Andreas Matern’s Weblog

It’s the birthday of cartoonist Matt Groening, born in Portland, Oregon (1954). He decided to move to Los Angels after college to try to make it as a writer. He lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and thieves, and got a job ghostwriting the memoirs of an 88-year-old filmmaker. After that, he worked at a convalescent home, a waste treatment plant, and a graveyard.

He started writing a comic strip based on his daily troubles called “Life in Hell.” When a television producer asked Groening to create a TV show, Groening decided to invent a cartoon family that would be the exact opposite of all the fictional families that had ever been on American television. He named the parents after his own parents, Homer and Marge, and he named the two sisters after his own sisters, Lisa and Maggie. He chose the name Bart for the only son because it was an anagram of the word “brat.”

Critics immediately praised The Simpsons, because it was in some ways more realistic than any other American sitcom. Homer was fat, bald, and stupid; he drank a lot, worked at a nuclear power plant, and occasionally strangled his son. His wife, Marge, was an obsessive-compulsive housewife with a blue beehive hairdo. The characters were frequently selfish, rude, and mean to one another, and the show often took on dark subjects like suicide, adultery, and environmental disaster. The Simpsons went on to become the most popular and longest-running sitcom in America.

Matt Groening said, “Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians for the Simpsons, they’re all goofballs, and I think that’s a great message for kids”

From americanpublicmedia

This is from boing boing:

Myself, Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics), and our friend Matt are publishing a fiction anthology later this year. The theme is essentially, “What if everyone knew how they were going to die?”
Two things notable about this book —

1. Submissions are open to everyone, everywhere, and authors will be paid if their work is chosen.

2. Cory’s convinced me. In addition to the printed book, the manuscript will be released online under Creative Commons. (An eventual audiobook will be CC too.)

We’re relying on the fact that our theme is pretty particular, and authors probably won’t be able to go on to sell their Machine of Death story to the New Yorker, to convince everyone that it’s in their best interest to spread the material around (free, natch) as much as possible.

Site is here: machine of death.

I’m going to give this a shot… Happy Valentine’s Day.

Don’t listen to thinks alone at night! This guy has reversed the Audio from the famous brainwashing scene in the recent Lost episode 7 - Not in Portland and found some ultra creepy audio. The key part of the text says “Only fools are enslaved by time and space” the link has the MP3 player. It’s really creepy.

read more | digg story

Salon.com did not like Paul Auster’s new novel. The review is here: “Travels in the Scriptorium” | Salon Books.

I’m a huge Auster fan, so this is a bit of a downer…

Do you hate Valentine’s Day? I don’t … but if you do … send the perfect anti-valentine.

It’s time to get back to work after a week of taking care of more important matters. It ain’t easy getting psyched, especially since I don’t know when/what needs to be done! My calendar is a mess, but I look nice in my new glasses.

I will spend some time writing today, and this little quote is spurring me on:

“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.”

- Richard Harding Davis

I’m going for the old thing in a new way.

Did anyone know that the new Harry Potter book is already available for pre-order? I’m looking forward to it, although I have to admit I’ve been concentrating on light reading of late.

Back at Mom and Dad’s house I noticed my brother had picked up the first Xanth novel, A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth Novels (Paperback)), which I am now reading. Light fare, no great literary accomplishment, but it sure is entertaining. I like how Anthony creates an adventure for his protagonist by giving him one main goal, but having him run through multiple small goals to get there.