The Ben Esch Website

But I had to show you guys one more thing by Jon Klassen.  I didn't actually know this existed until a couple days ago, so I feel justified blogging about him twice. 

Anyway, this here video is called "An Eye for Annai" and it is one of the most badass things I have seen all year.  And yes, that includes the new Star Trek Movie, Up, and Ellen Page at the coffee shop (author's note: she is seriously tiny.  Like, I'm pretty sure she could fit into a duffel bag and ship herself places if she didn't want to pay for a plane ticket.)

And the fine folks at youtube were kind enough to let me post this, so you don't even need to click anywhere to watch this.  Just scroll down a skootch, and enjoy some super fine animation. 

There are some good parts about living in LA. 

The Good Parts about LA

1.  I saw the chick from Juno at a coffee shop once. 
2.  Walking distance to several taco trucks (true story 1: my favorite taco truck got fire bombed a couple weeks ago.  True story 2: even fire bombings are not enough to keep me from my favorite taco truck). 
3.  I get to hang out with some really talented people. 

I'm sure there are some other cool parts, but right now I want to focus on #3.  Specifically, I want to talk about Jon Klassen.

Jon is a ridiculously talented artist and all around good guy.  His website is here, and his blog is here and both chock full of some of the coolest art work you've ever seen.  You know, I was kinda tempted to rip some of his artwork off his website and post it here so you have an idea of the depth of his artistic coolness, but stealing pictures kinda seemed like a jackass move on my part, so I didn't do it. 

Anyway, I think the easy solution to this is for you to visit his website and give the stuff a look for yourself.  Thanks.  Here's the link again in case you missed it the first time. 

And once you're done checking out his website, I want you guys to click on one more link for me.  I know, I know, I'm asking for a lot of clicking out of you guys with this post, but this click is most definitely worth it. 

Question:  Why is it worth it to click on the next link? 
Answer:  Because Jon just made an animated video for U2. 

Question:  Effing U2? 
Answer:  Yes, effing U2. 

The link to the video is here and it's a doozy.  It looks cool and you are guaranteed to feel feelings when you watch it. 

I wanted to post a youtube of the video here, but U2 won't let me embed it on my website for some reason or another, that probably involves money and lawyers and probably makes a lot of sense. 

Either way, please give the video and the rest of Jon's stuff a looksie.  You'll be glad that you did. 

Hey readers,

Just so you know, celebrities that get on soap boxes and talk about issues have always kind of pissed me off for some reason.  I'm not sure why.  Like, I understand that thinking about Darfur and electric cars and stuff is important, but as soon as George Clooney or Leo or somebody equally handsome starts talking about it, I immediately tune out.  And I like George Clooney.  A lot.  Some might say that I like George Clooney to a "verging on uncomfortable" extent.  That's how much I like George Clooney.   

Anyway, now that we have that covered, I'm gonna get on a soap box and talk about an issue.  I feel pretty okay about this for a couple of reasons: 

Reasons why I feel comfortable in my hypocrisy

1.  I'm not a celebrity. 

Cool.  Okay, so let me get down to the nitty gritty of the issue: 

The issue:  people have got to leave Carrot Top alone. 

Don't ge me wrong, I used to hate on Carrot Top just as much as everybody else.  I hated those goddamn ATT commercials or whatever that he did back in the 90s and yes, his recent physical changes have been a bit, uhh...unsettling. 

Hey readers,

The title pretty much sums up the tone of this particular blog pretty well, but let me spell it out in a bit more detail. 

Longtime blog reader, proud Canadian, and overall good person Monica posted a super duper positive review of Sophomore Undercover on her blog the other day.  The link to the review is here.  Please give it a looksie. 

Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering why I never link to any of my reviews that aren't super duper positive, and I have an easy answer for that. 

The negative reviews hurt my feelings. 

And as long as we're on the subject of bad reviews and hurt feelings, let me throw a little preview of an upcoming blog topic at you guys.   

Hey readers,

So, I know it's been a while since I've put up any writing tips, and there's a pretty important reason for that: I basically have no idea what the hell I'm doing. 

But, taking a step back from that for a second, I would like to share with you guys one of my more important lessons of writing: 

Don't question the muse. 

There are things that are going to inspire you to write.  It's not your job to judge them, it's not your job to choose them, pretty much the only thing you can do is pay attention to what they are and make sure that you are surrounded by them when it's time to get creative. 

This has meant different things for me:

Things that poke my muse

Ratatat
toothpicks
Diet Root Beer
french vanilla Coffee Mate

But over the last few days, something has poked my muse harder than all of that stuff.   

Author's note:  this next bit might hurt my street rep a little.