As of today, Better Than The Machine‘s video “Foreplay?” has logged over one million views on YouTube! Featuring Paul at his most awkward, and Christina taking a hell of a lot of abuse, this one stands out as a group favorite. Take a gander for yourself:

We recorded this video back in 2007, shortly before I was diagnosed with leukemia and had to leave NYC. Christina, Paul, and I wrote it collectively; I directed it; and Paul and I edited it together. We originally set out to write a sequel to our video of the previous week, “The First Date”, intending to write a short series of relationship videos. For whatever reason (read: we got bored with the idea), we stopped at two videos.

“The First Date” was chosen as an Editor’s Pick on the YouTube Comedy Channel the day it came out, leading to heavy viewership. On the other hand, “Foreplay?” was not featured anywhere (that we know about), and here it is, our first video to reach a million views! Hurray! Of course, the sexual theme of the video (or at least the attempted sexual theme) probably helped its popularity.

That there is the story of the semi-vulgar little video that could.

–Reid.

I walked many paths, over many bridges, and around many forks in the road. It was fun, but I am very, very tired.

–Reid es aún mi nombre.

Feeling hot and low right now.

And there’s nothing else to say about that.

–r.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, although I did have my doubts. Yes, that’s right: I’m finally starting to feel much better.

Not only am I feeling better, but my ANC is… (drum roll please!)… 2,230! Hurray! I’m almost a normal human being again. Or, at the very least, my immune system is almost that of a normal human being.

This is great news. This means I can go out and play in the newly lightened evenings, I can see movies that aren’t mid-morning matinees, and I can even go on airplanes!

Sweetness.

–Reid.

I believe that Amy is trying to build me an animal band, as evidenced by the following:

A ferret playing an electric guitar! Amy made this herself as the cover of one of two Valentine’s Day cards she gave me. The other was signed by a lot of cool people (including the creators of the Venture Bros. and Tucker Dyer) who I missed at the NY ComicCon because of my recent bought with pancreatitis.

A panda bear playing an acoustic bass guitar? No, no. A panda bear version of me playing an acoustic bass guitar. You can tell it’s a Pandareid from the bunny slippers (I have no comment about the Hello Kitty panties, though). Amy made this guy for me at her local Build-a-Bear. He even says something when you squeeze his arm! Bully!

Thank you, Amylou. I love these. Homemade and custom gifts are the specialist!

–Reid.

Art Speigelman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist who has found particular fame within the Jewish community for his work Maus, a graphic novel in which the story of the Holocaust is told from the perspective of Jewish mice being persecuted by Nazi cats. It’s darker and less cute than it sounds, and it is a lot of Jewish (and non-Jewish) kids’ first introduction to the evils of the Holocaust. This was my first introduction to Spiegelman (although not my first introduction to the Holocaust) back when I was in Hebrew School, I was thumbing through these cool comic books in the Synagogue gift shop–that just happened fit inside my study book–how could they not be the coolest thing ever?

This is not to say that Spiegelman hasn’t done many other things of note–in fact, he’s a very talented and extremely versatile artist, with a very specific look to his layouts, and to his specific graphic and illustration styles. With a wide variety of work seen both on the covers and interiors of many popular magazines. His “style” could, perhaps, be defined as the simple lack of embrace, always in search for the more surrealistic.

When my animator friend Jason Shwartz was given the opportunity to create an animated commercial to promote Spiegelman’s new art book, he jumped at the chance. Jason’s only concern, he told me today, was that this particular art book is a vast collection of decades full of Spiegelman’s favorite work. Jason didn’t quite know where to starte, and it turned out that Mr. Spiegelman himself hadn’t really given much thought to what he wanted his own commercial to look like either. The case became easy as Spiegelman gave a place for Jason to start (the character with the hole in his head from the beginning and end of the video), as long as this hole-headed character made it in, and as long as the work stayed true to the original intent by Spiegelman, Jason and free reign.

In the end, everyone turned out very happy with the commercial–Jason, the publisher McSweeney’s, and Spiegelmann himself. I think it’s great; everything from the stream of consciousness as everything morphs together, to the dark melody that underscores the piece in a gay “day at the park” feel, and yet, we can’t help feel that something slightly more ominous lays just below the surface (the music was written and performed to perfection by Pattrick Carney of The Black Keys). Check out the full commercial below for Art Speigelman’s Be A Nose!. If you click on it, you can watch a full-screen HD version. And remember, it’s pretty trippy! Enjoy:

–Reid.

…and up. Still quite a way to go, but I think my ANC is high enough to see Watchmen at the end of this week, at least. Which turns out to be surprisingly important to me. J’s in town, so hopefully we can see it together.

Hopefully, next week, my ANC will be high enough to go to Mexico in two weeks…

Thanks for the responses; I really appreciate all your support.

–Reid.