Is This Probably The Best Beer Ad in the World?

Mock-up of Carlsberg Free Beer Dispensing Billboard (2015)

On 8th April 2015, near to the Old Truman Bewery in Shoreditch, London, Carlsberg (the beer that claims to be "probably the best beer in the world") set up what is probably the best beer poster in the world - a poster that gives out FREE BEER!

Yes, Carlsberg made a billborad that gives out free beer. 

I know. It sounds like something from the 20th century (maybe 1970s America?), but this has happened. A brewer has done a publicity campaign giving out free beer. Carlsberg must have a lot of balls, doing this in a time when the very idea sounds like (to a notable percentage of the population) the anti-smoking ad giving away free cigarettes I made last year. But, so far, I have heard no news of  large drunken riots in London.

Carlsberg do plan to roll this out across the UK. Is this a good idea? I don't know, considering the British's reputation when it comes to drink. I bet the usual people (The Salvation Army, the AA (and the other AA as well), etc) will protest this in the usual reactionary way, but I don't think it'll do anything. In fact (judging from the history books), it will make more people drink from the billboard.

So, people who are appalled by the idea who want to protest - don't protest. It'll make things worse! One of the lessons from history people repeatably fail to learn is that as soon as someone makes a fuzz about something (a book, a film, an ad campaign, etc) others will wonder why that person is making a fuzz and be curious enough to do the very thing you didn't want them to do!

Think of when many Romans became Christians when it was a persecuted cult in Rome.

Think of the many people in 1979 who travelled vast distances to see Monty Python's Life of Brian, because their council or country had banned that film, because the powers at be thought it was blasphemous.

And think of the many things that happened in recent years that have resulted from injunctions or someone trying to act their "right to be forgotten"....

The "Right to be Forgotten" discussion on Last Week Tonight (May 2014)

My call to not protest can apply to all forms of cultural protest. That's movies, books, video games with questionable content, or crazes that don't do physical harm (crazes that do should be protested against).

I know, my definition can sound ambiguous, like a tax law with an unintended loophole, but.... 

I think its better if I explain in another blog. 

But for now, I say it applies to questionable ad campaigns, like this one.

And maybe, it will become (probably) the best ad campaign ever - for not causing a drunken brawl.

Would that be great?

Fictional Book #4 The Ash Connection by I am Lu

A while ago, back in the transition from January to February, a fit of desire for distraction made me do something for the first time - explore the rolls of Pokémon fan-fiction on fanfiction.net.

On this internet adventure I discovered this story - The Ash Connection by I am Lu.

It's a well-researched conspiracy thriller involving Team Rocket's recapture of Mewtwo and Giovanni's plot for world domination, through the control of the Earth's climate controls. It only makes a lot of sense if you have (like me) been an avid viewer of the Pokémon TV series (which is still going on today). The writer knows this, and wrote this dedication...

Dedicated to the fans
Who have stuck with the series
From 1997 to 2013
This is for those
Who still believe in Ash

It's a cracking read. 33 chapters and 340,693 words. A story worth reading for any Pokémon fan. The writer has even written a sequel (which is still in writing by the time of this writing) - The Ash Connection II; The Rising. It's involves a bio-terror plot in Unova by Team Plasma (only those who were watching since 2010 will know what those nouns are).

What I really like about this story is its plausibility. The writer has done the research. I can emphasize with that. Really, I can. Don't believe me? If you have read the Act of Cultural Vandalism I made in April 2013 entitled An observation about a boy who like cake! I mentioned that for "research purposes" I read all 14 volumes of the Manga and watched all 150-odd episodes of the first era of the franchise Beyblade. The reason I wrote then was to find out whether the character Max Tate was ever depicted consuming anything sweet (despite his many depictions of been a sugar junkie in the fan fiction). The REAL reason I did this research was for something more ambitious.

Yes, among my many ideas in my projects folder is a piece of fiction involving Beyblade. That is how I can emphasize with I am Lu and that is how I knew with confidence that Max Tate hasn't really got an exaggerated sweet tooth. 

