Favourite X-FIles Moments #2

Before I go on to the next clip, I just wanted to touch on the last clip from "Quagmire". Imentioned in that post that I wasn't sure who wrote that particular act but I've since learned that it was an uncredited effort by the amazing Darin Morgan, writer of episodes like "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "Humbug" and "José Chung's From Outer Space".

No wonder it's a favourite moment of mine and many other X-Philes.

Now, the new clip is from the Chris Carter directed and written episode, "Post-Modern Prometheus". It's the conclusion of the episode and features a somewhat uncharacteristic musical number with our heroes, the episode's creature, and Cher.



I love the scene for it's strangeness and for it's touching character bits between Mulder and Scully. I'm no shipper but this was a sweet moment that you wouldn't normally see on the show and it sort of stands out to me because of it.

Believe Again.

mike

Update: I just watched this video and it appears to be fan made and features the entire song rather than the abridged version used in the episode. The ending is still the same as in the show, but you have to endure other scenes to get through it, not to mention Cher's singing.

I'll maybe post the corrected version sometime.

Viva la Bono?

I'm sorry, but I saw this ad the other night and I couldn't help thinking that Chris Martin is trying to be Bono. The movements, the voice, imagery...you decide:



Later!

mike

"27 Jennifers"

I married a Jennifer, and love the music of Mike Doughty. The two appear to be a great match:



mike

George Said It Was Supposed To Be A Serial...

I just loved this too much to not post it...



mike

I've Had Worse Days

Just a short little post for a change. I just wanted to come on and point out that, today, I finished reading Dr. No, and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for the first time.

Not a bad day, really.

More on Indy tomorrow.

mike

Favourite X-Files Moments

From the episode "Quagmire", Mulder and Scully have an honest moment while stranded in the middle of a lake:



The rest of the episode is pretty pedestrian, but this bit of dialogue between the two characters is some of the most interesting, funny and truthful in the whole series. Amazing that it came from a writer who only did two episodes total, this one and another called "Revalations". It's possible that, like any other show, this section was written by one of the producers or Carter himself, but until I hear otherwise, kudos to Kim Newton for hitting these two guys perfectly.

The episode was directed by Kim Manners.

Believe again!

mike

I Want To Believe

Not to take anything away from the Indy Joygasm, but I think I have to throw some love Mulder and Scully's way since my other bestest franchise of all time is returning this summer, as well. I'm going to be posting embedded videos that I run across and some comments as the film release date draws nearer. I'd love to hear any thoughts from other X-Philes out there, too. I haven't had a good X-Files convo in at least 6 years.

The first video is a brief but tantalizing bit off of Entertainment Tonight (that auto-start on the video is gonna drive me crazy as time goes on):

Update - I couldn't stand the "I'm standing on the Top Secret set..." thing anymore so I took the embedded video down. I'm sure anyone who wanted to see it already has.

These next two videos are part of a viral advertising campaign featuring David and Gillian in what appears to be a psychiatrists office:

MULDER


SCULLY


Last, but not least, the official trailer. Similar to the one used at Emerald Comicon (I think it was Emerald) but with a bit more dialogue and not seen through the POV of a shaky fan cam:



I realize that I've posted, like, a weeks worth of X-Files videos just now. Kind of blown my wad, you might say. Whatever. I'm excited. You should be excited, too.

Believe Again.

mike

The Indiana Jones Comic Book Revue

I mentioned a little while ago that I had wanted to do this, and I figured now was as good a time as any to get the ball rolling, so...

All books will be rated on a 0 to 5 Fedoras system.

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #1 & 2
(Marvel Comics Group)

Written by: John Byrne & Denny O'Neil
Pencilled by: John Byrne
Inked by: Terry Austin
Covers by: John Byrne & Terry Austin

"...Risky. Risky is the word, Marcus."

Following the success of the first Indy film, Marvel Comics went into the archaeology business with their newest licensed title, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. To launch the title, Marvel recruited fan-favourite artist John Byrne to bring Dr. Jones' continuing adventures to life, and brought in writer Denny O'Neil to finish the tale when Byrne and Lucasfilm began having problems.

Dateline 1936

The story, titled "The Ikons of Ikammanen", begins when an old student of Indy's, Charlie Dunne, arrives at Barnett College to inform him of a great discovery he made with his sister, Edith. They believed that they had located the temple of the mythical Ikons of Ikammanen, gold statues that were capable of becoming living avengers. In the process of relating his tale to Indy, he is killed by an unknown assassin sending our hero to Liberia in order to assist Edith in uncovering the Ikons location in her brother's absence.

In true Indiana Jones fashion, our hero gets in a few scrapes with the locals (vaguely remiscient of Raiders) and then comes face to face with the local gangster, Solomon Black. Black, who has captured Edith and is enthralled by the idea of finding a number of solid gold statues, tells Indy that if he doesn't find the Ikons for him, he will kill her. Indy, of course, obliges, and bides his time, waiting for his chance to work his way out of yet another complicated situation.

They travel to a mysterious fog-encrusted island (think Skull Island) where they are knocked unconscious by the locals while examinging their discovery, the Ikon's temple itself. The issue ends with Indy and Edith, tied to a large winch and chain and being lowered into a vat of boiling gold. Will our hero finally meet his end?

The second issue, called "22-Karat Doom!", picks up where the last one left off, with Indy and Edith in peril trying to find a way out of their predicament. A combination of Indy's wits, and the convenient intervention of Solomon Black's men, saves the pair from becoming golden statues themselves but they immediately find themselves having to fight with Black's men against the natives in order to make their way back to the beach and the ship they arrived on.

After getting on Black's last nerve, Indy and Edith are unexpectedly saved by a patrolling German U-Boat that launches a torpedo and ends the threat posed by Solomon Black and his gang. Our heroes, who tossed themselves over the side before the ship exploded (along with one Ikon which survived the blast), hitch a ride with the Germans and make their way back to the States. The only catch is that Edith had been planning a double-cross the whole time and was, in actual fact, the assassin responsible for her brother Charlie's death. She wanted some of the fame and fortune and didn't want to play second fiddle to her brother just because she was a woman. Indy gets the last laugh, though, when he uses an inscription he found in the Ikon's temple to bring the one Ikon they saved from their adventure to life. The Ikon attacks Edith and her pilot boyfriend while Indy grabs a chute and leaps out of the plane, into the great unknown.

It sounds a little cheeseball when I break it down like that, but these are actually pretty entertaining Indy comics. When you consider the existing Indy lore (which was almost non-existent) I think Byrne and O'Neil did a bang up job of capturing the whole pulp '30s feel that George Lucas always said he was going for in the movies. Sure Indy was a bit out of character in a few scenes, but it fit the tone and style of the story so I can go out of my way to cut the guys some slack.

I really liked the way Byrne breaks the story into chapters, evoking that Republic serial feel, and the pacing was brisk and almost of another time. Back in the '80s, we didn't have the deconstructionists taking 12 issues to tell a story that Eisner or his peers would have told in 8 pages, but the speed with which Byrne moves through this story is still something else. It was probably a good thing, too, since he wasn't able to really do anything else with the character other than run him through his paces and showcase a few set-pieces.

It's a shame that Byrne didn't stay on beyond issue two since I don't believe that any artist that followed him had the same universal appeal and pulp approach, but the guy was unhappy and that was almost 30 years ago, so what can you do?

Both Byrne and O'Neil have said that they really didn't enjoy working on the book because of editorial interference from Lucasfilm but, despite their working experiences, they managed to produce two of the most entertaining and visually pleasing Indy books I've seen over the past 27 years. I still go back and reread these issues every now and then when I have a craving for some good Indy comics.

Indy High Then Burn

I have been a fan of the Indy novels since I first discovered them lo those many years ago. Part of what I enjoyed about them was the fact that they weren't like the Star Wars books. It wasn't this literary machine just churning out Indy books from all periods, it was the work of, primarily, one guy, Rob MacGregor. He was followed up by Martin Caidin (the guy who wrote Cyborg) and then the last writer to work on the book series, Max McCoy. Although I didn't totally agree with everything MacGergor did in his stories (Indy purists beware, there is a wedding and a tragic end, a la James Bond, which may, or may not, fit in with your vision of the man with the hat) I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 or 6 stories he wrote and always kept an eye out for the subsequent books in the series.

Now, with the new movie coming out, the books have been brought back into print and are available at one of my local booksellers. Armed with this information, I headed down to the McNally Robinson and grabbed myself a copy of Caidin's first offering, Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates. I've been enjoying reading it for the last couple of days and decided, tonight, that I would peel off the annoying little price label that they stick on every one of their books. I don't usually have problems with them but this time it peeled the finish right off the back cover.

