I’ve been making a bunch of remix comics based on the Section 92a cartoon by New Zealand’s gift to comix, Dylan Horrocks

Here’s some  of them.

Yeah, that’s that for that lot.

On Wednesday I get to take down the sign at HAPPY Bar that says “All recording is prohibited” for an entire hour.

The reasons why I want to release Emissary are pretty varied, but there are a couple of pretty big reasons:

1. Emissary is about the internet, and how I am part of it. Morally I couldn’t just riff on the internet without saying it was okay for other people to do the same. Well, I could, but that would be a dick move.

2. I want people to feel like they have a measure of ownership over the satire and amusement that was produced for them, and I want them to feel like they can use it, that they can share it and that they can build upon it. You buy access to an event with a ticket, you should be allowed to have a record of it under your own control too.

3. Remember Section 92a of the Copyright Act? I had started piecing together the show when the Labour Government had just flagrantly lied that the public had not bothered to consult with them on the bill. I was still writing it when the protest at the Bee Hive happened because the new government were just as asinine as the last. Possibly more so. That got me steamed, and I realised that if I didn’t actually step up and release my stuff in a way that allowed others the same rights that I desperately wanted, I would be at the mercy of what ever small to middle sized industries (like a teen with a bottle of scrumpy, it don’t take much) bought out New Zealand politics. The license is a toasty little jacket that keeps me from freezing in the open air of the public domain and suffering heat stroke inside copyright.

4. Some of what I’m doing is satire. New Zealand is no Guatemala, where you can be thrown into jail for a twit or seditious Youtube video and I’m no Jonathan Swift, but gosh darn it we kiwis have a healthy respect for the law. This way if one of my ideas takes off the other nerdly and diligent kiwis will be able to share the idea, and an idea can only grow if people have access to it.

And that’s why I use that Creative Commons thing for Emissary.

This is what night looks like. Note: The snobby moon.

Dear Internet,
I keep waking up frozen during the night. Often I am paralysed too. Restrained by some sort of muscle restraining muscular lock down. It scares me and therefore makes me a feared or “afraid” in the modern parlance or “vernacular.”

After a quick google search I have found that there are two front runners in the race for that thing that is ruining my nights sleep. This “sleep paralysis” as it is known is either cataplexy, which is a syndrome related to epilepsy, or a witch sitting on my chest eating my life. This life eating phenomena is known as Night Hag (or Old Hag, if you will.)  To be honest, while cataplexy seems to be fairly legitimate, it’s something that I can’t cure, and also it doesn’t have the long and investigative history of the Night Hag, who if my sources are correct, is plotting to steal my youth and beauty even as I sleep this night. I know that I feel older each morning, so we  should chalk it up to that. I know that the first hand reports say that she is old or at least super dehydratedly wrinkled. I have however worked out a solution. You see, the thing of importance here is that she’s a woman. This means, that unlike men, I can reason with her before she does something horrific like cause WWI, or two, Hitler was a man after all.

I’ve decided to write a letter which I’ll pin to my duvet as I snuggle into sleep tonight. Hopefully she’ll read it before bloating up on Sando stuff.

‘Dear Night Hag,

We’ve never really met formally, so hi! My name’s Nic and I’m the guy that you’re lying on at night, literally sucking the life stuff from my sleeping breast. I hope you’re well because I’m not.

Please, Night Hag lady, I know you’ve been around a while, and also know that according to sleepnet.com you probably were born a peasant in 12th century France, and therefore you probably feel just a little disenfranchised with the world due to the French revolution and price of cheese, but please, you’ve got to leave me alone.

Night Hag, I don’t want that weird forehead ridge bump that my dad and grandfather have. Not yet anyway. I take really good care of my skin, staying out of the sun, moisturising, and even using chemical exfoliation, which is not cheap let me tell you. Having you cause premature aging will just not do. To be honest, I don’t even know how my internal organs are going to cope.

So, please, how about instead of being a Night Hag, you try being a “nice hag” for once. I feel that you’d find your day changed, and for the better.

Have a nice night,

-Nic Sando.’

Now, I shall go make a cup of coca cola zero, watch some Family Guy and drift off to a nice, yet fretful sleep.

UPDATE: I should have wrote it in French.

Now to think about what my deadlines should be. Hum…

For this show, I’ve decided that I want to be able to enter it in one or more of the up coming Festivals that I have an interest in. They are, in order of nearatude, the Wellington Fringe; the Dunedin Fringe; and the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. The Comedy Festival would require that what ever I do be funny, and I don’t know if what I want to do is write something funny. It probably is, but you know, what if it isn’t? So, that means I should aim towards one of the two Fringe Festivals, I have decided to go with the Wellington Fringe because it’s nearer to me, in time, and also, it is situated where I live. Also, if I want to perform in the Dunedin Fringe, I could just use the show afterwards… As long as the show I create is one that can travel. Either way; Wellington Fringe = Win!

The Wellington Fringe Festival’s application dates are rapidly approaching; 5pm on October the 17th to be specific. The actual Fringe doesn’t start until the Sixth of February. This date is known across New Zealand as Waitangi day. The Festival closes on May the First. So; if I wish to do a Fringe show, and I do, I have a few concrete deadlines. The first is I have to have my performance’s concept nailed and presented in an application for staging at what ever performance place I decide on, hopefully one of the better ones such as Bats though that can often be a pipe dream.  I have then got to make sure that I have my final application form into the Fringe office by the Seventeenth of October.  The Third, is an actual performance, or more likely performances that have to take place between The Sixth of February and the First of March .

So, let’s look at the dates.

01/10/08 – The last day to apply for performance space at Bats.

17/10/08 – is the final day my final script is due to my lecturer.

17/10/08 – is also the final submission date for the Wellington Fringe Festival. Not that conveniant, because I need to have actors attached to the piece by then.

06/02/09 – The first day of the Wellington Fringe.

01/03/09 – The last day of the Wellington Fringe.

26/03/09 – The first day of the Dunedin Fringe.

05/03/09 – The last day of the Dunedin Fringe.

??/05/09 – The New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

So, now I have set deadlines, I should get to work. Or you know, implode under all this pressure I’ve just given myself.  Actually; I think I might make myself a curry. Yeah; that sounds like a tasty indian treat.

*Anyone who has googled up my failed attempts at doing a long form comic on DrunkDuck.com will be well aware of this.