Thursday, August 28, 2008

Getting Leverage

I had heard of this project from John Rogers' blog and wondered if it would be worth checking out. I enjoyed his work on The Core, Eureka, the unaired Global Frequency pilot, and several comic book projects so I hoped there would be something cool to draw me in. Well, this preview has pretty much done that.

At the very least, I'll try the pilot out and see how it plays. Timothy Hutton's not a bad catch, and Christian Kane appeals to the ol' Angel fan in me, so fingers crossed on this one.

mike

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Giving 52 Another Shot

Among the million and one other things I'm reading lately, I've decided to pick up the trade collections of DC Comics' 52 series from my local library. I never finished the series initially, only getting to #20 or #22 before giving up on the whole thing, but something about not having read it to the end bugs me. It may be because I'm a huge Keith Giffen fan and his breakdowns were pivotal to bringing the whole thing in on schedule, or possibly it's wanting to just get it out of the way once and for all. It is comic book history, after all (at least American comics, anyways) as a lover of the art form, I try to keep up with these sorts of things.

Hell, maybe I just want to finish it because so much of the DCU right now comes directly out of the events of 52 and it's sister book, Countdown. I read a couple of DC books every month and I gotta say, I do get a little confused sometimes. Like someone who has missed an episode or two of their favourite show and catches up with those "Previously on..." montages at the beginning of the show.

Anyway, what I'm discovering is that, experiencing it away from all the hype and hullabaloo, this is a pretty good story so far. Granted, I'm only on Week 5 right now, but the pacing is solid, the characters engaging, the mystery satisfyingly opaque, and there is real gravity to the stuff. I know I'm going to get a little disappointed once they spend some significant time in space (I wasn't a big fan of that part the first time around) but I'm sure there will be other things to keep my interest (I hope, anyway).

More than anything, I'm surprised (and pleased) that a corporate event comic is keeping me entertained. I recently re-read Civil War as part of my Captain America experience, and let me just say that I was sure happy when that ended and I could get back to just reading the core Cap book again. I sort of gave up on Secret Invasion 3 issues in, too.

Another nice surprise are the annotations and the extras that they squeeked in as padding between the issues in the trade. Commentary from the creators, breakdown pages from Keith, and script excerpts and character designs to flesh the whole thing out. It's not an amazing thing, or truly comprehensive, but it is a nice peak into the process, the event, and a worthwhile addition to the collections.

With that, I'll take my leave.

Later!

mike

Thursday, August 21, 2008

"Where Do We Go From Here?"

So, Filter is coming to Calgary. September 17th, it looks like, and tickets are $16. I have no idea who actually comprises Filter anymore, although I'm fairly certain that Richard Patrick is still at the helm, but I don't know if I can pass up this opportunity to check out a band I really enjoyed through the nineties, especially their second album, "Title of Record".

I guess the real question is, will this be like Everclear coming to town, where I can't get it up just to go see Art Alexakis doing old and new Everclear music without the other two original members of the band, or will it really matter who Filter is as long as Patrick is fronting the gig?

Something to ponder.



mike

Friday, August 15, 2008

"What Sarah Said"

My buddy Andrew was complaining about the quantity of X-Files content on the blog of late, so I thought I would try and change it up with something that might catch his attention for a change.

So, I was cruising around this morning for some Ocean Size music. I watched The Invisible last night, and like dozens of folks before me, I'm sure, I wanted to listen to the song that plays over the dream sequence at the beginning of the film, "Music For a Nurse".

I did find it but in the process I also ran across this video from Death Cab For Cutie which has totally captivated me. It was directed by Laurent Briet and I couldn't take my eyes off of this clip. There's this girl, who begins the video with the question "Does he love me?", and she attempts to garner a response from her male companion who just sits on the bed, unflinching and unresponsive, until the very end when the whole thing starts anew.

Love it. Watch it. Feel free to comment on it.



Later!

mike

Monday, August 11, 2008

Golden Compass Sequel in Doubt

For almost a year now the Jozic family, and probably many fans of Phillip Pullman, have been waiting to hear word on a potential sequel for The Golden Compass. Despite a lot of "we'd really like to do one" from the films director, Chris Weitz, its producers and Pullman himself, New Line has been evasive (to say the least) on giving any indication that they would like to see one as well.

So, the kids are sitting next to me playing the PS2 game and I figure, "hmmm, I haven't checked the news on that for a while," so I hit the world wide internets, punched in a search to Google, and this is what I found.

Still not dead in the water but, man, definitely not with its head above it, either.

Later!

mike