You said something about interesting commentary… this intrigues me…
CortJstr said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm)
If the next major social network doesn’t add Sympathetic Nods I will weep for our future. Actually, seeing as WWE is rolling out a social network, I should already do that I guess.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me about Six Degrees. I was signed up there back in 97 or so. I guess it’s high level of excitement and success is why I’m not signed up for any other social networks now…. Well, there’s last.fm, but that’s just to quantify my musical enjoyment.
The lengthy pause after the word “sarcast” was, well, deeply disturbing. In a good sort of way.
Rick said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm)
I had to pause this at exactly 3:26 to tell you how hilariously you draw babies. You draw babies hilariously. Now, back to the show….
Ian R. Beste said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 6:39 pm)
Hmmm…Wil Wheaton wears T-shirts…
I wear T-shirts…
I’m Wil Wheaton?
steve c said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm)
I must agree about the hilarity of the baby. Wonderful. You also seem to have taken the comic pause to new heights with this one. There are several subtle pauses that turn a funny joke into serious lols. And I truly love, and watched about 17 times, “I contribute my own…*sigh* tweets.”
Rob J said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 6:53 pm)
When I discovered Alt Text I was a very happy man.
I had read all there was to read on brunching, and all the post-brunching ratings, and was happy to find more new stuff from you. (for some reason I avoided blogs in general, so never read this. I do now.)
I tried the alt.text podcast for a while, but found that (and I really mean no offence when I say this) you didn’t sound at all like Lore.
It’s like when they make a cartoon based on a comic strip and it just doesn’t work cos no matter how much they get the look and the script right, they’ll never re-create the voice in my head.
So I went back to reading the alt texts and was happy. Then came the video rating. And while there was that same element of “you don’t sound like Lore” I could work through that as the cartoon stuff was brilliant and really enhanced the text. Now I eagerly await any new video rating.
So anyway, I read the alt text text this morning, and have just now watched the video. And I have to say (in an apparently inordinately long winded way) that it works extremely well. It’s possible that it is simply because now in my head you do sound like Lore (you must be so proud), or because you captured the visual of rescuing a baby from a burning submarine better than my brain did, but whatever it is it works, and it adds depth to your articles which I would never have said it was lacking.
Question (and this will prove if you waded through that slab o ‘text): Did you have the idea for the video stuff before you wrote the text, or did you finish the article and think “I could video that with some cool pics”)?
Magic Flyin' Lemur said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm)
Hey, looks like you settled on a halfway point “New Lore”. I like him. He doesn’t look like a little cartoon man, and he also doesn’t look like unsettlingly like Fester.
Do you use cue cards or a teleprompter or what? You read your stuff quite smoothly and naturally.
Matt L. said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 7:31 pm)
I was only mildly amused until the final sentence. The social commentary, though extremely interesting, wasn’t really funny until after you’ve discussed what you do, and why you do it. I cracked up, when you went with: “I must be stopped!”
Dude, the overweight, thirty-something Eddie Munster look is creepy. All you need is the spider bow tie, and you’d be there. I liked the “newsroom” feel better, too.
Matt said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 7:35 pm)
One of your alt videos. I really like the “ratings” format, but you obviously don’t need to be a slave to it. Also liked how Questionable Content was open on your computer. On don’t know if that was indicative of procrastination or serious research.
Given that I regularly run up to people, physically shake them and scream “I still exist” in a half-declarative, half-”please assure me that my future offspring, given that they eventually exist, haven’t stumbled upon time-travel, gone back to when my father was buying malteds and hanging out in trees being creepy and done something that will result in my disappearance from spacetime” sort of way, it’s surprising I haven’t jumped all over the merry Twitter bandwagon. Then again, I passed 140 characters just in this comment long, long ago, so that might be the reason right there.
Good job, though I do have to say that blank-eyed-cartoon Lore is now forever linked in my mind to zombies.
Which is a good thing.
EToaster said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm)
I think this is my favorite Alt Text video yet. I’m glad you decided to mix things up from the strict ratings format.
Lore said:
(On April 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm)
Thanks, everyone. Let me see if I can answer a few questions here.
• The commentary will be coming tomorrow.
