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Cartoon Disassembly 101: Session 1 (guest blog series)

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The following was originally written by the homie Galen Henderson... With his permission, and in response to a Facebook status message about how comically asinine the villains' plots were on Voltron while snowed in this weekend led him to share this piece with me. With his permission, I am presenting it to the two of you. There are surely more parts to this series, but I will be sharing the all of them with you complete with link . [ Phlip note - that was it for all of them right there] And now we will get right down to business... Aight y'all, class is in session and the Teacher is about to speak. The first victims of dissection this morning are Scooby Doo and The Superfriends (all versions of them). During the 70s and 80s, the Superfriends were the PINNACLE of the superhero cartoon genre of all time. I remember many a Saturday Morning waiting to see Challenge of the Superfriends . The Wonder Twins, Marvin and whatshername with the dog, all the different versions I

February

Yeah, we're all well aware that February (that 'R' is not silent, BTW) is Black History Month, and I will not repeat that tired assessment that they gave us the shortest month on the calendar, even if you factor in the bonus we receive every 4 years, such as this one... As all (read: most) know, my phone/MP3 player helps me through my work days without a resulting bodycount. In such, as I mulled through my ever-changing and quite eclectic playlist, I came to Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson's 1975 album "The First Minute of a New Day." On it is an assessment of black history... Being that I am busy typing new (non-MySpace) stories and convincing myself to finish this damned novel, I will share IT with you, as my creative juices are flowing just fine, but are being driven completely elsewhere. Here we go: I was wondering about our yesterdays, and starting digging through the rubble and to say, at least somebody went through a hell of a lot of trouble

The way I see it...

Look, Haiti needs some help. We know this. In the month of January, I was not eating meat, and I had plenty of soups, tuna and other non-perishables in my cabinets that I would not have eaten for AT LEAST 3 weeks at the time. A lot of it was soup that we got when The Katie had a tooth pulled, then again when we both had Swine Flu were a little under the weather after our vacation. The thing I have here is that Haiti has needed help all along. Here is what we know: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom from slavery. Let us not forget that they didn't enter this slavery voluntarily, no one does... When they couldn’t afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget went to paying off its “reparation” debt. They didn’t make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more h

The frozen tundra of... Greensboro NC (?)

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Yeah, this is some ol' bullshit, Illaldo! Last weekend, we were advised that there COULD be some winter weather headed in for the week ahead, which ends today. [ Phlip note - a week is Monday through Sunday, fuckers] As the week progressed, the 'chance' became a 'watch' of a system coming in, which in turn became a warning for actually observed weather, which in turn became a storm that left stores completely void of milk, bread, eggs and beer. Meanwhile, my rear-wheel-drive sportscar driving ass had to continue to go to work as if I didn't JUST have a harrowing drive home under the same circumstances just 6 weeks ago. Fuck my life, I guess. Either way, on Thursday, I went ahead to the Wal Mart for some things, including frozen veggies and other food supplies not including milk, bread, eggs, but DEFINITELY including alcoholic beverage. Around the house: Out front The Katie-mobile. Don't play in the yellow snow, Bruise. The neighbors'/visitors' autom

British(like) Automotive Pr0ns -- Jaguar XJ220

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A few forward-thinking Jaguar employees collaborated on a pet project and envisioned themselves going at the big names at the time, like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959. Big talk for people working for a company whose cars notoriously hate the 100k mile mark. Somehow, those who put the money behind these things were impressed with what they saw and put some money behind it, and had a concept ready for a 1989 British Auto show. Plans were already stated for the car to go forward, with 220 to be produced initially, 350 total at a cost of about $580k retail (in 1989?!!? FUUUUUCK!!!), with a deposit due up front of about $80k. Deposits taken this early on still-concept cars reeks of epic phail in my mind, but I am a cynical asshole, so there is that. Anyway, damn near, possibly OVER 2 years later, the production version was revealed. The production version belied the lofty "500HP/220MPH" aspirations, instead with a twin turbo V6 instead of the V12 initially promised. I know that