Awesome Dude of The Week Vol 4, Matt Groening

Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening was born on Febuary 15 1954 in Portland Oregon. The first cartoon he made was a comic strip titled "Life in Hell" and from there moved on to Creating such shows as "The Simpsons" and "Futurama". His mother Margaret Ruth Wiggum was a teacher and his father Homer Philip Groening was a film  maker. Matt Groening went to Ainsworth elementary school and Lincoln High School and went to Evergreen state collage in Washington. In 1977 he moved to Los Angeles and went through a series of apparently shitty jobs. Groening began working for a Newspaper and from there got his Comic strip "Life In Hell" published. It was a big hit and soon he recieved an offer to have the comic published in book form. The comic is still being published to this day. In 1985 James. L. Brooks contacted Groening after he had seen "Life in Hell" giving him an offer to do animation sketches. Groening was asked to do sketch animation of "Life In Hell" for the Tracy Ullman show. Fearing that he would lose his rights to the Comic and the show would bring his comic down when it failed he decided to come up with different characters. He quickly sketched down these characters in James. L. Brook's office and named them "The Simpsons". The Simpsons shorts were popular and led to a spin off in 1989 titled "Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire". The show Quickly became a huge hit. In the years to come Groening has suggested various spin offs such as "young Homer", shows about the other inhabitants of Springfield, and a live action Spin off about Krusty The Clown. None of them were ever made a reality. In 1994 Groning Created "Bongo" Comics Group. In 1997 He created "Futurama" and by the time he brought the show to FOX he had already come up with multiple characters and story lines. It became the show I love so much and then They Fucking took it off the air!!! fortunately after the show was taken off the air there was talk of bringing it back due to a strong following and good ratings. 4 Movies were made titled "Benders Big Score", "The Beast With A Billion Backs", "Benders Game", and "Into The Wild Green Yonder". "Into The Wild Green Yonder" was originally intended to be the series finale but Groening wanted to continue the series and Comedy Central ordered 26 new episodes of the show (thank god). To date Matt Groening has won Eleven Emmy Awards. Ten for "The Simpsons" and one for "Futurama" and in 2002 won the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben's Award. He married Deborah Caplin in 1986 but divorced in 1999. They had two sons, Homer and Abe. And Groening is an Agnostic Liberal.


Creator of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama". Two of my favorite shows. Matt Groening kicks ass. I've been laughing at these shows since I was born and I'll continue to laugh at Futurama. Simpsons...not so much. I don't watch the new episodes but when the old one come on I drop everything I'm doing and have a good laugh. Just to let you guys know I do use Wikipedia as my primary resource but I cross-check my info with other sites whenever possible.

Awesome Dude Of The Week Vol 3, Stephen Colbert

Let me start this off by saying I am aware of some dudes blog that is basically a lot more "Awesome Dudes Of The Week" so go to his blog if all you come here to read is my Awesome Dudes. Here is his blog http://ianm1121.blogspot.com/

Now for MY Awesome Dude Of The Week I have chosen Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert was born on May 13 1964. He was born in Washington D.C. and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina and was the youngest of eleven children. His father, James William Colbert, Jr., was the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina and his mother, Lorna Colbert was a homemaker. From a young age Stephen Colbert knew that southerners were normally depicted as less intelligent and because of that he trained himself to speak with no southern accent. On September 11, 1974, Two of his brothers died in a plane crash. He then moved to East Street in Charleston. He did not handle the move well and later described himself at this time as Detached and lacking a sense of importance in the things that other children found important. During this time he became interested in fantasy and science fiction novels and Role-playing games. Colbert went to Charleston's Episcopal Porter Gaud School. He was very involved in school plays and the school newspaper but by his own opinion he was not very academically motivated. When he was young he wanted to pursue a career in marine biology but an operation left him with inner ear damage making it impossible for him to scuba dive. He went to Hampden-Sydney Collage in Virginia. He continued to be in plays and studied philosophy. After two years he transfered to Northwestern University's school of Speech wanting to be an Drama actor. He was at this time uninterested in comedy. He preformed several improvs at a theater in Chicago. In 1986 when he graduated and was in need of work he ended up joining the "Second City" working answering phones and such. He was later hired to preform with them. He ended up working with Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. After the trio left Second City Colbert went on the show "Exit 57". From there he went to work as a cast member and writer for "The Dana Carvey show" and from there he worked as a freelance writer for SNL. Needing money he then began working as a script consultant for VH1 and MTV before taking a job with "Good Morning America" which led to him being hired on a trial basis for "The Daily Show". At this time he also worked on a show titled "Strangers With Candy". From his work on "The Daily Show" He moved to his show "The Colbert Report". Colbert has since attended such events as the Whitehouse Correspondents Association Dinner. He has also been the co-author of a book, written his own book (which I am the proud owner of), in his early years he was even in a band called "Stephen and the Colberts", Guest starred on numerous shows. At one point he even announced his bid for President of the United States. There are just too many things he's done for me to name them all here. Stephen Colbert Kicks Ass.


