Emmys 2010: I actually give a crap!

Emmy nominations have been announced. While I don't love watching award shows, and usually don't care who wins or loses, I feel like this year, a lot more of my time has been invested in watching TV. Because TV happens to be really damn good right now! I've been showing my fandom through my illustrations. I guess Emmy and I have similar tastes this year. Most of my favorite shows and actors have been nominated, and it so happens that I've drawn some of them too!

It's evident that I love Parks and Recreation, and Emmy seems to as well, giving Amy Poehler a nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. Though Nick Offerman was totally snubbed for his role as Ron Fucking Swanson.

Some of my other favorite shows were recognized, some for the umpteenth time (30 Rock), some for the first time. Glee got a thousand nominations, one of which went to the ass kicking Jane Lynch. I respect this; Glee is a wonderfully produced show. Also good to see an underdog nod to Jim Parsons in the Best Male Lead in a Comedy for his role as the endearingly grating Dr. Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.

However, my current, watch-it-first-on-DVR or even watch-it-live show is Modern Family. Easily the show with the most laughs per minute for me. All but one of the main adult cast got nominated, hell, even its casting got nominated! As an ensemble, I suppose it makes sense for them to be corralled into the "Supporting Actor" category. And if you've watched it, MF doesn't seem to have a specific lead anyway (though Ed O'Neill as the patriarch could've been considered for this). That said, my favorite character is Ty Burrell's Phil Dunphy. Perhaps I relate to his "cool dad-ness", probably not a good thing. Either way, he makes me laugh the most, and that's saying a lot for this show, because EVERYONE is a riot. Glad to see the Emmys giving it the recognition it deserves.

Anyway, here's a collage I did a while back, that reflects my picks for their respective Emmy categories. Offerman should get some kind of bacon-related honorary award.

Last of the P-Rex

Here are the final two caricatures to debut on Knope Knows: Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer and Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate!

WoA: Judith in the Sky

This week's episode of Work Of Art challenged the artists to create a book cover for a classic novel. Was it me, or did it seem like amateur hour? Sure, not all artists are commercial artists, but I imagine the lackluster offerings had more to do with the time limit on creativity. Some great works can come to be in a matter of hours, but most take more time than a day. Many of the contestants lacked a knowledge in their source material, which resulted in irrelevant artwork. Not even his cartoony accent could hide the tone of doubt in mentor Simon De Pury's voice as he advised on each contestant's piece.

In the end, Judith got the boot. But at least she went out with her purple and pink-painted middle fingers held high. Clearly, the prize of published art was no consolation for having to complete an assignment in a practical way. She's the embodiment of the kind of artist that annoyed me most in college. No bias towards age, but to me, she was plain stubborn. Again, some people just can't be forced to work within parameters. It's apparent that Judith didn't know what she was getting herself into coming on this show.

More P-Rex

Here's a couple more from the Parks & Recreation series, featured on Knope Knows: Aziz Ansari's character Tom "Tommy Timberlake" Haverford, and Ann Perkins, played by Rashida Jones.

Toy Story 3

Took the family to see the latest Pixar masterpiece, the final(?) installment of the Toy Story franchise. I went in with some expectations; being a toy collector, I spend a lot of time looking through the toy aisles. A lot of the TS3 merchandise I came across felt like spoilers. Fortunately, I avoided doing further detective work to piece together the plot and its resolution. It surpassed my expectations tenfold, and had me crying instantly and throughout the film. There was plenty to laugh at though, heroes to cheer for, villains to boo at, and edge-of-your-seat action. It was an emotional roller coaster, to say the least.

These movies go way beyond the gorgeous animation. Pixar has obviously perfected that tool, which they use to tell equally perfect stories about a beloved cast of characters. These stories are about family; sticking together, staying relevant, loyalty, friendship. This film deals with familiar issues for all of us; fear of abandonment, growing up and moving on, wanting to be held. Such an amazing job has been done over the past 15 years building the characters and their relationships. It's no wonder I have such an emotional tie to them. As a person whose played with toys all his life, I find comfort in the idea that mine are stored safely together at home in my attic. As a husband, son, brother, and uncle, I, at times, wish I could tuck my family away in similarly protective fashion.

It's unquestionably the best of the three Toy Story movies. The previous two were already awesome, so adding this one ranks it among the most perfect movie trilogies of all time. It's probably the best movie I'll see this year, probably the best movie I've seen in the past 10 years. I don't think a movie has impacted me emotionally like this ever. I haven't cried this much at a movie since Up, so it's no surprise that I did here even more. I'll still need the weekend to pull myself together, and maybe my bias will ease up and I can come up with a more level-headed assessment of the film. But really, if I try to think about the movie at all, the emotions come flooding back. I have to give credit to these filmmakers, who easily could have phoned it in, typically done with a third installment of a franchise. But they keep making films better and better and better. It's amazing that computer generated characters could effect me in such a profound way that no real live actor ever could or has. To the team at Pixar and Disney, on behalf of my family, We are eternally grateful.

Work Of Art

I'm not a huge fan of reality tv. But I do find interest in Project Runway, and to a degree, Top Chef, and some interior and industrial design shows, because the art process is involved; they focus more on the creation of something. Bravo has put a show together called Work Of Art, a show devoted to finding "the Next Great Artist".

Watching the show brought me back to my art school days: critiques, assignments, deadlines, working alongside artists whose work I don't get, admiring artists whose work I do get, thinking I get the art when I completely miss the point, thinking something is awful when everyone else seems to gush over it, wishing I'd thought of that.. I can relate, as WoA showcased things I both love and hate about being an artist.

The format is similar to other reality competition programs; there are winners and there are eliminations. This week's elimination was Trong, whom I quickly sketched above. The challenge was to use found electronic devices to create a sculpture. Trong created a piece using four TV sets, painting ironic messages about "reality TV" on them. I thought his piece was clever. But what do I know? The judges considered it unrepresentative of him. Still, Trong left the show "with dignity", despite an non-sportsmanly, unwelcome (and surprisingly unacknowledged) interjection from a fellow contestant. Seems to me that Trong, being an established "fixture" in the art world, doesn't really need a reality show to advance as an artist. However, without the show, I would never have heard of him.

P-Rex

So the most recent thing that's been going on is that my caricatures have been featured on Knope Knows, a Parks & Recreation fansite. Parks & Recreation is a great show on NBC, from the creators of The Office. It started off as a carbon copy, but really found its own voice in its second season, sharing only the "mockumentary" style of storytelling. I really enjoy these characters, so that prompted me to create a series of caricatures based on their likenesses. Knope Knows took notice, and agreed to debut the caricatures on their site weekly.

These two have already been featured on the site. They are of Amy Poehler as the enduring government employee Leslie Knope, and Nick Offerman as her apathetic superior. I'll repost the other two that have already debuted on Knope Knows in the next couple of days. There are two more planned, to pop up in the next couple of weeks.