I do understand that a large proportion of you have never watched Smallville, the cheap American teen-show about the young Clark Kent, that’s been running on the CW for ten years. Why would you? It has a terrible reputation. I watched an episode of it once, one hungover teenage Sunday afternoon in Birmingham, and to be honest I rather enjoyed it, in a hungover Sunday afternoon sort of a fashion. Then I didn’t think about it again until a year or so ago, when my girl got into 4OD and started sneakily watching it while was doing things like the washing up.

One day I snuck in on her and caught the end of an episode. I think Green Arrow was killing Lex Luthor or something. I was pretty much instantly hooked. It is trashy, campy, ridonculous disposable fluff, with some deeply questionable scripting and acting. It has a negligible special effects budget, and its main character has less charisma than your average stick. But the supporting cast is mainly brilliant, and the people behind the show evidently love every part of it. Smallville has heart… and I really really enjoy it. In the increasingly rare occasions that I sit down in front of some streamed television, it whisks me away to a strange and magical world – a stupid, nonsensical world aimed at teenagers and populated by half-remembered comic characters from my youth. If Clark Kent doesn’t put on tights and start flying for another year I’ll still watch it, because I am a massive sucker and goonish romantic. Ale jaca est.

Anyway, never mind that – we have a WINNER to announce! The winner of yesterday’s feverishly popular caption contest! There were a lot of entries! Charlotte and BJ were on the phone for half an hour earlier deliberating.  And they have reached their decision. Drum roll please…

AND THE WINNER IS!

Thassright! The first cut was the deepest! Who’d a thunk it! Not that what followed wasn’t fantastic. Some of it was. That last entry from Charlie  (” AAAAHHHHH OOOOOOOOHHHH!!! Werewolves of london!!!”) nearly got it, but it had missed the ten pm deadline and it wouldn’t have been fair. Other close runners up included “U LOST THE GAME”, “I am a living sickness”, “Sheeeeeaaaaaaat!” and “I’m your blind date!”

A special mention also goes to, “i done a poo. in your house. but i’m not going to tell you where…” which caused me to nearly lose a rib, but Joey can’t possibly win as he legally counts as an employee. I shall expect something along the lines of, “but employees get paid!” in the comments. Use a fake name next time moanypants!

Yes, there were many ace entries. But there can be only one winner. And his name is Matt. MATT! Email me your address! You won this:

Whoo! Handmade ATD20 CD! The only one in existence! SPECIAL!

But it won’t just be Mark getting ace blue things in the mail this week. NO SIR! The Security Ts came in! And I spent all afternoon and all evening and all night packaging them (see small sample from around 9pm below), and I shall be dragging them to the post office tomorrow. So if you’ve been waiting to order yours, now’s the time!

OK. Coming up this week: More focusing on ATD20! The Comic finally gets a title and someone wins that drawing! And the All New Weekly Doncast returns on Wednesday at 5pm GMT! Let me know what you’d like to happen! I am open to suggestion!

Oh, and go see the gang at Sun On The Sand – they’ve got Only Happy When It Snows from ATD20 as a separate listening experience.

ALSO!

The second mixtape of the year!

Night!

Lady Charlotte Whewell took some photos of me out in Victoria Park last weekend. I just had to send some over to the good people at Sun On The Sand, and I was uploading them to my Flickr, when the one you can see up there struck me as being a thing of great wonder, that was in desperate need of a fitting caption.

So, have at ye: Caption Contest! Leave your caption in the comments. The best one will be decided by a crack team of experts, including ME, Blonde Jeremy, and Charlotte Whewell.

Winner gets a homemade copy of ATD20 on CD. Made at home! With a printer! And some glue! And some pens! Whoo!

We’ll be deciding the name of the cartoon strip on Wednesday, by the way, during the All New Weekly Doncast, from 5pm GMT.

Have you in the Blob Blog watching Bill O’Reilley and Jon Stewart, by the way? Get in there! And if your appetite for Yank Politic Sensationalism has been whetted, they got a decent photo of Sarah Palin’s crib notes on her palm. I did that at the Gonzales gig, you know. That’s why I didn’t wear the white Gloves he gave me. Truefax. I ain’t ashamed.

Akira The Don – Security
Initially sent to preorderers of ATD20/Security T. Appeared on ATD20 Jan 29th 2010.

All praises due to The Independent Content Company, for filming that awesome thing up there! And coming up with the idea. And editing it. And rendering it. And uploading it. The Independent Content Company is pretty much the greatest Independent Content Company I have ever worked with. WOW!

All praises due to the most high for providing us with exactly what we wanted to make the thing. All we had to do was go for a wander around the Olympic Development Site, and we found everything, including a high rez jacket. Truly amazing, cheers multiverse.

You’ll notice that’s a totally different version to the one in the flash player, that got sent to preorderers, and appeared on ATD20. This was all Joey’s idea, and an awesome one it was. For those that have been asking, yes, it is a true story. I used to wonder why so many terrible things kept happening to me. Well, in retrospect, I realise it might have been because I was doing so many terrible things. When I stopped doing terrible things, terrible things stopped happening to me! I have been blessed with wonderful fortune ever since. Let that serve as a warning to you all!

