It is so hot out today, rumor has it, Aaron Diaz has been seen wearing a suit with only two pieces. Two pieces.

Man, Johnny always made those jokes look so easy. Regardless, it is hot as balls today (so don’t trip on them), and I am going to point you at some things and then go back to thinking cool thoughts.

• I realize that AnthroCon isn’t on the regular circuit for a lot of webcomickers¹, but Ursula Vernon goes every year (for somewhat obvious reasons), and she did a nice post-mortem on her experiences in the dealer’s room. What struck me is her finding that prints are doing poorly for her, and I was wondering if other creators have found the same to be true. I’ve always had the impression that prints are a low-cost, high-profit item, and sincerely hope this isn’t a trend. Maybe fursuit gloves lack the manual dexterity to carry a print flat without crinkling it?
• Sighted at the venerable (and webcomics-supporting) Midtown Comics in New York City: an announcement of a signing at their downtown location in the evening of 5 July by Our Valued Customers creator “Mr Tim” Chamberlain. All the details are here, save for the bit on the flyer that notes it would be very nice of you to actually buy something from Chamberlain in exchange for his time².
• Mark your calendars: TCAF 2013 dates set for 11 and 12 May, at the TRL as usual. The exhibitor application process starts 1 August, so start getting your credentials together.
• Speaking of really well-run shows and information well in advance, the Programming/floor maps for SDCC not up yet³, but there’s one to put in your calendar in ink: how does a sneak peek at the comics documentary STRIPPED sound?
  

  STRIPPED will be giving a special panel presentation Friday night, July 13th, from 7-8PM, in the combined rooms “25ABC”. Directors Fred Schroeder and Dave Kellett, and Editor Ben Waters will be talking about the film: How the project got started, the highs and lows of the process, and our hopes for where it ends up.

  Make a note! And can anybody tell me how to get ink off my Android screen?

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¹ Although I’d love to see how R Stevens might fare there.

² I’m not saying that if you came to the signing and monopolized his time and didn’t buy anything that you would necessarily show up in the strip; I am saying that you’d probably deserve it, though.

³ Is it me, or is this cutting it a lot closer than normal? Preview Night launches in less than 20.25 days.

Man, not much going on these days — lull between conventions, SDCC doesn’t have programming info up yet¹, couple of things I can’t talk about yet, and a pervasive sense that everybody else is in a holding pattern. So let’s go with the no-fail way to find something cool on a Monday², and set the WAYBAC machine³ for PIZZA ISLAND.

• Over at Saveur Magazine, the latest Recipe Comix contribution comes from onetime Pizza Islandian Lisa Hanawalt, as she takes us through not just a Hearty Sausage & Sweet Potato Soup, but through the basis of all cooking itself:
  1. Make garlic and onion hot.
  2. Put other foods on top and make them hot too.
  3. Don’t put fruit in there unless you’re an expert!

  Honestly, it’s not too far off something Saint Alton would say, and I’m sure he’d approve of the prominence in Hanawalt’s artwork of the single most useful cooking implement ever invented: the cast-iron skillet. It lasts forever, makes food taste good, can block bullets, and is easy to draw. Everybody feel good for an implement from antiquity!

• As long as we’ve taken a trip to Pizza Island, let’s drop in on Julia Wertz, who’s put together one of her best comics ever today. I’m not sure she saw this one as being particularly significant, or thought that people being clueless/dicks/clueless dicks towards her at conventions would resonate as it has today. Really, it’s mostly people not taking three seconds to ask, Is my behavior even remotely appropriate rather than actual malice. And while most of us don’t sit on the other side of the convention table and have to put up with this kind of nonsense, I like to think that most of us can shake our heads in wonder and have a bit of empathy for those creators that end up on the receiving end. Tl;dr: awkward interactions — compelling in a cringey way.
• New format for the next while over at Octopus Pie: tall stories, told three or so pages at a time. Nobody does uncomfortable dreams like Meredith Gran (cf: here), so here’s hoping that fictional Brooklyn keeps up the heatwave that makes for fitful sleep for a while. For those of you that dislike scrolling, the individual pages are also available.
• No pizza here, but Dave Kellett dropped some interesting hints via Twitter all weekend as his docufilm recorded a musical number with his buddy Kate “Oates” Micucci. Photo to whet your appetite from the artiste herself. Innnnteresting. Can’t wait to see what this looks like when the film releases.

