Let us Venture Third into the unknown!

Someone once said about the mechanics of a TV Series is that the first season is finding your feet, the second season ironing out any remaining kinks and the third is where you let what you've established breathe. All the set up is there, the dynamics in play and the characters(hopefully) established enough to comfortably bounce off each other. And outside of say another Warburton featuring show (you know, the yardstick of comedy that was Seinfeld) has there ever been a show where characters bounce off each other as well?

If it isn't Henchmen 21 and 24 being pedantic about pop culture, it's the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriends surprisingly realistic super villain romance, or Brock Samson humouring Dr. Venture it's a world that is at turns wonderfully fantastical and then hilariously petty and mundane in other areas. These are bad guys who drive Nissans, when they're not flying Giant cocoons. If that sentence doesn't at least pique your interest, nothing will.

So you might be reading this thinking to yourself, "I have no idea what you're talking about. 21 and 24? The Monarch? I understand these things separately but together they're meaningless!"
If that's the case you're missing out on one of the finest animated series currently being made and easily the best thing to emerge from the Adult Swim stable. Essentially in the Venture Brothers we have a riff on the old cartoon Johnny Quest but set in a world not that different from a Marvel comic book. The titular brothers are two blundering children being raised by their caustic self centred scientist father Rusty Venture and protected by a bodyguard named Brock Samson, one of the finest tough guys this side of Wolverine. Their lives are full of adventures, mummies one day, demonic curses, the next and this is where the show really shines in my eyes. There's a wonderful sense of that no matter how much we're seeing of their lives and antics, we're still missing out on just as many exploits. In an early episode a mummy from an unseen adventure is stowing away on a plane and the attack is just a case of "Oh that darn mummy." No one is fazed and I love that.

It's already a good way into it's third season and if you think I threw you in the deep end at the start of this blog, then I'm doing the exact same thing the creators (Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer) have done with this season. Starting with an episode devoted entirely to Rusty's arch enemy the peerless Monarch and not featuring the heroes in any real context, a casual viewer trying to get into the show will be utterly lost. The following episodes don't pander either as knowledge of this universe is vital, the shows central themes are not reiterated. For the fans this is perfection, a layered super hero mythos but for the unititiated it's absolutely overwhelming. Don't start here. Go back, get the first two seasons and gorge on the pop culture references (Star Wars gets it's own side dish to sustain this kinda lame metaphor) and if you're not sure this is a show for you, ask yourself these questions. Did you like the Tick, Freakazoid, Earthworm Jim, or shows of that ilk? Are you someone who knows the difference between Hal Jordan's Green Lantern and Kyle Rayner's Green Lantern? Are you a David Bowie fan? If you answer "yes" to any one of these questions then watch this show and rejoice that the third season, as odd as it has been so far, has also been very funny!
Also it's given us a lot of great Monarch scenes and this breakout character is my favourite thing about the show! Let's hope Team Venture keeps on going as strongly as this!

Email Etiquette

Interview: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Last April Mr. Owen Ashworth of "Casiontone for the Painfully Alone" took the time to answer a few questions via email for me. I would like to thank him again for the response.

1.) How did you first conceive of the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone musical identity?

It was in 1998. I got a call from a friend who was going through a bad breakup and felt very hurt and lonely. Throughout the call, I couldn't help but notice that there was no music in the background. That guy seriously needed some music to listen to at that stage in his life, so I wrote a bunch of songs about what it's like to be painfully lonely. It helped him out so I wrote more.

2.) Were you ever tempted to actually form a band or do you enjoy the independence of beinga solo artist?

I collaborate with a lot of my friends, and sometimes I go on tour with a backing band instead of just as a solo guy. But I think people come to my shows expecting to see a lonely, lonely dude playing music for them. So even though it's not as fun to play solo, I do like living up to people's expectations in that way.

3.) Much was made of the progression of your style on "Etiquette" to a fuller sound. Was this an organic change or did you consciously set out to expand? Will this process continue?

