I was so depressed, the merry month of May.
Posted on June 28, 2009 | by Donna Barstow
Some good things happened in May, but I can’t think of that many right off the bat. Mostly I was dealing with having my cartoons stolen and used in certain liberal hate websites. I certainly haven’t finished with that yet. And then being called the R word (r-acist) in those hate sites. (I told an editor at the LA Times that this crap had happened and that I was being called the “r” word. He said, “What do you mean?” I blushed a little (even though it was on the phone) and said, “r-acist“, and he said, “Oh. I thought you meant Republican.” Those wacky LA Times editors! Oh, and it was Tony Pierce. :) )
- I did do some excellent new cartoons for Slate. Always happy when I like my own work.
- I got Wonkette to stop using my cartoons, after weeks of the most vicious, vile, sexist comments there, in the usual spewing Gawker way. Also, their hotlinking is not cool, and is theft of bandwidth. Actually, I notice Wonkette hardly links to anyone. Great, non-2.0, selfish policy you got there, people.
- I got to go on John & Ken! You can listen here: podcast or here
- I gained 5 pounds this year, which is most decidedly NOT good, and I know it’s because of the stress of adding on political cartoons, and Slate. But I’ve lost one of those pounds, and hope I’m on the way down now.
- I’ve always been impressed by the outspoken, beautiful rabble-rouser, Jill Stewart, and she wrote a little something on me in the LA Weekly.
Also, because I ignored most media for a while, I got to concentrate on my new blog, The Opposite of Wrong, my political and editorial cartoons.
I really love designing new WordPress blogs! It’s very frustrating at times, but so much fun to kick it into what you want it to do, and want it to look like. I love the way this new one turned out - uses fonts as a big part of the design. I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to separate my political cartoons from general gag cartoons. Really, they’re two different genres! And after the maelstrom last month, when the bad libs decided they should find out everything about me they could - including the name of my CANARY - I decided I really want to separate the two. This is my general work and life. That is my political cartoons. Okay.
Now we can move on.
Michael Jackson shared his death with TV icons.
Posted on June 27, 2009 | by Donna Barstow
Sure, I’m curious why he died. But nah, I never thought he was funny. Not the animals, the plastic surgery, the kids. Nor is his death funny. I’m sad a talented performer died so young. But what about Farrah Fawcett, or Ed McMahon? NO. Not funny, either. All sad. (And Michael Jackson’s death is not more important than theirs, thanks. All deaths are equal.)
But my job as an editorial cartoonist is to comment or reflect on the news, not make instant flower bouquets, or practice sanctimonious phrases.
Actually, this is the first time a well-known figure has died since I started doing cartoons for Slate in February, so I wasn’t sure just how to approach it. Read the rest
Star Trek for Mother’s Day?
Posted on May 10, 2009 | by Donna Barstow
Apparently my Slate cartoon didn’t post properly today, so my work was for naught. One of the joys of online commerce…
So here it is. Almost too late for Mother’s Day, but not too late for Wolverine and Star Trek fanciers.
How ABC killed Life on Mars.
Posted on April 30, 2009 | by Donna Barstow
Anyway, I wrote about the TV series Life on Mars at Mayor Sam last fall, because I loved the concept so, so much. (Those ABC bastards don’t even have shows up to link to anymore!!) Briefly, a cop gets hit by a car in the present, and wakes up still a cop, still in NYC, in 1973, and spends the rest of the series trying to figure out if he’s in a coma, dead, time travel, etc. The episodes were filmed with a yellow glow, and include some great groovy scenes of hippies, old cars and attitudes, and even the Twin Towers (in the first episode only. Why, did the CGI cost too much?) Also lots of 70’s tunes, of course. I’m not into music at all, but a lot of people liked that the most.
The actor is a quite hunky, 40ish Irish guy who never let his accent slip once. Harvey Keitel - well, I’ve liked him better in other things. I really liked Gretchen Moll, and grew to like her more. The Sopranos guy with a stache overacted.
But I want to be clear that Life on Mars didn’t die a peaceful death. ABC killed it, with ugly knife wounds all over the place. They were GIVEN the premise, and a lot of the episode plots, from the very successful UK series of the same name (which has a spinoff). ABC HAD the setup, the familiar audience, the interest, the timing, the characters, even some of the dialogue from the England show. The cast changed, of course, and the one big change, and quite an improvement, was just moving the show from England to NYC. So why couldn’t they keep it alive??? Read the rest