The Swim Archive

[Qman1]

This thread is for the reading and discussion of what the members of Adult Swim staff have written.

This thread is also for reading here if your too lazy to read it on the adult swim head page.

ENJOY!.

---

July 14, 2005
Day One @ Comic-Con
Look, we're all fairly sedentary people with simple lives and plans. We go to work, sip some coffee, take a few meetings and go home. That's why, for me, walking around Comic-Con can be terrifying, like being flung into a Ralph Steadman sketchbook. Around every corner is a shocking display of humanity that leaves me grasping for the grounding wires of my consciousness.

But maybe that's just me.

Torrent and I navigated the badge acquisition phase of our day with a big assist from Matt Harrigan (Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Late Show With David Letterman, Celebrity Deathmatch, Perfect Hair Forever). I won't bore you with the details, but there are loopholes in the Comic-Con system of credentials. And one of them involved outrunning one of those rented security dudes who was screaming "Sir! Excuse me, sir!" to get to the upper level of the convention hall. The maneuver saved us at least two hours of waiting in line time. So Matt, dude, thanks.

We were in a hurry because we were missing the Loren Bouchard signing. It was a blast to finally locate the Adult Swim booth, which was everything I dreamed it wouldn't be and less. And I mean that in a good way. You see these ridiculous expenditures of imagination and financial might at Comic-Con. We have graciously subverted that paradigm by working with a theme that is dominated by cardboard boxes. Plus, Molly in marketing has gone out of her way to track down an impressive menagerie of ceramic creatures that puts one in the mind of an enchanted glade.

The "Wall of Mystery" has been renamed "Adult Swim Fishing Hole," apparently in deference to the aforementioned forest creatures. And it's a huge hit. One after another, conventioneers hoist their bamboo poles over a cardboard wall and snag anything from a bundle of stickers to brand new T-shirts designed by Jake, Brandon, Drew and Nick.

Torrent and I left the booth to behold the wonders of the exhibit hall. This is a bonding experience for us both, in a lot of ways. I've never traveled with Chris before and he's a fascinating character to me on so many levels. He dislikes nearly all condiments, for instance, and tends to relegate his diet to a few trusted staples. Last night, he informed me that he had never been to a professional baseball game. But none of this prepared me for today's revelation that as a teenager the walls of his bedroom were painted like a castle and that it also featured a standing, metallic knight. Chris Pasley has Comic-Con credentials, people. Do not question it.

There's a giant semi-truck in the middle of the hall promoting a forthcoming Transformers movie. We also saw a giant Darth Vader made of Legos. We saw people dressed as pirates and she-warriors. There were also the obligatory Stormtroopers and about seven thousand schoolgirls. As fun as most of it is, there's still something sad about seeing a dude dressed as Flash on an escalator.

We also ran into Dave Willis and Jim Fortier. Jim told me that while checking out the Aqua Teen figures over at the Palisades booth, a helpful worker had rushed up to Dave to inform him that the creators of Aqua Teen would be signing there tomorrow. Dave, who happens to be a creator of Aqua Teen, sort of shrugged and said "Cool."

Today's panel was entitled "Touch Us, Like You Did the Last Time: Pitching Shows to [adult swim]." It was moderated by Nick Weidenfeld, head of development. Nick is awesome at these things because he focuses so well on communicating. Like you can see him just trying to get whatever is in his head out there. There's no guile--it's just honest and entertaining to watch him work. On the panel with him were Peter Girardi, Adam de la Pena and Todd James (Minori-Team); Dino Stamatopoulos (Moral Orel); Loren Bouchard (Lucy, Daughter of the Devil); and Kim Manning, head of programming.

Last year, this panel was held in a room that was bursting at the seams, so they moved it to an enormous 2,000-seat auditorium. Despite debate about the merits of zombies in Adult Swim programming, the presentation went really smoothly. Nick's thing is for people who pitch to him to nail the idea. Don't make a pilot script, don't come in with ideas for merchandising and don't load up your presentation with a lot of flair. Just distill the naked idea down to its essentials and let him judge. Everything else will come later.

Attendees were treated to previews of the three upcoming shows from the panelists and each was incredibly well received. Minori-Team is about minorities who use racial stereoptypes to their advantage. Moral Orel is a claymation production about a young boy who misinterprets a lot of the lessons that parents and society are trying to teach him. Lucy, Daughter of the Devil follows the adventures of Satan's daughter, a carefree twenty-something who is into boys and clubs.

Listen to your web guy, Adult Swim. You cannot go wrong with Coach McGuirk as the voice of the devil. Please make more of these immediately.

Anyway, I think I've pulled some king of blog muscle. More on Monday from San Diego.