I guess this is the end of this weeks Awesome Dude Of The Week.... I'll be sure to do another one next week.

Awesome Dude Of The Week Vol 2, Winston Churchill

Ah where to begin? This won't be a full summary considering Winston Churchill had a very full interesting life. Their is even and 8 Volume biography written about his life.

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born in 1874 on November 30th at Benheim Palace in Oxfordshire. His father. "Lord Randolf Churchill" was a politician and his mother Janie Jerome was born American (Fuck yeah). Winston attended Royal Millitary Academy, Sandhurst Before he joined the army. During his time as a journalist during the Boer War he was made a Prisoner of War and eventually escaped. In 1900 he became a Conservative member of parliament but soon grew to dislike it and in 1904 joined the Liberal Party. When the Liberals won the 1905 election Churchill was made Undersecretary at the Colonial Office and in just 3 years he entered the cabinet as president of the board of trade. and in 1911 he became the "First Lord of Admiralty". He resigned after the Dardanelles expedition. He joined the millitary once more and served for a short time until 1917 when he became the "Minister of Munitions" . from 1919 to 1921 he was the secretary for war and air and from 1924 to 1929 he was the chancellor of "exchequer" (no idea what that is). Also during that time he left the Liberal party and became and independent and then became a member of the Conservative party again. Throughout the 1930's he made various speeches with subjects ranging from foreign intervention to Adolf Hitler (you'll probably be seeing him a later Volume). Churchill was no particularly fond of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler and during a speech to the House of Commons said "you were given a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." On September 3 1939 Churchill was made "First Lord of Admiralty" and a member of the war cabinet. Churchill in 1940 Churchill was made "Prime Minister". Churchill had known for many years the growing threat of Hitler although no one had listened to him. Churchill created and occupied the "Minister of Defence" to aid in the war effort. During one of Churchill's famous speeches he said. "we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender." Churchill held good friendships with both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and through these friendships their countries had good friendships as well. When Hitler invaded The Soviet Union Churchill said the famous words. "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favorable mention to the devil in the House of Commons." In October 1944 he met with the Russian Leaders in Yalta. To discuss the war. Churchill was Critisized for the "Dresdin Bombings" despite his statements implying otherwise. At the end of WW2 Churchill was worried that the Soviets wouldn't go along with the agreements made in Europe. In 1946 during a trip to the United States he lost a good sum of money in a poker game with Truman. It was during this trip that he also made a speech about the USSR. In 1951 Churchill again became "Prime Minister" until he resigned in 1955. From 1949 to 1956 he suffered a series of strokes indicating his deteriorating health. Throughout the late 1950's and early 1960's he tried to lead as much of an active life as he could. In 1963 President John F Kennedy made him an honorary citizen of the United States. On Saint Georges Day he congratulated the survivors of the "Zeebrugge Raid". On January 15 1965 Churchill suffered a severe stroke which left him Gravely ill and died 9 days later at the age of 90 on Sunday January 24th 1965.


If there were ever a man to be in my "Awesome Dude of The Week" series it would be Winston Churchill. the man even has a cigar size named after him. he lead the Brits through WW2 and lived to be 90. Fuck yeah!




Various websites were used in compiling this information. I'm afraid I won't be able to list them all but I could not find any website that had a full history of him. the Wikipedia page has some good info and of course there is that 8 Volume biography on him. Stay tuned next week for my next "Awesome Dude of The Week"

Awesome Dude Of The Week Vol 1, Josef Mengele

Every week near the end of the week (or when I get the time) I will post a person who I think is awesome. I will also post a link where you can get more information on the person (if I can find a decent source). Anyway have fun!

For my first "Awesome Dude Of The Week" first up is the man nicknamed "The Angel Of Death", Josef Megele. Dr. Josef Mengele was a doctor for the Nazis. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and less than ten years later he volunteered to be sent to Auschwitz. There he became known for his cruel, brutal methods of deciding who would be kill and was even known to kill babies just so he could dissect their bodies. He had a prefrence for twins when it came to experimentation. he would give them special treatment such as giving them candy or clothes. He would also preform such experiments on children such as removing limbs or preforming sex change operations. he would inject dye into childrens eyes attempting to change their eye color. Eventually Mengele left Auschwitz disguised as a regular member of the German infantry. He ended up at the Gross Rosen Work Camp but left before it was liberated. From there he was seen at Matthausen and ended up being captured and held as a POW at a camp near Munich. When the allies arrived they freed him not knowing who he really was. at the end of 1948 he decided to leave Germany. He apparently fled to Argentina as it was somewhat of a Nazi sympathetic country and from there fled from South American country to country afraid of being caught. He divorced his wife and later in 1958 married his dead brothers former wife Martha. He was never caught but in 1979 he suffered a stroke while swimming and drowned. A somewhat dissapointing end for such an "Awesome Dude".


Here is the link to the site where I got my information from
http://www.auschwitz.dk/mengele/id17.htm

Keep reading my uninteresting crap until the next "Awesome Dude Of The Week"