three things
April 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized
1. My visit to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has been rescheduled for this Monday, the 30th, at 7pm.
2. Fun Home was nominated for two Eisner awards. One in the “Best Graphic Album-New” category, and one in “Best Reality-Based Work” (Ellen Forney’s I Love Led Zeppelin and Brian Fies’ Mom’s Cancer are also up for this). The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are big deal in the comics world, so I’m very happy about that.
3. I know there’s something deeply wrong about putting my amateurish home movies up on the blog, and I’m sure I’ll regret it one day, but just now I can’t seem to stop myself. I’m thinking that if I just give in to the urge, I’ll get it out of my system. Just like how I stopped posting PhotoBooth pictures of myself. (Well, slowed down, anyway) So here’s a short film I shot of the wildflowers in my woods this afternoon. After I made it I learned that the kind of trillium pictured is trillium erectum, and now the whole movie kind of looks like wildflower porn to me.
35 Responses to “three things”
Flowers are basically the sex organs of plants, right?
The poking. The prodding. The FILMING.
Wildflower seeking in the chill spring woods… porn of choice.
…whew…that was pretty hot…
Didn’t the good Doctor say (in a post awhile back) that you were nominated for three Eisner awards…not two?
Synchronicity is a strange thing. I’ve been collecting photos of trilliums down here in the NC for a digital herbarium project. Trillium erectum is also known as “wake robin” down here, but it comes in two varietals, purple and white.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l90/Italmira/DSC01674.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l90/Italmira/wakerobin.jpg
Showy Orchis is sexier I think…
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l90/Italmira/DSC01494.jpg
Trilliums propagate by myrmecochory — dispersal by ants. That mutualism makes the trillium particularly difficult to cultivate and very vunerable to habitat loss. If a person picks a trillium, the plant is likely to die, because the three leaves are the serious bulk of it’s food source (it has very little root storage to speak of).
Sorry for the geekout. Mercy, I love science.
Hey! Check out that freakishly long ring finger!
I miss dogtooth violets, and jack-in-the-pulpits, and yellow lady’s-slippers, and, rarest of all, trailing arbutus. It grew on one bank we knew of. Every spring was the occasion for a pilgrimage, with the clamber through the woods to that one sandy, sunny spot – and the careful pulling away of leaf litter – and then the sigh of pleasure when again, still, it was there.
Eighty-two viewings and five comments (four commentators). Ratio, 20 : 1. Hmmm.
At 4am in the city when the big avenue I live on is almost quiet, I am usually up doing nothing in particular on the web and it’s nice to watch your videos of Vermont. It’s been a few years since I last saw trillium. On the other hand Spring rushes in here. Suddenly we’ve got magnolias and dogwoods and daffodils and tulips and hyacinth and forsythia and squirrels digging up their nuts.
trillium are also known as wake robin; trout lilies are dog tooth violets, and false hellebore? Any other names?
Hi — just delurking to let you know that there’s a book discussion of Fun Home going on over at Pandagon.
Technically, Alison is correct. Fun Home was nominated for only two awards. Alison herself was nominated for Best Writer/Artist. She was probably just too modest to mention it.
And yes, The Eisners are a big deal in comics circles. This will get attention from people who wouldn’t ordinarily touch anything “gay.” Maybe they’ll learn something.
Alison, I don’t object to your filming in the least, so long as you do it in a safe manner (ie: when walking and not driving a fast moving vehicle).
In fact, I’d kinda like to see an archive category for posts with home movies. I don’t always (usually) view them, because I haven’t access to a computer that has speakers AND doesn’t take forever to load. But I expect that to change at some point, and would like to go back and catch up. I regret not having looked at the silent version of Alison and the Bug . . .
we’re all so lazy here — and demanding! as if you need one more thing to do to make *my* life easier!!
I’m headed up to Kent, OH for their photographic calls for impeachment (of what’s his name and that other guy). taking a short walk in the woods beforehand is just the preparation I need.
Kent’s activities are part of a nationwide effort, described in more detail at http://www.a28.org. I expect there will be other events in the future, for those who’re interested.
on an earlier post someone asked about the significance of April 28 and, to my knowledge there isn’t any. that doesn’t mean there isn’t particular meaning attached to the date but I believe those who are calling for impeachment aren’t waiting for Significant Dates to spread the message. the movement has enough momentum that it doesn’t need that — or that’s my hope!
I post this here on the off chance that Mo is recently recovered from walking pneumonia and hasn’t read her e-mails about these events but wants to run out TODAY to make herself heard . . .
Dear Alison,
I’m really left out–completely unable to access any of the (I’m SURE) terrific videos you’ve posted and everyone is raving about! I go to DTWOF at my local library branch, which TOTALLY blocks “youtube”! What are the chances of your posting a few relevant stills of each
movie here? I don’t know if any other DTWOF blog readers have a similar problem.
Best wishes to all.
Tim T.
P.S. CHOPPING wood naked is one thing (probably dangerous enough in its own right!) but I hope you never try using a CHAINSAW without being well-armored!
T.T.
Oh. I wasn’t being modest about the Eisner thing. I just got confused. Best Writer/Artist! I’m up against Gilbert Hernandez, for godsakes.