--SwimBuddha

[Qman1]

July 18, 2005
Comic-Con Hangover
Everyone's back in Atlanta, but many of us are, er, recuperating from home. Most of my thoughts and feelings about the rest of Comic-Con are tied up in the fact that I left the AdultSwim.com digital camera in the back of a cab on Friday evening. So I'm desperately tracking down pics from other people because otherwise our two Saturday panels are lost to eternity.

Fortunately, I had already transferred pics from Thursday onto my computer, so those are not lost. And we videotaped all the panels, so we have that. Lastly, Cahill and Jake both had their own cameras, so I'm arranging to get those pics. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was sort of a buzzkill for me, this losing of the camera.

Tomorrow I want to try and get Comic-Con impressions from multiple people and share them here. By far, the best part was meeting so many of you. Thanks for turning out in such tremendous numbers to support us. There weren't any major announcements, really, just lots of back and forth with viewers and some awesome sneak peeks. Chris and I will start slugging away at pics and clips so you can experience it yourself.

--SwimBuddha

[KingBanjo]

http://www.adultswim.com/williams/blog/index.html

or you could link the page, and let the discussion happen here

[KingBanjo]

but i do hope buddha gets his camera back...
I wonder how many times he has called the cab companies to see if anyone found a digital camera...

[Qman1]

I thought people would be to lazy. So I just copy and paste the blog. (from the day it was posted)

---

But, anyway, Comic Con has messed up things at Williams Street. Just hope everything is back to normal.

[KingBanjo]

undersandable, im lazy...

but to be completely honest, if i were in a cab, and i look down and see a camera...
1. check the pics, there might be something cool
2. take a picture of my irish [as]
3. turn it in to the lsot and found

[scrapyard]

OMG did anyone read 2days from SwimBuddha?   i think i am in love w/him now. yes, music is the key 2my heart...

[Qman1]

July 22, 2005

Masquerade
A lot of the guys and girls went to this bar, the star bar, for drinks and talks. But I went with some friends, including mr. michael cahill, jacob escobedo and brandon lively, back to the convention center for the comic-con masquerade. The fashion show was on and people were parading around their amazing costumes. Once the winner was announced everyone moved to another room and dirty dancing began. I'm not a good enough writer to explain what it was, what was happening there, or even I how I feel about it. There was a girl, maybe six, dressed up as a hawk character of some kind and she was doing this weird walk like an egyptian dance while harvey birdman and a mrs. harvey birdman cheered her on. It was really kind of beautiful and I think I may have cried a little. We were in one of the really really big convention center rooms (maybe where one of the adult swim panels were held) and the lights didn't turn off until way after the techno kicked in. so for a while people were rubbing on each other in the blinding florescent light. First the crow came out break dancing, spinning on his head and all. I think there were probably a lot of good drugs there. By eleven o'clock the storm troopers were dancing with the jedis. A transgendered Storm from X-men was rave dancing with princess leah, using light sabers for glow sticks. One beautiful asian girl dressed in the tiniest little thing ever (like belinda from perfect hair. was this girl an anime character? I hope so) was stripper dancing for boba fett who couldn't have been any happier.

--Nick W.

[Qman1]

July 26, 2005
Can't Get Enuff Eric Wareheim!
I conducted this interview via email with Eric Wareheim, co-creator of Tom Goes to the Mayor, for an internal newsletter but I wanted to share it here in our new Employee Blog as well. Enjoy!

Any hilarious on-panel moments with Tim Heidecker?

Yes. Leaning over to Tim and telling him I was about to pee my pants because I drank too much water. He replied, "Dude, I'm about to as well."

How do you blow off Comic-Con steam?

Tequilla shots with the Gas Lamp locals! Feels great to just take my shirt off and party Diego style!

What did you do to get that Comic-Con body?

Mini-bar Snickers.

What's the most romantic Comic-Con rendezvous you've ever had?

Signing a man's breast.

Do you like to hug or to kiss?

Depends on the lady. Mostly light petting is good.

In your opinion, is love as important as Comic-Con?

No way. I can satisfy all of my emotional needs on the convention floor.

Did you see Terminator?

I saw T3, the ride at Universal Studios. The acting was much bette than the movie. And they used this brand new technology called "3D." It makes things appear to be coming out of the screen! Groundbreaking!

--Molly S.

[Qman1]

July 27, 2005
Unnamed Show Creator(s)
So, after the Adult Swim party on Friday night, we didn't really know what to do with ourselves except to keep drinking, so we went back to my hotel room which I had stocked with booze the night before and did just that. Then, we got kicked out of that room, so we went to Melissa's room and started to feel bored, so *Unnamed Show Creator 1* and *Unnamed Show Creator 2* decided to play phone pranks on some real-estate investment scam infomercial on the speaker phone. It was probably the hardest I've laughed all year hearing "Unnamed Show Creator 1" argue with "Operator 135" (which is the alias of EVERY phone operator in the call center apparently, making it hard to lodge bogus complaints against a specific person). Eventually, we think that all the operators caught on that *Unnamed Show Creator 1* was a "malicious caller" leading to lots of "operator disconnects" but by then, the room service order came and so we ate lots of food and passed out. Then, the next morning someone threw a Chip Clip fishing line into the Fishing Hole so hard that my cheek became swollen, but I really couldn't feel it until a day later back in Atlanta. Can't wait for next year!

