January 24, 2006
Mocking Martha
By DEANNA DAHLSAD
Sure, there are many ways to mock Martha, but have you seen her public
service announcements with No Evil Productions? As part of her
arrangement with authorities, Ms. Martha gives smart and stylish birthday
e-greetings.
Martha delivers her birthday greetings, in kind of a word jazz
performance, complete with theremin and dijeridu accompaniment. As
individual performances, they may leave a bit to be desired. But
together, the arrangement achieves a new height in Martha Mocking.
The recipe for success here is this:
Take the traditional happy birthday song, add one celebrity, fold in 2
obscure instruments, and add a dash of the phrase "crop circle" and you
have enough birthday cheer for any computer monitor gathering, no matter
how many uninvited guests show up.
Martha may be doing court ordered community service, but it's a Good
Thing as far as we can see.
Now you can send personalized Martha birthday greetings to your
friends, family and co-workers. Another fine product by the folks at No
Evil Productions. We're making the world a better place, one project at
a time.
Posted by photocartoonist at 9:22 PM
January 17, 2006
Save a Tree
By DEANNA DAHLSAD
Have you made a New Year's resolution to be kinder to all living
things? Have you decided that from this moment on, you'll make choices
which better the health of our planet?
Or perhaps you are being pressured to become a tree-hugger by a family
member or friend who insists that you should make such a change in your
life. To make matters worse, this person has a birthday this week!
If any of this applies to you, boy, do we have a card for you! In fact,
we have many ecards for you.
For the ecologically conscious, ecards are the practical alternative to
paper greeting cards.
With ecards, you not only spare a tree, but you spare the hurt feelings
you would otherwise create by not acknowledging a love-one's special
day. Ecards allow you to both save a tree and save a relationship.
No longer must you hem and haw over the ethical dilemma of kill-a-tree or
hurt-a-friend. Now, the answer's easy: send an ecard!
Just another one of the world's problems solved by No Evil Productions.
(However, when it comes to the 'paper or plastic' question at the
grocery store, you are on your own.)
Posted by photocartoonist at 7:53 PM | Comments (2)
January 14, 2006
Happy New Year (the Julian Calendar)
Happy New Year! According to the Julian calendar today is January 1st, which is
January 14th on the Gregorian calendar, which is the most popular calendar
in use in 2006.
This got me thinking about the other calendars in use in 2006 -
the Islamic calendar (Hijir), the Hebrew calendar and the Yin-yang li,
the Chinese calendar. According to a recent estimate there are about
40 calendars in use today.
According to the US Navy "Julian dates (abbreviated JD) are simply a
continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal Time on
January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar). Almost 2.5 million days
have transpired since this date."
The changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar
occurred in October of 1582, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII. An omission
of ten days of calendar dates was necessitated by the astronomical error built
up by the Julian calendar over its many centuries of use, due to its too-
frequent leap years.
This change to the use of the Gregorian calendar only occurred in
Roman Catholic countries, however. In England for example, the adoption of
this new calendar did not come until 1752.
The Julian calendar was introduced in the year -45 by Julius Caesar. This was
named the "year of confusion" because 90 days were inserted that year to bring
the months of the calendar back in place with respect to the seasons.
After the death of Julius Caesar, the Roman authorities misapplied the
leap-year rule, with the result that every third, rather than every fourth,
year was a leap year. It is believed that Emperor Augustus corrected the
situation by omitting leap years from the Julian years -8 through +4.
After this the Julian calendar finally began to function as planned.
Happy New Year
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:01 AM
January 13, 2006
The Holiday Season Continues
By KAT CAVERLY
The holidays seem to loom so large then in a blink they are yesterday's
news. Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year, Orthodox Christmas and New Year;
the dead remains of last year's holidays still remind us and now I am
in mourning.
It is all gone too soon; the cheer, the spirit, the goodwill towards man.
Now we are back to business as usual.
The weather in New York is more like Spring than anything else and
thoughts of The Season now seem like a magical dream. Sure Valentines Day
is looming large but there is nothing like the rapid fire sequence of holiday
after holiday.