Now, if anyone knows how to karmically attract great riches, do share with us all in the comments.

Comic strip later on. We’re finishing off the Sac VS Pip remix right now. IT IS SO CHOICE! From the feedback I’ve been getting, lots of you are very excited that I am doing a Sav VS Pip remix. Who else would you like me to have a go on, so to speak?

Oh, and a fabulous No Prize goes to whoever can work out what comic I am reading in my lonely booth up there. CLUE: “Illness.”

ATD20 – The Mixtape

Get the CDQ MP3 bundle here.

Get the MP3 + T-Shirt here.

I got Manga Studio back! I got Photoshop back! So the comic is back!

Whooo!

Comic!

I should probably combine all these Bare Necessities posts, eh?

By the way, I have been listening to Mother Of Mankind on headphones while I’ve been drawing this, cos my dear Mother is asleep in the next room, and it is flipping INCREDIBLE.

KATHERINE JORDAN! CHARLIE THOMAS! PAULA JEFFREY! CAN YOU HEAR ME WHERE YOU ARE?

That’s from a song called I Will Find God.

So, so, SO inspirational. If it wasn’t three in the morning, and if my Mother wasn’t asleep in  the next room, I’d throw the window open and shout at the sky.

Rah then!

Tomorrow, around lunchtime, be here… for SECURITY.

Well, it’s 4:24am and I’m still reinstalling stuff after today’s freakout, oh the joy, which means my song-a-day plus comic plan has had a spanner lobbed in it. No fear though - Bare Necessities will just have to last two days, and the ATD20 focus can run through ’till Saturday. Ha! I have the skills! Eat that disruptive forces! You can’t knock my hustle! I am an awesome daily content MACHINE!

Aw man, I have the best comic strip for this sketched out as well. Hopefully I can wake up early, and Manga Studio’s downloaded, so I can ink it, before I rewrite the Sac VS Pip remix I lost in that horrible aforementioned incident. MACHINE I TOLD YERS!

Sleepy machine.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Emergency message from Mr. Donovan – has had a major computer malfunction and it looks like he won’t be back up by 5 – he’s working hard at it for all of you. Please think happy thoughts.
BJ, 16:55, 03/02/10

Well, that was a horrible six hours. Just after 3pm, I, AK Donovan, acting under the suggestion of the techies at Ustream, installed an Adobe server thingie so that the Doncast would stream in better quality… and it destroyed my computer.

Fully destroyed my C drive, my Windows installation, my software, and my Sac VS Pip remix lyrics to boot. Amongst other things. I have spent the time since formatting, and reformatting my hard drive, and reinstalling Windows. Thankfully, this has worked, and I am now reinstalling all my software. I am likely to be up all night doing it, as I use a lot of software, from a lot of different places. Frankly, working out what I was using for certain things is going to be task enough… but I consider myself lucky. It could have been much worse. And it was my own stupid fault for even considering turning this workhorse of mine into a bloody server. Fool Donovan!

I did find this all particularly upsetting, however, as this I year I have fulfilled all my promises, and stuck to all my schedules. Now I have a dirty fail against my good name. Bah!

So, my apologies to you that were hanging out in that chatroom waiting on my arrival. I hope it wasn’t too disappointing,and that you at least had some worthwhile conversations, or something.

I am afraid that all the time I’ve lost today means I can’t reschedule for tomorrow or anything – I have a remix to rewrite, amongst other things – so we shall have to try again next week. I have a good feeling about this new installation though. it is cleaner, more streamlined… I think good things will come of it.

Anyway, did I miss anything in there while I was trying not to swear loudly?

Those goregous blue Security Ts are going out on Friday, but it hasn’t escaped my attention that Valentines’ day is coming up, and that shade of blue, whilst entirely gorgeous, is a little boyish. So the design team at Don Studios (hi guys!) has come up with a very special, super limited alternative. In pink!

Secure your love with the Pink Security T shirt!

I am having these made locally – ie if you order from the UK, they’re made there, and if you order from the USA, likewise, so that they get to you on time for V Day. Speaking of which, if you need yours in time for V day, you’ll need to order in the next few days.

ORDER HERE!

And don’t forget to be here at 5pm GMT today for the ALL NEW WEEKLY DONCAST!

Akira The Don – Bare Necessities ft Jay-Z and Dizzee Rascal
FIrst dropped: Jan 29th 2010, on ATD20

YEYAH!

This one goes out to Eloise in Thailand, who is ten years old and an AMAZING DRAWER (as in person who draws, not something you put your T Shirts in, don’t be stupid!) – she sent me this today:

How awesome is that!? WOW! MEGA AWESOME, I would say, and I would be interested to hear what you art critics think.