• Thanks for the baby thing. I tried to capture that blank “I am absorbing information so that one day I will understand what the hell is happening” look babies sometimes get.
• The pauses are a combination of comedic timing and forgetting what I’m going to say next. I sometimes manipulate the timing in editing. Sometimes I have to draw cartoons specifically to cover a cut.
• I’m happy that people seem okay with Combo Lore, because I really didn’t want to have to draw the blank expression and sunglasses every single time. Although I haven’t shown him/me smiling yet. That’s because smiling is rarely funnier than frowning, and when it is, it’s crazy insane smiling.
• In brief, I thought of some ideas, picked ones that sounded good and would still work in two to four weeks, wrote the essays, recorded them, then did the cartoons. I don’t really think about the cartoons when I’m writing, but I probably should.
• I actually recite the essays from memory. Memorizing them is probably the most stressful part of the process, but my producer and the cameraman are very patient with me.
• The newsroom isn’t coming back, because the hassles of dealing with the sound aren’t worth it. Sorry to newsroom fans.
• Questionable Content was open because the cameraman said I should find a Web site that wasn’t bright white. I suppose I could have put up Slumbering, but I like mixing it up.
• Apparently I am doomed to resemble either a Munster or an Addams.
Dave said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 4:43 am)
I, personally, thought this rocked. What folks may or may not know is that you are a funny performer with a great sense of comic timing on stage. I think this Alt Text gave you a chance to really relax and enjoy yourself. You rock. Cock on.
randal said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 5:10 am)
Just so you know, your iTunes feed for the video podcast needs another kick. It’s missed the last two.
(I’d not make an issue of it, but that’s the sole non-blocked-at-work version available to me.)
CortJstr said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 6:53 am)
Huh. I’ve been having problems with the comments feed here for a bit but I just assume that’s due to Netvibes sucking.
I’m also totally guilty of tweet-leeching. Lore’s updates are the only ones I read so I don’t even have an account at twitter. Although I feel significantly less guilty than if I were leaching on eMule or BT or something.
Dave said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 7:04 am)
Of all of the discussions of social networking out there, that was probably the most potato-oriented.
Dave brings up an interesting, point, though, having never met or even seen you in real life, I cannot attest to claims regarding your stage presence.
You do seem more relaxed. Ratings are typically micro-sized and the format is fairly structured, whereas Alt Text is more conversational. There aren’t distinct breaks between topics and though the joke density is still quite high, there’s a little more room for setup and aside than in the ultra-concentrated Ratings. Alt Text may lend itself more easily to video performance.
Which is not to say that you should stop the Ratings. You should never stop the Ratings. You should just to Alt Text videos in addition. And make more Lore Brand Comics. And Bandwidth Theater. And Bad Gods. You make many funny things, I’m saying.
lemur said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 3:41 pm)
on the wall behind you, is that Minimum Wage Art? i used to have one of those. don’t know what happened to it. anyway, cool reminder that you used to live in raleigh!
Lore said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 3:45 pm)
Whoa, yes. That is indeed Minimum Wage Art, picked up at an ice cream shop whose name I forget.
For those who weren’t in a certain part of North Carolina at a certain time, Minimum Wage Art was a series of pantings on cardboard by a guy named Dan-O. He would charge minimum wage for the time he spent working on them, plus the cost of materials. I liked them very much and I have three of them hung up behind me on the wall in the video.
Ben said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 10:25 pm)
One of the best parts about being an internet elder statesman is the real high-grade derision it supplies you with. “Social networking? Nah, I was over that by the time SixDegrees went under.”
ham said:
(On April 24th, 2008 at 11:58 pm)
The hair’s looking good. Weather-related? The East Bay’s been unexpectedly chilly the last week or so.
OK, I finally get Twitter. I never got it before (thanks, Lore, for straightening that out for me. I suppose I could have, at some point, actually gone to the Twitter site and looked at it to see what it does, but I am a Very Busy Man.
Also, it’s good to know that someone else has at least once shopped at Burlington Coat Factory. I totally have that same tie.
Roiling ennui within? Now that is pure comedic gold… nay comedic platinum!
