Re-Animated: Introduction

There must be some irony in the fact that come rain or shine, hell or high water, all other manner of folksy either-or variable constructions, I never missed a scheduled post in 2015.  Then no sooner did January 1 sneak up on me than I completely dropped the ball.

Seriously.

Friday came and I took a road trip to Philadelphia, and I just plumb forgot.  I hadn't scheduled ahead, I hadn't mentioned I'd be taking a hiatus, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't even notice I had until Monday.

So I guess that's probably a sign from whatever Providence or natural law drives the universe that 2016 is going to be a bit of a loosier-goosier year than 2015 here on Ye Olde Blogge.  That being said, I do want to introduce my newest recurring segment: Re-Animated.

In 2015 I got to know some truly amazing people.  When I listen to someone like Brian Keene opine on his weekly podcast about horror, I am always amazed at his aptitude for horror.  He knows it inside-out, upside-down, backwards, forwards, and twice on Sundays.  His co-host Dave Thomas is similarly well-versed in metal music.  People like my friends Mary Fan and Elizabeth Corrigan sometimes blow my mind with their knowledge of current YA - they can go back and forth for hours and each knows every book the other brings up. 

At Chessiecon in particular I felt like a dumb n00b being on panels with people like Seanan Maguire, Don Sakers, and Tamora Pierce.  People who are so well versed in something, whatever it is, that you feel like you've met a true expert.

For a while I wallowed.  I wallowed about never seeming to be smart enough in any single subject I aspire to.  I don't know horror the way I should, I don't know sc-fi the way I should, even after the 2013 Hundie Challenge I don't know classics the way I should.  I know fuck-all about music.  I know fuck-all even about classic rock, the one area of music I thought I was marginally well-versed in. 

Then, suddenly, in conversation over Christmas I realized what I was a total geek-out, balls-to-the-wall expert on.  Cartoons.  I watch a solid two to three hours of cartoons every night.  In college, through the army, and the years after, it was closer to five.  I remember studiously watching every episode of every {adult swim} show and then watching them again when they replayed for late night.  Not to mention that half of the people I geeked out over having - let alone inviting on - during the Year of Interviewing Dangerously were involved with cartoons.

I'm an expert in cartoons the way Brian Keene is an expert in horror, Mary Fan is an expert in Young Adult, and Ian McClellan is an expert in scat play.  So I decided that in 2016 I'm going to try to systemize my thoughts on all the vast swathes of animation I've wasted my life ingesting.

Re-Animated is going to be a recurring segment this year.  I'm not certain I've watched 156 cartoons, so it probably won't be taking up every M-W-F post.  And besides, that would probably get boring as shit.  Not to mention that since I already fucked up posting on the first day of the year, 2016 is going to be a lot looser on the blog front.  I'll still aspire to post three times a week, but if I don't get around to it, I won't get around to it.  Besides, I have at least two deadlines to hit for Sinister Grin/Mirror Matter, the first of which is February 1.  So if I end up going incommunicado...well, you can still tweet me or find me on FB, so no big worries there.

I was considering going with "Re-Animated 2016" but it could very well crop up again in the years to come, so I'm not going to limit myself.  That being said, I do intend to more or less conclude the segment this year.  I just don't want to rule out future segments as new cartoon shows come down the pike.

All right, well, we'll see you sometime with this new recurring segment, starting, as it probably must, with "The Simpsons."