The comments, reviews and rantings are for entertainment only. If you are offended then someone else is getting entertained. Welcome to the internet. Have at it. This is where I sound off on what I read in comics this week, and occasionally ramble about other things.
Heads up! Its Wednesday, October 26, 2011, I spend every day hoping this will be the one in which they show The Great Pumpkin, and this is The Side. They really don't show a lot of Halloween specials on TV anymore so i treasure the ones they do show. I still miss the GARFIELD HALLOWEEN special with a passion.
Speaking of TV...
TELEVISION!!
I originally wanted to review the new ABC show ONCE UPON A TIME. I've seen a bunch of ads for it. It looked like a lot of fun. I'm a fan of FABLES and this show was going to have the same type of thing going on with fairy tale folks living in the real world, but without all the song and dance numbers that we'd expect from anything associated with Disney. There's just one problem in that I missed most of the show. This was the combo platter of mom's birthday and getting the kids to bed, so I can't go shaking my fists at the sky or anything like that. It was a good day.
I did catch about half of the show and I really liked what I saw. It looked great. It was fun. One thing really jumped out and grabbed my attention, and that was the theme to this episode: adoption.
For those of you out there that are new to following me, I'm adopted. I was adopted when I was 15 days old. I grew up with the knowledge and accepted it years and years ago. I wasn't treated differently, and its not some source of trauma for me. A couple of years ago though you would think that placing your kid up for adoption is the worst thing you could possibly do. There were shows like FIND MY FAMILY or the horrible LIFE UNEXPECTED. For watching those shows, one would think that every person who was adopted felt this void in their life which only their biological family could fill. How could anyone place their child up for adoption.
ONCE UPON A TIME answered that. The entire episode centered around adoption as two characters that are adopted deal with it. Why would a person give their child up? "To give them a chance at a better life." Now, in one of the instances it was for very dramatic reasons with a curse taking over the lady and an eeeeeeevil queen doing eeeeeeevily queeny things. Still, it does ring true. Placing a child up for adoption isn't always some act of abandonment showing that the people doing it are some horrible monsters. It is an act of love. If the people didn't care they would have just gone in and had an abortion, now wouldn't they?
So ONCE UPON A TIME has a fan here, because, for once, TV got it right.
MUSIC!!
And how do them there young folks sometimes end up with a young'in they didn't plan on? Rollin' in the hay!
Thanks to the lovely and talented Kat Hogan for turning me on to that tune. Time for me to fly. See ya'll Friday.
Who's your daddy? Its Sunday, October 23, 2011, nurture seems to be curb stomping nature, and this is The Side. I made that little comment because no one has discovered a nerd gene and my kids have some interesting behavior.
When your daughter says that the theme to THE BIG BANG THEORY is her favorite song, that's probably a sign.
This is the same daughter who argues against wearing pajamas. I told her how its colder at night now and she needs to wear PJs because I don't want her to freeze her little butt. See countered this with "If I freeze, I'll break that ice like Iceman!" Yes, my daughter's new favorite superhero is Iceman. This is due to Netflix instant streaming letting us watch SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS.
This is not to be confused with the other daughter who refuses to wear anything cute. If its not 'awesome', she won't wear it. 'Awesome' is the new criteria of choice for four year old clothing choices.
That daughter is the same one with her Spider-man rain boots. She wears those when it rains because sometimes its too wet for her Spider-man sneakers. That doesn't really make up for it being too wet to put on her Spider-man helmet and ride her Spider-man bike around the court. We do keep her well-rounded though, as she carries an Ironman backpack to pre-school. Yes, she picked out all of these things herself.
I guess I'm pretty lucky. My kids have glommed onto my interests and seem to genuinely like them. I know this is most likely temporary. Little girls grow up. They'll likely develop a taste for music I can't stand. With my luck, they'll become fascinated with TWILIGHT. But for now, I can enjoy coming home and hearing my girls ask if they can watch X-MEN EVOLUTION or HEATHCLIFF or any of the other shows I really like.
COMIX!!
It was one of those weeks at the shop in which there was absolutely nothing in my pull box. Happens about one a month since the great purge from my pull list. That doesn't mean I haven't been able to check out anything cool. EDUCATION OF A SUPERHERO by Adam Dechanel is launching next month. This one's going to be online and there's still some production stuff going on so I've been asked not to toss out a link quite yet. I did however get a preview of what's to come and I'm definitely digging it. The writing is solid and enjoyable. The art is really sharp. The main character, Julie Meyers, seems interesting. I only got a ten page preview but it sunk a decent hook and made me want to check out more. Dechanel might sound familiar to you. He's written quite a few things including some fun 'choose your own adventure' type stuff on the Superman Homepage. This'll be his first project out on his own, and its one that bears watching and deserves some support. I'll be back to drop the link when launch time hits.
MUSIC!!
Here's one for the ladies, and by ladies I mean my daughter for likes to dance around to her favorite song.
That's all from me for now. I'm going to go hunt down some nice, warm socks and brew some coffee. Catch y'all Wednesday.
Free at last! Its Friday, October 21, 2011, Happy Birthday, Mom, and this is The Side! I get a break from the demolition job today. Its not a bad job, but for some reason the area smells like burnt pumpkins. I don't really mind the smell, but I have no clue where its coming from and that's bugging me.
DOOM!!
We've got another apocalypse due today. The crazy old guy who predicted the end of stuff a few months ago revised his prediction and its supposed to go down today. If you're reading this, it hasn't happened yet.
Still hasn't happened.
Nothing yet.
....
Hm.
....
Still nothing.
Y'know. I think the crazy old guy might be wrong. Guess I better get that birthday card to my Mom.
Yeah, still nothing. Sorry, to anyone who was really hoping for the end of stuff. I know it would have made a lot of people happy. Them a lot of those whiny smellies down at Occupy Wall Street would get their wish and wouldn't have to pay back their student loans. Then again, the crazy old guy was predicting the Rapture, and with Christianity being so passé nowadays, those poor, put-upon, iPhone toting saps would probably be ticked off if they did get Raptured up.
Wouldn't that just suck. Imagine being some nice little old lady. You pass on, hopefully from something quick, easy, and completely uninteresting. You get up to Heaven and there's a bunch of hippies occupying the Pearly Gates claiming God is part of the 1%. They claim they're going to stay out there until there's a mass redistribution of halos and harps. St. Peter just sits there looking annoyed with his hand on the level to the trap door, pondering if he could just dump the whole lot of them, and wondering how Karl Marx could have inspired such things as he's pretty much sat around and done nothing his entire afterlife.
There's still plenty of folks thinking we're living in the end times. Some are hoping to see the big J.C. upon his return. Some might just want to see how it all ends. Plenty are hoping it involves zombies.
Truth is, plenty of people have thought and believed the same thing throughout history. Well, maybe not the zombie part. We're not going to figure out when the end times hit through math. It'll happen when it happens.
And it happening still hasn't happened yet as you're still reading this.
And we're off! Its Wednesday, October 19, 2011, demolition man be demolishing, and this is The Side. Been working in the same building trying to tear it down to the point where we cam fix it back up. Been over a week now. I'm starting to think we should have just used dynamite and started over.
FANDOM!!