Now, for anyone who knows me, I'm pretty picky with my stuff. And even though I've had this problem before with books I've purchased there (I was pretty ruffled when my Abadazad peeled - grrrr) this one really irks me. Perhaps it's because of how long I've been trying to finish the series, maybe because it's Indy, and maybe because I just need one thing in my life right now that is the way it's supposed to be, I don't know. What I do know is that I'm pretty perturbed about it and I hate to be an idiot and spend another $9 on a book that I already own, but it also burns my butt everytime I see the damn thing now.

You can't see it in the picture. It's just over the explosion, though.

Of course, when I brought this up to Jen expecting a little sympathy, it degraded into a fight with her saying some pretty awful things (yeah, I know how ridiculous this problem is, but come on, give a frazzled mind the proverbial shoulder to lean on) and now I'm down here posting about it and checking out how much it would cost to order the last 5 books that I'm missing from Amazon (5 includes the Sky Pirates).

I need to go chill out.

Until next time...

mike

Iron Man Stuff

It's a little funny because I wasn't consciously winding up for the Iron Man premiere, but in the last few weeks I've read the "Extremis" storyline written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Adi Granov that launched the new monthly a while back. This week, I've been reading Iron Man: The Inevitable, by Joe Casey and Frazer Irving, and tonight, I showed the animated The Invincible Iron Man movie to my kids.

Then I find out that the live-action movie was sneak previewing tonight and I'm thinking synchronicity city, here. That, or I've been at this kind of thing for so long that I can't even tell any more when I'm ramping up for something. I just go into automatic pilot, or something.

Personally, I think it was because I started picking up and reading the "Enter the Mandarin" mini-series for Eric Canete's art, but I'm not going to argue the point.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop on and say that I enjoyed theanimated version a lot more this time than when I first watched it. There are still a lot of things that irk me about these Marvel D2DVD movies (voice casting is a BIIIIIIG one) but, overall, TIIM was entertaining, did a decent job of giving an updated take on the ol' origin story, showed a couple of versions of the armour, and managed to add a little depth by doing the east vs. west/technology vs. mysticism bit.

Looks like we'll be trying to hit a matinee with the kids for the live-action on Sunday so I may have more to say regarding Tony Stark in the very near future. The movie is getting rave reviews (yay, Jon Favreau) so expectations are high, now. Let's hope it's not a stinker.

mike

The Comic Haul

I've been into the comics again.

Captain America #1-12: I'll freely admit that I started reading the series after the 'Death of Captain America' thing happened, mostly to satisfy my curiosity about how Brubaker was handling the character leading up to, and during, the media brouhaha surrounding #25. After the first issue, though, I was entirely hooked by the intelligent storytelling, a refreshing take on an old character, and the truly compelling and stylish artwork of Steve Epting and Michael Lark. I'm almost done the "Winter Soldier" storyline as I write this and my brain is just buzzing with what these guys have cooked up. I'm really looking forward to where this is all going.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #49: Not especially happy with where this title is going, of late. The departure of Pascual Ferry is still being felt (damn you, Orson Scott Card and your Ultimate Iron Man II) and, despite enjoying some of the relationship bits that Carey is giving us (the break-up of Reed and Sue being the primary conflict in that area) I'm not really digging this whole Red Ghost story very much. Seems a bit like filler. Killing time before hitting the big 5-0, perhaps. This book is officially on probation. If it doesn't improve soon, I think I'll need to drop it.

The Maze Agency #1: I've always meant to pick some of these up because, like everybody else, I've loved Adam Hughes since his days on Justice League and I've always heard good things about his collaboration with Mike Barr on this series. Overall, I wasn't disappointed, but I also wasn't blown away by this opening tale. I would have liked to see Barr give us a cliffhanger ending to the first issue and bring us back in #2 for the resolution, but the real reason I showed up in the first place was to see some early Hughes work, so I'm not going to be too picky. Admittedly, it was pretty neat to see some of his early layouts pre-JL just to see how he has developed as an artist over the years.

Nothing too deep but a fun read, nonetheless. I'll definitely raid the back issue bins for more Maze Agency in the future.

The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #12: A nice little spotlight on Timber Wolf, but it's pretty clear from the last few issues of this series that nobody is quite sure what to do with this book or these characters. I think the change in direction between seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series has left the creative teams of the monthly in a bit of a lurch but, in all fairness, LOSHIT31C is not suffering as badly as some of DC's other kid-oriented books. I haven't read the latest issue yet, but I plan on hanging around for a few more before making my final decision on whether or not to keep up with this one.

Superman/Batman #37: Hey, I've said it before. Not all of the books I read are new, yo? Anyway, I picked this one up because of the writing talents of Alan Burnett who has made me very happy in the past with his work on the Batman animated series and its various spin-off films. The art of Dustin Nguyen is nothing to sneeze at either, being a fan of his stuff from back in the Wildcats 3.0 days, but in all honesty I grabbed it for Burnett, what can I say?

I may as well have grabbed it for Nguyen, though, seeing as he seems to have brought his A game to the book while Burnett just kind of spins his wheels for a couple dozen pages and leaves you with little to want to come back for. He may have been taking the advantage of the opportunity to decompress his writing since he doesn't have to wrap everything up in 22 minutes, but I'm just not sure there's enough in this issue to bring me back for #38. Maybe if I catch it in a bargain bin I'll take a chance on it and see. Until then, I'm sad to say I'll probably leave it in a holding pattern.

Hmmm, now that I've brought it up, I should go and dig out my old Casey/Nguyen Wildcats books. It's been a while since I've looked at those.

Wetworks #12: I'll grab just about anything off the shelf with J.M. DeMatteis' name on it so it's no mystery why I picked up Wetworks starting with #10, but after a couple of issues I was seriously considering dropping the book like a hot potato. The whole Mother One dies and is resurrected story had me so lost in a tangle of familiar themes but in a completely alien environment and wrapped in an impenetrable backstory with confusing layouts and characters I didn't know (not to mention covers for the three issues that have nothing to do with the interiors). DC has saved me the trouble of questioning myself in regards to continuing or not since they cancelled the series as of issue #15 (a move I'm not at all surprised by) but I will give credit to the creative team for putting together a decent little vignette of a story with #12.

I was pleasantly surprised as this was something I could follow despite my ignorance regarding who these characters were and what their place in the larger scheme of things is. This was an issue that would have kept me going for a few more months to see where J.M. was planning to take the series but, alas, the book is no more. Oh well, at least I'll have three more issues to peruse with no more obligation to buy and features J.M. teaming up once again with Keith Giffen.

How bad can it be?

That's all for now, folks. More, as usual, when the time comes.

mike

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

I mean, really, what else is there to say?

mike

"The Doomsday Machine" - Behind the Scenes

I don't have a lot to say about this video other than the fact that it's kind of cool that the original writer of the classic Star Trek episode decided he would give some background on how he became involved with the show and give some commentary on the new remastered version of the episode done by CBS Digital.

I'm not a huge fan of this remastered Trek that they're peddling right now, but some of the new work being done is very nice and I can understand the impulse to want to go back and fix some things up. That being said, I love my old Trek, analog control panels and all. Every last ridiculous nut and bolt of it.

Anyway, here's writer Norman Spinrad...



Later!

mike

My Favourite Videos #6 (With the Video Finally Fixed)

It's been a while since I posted one of these, but I've been trying to get into the two most recent U2 albums for the last couple of days (I've been trying for years, if you must know) and while talking to my brother about it he reminded me of this video which I love dearly for various reasons.

Possibly the last great video from U2, "Stuck in a Moment" features football, John Madden, in-jokes galore, great direction, and Brendan Fehr as the ill-fated kicker aptly named, Paul Hewson (Bono's secret identity for those of you who don't know).

After a failed kick, losing the game to the opposing team, Hewson is doomed to relive the tragic defeat over and over again (by the way, the video is buggy in my browser so if you have problems, you'renot the only one).



There's also an international version of the video directed by Kevin Godley (who has a few U2 videos to his credit) which is almost as good, but doesn't have that extra little 'oomf' that pushes the US version to the Faves list. Here's a peak at it:



One thing I like about both videos is the fact that in the first, Bono seems more like himself in the early '90s, sporting the Fly duds and sunglasses and full of pathos. The second video seems to be reminiscient of a pre-"Achtung baby!" Bono, just arriving in Berlin with his suede coat, shoulder length hair and looking earnest. Considering the faux Bono that has been milling about for the last few years, it does my heart good to get a glimpse of an old friend, however briefly.

Until next time!

mike

From the Back Issue Bin

For whatever reason, I decided to read Avatar's first licensed Stargate SG1: P.O.W. comic book series tonight and thought I would post some reactions to it.

