SlowpokeBlog

My local paper does me proud.

In the article, the writer wonders about the end-of-the-book list of search terms people have used to find my website. I assure you every single one is real. Even the one about Janice and her pubic hairs.

I should note that I am currently in Seattle, and will be doing my slideshow thang Tuesday night, the 29th, at the University Bookstore @7pm. I know I have a bunch of readers in the Seattle area, so now's your chance to get me to doodle in your copy of One Nation, Oh My God!

If you do not find yourself in the vicinity of the Puget Sound, you should avoid schmuckdom by getting my book if you haven't yet.

I've been meaning to do a strip about those damned airport TVs for some time now, and this week seemed especially appropriate since I've been logging some serious time in airports lately. I know I said I was going to blog about the tour, complete with pictures, but I've just been too busy and tired. It occurred to me today how many different modes of transportation I've taken in the past week -- planes, trains, automobiles, buses, light rail, subway. The only things I haven't ridden are a horse and a segway. Oh, okay, I guess I haven't been on a bike or motorcycle. I'll work on that.

So yeah, I hate those TVs. Reader Greg in PA wrote in summarizing the situation nicely:

Those horrible gigantic flat panel TV's tuned to CNN or Fox are a menace. I dread going to the doctor or dentist not due to the medical procedure, but because I know I will be forced to listen to a talking head idiot yelling at me for hours in the waiting room. You feel like Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984 with the propaganda forced on you from a flat panel display in every room. At least they can't see you through the display, yet.

Just a couple weeks ago I had to get an x-ray at one of the University of Virginia health system outposts, and lo and behold there was a TV blaring FOX News in the waiting room. I couldn't believe it. Isn't that antithetical to the calming environment that's supposed to be the norm in doctors' offices? The story was something gratuitous about a Muslim cab driver in New York (I didn't catch the details because I was filling out a form and trying not to listen). But it was clearly bashing the cabbie for something he did, and it was getting some people in the waiting room riled up against "those people." Probably not the best atmosphere for lowering the blood pressure of any patient who happens to look like "those people." Later that evening I spent an hour trying to track down the e-mail address of an appropriate honcho to complain to, but no luck. It's still on my very long to-do list.

Caught this funny pic of Nick Mag editor Chris Duffy showing my 3-D snotrocket cartoon at the recent NYC Comicon. (You'll need to scroll down a lot -- do a page search for my name.)

I don't have time to write as much detail about this as I'd like, but to summarize quickly: I think some of the earlier claims about the Clinton campaign playing the race card were overblown; for example, Bill's "fairy tale" comment was in reference to Obama's claiming the antiwar mantle -- not Obama's campaign itself. But something really stinks about the way the Clintonites and the Republicans are portraying Obama as some exotic creature who doesn't fit in with white blue collar workers in small-town Pennsylvania, a milieu I am most familiar with. (Oops! I used the word "milieu!" Subtract ten working-class credibility points.) Not so long ago in America, it was practically unthinkable that a black man running for president would be making the rounds in the mostly-white bowling alleys and sports bars of Pennsyltucky. So he's wearing a suit and seems a little out of place at times. Well, duh! The "elitist" rhetoric as used on Obama strikes me as a socially acceptable way of papering over a more complex historical reality. It's way of saying "that slick urban guy doesn't fit in with you country folk" without explicitly calling attention to race. Hillary could have risen above this stuff, stuck to policy, said "my health care plan is better for the working class." She had plenty of cred right there -- but instead she went for the cheap shot.

The Utz cheese balls in the first panel were taken directly from Maureen Dowd's woefully bad column, "Eggheads and Cheese Balls," about Obama's so-called elitism. Yes, the fact that he did not look natural purchasing a bag of cheese balls was cited as an example. While a valid point can be made about America's anti-intellectual streak, the column did not not stake out a proper distance from that rather silly bias. Rather, it pandered right to it.

My Amazon page eagerly awaits your reader feedback. If you have the book already, please write something if you can.

See, I told you it was good! The Augusta Metro Spirit weighs in with this fine review:

In the spirit of honesty, the latest collection of cartoons by Jen Sorensen should have a disclaimer at the front of the book warning would be readers of the hilarity held within the pages. From the opening panel’s beautiful observations upon changing terminology to the side-splitting satirical genius displayed throughout the rest of the work, “Slowpoke: One Nation Oh My God” is certain to please anyone with a taste for satire, politics or just-plain-old-fashion-knee-slapping absurdist humor. A brilliant collection, and a pleasure to digest, Sorenson has outdone herself with her latest book.

