2D Boneyard

HAPPY EASTER!! Its Sunday, April 24, 2011, its a day for new beginnings, and this is The Side. Funny how things work out. The guys I'm talking about have risen from the radio graveyard to start something new. They didn't conquer death like a certain fella that I'm a big fan of did a couple thousand years ago, but in their own way they're showing that The End doesn't always have to be the end. The End can be the beginning of something really great.

TAG 'EM AND BAG 'EM!!!

I wrote last week about my buddy Bob getting the raw end of the stick due to Arbitron handing out flawed data. Here's the thing that makes Bob Fresh one cool dude. Yes, he's a comic book writin' sum'bitch. Yes, he was part of one of this areas most popular radio talk shows. But the real reason is when that got swept out from under him, he didn't cry, he didn't rally his fans (and there's a lot of them) into a boycott, he didn't just go away. He dusted himself off, and went on to do something new. And that something is Bob's Boneyard.

And yes this does present us with a certain amount of weirdness, as Manny Fresh has come back from the dead. Yes, this is the same Manny Fresh that was the target of internet harassment and hunted down his would-be tormentor. The same one who was the target of a conspiracy to destroy him complete with his own personal Jezebel Jett. And yes it did seem is if he was killed off, at least to the point where it had to be explained to some fans that he wasn't really dead. He was obviously lost in the time stream, but now he has returned. The bones are in the yard, and Manny will soon be traveling around the world recruiting more Manny Freshes for Manny Fresh Incorporated. For those out their thinking this would be just the thing for you to be your area's Manny fresh, be warned, the recruitment process involves nipple clips and a car battery.

Jokes aside, I'm really proud to know Bob. In the past year he's become a father and a comic book writer. Now he's repackaging himself and what he does towards new media. This is gutsy. He's got a loyal audience, and he's got talent, but what a person does in one medium that brings success doesn't always translate into success in other mediums. TV stars don't always make great radio people, for example. So he's on a learning curve, but fortunately he's got good, talented people around him. So I'm happy to support by checking out the show whenever I can.

I was ticked that he got the bad end of things for a really stupid reason, but I'd love nothing more than to see him turn it around into a huge success. I don't doubt that he will.

STUFF!!

No secret to anyone you reads this regularly that I hate 3D movies. I already wear glasses, I don't want to wear glasses on top on my glasses just for the sake of a cheesey special effect. The last 3D movie I saw was SUPERMAN RETURNS in 3D IMAX, and I would have walked out of the theater if not for the fact that my mother had bought the tickets as a birthday gift and was with the group on us that went. Terrible movie made even more terrible by being in 3D IMAX. And some of you may be wanting to leave a comment telling me about how far the technology has come since then and how really great the effect is now and how I should give it a chance what with that sweet looking new THOR movie coming out. Save your typing. You've got a better chance of convincing our Pop Star-in-Chief that spending more money than you're bringing in is a bad idea.

There's also a percentage of the population that experience physical discomfort at watching a 3D movie. I'm not in this category as I just find it stupid. Fortunately for us all, there is Hank Green.



That's right. Hollywood is spending millions of dollars in 3D technology and people have found a way around it. That's kind of telling. I'm honestly thinking of buying a pair of these glasses based solely on principle. Fortunately the movies I've seen that are out in 3D always have showings that are not in 3D which is fortunate.

There is one thing that I am curious about as far as 3D goes and that's the Nintendo 3DS which boasts a 3D effect without the use of special glasses. Reviews of the effect have been pretty mixed, but it does have me curious. I do doubt I'll be getting one any time soon though. Little too rich for my blood. Actually, a prime rib steak is too rich for my blood at this point.

MUSIC!!!

I tried to get a hold of Bob to ask what song he'd like in this post. Didn't happen, but I think he'd approve.



That'll do it for me. Time to get ready for church and some quality family time, including Hootie Nozz feeding the lot of us. SCORE!!! Happy Easter, y'all, and we'll see ya back here Wednesday.

The Magic Spider, or Here's to You, Bob Geary

The Numinous Lives! Its Wednesday, April 13, 2011, I'm getting my nerd on big time, and this is The Side. I suppose everyone things from time to time about how they wish they could go back and re-do something knowing what they know now. College would have been much different. Less puking. More dating. And a lot better term papers.