Now taking into consideration that there are a few different calendars we
could argue that it is still The Season. Orthodox New Year is tomorrow,
Jan. 14th this year and Chinese New Year is Jan. 29th, and the Jewish
New Year is at the end of September 2006.
So with the global village The Season starts in September and goes all
the way through February. Happy Holidays!
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:29 PM
Paraskevidekatriaphobics Unite
Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the Fear of Friday the 13th also called
triskaidekaphobia. The sixth day of week, Friday, and the number 13 have bad
reputations in some cultures. But the number 13 is lucky to the Chinese.
It was lucky to the ancient Eqyptians as well.
According to some Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden on a Friday;
Noah's flood and the Crucifixion were on Fridays. Thank God it's Friday takes
on a new meaning now!
In India the Hindus also believe that the number 13 is unlucky, and that it
is always unlucky to have 13 people together at dinner, which is also a Viking
superstition. There were 13 at The Last Supper. And did I mention that the
Crucifixion took place on a Friday!
The most interesting story is about the Knights Templar; a special class of
warrior priests commissioned by the Catholic church to protect Christian
travellers. After hundreds of years they became notorious and accused of
corruption. On Friday, October 13, 1307, then King Phillip IV of France ordered
all of the Knights Templar to be rounded up and executed, with the Pope's
blessings. It certainly was not a good day for those guys.
Read more folklore about Friday the 13th on About.com.
Now what is the meaning of a full moon on Friday the 13th??
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:44 AM
January 3, 2006
My Ten Favorite Things of 2005
By KAT CAVERLY
Boy this was a tough choice; I really loved all of our projects. We did some great
music and some wonderful scripts. The voiceover work was top notch and
the animation team out did themselves in 2005.
The photography, the illustrations, the concepts, the work we are in pre-production
on now, all is very exciting. But I made a choice; the top ten. Please take a look at the
rest. I am sure I left out your top ten.
No Evil Productions: The Reel World #1
The Twelve Relatives of Christmas
Which ones are your favorites?
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:01 AM
January 2, 2006
There's a Reason Why New Year's Resolutions Never Last
By DEANNA DAHLSAD
On New Year's we are supposed to look back and reflect upon the the last
year and our entire personal history, and think about not only what
we've done, but what we haven't done as well. This after a few weeks of
over-eating, over-spending, and in general over-reaching our limits.
Being creatures of impulsivity, we look at our expanding waistlines, our
shrinking bank accounts, and the dark circles under our eyes, and we
decide that we need to put an end to such over-indulgence. We promise,
we resolve, to take better care of ourselves: We'll eat better, work
harder, and spend more wisely.
And then we celebrate our collective promises of clean-living with
another holiday blowout bash.
We awaken the next morning, hung-over on the previous evening's spirits
of gluttony and self-indulgence (if not alcohol spirits), and we begin to
plan our new regimens.
We bring out the food scales, the diet books and the meal planners,
purge our homes of all junk foods, and head for the grocery store to
restock with healthy foods. On the return home, we realize we are too
tired to cook anything, and binge quickly on fast food from the closest
drive-thru window. We comfort ourselves in the fact that we can really
begin tomorrow.
The next evening we make ourselves a broiled chicken breast, a healthy
salad (with only a teaspoon of salad dressing), and we sit at the table,
congratulating ourselves on sticking with the plan. Feeling full and a
bit smug, we decide to tackle those finances.
We get the checkbook, the bill folder, a pad of paper & a pencil, and we
try to create a budget. Somewhere between the heating bill and
yesterday's grocery receipt, we realize we cannot afford to eat healthy
organic vegetables, pay for a gym membership or a few exercise DVDs, and
a pair of yoga pants - unless we take on an additional part-time job.
And if we do that, we won't have any time to cook and will need to rely
on fast food again.
It's about this time that we grab our coats and head for the corner
convenience store where we'll buy an overpriced undersized container of
ice cream.
As we sit on the couch spooning ice cream from the carton into our
mouths we say to ourselves, "Ring out the old year, ring in the new year
- I just feel wrung out!"
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:11 AM
January 1, 2006
Happy New Year 2006
©Kat Caverly and Thomas Hudson Reeve
Posted by photocartoonist at 12:00 AM