--Chris L.

[Qman1]

I wonder who these mystery creators are.....

[Qman1]

July 29, 2005
Fan Collective
Not so long ago, I joined one of the major social networks available on the Internet. Out of curiosity, I created an Adult Swim profile and floated it out there. To my astonishment, people found it very quickly and began adding it as a "Friend." It didn't take long before it had topped out that particular service's Friend limit.

It was fascinating to me to finally see the people who added Adult Swim. It was instructive, too. There were geeky people, ultra hipster people, fat people, skinny people, cos-play people--all sorts of people. And all united by this Adult Swim thing. Interestingly, there also seemed to be a much larger proportion of female viewers than our research had led us to believe. Most of these people seemed pretty cool to me. Over time, I became jealous that they weren't on our site.

So, in a nutshell, that's the origin of the Adult Swim Fan Collective. It's a modest alternative to the giant services elsewhere, and it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of those services, either. We built it all in house from the ground up. What it does have is a lot of people like us. And a multiplayer gaming component that is proving to be a lot of fun, even for someone as Internet jaded as myself. You can thank Chris (SwimTorrent) and Karen (SwimRaven) for that, by the way--I initially said NO to multiplayer gaming. Because I'm a genius.

So we hope you'll join us. Adult Swim thrives on the people who watch it. It's your participation that keeps it get going. It's your likes and dislikes that will ultimately decide who and what we are in the future. So we're giving you this thing. Make it whatever it will be. I personally can't wait to see where it takes us.

One practical note. Please check your settings under "Account Info." We love reading your profiles. For safety reasons, we were asked to preset each profile so that is initially only viewable by Friends. Switching the profile setting to "Everyone," however, definitely makes a more entertaining browsing experience for everyone. If you have concerns about privacy, by all means leave the settings where they are.

Also, please keep documenting bugs on the message boards. This is very helpful. And have a good weekend. New Harvey on Sunday....

--SwimBuddha

[Qman1]

August 2, 2005
Everything I Know
Here's everything I know that you don't. Let me just state that I have enjoyed knowing these things all to myself and it pains me greatly to share them. But I'm going to do it anyway because I feel sorry for you.

We're finishing a behind-the-scenes feature for Perfect Hair Forever that has been edited by Matt Harrigan and Dave Hughes. And it's a really good thing. Perfect Hair arrives in November.

The DangerDoom album is about to happen on October 11. Pitchfork Media reviewed the single last week.

The pilot for Squidbillies is complete and we've screened it. It seems pretty different from what aired back in April. But I think it's hilarious. My favorite part is the thing with the thing. Actually, it now features Dave Willis doing some Springsteen-esque yowling in the background, which is inspired. It will debut October 16 at midnight.

We've heard rumor that Whiskey Tango Six might have a new name in the offing.

Right now we're maybe halfway through a new Harvey Birdman game entitled "Stop That Sandwich!" The gist of it is that Peter Potamus has taken the last egg salad sandwich from the vending machine and everyone is pissed off. It's probably the most robust, frenetic game we've done for Harv.

There are already 25,000 members of the Fan Collective.

Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, have been invited to participate in The New Yorker Festival 2005 on a panel alongside Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) and Brad Bird (Pixar).

National Lampoon's website penned a scathing satire of our bumps. You can find it on their home page. It stings real bad coming as it does from the people who brought us Dorm Daze.

That is everything I know right now.

--SwimBuddha

[scrapyard]

hah! - here is the National Lampoons thing on adult swim:
http://nationallampoon.com/nl/08_features/adult_swim/Adult_Swim.a
sp
i like futurama....it's one of my favorite shows!    &...i think national lampoon is jeeeellllous! 

aaand: i bet trey parker & matt stone are secretly jelous of dave willis & matt maiellaro.
i want trey & matt 2put someting aqua teenish in a south park ep.....an ep w/towelie in it too

[_hack-SIGN_John]

I like National Lampoon. Funny movies.

[Qman1]

August 4, 2005
Cowboys and Lindsey Buckingham (Pt. 2)
It's been said that you can drive a half-hour in any direction from downtown Atlanta and find yourself in a completely different world. This is pretty true, I've found. And many of the people that live outside those bounds have no desire to venture inside the city limits.

