Archive for May, 2009

Heeeeere’s Conan!

Monday, May 4th, 2009

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paragraph-spacer3LOS ANGELES – Conan O’Brien and his once and future sidekick, Andy Richter, are almost ready to take over The Tonight Show (the premiere is June 1). Final preparations are being made to his brand new studio in Universal City (not on the NBC Burbank lot). NBC released the new Tonight Show logo last week.

conan-set-tvg[MAY 21 UPDATES]: Using my mad internet skills, I found the NBC Conan message board. I can’t quite tell who the players on the board are yet to vouch for them or not, but it’s a treasure trove of raw info and excitement about the new show. What I can tell you is that there are a few faker Twitterers who have been called out by the real Twitterer. I’ve been following his hilarious exploits of a brand new show coming into the world. It’s actually more like a metamorphosis. Chime in if you have any other info.

Jay Leno is winding down his final May sweeps, at least as host of Tonight. He will start his prime time show in the fall.

The Conan, Andy, and logo original images are NBC press materials. The Triumph the Insult Comic Dog original image is from his site. i put them together here using my own illustration elements. The new set photo via TV Guide.com (Chris Haston, ©NBC Universal, Inc.). Hat tip: Aaron Bleyaert on Twitter (@BigBley).

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The Tercel Thief

Friday, May 1st, 2009

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paragraph-spacer3LOS ANGELES – I read the item on my Facebook page yesterday morning, and my heart sank:

Um, yeah, so if anyone sees my car out there without me behind the wheel, please let me know. Much to my surprise my whip was stolen last night.

My good friend, Todd Munson, had lost his “whip”. His ‘86 Tercel was gone.

tercel-cop-croppedTodd and his better half live in a nice little enclave of LA not far from my own Hair District residence. The keyword, though, is LA. Big city, USA. After filling out the police report, he can follow up with questions about any, you know, leads. “Leads, yeah, sure. I’ll just check with the boys down at the crime lab, they’ve got four more detectives working on the case. They got us working in shifts!”

tercel-man-from-blog-smI thought this would be a good project for my Man from B.L.O.G. He agreed to enlist his staff at the applied technologies division of B.L.O.G. Seems they’ve been working with the Intelligence and Information Systems division of Raytheon, and along with Google Maps Street View, have created some really innovative night vision time displacement technologies.

We start out by locating the original car in the Street View window. Ah, there it is. ‘86 Toyota Tercel. Roof-mount bike rack. Check. Duct tape bumper/fender integration. Check. Good.

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Next, we insert my avatar/cybernaut into the program, using the same plug-in used in my first Hyuntley post. Scroll backwards through the space-time continuum, bending the fabric just-so. We’re getting into pre-dawn darkness now. Better invoke the Raytheon. What’s that? He sees something already? Aha! This is what we were looking for.

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Just as Todd thought. It’s a similar model Tercel, probably trolling for a parts car. Who is that getting out of the suspect vehicle? He looks familiar. The next frame is just a lonely, empty space, except for a couple of New Zealanders who appear to be riding around the block on a tandem bicycle. I think they may be part of The Slow Bike Movement. Or perhaps they just decided to go for a bike ride.

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We will indeed be checking in with the boys down at the crime lab from time to time. Just remember: sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you.

[MAY 12, 2009 UPDATE: Todd has launched his new online home, Unicorn Battleground, and has hit the ground running with his treatment of this incident. Give it a read, won't you? As a further incentive, Todd wrote a hilarious open letter to the thief on Craigslist. See his page for the link.]

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