found at thisisnthappiness
Monthly Archives: July 2012
A webcomic worth reading: Wapsi Square
Webcomics have been good to me.
They found me my eternal sweetheart, kept me sane in the midst of storms, and filled my circle of friends and acquaintances with some of the best people I’ll ever know. There are thousands of them out there, so I’ve had to be selective; they can also be a terrible time-sink.
That said, I’d like to periodically recommend the strips that have meaning for me in one way or another. Today, one that sits at the top of my must-read list: Wapsi Square, by Paul Taylor.
From Wikipedia, “Wapsi Square is a slice of life/fantasy webcomic set in modern Minneapolis, “a world almost exactly like the one you want to believe you live in.” It also includes multiple supernatural elements, including a psychic and a god, which contrasts with its soap opera nature.The name derives from the Wapsipinicon River.
The story starts following the mundane life of main character Monica Villarreal and focuses prominently on her interactions with her friends. She works as an anthropologist dealing with artifacts for museum and the strips are mostly of the gag-a-day form. This changes, however, with the introduction of the character Tepoztecal, an Aztec deity, which marks the beginning of a change in tone, including longer story arcs involving mythological creatures, forgotten civilizations, gods and the end of the world.
What I love about Wapsi is more than just the stunning artwork and the captivating storyline – it’s about the inner journey of discovery that each of his dominant characters is taking. Whether the interactions are the day-to-day ones with friends and associates, or the “holy crap it’s a sphinx get in the car!” ones that happen along the way, these people fight every day with those internal demons that live within each of us: doubt, shame, guilt, insecurity, fear, prejudice, Harry the Worm, you name it. And sometimes they win, and sometimes they lose, and it’s a wonderful romp; even the demons have demons – nobody in this strip is exempt from the struggle.
Prominent among the issues Paul’s characters deal with is body image; Monica is a tiny Latina with a brobdingnagian bustline, and this provides ample fodder for both humor and introspection. Paul will often step outside the fourth wall on his blog to spotlight real-life women who personify the essence of a “Wapsi Girl”: strong, feisty, accomplished, and full of can-do attitude. If you’re wondering where the strong men are in the Wapsi World, they are there, but they tend to hide in the shadows for the most part. I for one would love to know more about Daren the bartender and his background – he reminds me a lot of Star Trek’s Guinan… a wise listener who somehow has a way of seeing into the soul.
Outside of the strip, Paul does some really nice artwork – you can see many of his pieces here, and most of these have been offered for sale at eBay, along with the original bristol-board artwork for the daily strips as well. I confess to having a rather substantial collection.
Wapsi can be lighthearted, but it can also be very dark. It would get at least a PG-13 rating, with an occasional “R” word thrown in, but adult themes are never tossed around gratuitously.
As long as it’s around, I’ll be reading Wapsi; it’s more than just entertainment for me, but also a daily reminder that all of us are fighting an uphill battle, and that we need to be there for one another. It has evolved mightily since it was started, both in storyline and artwork; the only thing I can guarantee is that nobody knows what is waiting around the next corner.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Free Box of Candy, 1914
Found at Twice Sold Tales in Farmingon, ME.
WGASA?
When the San Diego Zoo opened a second, larger branch called the San Diego Wild Animal Park, built around an enormous open-field enclosure where the animals roam free, visitors would ride on a monorail called the Wgasa Bush Line which circles the enclosure.
They wanted to give the monorail a jazzy, African sounding name. So they sent out a memo to a bunch of zoo staffers saying, “What shall we call the monorail at the Wild Animal Park?” One of the memos came back with “WGASA” written on the bottom. The planners loved it and the rest is history. What the planners didn’t know was that the zoo staffer had not intended to suggest a name. He was using an acronym which was popular at the time. It stood for “Who Gives A Shit Anyhow?”
Bohica!
The Old Wolf has spoken.
A Woman and her Harley, 1910
Kecak: Balinese Monkey Chant.
Best representation of the Kecak I’ve found.
Gunung Kawia is an 11th century temple complex in Tampaksiring north east of Ubud on Bali, Indonesia.
Kecak (pronounced [ˈketʃaʔ], alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack) is a form of Balinese dance and music drama, originated in the 1930s Bali and is performed primarily by men, although a few women’s kecak groups exist as of 2006. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 150 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting “cak” and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance. From Wikipedia.
Even though it’s a completely different scenario, I had flashbacks to “Avatar” here.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Reunion of Slaves, 1916.
Lewis Martin, age 100; Martha Elizabeth Banks, age 104;
Amy Ware, age 103; Rev. Simon P. Drew, born free. Photo: Harris & Ewing, 1916
Found at shorpy.com
Ten years after the war
Trust, but Verify
All through the news services and the blogosphere an article is circulating (here’s a example) about a deaf man who was mocked by TSA agents as a “@#$% deafie,” humiliated in other ways, and then had his bagged candy stolen and eaten right in front of him. Sounds outrageous.