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¹ We’re less than 40 days out from Preview Night — has the programming always been released this close to the con? I could be wrong here, but it seems like we’re cutting it close this year.

² I mean, apart from all of the webcomics that are utterly free and entertaining, but that’s not news.

³ If you don’t remember Mister Peabody and Sherman, I suggest you go back in time and convince your ancestors to get you born sooner so you can watch Rocky & Bullwinkle. You can thank me later.

Understand that I’m trying to get to the point that I can do a review that’s worth something before I get on a plane on Thursday and fly to Las Vegas for the NCS weekend o’ debauchery entirely wholesome fun. It’s stressful trying to get all my work done prior, but on the flipside, how many opportunities will I ever have to wear a tuxedo in Vegas? I’m considering realxing my long-held policy of being good at math long enough to sit down at a blackjack or baccarat table for one hand¹ because I will never come closer to being James Bond in my life.

In the meantime, here are two things that may be of interest to you.

• On the one hand, it’s likely that World+Dog has already told you that John Allison will be taking Bad Machinëry to Oni Press:
  

  Starting in early 2013, Oni Press will begin collecting John Allison’s popular webcomic Bad Machinery into a series of books. Allison began Bad Machinery in 2009 as an extension of his online strip Scary Go Round. This will be the first time any of the material has seen print.

  Which isn’t quite true, as I have here in front of me a copy of A Feral Flag Will Fly, which is a “limited edition sampler” collecting The Case of the Team Spirit and The Case of The Good Boy². However, AFFWF does not resemble Allison’s previous books (cf: here and other offerings in the Scary Go Round oeuvre), which are digest sized objects of solidity and glorious color.

  It’s good to know that Lottie (my fav’rite character from Tackleford since Dark Esther stole my heart and my goodness has it really been five and a half years since the trip to Wales?), Shauna, Sonny, Linton, Jack, and Mildred will be seen as they were meant to be seen (not to mention that punchlines like this will make much more sense). Everybody feel good for a) John Allison, b) Oni Press, and c) me, because I will get to give money to a) and b).

• I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Dante Shepherd has given over Surviving the World to one of his favorite bands this week, in honor of their new album dropping today. That band would be Hallelujah the Hills, the album would be No One Knows What Happens Next, and they’ve announced an experiment in participatory art-making today that sounds terrific.

  It works like this: make up any rhythm and melody you like for the phrase — You can escape your fate but it’s not considered polite — in any form you like. Do it a cappella, get together some friends and get all barbershop on it, whip up an orchestral arrangement complete with theremin and expladophone, get a friend to beatbox behind you, anything.

  Now record it, and send it to Ryan from HTH, who will take all the submissions and make it into a song. Furthermore, everybody that gets a song snippet in by 1 June will be entered in a drawing for the complete HTH catalog on CD. Personally, I can’t wait to see what kind of music will result from the pieces that Ryan (it looks like Ryan’s family name is Walsh, but like all good collections of artistic types, HTH has more than one Ryan.

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¹ Which will most likely be lost to the house. See? Good at math.

² Along with the aptly-named The Short Preamble.

Finding inspiration in various places, some of which involve audio and/or video; if you are someplace that might not appreciate sound coming from your computer, have a care which links you click on.

• In an act of responding to overwhelming negative feedback (although not having the balls to admit it), McSweeney’s Internet Tendency has backed off some of the stupider implications of a contest it’s announced to underpay cartoonists. Firstly, the contest as she exists:
  

  We were sitting around and someone said, “We should have a contest for comics on our website.” Someone else said that sounded like a good idea, and no one talked us out of it, so that’s what we’re doing, having a contest for comics, with a $500 first prize for the best collection of three comics. [emphasis original]

  So that’s a bit less than US$170 for each of three cartoons, which have to be original and not already seen elsewewhere, although the creator at least retained all rights including future distribution. It’s the “original” part that stuck in a lot of craws, though, as it was worded thusly:

  All examples must be previously unpublished. We’re interested in launching something/someone new, rather than providing a megaphone for something that’s already out in the world. [emphasis original]

  … which reads an awful lot like the traditional, Hey, kids! Exposure! argument that accompanies a lot of attempts to get creative work on the cheap¹. The truly horrible part is that the contest in question had, some hours earlier, read very differently:

  We were sitting around and someone said, “We should have a contest for comics on our website.” Someone else said that sounded like a good idea, and no one talked us out of it, so that’s what we’re doing, having a contest for comics, with a $500 first prize in return for a promise to deliver two or so original comics per month over a twelve-month period for the enjoyment and delight of our audience.[emphasis original]

  Twenty-four comics, not eight. Less than twenty-one dollars per comic. Although I confess that I’m somewhat surprised that McSweeney’s backed off the twenty-four comics version of the contest, as the pay is far closer to what they normally offer at the website². I’ve seen no acknowledgment by McSweeney’s (as of this writing) that the change was made as a result of the overwhelming negative reaction, nor even that the change was made at all. Make of that what you will.

