60 Seconds in the Life of a Subway Window
Part 39 in an ongoing series of (approximately) 60 Second Films.
Entries for January 2010
January 26, 2010
January 21, 2010
Remaindered Ideas Part III
I don’t always have time to flesh out an idea as much as I’d like for a post. Or I might decide an idea doesn’t stand on its own for one reason or another. Instead of letting them wallow in obscurity, I occasionally purge several of these ideas in one post. Here is my latest list of remaindered ideas:
1) A sitcom about a ghost and a zombie… of the same guy.
In the pilot episode, Joe’s roommate Ted has a terrible accident and dies. He’s buried in the old cemetery by the town’s nuclear plant. A few days later Ted’s ghost comes home, much to Joe’s surprise. Later that day, Ted’s zombie corpse shows up to. How will the three of them get along, with all the problems inherent to being a zombie, a ghost, and a single twenty-something grad school student, in an apartment that was just large enough for two people? Hilariously.
I only have one line written so far: “Hey! The brain in the fridge was for biology class!”
Has there ever been a story about a ghost and zombie of the same person before? Does that violate the rules of undead characters in fiction?
2) A map of Earth inverted.
What would Earth look like if it were inverted? The lowest valleys become the highest peaks and vice versa. Where would the lakes and oceans be? How high would the highest mountain be? And what would the new land masses, trade routes, and waterways suggest for an alternate history on this inverted Earth?
3) Shel Silverstein’s “The Missing Piece” reimagined as a pie chart.
I thought this idea had potential as something, but it never went anywhere.
4) Twitter as a simulation of OCD
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sometimes manifests itself as a need to count words and letters. Some people who suffer from OCD need to make their sentences end on a certain word count. I’ve never been this way. But one day as I was having a hard time recomposing a Twitter message to make sure it fits within the 140-character limit, it occurred to me that this may somehow be similar to the frustration a person with OCD feels.
What do OCD sufferers who need to count letters think of Twitter? Does their OCD make it more frustrating? Or is it no more frustrating than any other task? Is there anyone out there whose particular manifestation of OCD already means that they have to write in 140 characters or less?
5) A mashup of “Back to the Future” and “Speed”
“You built a Time Machine? Out of a city bus?”
It seemed like a good idea until the Libyans rigged the bus with explosives to get back at Doc for stealing their plutonium. Now if it goes below 55 MPH, the bus explodes. But if it goes over 88 MPH, it travels through time.
6) A tribute to Bib Fortuna, set to the song “O Fortuna”
I don’t really have any interest in doing this. I just like the idea of it.
January 4, 2010
Esoteric Comic #4
