The Big Idea.

I don’t care if you steal this, because I think it’s an amazing idea that just needs to happen somehow.  If it already exists, that’s cool, too.  But this needs to be going on and brought to my attention: 

Half-way around the world, sort of.

As quiet as my love for comics is, my love for China is, to most people, nothing more than a whisper.  While at Lakeland, I took a semester of Chinese and afterwards decided that one day, somehow, I would end up in China.  It just seems so far, so remote, and so different.  I want to be thrown into something unexpected and totally beyond my understanding with the hopes that eventually I will understand it.  I wish I remembered more Chinese, as knowing Chinese is rather pivotal to the whole Chinese experience thing, but that’s what books are for.  One of my favorite books right now is called Shenzhen, which is a graphic novel/travelogue by an artist who spent time in China, and then recorded it all in comic book style.  It’s amazing, and if I could do that sort of thing the rest of my life, I would be there in a flash.  But again, I can’t draw.  One tiny dream of mine is to perhaps go to China for a year or two after I graduate to teach English.  There are a lot of programs available (for a lot of countries around the world), it’s just a matter of finding something perfect.

Those looking for an interesting perspective on China and foreign cultures in general will appreciate Sexy Beijing, a series of videos on Youtube.  They’re human-interest style pieces, but quite funny, the introduction being a parody on Sex and the City.  Even if you don’t care a bit about China, check out the video.

Comics!

I’d tell you tonight was spent playing bocci ball and video games, but this isn’t Twitter.  Burn.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten around to mentioning my new-found admiration/almost downright infatuation with comic books.  It is a medium that very much speaks to my creative side—pictures and words together in a controlled environment.  It is simply amazing, too, the serialization that comic books can provide.  One may think a show like 24 is a very serialized show with a strong continuity, and it is, but compare that to the length and strength of something like X-Men and you have true continuity, even if there are fifteen of them.  That’s what I want to tell, an extended narrative—comics are the modern epics.  I’m so excited.  It’s good that I’ve reached this point right around an extended surge in comic popularity, what with the endless string of comic books-turned-movies.  But whatever makes a market, right?

Now if only I could draw.  Damn it, at least I have a firm grasp on the English language.