• The sort of work that the contest may attract will be, I suspect, mercenary and done not because the creator feels it of worth, but feels it may be of some (minor) economic advantage, maybe, possibly, if very lucky. That thought made me think back to Neil Gaiman’ address to the graduating class [sound, vision] of the University of the Arts last week. The relevant part starts at about the 6:32 mark, and goes something like:
  

  I don’t know that it’s an issue for anybody but me, but it’s true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually, I didn’t wind up getting the money, either. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down and I’ve never regretted the time I spent on any of them.

  If you’re a creator, or if you’re not, go listen to the entire thing; it’s twenty minutes well spent³.

• Finally, on both the inspirational (in a natural wonders of wildlife sort of way) and the warning of future disaster fronts: Friend of Fleen and semi-itinerant vagabond Lore Sjöberg would like you to know both what Walmart-resident peacock calls sound like, and what the apocalyptic future portended by the Apple Store is like (this week). Prior to playing either, I recommend you crank the volume all the way to right and break the knob off.

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¹ Let us recite together from the Wisdom of R Stevens, as quoted on this page many previous times: People die of exposure.

² From their internet submission guidelines:

PAYMENT
There will likely be none. If there is any, it may come very late or in unusual currency.

³ Likewise, there’s a lot of very similar wisdom to be found in another recent commencement address, at least until the value of failure gets distracted by Jizztoberfest.

They will show you what you need to see.

• Firstly, Colleen Doran, has long been second to none in her vigilance regarding creators rights issues, although she recently announced her retirement from an active role in such¹. A’course, she’ll continue to point us towards people that are continuing that fight, and did so today:
  

  I strongly advise you to read this article at The New York Law Journal, “Sounds Like a Broken Record: Analyzing legislative failure and the copyright doctrines of work for hire and termination”. It addresses the Jack Kirby case (which, I still believe, may be a lost one,) as well as other serious problems with the application of the work for hire doctrine and the “instance and expense test”.

  There are also very important words about independent musicians and self funded projects.

  Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer, but I found the article in question to be pretty readable with a bit of patience (and some back-and-forth to the footnotes, which start on page 4 — at least, on my browser with my font size). Much of it applies to creators interacting with large publishers, but the bit that may make readers of this page want to do some research is the second paragraph from the bottom of page 3 (or, if you prefer, the ‘graf between footnotes 38 and 39):

  Indeed, it is not just major corporations such as record labels that stand to be impacted by the Copyright Act’s present shortcoming, but start-up companies, young entrepreneurs and, in some instances, struggling artists themselves who have truly sought to commission a work for creation at their own risk and expense. Consider the case of an independent musician who tours or initiates a fundraising campaign via Kickstarter.com or simply waits tables to save money to record a studio album with no outside contribution from a record label or otherwise, an increasingly frequent scenario in today’s DIY-oriented music industry. Under the present formulation of the Copyright Act, such independent artists could stand to lose the copyright interest in their own commissioned recordings. If the recordings are not works for hire, then the session musicians, engineers and/or recording studio that the independent artist paid to help create the recordings may terminate their effective assignment of rights to the artist in 35 years. That works a great disadvantage to the self-funded musicians.

  There’s your homework assignment kids: read carefully, determine what constitutes “works made for hire”, and which end of that definition you may end up on with respect to your projects.

• Now that you’ve gone and edumacated yourself on the intricacies of intellectual property law, how about a quick demonstration from somebody who’s Doing It Right? America’s greatest living editorial cartoonist, Stan Kelly of Kelly’s Komix, has moved beyond seething disdain for modern things like the internet and recorded a video detailing his process. Creators, take note how communicating with your audience can help convey some of the nuances of your work so that your point of view isn’t accidentally lost beneath layers of meaning. Fire up the video in one window and the comic in another, and try to keep up.