COMIX!!!

Had a brilliant dialogue online concerning comics which began with a video from Hank Green.



This video dealt with, as Richard put it, fetishistic science. Meaning there's something out there that we don't totally understand so we give it a power in our minds. In the genre of superheroes what we give power can in turn give us power. The problem with this is that the more we come to understand things in science, the more the fun gets ruined because we, regretfully, discover that these things will not give you super powers. Typically it just gives you cancer or adds to global warming because right now science says everything sucks and is bad for you.

This brings us to "The Magic Spider", which is something Matty coined and let us now discuss. The actual spider is the one that bit Peter Parker and transformed him into Spider-man. Originally the spider was irradiated in a science experiment, because at the time the story was originally written there was still a bit of mystery concerning radiation. Stan Lee didn't have much of a science background, but we look past this because its a really great story. However, we're smarter about radiation now and know that exposing a spider to radiation won't do anything to the spider that'll make its bite super-power-giving. Fast forward a few decades with this origin being retold, and the spider in question is no longer radioactive, but genetically altered because that's where the scientific mystery is now. Go further into the future and if they retell the origin again when we know a lot more about genetics then there's going to have to be something else different with that spider.

Something about this spider is magic. It gives superpowers. The Magic Spider is the literary device that allows a character to gain superpowers. It allows us to escape the confines of science and enter the superhero genre. Other examples of Magic Spiders are The Speed Force from THE FLASH, magic, and any kind of alien life or technology. We don't have to know how a Green Lantern Ring works, we know its alien technology. Even high intelligence can work as Magic Spiders because there's no way we can currently explain Ironman's armor rationally, or half the stuff Reed Richards slaps together on a regular basis.

But let's go back to before the the current superhero genre kicked off, which was 1938. There were characters that had all the qualities of superheroes, even if we didn't flat out call them that. The modern superhero genre call on the past one. We call it mythology. Everything from Greek Myth to Arthurian legend has been drawn upon, and that is what gives the current genre its depth. But they did indeed have their own Magic Spiders back then, although it was much simpler considering the level of scientific knowledge back then. The most common Magic Spider was being blessed by a supernatural entity, usually a god.

But things rolled forward, and where does that land us in relation to the Magic Spider? Well, it landed me in a classroom in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The topic: Gothic Literature. This was one of those classes where I ended up keeping all the books. The professor was one Doctor Bob Geary, who while I was not a very good student, I was quite fond of him as a teacher. This man knew his stuff, and for reasons I didn't fathom at the time, he was a fan of my comic strip in the school newspaper.

Why on Earth would the professor who mercifully passed me through Gothic Literature and subsequently Literature and the Problem of Evil care about my super hero comic in the paper? That involve a couple hundred years worth of literature and years of study on my part. Gothic Literature dealt with one thing consistently: the numinous, the feeling that there's a supernatural force involved that creates both a feeling of fear, but also one of awe and wonder. It frightens us, but still fascinates us.

Gothic Literature spawned quite a few genres. The modern horror genre obviously with stories like Bram Stoker's DRACULA. But then there's Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN which can be argued that it is one of the first science fiction stories. We also have Edgar Allan Poe starting the genre of detective fiction with MURDER AT LA RUE MORGUE.

Crazy science beyond what we understand. Humans developing skilled understandings of the world around them. Supernatural forces preying on people. All of this wrapped up with the numinous. Pulled apart to go their separate ways, but then elements coming back together to form something new. Put them together one way and you get H.P. Lovecraft.

Put them together another way and you get superheroes. The Magic Spider is indeed a numinous thing collecting the stuffs we wonder about and fear and giving them the power to create superhumans. No wonder Doctor Geary had an interest.

Makes me wonder if these works are going to be studied in classes as centuries go by. I also wonder if these characters like Superman and Spider-man will be studied as mythology as millennia go on. Will people later believe that we believed these characters actually existed?

MUSIC!!

Because if you want to put a Barenaked Ladies song on your blog from YouTube that ain't happening, so enjoy some fun stick figures.



I've got to thank Richard and Matty for all their input and brilliant points as to this subject matter. Nice to have folks around that are smarter than me. I'll see y'all Friday.