We had just crept past the perimeter when we found ourselves across an intersection from a weather-beaten building with the words "Southern Comfort" painted on the side over a guitar. There were two parking lots, one for cars and one for semi-trucks. A tiny booth supported an electronic sign reading, "T R K R S P AR K H E RE."

I won't pretend I wasn't nervous, but the promise of beer propelled Nick, Daniel and myself inside. Our whole quest south of the city stemmed from my desire to find "a quiet bar." I knew this would be anything but quiet, but it looked too perfect, in the kind of ramshackle aesthetic all three of us share, not to explore.

Within about three feet of the door, I knew we would not be leaving. To our right was a live band and a swirling array of couples on a dance floor, very few of which seemed to be under the age of 45. All of the men wore cowboy hats and boots, with the lone exception of a guy in military whites. The women were either in garish nightclub wear or cowgirl skirts. We all just sort of looked at each other in disbelief and found a table.

To be honest, it was the kind of place I thought only existed in rural Texas. I've seen rednecks. I come from a family of them. But these people had transcended the redneck plane into some kind of Urban Cowboy dimension where everything was 1982 again.

I think we all knew without saying anything that the only way we were going to survive was to participate. Not to whisper over our beers at each other from the sidelines but to be upfront and part of the scene. It wasn't hard to pull off, because our interest could not have been more genuine. So we took a table right next to the dance floor and started tapping our Converse-clad feet.

There's a stack of snapshots burned into my memory from this night that I'll forever carry around: the boot-scootin' couple that had clearly taken years of lessons; the tall Texan with giant ears cutting a rug with a woman in a wig; the pack of single older ladies that kept practicing their line dancing; and the overweight couple that smashed their bellies together and hung on for dear life.

It was life affirming. These were the least self-conscious people I had ever seen and they were out on a Saturday night with the collective mandate to have a great time. And the good news is that they were succeeding in the best possible way. We felt honored to be sharing the night with them.

Four or five songs in, a woman who was conservatively aged 62 tapped Nick on the shoulder and asked him to dance. I was sort of relieved when Nick, who is the epitome of a gentleman, happily obliged. It was a slow song. Daniel and I braced ourselves for a sweet, silly moment.

Not wanting to freak either Nick or his dance partner out, I decided not to stare. I think I was checking out the NASCAR racing on the TV in back when I heard Daniel say, "Oh, my God, did you see that? I think she just kissed Nick." I looked over and this woman seemed to be nuzzling Nick's neck with her mouth while running her hands all through his hair, despite the fact that about forty years separated them. "Holy crap," I said. "Holy, holy crap."

Two songs later and she had fallen asleep at her table. Nick told me he had panicked and said something like, "Um, I have to tell you I'm spoken for and can only share this one dance." I believe her response was, "Aw, c'mon, baby!"

You would think it couldn't get any more surreal, but it did when the band launched into a country version of John Lennon's "Imagine." The tables emptied out and we watched in wonder as these people swayed reverently to what is clearly an anti-war anthem. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. And I realized sitting there what a small, tiny slither of this country any of us see in our day-to-day lives.

We left at about two in the morning. None of this made sense to any of us, which is why I cranked up the CD I had in the car, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Say what you will (one of the earliest arguments I ever had with Mike Lazzo was over this album), but I believe it is one of the greatest summer albums ever made and I always manage to find it again when the temperature gets hot. It's a quirky, coked-out symphony to warmth--not to mention the sound of a band imploding.

One of the stand-out tracks, written by Lindsey Buckingham, is "What Makes You Think You're The One." It's always assumed that the song was written to Stevie Nicks in the bitter aftermath of their breakup. But it's pretty much got the best drum track ever and on a wave of good cheer we retreated into the night singing, stomping our feet and banging the dashboard. It was like an upside down, post-modern version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Wayne's World. And it was the most fun I've had in years. If the couple in the gray BMW is reading this, we all made it home okay.

--SwimBuddha


August 3, 2005
Cowboys and Lindsey Buckingham (Pt. 1)
On Saturday night I went out with our head of development, Nick Weidenfeld, his brother Daniel and a photographer friend of theirs named Colby to a place called The Colonnade, famous for gigantic proportions of food and a clientele that seems to be equal parts elderly and gay. You'll literally see a table of little old ladies next to one full of boisterous gay dudes. It's kind of awesome that way. Almost as awesome as their dinner rolls, or the prime rib that is the size of Alaska.

The Colonnade is on Cheshire Bridge Road, which I've often remarked is the one road in Atlanta where you can find literally anything in the world. It's got restaurants, strip joints, head shops, palm readers, antiques--you name it. Just avoid the Taco Cabana and you'll be fine.

Colby was in town for one of those little miss beauty pageants. It's a subculture she's mined successfully in her work and she regaled us with stories from the previous day, which involved spray-on tanning, missing underwear and a Shoney's buffet. Dinner was awesome and went by really fast.

