Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Monday, January 11, 2010

Death Comes to Town Party

We saw the first episode of Death Comes to Town at the Kids in the Hall launch party at the Rivoli tonight and did a whole lotta minor Canadian celebrity spotting ... it seemed like the entire cast of Boyfriend Latte was there. And Peter Keleghan from Leslie My Name Is Evil was everywhere. Ever present in life just like he is on tv.

OK, here's the scoring:

Best Sighting: Jesse Camacho, the guy who centres Less Than Kind. Less Than Kind flew so far under the radar, I would mention the show to people who work in Canadian tv and hardly anybody had heard how great it is. But great it is and you can still go back and watch the first season via the link above. Spotting someone from something so good is +10 pts.

Internet Meme Sighting: I recognized a tall, redheaded woman but couldn't place what show she was from. Then it hit me ... I had seen her in this "PPP cyberspace video" with the guy from The Beachcombers on Everything is Terrible:

I dunno ... I think I deserve some kind of bonus for that one. +12pt

Best 'Who Knew?': Diana Swain in real life? Smoking hot. +7

Best Sighting of a Person Who Never Did End Up Sitting Down: We were milling around and Amber is pregnant and gets tired from time to time, so she set her bag down on an empty bench for a moment and some woman asked her to move the bag because Ron Sexsmith, who was being interviewed, had been saving the seat. The woman clearly wanted Ron to sit beside her and was worried that some pregnant woman was going to spoil her night (we weren't sitting down ... I was trying to show her Jesse Camacho). If you see the interview and see us behind him talking to someone and looking confused, that's what's going on.

And then ... Ron Sexsmith ... just walked away.

But that's Toronto ... when we were in Buenos Aires, we were surprised at how people bent over backwards for pregnant women. Amber was always offered seats on the subway (which never happens in Toronto) and we even went through the line for 'diplomats and pregnant woman' at the airport. And that was months ago ... she's way more pregnant now. In Toronto, people ask her for her seat on the streetcar and the other day at the grocery store, a woman asked her if she could butt ahead of her in line because she was in a hurry. +2

Best 'I'm Glad That Happened So Fast' Sighting: We were on our way out the door and I heard some woman exclaim, "I LOVE YOU." So I looked, wondering "Who does she love?" Who does she love? Ron James. I was six inches away from Ron James for less than a second and then we were gone.

Ok, I didn't want to get into this, but what the hell ... a lot of people love the comedy of Ron James. I don't like the comedy of Ron James. I don't like Friends, either. I'm a bad person. If you go to the CBC website and watch the first episode of his tv series, you will actually hear him say the joke about getting older and having hair growing where it shouldn't and disappearing from the places where it should grow. Yes, I'm getting older and yes, that's happening to me ... but it's still one lame, stinky old joke.

So, in December Torontoist was doing this Heroes & Villains feature and CBC was one of the heroes and I illustrated it with a sarcastic, overly-cheesy picture of Being Erica ... because I was pissed off that my earlier, sexier idea , on the right, was bounced:

When I submitted my orginal, Torontoist said that they "didn't get it". So I explained that the CBC 'hero' is in jeopardy -- as CBC always is -- but the sexy supervillain recognizes that the CBC has got it going on and she's turned on by that but one thing confuses her ... when you've got so much going for you, WTF are you doing with Ron James? Ha. Ha. Ha.

But Torontoist said they didn't "get it" and wouldn't run it ... and would I please remove the visible nipples when I reworked it. And make it "happier". Well, that pissed me off further because a) it's legal for a woman to show their nipples all they want in this province, and b) the reason the nipples are there in the first place is a nod to the Batman nipple suit in Batman & Robin. I'm pretty sure they'd run a picture of that suit without batting an eyelash. So, I made that argument and said that I wanted to keep the nipples in the reworked cartoon and they said 'no' because they were worried about getting blocked by internet filters ...

Which turned out to be bullshit, because when the feature appeared, they had no qualms about using the term 'fucked up', unedited ... if you're concerned about filters you tend to use f*cked up or f--- up. And look at it ... the pic is pretty damn tame.

So, soundly chilled, I went and altered the roughs of some of the other illustrations because I reckoned I'd crossed Torontoist's line again (and because the Ron James joke continued through a few of the other cartoons) and I didn't have time for drawing, let alone redrawing. I'm a Kids in the Hall fan and I think that influence sometimes shows up in my drawings ... but Torontoist wanted Ron James.

Fortunately, I'm still really mad about it. +10

So, final score: 5344. Bonus!

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