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¹ Although I suspect this will only mean a retirement from actively trying to influence government and legislation; when she sees something particularly egregious or recognizes a situation parallel to her own experiences, I imagine we’ll get more of her finely considered opinion and instructive anecdotes.

I was stuck, I mean really stuck for news on account of nothing was happening today, then 9:30 LA time rolled around and here are four words for you to consider

Axe Cop TV Show.

Brief version: Fox is doing late-night Saturday shows, in 15 minute segments, headed up by a former Adult Swim executive. Slightly longer version: nothing happens until next year, and there’s still three other program slots to fill before this makes it to air. And in the vein of wild speculation, I’m guessing that Los Bros Nicolle won’t be getting “never have to work again” money off of this, but I’m equally guessing that Malachai gets to attend college without a couple of decades of student loans to pay back.

Let’s hope that between now and then, the world doesn’t beat his creativity into submission; I imagine it’s easier to disregard somebody that says your daydreaming will never amount to anything when you’ve got a DVD screener that says otherwise.

Yep, Benign Kingdom hardcover, in today’s mail. I also got a copy of Evan Dahm’s individual book in softcover which I might be tempted to give away on account of it’s all in the hardcover, but there’s a place inside for a monster-huge sketch and MoCCA is just two weeks away, so … maybe. Also, the hardcover has a friggin’ ribbon bookmark, an innovation in comics previously seen only in things as nice as the BONE hardcover. What I am basically saying here is that the four creator teams and George kicked at least twelve separate asses in the production of these art books and you should all buy them all. The end.

Except, no, not the end, because — in a spectacular act of lede-burying — I have not yet told you that Meredith Gran will be the latest creator¹ to take a whack at comics dealing with the Land of Ooo, as she produces a new Adventure Time spin-off miniseries starring Marceline the Vampire Queen and Princess Bubblegum and their band. Bleeding Cool got the launch story, but Gran has graciously agreed to an interview with me, and we’ll be bringing that to you as soon as her schedule permits.

If you’re paying attention to calendars you might have noticed that yesterday was 15 April, meaning the long-awaited launch of The PhD Movie is now available for you via streaming and optional download.

Don’t use that link, though. Use this one. It takes you to the same movie, the same ability to download, but it does so for 50% off, meaning that you can watch a feature-length movie that Jorge Cham and his cohorts put together with tremendous time and expense for five dollars (American). Seriously, we are into Louis CK territory here, with nothing standing between the creator and the audience but an entirely nominal sum of money.

In the absolute worst case, you don’t enjoy a movie for a couple of hours, it costs you and everybody around you a total of five bucks², and since you’re watching it at home instead of in a theater³, you can get completely drunk while watching if you want. Hell, since an actual theater probably costs like twelve dollars and you have to drive to it, you’re actually saving money to find out you don’t like the movie. Anything less negative than that counts as a triumph, and still only costs a fiver.

And if you totally love it (or know anybody in grad school, who will surely love it), you can get the DVD version for US$17 plus shipping, which is still less than this week’s craptacular Hollywood releases. That’s what they call a win-win-win in the movie biz, so you’d best get jumping if you want your share of the winning.

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¹ I have literally lost track of how many webcomics people have a hand in the Adventure Time comics now, but the list includes Ryan North, Braden Lamb, Scott C, Mike Krahulic, Becky-n-Frank, Elena Barbarich, Emily Carroll, James Kochalka, and Lucy Knisley so far.

² So you get one less 1200 calorie drink at Starbucks this week, which maybe isn’t such a bad idea when you think about it.

³ Adding insult to injury, the theater is probably full of the sort of people that you find in theaters these days — the sort determined to make the moviegoing process as miserable as possible.

So, what are you doing this weekend? Me, I’m watching the countdown timer for the release of Jorge Cham’s The PhD Movie, which now under one day, nine hours, and 30 minutes. Perhaps you are the sort of person that would like to engage the laugh-chuckles that come from recognition of your own graduate studies¹? Alternately, you may be the sort of person who would like to engage in some good old-fashioned Schadenfreude at the expense of your joyless, suffering, gradschool-attending friends². Perhaps you would even like to have these bouts of amusement while simultaneously saving money?

That’s where you’re in luck, Sparky, because The PhD Movie people³ have gifted us with a coupon which is good for 50% off the cost. We’ll be posting that on Monday, so come back then and we’ll give that sumbitch out. Oh, and in the interests of full disclosure, Jorge Cham has graciously given me access to a stream of the movie for which I thank him, but I’ll most likely be buying a copy of the DVD anyway on account of I think my niece might need a copy as a late birthday present, to help stave off her own thesis madness. Um, if you’re reading this, ignore that last part, Heather. Thanks.

