Phil-enstein returns in EP210 to add a touch of colour to Phil's life.
A couple of things this week... On the upside, it was my little brother's birthday last week. Happy birthday ol' man!! On the downside, I was saddened to hear that Fayard Nicholas passed away on January 24th, 2006. He was one half of the famous Nicholas Brothers dance team. These guys were wild!! It's like they bounced off the walls when they did their tap dance routines. They could sing too. One of my favorite soundtracks is "Chattanooga Choo Choo" from the movie Sun Valley Serenade (1941) where the Nicholas Brothers sing a rarely heard second chorus of the song with Dorothy Dandridge all backed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The band then leads out with a sequence of tempos that increase as the Nicholas Brothers tap dance. I never get tired of listening it (my family can attest to that). But the best routine I've ever seen on film was the brothers dancing to Cab Calloway's "The Jumpin' Jive" in the movie Stormy Weather (1943). These guys finish the number leap frogging over each other down a set of stairs doing the splits as they land on each stair. Still amazing to watch more than 60 years later.
In EP209, Phil's back and the "Don't Be A Drag" Queen has legs!!
On the political front, we just had an election here in Canada. I'm disappointed with the outcome. The Conservatives are forming the government, but fortunately it's a minority government. For me, the Conservatives are scary. They want to change the definition of marriage so it no longer includes gays and lesbians, among other things. They were planning to do this by having a free vote in parliament on the issue. Fortunately, with a minority government, it's unlikely to pass. But I just don't get it. We've had same sex marriage for 6 months now and the sky hasn't fallen, society hasn't crumbled, and the institution of marriage hasn't disintegrated. What's the big deal? I hope the minority situation will keep the Conservative party on a *very* short leash.
Some of you might have noticed I have new banners at the top of some of my webpages. I'm still don't think they look right, still tinkering with them. I think they look too busy and the comic title is too small. Any feeback is welcome. The new banners appear on the main page, cast page and previous comic pages. I have one more in the works. I'm not sure where I'll put it yet.
So with Ep208 we end the Sex Ed storyline. It was a little long to me (over one year). But I decided that interleaving multiple storylines wouldn't work on a weekly update schedule. The stories would move too slowly to the point were it would destroy the timing of the comic and confuse readers. I hope you agree. Future storylines will be much shorter. As lengthy as this storyline was, it was important to do it because it introduced new characters and filled out existing ones. This storyline was also close to my heart because it was based on my own experiences of having my mother teach sex ed to us all through elementary school and the first year of high school. This last episode of a daughter's father coming to the door actually happened. And so did the "real color pictures" of the erection. The storyline had many other possibilities too. I originally planned to have a book burning librarian who would try to sabotage the class, football jocks' masculinity challenged by gay issues, and a school alarm system that would interrupt the class anytime Ester strayed from the "approved" curriculum. Maybe some of these ideas will make it into future storylines. As far as having my mom teach us sex ed, it wasn't as embarrassing as Arnie made it out to be. I thought my mom was great. And looking back after all these years, I can see now how much work it was. How many people can say "Yes, that's *my* Mom, the sex ed teacher"?.
And we're back to our regular schedule. We return to the Sex Ed storyline in EP207 and the fallout from Ester's "picture show". Here in Ottawa, the Rideau Canal opened for skating this last weekend. The ice was a little rough, but it was good to get out and skate for awhile. Can't skate on the canal without stopping to have a beaver tail and hot chocolate. Yummmm. There's a trip to Mexico coming in late February too!!
Happy New Year everyone!! I hope everyone had a good holiday. I had a great time back in Saskatchewan. It was unusually warm (-5c to 0c, normally -12c) and foggy of all things. This is one of the warmest Christmases I can remember. I did alot of visiting with family and got caught up with old friends. Couldn't do any skidooing at the farm because there wasn't enough snow. Oh well, maybe next year.
