History Lessons (D)

Gainesville

Sorry I didn't get the picture online today-- I got up late this morning, and rather than make the mad dash on less than 5 hours of sleep, I decided to use one of the numerous vacation days I need to burn before October 1. I need to be in the office to get access to the web server.

I moved the mountains using PhotoShop. I'll show you how I did it when you're here, but I'm no PS wizard. I struggled with it recently to paste my comics scans together. This trick was just a spin-off of that, and no big deal.

Spent most of the day working on the project-- I finished the Harold Teen strip today, and did some research on it. Fascinating. I'm giving myself a crash course in the history of newspaper strips as a by-product of this, which is great.

Oops, the towels are dinging. Back after I get them folded and put away.

[Musical interlude: "The towels are dinging / for me and my gal"]

There, done. I also got the floors swiffered and the sheets changed today, so I'm pretty current Blessing-wise. Managed to keep my reading of Tab Hunter Confidential limited to meals and timed breaks. It's leaving my mind in a most muddled state-- part of me lives in 1948 where the comics I'm studying are, part in 1958, where we've now reached in the book. It's also confusing to hear E.J.'s distinctive voice coming out of Tab Hunter's mouth. Most of the time I can tell which is which, but they do tend to blur. It is a masterful bit of co-writing.

Got a fun Blast from yet another part of the Past (1982) in the mail today: a nice-looking DVD from Craig. Someone took the old Beta format footage we shot for the ill-fated Flintstones video and edited it into what the finished music video might have looked like. Unfortunately, whoever did the transfer was unable to correct the tracking errors from the tape, so it's just barely watchable. (I'll bet it's possible to digitally correct that these days.) And it is sooo hokey-- which is what makes it so cute. Craig is the best part of it-- he looks amazingly like Bruce, even though he wasn't the one who did the singing on the record. (That was Tom Chalkley, who now gets his cartoons published in New Yorker.) Most of it is just plain silly, and if you blink, you'll miss me-- my 2.5 seconds of potential MTV fame. But you can hear my playing through most of it, which is nice. Bill thinks it's a "pretty good sendup" for a bunch of amateurs on a shoostring, and he's right.

And now a word from Dobby, the house elf:

Thursday, August 28, 1952
241st Day-- 125 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning Mom went to get her hair fixed while we took care of Chris & Did our work. We were talking today about Christmas presents. I can't decide between a "Blessed Event" doll or something for the newspaper (ours). The roof is on most of the House now. They are starting to put up the walls. It's really Coming!! Suzy

Friday, August 19th, 1052
242nd Day--124 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning we got up early while Mom took dad to the train. I had the Kitchen this morning. We made hot cakes. I didn't get off to a good start. I was still working on that Kitchen I never did finish it too good. We made up the Dromedary gingerbread mix. Today was Frank Warrlick's birthday so chris sang Happy Birthday over the phone to him. Suzy