Via Two Can Anne.

I recently heard from Stephen Wells, the Executive Director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Being on opposite coasts we can’t have lunch, but I want to endorse the ALDF anyway. Go ALDF!

Although I don’t eat meat, I’m exasperated by the suggestion that vegetarianism is effective action against animal abuse. It isn’t. Just like human abuse, the only way animal abuse is going to get curbed is by passing and enforcing laws against it. That’s what the Animal Legal Defense Fund is working toward. Something else Mike Caprio and I briefly discussed at our Eats for Endorsement, is that carnivores and omnivores can support legal reform against animal abuse too! In fact most carnivores I know are opposed to factory farming; they likes their meat, but they don’t want it to be low-quality crap flooding the markets here and abroad. Veganism is great, but not eating animals doesn’t save an animal’s life; it just means more cheap meat gets exported as domestic “farming” subsidies create “surplus.” That’s not just bad for animals, it’s bad for the humans whose markets our cheap meat floods into. So come on, everyone: carnivores, vegans, omnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians, flexitarians, live-food fruitarians, breatharians, aryans and barbarians: support the Animal Legal Defense Fund!

A new feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me dinner. Today’s entry: Mike Caprio!

Mike Caprio is the Bon Vivant of Brooklyn. But he’s no slouch in Manhattan either, since he suggested our Eats take place at Casellula. There we discussed the importance of combining the flavors of the accouterements plated with the cheese, whether my dislike of booze and grapefruit could be due to supertasting, geeks we know in common, why Denmark is cool, and of course my favorite subject, how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket. Clearly, the man is an expert on food, entertainment, and enjoying life’s pleasures before we’re all plunged into an apocalyptic dystopia. Be sure to check out his blog!

Would YOU like to be featured in Eats for Endorsement? Then buy me dinner. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.

Sita Sings the Blues was recently rejected for a small government grant. Their review comments included “not engaging,” “nothing new,” “doesn’t speak to artistic growth and development” and “pretty but not groundbreaking.” At first I didn’t fully understand, but then today I learned a film exactly like mine has been done before:

Look at the similarities: the story is told from a white Western female perspective, it uses animation, and it only discusses Rama and Sita, omitting Laxman. Not only that, it was made by four-to-six-year-olds, which explains why the organization also called my project “standard” and “too easy.” I wish I’d known about this before I tried to “reinvent the wheel.” (via waiting for kalki)

Today’s Diesel Sweeties has my number.

Thanks to tipster Mike for turning me on to the most advanced digital graphics tools:

More Cat News here.

It’s getting pretty lonely at the Paley Center for Media. In spite of Links for Lunch and Eats for Endorsement, my Summer has been full of long stretches - days at a time - where I don’t see a single human I know. Sure, I can walk out my front door and be assaulted with crowds of tourists, but these are not my people. I know because of how slowly they waddle down the sidewalk, among other reasons. Even the comments here on my blog have dropped off. Is everyone vacationing in their Summer estates in the Hamptons or something? Is it my breath? Where is everyone?

Sweetpea is staying with me and Bruno again while her human is in Chicago.
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A new feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me lunch. Today’s entry: Andrew Anselmo!

Andrew Anselmo folds things. His card says “origami journeyman,” and indeed he arrived at lunch equipped with a supply of paper squares, two of which which he rapidly converted into a penguin and snake. Then as we chatted about overpopulation, environmental crises, and the world’s descent to Hell in a handbasket - all my favoite topics - I noticed him fiddling with a dollar bill. Whereas I usually tear and roll the edges of paper napkins into “lace,” or pick down the labels of beverage bottles into confetti, Andrew was constructively applying his energy into folding dollar bill geegaws. When he’s not creasing paper, Andrew makes solar panels, thereby slightly slowing the descent of the aforementioned handbasket. Is he saving the Earth, or prolonging human dominance and destruction by providing post-peak-oil energy? Who knows? The important thing is he bought me an excellent lunch. Thanks Andrew!

Would YOU like to be featured in Links for Lunch? Then buy me lunch. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.

A new feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me dinner. Today’s entry: Celia Bullwinkel!

My pal Celia draws good. She’s one of a dying breed of character animators, the real deal, who animate with full drawings for every frame, imbuing characters with life and expression unmatched by the kind of cheap digital shortcuts in vogue today. She also does digital animation (there’s not much full animation work these days, unfortunately), and draws comics. Back when I was drawing The Hots and having an emotional breakdown due to losing my ex and whatnot, Celia was my assistant, scanning dailies and coloring Sunday strips. Celia also shares my shoe size, which is why she came over Saturday night and left with several pairs of quality barely-used footwear, shoes that are totally comfortable in the store but then I walk a few miles and my left foot gets all screwed up because my left and right feet are shaped differently, so the right foot’s still fine and comfy but the left is all blistered and bruised and in pain and I’m limping now even though these are “comfort” shoes - et tu, Arche? I paid big bucks for the comfort factor and now I’m limping! - and I can’t return them because I’ve walked them on New York pavement, and I don’t even want to look at them they cost so much and they’re useless, useless!, and my apartment’s so small it’s not like I have room to store them, so Celia comes over and takes them off my hands, or feet as it were. And then she bought me dinner.

Would YOU like to be featured in Eats for Endorsement? Then buy me dinner. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.