If you haven't done so yet, stop dilly-dallying and get yourself a copy of this masterpiece! It'll make you snort with delight.

I'm off to California tomorrow. I've got my digital camera packed, and I hope to bring you book tour coverage here as time permits. And of course, if you are in one of the following locations, please come see me!

4/22 – BERKELEY: Cody’s Books with “Troubletown” creator Lloyd Dangle, 7pm
4/25 – PORTLAND: Powell’s on Burnside with “Idiot Box” creator Matt Bors, 7:30pm
4/26 & 4/27 – PORTLAND: Stumptown Comics Fest (at table, no presentation)
4/29 – SEATTLE: University Bookstore, U District, 7pm

Newspapers are biting the dust, organic food is becoming more expensive than ever, and record stores are fighting for their lives, as described rather depressingly in this article.

Echoing Free Comic Book Day, which was introduced several years ago to get people to visit comic shops, music retailers have made today "Record Store Day." All across the country, artists made appearances in local record stores -- here in Charlottesville, Marshall Crenshaw happened to be in town. I decided to take a break from book tour preparations to watch him play a short set at Plan 9. It was a little strange to watch this legend, author of the classic "Cynical Girl," show up at the soulless, Outback Steakhouse-festooned strip mall where the store is located. But show up he did, and he amiably autographed my CD.

If all the record stores vanish, we won't get treats like this anymore. The way we choose to spend our money (or not spend it, in the case of illegal downloads) has real consequences.

Warren alerts me to the possibilty of passports with microchips that broadcast your personal data in a halo around you as you travel abroad. Real smart move. Reeeeal smart.

A couple background articles on the topic of privacy-invading web advertising worth reading: this piece by Adam Cohen in the NYT, and this Boston University op-ed sent to me by its author yesterday.

I do so many crazy image searches looking for reference material for my cartoons that I imagine my data profile must look pretty wacky.

One reason I could not bring myself to vote for Obama in the Virginia primary was his tendency to use right-wing frames to talk about issues, especially health care. Well, now Hillary is doing the same in her assault on Obama as an "elite." (Never mind that the Clintons and McCains are worth many times more than the Obamas.) The "elite" fallacy seriously damaged Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004, and it threatens to take down Obama or any future Democrat who does not fight it aggressively.

Really, I never would have guessed saying working-class Americans are bitter about the economy could be twisted into a lack of understanding of working-class Americans. But I should never underestimate the irrationality of our political process. Check out this statement from a Hillary spokesperson about Obama. It starts out kinda funny, but in the end it's totally irresponsible.

With all due respect, this is the same politician who spent six days posing for clichéd camera shots that included bowling gutterballs, walking around a sports bar, feeding a baby cow, and buying a ham at the Philly market (albeit one that cost $99.99 a pound). Sen. Obama's speeches won't hide his condescending views of Americans living in small towns."

Emphasis mine. The Dems will never win another presidential election if they talk about their own that way. I have defended Hillary on many occasions where she has been treated unfairly, but if she is going to abuse her position like this, especially when the math is so heavily stacked against her, she should get out of the race.

My book is now officially in stock on Amazon. Go git it!

Really, it's awesome and wonderful and beautiful, and "Tom the Dancing Bug" creator Ruben Bolling has written a funny introduction, and having it on your bookshelf makes you a paragon of coolness. If you ask me.

I just received my copies of One Nation, Oh My God! from the printer, and I'm happy (and relieved) to report that the book looks beautiful. After all the headaches I've gone through putting the thing together, it seemed only fitting that something weird would happen in the end. But the printer did a nice job. The book is larger than anything I've done in the past -- it has a pleasant heft to it. And the cover has a thick, smooth gloss that you'll want to rub all over yourself without any clothes on. Um, if you're into that sort of thing.

For those of you who haven't seen the announcement on the front page of the site, I'm kicking off an exciting West Coast mini-tour in just a couple weeks. I'll be presenting a slideshow and signing copies of my new book. Here are the details:

BERKELEY - Cody's Bookstore with "Troubletown" cartoonist Lloyd Dangle, April 22, 7:00pm. PLEASE NOTE TIME HAS CHANGED FROM 7:30 to 7pm.

PORTLAND - Powell's City of Books on Burnside with "Idiot Box" cartoonist Matt Bors, April 25, 7:30pm.

SEATTLE - University Bookstore, U District location, April 29, 7pm.

If you live in or near these cities, please join me -- and tell yer friends! I'll also be at Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland on Apr 26 & 27.