Back to the reason for this post. I have liked this story so much that I decided that it'll be the subject of my next fictional book cover....

I admit I could have done the "photographs" better. I wanted to have this done before April, so I was a bit rushed.

If I am Lu is seeing this, if you like to use this image, go ahead and use it.

Mini Act of Cultural Vandalism - The Rise of James Corden and why bullies will loss in the end

A few days ago I was very surprised to discover that Craig Ferguson had ceased been the host of his American talk show at the end of 2014 and this week had his role been filled in by someone I never thought the Americans actually heard of. For those who have not heard of this, I guess you.... wait! Just read the title of this post. The person who has replaced Craig Ferguson as host of the The Late Late Show on CBS is .......

James Corden

Yes, Smithy from Gavin & Stacey is now the host of a late-night talk-show on CBS. Not bad for someone who was once a very public victim of bullying...

Tango ad 2000 starring James Cordon

Later banned because it encouraged bullying

(Which isn't a surprise for Tango)

Looking at his career (in the form of his Wikipedia page) its incredible how high he has reached in a decade since that public humiliation during the ad breaks for TFI Friday (or any other TV show on commercial TV when this ad was on air). In the ironically-titled Fat Friends James played another victim of bullying who was almost pushed to suicide. After moving school in 2004, he became a star pupil in Alan Bennett's The History Boys. After graduating he did a few bit parts in a few movies, until meeting up again with former Fat Friend Ruth Jones. In 2007 this meeting resulted in the hit sitcom Gavin & Stacey - the show that truly made James a star. After that James has enjoyed amazing success.... well except for his brief folly with Gavin (Mathew Horne) that led to a TV sketch show and a movie (which I have both seen in their entirety and liked, despite what the critics (plus the majority of people) say about them). Even stuff that is dismissed by most have merit. 

But even with his huge success in the UK, I was very genuinely surprised when I found out that James had become a talk-show host in America. I never knew that he won a Tony Award for the Broadway production of the successful One Man, Two Guvnors. I knew he was in a Disney movie recently, but still - Smithy on CBS chatting with Tom Hanks and Mila Kunis? Wow!

I only learnt of this fact thanks to someone posting this clip to my Facebook page.

Tom Hanks and James Corden do every Tome Hanks movie in 7 minutes 

From The Late Late Show With James Corden (2015)

I am more glad that I have started using Facebook now since I started back in October. 

But there is something significant that can be learned from James Corden's story, and its something I have noticed for years. A noticeable number of celebrities have said in interviews that in the past they have been victims of bullying (I can't say that this is really true for James Corden, as I was just playing around with his early performance in a TV ad). And form this fact I can safely conclude that if a child is a victim of bullying that child's chances of future success increases. And this idea has backing. Derren Brown (a former victim himself) talks about this in his live shows. 

Its down to the fact that the bully is usually a kid who has the most natural strength (physically and in attracting "friends") and could go through school without much friction. Such kids never really "try hard" at school. As a result, most bullies have "dull" adulthoods. 

Meanwhile, the victims, because they experience friction at school (due to bullying or factors that usually lead to a child been bullied, or both) do try harder ... and reap the rewards in adulthood (unless the bullying leads to something that'll cut down that person's life before that happens). 

Reading this, I can imagine that some kids will try to get themselves bullied on purpose to try to guarantee future success. 

For those kids (or parents pushing their kids to do so), it won't work. 

Engineered bullying is not the same as natural bullying. 

Don't believe me? Just watch this episode of American Dad!

A Change in Profile Picture

Since I started to upload material online back in 2012 I have used this drawing as my profile picture.

I had made a mock test card graphic, based on the iconic Test Card F used by the BBC. 

You will have seen it on this blog when that Scottish Parliament strip was under construction. I have also used it as the banner on my Facebook page and YouTube Channel 

(I do apologise for not uploading anything to it since 2013. I have been busy with other things, but I do plan to put up some animations on it, so don't despair).