After the terrible accident at the race this past weekend that claimed the life of a drive, we got to talking about being fans. Now, the fella who unfortunately passed away is not someone I had ever heard of before this happened. I don't follow racing. This guy was a former champion, and according to those who knew him and competed against him, was a pretty stand up guy. Lot of people liked him, and for those who did, I'm sorry for your loss.
In talking about him yesterday another racing death got brought up. That of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Now, speaking as I guy from Virginia, who grew up in Blackwater, among more than his fair share of country-type folk, I don't give a damn about that guy. He had a reputation of racing like jerk and playing hardball out on the track and that caught up with him. He wasn't a big champion, and there are plenty of drivers who won a lot more races than him. And yet, he's this major figure in the sport and near hillbilly sainthood. The story was the lead story on the front page of the local newspaper for three days, and one idiot on the radio claimed his spirit made the flowers in her garden bloom.
Now, in discussing Earnhardt I got to hear some real doozies of fandom. One person told my friend, "Yeah, I stopped watching NASCAR after my driver died." which he was referring to Earnhardt. This got the response, "Yeah, I stopped watching basketball after Magic Johnson retired." And I also heard about some joker who said he saw Earnhardt come around a corner and new that the guy was something special. Bullshit. he came around the corner of that track just like every other driver who came around the corner of that track. It wasn't like Michael Jordan jumping across the court for a dunk, or Randy Couture putting brakes on Vitor Belfort. Those were stand out performances. The guy who made the comment was just trying to pull the old 'I liked him before anyone else' card.
There are people who are fans of a sport, and there are those who are fans of people in a sport. It is kind of weird when you have someone who is a fan of an athlete but doesn't care about the sport at all. Its kinda like saying "I stopped reading comics after jack Kirby died". I do understand being sad when your favorite guy out there retires or unfortunately gets hurt. I just don't get giving up on something entirely just because one person is no longer there. Did that one person make the sport so much more entertaining that its just not the same without them there? And in the case I'm mainly talking about, and this is going to sound mean, but I'm a freaking redneck so I can say it, did that one guy drive fast and turn left in such a dramatic fashion that the others paled in comparison and the sport isn't the same without him?
I do respect those drivers. I certainly couldn't do what they do. Still, when you here some of those comments, its really easy to understand why people make fun of NASCAR fans. Its not all the fans of course, but like anything else its easy to go from fandom to fandumb.
MUSIC!!
Yep. Had to do it. Primus sucks.
That's it for me. Time to go demolish some more. See y'all Friday.
Yawn! Its Sunday, October 16, 2011, one of these days I'm going to feel rested after sleeping, and this is The Side. Its completely due to the amount of sleep. It seems I'm not capable of functioning as well on six hours of shut as I used to. Used to be I'd get maybe four hours of sleep and then its off and running, but I don't think I'll be able to pull that one off anymore.
Its kind of a drag because its not until the kids finally hit the sack that we can watch whatever we want on TV, or put in whatever movie we'd like to watch. Its also less often when the Missus is hanging out with neighbors making it so I can play whatever video games I like and have full carté blanch over the viewing choices.
It used to just be a choice of what I wanted to watch or do. Now, I've got to choose between that and sleep. Right now, it feels like I chose poorly.
COMIX!!
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #2 starts us off this go around. Last issue we got a dose of where Buffy Summers is with her life, and its pretty normal stuff. She's working as a waitress. She's got an apartment with a couple of fun roommates. She's got to worry about paying her student loans. She just got relate-able again. That's good, but the bad is on the horizon. Bodies are popping up all over town and the police are thinking our favorite blonde Slayer has something to do with it. Andrew Chambliss steps in as writer after a strong series start from Joss Whedon, and he doesn't miss a beat. He's right on top of the distinct dialogue that the Buffy-verse is known for. We got to see where these characters are with issue one, and issue two let's us know that there's stuff going on. We do get an answer as to where all the John and Jane Doe corpses are coming from and that answer leads us to a lot more questions. We don't get a ton of over-the-top slam-bang action, but we do get good solid storytelling that's fun and engaging. Highly recommended.
PILOT SEASON: CITY OF REFUGE #1 makes me feel like I've dropped into a story halfway through. Its very possible since this is the first time I spotted this book and its an issue 1, but it seems I may have missed a previous series. Still, its not hard to fill in the blanks. Something really bad has happened, and people have come to a secured city for safety. The people in the city all receive implants which eliminate the capacity for violence. How it does this isn't spelled out all that well, but it works on the brain and that's all we really need to know. This city has not had a violent crime in eleven years. Security forces receive injects that temporarily counteract the implants. The implants are believed to be causing health problems. People don't like having their minds messed with. This story reminds me a lot of the film EQUILIBRIUM with some of the themes. Unfortunately, the comparison ends there. While the film was stylish and featured a ton of suspense and amazing action scenes, this comic is pretty slow. Its tough because there's so much going on that it requires a lot of exposition, unfortunately it doesn't have much going on to balance that. Yes, there is a hostage scene, and an element of danger, but the way it plays out doesn't really 'pop'. Its not a bad book, but you'll have to be a patient reader to really get through it.
MUSIC!!
Jumping in the wayback machine to visit a Van Halen tune. I used to really love this song. I didn't know the Blue Angels used it in a video, so that was a pretty pleasant discovery.
That's all for me for today. Time for about half a pot of coffee. See y'all Wednesday.
Gotta go! Its Friday, October 14, 2011, I meant to have typed most of this up last night but i discovered MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE is now streamable on Netflix, and, well, you know, and this is The Side. I'm not even sure that "streamable" is a real word but spellcheck thinks it is, which is good enough for me even though it doesn't think "spellcheck" is a real word.
...
Great, now I'm confused.
COMIX!!
There's been a bit of a hitch with DC and their electronic distribution plans. This is referring to people being able to download and read comics on e-readers. I'm not into it because I guess I'm a bit old fashioned and prefer to hold an actual book in my hand. That's me though. There's plenty of people who love their readers and its been pretty helpful to college students. I'm not against them, but they just aren't for me.
Anyhow, it seems there's choices to be made as to which e-reader you get, and which one you distribute through. DC seems to have gone exclusive with Amazon, leaving Barnes and Nobles out in the cold. B&N aren't too happy about this.
Part of me is reminded of when Marvel went exclusive with Diamond, but this is really different. When Marvel did what they did, Comic Shops had to get in line with this. If you're a comic book shop, you better have Marvel Comics or you're not going to stay in business very long. Barnes and Nobles doesn't need DC Comics. They can pull all the DC books off their shelves and not take a significant financial hit. I understand that there was probably a good looking deal with Amazon on the table, and it looked like a good idea at the time. But, when you have major booksellers felling slighted at you and you're in the business of publishing, then you've got a problem on your hands.
The local Barnes and Nobles have a decent selection of graphic novels and trades. They've also begun carrying a decent selection of floppies as well. This was new since when I worked there years ago they had a policy against carrying the monthly floppies. You had this major bookstore expanding their policies about carrying comics, but now they aren't going to carry a major publisher. DC has handed Marvel an early Christmas present.
This is baffling to me. We were told that the entire point to their relaunch of everything was to gain new readers. They were going digital to gain new readers. It seems like every other week they do something that shuts a door on potential new readers. Fortunately for them, the sales are pretty strong on their relaunch still. This is also pretty good news for comic shops as they'll have less competition in a certain area for the time being.
MUSIC!!
