Let the Christmas music BEGIN!!!!

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Today’s comic strip features last year’s “Who Wants to Be In a Comic Strip?” contest! Congratulations once again to Bob Slye of Los Altos, CA!! Thank you for reading!!

So you know what that means… Time for another contest!! That’s right, this year’s “Who Wants to Be In a Comic Strip?” contest is right around the corner and will be starting on March 4th!! The contest will last all month long and during that time Raccoon Toons will be updating with lots and lots and lots of extra comic strips! Yes!!

So get ready. Prepare yourselves emotionally, physically, spiritually. Check back on Monday for the official rules of how to enter. And good luck to you all.

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Like many of you, I enjoy Christmas music. I like the adding it all to my playlist on Dec. 1st. I like rockin’ around the Christmas tree, and the sound of ringing silver bells. I enjoy singing various holiday numbers along with Mel Torme. I enjoy the choral arrangements of the more religious pieces, and I tear up whenever Joy to the World is taken up a step on the scale. I also really love it when Rudolf wins in the end. Those other stupid reindeer sure are lucky Rudolf is so forgiving.

I’m really just a sucker for good music. It moves me easily. As some of you may know, one of my [many] other jobs is that of a videographer. I end up shooting a lot of wedding videos. Without fail there comes a moment, after the days of wading through endless video footage, after the endless hours of video editing, after the countless missed meals and lost hours of sleep (I’m such a slave to my high caliber work), when everything comes together and the video and the music resonate in a special way that only wedding videos can. That’s the moment when you know you’ve captured something special. It’s also the moment where video editor Matt admittedly gets really choked up. Although, it could just be the result of days without sleep. I can’t really be sure.

I don’t know what it is about music that moves us to these extremes. I don’t know why audio tones and pitches timed to certain intervals create in us feelings of such emotion. But I’m glad it does. It’s especially nice around Christmastime.

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I am back from my vacation!! I had a really fun trip. I got home to discover that my baseball song has officially made its way onto iTunes. Pretty sweet! You can find it on iTunes by clicking here.

If you missed the cartoon that features the song, you can view it here: http://www.raccoontoons.com/baseball.html

Good to be back in town. New comic strips coming soon!!

The post “This Is Baseball” on iTunes! appeared first on Raccoon Toons.

Not too long ago I was a finalist for a very fancy “dream job” for Major League Baseball. They wanted someone who could write well, who would be entertaining on camera, and who lives for baseball. Needless to say, I was a prime candidate even before they received my awesome video. They ended up flying me to New York City for an interview/audition. It was a thrilling experience to be seriously considered from among what they said was over 100,000 applicants.

When they first told me that they would be flying me over to their studios, they randomly asked if I played guitar.

“Um…yeah, actually I do,” I said.

“Bring your guitar,” came the response. “Maybe you can write a baseball song. Because people who like baseball, like songs about baseball.”

And so I sat down and wrote a veeeeeeeery simple 3-chord song about baseball, and the true story of what it was like for me growing up and playing little league.

In the end, I was not selected for the position, which would have required me to move to New York City, and cease writing and doing comic strips until November (yes, it was actually in the contract, I would have had to take a hiatus). So those of you love reading my work every week should probably be happy that I’m still on the West coast, and self employed.

Anyway, my silly little baseball song went over so well with MLB executives, I thought I would animate a cartoon to the music for you, the Raccoon Toons faithful.

And so here it is! The song is called, “This Is Baseball.”

Help a guy out and share it with all your baseball and cartoon loving friends. And for those who asked, the song has been submitted to the iTunes store and will be available there for download shortly.

Hope you enjoy it, it was fun to make.

And for the record, I absolutely nailed my interview/audition. Nailed it.

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