I remember being really excited when I first heard about this title. Stargate SG1 was, at the time, my favourite sci-fi show on TV and being a fan of The X-Files comic and the original Buffy comics (published by TOPPS and Dark Horse, respectively) I figured this would be one more 'expanded universe' that I would get to play in. Once the issues came out, though, I never bothered tpo pick them up. I don't know if it was finances, or an overall dislike of the art style (it could have been both, really) but I left them on the rack and didn't pick up my first Stargate issues until "Fall of Rome", where the addition of Roman gods to the mix was too tempting to resist.

Anyway, enough history.

The series itself ran three issues and was written by James Anthony Kuhoric and illustrated by Renato Guedes with colours by Nimbus Studios. Story-wise, the plot is pretty simple. Jack O'Neill jumps through the gate chasing one of the series baddies who used to be an ally and friend to him (also something of a surrogate son). Everyone wants to go through and recover him but the Goa'uld have left behind a device that jeopardizes Stargate Command. There is also the added threat of the Goa'uld getting information about the SGC through torturing O'Neill with a device that will drag the desired info out of his mind.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of this plot, which feels hackneyed and contrived, but I was still willing to go along for the ride if it was paced well and the characters were true to their TV counterparts. This was something Kuhoric did not do. I'm not sure how much of the bad pacing should be credited to Guedes, but the dialogue was stiff and often felt like it was cut and pasted from moments in the show. The jokes that O'Neill spouts are trite and there was just nothing organic about the way any of these people behaved.

I wouldn't often dare to say this (in the likelihoodthat someone actually called me on it) but I could have dialogued this better than Kuhoric. Given some time (and deep imersion in the subject matter) I may even have been able to come up with a better storyline, too, but for arguments sake, I'm going to stick with just the dialogue.

The artwork by Guedes was something else, too. The strange painterly look is likely the fault of Nimbus (based on the look of Guedes's pencils as well as his straight pencil & ink work seen in the convention specials that Avatar produced) but his characters are still extremely stiff and his overall storytelling ability is limited in these three issues. I ran into several jump cuts that kill the flow of things and panels that make me shudder with their lack of imagination all serve to kill this story before it ever really gets off the ground. I think I probably made it three or four pages in before I knew this was going to be a bad trip, so I'll give him credit for the opening action sequence. Once they get into the SGC, though, wooo...

On a side note, Kuhoric did his best to weave the story of the feature film into the narrative (for which I give him props) but it ended up coming off kind of stilted and felt more like he was trying to kill pages off with what has come before rather than coming up with some original story to fill those in.

I gotta say, I did not like this mini-series, despite (or possibly because of) having an appreciation for the source material and wanting this to be good. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except maybe the most die-hard fan who wouldn't be totally turned off by it in the end. If I was wanting to make a good impression on a new reader, or someone looking for a proper Stargate fix, I think I would probably throw them one of the later minis, just to be safe.

Later!

mike

Young Indy - The Adventure Continues...Sort Of

What's a week without some Indy news, eh? I just caught this article on StarWars.com regarding the third season that wasn't for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. As a fan of the show, I find it fascinating, but for more general Indy fans it's likely just a curiosity since they probably don't view the shows as canon, anyway.

The geek in me loves the new timeline, though.

mike

Reported Cult Activity

Just got back from seeing The Cult in town. It was a powerful set with a mix of some of their new tunes mixed with classics from previous albums. Jen enjoyed the show up to the point where she couldn't breathe from the smoke and was practically deaf from the noise. We left the show about a half-hour early, though, so we didn't get to see the end or the encore.

Jen says that she saw "Fire Woman" and "Sweet Soul Sister" performed live and that's all she really cared about. That and she bought a purple Cult bunny-hug/hoodie.

I might post a show review later.

mike

Exorcising The Heretic

I picked up Exorcist: The Beginning today which, I think, officially completes my Exorcist collection. I have the 25th Anniversary edition of The Exorcist as well as The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen, I have Legion, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and now, The Beginning (I also include Blatty's non-Exorcist film, The Ninth Configuration, in that list because of its continuation of thematic elements introduced in the first Friedkin directed film).

Even though I consider Dominion to be the Blatty approved prequel, I wanted The Beginning almost for academic reasons. The fact that they were both born of the same idea, share many cast and crew members, but are completely different films, is something that intrigues me. I also wanted to hear Renny Harlin talk about the making of his version in the audio commentary, so it was one of those things I always knew I'd pick up someday, and that day just happened to be today. I think Renny's version is worth $5.99.

Astute readers will probably notice that I did not include The Exorcist II: The Heretic in the list above. To be honest, I do not consider this to be a part of the series and have no desire to ever see it, even though I've heard that seeing James Earl Jones in a giant locust suit is worth the rental (see this review if you need something to back that decision up). I try to stick to the Blatty approved material and The Heretic was only approved insofar as Warner Bros. asked him for a sequel, he said he wasn't interested, they asked how much it would cost to do one themselves, he gave them a ridiculous number and they said SURE!

I wasn't even prepared to accept Dominion as canon until Blatty saw a screening of the film and thought it was pretty darned good, giving Schrader and his little film that wouldn't die the Exorcist thumbs up.

So, if anyone has any reasons why they think I should be giving The Heretic a try I'd love to hear them. Until then, however, I'll consider my Exorcist collection complete.

Later!

mike

Stephen King's Multiverse

In the foreword for The Gunslinger, Stephen King talks about writing an epic. He said that he, like so many others of his time, was completely smitten with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and knew that he wanted to create something like it, but different enough that it would be his and not just a copy. To quote the text he says:

...although I read the books in 1966 and 1967, I held off writing. I responded to the sweep of Tolkien's imagination...but I wanted to write my own kind of story, and had I started then, I would have written his. That, as the late tricky Dick Nixon was fond of saying, would have been wrong. Thanks to Mr. Tolkien, the twentieth century had all the elves and wizards it needed.

After re-reading the book, and exploring some of the other works of King (I know, I said I wouldn't, so sue me) I realized that, despite trying his best to not write a Tolkien-esque story with halflings and dwarves, he was, in fact, doing something very similar to another popular fantasy writer of the time, Michael Moorcock.

Moorcock is well known for creating his famous Multiverse and all the myriad characters who inhabit it. From Elric of Melniboné to Jerry Cornelius, Moorcock's characters have weaved in and out of each others stories for the last 40 years, with some characters even sharing a common aspect of a single entity, The Eternal Champion. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Eternal Champion, a Hero who exists in all dimensions, times and worlds, is the one who's chosen by fate to fight for the Balance; however, he often doesn't know of his rôle, or, even worse, he struggles against it, never to succeed.

All the incarnations of the Eternal Champion are facets of each other, and the Champion may also be aided by a companion, who, like himself, exists in various incarnations. Likewise the Champion is often associated with one romantic association that is possibly an aspect of an eternal figure. Other characters in the various books have occassionally crossed over from one universe to another, although it is unclear what their status in the multiverse may be.

From what I've gleaned about The Dark Tower series is that King has created a very similar fictional construct, one in which he is able to explore all sorts of possibilities, including bringing in characters from other books (like Randall Flagg who debuted in The Stand but also appears in The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower series).

Anyway, I know I'm not the first one to see this, and it's not huge news or anything, but it's the first time I'm thinking of Kings work as a larger piece of interconnecting fiction. As a huge fan of Moorcock and his Multiverse, this appeals to me a great deal.

That's all I have to say on that subject for now. I apparently have a date to read some Prince Caspian to a couple of troublemakers before bed so I'm off to do that.

Later!

mike

On Reading the King

I've read my share of Stephen King books in my time (who hasn't) and seen my fill of movies based on his books and short stories. Everything from Carrie to The Mist which is sitting in my bag recently rented from the local Blockbuster, have passed these eyes, and I count reading It, Cycle of the Werewolf (which was beautifully, and I mean, beautifully illustrated by Berni Wrightson) and Pet Sematary as landmarks in my youthful experiences with horror fiction.

Still, I would never go so far as to call myself a fan. I didn't seek out the man's work, nor did I look forwrd to the next Stephen King 'joint', as it were. I never questioned the quality of his writing as I was sure that he remained a proficient author who likely had only improved in the many years since I stopped paying his books any mind. It was simply a matter of my interests waning, and possibly a smattering of literary snobbery as I may have convinced myself that popular thriller/horror novels couldn't possibly have anything to offer.

I should also qualify that my position on King hasn't changed insofar as I'm going to seek out everything of his that I haven't read and gobble it up until I can't stand it anymore. I'm still not compelled to read From a Buick 8 or Hearts in Atlantis or Dreamcatcher or The Long Mile or Rose Madder and countless others.

