Hot Spots Posts

dancing with the stars cartoon
Rejected Melisa from The Bachelor joins cast of Dancing with the Stars. And causes our first sonic boom from Reality TV. ©D.Barstow 2009

Why I Did It:   It’s a brand new world. Now I have to read the newspaper – I mean the bits besides interesting murders, the funnies, and local stuff that makes me mad. Because my syndicate, Uclick, is waiting for more, more, more cartoons, with hungry maws. (and I just used that word in a cartoon recently.)

And I have to send in the cartoon by 6 PM my time, so there goes my Sunday afternoon, unless I do it in advance. Today I didn’t know yet what I would do. I had some ideas: that wolves can now be killed in many states (Obama said he would protect them with the ESA, which lasted, oh, about a month) , Obama’s continual pouring out of money into sinkholes, etc. But you know what I was most excited about today?  TV reality shows, people! ABC did a mashup of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars.

Entertainment Mainstream Media

"I cannot tell a lie. Forget the cherry pie.
"I cannot tell a lie. Forget the cherry pie." © D. Barstow, 2009 All rights reserved

Hey, I’m back. Can you believe it? It’s that darn Illustration Friday… it keeps pulling me in, daring me to match the new topics they put up each week, rain or shine, holidays be damned. (They’re international and free-spirited over there.)

This week’s topic is celebrate. I have some things to celebrate this week, yes, I do!

Not that High Tech Notable Holidays

Thanks to those of you still here! Have been pounding the heart of my computer for 10 days trying to make it live. Right before Christmas I got spyware from a large site (yes, that has many cartoons, which is shocking enough. What kind of person likes cartoons and also sends spyware out?)

I used Kaspersky Antivirus once before, and actually bought a copy, which I never activated – and yet the site told me it is already out of commission. So I downloaded the new trial version. Next morning…it locked me out. Totally. I thought it was my fault for 3 days, that the password I had written down for Windows XP was wrong. Nope. I couldn’t even get in through safe mode, or any form of safe mode.

Kaspersky didn’t reply to my email, and had no answering service. No one helped on their forum. 

Not that High Tech Sad Cartoons

OOh, great dustup on Time Magazine’s list of Best Editorial Cartoons of 2008!

You’ll have to decide for yourself if they made the right decision, and if these cartoons are the BEST. My opinion? (taking into consideration I only started to read editorial cartoons 9 months ago.) I didn’t understand 2 of them. One is terrible, not even a cartoon, and is only self-promotion by Time. The Oz one is a nice drawing.

Anyway, Ted Rall thinks the editors there suck. Ted is a well known syndicated political cartoonist, radio guy, and no doubt creator of other things I don’t know about. He is also editor at a syndicate (don’t know which one) and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He got mad at Time’s lame editorial picks, and let them have it! Daily Cartoonist published his letter in full, and here is an excerpt:

Your list of the Top 10 Editorial Cartoons of 2008 is an insult to editorial cartoonists, many of whom are losing their jobs to the economic downturn in the newspaper industry. In 2008 hundreds of brilliant political cartoonists produced thousands of hard-hitting, thought-provoking and hilarious cartoons about everything from the flash in the pan that was Sarah Palin to the rise of Barack Obama, and all you could come up with was this phoned-in crap?

More at the link! Well, when has a cartoonist ever kept his mouth shut when he sees bad work? Not I. One bad cartoonist spoils the place for everyone.

Mainstream Media The Others (cartoonists)

original Barack Obama chia pet because Bill Clinton is no longer president
The President-Elect Chia Pet cartoon, © D.Barstow 2009.

Kind of self-explanatory. A satisfying Christmas gift or Election Celebration centerpiece. Available only for a limited time, for only $1000, and is sure to sell out this Christmas [or Inaugural] season. (On TV it’s limited, only while the chia pet ads last. Available longer right here, on this cartoon blog. )

An enterprising Josh Madison set up a Chia Pet Diary, with pictures for each day, so you can see it grow. (He has a cow. I’m the only one who has the President-Elect Chia Pet.)

Here is savontv.com, also interested in chia pets:

Q: Why are Chia items only sold during the holiday season?

A: Chia Pets and Chia Heads are handmade pottery items. It takes an entire year to produce enough Pets and Heads for one holiday season.

Who believes this, raise your hand? Oh well, it’s okay to believe in Santa, so why not handmade Chia Pets. And Joseph Enterprises actually owns and makes Chia Pets, but they don’t believe in the internet, nor in websites – they’ve been around for what, 20 years? And no website!!! -, so no linky here.

Not Time Magazine‘s Cartoon of the Week, AGAIN. Do they not get festive? Or is it the idea of Barack Obama with an afro? Go dig in the dirt, Time. 

Notable Holidays

Freedom Cartoons