This video is directed by Calvin Muusse, and isn't the official video for this song, but it absolutely should be. Beautiful work. Take something from it.
Alright, I'm out the door. Got some reviews lined up for Sunday. See y'all then.
WAK! Its Wednesday, October 12, 2011, time to talk some movies, and this is The Side. I hadn't planned on discussing this, but it just seemed like everything was steering me towards this topic. Happens a lot actually. Good thing about the world: there's no shortage of stuff to talk about.
MOVIES!!
I was talking with my buddy the other day about Batman movies. His son his the same age as my daughters. We've known each other since we were in diapers, and he knows that when it comes to superhero stuff, I'm a pretty good guy to direct questions to.
The issue was BATMAN RETURNS. It was on TV and his son perked up because it was Batman. He loves batman. He's already got his batman costume for Halloween this year. He got excited that there was a Batman movie on TV. I shot him an "uh-oh" look.
"Dude, that thing was gory." Yeah, the Tim Burton flicks aren't made for kids. My friend had to cut the viewing short when things got a little rough. He asked me about other Batman movies. We were teenagers when Warner Brother kicked off their franchise, and he's not as much of a movie buff as I am. I own the old 1989 BATMAN movie. He asked if they might be OK for his son, and I had to tell him "no". "I don't let the girls watch it."
None of the Batman live action movies are kid friendly, except the old Adam West flick. Many of the animated features aren't very appropriate either. I enjoy a lot of them. I do like the Tim Burton Batman movies, but I'm not going to let my kids watch them. It sucks. My girls see a Batman DVD. They recognize Batman. They like Batman, but they don't understand why they can't watch it. They've watched Batman on the SUPERFRIENDS cartoon. They like BATMAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES. They've seen an episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED which they saw batman fighting robots and being awesome. They love watching the Missus play LEGO BATMAN on the Wii. But the movies are taboo.
There's of course the flip side to this that there's all this stuff for the kids, and there's a definite market for Batman stuff for adults. Fine. I've got no qualms about keeping the Nolan films as far away from my kids as possible. It does irk me a little seeing merchandising for those movies, like toys, being aimed at kids. "Here's the toys for the movie you're not allowed to watch."
Not a fun position to be in when I'm asked what batman movies are appropriate for a little kid and my answer has to be "pretty much none of them".
Fortunately, my kids are happy enough little campers seeing cool stuff like THE AVENGERS trailer.
MUSIC!!
Music can inspire. Sometimes you just need the right song to put everything in place for you and get you out into the world ready to be awesome. This song's done that for me a few times.
Alrighty! Time for some more demolition and clean up. Been quite a week so far. See y'all Friday.
BRAINS! Its Sunday, October 9, 2011, I seem to be lacking them, and this is The Side. Been a busy week. Worked six day. Got the dojo back on track now that the Karate demo is over. Drew and inked a bunch of stuff. Found time to get my journalist on. I'm feeling a bit out of steam.
Fortunately, I don't run on steam. I run of caffeine, and possibly grease.
ONWARD!
COMIX!!
Only had one book waiting for me this week, but luckily for me it was THE WALKING DEAD #89. Last issue we left off with Nicholas, Spencer, and Olivia conspiring to remove Rick from leadership of the community. Nicholas it seems is off his nut because he doesn't just want Rick out of the leadership position, he wants Rick dead. Meanwhile, Rick is out with a scouting party checking out the surrounding area. So just when it looked like things were on a path to stability and safety, we find the most pressing problem isn't the dead. One thing has always set this book apart from other zombie comics in that those books were pretty much formulaic in that that they introduce the cast and then bump them off as the story progresses. Its about the zombies and how they get you. THE WALKING DEAD has always been about the people trying to survive in this world. As with the time the survivors were staying in the prison tension among the people boils over. What's actually pretty scary is how Rick handles things once everything's out in the open. We've been seeing Rick in his leadership position trying to do right by people and struggling with everything that's happened to his son. We get a glimpse here of the hard ass Rick Grimes who is the last person you want to mess with. The question is, will this quell the uprising, or just prove Nicholas's point?
The results for the BOOM! Studios Comic Book Straw poll were released. Sort of. For those who haven't heard about this, people voted by placing a pre-order of the comic for the person they chose. For the comic to actually be printed the pre-orders had to actually pass the 1500 mark and the top four actually did that with the others not making it, so they won't be printed.
Here's the results.
1. Barack Obama 2. Sarah Palin 3. Ron Paul 4. Michele Bachmann 5. Mitt Romney 6. Herman Cain 7. Newt Gingrich 8. Jon Huntsman 9. Rick Santorum 10. Rick Perry
I say the results were only sort of released, because they BOOM! hasn't released the actual numbers. I predicted Obama would win, and I was right. It was too early in the election process to do this. The Republicans Party has not chosen its candidate. So Obama may have only gotten 25 - 30% of the pre-orders and still won because the rest of the orders were split among nine other people.
I was surprise a bit that Sarah Palin came out on top of the Republican field, especially since she's not running. Still, she's popular, and there's an off chance some guys wanted that book hoping for a page of two from her pageant days. I'm not surprised that Rick Perry is at the bottom since this poll was announced before he entered the race. People may have made their decisions before he entered and got that big push a few weeks ago.
Ron Paul coming out on top of the Republican field for candidates actually running did surprise me a little, but shouldn't have. He's remained a consistent favorite for a lot of people. Bachmann doing well didn't surprise me either due to timing. She was doing very well at the time this was announced, but has since seriously declined. There's also the possible hotness factor that may have given Palin a bump. Keep in mind, I'm not saying they're in the positions they're in because of their looks. I'm saying some people will want a commemorative comic book of them because of it.
MUSIC!!
Its been a Zombie type of weekend. Lord knows, I've been shambling around the house like one.
Alrighty, its time for this guy to go brew him up a pot of coffee and take it easy a bit. The batteries need a recharge. See y'all Wednesday.
Yep, its Saturday, October 7, 2011, and I'm posting. I said yesterday that there'd be no Occupy Chesapeake, well I was a bit off as I got word of an Occupy Norfolk springing up. My journalistic gonads churned besieging me with a need to get my pasty ass down there. I heard they were congregating at the ball park, so as soon as I knocked off work I headed straight there.
Got to see the new light rail. Pretty spiffy.
I drove up to the parking lot scanning the area and muttering "here hippy hippy hippy", and I found them! Both of them! I was thinking this had to be the most anti-climatic thing ever, but they were there with their signs, so I figured I best go talk to them.
Turns out they were sitting there telling people where the actual protests were going on. They were using the parking lot at the ball park as kind of a home base. I happened across Chris, one of the event organizers. They were going to use the nearby park, but there was a problem with the permits, so the police told them they could use the parking lot. The headquarters consisted of a couple of ladies sitting in lawn chairs with signs.
Really? No "Hell no, we won't go?"
I talked with Chris, the two sign holding ladies and a two other people that were there. One of them was a young lady would attends the local community college She was there "for her generation", because she's not seeing much of a future for them the way things are going. I asked her what she wanted to see accomplished by this demonstration and what would be a sort of a 'mission accomplished' for her. She didn't really have an answer for me. I got the feeling from her that she didn't really know what to do about things, but felt a real need to do something.