Now, I’m no huge fan of TSA excesses, nor of their basic philosophy of knee-jerk response to every sneeze or change in the wind. Numerous articles, including one quoting former TSA chief Kip Hawley have raised the issue that the entire airport security system is broken beyond repair.
That said, I’m still willing to bet that most TSA agents out there are folks just like you and me, and that only a very small minority are really there to perpetrate distilled douchebaggery or exercise unrighteous dominion for the sake of inflating their own egos. And, this article seems to stretch credibility.
Add to that the fact that the blogger, Tea and Theater, appears to have vanished from sight. The article quoted in the replicated news items is gone, and so is the root page.
And that raises all sorts of red flags in my book.
I’ve flown a lot, and had one or two less-than-pleasant interactions with the TSA, but I’ve also had countless more where I was treated with courtesy and efficiency, and even given extra help. So I really, really wonder what’s going on with this situation.
Within the realm of possibility: Tea and Theatre’s blog may be down for any number of reasons. He forgot to renew his subscription. The server is down. His blog was getting so many hits it exceeded bandwidth restrictions, and so on. It’s also possible that everything happened just the way he said it did.
But until I see some better confirmation about what really took place here, I’m thinking I should take this event with a grain of salt, rather than just forwarding it on to everybody I know in the name of whipping up more anti-government sentiment.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Hey, Old Guys! Do those still work? (Reflections on the World’s Fair).
I recently found this image and it got me thinking, and thinking some more, about my own experiences with the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
Not much is left of the New York World’s fair of 1964; even those awesome towers are now looking sadder and sadder, as time and the elements take their toll… but how the memories linger. My mom took me, and I think I was there for only a day, but I was impressed. Looking back, it now seems like a cross between Disney’ EPCOT and Tomorrowland, with an endless variety of things to see and do.
The first place I ever had a Belgian Waffle.
The first place I ever saw a picturephone function, at the Bell Telephone pavilion. It was a sexy idea in concept, but the old sets, requiring a CRT and having only a tiny screen, never caught on, and copper wire made bandwidth narrow and expensive. Not until the advent of the PC, smartphones, and the Internet did the concept become practical.
Speaking of phones, at that age I would always check pay phones for forgotten coins in the coin return bin. I remember finding one that was out of order, but when I tapped the switchhook, it disgorged about $8.00 in change like a slot machine… Score!
The generous phone in question was right in front of the Mormon pavilion. Even though it would be another 5 years or so before I joined the LDS Church, (to my mother’s everlasting dismay, her pioneer family having rejected organized religion when she was a little girl), I remember this building well – it was quite striking, designed as it was to look like the Salt Lake Temple. An interesting historical tidbit – the pavilion later became a church in Plainview, New York, dedicated December 2, 1967 and still in use (minus the temple façade, of course.)
My one tangible souvenir of the fair was a game of Wff ‘n’ Proof, which I had until the foam rubber case holding the dice crumbled into powder.
The Monorail. To me, AMF is synonymous with bowling, although I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Brunswick A-2 pinsetters, mostly because I learned how to repair them, lo these many years ago.
An aerial view of the fairgrounds.
One thing I do remember about the fair was that it wasn’t packed wall to wall with people, the way Disneyland gets. This picture is pretty representative.
The New York pavilion. Look closely, and you can see there were actuallythree towers – the lowest one, hiding in the back, was used by the mayor to entertain dignitaries.
The Wikipedia article about the fair answers certain questions I had about why they don’t do this sort of thing more often – apparently both the 1939 and 1964 fairs in New York lost money, although the second one did so more spectacularly as the result of mismanagement and possible corruption. (In New York? Nah…)
As time passes, events like this have become less relevant because of the massive amount of information and cultural exposure available through the broadcast media and the internet, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing they’d do another one somewhere. Epcot still seems wildly popular – I know I enjoyed it with my sweetheart when we went right after we were married, but at close to $100 a pop these days, it’s hard to justify the expense unless you have good friends who get you in for free. 
I think Mom must have taken me because she went to the 1939 fair as a young woman – the following shots were taken during one of her visits there:
The trylon and perisphere.
An avenue among the exhibits. Looks rather sparsely attended.
Tourist shot. The Life Savers-sponsored parachute ride was a popular attraction, costing 40¢ per ticket at the time. After the fair closed, the ride was moved to Coney Island, where I had the thrill of riding it. The tower still stands, although the attraction is no longer functional – it closed in either 1964 or 1968, depending on whom you talk to. (Mom was a lot pudgier then, I almost don’t recognize her!)
Thus endeth the nostalgia.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 