Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #17: Onanism

Back after the Christmas break, this week I celebrate both sex and Jesus. It's that time of year, I guess!



If you want to subscribe to my Word-a-Week series, here's that feed link or you can find iTunes here.

My Christmas Haul 2010

Christmas is the time for receiving and showing off smugly what you got to your friends. I'm a blogger so I have no friends. Which means I'm going to have to brag to you lot instead. You faceless friends o' mine.

I managed to walk away with a good stash of stuff from the family this year. So here is the whole kit caboodle.

Please note, I was given no actual caboodle.

Christmas Jumper

10 years ago I probably would have cried about receiving this gift. Sadly, it was my favourite of the lot this year. I guess I am getting old. It's really warm and soft. I look totally boss in it. What's not to love?
I guess if it wasn't a video game, my teenage self would have been disappointed. Times have changed. My fashion sense probably hasn't changed.

Also, now I can do a Bill Cosby impression! Always a hit at parties.

My kind of parties, anyway.

Mistletoe & Whine: More Carol Singing

Well I have to say, the FRED Holiday Havoc this year has a great line up. Tom Kenny, James Urbaniak, Stan Lee, Jonathan Coulton, Billy West, Dana Snyder, Ken Plume and... me. Well, it was good until the end there.

My final song in a trilogy of Christmas "hits" has gone online. #27 is the Cliff Richard classic Mistletoe And Wine. I actually gave singing a shot this time so be kind.

CLICK ME TO LISTEN!

A Merry Hands Down Christmas

The Hands Down Christmas special is here. It's late but in the spirit of the season I'll spare the whip.

You won't see HD again until January so soak it up while you can!

CLICK ME TO READ THE STRIP!

More Christmas Singing

And I'm totally sorry about that. Ken asked me to do a bunch of songs. This was the only one I hadn't heard before. I wish I still hadn't. It's awful. Worst Christmas song ever written. And I covered it.

Again, I'm sorry.

FRED Holiday Single #25 - I Believe In Father Christmas originally sung by the horrible Greg Lake, now sung by the rocking Aaron Poole. Enjoy.

Click to listen!

12 Days of Catmus: Day 12

12 Days of Catmas: Day 11

From The Vaults: A Christmas Story Commentary

Last year myself and Brian watched, for the first time, a classic Christmas film. It's called A Christmas Story and despite it's general love by the whole American populace, no-one has ever heard of it over here.

As part cultural exchange / part people pleasing maneuvering we decided to record a commentary for the film. We don't entirely agree on the quality of this movie and lots of arguing ensues. 

So if you're going to watch A Christmas Story again, pop on our commentary and let us ruin the whole experience for you!

Click The Big Goofy Face To Listen!

12 Days of Catmas: Day 10

Weekend Justice #94: Rox Saves Christmas!

I just about managed to appear on this week's Weekend Justice Podcast. I was able to stay up late and was all ready to talk until I realised my internet was down. Luckily I got to steal the wifi from a neighbour but let's just say you get what you pay for.
As a result, I'm probably not as chatty in this one as I would have liked but there is still gold to be found.

This week features myself, Rox, Widge, Rob, Tuffley, Leigh and guest appearance from the lovely Cosette.
We talk about fruitcake, Christmas, drugs and Watchmen. Not necessarily as separate topics.

Click the picture to listen to the show!

12 Days of Catmus: Day 9

From The Vaults: Cabin Fever's Christmas Carol

Last year, myself and the usual suspects decided to remake Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol but with no money and very little planning. Sadly, I think it came out great. Considering.

Give it a gander and fill yourself with the Christmas spirit. A cheap christmas spirit.

12 Days of Catmas: Day 8

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #16: Winsome

My Top 5 Girls I Can Run Away With And My Girlfriend Can't Get Mad List has been serious business for me ever since that episode of Friends. I've been a loyal man over the years too. Very rarely has that list changed.

Today, you get to marvel in it.

12 Days of Catmus: Day 7

H.E.L.P.E.R. X.M.A.S.

Today I received a rather awesome surprise in the post. A Christmas card from Alma B. with some Hersheys chocolate and... this bad-ass H.E.L.P.E.R. tree ornament!

Needless to say, a massive thank you and an iFive for such a cool Venture Brothers gift. It has taken a pride place in the middle of the tree.

That tree however isn't much to write home about. In complete Charlie Brown fashion I have a bit of a pathetic Christmas tree.

I've resorted to placing it on a barstool just so it can be seen. It's bout 2 foot high and could be blown over by a sneeze.

I still love it though... MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

12 Days of Catmus: Day 6

HANDS DOWN News

Hey guys, if you're waiting for the new Hands Down strip to go up today, unfortunately you'll have to wait a little bit. Myself and artist John Merker decided a little while ago that because both of us have full time jobs and because both of us have crazy schedules we should take a bit of a break over the Christmas period. You know, so that we don't lose it and kill everyone in the post office.

So December will be a dark month for the comic. We'll have a Christmas special going up on the 20th but you won't hear from us again until January. We've got lots of stuff planned for 2011 which I'm really excited for you to see.

Enjoy your holidays, and we'll see you in the new year!

Thanks a million for reading Hands Down and making us the merriest of geeks.

12 Days of Catmus: Day 5

FRED Holiday Single - "Last Christmas" by WHAM and me

As part of the Holiday Havoc that goes on at ASiteCalledFred.com I have made my first contribution to the Holiday Singles. Ken Plume has already done a bunch and Dana Snyder has contributed too. There will be a whole heap of them coming up over the next couple of weeks. My first one is #12 and it's WHAM's classic Christmas ditty "Last Christmas". A song I both love and hate in equal measure.

