch, which I wrote and directed. I loved Juno when I first saw it, and it seemed like something indie and cool we could make fun of for a niche audience, kind of like our Michel Gondry sketch. But by the time the sketch came out, Juno had gotten HUGE and this was just another drop in the tidal wave of the mostly unwarranted (and often pretty ugly) Diablo Cody backlash.

In that light the sketch feels a lot meaner than how any of us meant it. I still love all the twee details our production designer Julia threw in to the background, and there are a few solid jokes here that hold up, but the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I kind of just feel like we were on the wrong side of this one.

That said, working with the insanely talented Jackie Clarke (as Diablo) was a dream, as I had been a fan of hers for years and years and years. I think she had similar misgivings with this sketch at the time about how mean it turned out, but she is so funny in it, if you can somehow pretend that Diablo Cody is not a real person and is instead just a weird goofy character we made up.

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

Is there a possibility of a screening in Canada?

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:08:20 -0700

Anything’s possible! I love Toronto and would love to do a screening there, if we can muster up enough interest. Also, the rest of Canada is probably great too. I’ve heard very nice things about Montreal. Also, your The Newsroom is much better than our The Newsroom, so there’s that. If you want a screening in your own city, you can host one yourself, via our friends at Tugg, eh?

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

What happened to Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out? Will it ever come back?

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:45:00 -0700

Not really on-topic, but okay, I’ll answer.

Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out. was an autobiographical webcomic I wrote from 2006 to 2008, illustrated by the insanely talented Lisa Hanawalt. For a while after the series ended, the full archive remained online at TMOPMO.com, but now if you go there, all you’ll see is an error message.

What happened? Good question! Basically what happened is something happened to the publishing platform I was using but it had been so long since I last used it that I forgot the password to my account with the platform and also I forgot what the platform was and also I forgot the password to the FTP account and also I forgot how to access the FTP account so basically I forgot how to have and maintain a website.

But also I’m kind of glad not to have that stuff still floating around on the internet, because a lot of it is pretty personal and embarrassing. It was a period of my life (and my development as a writer) that I’m glad I went through and I’m glad I documented and I’m glad I shared, with those who were paying attention at the time, but I think it might just be one of those you-had-to-be-there things. I’m a big fan of the concept of ephemeral art, and I think TMOPMO might just be that.

So, to answer your question, no, TMOPMO is never coming back. Maybe you were lucky enough to buy a book when we were selling them (only six dollars!), but if not, well, we’ll always have our memories.

And if you want to know what the Future Me will one day consider too embarrassing and personal,

SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.
ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.

(Oh, P.S., if it’s any comfort to any TMOPMO fans out there, Lisa and I are currently collaborating on a brand new project that’s very exciting and very cool and I can’t wait to tell you all about it when the time is right.)

I'm excited to see you guys in Philly tomorrow! If you're there, will you give me a big hug please? I promise to not get a boner.

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:17:00 -0700

Your boner-free guarantee is very heartening, but I won’t be at the Philly screening. I know Ben and Julia will be there, and probably Chioke and a good chunk of the New York-based crew. I hope you like it!

Also, I’m pimping the LA and Chicago screenings today, because those are the shows I’ll be at, but we have all sorts of possible screenings popping up all over the country, from Boca Raton, FL to Redwood City, CA (my mom is hosting that one). The full list is here, and you can also request a screening in your own city.

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

I saw the movie back when you guys screened it in Austin, and I loved it. Do you know yet when physical copies will be available so I can add it to my collection? And will it be blu-ray/DVD/both?

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:07:00 -0700

There will definitely be a DVD available at some point (which will include even more behind-the-scenes footage as a bonus feature, and possibly the option to just watch the movie without the documentary breaks, if anyone would actually want to see that). I don’t know about blu-ray, but I would guess yes, if there’s enough demand for it. We’ll also be selling other merch, like posters, “Museum Owner” t-shirts, and Wake Up Kings CDs (the t-shirts and posters are already available at our screenings, but at some point everything will be available online). As for the when of it, I don’t know yet, but you can be sure when it happens, I will be blogging about it here until you’re all sick of hearing about it.

