James

When I was a kid, we lived next door to a cop. The man was a monster, and he raised his kids to be bullies. He and his children terrorized my neighborhood, destroying property, threatening people, keeping people up at night with noise. He owned a fishing boat and used to roll over our lawn to park it in his driveway, leaving the edge of our lawn a muddy mess. My parents asked him to be more considerate, he told them to fuck off. They put up a fence. He literally tore it down and threw it in our yard. At various times he threatened to beat up my grandfather or kill my dog. When my parents called the cops to file a report, the police that showed up were all his buddies from work. We watched them stand around outside, laughing and joking and pointing at us.
Read the rest of this entry →

Coooooooobbbbbrraaaaa!

When most people see that familiar snake logo, they think classic 80s cartoons. When we at Manic Expression see it, we think of one of our most popular shows, Half the Battle, and it’s host Timmer.

Timmer is one of those Expressionists that has been here since the early days, proving that others will be interested in hearing about our very specific interests. Timmer, as you can tell from his logo, loves G.I. Joe. He loves the show, the toys, the comics, and dammit he wants you to know it! How do you sustain that kind of enthusiasm for a single property for over 100 episodes? One all important word: Passion.

Timmer loves G.I. Joe. Something about that particular mythology has burrowed into his brain and sparked his imagination. Not content to simply keep his enthusiasm for the show to himself, Timmer makes videos letting the world know about the epic struggle between the Joe’s and their often inept foes over at Cobra. He wants us to experience the joy he feels for these characters. What a wonderful way to say I love you.

Here on Manic Expression people share all sorts of very specific loves in hopes that others will seek out those properties and enjoy them. Be it Disney or Doctor Who, My Little Pony or Gamera, late night softcore porn or Batman, the reason we do reviews and critiques is so others can share in our passions, maybe even make them their own. I can’t tell you how many movies, comics, and video games I’ve tried because of the reviewers here at Manic Expression.

Timmer puts on that mask and shows off his G.I. Joe figures and collection in one lovingly crafted video after another, and his enthusiasm always comes across. Even if you aren’t a fan of the Joe’s or a collector, his videos are funny, entertaining, and his joy for what he loves is infectious. Our goal in life should be to make the world a better place, whether in little ways or in big. Timmer makes videos about G.I. Joe, something he’s passionate about. In doing so he’s sharing that love and passion with all of us.

Variety is the spice of life, but not all web sites share this philosophy. Many web sites devote all their attention to one topic, some niche corner of geekdom that they can obsess over. Be it movies or video games, comics or cartoons, most web sites pick a topic and settle in.

Thats where Manic Expression is different. Oh sure, you’ll find the usual nerd discussions going on here. “Was Age of Ultron better than the first Avengers movie?” 
“Who was the best Doctor Who?” “Did Splinter really learn ninjitsu from a book he found or was that a fever dream I was having?” But sometimes we talk politics, or we get poetry or fiction from our writers. Sometimes we get car reviews.

Car Junkie has been a member of Manic Expression for a long time now, practically since the beginning. I remember the first time I saw one of his reviews on our site. I got excited. By the topic… Well, no. I’ll be honest: I don’t care about cars. Hell, I don’t even have a drivers license, never have. I couldn’t tell you anything about top speeds or which car has the best engine, and if you tried to explain it to me I would probably glaze over pretty quickly. It’s just not my thing.

So why was I excited? Because Car Junkie was doing something different. In a site filled with movie reviews and Let’s Plays, he took a shot that people might find his own personal passion interesting. Year after year he has continued to share with us what he thinks is interesting about the topic he loves to talk about. Not only that but he was integral to making Outstanding Content a success, giving his time to help celebrate his community.

What makes me smile every time I log on to Manic Expression is the variety. We’re a weird assortment of people, aren’t we? Westerns, My Little Pony, politics – there’s a little something for everyone here. Whatever is on our mind, whatever means something to us, that’s what each of us brings to the table. Car Junkie loves cars. Loves to talk cars. Gets excited about cars. Wants you to know how excited he is about cars. And I’ll be damned if his excitement doesn’t rub off.

When I was assembling the cast for the animated Manic Expression movie, I knew I was in dangerous waters. After all, our whole policy here is “no stars,” and I was putting together a group of people to be the stars of our biggest project to date. I had hundreds of people to chose from and I had to whittle the cast down to a still jam packed nine. Some people just jumped out at me as obvious: BigBlackHatMan was a given. Not only is he a staple here at Manic Expression, but having a cowboy character was just too much fun to pass up. Decker was an obvious choice, as I needed someone to be a more scientific character. Lady Dandy has a goofy charm that was just right for a female lead.