I got more answers from Chris. This protest, unlike the mob up in new York, is working in careful coordination with the Norfolk Police Department. They are hoping to be an example of how this should be done properly. I swear, it seemed like he had read my post from yesterday and built his game plan on it. They are being very careful to do thing legally. He was also very clear as to what their message is, which I'll get to in a minute.
The two ladies were interesting. One was very concerned with trade inequities, as well as fairness with the taxes concerning that pesky 1% of the population that makes the most money. She said it would probably be fair if they paid 39% of their money in taxes. I'm sure they would greatly appreciate the tax cut. The other lady was a bit more fired up. She was upset at the thought of a CEO paying less in taxes than a bus driver. I guess she didn't do the research showing that's bullshit, or she had seen the reports and just didn't believe them. She voted for Obama last time around and was set on voting for him again.
Let it be known right now that I, as a proper and professional wanna-be journalist, was completely in control of myself and didn't laugh in her face and ask what flavor the Kool-Aid was.
Now, let's get into the four main points that they wanted to push with this dealio.
Getting the money out of politics. Really, there's no way to do this. Politicians need money to run their campaigns, and they get hefty amounts from companies. The real problem is the lobbyists. Those are the people whose jobs it is to look after company's interests, and that involves shmoozing the politicians and promising hefty donations. I'm all for this. Its one of the reasons I'm all for the Fair Tax. It would eliminate Lobbyists.
The government needs to be responsible for its spending. I think that's something everyone outside the beltway would like to see. Kinda shocked that the Obama fan would want to be involved with this.
Raising voter awareness. Like I said in my previous post, the real change is going to come from people going to the ballot box.
Getting back the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Such a good Conservative message surprised me. I have to wonder if this message is being echoed up in New York. It started to sound like a Tea Party Rally as far as the message, except for the class warfare bits that kept popping up.
They were all pretty upset about the state of things. I thinks they're focused completely on the wrong target, but there's one thing that did give me some hope. Aside from the Obama fangirl, the rest of the people there weren't in his camp. One guy was a Ron Paul supporter. The others were pretty much in a wait and see who's actually running in the election mode, which is completely understandable as its early in the process.
This is likely going to go better than the New York thing mainly because they aren't being idiots about this. They actually have a clear message and are looking to work inside the system to get that message out and make a change. Good for them. Now if they take some economics classes and get the facts as to what people actually pay in taxes, and quit listening to the idiotic talking points our Pop-Star-in-Chief keeps spewing they may get something really good going. They have completely legitimate reasons for being upset, they're just blaming the the wrong people for who's responsible for it. However, even with a sensible message and intentions, something like this does attract a kook element. There may also be unforeseen efforts by certain groups to try subvert the protest and turn it into something it isn't. The PETA national HQ is in Norfolk and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they tried to send out some of their minions to muddy the waters. Groups like PETA don't give a damn about your message just as long as they get theirs out there.
Ah well, as they go marching wherever they're going to go marching, this guy right here is heading out to work. No Saturday morning cartoons for me. See y'all tomorrow.
Hey guys. Its Friday, October, 7, 2011, I'm running behind, and this is The Side. Got to head out to work so let's jump right to it.
HIPPIES!!
I'm annoyed greatly at the occupy people. To be honest, I'm amazed that its lasted this long. I shouldn't be surprised because they seem like a dim bunch and it hasn't gotten through their heads that what they are doing isn't going to make much of a difference in anything.
At first I wasn't really bothered by it, it was just amusing. One thing set me off though. It was those dopes saying that they represent the 99% of people who aren't the top income earners. I'm not part of that 1% of top income earners, and those shmucks out there do not represent me. First off, unlike them, I tend to bathe regularly. Second, I understand the fact that the top 1% of income earners pay 40% of the total revenue taken in by the income tax, so the moronic statement that they aren't paying their "fair share" irks me in its ignorance.
Some of them are there for reasons that I can get behind. Some are not happy about the government bail outs of certain companies. Others think that there should be an investigation/audit of the Federal Reserve. However, a lot of this gets lost due to lack of cohesion. Basically, you have a bunch of people who are ticked off and they said we're all going to show up somewhere are everyone can join us. Well, then a bunch of people who were ticked off for other reasons. So then you have a bunch of ticked off people with no clear message. That makes it pretty easy for clowns like the Moveon.org people or the Labor Union goons to come in and try to subvert whatever they're doing and make it all about their message.
I really got ticked off over the Brooklyn Bridge stunt when a bunch of them decided they were going to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. About 700 of them got arrested. Good. Throw the book at them. You can't just block off a public bridge because you want to. Emergency personnel may need to cross and seconds may mean a life. When that story broke I completely washed my hands of this.
There's been a lot of comparisons with things like the Arab Spring and tea party movement. Both are bullshit. The uprisings and protests in the Middle East were people dealing with Governments in which they didn't have much of a say. They were left with no other option than to take to the streets. That's also unlike the Tea Party Movement in which people took to the streets for legal and planned rallies. Their message of lower taxes and smaller government was clear. They worked within the system and used the ballot box to effect a change. That's why America is a great country. Despite what some of those occupy people will tell you, your vote does matter. This is still a Representative Republic and you can contact those that are elected to represent you.
Its easy to get ticked off at rich people. Jealousy is a power emotion. It doesn't help at all that our current President includes class warfare crap just about every time he opens his mouth in front of a microphone nowadays. The Pop-Star-in-Chief doesn't understand economics, which has shown greatly over his Presidency, and now he's in campaign mode and looking to fire up people to vote for him again. Folks should be occupying the beltway. So, while there's some of the Occupy people that have a good reason to be upset, the majority are suckers that have been played.
All of them are doing it wrong anyways. Their shenanigans will do nothing but provide some revenue for the cities they're in once the fines get handed down from the courts. If they were smart, they'd go home. Get organized. Get a cohesive message that is actually intelligent and not just "we hates rich peoples", and then use the tools they have been using to gather people in one place to be useless and smelly, to use the system that is in place to effect a meaningful and lasting change.
But I doubt they will. That's fine. Doesn't affect me anyways, since no one's going to "occupy" Chesapeake. I just want them to stop lumping me in with them just because I'm not one of the top money makers in the country. I'm not them.
MUSIC!!
Might as well have some complaint rock.
That's it for me today. Comic book type stuff coming up Sunday. see y'all then.
Howdy! Its Wednesday, October 5, 2011, I really wish I didn't have to sleep, and this is The Side. I've got about two dozen things I'd love to be writing and drawing right now. I can't skip work, obviously. Can't do too much when the kids are awake. It would be nice if I could spend the hours that everyone's asleep to work on all the creative projects I want to. I'd try it, but I fear the amount of caffeine it would require for me to function would kill me.
And I can't go dying! There's too much to do!
COMIX!!
With the big stink around some of the stuff DC put out in the reboot, DC had to respond, and respond they did. This brings us to ratings systems and responsible parenting. I'm a big fan of ratings systems because the alternative is nasty things like censorship, and nobody wants that. The comics industry has been very good about posting their ratings right on the covers. If something is meant for mature readers there's no question about that because we're told so up front.
Back when I was a kid we had the Comics Code Authority which had some pretty strict guidelines and, for the most part, the major publishers complied to it with most of their books. There are many who think the code was some terrible thing and it hindered artistic expression, but when a parent saw a kid reading a comic with the code stamp on it they had a bit of reassurance that there wouldn't be anything like say Catwoman giving Batman the full cowgirl on a rooftop. My folks never looked through the comic they got me. When I got an issue of DETECTIVE COMICS in the mail I could sit down and read it without my mom or dad looking through it first.