So, why the heck am I writing this post, you may be asking yourself?

Well, I stumbled across the first two issues of Marvel Comics' Dark Tower books and figured for a buck a piece I should see if it lives up to the impossible hype it has been receiving. I think I was a half-a-dozen pages into the first issue when I realised that this stuff was dynamite. Not only had I never seen more superb Jae Lee artwork in my life, but Peter David has never read so perfectly, either. It reminded me of when I was initially given the first volume in The Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger by my long-time chum, Brad. He was a big King fan at the time and, along with Eyes of the Dragon (which I've yet to read), told me that I would be remiss if I didn't check this book out.

It seemed interesting. I mean, King doing a western was certainly a change of pace, and a fantasy western at that. Plus, the book was really short and, as anyone who knows me will attest, getting me to read anything that I'm unfamiliar with is always easier if the book is a short one. And, in all fairness, it was interesting but it came at a point when I was moving on to other stuff and I was finding King's work to be a little long-winded and over-descriptive to continue on with it.

It's kind of funny, then, how the comics rekindled my interest in The Dark Tower, which led me to get a copy of The Gunslinger, which had two interesting and well-written forewords to the text in it, which is where I first heard of King's memoir, On Writing, which I then went out and found and read in a couple of sittings.

It was pretty decent timing, too, because I had recently finished reading Nick Hornby's Songbook and I was still in the mood for something non-fiction that was written in the author's voice. I'm trying to get myself back into the habit of writing regularly again (and not just the interviews and articles but proper fiction and screenplays) and I found Hornby's essays to be somewhat motivational. Granted, I was pretty tired of his particular voice after a day or two of Songbook but I still needed something that was a conversational piece.

Enter Stephen King's On Writing.

I won't go into details or review the book or anything like that, but I will say that even though I may not have a desire to go out and read every piece of the man's fiction, this piece of non-fiction memoir/seminar/affirmation has done wonders for getting my juices flowing (not to mention being a brisk and entertaining read, to boot). Strangely enough, having someone telling you not to be a fool and just write ended up being some of the most helpful advice I've been given, of late. It sounds retarded, I know, and there were some writing techniques of his that he shared in the book that were also of great value to me, but writing is such a lonely endeavour that you just have to be reminded from time to time that it isn't all a collossal waste.

The bad side of this is that I'm now feeling like every minute I spend at work is time I could be writing something, but maybe having that obstacle also helps fuel the desire to be doing the work. Absence making the heart grow fonder and all that jazz.

Well, I'm off to go and put something down on the ol' pages.

Later!

mike

...and Teaser

Okay, this blurry, choppy, bootlegged little teaser has given me goosebumps like the Indy image from a few months ago did. The pictures I have seen from the set have been lackluster and unable to really spark the imagination, but this teaser from WonderCon has me excited, now.

Apology Is Policy!

mike

X-Files 2 Poster...

I'm equally excited and wary of this sequel that comes possibly 5 years too late to mean anything to us die-hard fans of the series, especially since it purports to not have any bearing on the alien colonization mythology that was left greatly unresolved at the end of season 9. Still, rumours say that this story may revolve, or just involve, Scully's son, William, who she gave up near the end of the series in order to give him a normal life (and for those of us who watch, William is anything but a normal baby).

Anyway, I just caught this image of the teaser poster and am cautiously giddy with excitement for July 25th.



Trust No One!

mike

Spirit Worries

The more I see of Frank, and the more I hear about this film, the more I worry. I experience a slight, uncomfortable tightening of the sphincter while listening to Miller talk about this project.



Form your own opinions. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Later!

mike

Indy Fans, Check This Out

I don't think I've blogged about this article that Vanity Fair ran last month (or was it 2 months ago) and I ran across the online version of it sitting in my bookmark folder so I clearly intended to. Anyway, I figured I should post it, have one less bookmark to worry about and bring joy to those Indy fans who have yet to see this piece (in its entirety) with the accompanying Annie Liebowitz photos.

Later!

mike

Foo Fighters Setlist 03/27/08

1. Let It Die
2. Pretender
3. Times Like These
4. Breakout
5. Learn to Fly
6. Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup’s Running
7. This Is a Call
8. The One
9. Stacked Actors with a long drum solo from Taylor Hawkins

Acoustic Set on Smaller Stage In-the-Round

10. Skin & Bones
11. Marigold
12. My Hero
13. Cold Day in the Sun (ft. Taylor Hawkins on drums & vocals)
14. But, Honestly
15. Everlong

End Acoustic Set

16. Monkey Wrench
17. All My Life

Encore

18. Big Me (feat. Jessy Green)
19. Long Road to Ruin
20. Best of You

Watching the Foos

I'll be hitting the Foo Fighters concert tonight with my brother and his new beaux. I'll post some comments on it later tonight, perhaps.

Later!

mike

Plissken by Watson

Who would have thunk it. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken by Andi Watson. Not only was it an unexpected thing to run across, but it's also awesome to behold. Go check out Andi's sites and books.

Later!

mike

Nearly Thwarted by the Six Feet Under Packaging

A couple of weeks ago I bought the first season of Six Feet Under at the local Wal-Mart for a mere $18. I finally got around to opening it up tonight and found it to be a frustrating and complicated ordeal. I mean, I've heard of gimmicky packaging before but HBO must have broken out their rocket scientists to develop this one.

I couldn't find a picture of it online, so I'll have to see if I can take one myself and slap it up on the blog for those of you who do not know of what I speak.

Essentially, the set is packaged in such a way as to recall a casket, I believe, and sits horizontal with a base and a lid. The lid is supposed to flip upwards and, as it opens, lifts the DVD case out of the box revealing all the HBO goodness inside. You then remove the DVDs (packaged in the same book-like flip-open case that anything not in a thinpak is generally sold in), watch the discs you want and, if you're smart, do not replace them in the 'casket'. Just keep them open and free, it'll be much easier for the next time you want to watch them. Once you've watched the whole series and featurettes, then you put it away until the next time you wanna wrassle with the absurd thing. Beyond wrecking the packaging, opening and closing the thing is just a pain in the ass. It's a good thing the show's so good otherwise I (and, I'm sure, many others) wouldn't even bother with the thing.

Not much of a post, I know, but something that really irritated me when it took me 30 or so minutes to figure the damn thing out (that includes the time I spent surfing the internet looking for images of an opened case for clues).

Later!

mike

Early Thoughts on Southland Tales

Now, I've been waiting for this movie for some time (many of us who watched and loved Donnie Darko have been) and I have to say that after months and months of watching it get beat up by the media and go through recutting and release dates being pushed back and none of my local cineplexes running the film, the DVD has foinally arrived to mixed response. In some ways the movie is exactly what I expected and so many ways it is very much not. The trademarked Richard Kellyisms are all there (the satire, the sci-fi, the high-concept, ensemble cast and the socio-political commentary) but they are organized in such a way as to make the film almost totally impenetrable. I read the three graphic novels that comprise the prequel trilogy and still had a hard time following certain sequences. Sure, it sort of comes together in the end in a somewhat understandable manner, but on the whole it feels like the movie fails in paying off the 144 minute running time.

I knew going in that I would have to do some work on my own, that I would have to read the prequel trilogy and hit the website and dig through additional sources to fully appreciate the movie, but on a basic sit down and watch a show for a couple of hours level, Southland alienates the viewer almost from the outset with its wealth of backstory that you're never really given a glimpse of, the awkward dialogue being delivered by Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Michelle Geller, and the often improvisational nature of Kelly's shooting style (I don't know how much of it was improved, but seeing as how half the cast are ex-SNL alumn, I'm thinking a bunch).

Is there method to the madness? Perhaps. Is this gleanable upon a single viewing? Certainly not.

I want to like this movie, and I'm willing to put the work into it to see where it takes me as a viewer and as someone who appreciated the technical side of filmmaking, but I'm not reccomending this one for everyone. Unless you're already a Kelly fan, this may not be appropos for you.

More on this story as it develops.

Later!

mike

Stargate Defective Disc Blues Cured

I picked up Stargate: Atlantis Season 1 many months ago and watched a couple of episodes before putting it back on the shelf. It's not that I didn't like the show, I just got it for a really good price and I had seen the entire first season so I wasn't in any hurry to revisit the show. I checked out a few of the commentaries and features and there you go.

Fast forward a few months and a friend from work asks me to borrow the discs. No problem because I'm not watching them, so I give them to her and everything is business as usual. Then I get a call from her a bit later telling me that disc 5 is the same as disc 1. They're labelled properly, but the actual information on them is identical. Having no receipt, and being many months from the purchase date I was worried that I would not be able to get an exchange or satisfaction of any sort.