As the person who howled last time you posted a home movie, I hope you’re being sarcastic when you say that posting them is deeply wrong. On the chance that you’re not: I believed you needed to address the question of how to balance different commenters’ input when you make decisions about the blog, and I was frustrated that you were posting movies instead. I still think you need to address that, but no one agrees with me and I’m done howling now. There’s nothing inherently wrong with home movies.
OMG Alison, you against Beto- it’s like two of my favorite cartoonists in a gladiator cage or something. 🙂 Not to jinx it, but I think you’ve got “Best Reality-Based Work” in the bag. Have fun at the ceremony!
Love the Comics Journal cover, by the way! (uh- did that really happen?)
May I just say that you have really nice hands Alison 🙂
Thank you for your glimpse of Vermont spring. Down here in Queens, the daffodils are done and the tulips are in full bloom. I just cut back my huge grapevine which was taking over the back of the house, but the person helping me got a little enthusiastic and now I’m feeling like I’ve committed some sort of crime – the thing is *bleeding* sap profusely. I hope it makes it…
Congrats on the nominations!
Honestly, I’m ashamed of myself.
That little movie takes my breath away.
I’m so glad that Beto was nominated because he deserves it. His stuff is deliciously weird and alternately kinky and poignant… I have liked it the last couple of years even though I always found it hard to read before and I was just buying Love and Rockets to read about Hopey and Maggie. Having said that, it would be a crime if his stuff won against yours. Just because he’s been better does not mean he’s producing literature… some of his stuff is still boring or relies too much on T&A/shock value. Yours is consistently well executed. 🙂
Andrew B.-you are not the only one waiting for our host to address the questions that were raised about the condition of the blog. I’m going to keep waiting. I hope you keep howling.
I have Windows ’95, so I am not able to view the home movies. But I look forward to doing so as I update my system.
It seems only natural that someone who makes sequential art would also make short films.
Please don’t stop making them.
I love how totally depraved we all are! I love the Trillium’s. We have them here in Oregon as well……..beautiful! The leaves aren’t out on your trees yet? We have almost full foliage here.
Holy Cow!
No really – I was just digging through a pile of old t-shirts and found one from “Bechtel’s Dairy” in Lewisburg, PA, given to me by a friend who teaches at Bucknell. I remember a very delicious ice cream thing I had there.
The t/d is a common spelling change change in names, so they must be related, even if distantly, right?
The flower film has gotten me all geared-up to self-polinate the baby huckle berry bush on my window ceil.
———————————————
http://everyone-and-their-cat.blogspot.com/
… “my woods….”. Good grief.
Trillium absolutely erectum and charming DTWOF buttocks help keep my mind (dreamingly …) off the french presidential elections …
thank you Alison
🙂
I love your book, as does everyone I know who’s read it. You deserve every one of those Eisner awards. Cngratulations on the nominations! If you like, you can read my gushing about it at http://nochaser.motime.com/post/656354
Keep posting the vid blogs; it’s quirky and fun to watch– I can actually imagine you mumbling and contemplating about your birds and flowers even without a camera.
Good luck with the noms, AB!
I like your home videos! Caught this one on youtube over the weekend. Also, I finished your book over the weekend. Congrats on being nominated.
AK thanks for the trillium lesson…that was geekily cool.
Love the videos! Keep ’em coming. I’m also guilty of making videos I will most likely regret (or get sued for using music I don’t have permission to use)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEM0ycvu5M
Annnnd the Journal is in the stores .. you Seattleites, be advised that Bailey/Coy is no longer stocking the magazine, since they’ve had a hard time selling them. The gal there agrees that this issue of all of them would sell like Dutch Babies but they’re not stocking … I had to go to an actual comics store to get a copy ..
Worth it though, because in addition to the full article (and, in keeping with the Journal’s policy of finding strange and obscure art from its interview subjects, there’s three panels from a book she illustrated but did not write), there’s a short piece on Ariel Schrag (who is writing for “The L Word”!) and several pages from “Get Lost” a horribly overdone MAD ripoff ..
To MC (or anyone):
What’s the origin of the expression “sell like Dutch Babies”? I don’t think I’ve never seen it before, and I just asked the three library staffers at my local branch, who are likewise stumped. Is it some kind of candy?
Best wishes to all.
Tim, I just made it up, actually, as a variant on “sell like hotcakes”. Dutch Babies are fluffy pancakes that are baked in a hot oven. They are very tasty and have nothing to do with Marxism.
I love trilliums. I discovered them when I went to university in Nor Cal. I have a tatoo over my left chest of a trillium. We don’t get them as wildflowers here in New Zealand but there are some in the occasional garden and I managed to find a nursery that sells them. I ordered 2 last year (they are pricey; budgets), one lived. We are going into autumn now so I won’t see it until later this year. :0(
Andrew B and Shadocat, I’m also waiting for Alison to reach clarity about the website. we know by now, though, what a procrasinator she can be. from what I can tell, she’s working on it. and she’s got a lot of commentary to wade through . . .
while we’re waiting, there’s a bunch of archived material right here on the site. and some fun detours on this very post. I’ve got to go back to everyone-and-their-cat website when I’ve got more time!