Went it came to making a profile picture, I had this ready-made image, so I used it.

But a few days ago, I visited GOMA with a group. They were holding an exhibition about Alasdair Gray and the main gallery was a large scale public appreciation event where visitors could draw or make things. It had a wall where visitors could hang up self-portraits. I made one. And this is it...

For now on, this will be my profile image.

A strip about the Scottish Parliament Building for NAS Times newsletter (Feburary 2015)

The branch of NAS I've been volunteering in has a workshop that does political stuff (such as how to write to MPs, organize protest groups and so on (I may have made that stuff up)). I'm not part of it, but the group had arranged a tour of the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh in December and I joined them (just to see the building). As a result of my visit, I made this....

I plan to do a second strip about inside this building, but you have to wait for that one, 

as I want to do other things now.

If you are wondering how I was able to draw the main illustration, its a mix of photographs from books and the internet (I didn't take any when I was there (security restrictions and I didn't want to risk it)) and aerial and 3D model screen grabs from Google Earth.

A sketch I did for the newsletter to illustrate an article about the visit (no photos (remember))

A small survey I made about Nintendo

A few days ago, a high school friend said this on Facebook. It was a response to the news that Netflix plans to make a live action series based on The Legend of Zelda game series....

"Here's the thing, I've always seen Nintendo as a "character company" than a games company. So having their characters venture out into other mediums wouldn't be such a terrible idea."

I responded with this...

"You are on to something there. When anyone think's of any movies or TV shows that feature video game characters, I can imagine that most people would think of an Nintendo character first."

Now, usually the average person would stop there and continue their twittering way. But, I had an attack of curiosity.  Was I right? Do most people think of a Nintendo game first when asked "name a video game that has been adapted to film or TV?"

I had to find an answer. I could have done a Google search for a survey about this, but I doubted it existed or if it did, it'll take forever to find. So, instead I decided to do my own small survey.

I E-mailed nearly everyone in my e-mail contacts the question and waited for responses. By the time of writing only nine responded. Of those nine, one-third of them said when asked name a video game that has been adapted to film or TV, the first one they thought of was .........

Tomb Raider

I was wrong. When asked to think of a video game that has been adapted into film or TV, the first thing most people think of is an well-portioned, aristocratic "archaeologist" who was played by Angelina Jolie. A PlayStation game! I imagine this result would anger the people in Nintendo. I can easily imagine Mario crashing his kart into a verge upon hearing this news. I imagine Donkey Kong dropping a barrel on his foot upon hearing this news.  And I don't need to imagine that Pikachu will be pissed by the result (that same friend once said to me that while on a trip in America he was able to have a go of the early voice recognition game Hey You, Pikachu! and when he said "PlayStation" to the cute, yellow critter Pikachu turned Hulk on taser mode).

But, I'm not truly 100% convinced by the result. The sample size was small (nine people). Maybe if I asked more people, maybe the result would be more in my favor. But I am willing to admit I am wrong in this initial result. 

This survey was a spur of the moment thing. And it shows an important factor about how I think. I don't take words at face value. I check up on facts (including my own, such as this one). I inspect the references in Wikipedia and I look up info in fan-generated wikis when it came to stuff that has fandoms (such as bulbapedia) as I find them more informative than regular Wikipedia (fans tend to know more about the subject than even the subject's creators do, an interesting fact worth knowing if you want to research things, like cartoon world and real world comparisons). 

I got stuff to do now, so please GO AWAY.....

Act of Cultural Vandalism - A casting suggestion for a camp grim reaper

Just recently, I watched the first season of the anime Black Butler. I have read the manga (I tend (most of the time) to read the manga first before watching the anime) and liked it a lot. Watching the anime (English-dub) I was impressed with the casting.