Understandably tired from a long day of work, Colby asked to be dropped off back at her hotel. And this is really where our story begins. I won't go into the ridiculous way we got there, but suffice it to say that at about 10 p.m. the three of us walked into a bar that in some way changed all of our lives. (cont'd tomorrow)

--SwimBuddha

[Qman1]

August 5, 2004
Andy Merrill Update
I ran into Andy Merrill at a party last night, who looks great (he's been biking to work of late, which is a substantial haul). Also he showed me a couple of phone pictures from a recent Las Vegas vacation with his wife, Stacey, and we ate chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting together and laughed a lot. Andy, as most of you know, is currently working on Cartoon Fridays.

But the big news is that he's also working on a couple of animated shorts for a new Cartoon Network anthology show called Sunday Pants, which should debut Oct. 2 at 9:30 p.m. Andy's creations are called "Doofus & Dashing," which loosely references the old Goofus and Gallant series in a magazine called Highlights for Children, and "Noodle the Nerd," which explores geekdom in eras throughout history.

I told Andy that a couple of promo spots featuring him are going up on the site Monday. These are both repurposed from earlier versions, by the way: one is Andy running through the woods; the other features Brak in front of a dump. So look for those right here.

Andy also seemed really excited about the Fan Collective and intends to join soon, which would rock. HAIL BRAK!!!

--SwimBuddha

[Qman1]

Danderdoom Set for October
8/05/2005

Music Artists Danger Mouse and MF DOOM Collaborate on DANGERDOOM: The Mouse and the Mask

Adult Swim Inspired Album, Set to Debut in October on Epitaph Records

Two of this generation's most respected hip-hop artists, Danger Mouse and MF DOOM, have come together to produce DANGERDOOM: The Mouse and the Mask, an album inspired by Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's popular late-night animation network. The album, set to debut in October, will be released on Epitaph Records, in association with Adult Swim. The album will contain character voices and skits from Adult Swim's most popular original shows, including Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021 and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Danger Mouse is recognized as one of music's most innovative artists and producers. Danger Mouse's The Grey Album, an ingenious re-production of Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album, was named the Album of the Year in 2004 by Entertainment Weekly and catapulted him into the international spotlight. Danger Mouse recently produced Gorillaz Demon Days album, which has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide in its initial first weeks of release. His next project is Gnarls Barkley, a collaboration with music's flamboyant, one-of-a-kind force of nature, Cee-Lo.

After a five-year hiatus that ended in 1998, Daniel Dumile, a former member of KMD, emerged as MF DOOM (www.dangerdoom.com), a persona inspired by the comic supervillain Dr. Doom, and released the critically praised albums Operation: Doomsday and Mm...Food. DOOM also released one of 2004's most acclaimed albums, Madvillain, under the same name and Venomous Villain under the name Victor Vaughn. He has been involved in a number of collaborations with the industry's finest and has a project with Ghostface Killah (Wu-Tang Clan) in the works.

Adult Swim delivers an assortment of edgy programming and has quickly earned its place as the #1 basic cable destination for adults 18-34, often surpassing the viewer ship of late-night kings Jay Leno and Dave Letterman among key young adult demos. Adult Swim's shows, starring off-beat characters like a shape-shifting, talking wad of meat, a winged, ex-superhero lawyer and a butterfly-inspired supervillain, have spawned a best-selling line of DVD's, apparel and collectibles.

"Danger Mouse? Genuis! MF DOOM? Genius! Adult Swim? Not genius. Lucky," said Mike Lazzo, Cartoon Network's senior vice president responsible for Adult Swim.

"Danger Mouse and DOOM are both brilliant at taking chunks of pop culture and reshaping them into art. The context of Adult Swim makes this already promising collaboration truly inspired," said Andy Kaulkin, president of Epitaph Records.

Message Edited by Qman1 on 08-06-2005 01:54 PM

[Qman1]

I cant wait for this to come out. It sounds great. (based on the samples heaerd at night on adult swim)

[Qman1]

August 8, 2005
A SwimEye View of Williams Street
The Adult Swim intern leads a peculiar existence indeed. When asked where I'm working my mother responds, "At Turner," or, "Cartoon Network." This is because the first time she told someone I worked for Adult Swim they leaned in and whispered, "You mean, pornography?"

I suspect the more conservative elements back in Yorktown, VA, wouldn't make much of a distinction even if they knew what Adult Swim was. In the right circles, however, I receive equal amounts of respect and envy. Fans buy me drinks, college students invite me to parties and comic book geeks want to know if I can bring their favorite show back. I've been adored, spurned, welcomed and threatened, all because of this internship.