-bampf
Urban Garlic said:
(On April 26th, 2008 at 4:50 am)
Late to the party here, but I thought (and I say this as a fan) that this one felt a bit “off” to me, I think because it was more about you, which worked against the ironic detachment that is the primary tool of the professional sarcast. Lots of nice turns of phrase, though — utilitarian smarm is nice, roiling ennui is brilliant, and I already phrase-checked sarcast, so I guess I’m done.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who watched the “I contribute my own… … tweets” bit over and over, snickering madly.
Lord Bob said:
(On April 27th, 2008 at 10:49 am)
“The newsroom isn’t coming back, because the hassles of dealing with the sound aren’t worth it. Sorry to newsroom fans.”
Peter Keleghan will be crushed.
God, I hope somebody gets that.
Anyway, that was amusing. The angry conservative change-is-always-bad guy in me was disappointed when I didn’t see any report-card-style goings-on, but since it was funny I managed to bury the angry conservative under a torrent of amusement and now, all is well.
Andrew Perron said:
(On April 27th, 2008 at 12:53 pm)
This one didn’t really work for me. I felt like I was being lectured to, even though I didn’t feel that way when reading the actual article. I think it’s a side-effect of directly taking long, detailed paragraphs which are clever in text and speaking them out loud.
Still funny though. And I loved Jason Kzotkze.
BillJ said:
(On April 28th, 2008 at 7:50 am)
It did feel a little lecture-y, but that’s the nature of the format. People have singled out the “*sigh* tweet” and “I must be stopped” bits for praise, but they felt the most unnatural moments to me.
And finally, you’re a professional sarcast? I would have thought the obvious form would be a professional sarcaster with each alt.text being an individual sarcast.
The Eidolon said:
(On April 28th, 2008 at 3:59 pm)
I must be imagining things… When cartoon Lore holds the “twitter” chip, it looks suspiciously
like he is holding his dismembered other ear and is eyeing it suspiciously. Not trying to make fun of the art style, which is great. Just first looking at it that way I can’t see it as anything else.
a wikipedia admin said:
(On April 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm)
The absolute best Twitter is Othar Trygvassen’s, and if you dont’ read Girl Genius this is completely wasted on you.
But Lore’s comes a close second.
Macuga said:
(On May 6th, 2008 at 12:48 am)
Awesome! That was highly enjoyable, and I completely agree with the empty-calorie nature of “social network” sites (and I loved the description of that term “glistening with utilitarian smarm”–ha!!)
Mmm…. Hashbrowns.
Tweetleech, away!
I find it offers a certain amount of humbling perspective to think of the individual, capsulated messages as twits.
But only the messages.
You said something about interesting commentary… this intrigues me…
If the next major social network doesn’t add Sympathetic Nods I will weep for our future. Actually, seeing as WWE is rolling out a social network, I should already do that I guess.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me about Six Degrees. I was signed up there back in 97 or so. I guess it’s high level of excitement and success is why I’m not signed up for any other social networks now…. Well, there’s last.fm, but that’s just to quantify my musical enjoyment.
Babies. Submarines. Wallpaper. Now.
The lengthy pause after the word “sarcast” was, well, deeply disturbing. In a good sort of way.
I had to pause this at exactly 3:26 to tell you how hilariously you draw babies. You draw babies hilariously. Now, back to the show….
Hmmm…Wil Wheaton wears T-shirts…
I wear T-shirts…
I’m Wil Wheaton?
I must agree about the hilarity of the baby. Wonderful. You also seem to have taken the comic pause to new heights with this one. There are several subtle pauses that turn a funny joke into serious lols. And I truly love, and watched about 17 times, “I contribute my own…*sigh* tweets.”
When I discovered Alt Text I was a very happy man.
I had read all there was to read on brunching, and all the post-brunching ratings, and was happy to find more new stuff from you. (for some reason I avoided blogs in general, so never read this. I do now.)
I tried the alt.text podcast for a while, but found that (and I really mean no offence when I say this) you didn’t sound at all like Lore.
It’s like when they make a cartoon based on a comic strip and it just doesn’t work cos no matter how much they get the look and the script right, they’ll never re-create the voice in my head.