I had this problem before with my Ultimate Superman set, and Warners was nothing if not accomodating, so I hit the internet hoping to find a customer service line for MGM to contact. I discovered that this was a common problem, got a number and was raring to go. I still thought of calling the local London Drugs where I purchased the set just in case, possibly saving me some time and effort in getting the thing replaced.

Well, I just got off the phone with the salesman and he was aware of the problem and had no issues with me coming in and exchanging it there. Not too shabby.

I'll be heading over there later today and hopefully have the whole thing resolved quickly.

Later!

mike

The Comic Haul Redux

I never got to finish the previous Comic Haul and I've picked up even more comics since then, so I'm going to try and get some of those out of the way, review-wise.

The Umbrella Academy #4-6: I really enjoyed this series and was happy to finally catch up with the issues that I had missed. Gerard Way came out of nowhere and surprised everybody with how entertaining and just plain great the story was and Gabriel Ba's artwork is beyond compare. I don't think I would go so far as to call these characters the heroes of the 21st century as Grant Morrison does on the cover blurb, but they're certainly more interesting than most of the claptrap currently out there on the stands.

I'll also add a bit of a post script and say that since picking up this book I've also come to enjoy Way's band, My Chemical Romance. The main point in referring to that here is to emphasise that, although there are some definite stylistic similarities (a la the James Jean covers and the murky, theatrical, gothic vibe that it shares with The Black Parade), this comic book exists wholly outside of My Chemical Romance's rock'n'roll world. This is not some tie-in book like a KISS comic and, so far, there have been no coy references to ideas MCR presents in their music and vice versa. I think that is a definite strength of this series, especially in its first arc, and a well thought out choice on Way's part. I think I wouldn't mind it so much the second time around, but I'm not clamoring for it, either.

Anyway, check this book out.

Youngblood #1: One of the greatest things to happen to the Image super-hero universe was to have Alan Moore come down from on high to take over the writing chores on WildC.A.T.s and than to have that effort followed by the ever-capable Joe Casey. They brought something to the Imageverse that it hadn't really seen before in any long-term sort of capacity on one of its bigger books - a real writer. Both of these guys gave some street cred to these upstart third-generation X-Men clones and started a trend that continues to this day, sometimes successful, sometimes not-so-successful.

A little ironic then that Casey's previous work manages to overshadow his current debut on a new Youngblood series for upstart comic guy, Rob Liefeld. I picked this first issue up hoping to have something fresh and dynamic, political and fun, but there are just a lot of recycled ideas here, unfortunately. Some of them we've seen Casey implement before on other team books like the aforementioned Wildcats, others just seem overdone and clichéd, none moreso than the super-hero as celebrity set-up. Casey tries to give it some colour by adding the reality TV show into it, but that was just seen over in Civil War with the New Warriors and the team as a government-sponsored and created entity who exist to be more of a PR stunt than protectors of freedom was done over in The American Way a couple of years ago.

And that's just before dragging Peter Milligan's X-Force into the mix.

What can I say, I was disappointed. I think my feelings mirror those of the main character, Shaft, who seems equally unconvinced that this story and team are going anywhere. When he was playing in Jim Lee's sandbox, Casey gave us something we could chew on, but here we're just seeing more of the same old same old.

There's a very good chance I will not bother with issue 2.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #48-49: I don't know if I have anything more to say about this series other than I miss Pascual Ferry. Carey's writing stays sharp, the stories stay interesting and I'm willing to give Mark Brooks a chance before officially bitching and moaning for Ferry to return to the title instead of moonlighting over with Orson Scott Card on that ol' Iron Man book.

I have numbers 49 and 50 on the read pile so expect to see more UFF in future Comic Hauls.

Legion of Super-Heroes #37-39: The last time I bought a Legion #37 Giffen and the Bierbaums were writing it, Jason Pearson was drawing it and they blew up the Earth.

This is a little less grand but still more entertaining than I ever thought it could be, especially with Jim Shooter on writing chores.

So often the companies will bring back the old guard to try and revive that ol' '70s or '80s magic, and so often it fails miserably. Claremont's multiple returns to the X-Men, Wolfman's recent run on Teen Titans, and I'm sure if I hit a Google search I could drum up a few more. My point is, Shooter being back on Legion had disaster written all over it for me, but it's actually a pretty good read. It's very entry level, as far as Legion stories go, but I'm going to stick around and see where this all leads. The characters intrigue me, the art by Francis Manapul is nice to look at, and it does feel good to be picking up this book again after sooooo long a hiatus.

If you were ever a Legion fan, try an issue or two of this. You may not be disappointed.

The Spirit #11-12: I'm still trying to get a handle on this book. I love Darwyn to itty-bitty pieces, and think Will Eisner's Spirit stories are some of the best comics ever produced, so I'm confused as to why this series doesn't fire on all cylinders for me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe I'm hanging on to Will tighter than I think I am which colours what Darwyn is trying to do.

I think after I get through 13 and 14 I'll have a better opinion, just because I'll see how someone else would have done it.

Still, each issue is a dream to look at, particularly those title pages.

Welp, that's it for tonight. More when I have time.

Later!

mike

Never Thought I'd See the Day

Despite being a popular film series, the Indiana Jones merchandising machine has never been on the same level as the Star Wars one. Indy collectables, comics, and toys just haven't had the same market penetration due either to lack of effort or interest by all parties involved.

But then I ran across this today:



Warms the heart it does. When you get Lego sets based on you, you've finally made it into the mass market. Add to this the Lego Indy game that's coming out, the revolutionary new Indy game from LucasArts, and the new comics from Dark Horse and you've got a movie/franchise that's finally getting its due and fans who, I'm sure, will be thrilled to have some merchandise to hunt down and legos to build.

Later!

mike

Finally Found the New Frontier

Picking up the kids yesterday and made a detour to the mall to check for The New Frontier, again. I managed to strike gold at Wal-Mart this time, apparently missing the two-disc edition when I was there two days ago. Maybe I was in a bit of a rush and missed it since I scooted over there on my coffee brake from work, but the important thing is I now have it, I have watched it, am listening to the audio commentary as I write this and I have the day off so I'm going to explore the discs and maybe watch one of the movies my friend Dale lent me that I have yet to get to.

But I digress.

The film itself was pretty good. It sticks incredibly close to the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke with very few points where they left the source material totally behind. Design-wise, the art direction is incredible with the period of the 1950s in the United States being represented beautifully, both in background sets and clothing. The script, as I mentioned before, stayed as close to the book as possible and had Darwyn's stamp of approval with some bits actually written by the man himself.

In particular, there's a scene with Lois and Superman shortly after Superman has his discussion with Diana in Indo-China, and they're sitting on the Daily Planet globe talking about the state of America and McCarthyism. It was added to throw some exposition in that would help round out the period, helped justify expanding Lois' role in the film and, like I said, was added by the original creator himself so it carries a litlle added extra weight.

The voice cast was incredible with David Boreanaz doing a wonderful turn as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, Lucy Lawless is just the painfully obvious choice for Wonder Woman, Brooke Shields and Kyra Sedgewick do a surprisingly good Carol Ferris and Lois Lane, respectively, and Neil Patrick Harris is a surprising but inspired choice as Barry Allen/The Flash. And that's not the whole cast, by a long shot. I suppose Miguel Ferrer should get some props for his Martian Manhunter and while Darwyn loves Jeremy Sisto as Batman, I'm still wrapping my head around it, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

One of the things that really stood out for me on the picture was the animation used on The Flash and how he was written. I've never been happy with how the character is portrayed while running in TV or animation prior to this, but the guys who put this movie together got it absolutely right. The guy is the fastest man alive, he can circle the world 7 times in the space of a blink, you shouldn't see his arms and legs moving while he runs, not unless he's running a little slower, anyway. He should just be a blur and be able to do things you can't even see on-screen, and that's how he was here. When Captain Cold asks why his cold gun doesn't work and Barry says, "I rewired it on the way down," I was thrilled that someone finally got it right.

I'm not sure why Warners holds these movies to a 75 minute running time because New Frontier would have been so much better with another 5, 10 or 15 minutes of story added in. Seeing young Hal Jordan, The Losers on Dinosaur Island and, while I understand how the John Wilson story does little to advance the plot, it would have been nice to see it play out as more than a news bite in the middle of the film. Or even leaving some of that stuff out and just fleshing out some of the details at the end. The climactic ending, to me, did feel a bit rushed and was not as satisfying as the finale in the book. There are a lot of dialogue-less moments in the movie, and probably just as many slow cuts as quick ones, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to linger on characters and events to let them soak in a bit.