Yessir. I have been meaning to do a remix of Bare Necessities for about 5 years, and I was so happy when I finally got around to doing it that I literally ran around in circles whooping. IT MADE ME THAT HAPPY! Jay-Z and Dizzee Rascal were the icing on on the sticky bun. Sticky buns, in case you were wondering,  were the number one treat back in Lower Friars, the first stage of my secondary schooling… at first break you could get stale buns with icing on them from the canteen for 20p. Oh how we loved those sticky sweet things!

Anyway, I did want to make a nice bootleg video for this, but I haven’t had time today, between packaging t-shirts (only 2 1 don shirts left!), working on my Sac VS Pip remix, shooting a video with Joey2tits AKA The Ambassador of Awesome and doing this flipping cartoon. Gah! I wish I’d had time, dear reader! But now I must make like that last panel, for it is 4am, and I have many things tomorrow, not least of all THE ALL NEW WEEKLY DONCAST!

That’s right! It’s that time of week again! BE HERE AT 5PM GMT for the live spectacular! I have no idea what I’m gonna be doing, but I know one thing – WE ARE GONNA HAVE FUN! YES WE ARE! But if you have any great ideas, I would love to hear them. Oh, and there are only three more days of FOCUSING ON ATD20... what song do you want singling out? TELL ME I NEED TO KNOW!

PAX!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

ATD20.

Get the CDQ MP3 bundle here.

Get the MP3 + T-Shirt here.

Blonde Jeremy & Akira The Don – If You Seek Amy
FIrst dropped: Jan 29th 2010, on ATD20

You dig what’s happening here? That’s right! This week, every day, I’ll be focusing in on a joint from ATD20. A comic strip inspired by the song, and the song itself. Might even be a video one day, you never know. And today, it’s If You Seek Amy, which I did with my ole pal Blonde Jeremy Deacon. Actually, he did the vast majority of it. I just rapped on the end and mastered the thing.

We’ve been talking about doing this ever since I posted the OG version, as performed by Miss Britney Spears, last year. If you peep that post you’ll notice I wasn’t feeling it straight away, but BJ WAS, and made it known in the comments. I think we went for a drink that night, by which time I’d listened to the song about 12 times and was assured of its brilliance.

Anyway, as often happens when I’m doing a mixtape, I reach out to a few of my closest peoples to see if they have any ideas. And BJ reminded me of this. And I was like, yes! I got into the thing on Thursday night, like 11pm, and vibed to it for a while – I was like, rah, this is so nice… classy and sleazy at the same time. A vision came before me. A room, a red curtain, a stage. Then that flow hit me, along with most of the words, and I battered it out on my knackered ole keyboard in my non-touch typing, fore-fingered fashion that sounds like a typewriter and cases my girl no end of grief, stood up, declared myself Awesome, and spat it into my AKG C414B with faith and fire and finesse.

BLAOW!

And later that day, it was unleashed unto the world, as track 3 on ATD20.

BLAOW!

We always say this, but me and BJ really ought to do more stuff together. The last thing we did was that New Theme From Star Trek, FFS. FYI (the acronyms keep on coming!) BJ’s been working on an ALBUM For a year or so, and last time I heard it, the thing was AMAZING. Apparently its gotten better since then. I am well looking forward to it. And you’ll be the first to hear about it, promise.

OK, over and out for the now. Hit the jump for the lyrics (well, my bit anyway). Oh, and keep it locked on the Blob Blog, output has been intensifying over that way lately. And make sure you’re here tomorrow, for another song, and another comic.

I told you I wasn’t messing about this year…

PAX!

@!

ATD20.

Get the CDQ MP3 bundle here.

Get the MP3 + T-Shirt here.

Read more…

Hey gang! I am glad you’re enjoying ATD20. It makes me happy and proud. Please keep listening, talking about it loudly in public places, and telling your friends – my promo department currently consists of ME and ME alone, and it would be a shame if this didn’t reach more people, as if one is not growing, one is likely to get infected by evil bacteria, and succumb to plague.

I WISH FOR NO PLAGUE! I wanna grow big and strong and smash, like Hulk, without the intelligence issues.

Anyway. T-shirt update. The Security Ts will be in on February 6th, which is exiting. If you got an MP3 bundle, and want to add a T-shirt to your order (as some of you seem to), rather than paying the full whack, you can send £10.50 to zillazillazilla at gmail.com with your preferred size and address, and I shall make it so.

And in other T-Shirt news, I found 4 The Don T-shirts! Two small, one XL, one XXL. So hurry and claim them, by clicking here. There are also only about 15 I Am Not Dead (Yeah!) T shirts, as modelled above by Gruff Rhys, so you wanna be quick in that department as well.

Oh, I might bring back the Thieving shirts. Is this something that interests you?

OK.

COMING UP THIS WEEK! Videos! Music! Comic strip! Comic strip titler-prize-winner announcement! The All New Weekly Weekly Doncast (Wednesday at 5pm GMT)! And so much more! AkiraTheDonDotCom! Where The Magic Happens!