So I went back to reading the alt texts and was happy. Then came the video rating. And while there was that same element of “you don’t sound like Lore” I could work through that as the cartoon stuff was brilliant and really enhanced the text. Now I eagerly await any new video rating.
So anyway, I read the alt text text this morning, and have just now watched the video. And I have to say (in an apparently inordinately long winded way) that it works extremely well. It’s possible that it is simply because now in my head you do sound like Lore (you must be so proud), or because you captured the visual of rescuing a baby from a burning submarine better than my brain did, but whatever it is it works, and it adds depth to your articles which I would never have said it was lacking.
Question (and this will prove if you waded through that slab o ‘text): Did you have the idea for the video stuff before you wrote the text, or did you finish the article and think “I could video that with some cool pics”)?
Hey, looks like you settled on a halfway point “New Lore”. I like him. He doesn’t look like a little cartoon man, and he also doesn’t look like unsettlingly like Fester.
Hey Lore,
Do you use cue cards or a teleprompter or what? You read your stuff quite smoothly and naturally.
I was only mildly amused until the final sentence. The social commentary, though extremely interesting, wasn’t really funny until after you’ve discussed what you do, and why you do it. I cracked up, when you went with: “I must be stopped!”
Dude, the overweight, thirty-something Eddie Munster look is creepy. All you need is the spider bow tie, and you’d be there. I liked the “newsroom” feel better, too.
One of your alt videos. I really like the “ratings” format, but you obviously don’t need to be a slave to it. Also liked how Questionable Content was open on your computer. On don’t know if that was indicative of procrastination or serious research.
Given that I regularly run up to people, physically shake them and scream “I still exist” in a half-declarative, half-”please assure me that my future offspring, given that they eventually exist, haven’t stumbled upon time-travel, gone back to when my father was buying malteds and hanging out in trees being creepy and done something that will result in my disappearance from spacetime” sort of way, it’s surprising I haven’t jumped all over the merry Twitter bandwagon. Then again, I passed 140 characters just in this comment long, long ago, so that might be the reason right there.
Good job, though I do have to say that blank-eyed-cartoon Lore is now forever linked in my mind to zombies.
Which is a good thing.
I think this is my favorite Alt Text video yet. I’m glad you decided to mix things up from the strict ratings format.
Thanks, everyone. Let me see if I can answer a few questions here.
• The commentary will be coming tomorrow.
• Thanks for the baby thing. I tried to capture that blank “I am absorbing information so that one day I will understand what the hell is happening” look babies sometimes get.
• The pauses are a combination of comedic timing and forgetting what I’m going to say next. I sometimes manipulate the timing in editing. Sometimes I have to draw cartoons specifically to cover a cut.
• I’m happy that people seem okay with Combo Lore, because I really didn’t want to have to draw the blank expression and sunglasses every single time. Although I haven’t shown him/me smiling yet. That’s because smiling is rarely funnier than frowning, and when it is, it’s crazy insane smiling.
• In brief, I thought of some ideas, picked ones that sounded good and would still work in two to four weeks, wrote the essays, recorded them, then did the cartoons. I don’t really think about the cartoons when I’m writing, but I probably should.
• I actually recite the essays from memory. Memorizing them is probably the most stressful part of the process, but my producer and the cameraman are very patient with me.
• The newsroom isn’t coming back, because the hassles of dealing with the sound aren’t worth it. Sorry to newsroom fans.
• Questionable Content was open because the cameraman said I should find a Web site that wasn’t bright white. I suppose I could have put up Slumbering, but I like mixing it up.
• Apparently I am doomed to resemble either a Munster or an Addams.
I, personally, thought this rocked. What folks may or may not know is that you are a funny performer with a great sense of comic timing on stage. I think this Alt Text gave you a chance to really relax and enjoy yourself. You rock. Cock on.
Just so you know, your iTunes feed for the video podcast needs another kick. It’s missed the last two.
(I’d not make an issue of it, but that’s the sole non-blocked-at-work version available to me.)
Huh. I’ve been having problems with the comments feed here for a bit but I just assume that’s due to Netvibes sucking.
