Monday, July 31, 2006

Bad Blogger Bad Bad

By fucking Christ, blogger has turned into one of the worst services I've ever had the misfortune of using. When I first started with it, I loved it for it's simplicity and it was generally very reliable. Nowadays it's just completly hit-and-miss. The sooner we move over to wordpress the better because I've pretty much had my fill.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Pure Shameless Mule Walking

Now don't ask me how my mind works or what brings me round to thinking these things. Pure Mule was probably the best bit of serialised television drama our national broadcaster has contributed to the airwaves. Some might quote Paths To Freedom or Batchelor's Walk but I was never very impressed. Now Pure Mule wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but it certainly had a lot going for it. So what's my point? Well, when I google a show like Shameless, I get a channel4 microsite dedicated to the show, a wikipedia entry, an imdb page and a section on BBC America - all on the first page of results. Pure Mule gets an imdb page and this. No episode guides, no character biogs, no background, no interaction - just an outline of the last episode of the series. Now I'm sure there's plenty of effort made to sell the show abroad at all the markets and such but, considering the extent of the Irish diaspora alone, you'd think somebody might avail of the chance to create a bit of a buzz around the show. There are plenty of people in the States or in Oz who would have gotten a kick out of Pure Mule, if anyone really made an effort to tap into the market. We've just made a short film (I might have mentioned that before) and we've already set up a blog to promote it and chart it's progress. Plus we've no intention of just stopping there. That's just what we feel we need to do for our five minute animation. How can someone let a whole series slip by without taking advantage of all this relatively cheap promotion? You see the girl in the image above, her names Charlene McKenna. She's a talented actress, not to mention quite pleasing on the eye, but I had to put in so much effort to find out her name, I feel like she should be taking a restraining order out against me. I will add here that The Lisa Richards Agency isn't at fault here, it's just entirely because my only point of reference was Pure Mule.

Batman's Predatory Alien End

I remember when this first did the rounds. I was on a dial-up connection so I couldn't make out what it was about. It's pretty bloody nifty.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Craicing New York Festival House

Building A House, that's the short animated film I wrote for anyone who hasn't been paying attention, has been selected for screening at the 6th Annual Shorts Night, organised by The Craic Festival, in New York. Shorts Night is a one night event of short film and music to be held at Arlenes Grocery (which looks like a pretty cool gaff) on September 17th. So if you're in New York or you know folks who'll be in New York, give it a look. We're looking into the possibility of going over ourselves but it's early days.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The War On Terror

Monday, July 24, 2006

The Versatile Portraiture Of Steve James

I don't know an awful lot about Steve James, except that he's an illustrator, he does some 3D modelling and, quite possibly, has a thing for Nike trainers.

The other thing I know is that he has a blog, where he has posted some of the best portrait work I've come across in a good while.

Not only that though, he's also showing not just a little versatility.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

And His Name Is Dan Murray

It's 1-0 on the night and 1-1 on aggregate. It's a scorching heat and, with 15 minutes left on the clock, the Cork City players have been piling on the pressure. Then Neale Fenn swings a ball into the corner and captain Dan Murray breaks into space, powering the ball into the net with his head. Cork City are into the second qualifying round of the fucking Champions League. Top of the range. Though the excitement should be tempered by the fact that UEFA are saying that both Joe Gamble and Danny Murphy were sent off even though no red card was flashed during the match.

Sadly, Dublin City - another League of Ireland team, have folded. Summer football is to blame according to their manager Dermot Keeley. "I hate summer soccer and I feel this league is going no place," he said and before asking the big question that is on the tip of everybody's tongue. "Who is going to these summer soccer games on the hottest days of the year?" Yes Dermot, you're right, we're all standing around in the beautiful summer sun watching the football yearning for the days we had to pull our hungover arses out of bed on a Sunday morning to stand in the pissing rain or freezing cold to see games played on muddy pitches which made the idea of a passing game seem like a fantastic but unbelievable myth. Unfortunately for those who were loyal to Dublin City, it was just an untenable proposition. They didn't have enough support, they obviously weren't budgeting for their circumstance and they were ploughing their trade in an already overcrowded marketplace. We might just have to get used to this sort of thing as the league attempts to get it's house in order - a culling of the herd, so to speak..

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Churlish Snake Infestation

A very good article by a Chuck Klosterman on what he refers to as prefab populism. He takes the example of the Snakes On A Plane (the first film to earn so-bad-it's-good ironic cult status before it was even released) film which, amongst other compromises, shot new scenes to cater for what the studio viewed as audience demands and explains why this could have a damaging effect on the quality of films in the future.

For the first time in ages, we got reviewed. Not sure exactly how it works but Bloglaughs seems to have a slate of reviewers who all offer their opinion - which seems like a fairly balanced way of doing it. Plus we did ok, so it would probably be churlish to not leave it at that. But I'm nothing if not churlish. First off there's the criticism that we seem to have a 'minor ad infestation'. On any given page, the most you'll find are two ad blocks. How is that an infestation? Or is just that we're not pure of heart enough? I don't know. Another criticism was that 'more space is given over to the sidebar than to the main content of the site'. Sorry but we can only make the cartoons so big before it becomes problematic and seeing as a big chunk of that sidebar is for the archives, I don't see where that's leading. Are we making it too convenient for people to look through our cartoons? Are we pandering?