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¹ In which case, they are probably of the laugh to keep from crying kind.

² That would be the cruel form of laughter. Dick.

³ That is to say, Jorge.

Advice for aspiring comic artists:

Before the Internet, I would have had a totally different set of rules. But now people are putting their work up on the Internet and getting a response, so that might be the way to go. Can you discipline yourself to turn out work on a regular basis?

Many people can’t do a syndicated strip for more than three years. People not my age are programmed to want change, to want excitement. They’re not embarrassed to leave a job to move to a new city. They’re not likely to stick with the same thing for 30 years. With that kind of itchy-feet need for change, it’s difficult work. It’s not like you do a doodle in the morning and then you’re free. They realize the pressure is on. You’re working evenings, weekends, in hotel rooms, on airplanes. And you can’t turn out work that’s not your best, because you have to fight for that real estate in the paper. A lot of people can’t do it more than three years.

But if you can do it every day for a year online, disciplining yourself, getting honest feedback from readers —- well, some miserable dough-heads don’t deserve a voice, but you’ll also get good feedback from honest readers. If someone says, “I don’t get it,” that’s your best reader.

Lynn Johnston of For Better or For Worse, in an interview this week at The Grindstone. Her strip may not have been to everybody’s tastes (particularly as it approached wrap-up), but nobody’s ever said that Johnston phoned it in or didn’t put in the many, many hours across 30-odd years in syndication.

I trust you’ve seen this? Radical Adventures? Videogame? Starring Dr McNinja? It’s got an interesting dilemma, as the game is free to play, so what to offer in the way of backer rewards at the low levels, which are traditionally filled with things like You get a free copy of the game?

Answer: credit for in-game power-ups and future content updates, which is pretty clever when you think of it, and which presently is what most backers are opting for. At higher levels there are things like custom McNinja soda packs, original art, and inclusion in the game (as an enemy, to be killed again and again and again). At the very highest level, you get a pizza party with Chris Hastings, who is an excellent dude to eat pizza with. They don’t say where the pizza is from, but if you get that prize I’d suggest asking for the the corner pub-looking place near where the giant feral raccoons¹ scurry between the power substation and the cemetery, haunting Brooklyn with their sinisterly dexterous² hands. The pizza there was awesome.

Anyways, less than a day in and approaching ten percent of goal, which is a bit slower than other recent Kickstarts for webcomics-type properties with built in fan bases. I’m attributing this not to a dearth of desire for a cool videogame that features Dr McNinja doing awesome things, but rather because the rewards hypothesis I’m working on identifies low-dollar-value pledge rewards as a particular challenge.

As of this writing (too early to draw strong conclusions, to be honest), some 57% of backers are at the two lowest reward tiers, in for US$15 or less. This can work, especially considering the zero cost associated with distributing the rewards at these tiers, but you need a whole lot of people to make up for the low incremental dollar value each contributes. I’m going to keep my eye on the third through sixth tiers, with dollar values up to $US50, and see what kind of growth occurs there; that’s going to be where Dr McNinja’s Radical Adventure makes goal, or obliterates it with awesome punchings.

I was experimenting with horizontal rules yesterday to give The Bradster the pull-quote treatment, but now I’m quite liking them. Could I at long last be shucking off the yoke of bullets and unnumbered lists?

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¹ All together now: Aaaaaahhhh!

² I swear to dog when I wrote that I wasn’t intending to make a pun in Latin.

I had a revelation on my morning commute about chef Grant Achatz and molecular gastronomy in general. Bear with me.

I have never previously gotten the appeal of molecular gastronomy and the mad scientists that pursue it. Sure, they have food experiences that sound unique and creative, but I’ve always wanted a meal that didn’t just transport me, but which was recognizable as food.

Food is made of basic ingredients and skill and can be recognizably reproduced by anybody with the time and patience to practice. I will never have access to the ingredients or sense of flavor or even the knife skills of a commis in a top flight kitchen, but I can roast a chicken; the differences between my roast chicken and the best roast chicken in the world will be obvious, but it’s still a roast chicken.

For me, the Grand Unified Theory of cooking revolves around the fundamental forces of heat, moisture, salt, and time; they can be manipulated in fairly fundamental ways, arranged by some fairly basic tools¹ and techniques, all of which go back through the history of human endeavour to keep ourselves fed with something that tastes good. The most commonly-used implement in my kitchen has not changed its basic structure in millenia.