I’m also totally guilty of tweet-leeching. Lore’s updates are the only ones I read so I don’t even have an account at twitter. Although I feel significantly less guilty than if I were leaching on eMule or BT or something.
Of all of the discussions of social networking out there, that was probably the most potato-oriented.
Bravo!
Dave brings up an interesting, point, though, having never met or even seen you in real life, I cannot attest to claims regarding your stage presence.
You do seem more relaxed. Ratings are typically micro-sized and the format is fairly structured, whereas Alt Text is more conversational. There aren’t distinct breaks between topics and though the joke density is still quite high, there’s a little more room for setup and aside than in the ultra-concentrated Ratings. Alt Text may lend itself more easily to video performance.
Which is not to say that you should stop the Ratings. You should never stop the Ratings. You should just to Alt Text videos in addition. And make more Lore Brand Comics. And Bandwidth Theater. And Bad Gods. You make many funny things, I’m saying.
on the wall behind you, is that Minimum Wage Art? i used to have one of those. don’t know what happened to it. anyway, cool reminder that you used to live in raleigh!
Whoa, yes. That is indeed Minimum Wage Art, picked up at an ice cream shop whose name I forget.
For those who weren’t in a certain part of North Carolina at a certain time, Minimum Wage Art was a series of pantings on cardboard by a guy named Dan-O. He would charge minimum wage for the time he spent working on them, plus the cost of materials. I liked them very much and I have three of them hung up behind me on the wall in the video.
One of the best parts about being an internet elder statesman is the real high-grade derision it supplies you with. “Social networking? Nah, I was over that by the time SixDegrees went under.”
The hair’s looking good. Weather-related? The East Bay’s been unexpectedly chilly the last week or so.
OK, I finally get Twitter. I never got it before (thanks, Lore, for straightening that out for me. I suppose I could have, at some point, actually gone to the Twitter site and looked at it to see what it does, but I am a Very Busy Man.
Also, it’s good to know that someone else has at least once shopped at Burlington Coat Factory. I totally have that same tie.
umm… end paren.)
(Damn it.)
Roiling ennui within? Now that is pure comedic gold… nay comedic platinum!
-bampf
Late to the party here, but I thought (and I say this as a fan) that this one felt a bit “off” to me, I think because it was more about you, which worked against the ironic detachment that is the primary tool of the professional sarcast. Lots of nice turns of phrase, though — utilitarian smarm is nice, roiling ennui is brilliant, and I already phrase-checked sarcast, so I guess I’m done.
Also, twitter in the news.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who watched the “I contribute my own… … tweets” bit over and over, snickering madly.
“The newsroom isn’t coming back, because the hassles of dealing with the sound aren’t worth it. Sorry to newsroom fans.”
Peter Keleghan will be crushed.
God, I hope somebody gets that.
Anyway, that was amusing. The angry conservative change-is-always-bad guy in me was disappointed when I didn’t see any report-card-style goings-on, but since it was funny I managed to bury the angry conservative under a torrent of amusement and now, all is well.
This one didn’t really work for me. I felt like I was being lectured to, even though I didn’t feel that way when reading the actual article. I think it’s a side-effect of directly taking long, detailed paragraphs which are clever in text and speaking them out loud.
Still funny though. And I loved Jason Kzotkze.
It did feel a little lecture-y, but that’s the nature of the format. People have singled out the “*sigh* tweet” and “I must be stopped” bits for praise, but they felt the most unnatural moments to me.
And finally, you’re a professional sarcast? I would have thought the obvious form would be a professional sarcaster with each alt.text being an individual sarcast.
I must be imagining things… When cartoon Lore holds the “twitter” chip, it looks suspiciously
like he is holding his dismembered other ear and is eyeing it suspiciously. Not trying to make fun of the art style, which is great. Just first looking at it that way I can’t see it as anything else.
The absolute best Twitter is Othar Trygvassen’s, and if you dont’ read Girl Genius this is completely wasted on you.
But Lore’s comes a close second.
Awesome! That was highly enjoyable, and I completely agree with the empty-calorie nature of “social network” sites (and I loved the description of that term “glistening with utilitarian smarm”–ha!!)
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