Still, these are minor nitpicks since a person could always go back to the source material if they really wanted to get some of that extra texture, and as a living, moving representation of the graphic novel goes, The New Frontier hits so many of the right notes that it is hard to complain about too much of it. My wish is that, because of the book it was based on, they would have done this movie a la Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and gave it a longer running time and a theatrical release, but you gotta take what you can get, where you can get it, right? And, really, I'm still viewing it as money well spent and that's before I've had a chance to scour through the special features and documentaries, so that should speak volumes to anyone who knows me.

All this Darwyn chatter is making me want to resurrect an old interview that I conducted with the man but never saw print in its full form. A segment of it was published as an article in my University newspaper which I've since posted on my website, if you care to check it out.

I remember calling Darwyn afterwards and wanting to do another interview that I would blend with the old one since it never saw print and I always felt bad about that. After making the request, though, he said, "What do you mean, I read the article already?" Somehow, he managed to get a copy of The Sheaf (through a friend, I think) checked out the piece and liked it, so I felt a little better about that, but I still always wished that I got the whole interview in print.

I'm going to see if I can dig it up, find out how much of it was transcribed and how much work it might be to post it on the blog.

Anyway, the second commentary track is almost done so I'm going to sign off here for the time being, grab some breakfast, take it easy.

Oh, and if you haven't been inspired to go out and check out The New Frontier yet, go do it. I urge you to do so.

Later!

mike

Missing the New Frontier

The DVD pictured at right is the new original DC Animated film, Justice League: The New Frontier, based on the comic book of the same name created by uber-talent, Darwyn Cooke. I've been waiting months and months for this puppy to come out. I loved the comic book and when I heard that they were going to make it an animated film, my brain lit up with the possibilities. I will also go out on a limb and admit that part of my motivation for going out and buying the Superman: Doomsday disc when it came out (the first DC original animated movie) was to see the New Frontier preview that was included there as a special feature, so you can maybe see how I'm kind of jazzed about this whole thing.

My only problem is that Warners put out two versions of the DVD - a single-disc and a two-disc special edition - and I can't seem to find the two-disc version anywhere nearby. I hit the local Future Shop, as well as the Wal-Mart (which can usually be depended on to carry stuff like this), and neither have the DVD I want. It's enough cash that I'm not willing to buy the single-disc just to watch it but it's torture to think that I won't be able to see the film until I track one down.

Curse my 9 to 5 workday.

Maybe I'll take my thursday off and scour the city for this elusive Objet de mon désir.

Until then, I can only hope that my copy of 30 Days of Night will keep me occupied for the next couple of days.

Later!

mike

I Actually Picked Up Some New Comics!!!

It's been a while since I've been to the LCS and possibly even longer since I've done a proper review segment on the blog so, since I've remedied the one, I'll get to remedying the other right now...

Fantastic Four #554: When I heard that Bryan Hitch and Mark Millar were taking over the World's Greatest Heroes, I think my reaction resembled a rousing "woo-hoo!" I think the last time I'd been tempted to pick up the FF's monthly book was when Carlos Pacheco was doing the book. Since then, I've resorted to grabbing issues of the Ultimate FF to get my FF fix since nobody else was writing the series in the way it was meant to be done, with the four heroes tackling fantastic cosmic problems, straddling inner and outer space, and behaving like a family, warts and all, throughout their adventures.

After reading #554, I'm seeing some of those elements come into play, but I found the issue overall to be a bit of a bore. I'm not one to shy away from the group just hanging around and doing nothing, as long as what they're doing is somewhat interesting, but the set-up that we are made to endure in this issue is kind of tiresome and the action bits at the beginning to give you a bit of an adrenaline boost before the real doldrums begin fall somewhat short of exciting.

As for Hitch's artwork, I've seen better from the guy. I don't know if it's the format or Neary's inks or what, but I just didn't feel the magic here.

Also, as a sidebar, I'm not sure I really enjoy the post Civil War Marvel U, so watching Millar try and pull off a 'reconciliation', as he puts it, doesn't hold a lot of interest for me at this point. We'll see how it goes.

I'm not too sure I'm going to stick with the title through the whole Millar/Hitch year, but my curiosity is enough to keep me onboard for at least three or four more issues.

Star Wars: Dark Times #5-6: Part of getting back to the LCS was catching up on titles I'd sort of left behind in the middle of a storyline, like Star Wars: Dark Times. Grabbing #5, the end to the "Path to Nowhere" storyline, and #6, the beginning of the "Parallels" story, I was reminded why this was the only Star Wars book that I would not only pick up regularly, but go out of my way to obtain it.

For those of you who may not know the concept, Dark Times covers that period of Star Wars history post Episode III. In fact, in some cases, it actually picks up immediately after Order 66 is invoked to chronicle what happens to several Jedi not covered by the film (it had to be assumed that not all of the Jedi were wiped out by the Clones). The first 5 issues were great reading with amazing artwork by the talented Doug Wheatley and concluded with a truly heartbreaking ending that fit the series' title to a T. I've just begun the next arc which starts with a bunch of Jedi and younglings being wiped out by Clone Troopers, so I'm assuming that it doesn't appear to promise any lighter fare for the forseeable future.

Still, as editor Randy Stradley comments in the lettercol, perhaps stories like this will show people what happy ending A New Hope really was and just how tough the interim period of the Star Wars saga is.

I'm wondering what the live-action TV series will look like in comparison.

That's it for now, I suppose. I still have a lot to run down so I'll hopefully be back with more soon.

Later!

mike

John Alvin, R.I.P.

I was surprised to find out about the passing of artist, John Alvin, the other day. Part of the reason for that was just the sheer shock at yet another death in the industry following so closely on that of Roy Scheider and Steve Gerber, but also because I was literally just watching him talking on the Blade Runner Ultimate Edition DVD and he seemed perfectly fine. I guess you can never really see a heart attack coming, but to turn around and hear of his passing was just a little shocking.

StarWars.com has a nice tribute done up for him that also showcases some of his work. If you have any interest in the man or his work, I'd urge you to pop over and check it out.

Later!

mike

Untitled Bill & Ted Project

There's not much information on it here, but those 5 words have filled me with a small ember of hope that the Bill & Ted in their 40s story that Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves talk about every now and then is an actual possibility.

Knock on wood.

mike

First Day Back in the World

Today was my first day back at work which was all right, all things considered. My lungs have had better days, that's for certain, but overall it was pretty low key with not too many customers and very low expectations. I basically puttered most of the day away and got used to being back in the world, as it were. It was a little more tiring than I anticipated and the dust and grit floating around in the air at work didn't help with the coughing at all, but it's good to be making some cash again. I think I've only missed 3 or 4 actual days of work so I won't feel it too terribly hard on the old paycheque, but any more time off and I think things would start to hurt a bit monetarily.

Not a bad start. I just hope my reacclimation period isn't too long.

I'm sure I'll update the situation later.

mike

Mad Rage

I just spent 2 freakin' hours at the minor emergency clinic to get a doctor's note confirming that, yes, I did have pneumonia and I wasn't just faking work out. I waited an hour in the waiting room and then an hour in the examination room for about a minute and a half of the doctor's time.

If I didn't have some X-Files to watch right now, I'd probably be out on a mad rampage with my cat somewhere.

Later!

mike

More Sad News

Steve Gerber, creator of Howard the Duck and many other comic book properties for Marvel, DC and various indie companies, died on the 10th of February as a result of his long battle with pulmonary fibrosis.

Howard was the only Gerber character that had a truly lasting impression on myself as a reader but I did enjoy his work wherever I encountered it, be it on television or in the funny boooks. He was a brilliant satirist, a unique voice, and a presence in the industry that will be sorely missed now that he is no longer with us.

Mark Evanier, long-time friend and colleague to Steve, has a nice tribute to him up on his blog which I'd urge you to go check out.

And don't think I didn't notice that Steve passed on the same day as Roy Scheider. Not a great week.

mike

R.I.P. Roy Scheider

I just saw this on Sci-Fi Wire this evening:

Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known to genre fans for starring in Steven Spielberg's '90s TV series SeaQuest DSV and 1975's Jaws, died Feb. 10 at age 75, the Associated Press reported; he died of complications from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells.

I've been a fan of Scheider's for years and was very sad to learn the news. Anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time will probably know that I'm a big Jaws fan and hold his role in that film as, probably, my favourite that he's ever done. Yeah, I know he was in The French Connection and a slew of other films, and he's a great presence in all of them, but I think Jaws was the first movie I ever saw him in and he made such a great impression on me.



