New Years' Misc.

[divalea]

"Sometimes I feel bad about things that happen in the comics industry, and then every year I get to read this survey and its exercise in myopia and self-absorption and suddenly I don’t feel as bad. Thanks, Heidi!"

-Tom Spurgeon, commenting on The Beat's Year-End survey.

Tom's site, The Comics Reporter,  has been down a while. I guess it's getting to him. When it's up again, please visit. It's a totally different take on comics, and I like it.

I am the first myopic, self-absorbed respondent at The Beat, so, by all means, go see my myopic, self-absorbed answers.
I want to think Tom didn't mean me, but my answers were pretty self-absorbed. One rarely gets a chance outside one's own blog to take the mike. I could've said, "World peace and a pony," but I wouldn't mean it.
My self-absorption is unremarkable and sincere.

We went to San Antonio's New Year's celebration. We took a pass on walking through crowds of drunks and underdressed women. Instead, we parked about a half-mile away from one of the three event stages and walked. After a huffy few moments convincing King that a park bench was a good watching spot, but not the best watching spot, we got to a stage.
In about twenty minutes, we witnessed the lamest New Year's Countdown Ever. I'm not sure if it's the fault of the taffy-headed woman counting down, or someone who was supposed to keep her on task, but as the elevator neared the top of the Tower of the Americas, she was still shouting into her mike.
"Countdown--"
And the elevator hit the top, and fireworks started.
"uh, ONE!"
That's something you really want to fuck up for a quarter-million people (which is just slightly less than the entire population of San Antonio). It does make a great story, which is why I shared it.

There's lots more simmering, but posting about it will have to wait.

Comments

[budgie-uk.livejournal.com]

For two years (in the long ago when I actually had something published) I received invites to take part in the survey.

Twas fun to do so, I'll admit.

[doronjosama.livejournal.com]

I saw that countdown on TV and was baffled as to why the elevator was going up and NO ONE WAS COUNTING. It is to laugh! You gotta love our local news anchors, they're not the brightest bulbs in the box sometimes. It was a San Antonio news anchor who we heard say, on the air, "And a happy CHAW-NOO-KAH (actual pronunciation) to all our Jewish friends" one year. XD

Here's hoping the new year is happier for you and yours. So glad to see the end of 2007.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly sure what he means by self-absorbed. Of course when you give someone a microphone that shouts out to a large audience they're going to try and promote their own work. That's good PR, and he knows it. In fact, that's the bleedin' first question! So perhaps this should have been reorganized so that the "What are you doing in 2008?" question came last. That way, the focus would have been on what people see in the industry from their perspectives first, and then got to do the self-promotion. But that's Heidi's fault (sorry, Heidi) not yours.

[yaytime.livejournal.com]

I had a similar reaction as Tom--although maybe with a bit less snark?
It wasn't that any one came across as self absorbed (especially in the sections intended for project plugging) But when asked about the state of the industry or the affect of a newstory most people had no answer, or said what they thought was the correct answer or mentioned something connected to themselves (or a close friend). So reading the piece as a whole you get the sense that nothing very specific happened last year. But I don't think that's the fault of any one person being interviewed.

[bookiekat.livejournal.com]

I was asked to participate last year, which was interesting for me, because I'm so much on the periphery (I'm a librarian who writes about comics and graphic novels for other librarians), but I guess I was asked because I had been an Eisner Judge a couple of years ago. I'm sure people read my comments and asked themselves "who the f- is she?"

The only thing I want to celebrate on Dec. 31 is my dad's birthday, but my parents live thousands of miles away, so ... I worked on a deadline. And our redneck neighborhood was actually quiet (in years past various people would set off random rockets throughout the day and go totally bonkers about 11:45 pm - this year, almost total silence).