Episode #3: Insects and Personae
Subscribe to Make Believers on iTunes!
Gratitude: Special thanks to Daniel Lee for his frog story, which Alexa recorded with sound effects and wrote a song for, and to Euge for his unanswerably interesting question.
Links of Interest:
• Chocovine, “The great taste of dutch chocolate and fine Cabernet wine.”
• Consider Conscious Eating and The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World if you’re longing to add some data to your vegetarian diet.
• The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch is really just as good as everyone said it was.
• The Host is horrifically heartbreaking, while Strange Days are here again.
• The Village Voice asks “If Cartoons are So Big, Why Don’t They Pay?” and callously answers its own question.
• All Robins are awesome in their own ways, but Jason Todd is the stone cold coolest.
• Garak only wants to love you.
• Watch Andrew “Android” Jones turn the Sydney Opera House into a work of moving art.
Chocovine! I can’t believe you can get that in Walgreens
It’s really good!
I love avocados, they’re so awesome. I haven’t thought about having one for breakfast, but I could definitely replace my luke warm oatmeal.
Wow, other people who haven’t been stung by a bee before! People are always amazed and astounded when I tell them I haven’t been stung. Though, I think it may because of my unhealthy fear of them and my running away from them has helped. Though, pollen sounds delicious. I’m curious where you can get it and which brand to get.
Great podcast! I’ve subscribed on iTunes, so I shouldn’t miss one
Chocovine is really good! It does grow on you, but I still think of it as an every now and then beverage. And alas, I don’t know if it’s available at Walgreens or not. Here in Massachusetts, alcohol is only sold at liquor stores (which my corner store happens to be). No CVS six packs for poor me!
Based on some other comments here, it sounds like we’re bringing our fellow unstung bee admirers out of the woordwork! Our numbers are strong! And also very cautious.
Thanks for listening and commenting, Char!
- Ming.
Hi Char!
I’m sure many ‘health stores’ carry pollen. The pollen I have is from a place called Herbertsville Honey in Point Pleasant, NJ. You can buy it on their website: http://www.herbertsvillehoney.com/
Glad you like the show! Thanks!
Lex
Awesome episode, Ming & Alexa. I asked the cover artist question and I’m glad it sparked a pretty great discussion on how cartoonists and artists in general deserve to be paid for their craft. But! I should say that the whole paying thing was already pretty much a given in my mind. But sometimes fistfuls of cash just ain’t enough for those picky (read: probably very busy) types.
Also the correct answer to question #1 was Appa. Fluffy, non-verbal, and not useless in a fight. He also doesn’t have gross scales.
Can’t wait for the next one!
And thanks again for the question! It was very timely, and I did use it to springboard into a further rant. I guess the issue just must’ve been on my mind!
Falcor’s more of a classic and Lex’s pick, but Appa was totally built for cruising altitude.
- Ming.
But…but part of why I like Falcor is his scales! I like animals that cross taxonomic classes…like the platypus. I also like that Falcor isn’t particularly powerful, despite the fact that he’s a giant dragon thing.
Lex
- I love the Ultimates. I practically swear by Millar and Hitch’s run. I got turned off by the creative team that took over for volume 3. Haven’t read an issue since.
- The Host happens to be one of my favorite monster flicks. The comedy aspect was a bit confusing, but I like the fact that they show the monster early into the film. Most monster flicks keep it hidden and then you’ll see it in all its glory toward the end. Oh, and the CGI was great.
- The Descent 2 was a bit fucked up. In any case, you won’t catch me anywhere near a cave or underground (excluding a well lit subway system).
- Bumble Bees scare me. Never been stung and I plan to keep it that way.
- Ming + Audio books. Make it happen.
- A Heath Ledger version of the Joker would be awesome on a bike helmet.
- Freelance SUCKS. I need to ask you ladies about commission rates. For a non-professional, how much is is too much? Heck, how little is too little? It’s like I’m a nice guy and try to keep peoples budgets in mind, but I feel like I’m screwing myself.
- What ever happened to Cassandra Cain?!
- My Star Trek picks:
Original – Spock
Next Gen – Data
DS9 – Dax (I can get over the “old man” thing)
Voyager – Seven of Nine
Enterprise – I totally skipped that show.
Species 8472. Very bad ass.
Yeah, Kevin only lent me the first two volumes (presumably because those are the only volumes he purchased), and I’m pretty sure I’ll stop my reading there. It’s been a wild and mostly enjoyable ride, so I’m well satisfied by that portion of the series!
I’d love to record an audio book! Do you hear that, Internet? Send me your books and I’ll audio ‘em!
Commission rates vary wildly between professional and amateur artists both. What may work for one artist may not sell at all for another. It’s tricky, but you’ll have to determine your own prices by playing the market! And in the future, may we all earn more and be rolling in piles of art dough. Salut!
- Ming.
I try to make sure I’m making about $25/hour. It’s just what feels right to me.
Lex
After the Sherlock Homes discussion last week, in particular with the mention of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, I’m mildly surprised Ming didn’t know about the link between super-advanced age and the properties of honey.
HUGE Caveat: Now, I haven’t read any Laurie King, as I’ve become very suspicious with my Holmes adaptations (see also: The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, which I chose not to finish, despite the tease of a compelling book flap), so maybe that does’t actually figure highly in her explanation of the Master’s longevity, but I’d seen it linked to pulling him into a modern era by a couple of authors (including Mike W. Barr in Detective Comics), and assumed, based on her title, that she had as well.
I only read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and not any of the other books in the Mary Russell series, and that book I read only once and several years ago. But I don’t think Mr. Holmes had been granted any particular properties of longevity by bees or any other means, he was just portrayed as being slightly older than he had been in his earlier adventures. I believe it was set in the mid 1910s, and Sherlock was described as being “elderly,” somewhere in his sixties, to Mary’s 15. Which, considering their later relationship, is, um. Notable.
Now granted, I guess it’s miraculous that he’s alive at all after his tumble down Reichenbach, especially if you’re a SH purist who doesn’t accept his later Doyle adventures as canon. And I could be completely misremembering this. Maybe he did consume a revivifying pollen poultice. Or… wait. How many books are in the Marry Russell series? DO THEY BOTH BECOME SPARKLE HONEY VAMPIRES?
Mystery, indeed!
- Ming.
Sparkle Honey Vampires should be the new Vatican Assassin Warlocks.
The Mary Russell books are fabulous and well worth a read. The 11th (“Pirate King”) comes out this year in September! I feel they might even be very inspirational artistically what with all the exotic locales/cultures and time periods. If you are looking for a new series I highly encourage you make the commitment to Laurie R. King; you won’t regret it!
The best episode yet! I plan to listen again! I love listening to Make Believers while working on art projects.
Alexa – you may have a future in books on tape!
I do have a question for the next show:
Regarding of your topic of paying artists for their work, when accepting a commission, in the past or currently, have you ever felt the need to exercise discretion? How so? Have you ever felt like you were “selling out,” or did the prospective income trump that feeling?
That was many questions, but I think you have the idea…
Thanks in advance!
So glad to hear you like listening to us while you’re arting away, Chelsea!
We’ll definitely address your question in the next episode, which we’ll probably record tomorrow. It’s an issue Alexa and I have both dealt with, to be sure!
- Ming.
[...] Comments « Episode #3: Insects and Personae [...]