Choosing these nine performers was very difficult, and yet, in the end, I came up with an undeniably strong line-up. I knew what “types” of characters I needed, and I cast accordingly. Yet there was one person I didn’t have a part for, one person I desperately wanted in the movie but struggled to find a role for him to fill. That someone was Gurning Chimp.

I’ve been a fan of Gurning Chimp since he joined the site early on. He gave one of the strongest interviews, in my opinion, in Creative Chaos, and I always enjoyed being on a podcast where he was also featured. Gurning just makes me laugh. He’s got that dry British wit, yet with a sense of playfulness, that I simply had to have in the movie.

Overtime we’ve seen less of Gurning Chimp around here at Manic Expression. Life gets in the way, I suppose. He pops up on the occasional podcast but we don’t see much of Britpop Corner. He did play a significant role in A Site in Scarlet, and remains committed to the animated film, but as far as regular content from the man himself…not so much.

And you know what? That’s okay. Many people here at Manic Expression feel a sense of duty to post something once a week. If they miss a deadline they beat themselves up. If they think they can’t post as regularly as they once did they take to the blog section to make a big declaration about how they are leaving us (I often times see these and panic, thinking they are suicide notes – MAKE YOUR HEADLINES CLEAR, PEOPLE!). But you don’t owe Manic Expression anything. This place is your home, where you can have fun and express your thoughts in a safe place. You come and go as you please, and if you need a break we’ll always be here when you return.

I eagerly await the chance to work with Gurning Chimp on the animated movie. The part he’s being written, courtesy of SomeJerkFromBoston, is quintessentially British and a terrific addition to an already strong script. And yet I know, even as I read SomeJerk’s very funny words, that Gurning Chimp will take those lines and make them so much stronger. He’s funny and talented, but just as importantly he’s got a good heart, and I know that in the end that’s what we’ll all love about his character.

[springboard type=”video” id=”1505715″ player=”mnex001″ width=”480″ height=”400″ ]

Choosing a single one among you to crown Expressionist of the Month is like choosing a favorite Genesis song: Its impossible. …Man, I really need to get some new music on my iPod.
Read the rest of this entry →

Manic Expression is a global community, with members and viewers all over the world. I find that to be more than a little amazing. As someone who has never stepped foot off his native soil, I never would have guessed I would have friends in countries like France, Finland, England, and Italy. How does that happen?

Maybe we should ask Madhog thy Master, one of our most prolific members. As half of Team Yume he giggles his way through horrible fiction, while in his reviews of such “classics” as Witching and Bitching he gives fair analysis of movies others would feel more comfortable in simply tearing apart. Madhog has done collaborations with Les when our musical co-founder passed through Italy, and he even had a prominent role in our second feature film, A Site in Scarlet.
Read the rest of this entry →

What Does Manic Expression Mean To Me?

Spotlight

A Site in Scarlet

Often times in Spotlight I talk about courage, loyalty, talent, and plain old nicey niceness. However, this month lets honor someone who has all those traits and one other, a trait that few of us on this site possess, including me. Lets honor someone for being so batshit insane prolific that it’s bonkers!
Read the rest of this entry →

Did anyone see that lovely little summary of what Manic Expression accomplished since we moved from Webs to Blue Host in August of this year? If you didn’t here’s a link.

Basically it just tells you the top posts, how many countries our content is viewed in (141!), and how people are finding us. Turns out we owe a lot of our audience to one member in particular.

Rowdy C. Moore has become one of the most popular video producers we’ve ever had on Manic Expression. His show, TV Trash, is among our top content on Springboard, and, through his site, rowdyc.com, we’ve gotten many new members and views for a variety of other content here at Manic Expression.

Rowdy is…well, he’s sort of an outspoken guy. He isn’t one to back down from a fight, and not everyone is a fan of that. When Sony pulled The Interview from release (before they back peddled and put it back up) I read an impassioned lambasting of the studio on Rowdy’s Facebook page. Some, of course, made the argument that a stupid stoner movie wasn’t worth anyone getting hurt over. That wasn’t the point, and Rowdy stood his ground. We’re either free or we’re not, and no one is going to tell him he can’t watch a movie, least of all some pissant pussy hacker.

Manic Expression is a community made up of many different types of people. I think the trolls on certain sites that shall remain nameless tend to lump us all together. Not easy to do with so many people. Here on Manic Expression we have lovers and we have fighters. We have the shy and the bold. We people who love My Little Pony and people who LOVE My Little Pony.

Rowdy is just the kind of guy any community needs. He’ll stick to his guns, and he’ll stick up for his friends. In a cyber world full of angry critics who scream just to get noticed, Rowdy stands for something.