ASK ME ABOUT THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT, OR OLDE ENGLISH.
SEE OUR MOVIE, LOS ANGELES.
SEE OUR MOVIE, CHICAGO.
SEE OUR MOVIE, ANYWHERE.

Ask Me Questions About The Exquisite Corpse Project or Olde English

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:52:23 -0700

Ask Me Questions About The Exquisite Corpse Project or Olde English:

Hey! Did you know my comedy group made a movie? Did you know it’s called The Exquisite Corpse Project? Did you know it’s been available to stream and download for the last week? Did you know we have a screening in LA TONIGHT? Did you know we’ll have a screening in Chicago next week, IF we sell enough tickets in the next 24 hours?

Today I will be answering any questions in my askbox about the movie, or about Olde English in general.

Thank you to everyone who’s downloaded the film already or come out to our screenings. People have been saying some very nice things (in just the last week), like:

“a hilarious, touching look at the trials and tribulations of friendship, creativity and collaboration. It’s funny on a ton of levels, from immediate to super-meta. But more than that, it perfectly and genuinely explores the process of working creatively with friends when you’re young and your intense passion is rivaled only by your relative inexperience.”
“really something special. Besides being extremely funny and charming, it speaks volumes about the creative process, collaboration and friendship. The way the documentary aspect mirrors the narrative they wrote is fascinating. The film becomes much more than a silly project, but rather evolves into a statement about human nature and relationships. You definitely haven’t seen anything like it.”
“I feel like The Exquisite Corpse Project taught me something about human nature. Ben’s goal with this project was to reunite old friends who had gone down separate paths in the hopes of rekindling the magic. Alas, it doesn’t quite work out how he expected: people change and so do their relationships. Thematically, it really resonated with me, and that’s not something you find in most comedic films.”
“As an unexpected treat, this documentary approached some questions I’ve been marinading in for the past couple of years: What does it mean to be close to someone? How can one person stay close to another when the two personalities start to evolve into incompatible patterns, to the point of eventually canceling each other out? How do you sustain a relationship when its fundamental properties dictate that it cannot stay the same? I was pleasantly surprised to see the plot of the narrative, in its own peculiar ways, try to answer these questions over and over again. Also the movie’s funny.”
“It’s super funny, but the way the patchwork, this-should-not-work movie at the heart of things rises above insanity and becomes a mirror for the writers’ own feelings on friendship and collaboration is really pretty special. See it!”
“you guys need to see this movie right now. if it’s coming to your town, you must go see it. and if it isn’t, it’s well worth $5!!”

One of my favorite things about seeing the movie with a live audience is the Q&As that follow — when we get to hear back from the audience and answer whatever lingering questions they still have, and I today I want to try to have one of those, in blog form. If you’ve seen the movie and have any questions for me, Raphael, one of the writers, or if you haven’t seen the movie and have any questions, today’s the day to ask! Ask, ask, ask! Also, see the movie, see the movie, see the movie!

booooooom: The life and death of 10,000 red roses. Installation...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:55:39 -0700

booooooom:

The life and death of 10,000 red roses. Installation by Anya Gallaccio.

I kind of feel like I get this, like in a real way, which is so stupid and lame, but I don’t know, man, this makes me feel things, and I know that art is dumb and that feelings are dumb, and that this isn’t really anything really, it’s just a bunch of dumb dead flowers in a big dumb room, but I’ve been in a real mood lately, and I’ve been thinking a lot about getting older and death and time moving forward and all that gooey gross stuff that keeps you up at night and this is just so simple and so elegant and it just kind of hits me in my big dumbass feelings-part of my brain, and I think so much of art is what you bring to it as a spectator, like where you’re at in your head space, and sometimes things are just aligned perfectly where you’re just kind of feeling feelings already and you’re walking along, minding your own business, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, WHAM, art! I don’t know, man. Art, man.