This philosophy is why dinner tonight will consist of flour + water + yeast + salt, thrown on a hot rock with tomato and cheese and mushrooms, which will transform itself into something simple and satisfying and delicious. I’ll probably drink a wine made by a retired nuclear physicist who, for all the modern equipment at his disposal, utilizes techniques as old as civilization and operates on a small scale so that he can be sure that everything he produces is as good as he can possibly make it, but doesn’t want to be precious about things. He wants his wine to be shared with food by people that enjoy each other. Simple.

Topic shift: my favorite restaurants are owned by a pair of guys that have provided me more good times than I can recall². They’ve passed me more free nibbles and drinks than I can count, graciously entertained friends old and new, and at least one of their bartenders is a genius. They also do a podcast that’s really good, and their latest show features Grant Achatz, perhaps the maddest of America’s molecular mad scientists.

I won’t even get into Achatz’s frankly amazing history, from working at the fabled French Laundry to founding molecular temple Alina to the now God’s just screwing with us level irony of his cancer diagnosis — cancer of the tongue, which destroyed his ability to taste. None of that’s important right now. If you want an idea of the sort of stuff that Achatz is doing, the stuff that I just didn’t get, Lucy Knisley did a comic about the experience which you should go read now. How do you get so far from food, I’ve always wondered.

Halfway through the podcast, I was starting to get my answer. Achatz does these things not because he’s in love with technology for its own sake, but because he’s got crazy ideas and wants to see which of them might stick. Prime example: having a tablecloth made of silicone that can have food prepared directly on it and used as the servingware was a crazy idea. But it changes the interactions of diners with the food, and with each other. We’re still in Crazytowne³, but I’m understanding his POV a whole lot more. Then I got to the segment of the show starting about 43:19, and lasting around ten minutes. Go listen to it now.

See, Achatz’s major project these days is called Next; every three months, it changes to something new. The opening menu/decor/concept/everything was about recreating a classic French meal, circa 1906. Then it became for three months an exploration of Thai cuisine, just because that’s as far from classic French cooking as you can get. There was a period that explored Achatz’s youth, mid-70s in Michigan (lots of mac ‘n’ cheese and peanut butter & jelly, I’m told), and so forth. There’s no reason to keep changing what he does except he can, and it forces him to continuously up his game. He has taken an act of creation and instead of resting on success, responds by chucking it all when it gets well known and starts over again.

I heard that and names started to pop into my head: Gurewitch. Onstad. Beaton. The nimbleness, the reinvention, the metaphor of culinary creativeness as webcomic stretched beyond all credible boundaries and what the hell is wrong with you Gary. The he told the audience what he does when a three month rotation at Next closes.

He gathers up all the recipes, compiles them into an e-book, and sells it through the iTunes for seven bucks⁴. He’s made his mark, he’s not going to repeat himself, and he wants to put it out there for everybody for damn near free. This is the very model of the independent creator as driven, screw what I’ve done what can I do next obsessive.

Now I get him. Grant Achatz works in food (sometimes down to molecules). Webcomickers work in images (sometimes down to pixels). They have an infectious enthusiasm and a restless energy and a desire to share it as widely as possible. Hell, if you listen to the end of that segment and hear about the concept of “Last”, he’s even got the possibility of the equivalent of a content scraper.

So yeah, that’s where my brain’s been today. Still not enough to go eat at Alinea, but damn if my conceptions of creativity haven’t expanded a bit. And if nothing else, the bit in the podcast about the duck press was hilarious

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¹ Like Alton Brown, I have only one uni-tasking tool in my kitchen.

² Also, if you can keep two restaurants afloat for a combined 27 years through the greatest recession of the past two generations, you are a steely-eyed businessguy of Khoo-like proportions.

³ The conceptual-slash-performance art district.

⁴ And you know what his seven dollar recipe collections won’t call for? Diode-pumped lasers in the hazardous power ranges to break shit down into its atomic components so you can put it back together in an arbitrary shape. I’m back from the molecular brink, because I can guaran-frickin’-tee that the nitrogen cooling system for that laser is the goddamn definition of a unitasker, and it is not going to appear in a recipe book made for the edification of anybody that wants to screw with the recipes. This is the culinary equivalent of a Creative Commons that permits derivative works.