I guess you could say it was an organic change. A couple of the songs on "Etiquette" were originally going to be just on keyboards but they sounded way too sad that way, so I added instrument tracks to them one by one until they didn't make people want to die. Some of the songs I'm working on right now are even sadder, so you can expect to hear a lot of instrumentation on them because otherwise they would be dangerous.

4.) Your songs contain a great amount of detail in them, specific places and names, does this narrative approach come from your time spent in Film school?

Most of the classes I took in film school were for set decoration and lighting design, which did not help me at all when it came to song writing.

5.) Are you branching out into actual prose writing?

Not yet, but I would like to Twitter a novel one day.

6.) Your albums really capture the insecurity of the 20 something experience, the voidat that time of someones life. Are these people fiction or drawn from real events? Was there a Bobby Malone?

There are probably lots of Bobby Malones, but I don't know any of them personally. Most of the characters in my songs are built from pieces and parts of people I know in real life, or stories I've heard, or just stuff I squeeze from my mind grapes.

7.) There is very black humour in your work. Does that naturally come out in your workor is it an attempt to balance something against the angst that's on display?

Really? None of it is meant to be funny.

8.) Who would you cite as influences in the current musical world?

I like street performers. For instance there is this guy in Chicago named Shawon who plays the thumb piano. If you look closely I think he's using more fingers than just his thumb. Because how can you play so many notes in a row with just two thumbs?

9.) Obviously your work is layering various sounds in the recording process, do you enjoy recreating these live or can it be difficult?

It's definitely a challenge, but I enjoy doing it. You should see all the little boxes with switches and things that makes it possible for me to recreate those sounds. There are so many of them, and many of them are broken or otherwise not working properly.

10.) What next for Owen Ashworth?

Since it's around lunchtime I'm going to say "hummus plate."


CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE
Scandinavian Friendship"SEPTEMBER EUROPEAN TOUR

12.09.2008 Moscow (RU), Aktovy Zal
13.09.2008 St. Petersburg (RU), Sochi
14.09.2008 Helsinki (FI), Semifinal
15.09.2008 Oslo (NO), Bla
16.09.2008 Bergen (NO), Robotbutikken
17.09.2008 Copenhagen (DK), Din Nye Ven
18.09.2008 Malmö (SE), Debaser
19.09.2008 Stockholm (SE), Debaser Medis
21.09.2008 Tilburg (NL), ZXZW Festival
22.09.2008 Koeln (DE), Tsunami
23.09.2008 Berlin (DE), Westgermany

Pop goes the Culture!

Hey all,

Being as into music, movies and comics as I am, I come across a lot of blogs on the internet. And more often than not I find them very pretentious. This internet realm has become a haven to the conceited nerd, we used to avoid eye contact with in our comic shops. A place for them to just rabbit on not really saying anything but using the forum more to show how much knowledge they have of something rather than offering an opinion or insight.
Now I'm a nerd but I like to think I have a sense of hmour about it and never get too precious.

I mean I can name pretty much every "Gargoyles" episode, I can write a poem like episode guide to Buffy(more on that in later posts) or name all the major love interests of most Marvel Characters, or producers of indie albums. But I still have a life (I hope so anyway) and I want this blog to just represent the things I love. And yes there will be passion about those things, critiques, in jokes, comments, suggestions, the whole spectrum of pop culture discussion.

Now in the Internet blogging world credentials are fairly laughable. But I work in radio, I interview bands, write movie reviews and generally comment on stuff and I hope to air some of those interviews here. Most of all I want this place to be fun. People have gotten into this weird thing of hoarding their interests. If I think someone I know will like something just as much as I do, I have no qualms about sharing it. Having other people embrace something shouldn't dismiss what that thing means to you.

So there you go, my mission statement. This is a place for discussion where I will post thoughts and interviews (if my less than average computer skills will allow me. It is a flaw, I'm not a computer nerd) but the emphasis on it being light..and well fun.

Spread the word.

-ThinkingCog