I feel a little guilty when people make a big deal about it. I'm not important. I don't write the shows. I can't get your idea on the air. I'm more like the guy who packs the parachutes than the Jet pilot. By virtue of my position, I do know more about everything that happens around here than many of the paid employees. So I'll tell you a little about how I came by this most enigmatic of internships and what I really do, and then you can decide if you still want to buy me that drink.

Officially, my badge says Program Development. Practically, I work for everyone at Williams Street. My job is a catch-all of miscellaneous tasks that don't fit into everyone else's job descriptions. Errands, chores, and extraneous projects are my fare. I dub and deliver tapes, highlight scripts, conform scripts, buy Lazzo candy, mail packages, order office supplies, deliver invoices, empty and return kegs of beer, order pizza, play pranks, archive media, inventory swag, drive Schoolly D to his hotel, Subclip audio, pass out mail, shoot behind-the-scenes footage, lift heavy things and breakdance for the webcam.

I get to meet everyone that comes into Williams Street. I see shows before editing is finished. I sit in on audio recording. I get to see the whole process from start to finish as scripts I read last month become tapes that I'm dubbing this week. But the best part of all is getting to know the people who created the cultural phenomenon that I've been a part of much longer than my employment here.

Williams Street itself is not the cartoon wonderland that haunts the waking dreams and nightmares of insomniacs across the country. This isn't a Hollywood studio; we work in an old carpet factory. We don't have proper ceilings, and there's constant construction. The budgets are small and the workdays long. It is the people who work here make this place special. The giant statues and scary robotic Santas are merely manifestations of how cool the employees are. Everyone here, whether they realize it or not, contributes to a revolutionary entertainment cult the likes of which has never existed before.

I love the unprecedented efficacy the viewer has in Adult Swim. An intern at TNT, MTV or Comedy Central would never get asked to write an employee blog for the official website. I'm proud to work here and thankful for the opportunity everyone has offered me.

There is a small sadness when you cross over the threshold, shiny yellow ID badge in hand. It's the same twinge of loss you feel when you finish a good book. The mystery is solved. My dream is a reality, but I can't help but miss the dream a little. I think I used to believe that the messages and programming feeding my tired eyes were the work of a sympathetic consciousness, solely for my entertainment. Now I'm part of that consciousness, and it's far more interesting and complex than I could ever have imagined, sitting on my sofa, defying sleep.

So, is it everything I imagined it would be? Not exactly. But this internship still kicks all your internships' **bleep**.

Now how about that drink?

--SwimEye

Message Edited by Qman1 on 08-08-2005 03:54 PM

[scrapyard]

swimeye is alota fun 2have around!      i 4get when he's done b'n an intern.....

i guess the only diff will be that he won't be runn'n around on the webcam, he'll just be runn'n his mouth off around here.
w/his fingers.  typing.  not that other thing all y'all dirty minders mite have been think'n!

[Qman1]

---

scrapyard wrote:
swimeye is alota fun 2have around!      i 4get when he's done b'n an intern.....

i guess the only diff will be that he won't be runn'n around on the webcam, he'll just be runn'n his mouth off around here.
w/his fingers.  typing.  not that other thing all y'all dirty minders mite have been think'n!

---

I thought he was going to a diffenrent job? He's just moving to a different department over at Williams Street?

I thought he said he was leaving in September?

Yea, he's cool. He's like the most active SwimInsider on the boards.

[scrapyard]

well, he's just a lil ole intern...they only get a lil ole amount of time there 2b the **bleep**. hahaa. jk swimeye!

then off 2the grown up world...of...real work?   sept sounds rite cuza it's a school turnover time...

unless he picked up a cool new internship on say....the simple life 3. or is it 4 now? 

[Qman1]

October 21, 2005
Now...Relax
If you ever fly Air France from Paris, I suggest you listen to audio channel 13. It plays exercises to keep your circulation up on the plane. A very proper English gentleman tells you to "Squeeze your left buttock tightly, lifting yourself up as high as you can...now relax. Now your right..." in a whole series of butt exercises, and then moves on to thighs, starting by telling you to put your fist between your thighs and sqeeze tightly. I was really tempted to do the exercises, to see how uncomfortable it made the guy next to me. Maybe we should make a show out of it.

So I'm safely back from MIPCOM. I think we'll have some exciting news for you guys within a month or so, when we're able to finalize and announce some of the acquisitions.

--Kim M.

[Qman1]

October 28, 2005
What Are You Working On?
It's Friday and I am your man on the street. Today I'm going around with an Olympus Pearlcorder S702 asking employees what they're working on.

Dana S.: "I'm working on delivering a lot of tapes from here to there, taking the Williams Street skybucket over to the Operations people with fabulous episodes, like Lucy, Daughter of the Devil and Gigantor. That's coming at 5:30 in the morning. We have fresh tape for those of you who get up and eat your Kashi GoLean. Lucy is a fantastic web version that has a different theme song. Also, the tape library is moving on the first, so it's renovation chaos."

