RustyJames's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=RustyJames2002-12-05T08:18:13ZAmy Racecar (idea)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/Amy+RacecarRustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-05T08:18:13Z2002-12-05T08:18:13Z<p>The star of <a href="/title/Stray+Bullets">Stray Bullets</a>' story within a story, Amy <a href="/title/Racecar">Racecar</a> lives in a world of never ending bank robberies and long lonely rides in <a href="/title/spaceship">spaceship</a>s.
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<p><a href="/title/Amy">Amy</a> is the creation of fictional character and 10 year old girl <a href="/title/Virginia+Applejack">Virginia Applejack</a> so you'll understand that her adventures are appropriately filled with <a href="/title/off+the+wall">off the wall</a> <a href="/title/flights+of+fancy">flights of fancy</a> and wild mood swings. Amy's a girl who knows what she wants except when she doesn't.
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<p>Amy Racecar quickly became a fan favorite in David Lapham's long running and critically acclaimed comic book series. I think what makes the character work is Lapham's inexplicable talent for capturing the paradoxically zany yet angry temperament of prepubescent girls (I don't mean literally, like he keeps them locked in his basement). In that way he's kind on similar ground as <a href="/title/Dan+Clowes">Dan Clowes</a>' take on <a href="/title/Enid+Coleslaw">Enid Coleslaw</a>. Now that I think of it I'm surprised the comparison isn't made more frequently.
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<p>While the Amy Racecar issues are often mildly annoying<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Virginia Applejack (idea)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/Virginia+ApplejackRustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-05T07:38:39Z2002-12-05T07:38:39Z<br>
<p>One of the main cast members from the funny book series <a href="/title/Stray+Bullets">Stray Bullets</a>. <a href="/title/Virginia">Virginia</a>'s a troubled kid with a <a href="/title/hair+trigger">hair trigger</a> temper and a wild imagination.
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<p>Her mom's an impossibly evil psycho bitch, and the two of them are constantly at each others throats. Her dad seams like an okay guy, but I think that there's something up with him too, expect creator <a href="/title/David+Lapham">David Lapham</a> to elaborate on that is upcoming issues.
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<p>Anyway, like most characters in the series who seem like decent enough people, good times are not ahead for old pops. After the shit goes down Virginia takes to periods of running away from home and eventually escapes into a whole other story arc.
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<p>Like I said Virginia's an imaginative kid and she's alway righting stories about the on goings of her life which are pretty good many of which involve her pet creation <a href="/title/Amy+Racecar">Amy Racecar</a>, her <a href="/title/alter+ego">alter ego</a> whom she gradually transforms into over the course of the series.<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>December 5, 2002 (thing)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/December+5%252C+2002RustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-05T07:13:34Z2002-12-05T07:13:34Z<h3>A Flacid Weapon</h3>
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<p>Riding the <a href="/title/El">El</a> home at night there was a nondescript woman sitting next to me, any attempt to explain the woman beyond that would be all lies, she was nondescript it was really that simple.
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<p>Another woman got on at the platform but she was descript. She stumbled on wearing an oversized red parka and a black hat pulled low over her bony face, cracked and split from the cold, Her eyes open so wide it was like they were trying to escape. She was waving a bag of <a href="/title/peanut+M%2526M%25E2%2580%2599s">peanut M&M’s</a> at the nondescript woman like it was a flaccid weapon while she rambled nonsense at her. The nondescript woman tried hiding in the corner.
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<p>Then she turned to me and I realized her super wide open eyes were unreadable. She waved the M&M’s at me and mumbled something about ‘meaning no harm’, She was holding the bag firmly in an outstretched hand and all I could think was that it was really important to her that I take them.
So I did and there was quiet moment before she skulked away. The nondescript woman looked at me really weird when I started eating the M&M’s.
<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>Stan Brakhage (person)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/Stan+BrakhageRustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-04T02:14:33Z2002-12-04T02:14:33Z<p>Noted avante-garde film maker.</p>
<p>Born in 1933 Stan Brakhage was a music prodigy in his youth, and later an aspiring poet. Then in 1958 he broke onto the <a href="/title/avant-garde">avant-garde</a> scene in a big fuckin' way with his <a href="/title/movie">movie</a> <i>Anticipation of the Night</i>. Brakhage accredited this film for his transformation as an artist," I grew very quickly as a film artist once I got rid of drama as prime source of inspiration."</p>
<p>Brakhage made some 300 films since 1952 most of which don't exist on VHS or DVD and have running times anywhere from 9 seconds to 4 hours (<i>The Art of Vision</i>), and most film scholars have given up on creating the complete Brakhage filmography. He's always veered away from any kind of formal narrative; his later works especially are usually painted <a href="/title/16mm">16mm</a> film or light reflected through some kind of membrane, a membrane which is often glued onto the film. Imagine <i><a href="/title/2001%253A+A+Space+Odyssey">2001: A Space Odyssey</a></i> but without all the excitement.</p>
<p>Seriously though—I guess his films are what<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Super 8 (thing)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/Super+8RustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-03T08:51:33Z2002-12-03T08:51:33Z<br>
<p>Before video people used to shoot their home movies on cheap film stocks like <a href="/title/8mm">8mm</a> which was just a strip of <a href="/title/16mm">16mm</a> cut in half. In the nineteen sixties <a href="/title/Kodak">Kodak</a> introduced super 8 film which was” super” in that it was made with smaller sprocket holes along the side so that the image surface area was greater.
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<p>Despite its cost, $15 for a three minute roll plus another $10 for developing, the obsolete medium is supported by a die hard fan base of purists, enough that Kodak still makes a few different flavors of super 8. It's tough getting developed though. Kodak has a color lab in <a href="/title/Switzerland">Switzerland</a> and as far as I know it's the only place in the world that will process the stuff. There are a few places that still do black and white, and I send mine to <a href="/title/Batavia%252C+Illinois">Batavia, Illinois</a>.
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<p>Of course any super 8 fan worth his salt eventually tries his hand at home developing, but it's dangerous and impractical.
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<p>So what's the point?
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<p>well, for one thing it's a purist issue. There's a<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Stray Bullets (thing)http://everything2.com/user/RustyJames/writeups/Stray+BulletsRustyJameshttp://everything2.com/user/RustyJames2002-12-03T08:24:08Z2002-12-03T08:24:08Z<br>
<p>A <a href="/title/comic+book">comic book</a> (or funny book) written and drawn by <a href="/title/David+Lapham">David Lapham</a> and published by his independent press, <a href="/title/El+Capitan">El Capitan</a> Books.
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<p>It's about a cast of lowlifes and hoodlums making their way through a maze of small time misadventures. The series is known for it's tragically high mortality rate of innocent bystanders, children especially have a habit of careening into harms way during the course of events.
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<p>Each issue in the series stands on its own but also works as part of an over-reaching arch as the stories threads between an ensemble of familiar (but ever changing) cast of characters.
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<p>What sets Stray Bullets apart from similar comic books, most notably <a href="/title/Frank+Miller">Frank Miller</a>'s <a href="/title/Sin+City">Sin City</a>, is Laphams focus on smaller more character driven moments. That said, when SB gets ugly it gets <a href="/title/botched+nose+job">botched nose job</a> ugly
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<p>The series is divided into three volumes, each collected in <a href="/title/graphic+novel">graphic novel</a> form. <i>Innocents of Nihilism</i>, collecting issues 1-7; <i>Somewhere Out West</i>,<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…