This was just going to be a quick demonstration, but the club’s interest in the project and Maggie and Sara’s enthusiasm in performing their roles demanded that we finish the production.

I put in a Lightning Seeds CD tonight as background music for getting some work done, and it just made me think about how much I enjoy this one-man band. I didn’t pick up the best of when it came out in 1997, because I remember objecting to something in the selection (I have no idea what it was now).

For the unfamiliar, Ian Broudie was long ago part of an art-punk Liverpudlian outfit called Big in Japan. His bandmate, Bill Drummond, later went on to become Echo & the Bunnymen’s manager and one half of media manipulators and house music geniuses The KLF. Broudie became a producer, working with new wave and new romantic groups like The Icicle Works and The Colour Field. By the end of the 80s, he was creating solo studio works and dubbed himself The Lightning Seeds for the release of his debut, Cloudcuckooland.

And now, because I’d like a break, I’m going to put together my own Best of The Lightning Seeds. Be warned - this is wimpy, poppy, sissy music. It’s light and playful. He has a song called “Sugar Coated Iceberg.” But man, sometimes I’m just in the mood for this stuff.

1. Marvellous (from Jollification)
This one goes first because of the long intro. It was just kind of made to be a suspenseful album opener. Once it kicks into the actual song, it’s a good herald of what’s to come.

2. The Life of Riley (from Sense)
One of the two most recognizeable Lightning Seeds keeps the energy up from the opener. Supposedly written in two phases - before and after - the birth of Broudie’s first child.

3. Three Lions ‘96 (single)
I have to put both versions of Three Lions on here. This was the original, from the Euro 96 tournament.

4. What If… (from Dizzy Heights)
It keeps the sort of romping-anthem quality of Three Lions going while getting back to the more traditional Lightning Seeds sound.

5. Why Why Why (from Jollification)
This was one of many collaborations with Terry Hall (The Specials, Fun Boy Three, The Colour Field), which included some co-writing and production duties over the years. The song is a little unsubstantial, but still quite nice.

6. Change (from Jollification)
One of my favorite Lightning Seeds songs. It was an obvious single and has the stand-out singalong moments of several pop songs packed into one.

7. Life’s Too Short (from Tilt)
I admittedly didn’t get too familiar with this album - it was much more of a standard four-on-the-floor house feel, as is this song, and I guess that’s just not what I was looking for from the Lightning Seeds. That said, this is a fantastic dance song.

8. You Showed Me (from Dizzy Heights)
This is a great cover of the Turtles song, and it brings us back down a little bit from a few dancier tracks.

9. Perfect (from Jollification)
When I picked up this single in 1997, this was the first Lightning Seeds song I’d heard since the Sense album. I was surprised that the project was going and that it sounded as instantly accessible as I’d remembered.

10. Pure (from Cloudcuckooland)
I’d say this is probably the most recognizeable Lightning Seeds song, and for good reason. I remember when I was a kid, I saw this video on MTV late one night and it annoyed me. This dorky British guy was singing in such a wimpy way over this cutesy music. It didn’t fit in with whatever Def Leppard or Winger video probably surrounded it. But there was something about it that, in spite of my resentment, made me feel like I was seeing something special - like it was this secret between me and MTV, as ridiculous as that sounds. Now, looking back and imagining something like this being played in the hairband heyday does seem pretty fascinating.

11. Ready or Not (from Dizzy Heights)
There were aspects of this album that were almost, dare I say, “rock.” And with Broudie’s delicate little-boy voice, it sometimes made for almost laughable moments. This song tiptoed that line, but the urgency and earnest quality to the vocal makes it work.

12. Sense (from Sense)
This title-track and one-time leadoff track is another Ian Broudie-Terry Hall collaboration with another anthemic chorus.

13. Lucky You (from Jollification)
14. Like You Do (from Dizzy Heights)
Some of these songs just deserve to be on the album.

15. Three Lions 98 (single)
I like this version more than the original, which is probably heretical if there are Lightning Seeds fans passionate enough to care about that. I know it’s my bias from “being there” when this came out for the 98 World Cup, but there’s just something about this one that seems to pack more energy.

16. All I Want (from Cloudcuckooland)
I know this was the opening track from the debut album, but there’s something about its laid back confidence that works as a closing statement for me.

In addition to the usual film clubs, my new club this semester is Animation Club (now renamed ANNIE to better fit with DAVE). When I pitched it, I was thinking we could use Final Cut Express and layers to do some computer-based 2D animation. I knew we wouldn’t have the time or attention spans needed to learn Flash, but using layers and keyframes seemed like a decent way to do some simple animations.

On the first day, I described the 2D “drawing-based” animation, but I also proposed stop-motion animation as an alternative. I could tell that the concept was pretty foreign to nearly everyone, as it should be, since 3D computer animation has basically rendered stop motion pointless. So just to demonstrate, I storyboarded an improvised tale of Dixie Cupp, played by a Dixie cup, and her friend Elmer, as played by a bottle of Elmer’s glue.

As a class, we quickly went through the process of situating a stationary camera and inching the actors along through their motions. Then we went into the computer lab where I ran through a hasty version of editing together a stop-motion movie.

The project was crude and clumsy but it was amazing to see their imaginations activated. This totally inspired them, and now I think everyone’s doing a stop motion movie. Today in club, some of us helped shoot most of Stephen’s “March of the Origami Penguins,” in which a scientist’s notes fold themselves up into origami penguins and march off while she’s out of the room. Everybody else was either finishing up their storyboards or building their characters out of clay.

I don’t have any idea what most of their ideas are at this point, but when I was loading up people’s models into a box at the end of the day, I got pretty excited to see what they’re going to come up with. This should be a productive club. I think I’ll post “The Adventures of Dixie Cupp” the next time we’re in the lab and I have a chance to compress it.

I posted a few weeks ago about a story I was interviewed for regarding the big international cartoon controversy. I couldn’t find it online then, but now here it is.

Switch has now existed for some number that’s in the teens (I think it’s 13 or 14 issues), but a lot of people still haven’t heard of it or seen it.

The Journal Star has been publishing it as a wrap, 8 pages around each week’s Ground Zero, distributed for free on Fridays at 50-something locations around downtown. The only places I’ve ever actually seen it were Bodega’s and Duggan’s, though I’ve heard it’s been available at Jimmy John’s.

Here’s where this blog entry starts being about me. Each week, since its inception, I’ve had a column in Switch. I’ve also had a few cover stories. I wish more people were seeing them. Not only would I get even more famous, but I’d feel like it was more worth it to put the effort in. It’s nice getting paid to be creative, but it’s more fun when you know you have an audience.

It’s not online. I really wish it was, obviously. I might just start posting my columns and stories here in my blog. I’ve revived some classics from the DN days, doing “Judging Books by their Covers” one week, and last week, Tessa Jeffers and I revived the reviews of the bar bathrooms of downtown Lincoln. My column from the week shown here with the visual aide was from the frontlines of superhero patrolling in Indianapolis. This week’s story was a history of the comics stores in Lincoln.

The hard part about posting the columns is that they’re kind of visually-oriented, especially with layout. I might just post them as pictures, but then they’re kind of hard to read.

This ended up becoming an in-house note for the devoted readers of the cheeksofgod.com blog. Thank you.