Poor Elizabeth Knox, and poor Niki Caro. We’d all heard about the bad reviews of The Vintner’s Luck, but those were just foreigners being mean! And then we heard the bad local reviews, but that was just local critics not wanting to contradict the mean foreigners! But to hear that the film upset the author so much it made her cry… that’s the kind of feedback that no filmmaker wants.

So, I feel sorry for Niki Caro, but if I ever did anything to make Elizabeth Knox cry, I’d be really ashamed.

Wow, I’d forgotten how dull it is authoring DVDs. The Jitterati DVD isn’t anything fancy, it’s just a convenient way of having all the episodes in full colour, as well as a couple of relevant films.

I’ve never found using DVD Studio Pro easy, so I took a look at iDVD before deciding that none of the themes were customizable enough to achieve what I wanted. I also took a look at Adobe Encore – it’s even less intuitive that DVD Studio!

So, it’s a very simple DVD. I just have to test the hell out of it before running off copies.

The book is at the printers. I’m working on the cover picture and DVD now. The printer berated me for setting up the pages so that they came out mis-aligned on the proof, so he’d have to adjust them by hand. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized he’d printed it using the wrong paper stock setting, so ’twas not my fault.

Sadly I’ve found from experience that the only thing that will let you down when you’ve had a creative idea that requires a bit of effort is relying on OTHER PEOPLE. This is why successful people are either very self-reliant, or fantastically good at organizing and inspiring other people.

It was looking unlikely that I’d have free coffee for the launch, but Geoff from Havana has come through wonderfully… I’ll have 30 specially-bagged samples for consumption on Saturday.

Book Construction Soundtrack:
In Swings the Tide ~Anika Moa
Weird Tales of the Ramones ~Ramones
See Mystery Lights ~Yacht

I managed to put in a plug for the book AND refer to the 150th anniversary of Origin of the Species. And draw Debbie in a Devo hat.

Look, children, it’s Mistah Coffee! Hello, Mistah Coffee!

Mistah Coffee is here to drive them naughty blues away with his brown beany goodness. What’s that, Mistah Coffee? “Who’s the motherfuckingest cuppa in the land?” Why, Mistah Coffee, what a thing to say in front of the children. Children, Mistah Coffee is here to show you that addiction to a legal, socially condoned, taxable substance is a good thing. What’s that, Mistah Coffee? “Where my bitches at?” Now, Mistah Coffee, we talked about this… I know it was on your rider, but – AAAAAAAGH! JESUS, GET OFF MY LEG! WAAAAARGH!

A test of the DVD design. It’s a bit smudgier than I wanted… I may have to try a different paint. There’s a fine line between “hand-crafted” and “half-arsed”.

I went to the Jason Munn rock poster exhibition at A Pop Up Gallery at 161 Tory St after seeing it on Nightline last night. It’s the most polite exhibition I’ve ever seen, full of immaculately screenprinted indie rock posters which have never seen a club wall. The bands, and therefore their posters, are distinguished by their utter, utter bloodlessness, and I know that because I have most of them on my iPod.

Oh, dear.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s immaculate graphic art and the printing techniques are fascinating, but it decidedly does not rock. At all. Very, very Massey School of Design.

Okay, by Friday next week there’s going to be a Jitterati book. I’ll be selling it at Wellington Zinefest in Mighty Mighty on Saturday the 21st.

I’ve been working on it very very slowly since April last year, and I haven’t talked about it much because it hasn’t exactly been a good year for me finishing things. So, mentioning it here – an obvious arena, wouldn’t you think? – gives me a fairly gritty incentive to come up with the goods.

It’s 80 pages, the biggest book I’ve ever made, and contains about 253 cartoons. It should also come with a DVD of every cartoon in colour, which I’ll put together next week as soon as the PDF is at the printers.

The cover is going to have a circular colour inset, and If I have time I’ll do some variations. What would people like to see? I’m also talking to Havana Coffee about including a free coffee sample with each copy.