J. Michael Tatum's performance as the lead Sebastian Michaelis was magnificent. I believe that this is the role that will be the one that defines him (like Edward Elric defines Vic Mignogna). And there is a very good reason for that, (as revealed in the audio commentary of the DVDs). As a child, in Texas, Michael had a stutter and the speech therapist that treated him was British. Learning this trivial fact, you can understand why I think Sebastian will be the role that will define him as a voice actor. It's thanks to that speech therapist that he was capable to pull of a convincing British accent. He does other accents too (he plays France in Hetalia: Axis Powers).

The only complaint about the dub I have is the voice of Mey-Rin by Monica Rial. I find it a bit too exaggerated and I think people could easily tell that it is an American trying to play a Brit. Sorry Monica, if your reading this, but that's my opinion. Don't shoot me (really, don't).

But this isn't the reason why I'm writing this. The reason for me writing this is regarding the character of Grell Sutcliff. Just seeing an image of him will tell you that Grell is the campist depiction of a grim reaper ever devised by man (or, in this case, woman).

One simple Google Image search will prove this.

The best frame in the manga I can think of that truly sums up this character is this one....

p 120-121 from Chapter 56 of Black Butler volume 12 

(2011 (Square Enix), translated 2012 (Yen Press))

Three guesses what this scene's a parody off?

Also, feel sorry for the young fellow reaper who is playing 

Leonardo's part here who has to work with him.

Note - The creator of Black Butler has been vocal against people on the internet pirating her work. With this observation, I like to point out here that using the scans from a book to illustrate a blog to explain something is, technically, okay under copyright law. This is known under American law as "fair use." It's like quoting passages from books or articles in an essay or speech. If its to explain something, like how camp a character is in a manga is, it is fine. If its just for decoration or the sake of showing it to others, that's a no-no.... unless you got the creator's (or the creator's legal representatives) permission to do so.

You know when you read things a voice speaks to you in your mind. When reading a comic you tend to use voices that fit the characters or the situation the character is in. When it came to reading the manga of Black Butler the voice of Stephen Fry spoke in my mind when it came to Sebastian's obsession with cats (Especially the scene with the tiger in the Noah's Ark Circus story arc.).

p 26-33 the tiger scene from Chapter 24 of Black Butler volume 6 

(2009 (Square Enix), translated 2011 (Yen Press))

I dare you not to try picturing Stephen Fry as Sebastian during that scene....!

Back to Grell. Admittedly the voice that spoke in my mind when reading Grell's dialogue was sort of like... (in the best way I could describe it) a menacing male version of Howard's mother in The Big Bang Theory. More like Howard's impression if his mother. That and a drop of Eric Stuart's voice of James from Team Rocket. That was my idea of what Grell's voice sounded like, prior to seeing him animated. Then I heard Daniel Fredrick's voice for Grell in the English dub and all that changed. From the moment the first sentence was processed in my mind a new image poped into my mind's eye. I now bang my head in shame of not thinking this before. When I watched the anime for the first time and saw Grell Sutcliff praising his love for "Bassy" in a style not out of place in a performance of Shakespeare, the picture that entered my mind was of.....

Christopher Biggins

For everyone outside the UK, Christopher Biggins is an actor and TV presenter well known for his "Bubbly" personality. He's mostly known these days in his theatric performances in pantomimes
(which is a concept that'll take me forever to explain to anyone who has never seen a pantomime as a child). But for the sake of this argument, it does involve a lot of cross-dressing, and Christ is well noted for doing just that.

For everyone who is still not sure about my observation just watch the That Butler, Performer OVA
and judge for yourself. It came with the first season DVD box-set I bought and watched. After watching it you will notice the similarities between Grell and Biggins.

With that I will proclaim this. If (in the future) I make a high budget motion picture (I'm not taking about cheap YouTube videos here) that features a camp grim reaper, Christopher Biggins will be my first choice of actor to play that role. I hope that when that day comes he'll be still alive to do so, even if its just to pose for a photograph for a prop in a movie or TV show.

Well, that's that off my chest. But I am a bit worried about calling Grell "camp", but don't worry readers, I'm ready for him....

They are ways of saying things without actually saying them. 

Something worth thinking about.