Other than that, I could argue with some of the other issues but, all in all, they have a certain amount of validity. We do have a lot of stuff on the site, I think cluttered is overstating but I might just be used to it. It would be nice to update more often but this isn't our full time jobs and it's a little trickier for Frank to find time to illustrate one of the cartoons, than it is to write out a normal blog post. Still that's not their concern and it's a fair argument. Maybe I should blog here more often but, seeing as I don't really like doing it and have no real ambitions in this direction, nah. We could put more cartoons on the main page but we tried it before and it didn't really work - the cartoons were either too small or the pages needed way too much scrolling. As for broken links in the archives, I can only imagine they viewed the site during the changeover but we'll definetly have a look into it.

Still overall, no problems with the review and i'm glad they all took the time to look in.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Begging Galway's Film Fleadh Through Gritted Teeth

Galway is a nice town. The people there are hospitable and helpful - the beggars even stayed on chatting with you after you'd paid them off. Eyre Square is a lovely place to wile away a few hours - especially in the middle of a heat wave. Plenty of nice pubs and places to eat. All round, it's a very hard place to leave - especially when your only viable choice is a fucking four and a half hour bus journey(in the middle of a fucking heatwave). Why would somewhere like Galway, a massive tourist attraction, be left so inaccessible to so much of the country. I'd go back there, and people who know me know I don't say that about many places, if it weren't such a fucking prick to get to. Of course, I guess, it's entirely possible that most people don't share my pathological hatred of buses - or long car journeys for that matter.

Anyway, the Film Fleadh went great. Got filthified drunk on Friday night - drinking in the residents bar of the Radisson SAS Hotel even though, it goes without saying, neither of us had a room. Woke up the next morning and half ate the worst breakfast I have tested in an awful long time - Emmet compared it to a breakfast roll dumped onto a plate and that about sums it up. So essentially both of us were sick as dogs for the rest of the day. Went to a Film Board Open Forum for some insane reason and spent the whole time fighting waves of nausea. Every feint movement around me had me gritting my teeth and when the young lass next to me stuck up her hand to ask a question, she was very nearly answered with my breakfast.

Then it was onto the screening and I doubt either of us were very confident of making it through the whole thing - I would've been happy to make it through Building A House itself, nevermind any of the other films. Still I managed and it all went well. People laughed when they were supposed to laugh and that's about all I could ask for. After that we kicked off the evening with a free bar courtesy of the Film Board and we were all off again.

On a sidenote, we had to laugh when we stumbled on some of Bob Byrne's handiwork in the local tourist office.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Building A Hernandez Election Premiere

It's summer, so traffic is down and you think - fuck it, why should I bother posting anything(as if I really need an excuse not to). Then a routine bounce around flickr offers up the illustrations of Mar Hernandez. I'm not prone to gushing praise and deep analysis, so all I'll say is her work just floats my boat - so to speak. She's also got a shop, where you can all sorts of prints or button or toys, and a livejournal. And yes, of course, I realise I'm going to be sorry I ever used the phrase'floats my boat'.

After much prevarication, I've decided I will, after all, go to Galway this weekend for the World Premiere of Building A House. Of course, my constant humming and hawing has left me with nowhere to stay on Saturday night but I guess I'll either sort something out when I get there or I'll come back down after the screening. Being the absolute charmer that I am, it shouldn't be a major problem. If you're at the screening and you want to say hello - say it to Emmet, he's the friendly one.

I'm pretty pleased with this weeks Irish Election cartoon. If you don't know anything about Irish politics you probably won't get it but you'll still, surely, appreciate Frank's art.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Building A Changing Champions League House

Right, right, it's all over but City's Champions League campaign begins - so no time to rest.

Still working on the site changeover, so things might still be a bit rickety in places. Let us know if you spot anything off.

The Building A House website is up. It's not quite finished but all the salient details are there. Keep an eye on it, as we'll be updating it with details of festival showings and other news. If you're in Galway City this Saturday it's playing in The Town Hall Theatre at 2 pm along with a number of other Irish shorts.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Allen's Sickly Film Fleadh Cartoon

Yeah, ok the funny cartoon was delayed again this week. What can I say? Frank's a useless, lazy, sickly good-for-nothing, maybe, but it would probably be a bit harsh. He's actually sick, rehearsing for a play (Twelve Angry Men), coping with his day job and designing the new site for Building A House - which, by the way is, premiering at The Galway Film Fleadh.

This weeks funny cartoon is, kind of, dedicated to my buddy Allen - possibly the most accident prone bastard I've ever met - who got married(or had his marraige blessed) to the lovely Sabrina last week.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Apologies

Our apologies to anyone who commented on the funny cartoons in the last 24 hours or so. Frank, eejit that he is, was doing a few experiments and forgot to reset a few things. Rest assured he's been sent to bedroom without any tea and I've confiscated all his dirty mags. That'll learn him.

Actually, you should be prepared for a little more disruption around the gaff as we implement a few changes. Exciting times are afoot at BifSniff Cartoons, after a fashion that is.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Judging Mr. Amperduke's Crying Robotic Bob Byrne

Just noticed now that Bob Byrne, who did our Valentine's Day cartoon when Frank was mysteriously incapacitated, has the first six pages of his graphic-novel-in-progress in the latest Judge Dredd Megazine. Which is a pretty big shit for anyone who was interested in comics in the early 90s. Bob also has a children's book, called Robots Don't Cry, on the way - which could quite possibly be one of first signs of the impending apocalypse.

Getting Oriented

Tom, John, sorry guys but you're utterly fucking off your heads.