The first time my father looked through anything I purchased was a comic magazine which I believe was called "Comic Things" which talked about comic book stuff. It was like WIZARD but, y'know, fun and good. He picked it up when I brought it home and gave it a quick flip through. Nothing objectionable was in there, so no problem. This is what's known as good parenting. Your kid brings home something new that you're not familiar with, then you need to get familiar with it.
So why didn't they look through my comics? Pretty simple. DC and Marvel were names they trusted to publish material that they were comfortable with me being exposed to. Now, its decades later, and I'm the parent. I'm the guy at Comic Kings trying to recommend a book to my friend's wife for their kid to read because he likes superheroes. Looking through the main rack away from the kids area I only spotted one title that I felt comfortable recommending to the kid, who was about the same age I was when I started reading comics. Not very comfortable.
DC has a point. If you have a problem with their books then you shouldn't let your kid read them. But something that is pretty sad is that they have lost the trust of responsible parents whose kids love DC's characters and want to read their books. They seem to have no problem with this. The Starfire controversy isn't just about portraying a particular character as an alien sex-being. Its about portraying that character as such when very recently she was portrayed as an adorable wholesome character. Its creepy.
DC's not going to change what they're doing. All their eggs are in one basket now and they're fully committed to what they're doing. I'm very sad that I can't let my kids read the comics that feature characters they like, but its been that way for a while now. I do greatly enjoy some comics out there that are directed at mature readers, but the balance has shifted in the audience. We've gone from the majority of comic being things that people of all ages could enjoy, to the majority of comics being things not suitable for little kids to read.
There's still some really great kids comics out there, and they're worth finding, especially if you have a little reader in the house. However, as for the DC's new "52", the message is clear, kids aren't the target audience and you should keep the books out of their hands.
MUSIC!!
Nice little tune. I always thought what they did with the video was really, really clever.
Brick not hit back. Its Sunday, October 2. 2011, my hand is a little sore, and this is The Side. Our annual karate demo went very well. I possibly may be getting some new students out of it which is kind of the point. Well, mostly we do the show to have fun and show off, but its pretty much the only real advertising we do all year aside from word of mouth. That and it livens up the annual church bazaar a bit.
This year we added in a bit a brick breaking. One of my students had some patio pavers that he wanted to get rid off. Seems about one in about every six of them are pretty damn stubborn, and sure enough it was the one I got on my stack. I blasted the thing twice and it wouldn't go. It does kind of work out though as that was the only unsuccessful break. It shows that it is a difficult thing to do, which it is. Fortunately I smashed the other brick fairly convincingly, and we've got that on tape.
Words of wisdom for martial artists: if you're going to break bricks, make sure you get some form of photographic evidence. That way, you never have to do it again.
COMIX!!
Let's start off with ANGEL ND FAITH #2. Angel's on a mission to resurrect Rupert Giles and Faith is hoping to keep him from going off the the rails. Resurrection in the "Buffy-verse" nearly never goes well. Typically you end up with a zombie. So, bringing Giles back, especially in a world without magic is a pretty talk order. It does look like our favorite vampire with a massive forehead has a plan to pull it off, and its actually got a shot. Lurking in the wings however are Nash and Pearl who worked with Angel during his "Twilight" possession. This issue works very well. Issue one let us know who the players are and bridged us over from BUFFY SEASON 8. Here we see exactly where everyone is on the chessboard and get a good glimpse at what the plan is. It plays off a very good episode from ANGEL season 1, so we have good link back to the old TV show. Where the book shines is how well it handles Faith. There's been two people that have really looked out for her on her road to redemption and one of them is trying to bring the other back to life. She knows its nuts and probably a really bad idea, but she's in it because she's got Angel's back and what if there's an off chance he can pull it off. Very good stuff.
RED KNIGHT #2 hit this week. I'm torn on it. Justin Cristelli has set up an interesting story. We have a vigilante operating in Norfolk. Norfolk is a bit of an underworld hub city here in that its where to go for super villains to lay low or to get their ducks in a row before moving on. It pretty well written. My gripe is the art, and I hate griping about art. JC Grande isn't afraid to go after tough shots, interesting page layouts, and varying camera angles. In fact, he handles it like a boss. The big problem is lack of grays. He doesn't vary his line weight and and there's no grayscale at all. It makes everything sit on the page and the only time something really jumps out is when there's something black on it. It makes me have to work at what i need to be looking it as opposed to having my eye naturally drawn there. He's obviously not afraid to detail out a page, which is impressive, so I fully believe that once he gets his grey on the pages will be really eye-popping. So, pretty good stuff and worth checking out, but still has room for improvement.
MUSIC!!
Yes, its true I hardly ever put a hip-hop song in my music section. This is because I can't get behind what the majority of hip-hop songs are talking about. Note I said "majority" and not "totality".
That's it for me today. I think its time for some Advil, coffee, and SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS on Netflix. See y'all Wednesday.
BAZINGA! Its Friday, September 30, 2011, I'm in a hot dense state, and this is The Side. I'm currently still attempting to get my bathroom in proper working order. It seems properly sweating a fitting that's attached to a horizontal pipe is impossible if you're me. For a guy who fixes stuff all the time at work, one would think I could fix stuff in my own house.
It would seem that one would be wrong.
NERDS!!
OK, I'm getting my rant on, so hang on to your socks. See that image there? That is from a webcomic that I'm a big fan of called OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS. The premise is simple. The guy who does the comic works in a comic shop and he does little comics of some of the customers and the stuff that spews from their faces. Now, this particular cartoon is just amazing in that someone actually said that. Someone actually uttered that insane statement. What's even more crazy was the comments that were agreeing with the loon that said it!
For those who don't know, "black face" was when white performers were made up to "look black" for shows, and pretty much played up a bunch of stereotypes. We are talking as racist as the day is long here. So black face is racist, and with the allegation in this cartoon, from the guy saying it and those agreeing him, is it possible doing something against a nerd is somehow racist?
Its really enough to make your head explode sometimes.
OF COURSE IT ISN'T RACIST!! Nerds aren't a race! They aren't even a culture. Our definition of a nerd has changed over the years. Its borderline subjective. I'm a nerd. I've read comic books since I was three. Given a chance I'll play video games and watch cartoons all the live long day. I can interject Batman into damn near any conversation I have. I didn't get that way by birth, unless there's nerd DNA that we haven't discovered yet. It has nothing to do with where I was born. Its my hobbies. That's it. Somehow, society has decreed that my hobbies have branded me a nerd. Actually, its not so much society, as it is my peers when I was a kid. A person who is a nerd made a choice somewhere in their life to pursue a particular interest that his or her peers deemed nerdy. They can also stop pursuing that interest. A person can not just take up an ethnicity no matter how much some people try.
And these people are ticked at THE BIG BANG THEORY? Really? Have they never watched television ever or am I just that freaking old? They think that show is "nerd racism"? How about HEAD OF THE CLASS? That's right, I'm going back about 25 years for this one. Let's look at the king nerd on that show: Arvid. Rocks a pocket protector and big ol' thick framed glasses. Skinny dude who was good at math and science. Couldn't get a hooker if he was waving hundred dollar bills. This guy had zero social skills, but he was smart. Sure he was made fun of in nearly every episode, but that was wrong and we all had to learn to accept each other for what makes us special. Thank God Howard Hesseman and Billy Connolly were there or that show would have been damn near unwatchable.
