I don’t know if the theaters in your hometown do this, but at every theater I got to, I am bombarded by STUPID, LOCAL ADVERTISEMENTS! This annoys me to no end because I like to get to the theater early so as not to miss any previews. If you get there too early, being subjected to these ads is the equivalent to Chinese water torture.
In the theater, these ads are placed into a slide projector that automatically forwards. There is usually a mix between local ads and those for Coca-Cola (who has obviously sunk a lot of cash into sponsoring this subtle invasion of privacy). I don’t know whose ads offend me more – the shoddily designed local spots that aggravate my keen sense of composition and information hierarchy. Or the Coca-Cola ads – who’s lame trivia and “fun” games insult my intelligence.
Of course, to top it all off, they’ve got “Movie Tunes” blaring over the PA system before the start of the show. Movie Tunes masquerades itself as a radio station with one of the world’s largest listener-ship. Yeah, you’d have a pretty large listener-ship too if the audience was held captive. That’s like saying Saddam Hussien is the world’s most convincing public speaker.
Does anyone remember a time when you could go into a theater before a movie started and have a nice conversation? To hell with that!
A few things I’ll mention:
I want to give a shout out to Ctrl+Alt+Del. This strip has been getting a lot of attention lately and it’s well deserved. The drawing of this toon is excellent. It’s shaded and colored and looks like an animated short, or something. And the writing is top shelf to boot.
I also got an e-mail from my friend Nick who sent me a really funny short essay about working as a movie-theater projectionist which I will be posting to the site sometime later today. Nick and I are college buddies and he’s been in a couple of strips on the site. Nick graduated an English major, so soon you will be treated to the wonders of correct grammar, spelling and punctuation!
Sometimes I think I spoil you.
I know this was supposed to be a week of guest strips. But, well, I couldn’t really round one up for today. Chalk it up to poor planning. I decided late last week to take this week off and that’s not time enough for most artists with already busy schedules to drop what they’re doing and produce something for me.
Hats off, however, to Jason Swearingen and Paul Southworth for their time and consideration. It is much appreciated.
I took time off this week partially to give myself a break from the comic and partially to work on some other projects that needed my attention. Primarily on a freelancing web site that I intend to use to attract clients and provide a temporary revenue stream while I look for more permanent work.
I have to admit I did not make much progress on that front. However, I kept busy this week applying for jobs and sending out resumes. I took a few meetings and had a few interviews. Fortunately, my experience is such that I attract the interest of most employers. At this point, it’s finding one who is willing to compensate fairly for that experience.
My freelance site aside, I did accomplish something else this week that actually benefits both of us and not just myself. I took some time this week to prepare the Theater Hopper store for a massive fire sale that I’m going to start promoting next week. I have a little bit of money saved up thanks to Project Wonderful and I plan on spreading it around a little bit in hopes of attracting people to my store and helping me clear out some inventory.
As of now, everything in the store is on sale. All books are $9.99. All shirts are $7.99. I’ve even dug out some old inventory I haven’t had on the site for a while in hopes of selling that as well – mostly baby doll tees in limited inventory for $4.99.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the main page in the store, you’ll see I’m selling the Iron Man parody poster I designed for Chicago Comic Con in early September. I have 49 left in stock and I’m selling them for $3.00 a piece.
The sale ends at Midnight on Sunday, September 20. I am motivated to get rid of as much inventory as possible, but I don’t know if I’ll do something like this again. So if you see something you want, now is the time to grab it.
Thanks and have a great weekend.