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DVD EXTRAS
BEYOND THE BOOZE: A DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Vernon Howl **himself** speaks on the origin of each of the stories
BEYOND THE BOOZE: A DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Vernon Howl **himself** speaks on the origin of each of the stories
คค~๒ค๒๒lє
In this series the stories have been "reimagined" by filtering through many layers of language translation and then — finally, eventually — back into English
In this series the stories have been "reimagined" by filtering through many layers of language translation and then — finally, eventually — back into English
Vernon Howl is like a father to me. In fact, he is the closest pseudonym I'll ever have to a real live dad. He has been a champion of The Pizza Puppies arts collective since they were all just The Lil K-9 Pizza Embryos. I'm glad he wrote this book and made this website. You should read it and you should look at the website. Thanks.
Beach Sloth's stellar review of the project (originally published 17 June 2013):
Vernon Howl creates a MEMEPLEX with ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’. The absurdity plays off
itself in a house of mirrors take. Stories are at the core of this strangeness.
From the stories come an audiobook which begins each story off in an elegant
fashion. GIFs emerge to help tell the story using the imaginative imagery. Remixes
or ‘versions’ of the story exist in yet other YouTube videos. Out of each story
follows another story, a documentary on the writer who lived a difficult life
apparently. Happiness isn’t a big part of the writer’s childhood. As the writer
speaks he is translated by someone else. References are dropped like mad about
the writer’s hard knock life without the most basic of necessities, adding
additional layers of humor. In case this wasn’t enough Vernon Howl adds a
Bandcamp track for each particular piece, sung and accompanied by piano.
Childhood is a huge part of these stories. Many of these stories appear to stem
from the writer’s experience moving to America. Aspects of American culture appear
confusing. By taking this approach Vernon Howl gives a ‘normal person’
perspective on the bizarre habits of Americans. The treatment of animals (in
zoos) befuddles him, as it should anyone who believes that animals deserve
respect, not gawking. Habits from Vernon Howl’s upbringing suggest ridiculous
things too. Milkshakes made out of octopus ink generally is not done. Poverty
engrossed young Vernon Howl. Relationships with his family come out in these stories.
Additionally he shows the attitude America has towards work, who has the power
and that it is a power dynamic.
GIF work hard to show visuals for the story. Many of these GIFs add to the
humorousness of the stories. Since a great deal of the stories involve surreal
scenarios (rivers of blood, vomiting food into parents’ mouths, Nike Swooshes)
they make for good visual imagery. When Vernon Howl explains these stories he
refers to the imagery and how he likes it. Giving the viewer a literal look at
what he envisions helps to keep the stories quite good. Besides the actual
story though there are remixes, rephrasing the poems with what appears to be
the ‘direct translation’ of the story (since in this series Vernon Howl is not
a native English speaker, if one is to believe he’s the artist shown in the
YouTube clips). Obviously Vernon Howl is not but seeing him riff off of his own
work is rather fascinating.
Documentary-style works fabulously for the series. Offering another story behind the
already confused and disoriented stories makes it particularly wonderful. Vernon Howl’s
ability to build up a backstory is glorious. Sometimes he even gets into deep
thought thinking of sad walls of a house or how people take so much for
granted. Those who worked for their position in life receive more respect than
those who had it handed to them, at least in Vernon Howl’s opinion. Here he
wishes that things had gone differently, that he had been able to fly his
mother over to the US before she died. As a ‘janitor’ he lacked the income.
Leaving the transition from janitor to acclaimed writer incomplete Vernon Howl
teases the viewer, trying to taunt him into thinking what could have possibly
inspired such a dramatic shift.
Finallyas icing on the cake is the ludicrous Bandcamp rendition of each song. Adding
this makes the MEMEPLEX complete as Vernon Howl has every base covered for
current artistic outlets: the writing, the visual, the remix, the YouTube and
the Bandcamp. Vernon Howl really knows how to make a thing whole.
-beachsloth.com* ed note: this project was originally hosted on the URL aaaaaaaaaaaa.info but I let that domain lapse so now it's just on the Tumblr page and via the various channels above.