And let's not stop there, how about some SAVED BY THE BELL. Remember Screech? Y'know, before the sex tape. He was everyone's pal all the while they made fun of him every time he opened his mouth. The girl he liked treated him like dirt. His best friend treated him like a flunky. There was the near endless name calling by the cooler kids. Still, there he was. Lovable old Screech, there for people to step on until they needed him or it was an episode in which the moral of the story involved being nice to nerds.
Now let's contrast those characters against the king nerd of THE BIG BANG THEORY: Sheldon Cooper. He holds two doctorates, and is likely the smartest person in any room he walks into. He's eccentric, not caring much for the social hoops we all jump through. His confidence and manner has attracted numerous women to him, and had he an interest in it, he'd be laying pipe like a master plumber. He's uncompromising in his beliefs and will argue you into the ground if you have the slightest intellectual chink in your armor. He's also lived in the Arctic for three months performing an experiment, which is actually pretty bad ass. Yes, he enjoys his comics and sci-fi. If he's the new face of a what a nerd is, then we've come a long way.
And there was a comment that the cast of the show was at Comic-con and got boos from the crowd when they didn't know what a Tardis was. Let's just assume that's true, because I don't feel like hunting down proof. People are upset that actors are acting? "They're playing nerds on TV! How can they not be nerds in real life?!" That's completely stupid. That's like being pissed off because Chris Hemsworth doesn't really have a magic hammer that can call down lightning.Its pretty good acting too since Jim Parson's has received two Emmies for playing Sheldon Cooper.
So for those who are ticked that THE BIG BANG THEORY isn't showing nerds in a more favorable light, shove it. That show depicts nerds completely awesome in comparison with damn near every other sit-com ever. And for those who are even attempting to equate treatment of nerds with racism, I want to hit you in the face with brick. It may or may not knock any sense into you, but I'll feel a hell of a lot better. Grow up and get some perspective, you idiots.
End rant. And I'm going to watch that show as soon as I get home from work today.
MUSIC!!
Kickin' it L 7 style.
That's it for me today. Doing a Karate Demo at the Church's annual Bazaar, in which I've bribed people with buying them homemade ice cream. The show should last about 20 minutes. See, if it was store bought it would only last 5. You can get a lot more from people with homemade.
Boom-chika-boom! Its Wednesday, September 28, 2011, sex sells, unless you're kinda nasty looking and need a bath, then you're going to have a hard time finding a buyer, and this is The Side. Yeah, when I don't put my thoughts about comics on the website I do comic reviews for due to not wanting to possibly dent business, then there's something really wrong. Of course it might even get a little sales bump considering there some folks who would buy the issues in question curious as to whether or not things are as rotten as I make them out to be.
They are.
COMIX!!
Yep, more stuff coming out of the DC reboot that's getting some buzz, and not very good buzz. It seems some of the writers are a bit confused as to how to portray women who are confident in their sexuality without making them out to be Slutty McSlutsluts. This got kicked up due to RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 and CATWOMAN #1. I wasn't expecting much form the Red Hood book as it looked like they just threw three characters together and are trying to make a go of it. I do raise an eyebrow about Catwoman. She's the modern superhero genre's first femme fatale. The character is important. She's strong, independent, and sexy. Yes, she's a 'bad guy', but that just makes her relationship with Batman that much more interesting.
When they ended CATWOMAN #1 with a sex scene like something I would expect from bad fan art, I could only shake my head. Judd Winick is known for including quite a bit of sex in his comics. THE OUTSIDERS had someone hopping into the sack with someone nearly every issue. There's nothing wrong with sex in a superhero comic, but there's a certain way to handle it.
Before the reboot, it was obvious that there was a sexual relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. In BATMAN INCORPORATED #1 there a scene in a luxury hotel in which they get a little downtime, and its obvious that the two of them have a little fun, but its not blatantly shown. It wasn't in your face. A good writer knows when to let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks. That scene was sexy without being smutty. Yes, there was Selina wearing her unmentionables and a pair of boots with a bottle of champagne. This was after the same issue showed her and Batman team up to take on a bunch of goons and a giant robot. The tone had already been set that this book is about the awesome. Conversely, CATWOMAN's tone seems to be about sex. The opening pages don't even show her face. They focus more on sexualizing the character with images of her not quite dressed so the first thing you know about this character upon opening the comic is that she wears a red bra under her costume.
The mockery has already begun in earnest. There's also been a little flap about the comic catering to the "lowest comic denominator", and I wouldn't go that far, but even though I'm not purchasing the DC reboot, I expected them to have some higher standards as to what gets on the page. I seriously doubt that when the guys making this book were putting it together they were thinking to themselves about how to best portray an attractive female who is strong, confident, and comfortable with her sexuality.
But that was the theme last week, as RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 didn't do much to win over certain demographics. There was a very powerful piece which I have to link to a screen capture of because Felicia Day caught sight of it, and when she tells people to check something out online, that something had better have some damn good servers. Kids still read comics. Kids care about these characters. Kids grow up and buy things. DC wanted new readers, but it seems they only wanted new readers 18 and up. At first I thought the issue with Starfire was just a shame and a waste of a character. I hadn't even factored in all the kids who loved her on the old TEEN TITANS cartoon show and heard that their favorite superhero is in a new comic. The discussion in that piece I linked to is powerful stuff, and I highly suggest reading it.
Just when i thought the reboot might now be so bad DC keeps letting me know they aren't interested in my business.
MUSIC!!
Its attack of the super group, because something in this post should be about something super.
That's it for me. Time to make the doughnuts! See y'all Friday.
Its Sunday, September 25, 2011, I'm going to lay some pipe, and this is The Side. Had a plumbing problem in the Nozz Compound involving minor flooding. I managed to stop the problem, but now I have to attempt to make the bathroom fully functional again. This is stretching the limits of my plumbing ability. Frankly, all I really know about plumbing is that shit rolls downhill and quitting time is five o'clock.
But before I possibly make a bad situation worse, let's see what's going on with things.
INTERNET!!
This has been a busy week in social media. Facebook is making a bunch of changes, which don't affect me because I'm not on Facebook. A lot of the changes have already started rolling out. The users aren't too pleased about it, but there may be a bit of resisting change for the sake of resisting change in play.
Phillip DeFranco gave a pretty thorough rundown of what users are in store for with the new Facebook.
Now to me, this all sounds horrendous. It just sounds like one big confusing mess. However, the focus still seems to be on what Facebook's main goal has always been: putting information about yourself out there to share with people. Also, looking at the screen shots of what's in store and having seen what the pages look like now, it just looks too jumbled. There's a lot going on here. Whether its too much or not remains to be seen.
The timing is also very interesting in that Google+ went public this week. Its still in beta testing mode, but its fully functional. Its neat and clean. The focus is on sharing information and discussion. Whether or not that information is personal or news stories, or just fun bits from the web depends on the user. They also have games now and that's in its own little section so you don't have a bunch of game notifications clogging up your streams.