Brandon L.: "I'm working on the Robot Chicken DVD package."

Kurt S.: "Sweetening some bumps for Sunday night."

Kim M.: "Getting everything cleaned up after MIPCOM."

Nick W.: "Just watching the trailer of Buckaroo Banzai over and over again. But the best thing ever is Patrice O'Neal's stand-up comedy. That's not gonna change for a little while."

Dave H.: "The last episode of Perfect Hair Forever, episode six." (Last episode of the initial order, he means. --SwimBuddha)

Jay E.: "I'm working on the Aqua Teen movie. I'm creating a background where the Mooninites and the Plutonians ride the roller coaster."

John B.: "12 oz. Mouse, uh, number six, called "Sharktasm." We're sweetening it Monday, so it looks like a long weekend. But I'm doing the flap and I've gotta fill in this whole...I think we might actually make our airdate."

Ollie G.: "I'm trying to figure out why someone would drink coffee from the day before the following day and when that might be acceptable, if ever."

Dave Willis: "Raydon 2: The Raydonening. It's going to be on a future DVD--volume eight, Aqua Teen."

Matt Maiellaro: "We're looking at some 12 oz. Mouse promos that Ted's been working on. They're funny--they hardly need notes."

Nick I.: "I'm working on Squidbillies, which I think is the last one from this batch, episode six. I don't know what it's called."

Branden W.: "My wife and I are trying to figure why our daughter keeps getting up at 4:30 in the morning."

That's obvious, Branden. She's trying to catch the end of Adult Swim. DUH! Speaking of which, don't miss Nick Weidenfeld's "Best Thing Ever," debuting on Sunday night's bumps. Also, I'm pleased to announce that Merrill Hagan will be joining the AdultSwim.com team as senior writer next Thursday. Merrill is a Cartoon Net veteran currently blogging in the Fan Collective as BrandMerrill. We're lucky to get him. The Fan Collective, by the way, currently has 138,446 members.

--SwimBuddha


October 27, 2005
Greetings From Sweaty Williams Street!
Pretty much whenever the seasons change, the venerable Williams Street building goes through a long process of trying to acclimate to the current environment and then **bleep** it up and breaking a boiler or busting a compressor and starting over while we either sweat or freeze. For instance, even though outside it is about a perfect 64 degrees, inside Williams Street it's about 97 degrees. And we're sweaty. And we're breathing fumes from the remodeling. It will even out in two or three weeks, but when Spring arrives and it finally warms up outside, it will suddenly be 44 degrees in here for no good reason. I was going to go around today and get people to tell me what they're working on, but they've all fled to cooler climates. God help us all.

--SwimBuddha


October 26, 2005
An Itemized List of Everything On My Bulletin Board
Stroll with me around my bulletin board and let's see what is hanging up here. It's! An! Unprecedented! Glimpse! Into! Life! At! Williams! Street!

1) Britney Spears postcard. It's from the innocent era and she's lying on her tummy in a field of grass. I used to have it up for ironic reasons but now it's there to remind me of how quickly things change.

2) Photo of me shooting a bird. Although you would never know it is me. It was taken with a Lomo so the color is perfect. I'm scrunched against the right-hand frame and you can only see my leg and my bird-shooting hand, which is cut off by the frame, too.

3) Wham-O Super Ball. Still in its package. Says "Amazing Zectron," which I used for a message board announcement once.

4) Number and email address for Scott Fry at Radical Axis. This went up during Hockey Chicken because Scott was helping us with the promo spots. I haven't used either his number or email since.

5) Old Doc Severinson cartoon from an 80s-era Spin magazine. My favorite single panel cartoon ever. Doc is wearing a leisure suit that is covered in flames and lightning bolts. Horns poke out of his head and he has the demented look of the possessed. Offpanel, Johnny Carson says, "Doc, You Look Like HELL Tonight...". Doc's reply? "THANKS, Johnny." Comedy.

6) Cartoon Network buttons (2). From our innocent era. One has Fred, Yogi and George Jetson wearing those horrible checkerboard coats. The other features the logo in the middle of single-frame panels of characters.

7) Rolling Stones Key Ring. Still in package. Circa 1983 key chain of Mick Jagger in his football pants wearing phase. I keep it for the packaging which is a photo of a big tongue.

8) Business card for a website that Jacob Escobedo was going to start. It never went up.

9) Smiles From Florida postcard. It features a smiling dolphin and on the back reads, "The friendly dolphins always ready to entertain." Chrissie sent it to me.

10) The words, "YOU ARE FREE."

11) Jay Edwards's email address, because it's so weird.