Click the logo to hear my song and all the others involved!




12 Days of Catmus: Day 4

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #15: Stripling

Yeah, I'm late, I know. But I'm not as young as I used to be. My energy runs out now and when I'm as busy as I have been for the last week or two, I just don't get a chance to do certain things.

I thought I'd incorporate this feeling of decrepitude into this week's word.

12 Days of Catmas: Day 3

TDMTLTUT: Earthworm Jim

I loved Earthworm Jim. It was one of the few things that I got into from the very beginning. I had played the original video-game on my Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for those Americans reading) and adored it for it's anarchic humor. Humor wasn't really a big selling point in games back then but when you get to launch a cow into space or ride a giant hamster you either embrace the madness or you miss out on all the fun.

Jim then got the cartoon show and I was pretty excited. As a grown-up I've gotten used to seeing things I like in one medium get transferred to another pretty regularly, I guess it's part of being a comic book fan, but back then it was a new sensation to me. I would get to scrutinize something for the first time. Would it keep things from the game? Would it change the stuff I like? Luckily I was never disappointed. Yeah, those disappointments came later in life. I'm looking at you Spider-man 3.

12 Days of Catmas: Day 2

I Heart Graffiti: Nasty

The Bernard Shaw strikes again. This is the biggest piece I've seen there in a while that wasn't advertising for something. It oddly has snowballs dotted around the face of it. Shame about the shadow across the middle.

Click to see larger version

12 Days of Catmas: Day 1

Cruachan - "I Am Warrior"

Recently I got a gig filming a concert for the band Cruachan. They're one of the originators of folk-metal and currently recording a new album. Myself and the folks from Constellation Productions got the job done and the first of the songs from the night went up this morning.

I'm rather proud of it considering its the first serious video I've done in a long time. Hopefully I can do more soon! Check it out and let me know what you think.


Cruachan - I Am Warrior from Aaron Poole on Vimeo.

The Bluetones. Live in Leeds.

There are only a few bands I've seen in concert more than twice. R.E.M. is one. The Frames are another. The Bluetones trumps them by quite a number of gigs. I'm kind of a part-time band-stalker.

The obsession started around '98 when I fell in love with an album called Return To The Last Chance Saloon. I was 15 and it was one of those life changers. I bought it on tape (that's right kids, that thing before CDs) and played it an infinite number of times in my room as I sulked that the world didn't understand me. Unlike other teenage music obsessions, this one actually held up over time and became my "desert island record", the one I'll save in a fire.

Over the years I've made good friends with other fans and we all meet up for a few drinks and a bit of a dance at the gigs. On Saturday I flew over to England to meet a bunch of my fellow stalkers and see The 'tones play in Leeds in a little venue called Escobar. Some would say that "little venue" was being generous and they're 100% correct. I'm a generous person.

The band played under some romantically festive Christmas lights and serenaded us with a set chock full of tracks from the new album A New Athens and a couple of classics thrown in.The new stuff sounded great live and the band were playing tighter than I've heard them in quite some time. Highlights of the night included some free-form improvised jazz, the keyboardist's hair and a drunk man down the back of the venue who kept singing She's Electric for some reason unknown to the universe.

So check out their current single below. The video is made by 'tones bass player and rather damn good artist Scott Morriss!

The Bluetones - Golden Soul from scott morriss on Vimeo.

From The Vaults: Guide To Podcasting

This is the first comedy video I ever did online. I made it in hopes of;
1) becoming super famous and popular and a hit with the ladies... which obviously worked.
2) helping folks such as yourself make a podcast and become slightly less famous than me.

So please enjoy this Public Service Announcement. And if you caught it the first time round, enjoy reminding yourself how funny it is. Seriously, its hilarious. I'm a super genius, me.



PS: In hindsight the hair probably wasn't a good look for me.

TDMTLTUT: Saved By The Bell

Bullying: It's Cool, Yo.

For my second installment of They Don't Make Them Like They Used To I'm picking another theme tune that I know by heart. Saved By The Bell was probably the first show I ever obsessed over. I watched every episode repeatedly and stored endless amounts of useless trivia about the show in my teeny tiny brain. For example, do you remember that Zack lived next door to Jesse and could climb up to her bedroom via a tree in her garden? No? I do. And that's my burden.

Zack Morris was is my hero. Some people grew up wishing they were Michael Jordan or Ferris Bueller. I wanted to be in Zack Attack. Lets look at the facts. He was blonde... I'm blonde! He was skinny... I'm skinny! He had the hots for Kelly Kapowski... I have the hots for Kelly Kapowski! It's like we were twins, separated at birth. The only difference is that he got to do all the things I wanted to do and I sat at home watching him.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #14: Gelid

I brave the storms for you. Sure, it's late this week, but I could have lost a toe out there! I hope you're happy.



If you want to subscribe to my Word-a-Week series, here's that feed link or you can find iTunes here.

Snowed In

Things have been a little patchy around here. I took a break for Thanksgiving. Then another for my birthday yesterday. All the while it's been snowing cats and dogs (hey, if rain can use the phrase so can snow). I took a couple of pictures of the city in snow time. Two were for the previously mentioned scavenger hunt I'm doing. The task was "abandoned buildings". The others were just for me.