There's been a lot of people I've seen on G+ who also have Facebook accounts noting that since G+ came into existence that Facebook has been tweeking things in a way that seemed like they were trying to mimic G+. Mark Zuckerberg does indeed have a G+ account so he knows exactly what G+ has to offer. Whether the allegations of ripping off G+ have any meat to them is anyone's guess at this point.
I've made my call as to which site I'm going to be on. I don't think that many people who casually use social media are going to use both. That said, we'll see what happens. Is Facebook going to get turned into MySpace, or will Google+ not catch on like many people think it will?
That asked, I'm going to get ready to see the results of this month's G+ grand Prix championship.
COMIX!!
THE RED WING #3 was on the stands this week. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra continue their time travel story with some new wrinkles to things. This continues to be an idea driven story as opposed to a character driven one. Time travel is based upon ascending vibrations, and considering time as a stacked model. Time lines are vertical. But we have have people diving backwards through time and doing things. As opposed to many other time travel stories, altering things in the past has no affect on the present. It merely creates an alternate time stack. We learn here that it is also possible to move horizontally through the stacks, which is the equivalent here of moving through parallel dimensions. This is not he only idea in play here, as we are also dealing with the condition of the present and whose fault that is. So, in the "present" (which is the future relative to us) Dom, Val, and Maye are pilots dealing with an attack from a foe which is still very loosely defined. Meanwhile Dom's father is the prisoner of Dom from possibly "the future" or possibly a different "present". prisoner taking Dom seems to have thrown in with and is leading the enemy that pilot Dom is facing with Val and Maye. He's also ready to blame the present on the past, which is a big issue here. The enemy forces seem to be pillaging and destroying various points in the past, and taking whatever they can. It seems their motivation is 'our parents didn't do right to make the present good so we'll go back and take whatever we can to make the present good, and screw the past because its their fault the present sucks'. This proves my long standing believe that whiny, self-centered jerks shouldn't have time travel technology. We're on issue 3 of 4 and I've got no clue how Hickman is going to wrap this thing up in only one more issue. I can't recommend this title for everyone because it seems like you need to be a theoretical physicist to keep this thing straight. Dealing with time travel issues is tricky enough, but over-laying parallel dimension theory with such an odd turn on time travel theory is about enough to cook a few brain cells. Its definitely different, so if you like different, and enjoy having your brain kicked sideways, give it a read.
MUSIC!!
There's cool, then there's cool, and then there's Chris Isaak.
What? Did you think I was going to post that "I want to fall in love" song? That ain't happening. That's it for me for today. I've got a hot date with blow torch. Got to sweat a nipple onto a pipe. Technical jargon can sound kinda dirty sometimes. If i don't burn the house down, I'll see y'all Wednesday.
I feel thuper! Its Friday, September 23, 2011, thanks for asking, and this is The Side. Spent some quality time under a house fixing insulation that wasn't installed properly by another contractor on a house that's suppose to close today. Time crunch, couldn't get the person who did the original work in time, under I go.
Its unpleasant to work with that stuff. The fiberglass insulation itches something fierce. Being the crawl space isn't fun and even if you don't have claustrophobia, being down there is nearly enough to make you want to start. But the job is done, and while it was pretty unpleasant I can't really complain because first off I was working and right now, working is a very good thing.
Also it being a vacant house with newly renovated bathrooms and nice showers to choose from after the ordeal was a bit of luxury.
COMIX!!
The DC reboot is in full swing. The new #1 issues are steadily rolling out. I haven't been buying any of them, but a few have ended up in my pull box. Joey at Comic Kings has been very happy when I told him I didn't want them, as he had a serious run of people who came in at the last minute asking for the books. You can't pre-order books a week in advance. If you didn't know that before, you do now. So even with ordering a lot of extra books, he's still a little short. Seems that people will still show up for first issues. The real question is, will they show up for subsequent issues.
There's been a lot of talk about diversity with the characters. Its not just white guys on parade anymore. Although there's still a bit of fanboyism that's in the way. Hal Jordan is still Green Lantern, even though John Stewart has a strong following thanks to the old JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED cartoon. If DC wanted to really impress me with their push for diversity they'd have made John the main Green Lantern. It might almost make up their their notion that diversity is good unless we're talking about paraplegic women.
We do have new gay heroes too! That should be good, but when I hear people talking about Bunker, I'm having my doubts. I have no problems with gay characters. Greg Rucka created some really great ones. The thing that has me worried is reading Brett Booth tweet that:
We’re trying to make being gay a part of who he is, your gaydar should be pinged right off the bat:)
OK, that's a pretty poorly phrased statement. Your sexuality is a part of who you are. Its not difficult to make being gay a part of who a character is. If that character is romantically attracted to other characters of his or her same gender, then they are pretty much gay. Now, what I'm really, really, REALLY hoping that he doesn't mean that being gay is going to be this characters defining characteristic. This is partly due to this character being on the Teen Titans and defining teenage characters by their sexuality just isn't a good idea. Moreso, defining any character by their sexuality is a bad idea. Is Bunker's (Whose dumb idea was that name? Why don't you just set the ball on the tee?) main motivation for everything he does going to center around him being gay?
I'm not saying that having an openly gay character is a bad idea. I'm not saying that having an openly gay character in the Teen Titans is a bad idea. In fact, its a great idea because it opens the door to having great stories addressing issues of prejudice. Much like Chris Claremont's 80's UNCANNY X-MEN run used the genre to look at prejudice. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that we're going to have the same thoughtful and nuanced approach to the issue here. When I think of a character like Tommy Jagger, who was gay, I don't just think "Oh, he's gay." No, I think about what a great character he was and how much I could relate to him. I looked forward to reading comics with him in them. He wasn't there to be in my face to make me think about diversity, but the way the entire Rucka CHECKMATE series was written you accepted diversity because everyone brought something awesome to the table.
So the question is: Will Bunker bring something to the table that fans and readers can appreciate, or will he be there to pander to one group of people for the sake of being "diverse"? I'm really hoping its the former, but unfortunately I'm having serious doubts.
MUSIC!!
Because gay dudes are hardcore, yo!
That's all for me today. Looks like its going to be a soggy weekend again, but I'll still see y'all Sunday.
To the Bat-pole! Its Wednesday, September 21, 2011, good-bye Summer, and this is The Side! Months ago I walked into a Chik-fil-a and was asked for my name to go with my order. That's happening more and more in quick service type places. So I gave my name as "Bruce Wayne", because I could. I figured I'd just cycle through the Justice League secret identities for a while.
But the next time I went into that store I got a "Hey, its Bruce Wayne!" Now I'm known as Bruce Wayne there. Let that be a lesson for you people. If you're going to pick a fake name, you need to be ready to commit to it.
One of my Karate students tried going into that Chik-fil-a and claimed his name was "Bruce Wayne". They just looked at him and said "You're not Bruce Wayne."
Damn right. BECAUSE I'M BRUCE WAYNE!!
POLITICS
I was accused of spreading hate speech over the weekend. What did I do to receive such an accusation? I made fun of Al Gore. Now, you're probably thinking that those must have been some really brutal jokes to be called hate speech. Actually, they weren't. I mentioned that for someone who is so concerned with the environment its funny that his house uses more power than about thirty other houses in his state. I also said that the private jet he flies around in must run on fairy dust. I also said its pretty funny that he's such a proponent of buying "carbon credits" to offset energy usage, and he owns the company that sells carbon credits. I pointed out the truth. That was hate speech.