Rest in peace,Roy.

mike

Pneumonia...Not a Fun Thing

So, I discovered a few days ago that I have pneumonia. After a week or so of feeling draggy and unpleasant I developed a heaving dry cough, a fever, shakes and just felt unpleasant overall. I hit the minor emergency clinic where they told me that I was in the beginning stages of pneumonia and hooked me up with some antibiotics to fight off the bad mojo.

I spent Thursday at home in bed, Friday at my parents house with my daughter, me lying on the couch feeling like shit, Emma fighting off her own cold and watching Family channell all day in the play room there.

I've never been this sick before. I've taken a day or two off work before for the odd flu or cold but this thing is potent. It'll be a few days yet before I make it back into the co-op. Hell, it'll be a few days, I'm sure, before I make it out of the house for any length of time. This is not something I'd reccomend to anyone.

The only bright light amidst all the sickness and near-death experiences was the fact that, while waiting for my precription to be ready, I found Season 3 of Futurama for a really great price and picked it up. I've watched all the commentary tracks so far and will wait for my health to get better before watching the episodes since I want my brother, Ed, to be in on that action. I've seen most of the episodes already, so it's no big whoop waiting a few days.

Anyways, I'm sure I'll post a few more times before my quarantine is up.

Later!

mike

Optical Drive Burnout

Well, I've finally managed to burn out my DVD-ROM drive. I'd heard that it was possible, I knew that the day would eventually come, and after several years of faithful service, my Pioneer DVR-109 has finally gone the way of the dodo. She still reads okay, but the writing capability on it is completely shot and the disc hardly spins up anymore.

The good news is that optical drives are cheap as borscht, so I've already replaced it and am just waiting to get at the guts of my computer in order to install the new one.

I'll be up and running again in no time, I'm sure.

Later!

mike

In a Boyle Sort of Mood

I find myself these days gathering together a large number of Danny Boyle films around me in the wake of my watching 28 Days Later and Sunshine. For that matter, the two most recent books I've read have been The Beach and The Coma by Alex Garland, screenwriter of both of those films. I'm not sure, exactly, what about those movies and books is speaking to my particular frame of mind, but they seem to be giving me some comfort.

Boyle is a filmmaker I've always followed (his 'trilogy' of films with Ewan McGregor, John Hodge and Andrew MacDonald being my faves) so rounding out the collection is feeling pretty good right now. I've never had a copy of Trainspotting and The Beach and Millions are nice additions to the collection. I also picked up 28 Days Later a couple of weeks ago, I think. At this point, with the exception of some of the smaller works they've done, I think Shallow Grave is the only one I've yet to grab (unfortunate seeing as it's one of my all-time faves from Boyle and co.). I'm pretty sure the DVDs I've seen of it are all fullscreen with no features, so I'm in no hurry to grab one of those. If anybody knows of a nice widescreen copy, feel free to let me know where I can grab one.

On the Garland front, I enjoyed The Beach immensely and feel confident that it won't help my opinion of the film, which I didn't enjoy too much the first time, anyway. The Coma I read the same night I finished The Beach and am still sort of trying to unclench my mind. I loved it as a story but its Kafkaesque elements leave your brain a bit twisted at the end. I'm kind of cruising for something new, now. I'm thinking of trying out The Tesseract but I'm not all that interested in South East Asia, so I'm not sure how much I'll like it.

I hear he wrote teleplay for the BBC in the late '90s based on that book. I should look into whether or not it was ever produced.

Later!

mike

Sick Day...But Not All Bad

I'm off work today on yet another sick day. Man, everyone and their dog has come down with either a flu, a cold, or both at some point and time. We're operating short at work because there is a minimum of 2 people off sick every day (plus the few people off on holidays and the like, but never mind them).

Anyway, as much as I hated staying home yet again, things weren't all bad today. I did pop off for a bit with the family on a shopping trip which I was able to shanghai briefly to grab some new comics! I haven't bought any comics in about three months and I was really starting to chomp at the bit. I was particularly down because I was concerned that I would miss the final two issues of Howard the Duck, the final issue of Starlord, the beginning of Angel: After the Fall (which I have genuinely missed the boat on), and the new Courtney Crumrin book which the family has been awaiting for some months now.

So, with new reading material may come new review material (for those of you who bother to read them when I do them) but not until tomorrow at the earliest. I'm off to my brothers to install some software on his Macbook for him so he can do something with Garage Band. As tech support goes, it could be worse.

Later!

mike

Perfect Playlist

Have you ever hit random on your CD player, iPod or MP3 player and what came out was just the perfect mix or blend of tunes to fit your particular mood?

That's sort of happened to me today and has been running pretty consistent since I left the house this afternoon to the tune of John Mayer's 'Why, Georgia'. I take my iPod with me to work to zone out on my coffee breaks and lunch hour, or occasionally just to avoid talking to some people when I'd rather just be reading, and every time I turned it on it was not only a perfectly timed track but also one that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

Normally this would seem a pretty trivial thing, but I was feeling kind of down today and it helped create a nice sort of balance for methat helped get me through an otherwise difficult 9 hours.

That said, I'm gonna head back to watch some more Galactica commentary.

Later!

mike

Settling Down

It's been kind of nice around the Jozic HQ as of late, partially because things have settled down somewhat since Jen got her snazzy new job, and partly because I've managed to get back in the habit of reading for pleasure and I've also been catching up on my backlog of DVDs I should be watching.

One of the books that I've picked up is Frank Espinosa's Rocketo. If you've never heard about this book, I would seriously reccomend checking it out. It's a great sci-fi adventure story with heroes, monsters, myth, mystery all beautifully packaged in a spiffy trade that is one of the nicest book designs I've seen in a while.

I've also finally read Warren Ellis' and Colleen Doran's Orbiter, which was a long time coming, I'll tell you. Something about watching Sunshine the other night just got me in the mood for a story like this one and the Ellis/Doran team did not disappoint. The only slightly off moment in the story was the abruptness of the ending, but I think I can let that slide in light of the sheer excellence of the rest of the 90 odd pages of the book. Again, if you haven't seen this one yet, go find it at your local comic shop or at the library. It is definitely worth it.

Novel-wise, I took a little break from Chrichton's Next due to lack of plot 250 pages into the story, and picked up Alex Garland's The Beach, again, based on the mad love I have going on for his film, Sunshine. I didn't like the movie too much when I saw it, but his writing style is pretty fluid and Nick Hornby gave him a rave review (and you all should know of my love for Nick) so I figured I'd give it the old college try. I'll probably go back and try to get a bit further along with Next today or tomorrow, but I doubt it'll be too productive.

On the DVD front, I caught the aforementioned Sunshine with my brother in a double bill rental with Eagle vs. Shark. Both were fabulous and I suggest you all go out and find them, of course. Sunshine was a little bit 2001, a little bit Alien and a bit of Solaris (all influences Boyle mentions in the commentary) and Eagle vs. Shark is Napolean Dynamite if it was from New Zealand, a romantic comedy, and as good as Eagle vs. Shark.

The Turtles buzz I mentioned a post or two ago continues as I finish up Season 4 of the new animated series. It's not the best cartoon that ever was, or anything, but there are definitely a lot of things that set it apart from other Saturday morning shows. There's a strong desire to stick to the original lore of the comics, it's light-hearted but characters do die (off-camera and bloodless, sure, but their dead, Jim...pushing up daisies) and they try and keep a running continuity/plotline instead of just doing one-off episodes which I respect and admire.

Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures has also been fun. An underrated show that includes George Segal and Robert Patrick among its voice actors. I'm one of the poeple who absolutely adore the original series and really enjoyed the 'update' it got in the '90s with this show. I have the original DVDs but am waiting patiently to see if they will ever release The Real Adventures. They probably won't, but if you can get Punky Brewster on DVD, you never know.

And with that, I say adieu.

mike

A Little Embarrassed

I recently read the first hardcover collection of All-Star Superman and have to admit that it is probably some of the best Superman stories I have ever read in my life. I also have to admit that looking at the cover, which is a repro of the first issue's cover (which I own and have looked at many times), I never noticed that Supes was sitting on a cloud looking down over Metropolis. For some crazy reason, I thought he was sitting on a mountain somewhere, relaxing for a spell in-between crime-busting and galaxy saving activities. I've always loved the cover by Frank Quitely, but have to say I'm just a bit embarrassed that I never caught that before.

It's possible that I was thinking of this old Superman cover by Dan Jurgens. I mean, it's Supes on a mountain with snow. I can't think of any other valid explanation for it.

That being said, I can't wait for HC collection #2. For whatever reason I stopped buying these after the first issue and it's nice to be able to get a chance to read these for the first time.