12) Hillbily Doll (sic). Someone bought this from me from a North Georgia mountain gift shop. It has blue hair. And they misspelled Hillbilly.

13) A number that I'm afraid to call.

14) Whet Your Appetite for Crazy as Hell! postcard. Yeah, you remember the campaign. For Aqua Teen going to strip.

15) A photo of a framed, backlit lady that hangs in my house that blinks on and off.

16) Greetings from Berkeley postcard. Because it has Amoeba Records on it. And I heart Amoeba Records.

17) Cartoon Network New Media phone list. My customized version with all the Adult Swim numbers on it, too.

18) Sketch that Jake made in a very boring meeting. It says "SUN" on it.

19) [adult swim] sticker

20) [adult swim] buttons (6). Two adultswim.coms; one Thundercleese, one Brak, one Coach McGuirk, one Space Ghost.

21) Master Shake Air Freshener.

22) Godzilla in New York mini-bag. A friend bought this in Tokyo. It's a tiny blue bag. It reads, "GODZILLA IN NEW YORK. Hi! my name is Godzilla. Playing in New York City gave me an appetite. That's why I'm at Mister Donut. Watch out!"

23) Michael Jackson Rub N' Play Transfers. Yeah. Made by Colorforms. Ages 3 and up. Packaging copy reads: "Rub 'em here! Rub 'em there! Rub 'em EVERYWHERE!" The whole thing is just really unfortunate.

24) GO TO JAKE'S SHOW OR DIE note. From Jake. About his show.

--SwimBuddha


October 25, 2005
15 Years
Yesterday marked my 15-year anniversary with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Here's a look back at my ten most memorable moments with the company.

1) Making Pavement's Stephen Malkmus sign a book I found in a thrift store called "How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time and Have Her Beg For More."

2) Driving comedian Carrot Top across town during rush hour in Washington, D.C. to try and make a gig at American University. I had to be his escort for an appearance at a mall in D.C. to promote "A.M. Mayhem," a short-lived morning block on Cartoon Network. He was running late for his gig and asked me to drive him and his manager. One of the most stressful hours of my life. I had a map in my lap and I was terrified, having never driven in D.C. before, plus he kept trying out material on me and getting annoyed that I wasn't laughing.

3) Seeing my name as a credited writer on Space Ghost Coast to Coast for the first time ("Rehearsal," July 18, 1997).

4) Hanging out with a wrestler named Cactus Jack while working for WCW in 1992. And then marveling as Mick Foley went on to become a superstar as Mankind with WWF and a best-selling author.

5) Attending the first Tibetan Freedom Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park as the PR representative for the Space Ghost crew. There was literally nothing for me to do. Nothing to do except stand backstage as nearly ever musical icon of the modern era paraded by four feet away from me: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Beck, Rage Against the Machine and, of course, Beastie Boys, among them.

6) Getting to shake hands with Captain Kangaroo at some odd Turner function.

7) Finally getting to meet message board moderators Phoenix and Beezo in Austin, Texas, and then standing at the lip of a stage at last year's SXSW watching Cheeseburger roar through their opening song on a perfect early Spring day.

8) Attending the HFStival with Matt Harrigan on June 3, 1995. Space Ghost had been given the opportunity to "introduce" the Ramones. Matt and I worked on it and went up there with backstage passes and all sorts of access to interview people for Space Ghost Coast to Coast in a cramped room underneath RFK stadium, next to an annoyed crew from MTV. I was hopped up on free Frappucinos and out of my head as I rubbed elbows with Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, The Ramones, Soul Asylum and Winona Ryder. All this, and I got to have dinner with Wolfman Jack the night before courtesy of a WHFS deejay named Wes.

9) Poker night during Free Hockey Chicken on July 28, 2004. It blew my mind that bigwigs Mark Lazarus, Jim Samples and Keith Crofford were playing cards underneath a webcam with a guy in a chicken suit. When people learn I work with AdultSwim.com, half the time they still bring up Hockey Chicken.

10) Stopping a cab that I was riding in with Jacob Escobedo to get pictures of a giant billboard he had designed for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Later that evening, we had an absolute blast plastering Adult Swim stickers up and down Melrose Avenue.

And that doesn't even include having Andre Benjamin crash our Space Ghost tea party or riding in a limousine with wrestler Johnny B. Badd. The truth is, I've been really lucky. Here's to 15 more.

--SwimBuddha


October 24, 2005
add blog entry
Sean Akins launched one heroic drive after another down the center of the fairway this past Sunday in our regular "im leaving for tokyo for four weeks, **bleep**" grudge match. These ridiculous, uncharacteristic tee shots ruined what was otherwise a perfect Fall day. Sean wins by four strokes, 88-92.

Also: I have received another one of those mysterious 'props" messages where I am invited to "approve" or "reject." Baffling.

--mnl