At least, it was considered hate speech by one moron who was an Al Gore supporter, and couldn't come up with an effective counterpoint. I informed him that you can't call something "hate speech" simply because you don't agree with it. He insisted I was still spreading hate speech. I told him to specifically point out where I had spewed the alleged hate speech. That ended things because he couldn't. It would be a whole other matter if I had started slinging slurs about his ethnicity or religion. I didn't. I pointed out his hypocrisy which is a matter of public record.
This is intellectual bullying, which is a funny thing to call it because it requires the mental capacity and debate skills of a ten year old. If you can't defeat the argument, you must vilify the person making it. The goal is to make the person making the point out to be a bad person and therefore turn opinion against their the point. If Hitler told you it was a nice day, your gut reaction would be to disagree because he's a bad person.
This is an old game in political topics. How many times have you heard that talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity were racist and spread hate speech? There are people who have actually taken these claims at face value. I listen to a lot of talk radio because I spend quite a bit of time driving around. I've never heard either of these people say anything racist. The hate speech allegation is the same as the one was levied against me this weekend. There are people who don't want to hear what they have to say and cannot come up with an effective counterpoint, so they try to vilify them.
A high school kid was told he was racist by another student because he thought that Barack Obama wasn't a very good President. The student said calmly and intelligently that he disagreed with the President's policies. Still he was called a 'racist'. I don't like the President's policies. I think he's wanting to take the country in the wrong direction. I'm looking forward to voting against him and hopefully getting him out of office next year. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with skin color. You can call me a racist for stating any of it, but that only makes you intellectually inferior and a flat out liar.
I've seen hate. Its nasty. There are things that I do hate, but there's a whole lot of justification for it. I don't hate people for simply having a different opinion than me. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, although not their own facts, but that's a rant for another time.
MUSIC!!
This hater is gonna hate!!
Don't hate me because I have to go! See y'all Friday!
That's right, we're not done with her yet. Its Sunday, September 18, 2011, and because you expect it, this is The Side. It rained nearly all day yesterday, which was kind of nice. It brought the current battle to a bit of a halt. Seems a hive of yellowjackets or hornets or something has got themselves a bit of nest next to the front porch and underground. I hit them with multiple cans of horrible chemicals but time is going to tell me with worked. One of the little bastards already stung the Missus. That affront shall not stand.
EXPECTATIONS
Its hard to go into anything without expectations. When you're telling stories you have to decide whether its going to be better to meet the expectations of an audience or surprise them. There's benefits to both options, but if you do nothing but meet expectations things are going to get boring and stale. You run the risk of losing the audience. I'm not talking about quality. If you have a reputation of doing quality work, that's an expectation that you're going to want to try to achieve every time. I'm talking about the type of work that you do. You can't just plug stuff into the same formula over and over and over. You don't grow that way.
Since its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, she's going to be our example. When we think of her there's one role that she played that springs to mind: Buffy Summers. Its easy to equate the two. She wasn't the first actress to play the role, but she played it for seven seasons on television. The show was the premier show of a network and spawned a spin off. It had legions of fans. She won awards for the role, and received a ton of nominations for other awards. We equate the actress with the role and vice versa. When you envision Buffy Summers she looks like Gellar. When you think of Gellar in a role, you expect someone tough, funny, and heroic. Not too shabby for an actor.
She then proceeded to deliver the goods to the fans of her show, but she player smart and branched out a bit. She got noticed for many different reasons for the movie CRUEL INTENTIONS. Most notably she had a steam on screen kiss with another actress, Selma Blair. I don't make the claim that that's the most notable thing about that role because I'm a big old perv who likes watching hot girls kiss. That kiss won an MTV movie award. It surprised people a bit, and folks took notice. She won best female performance at the same awards show and was nominated for "best villain". Gellar played against type here. The role called for her to be manipulative and overtly sexual. These are two traits you don't think of when you think about Buffy Summers. She pulled the role off masterfully. If you went into that movie expecting to see the same role from her as she played on TV, then you were in for a surprise and, probably, a bit of a shock.
What she was doing there was showing range. It was a different role, with different challenges to it. By meeting those challenges, she helped herself avoid being typecast.
The fact that she drastically changed genres worked for her advantage. Nobody expected her to kick an undead creature in CRUEL INTENTIONS. However, other movies she made were in the horror genre, and she was rather forgettable in them. In the movie I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER she was second fiddle to Jennifer Love Hewitt playing "hot girl in the movie who will eventually die horribly". Even worst was SCREAM 2 in which she played "random sorority person who dies horribly". I watched both these movies, and was sitting in the theater expecting her character to kick a bit of butt. I was placing the expectations I had of Buffy onto these characters. That's not to say that all of the horror movies she started in were suddenly equated to Buffy expectations. After the TV show had wrapped, her next role was in THE GRUDGE which was a horror/suspense piece but the tone and performance was so very different that she managed to put away the expectations we had of her and move on.
She's also been smart enough to do a couple of movies aimed at much younger audiences with the SCOOBY-DOO movies. I'm not going to sit here and rave about these as I skipped them entirely. I'm not a huge Scooby-Doo fan aside from the shows first season. But again, she branched out a little bit playing to a different audience. This audience wouldn't know her as Buffy, although their parents probably would. Again, she played a character in a supernatural adventure piece, and she played it to the fans not only of the old cartoon show, but from the previews the character had a few martial arts moves as a nod to her role as Buffy Summers. This is using the audience's expections to give them a wink. It acknowledges the expectations even if its not playing totally to them.
Its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, not because of the weird dream I had a few nights ago in which I was married to her, but because of her new TV show, RINGER, which debuted this week, and I previously reviewed. The actress is returning to television after the birth of her daughter to a show on the network that made her a huge star. Expectations were already in place from the first advertisements. The thing is that we couldn't be exactly sure what to expect because with the nature of the show and the events of the premier episode the network, wisely, didn't want to give too much away. I did go in with expectations, however my expectations didn't include her shoving pieces of wood through the bumpy-faced undead and delivering kung-fu kicks. I expected her to turn in a good performance and be watchable in the role. She did that times two with her portraying very different twin sisters.
I approach expectations as a writer. I'm no actor. I'm a ham with a lot of cheese, but no actor. But the type of expectation that an audience has of me as a writer and cartoonist are the same as type of expectations that they have of an actor. We're both there to try to deliver a, hopefully, good and memorably story/performance. Both walk a fine line of trying to give people what they want, and try to give them something they wouldn't expect from us, but will still like.
I'm struggling with it, but it looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar's got it all figured out.
MUSIC!!
What would you do for a girl like SMG... aside blog about her for a week?
That's it for me today. I've actually had the weekend off and have been enjoying a bit of recuperation time. I'm going to be getting back to that and I'll see y'all Wednesday.
I originally wanted to review the new ABC show ONCE UPON A TIME. I've seen a bunch of ads for it. It looked like a lot of fun. I'm a fan of FABLES and this show was going to have the same type of thing going on with fairy tale folks living in the real world, but without all the song and dance numbers that we'd expect from anything associated with Disney. There's just one problem in that I missed most of the show. This was the combo platter of mom's birthday and getting the kids to bed, so I can't go shaking my fists at the sky or anything like that. It was a good day.