Future tour dates include a Laughing Liberally event at The Tank in NYC on May 14 with "Tom the Dancing Bug" creator Ruben Bolling, and Robin's Bookstore in Philly on June 4.

Thanks so much to those of you who ordered the book early. Y'all totally rock. In case you were wondering, the books are shipping to stores right now, so I anticipate they'll be showing up in Amazon's database fairly soon. And once they do, your orders should be processed.

Ah, the winner of this year's Pulitzer in editorial cartooning -- at a time when the country is crumbling from wingnut extremism -- is wingnut extremist Michael Ramirez. During the Nancy Pelosi airplane smear (which I addressed here), he drew her as a witch riding a broom -- the broom being his proposed form of aircraft. Haw haw haw!

I don't bother entering the Pulitzer contest, and I won't until I see some indication that they have arrived in this century.

[UPDATE: This is Ramirez's second Pulitzer. Yes it is.]

This cartoon bundles together three things that have been bugging me. First, I'm tired of this false division between the "authentic," salt-of-the-earth people of the heartland and the somehow less-American Americans who live on the coasts. I grew up in Pennsylvania and live in Virginia. So sue me! Except for those living in truly remote areas, we all have the same strip malls and Wal-Marts and crappy movies and TV shows and worries that the economy is going kaplooey. We also have country folk here on the East coast too -- lots of 'em! Abandoned factories? Check! Poverty? Check! The next time I hear someone calling me fancypants just because I don't live in Kansas, I'll... I'll... tell them to read this cartoon, dammit.

I've talked about why the term "regulation" is problematic before; I was reminded of this last week when I saw market fundamentalists on TV blathering about how any new laws to ensure the subprime crisis never happened again would impose "burdensome regulation" on Wall Street, blah blah blah.

Lastly, there was that NYT/CBS poll that showed 81% of the country saying "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track." Yet a considerable percentage of those people still seem willing to vote for McCain, who would continue the same reckless economic and foreign policies as the Bushies. It's just sad.

One of my favorite signs of spring is my local community radio station WTJU's annual Rock Marathon. I've been enjoying in-depth explorations of the Kinks, Galaxie 500, Scandinavian pop, Jonathan Richman, T Rex, Italo disco (the show I pledged to), and now the Bee Gees. There are still two days left, and you can listen online at wtju.net.

I noticed last week that one of my most beloved client publications is selling those Hillary nutcrackers as part of their merch ensemble. The nutcrackers, if you aren't yet familiar with them, are shaped like Hillary and are apparently quite effective at doing their job.

Now, Hillary is certainly a ripe target for ridicule in many ways -- her pandering, her coziness with lobbyists, her vote for the war. In recent weeks, I have drawn her posing as Napoleon and rather unattractively stuffing her face with waffles. Even cheap shots, like cartoonists drawing her with a big butt, don't bother me that much.

The problem arises when humor taps into a well-worn narrative that has been unfairly used to keep a group of people out of power. The misguided notion that a woman's success is emasculating to men will forever stand in the way of a female presidency -- and the success of women in the workplace -- unless we call it out. In this regard, the nutcracker, which is just a visual example of ye olde castration joke, is Really Not Helping. Some might argue that the nutcracker emphasizes Hillary's "toughness." But any toughness implied by the nutcracker is of a sort that actually works against women. It simply crosses a line.

Tom in Tallahassee wrote in with this suggestion for a McCain product:

So I'm standing in front of the Kohler when it hits me: The John McCain "Old Fart" Squeeze Doll! A rubber doll with a gas pocket in it (refillable with a handy little cylinder of hydrogen sulfide) that you squeeze when you want to make a talking point!

Anyone who wants to market it, go right ahead.

I was in Boston this past weekend for the Women, Action, and the Media conference that I also went to last year. It was the utmost fun; I met lots of people, got to know others better, and took in some stimulating panel discussions. One thing that struck me as I returned home yesterday and re-immersed myself into the world of crappy news media was how strange it is that the people who dominate discussions of race, gender, etc. on TV tend to be the most clueless boneheads on these issues. I mean, I knew this already. But to go from two days of nuanced conversation directly to Lou Dobbs referring to those "cotton-[picking]" black leaders, in what has to be one of the greatest Freudian slips of all time, is really quite jarring.

Extra-special thanks to Mikhaela for learnin' me about WAM! in the first place, and Brian for bustin' out the inflato-mattress and making me English muffins.

Here are a couple photos I took at MIT's Stata Center, where the conference was held:




Yes, it was designed by Frank Gehry.