0009 Matinee Soup 'Why tails?'

0009 Matinee Soup 'Why tails?', originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

It's been a pretty cool week. Valentine's day was intentionally quiet for me. No dates. Made up for that with J last night. Hehehehe.

The film role fell through. My agent called me to say, 'The production company phoned to say they have to lower the agreed fee from R8000 per call to R3000 per call. I told them I'd discuss it with you, but that it's unlikely. I mean, it's partial nudity, and a violent role. What do you feel?'

'Walk away from it,' I told Shane. 'If it were a more substantial role, and not just a bit part, I MIGHT have considered it. But the fact that they're changing things at the last minute indicates that they might be in some kinda trouble.'

I think the production company needs a tail. Or maybe they already know their asses from their elbows?

Last Saturday I screened THE SECRET for a bunch of my buddies. And on Sunday I'm screening it again for the people in my AACA group. (AACA stands for 'Al Anon Adult Children of Alcoholics, and I attend the regular Monday meeting.)

It's a pretty potent film. Well worth seeing.

And AACA's pretty potent too. Have you seen my list of 'Characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics'?

People who've seen WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!? probably know the premise of THE SECRET:

Under 'The Law of Attraction', what we ask for, the universe provides. It's just that we often don't realise that we're asking for things we DON'T want. So, people focussing on 'getting out of debt' or 'losing weight' are actually giving energy and focus to the debt and the weight, and so, they 'get what they ask for'... more debt, more weight.

They should, instead, ask for what they WANT... abundance, not debt, healthy slimness, not weight loss.

I don't rate WHAT THE BLEEP at all. It's a crap film, with highly faulty quasi-science. And a pretty syrrupy storyline to deliver the message. However, THE SECRET seems to have pared out all the pseudo-science, and delivers a coherent framework with which to change your life for the better. I'm pretty certain that it's not saying stuff you haven't heard before. But it certainly packages it in a compelling and life-changing way.

For a while now, I've been affirming that I'll finally 'have my degree'. And that's manifesting pretty beautifully. On Wednesday I attended the first seminar of my
Masters in Digital Arts. The course was created by Prof Christo Doherty. And it cooks.

Part of our Wednesday morning was devoted to watching the avant-garde groundbreaking piece of cinema... THE MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA, made by Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov in 1929. It's pretty much the best film I've ever seen. Bar none. It's literally as good as a film can possibly be, plus some. Wow.

Because I haven't completed my two undergrad degrees -- I have half an Electrical Engineering degree through Wits, and 8 out of 10 credits of my Literary Theory degree through Unisa -- I'm being allowed to register for this Masters in stages. Right now, I'm an 'occasional student'. If I do well in this course, I'll be able to go for the full masters, utilising 'recognition of prior learning'.

I'm feeling pretty damned stoked about it. Very stimulating indeed. Wow.

On the babe front, J is doing surprise things for my birthday tomorrow. (J is the gal who went with me to the American Consulate General's home for the poetry reading at which I called for the American public to impeach his holiness, George 'I caused World War III' Bush. That was our first date. And I think it can be counted a success. hehehehe.)

Also on the babe-front, J is open to my being polyamorous. Which is cool. Cos I'm really wanting to explore it more. I've been attending the monthly South African polyamory film evenings. And I've been following the adventures of a poly family in America. Their blog -- THE HERON CLAN -- is a candid account of what polyamory can be in what's known as a 'V' triad. That's where one person has two committed love partners. The two partners are committed to that person, who forms the point of the 'V'. This is the formation I've been in, and it really worked for me.

On the button shop front, my buttons are causing a few ripples on Prickie.com. I'll know at the end of this month how many I've sold. I know that the shopfront has been getting hundreds of hits from my links. Which means it MIGHT be getting lots of hits from other sources that I can't measure.

I don't REALLY care too much whether or not the buttons sell. I care that the politics they espouse creates ripple effects.

Right. Time for me to swallow my last mouthful of JB Rivers bran muffin and head off home for an early night. J told me to have a swimming costume with me when she picks me up at 7:45am tomorrow. (It's mid summer in South Africa, if you're wondering. And my car's roof is most definitely down. And my hair is in a bun, held by one of those gigantic hair clamps that looks like a radioactive crab. Cos the back of my neck is getting overheated these days.)

Oh. One last thing. I've done test prints of some of my pics at Silvertone. They're on 100% cotton rag, 100% acid free, using 100-year archive quality inks. And they look unbelievably awesome (to me, at any rate; but I'm biased, being their 'father'). Look out for 'for sale' buttons next to my prints. I'm currently setting up the e-commerce backend to be able to send them around the world. Yay!!!

This strip was made on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, using ArtRage 2.2, in JB Rivers, Hyde Park. See all of the cartoons in the series on my Flickr set: Matinee Soup -- a weekly cartoon strip. I do not receive ANY form of compensation for any of the software, hardware, or eateries I mention in these entries. The babe count in Hyde Park more than makes up for any money I spend here. Tonight it's a full five stars out of five. Oh yeah.