Later!

mike

Samurai Tourist

As anyone who has kept up with the blog must know, I am a big fan of Stan Sakai's very cool Usagi Yojimbo comic book. For the last little while, I have been working my way through the collected books and finally reading the series in chronological order rather than in the piecemeal fashion I have in the past. The last book I read (Book 8, I think) featured the Ninja Turtles/Usagi cross-over story which I vaguely remembered from back in the day when I was a huge Eastman/Laird Turtles fan and still find pretty entertaining now despite the hackneyed plot contrivances used to bring the two properties together.

Flash forward to last night when I decided to pop in Simon's TMNT Season 4 DVDs and the episode, "Samurai Tourist".

On Boxing Day I bought the TMNT CGI movie for Simon (dirt cheap, I might add) and watched the audio commentary for it about 4 or 5 days ago. It kind of got me in a Turtle sort of mood and, lacking any actual comic books that I have easy access to, I popped in the series DVDs to get my fix. Two episodes in there's a rhino with his horn cut off who looks remarkably like Gen walking around Manhattan. I know I shouldn't have been surprised because Usagi has made prior appearances on the show, but it was a surprise so I got a smidge excited.

The episode was not all that great, all things considered, but it was still a neat-o little guest-shot that I stumbled into and it sort of made my night.

Doesn't speak much for how I spend my nights, does it?

Anyway, thanks to the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo for the pic of the cute little bugger to the right, and with that I'll sign off for the night.

Later!

mike

Three Years

Happy anniversary to me.

It was three years ago today that I decided to hit the web and create one of those blog things everyone and their dog was talking about. It was something that I avoided for a while, mostly because I'm generally slow to jump on any internet bandwagon, but also because I was never really sure what to do with one if I started one up.

For all intents and purposes, I still don't know what to 'do' with it other than use it as an occasional soapbox or a way to keep the writing muscles from completely atrophying. I've tried the regular review thing and that doesn't seem to be working too well for me. I've also tried the online diary thing, the linkblog, and toyed a bit with an interview blog, but the 'glove', as it were, doesn't quite fit just yet.

Hopefully in the new year I'll do a little more in the way of regular posting and, fingers crossed, get to writing some of the things I discussed in the last few posts, like my Indy reviews and what-not (I know you're all biting your nails through waiting for me to get right on that, by the way).

Anyway, we'll see you in 2008!

Onwards and upwards!

mike

I Am Lethargy

Well, that might be taking it a little too far, really, but it has been waaaay too long since I made a post on the blog. There were a couple of attempts in the last week or two, but nothing that really made it through. We have been pretty busy, of late, what with Jen finding a job and me taking the promotion and Christmas being here and all that. Still, like most bloggers at one time or another, I just couldn't find the time, or energy, to sit down and contribute a post for whatever reason.

This time out, I wanted to extend my heartiest Christmas wishes to everybody out there in the blogosphere and beyond, and to wish everyone all the best in the New Year (in case I don't make it on again until then). I probably should be on in the next day or so because I did want to talk about the new film I Am Legend, which I just saw tonight, and also to commemorate the blog's anniversary which is coming up in a scant few days (if I'm feeling productive, I may even join the masses and cook up a year end list like proper bloggers do).

Take care everyone, and to all a good-night.

mike

Promotion Time

Well, it's official. I got a promotion at work the other day and I will be the new GD2 at the Co-op Home Centre on Avenue C. It's not a bad deal, really. I get a pay raise of about a buck, my wage cap is raised, and I have a little more that I'm supposed to do around the store. I'll be managing the electrical department, which is funny since I don't know much about electrical stuff, but time and a little work should make all the difference.

In a couple of months or so I'll probably try and make another jump to Building Materials Clerk which will be nice cash-flow-wise.

Then we just need to set up Jen with something and we just might achieve that comfort zone we've been trying to hit for the last few years.

Knock wood.

Onwards and upwards!

mike

Time is Not on My Side

Man, I'm just not finding the time to come on and blog these days. Between my work, the kids' stuff, and Jen looking for a job, what little time I do have during the day I don't generally spend sitting at the computer. I feel bad, though, especially after making plans to do a bunch of reviews (all of which I will get to, in time). Still, if your heart's not in it, your heart's not in it.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a post in before it dragged on for too long without and to update the situation for anyone who actually bothers to check this blog out.

I'll be back when I can.

Onwards and upwards!

mike

See First Pic of Dark Knight's Joker

Empire Online has this neat little page revealing Heath Ledger as The Joker in the new Chris Nolan film, Batman: The Dark Knight.

And, yes, I am aware that I have yet to post any of the previously promised things. They're still coming. Maybe this weekend.

Maybe.

Onwards and upwards!

mike

Grey Cup & the Weather

I think I know why Saskatchewan finally won the Grey Cup. After walking outside into blistering cold weather yesterday, I realised that Hell had, indeed, frozen over.

Coincidence? I think not.

mike

On the Computer After the Concert

I just got back from the Stars show here in town. They were touring their amazing new offering, In Our Bedroom After the War, and I hit the shoiw with brother, Ed who got back from Calgary just in time to see it.

Got to hear some great tunes new and old, got to talk to the band (sans Torq), and will post show review and thoughts when it's not 3 a.m. (not that it's going to be easy to sleep after this).

Take me to the riot, baby!

mike

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones

As many of you probably know I have been on a bit of an Indy kick lately. Ever since the announcement of the new film, I've been positively buzzing with excitement. It has become a common occurrence in the Jozic household to have members of family and friends passing through be subjected to an array of on-set videos, images and trivia regarding Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They know my intentions are good so they mostly tolerate the fanboy behaviour.

As a result fo this so-called kick, I've been indulging in several Indy related things and eyeing several others to work it out of my system. For example, I'll probably dust off the first three films soon and give them a once over, and I'm thinking of going back and rereading some of my Indy novels that cover the period between 1920 and 1935, written by Rob McGregor, Martin Caidin and Max McCoy, respectively.

For the time being, however, I've been getting my kicks from a couple of different sources. The first is the Young Indiana Jones DVDs that I mentioned in a previous post. I've really been enjoying revisiting the old show, particularly since I haven't seen every episode (surprise of all surprises) so there's still that spark of newness to it despite being 10+ years old. I've also been delving into the Indy comics published by Marvel called, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. In the past I read a handful of these issues but pretty much dismissed them, mostly for not being official Lucasfilm canon. Looking back on the series, though, there's a lot of interesting talent on hand in this series and I think it's probably worth a second look.

The likes of Howard Chaykin, John Byrne, Denny O'Neil, Gene Day, Steve Ditko, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden and others make it a worthwhile effort to go back and explore these stories, and since I'm a lot less fussy about what is and what isn't official Indy canon, it might be a lot of fun, too.

After making the decision to rearead the old series I also made the decision to read and review/profile each issue as I go along here on the blog. Worst case scenario, I cave and stop after doing a handful of issues. Best case scenario, I manage to fill the time between now and the May 2008 release date of the 4th film and generate some worthwhile content for the blog.

I'll try and get the first two issues by Byrne and O'Neil up by tomorrow, and then try and do one a week from there on in. We'll see how it goes.

To quote the man in the hat, "I'm just making this up as I go along."

Onwards and upwards!

mike

Another Post

Heh.

I accidentally put this placeholder here with every intention of getting to it the same night, but the best laid plans...

It's been pretty busy here at Jozic HQ so I'm just going to mention that I'm watching the Young Indy DVDs for now and that I'll be posting a review and some thoughts on revisiting the show so many years later.

Upwards and Onwards!

mike

Listenin' to the Podcast

Throughout the first two seasons of Galactica I followed the Ronald D. Moore podcasts religiously. I sort of let it slide with season 3, for some reason, but with the upcoming film, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, hitting the Sci-Fi channel in a couple of weeks I figured I'd give myself a bit of a Galactica refresher.

I usually listen to commentaries and interviews on my iPod as I'm going to work, while I'm on my coffee and lunch breaks, and as I'm coming home, so I've been putting the Galactica podcasts on there and going through them starting with the first two-part episode. I'm remembering some of the things that are being said because of the first time I listened to them back when they were originally posted, but I'm also picking up new observations and accomplishing my overall task of getting my brain wrapped up in the Galactica universe again.

It's tough when a show goes off the air for months at a time. It's been a while since season 3 reached it's strange and baffling crescendo, and from all the information I've seen since, it will be some months before we officially return to the continuiing storyline in season 4. It sort of takes you out of the story to the point where you stop caring what's coming up. You can only sustain that cliffhanger interest for so long and when you live without it around for that long, with no satisfying conclusion of any kind, it just tends to fade away.

So, hopefully the podcasts keep the interest level high and Razor does its job of keeping the home fires burning while we ramp up to the season 4 premiere. I do miss the show, and this will be the last season, so I want to go into it with the right kind of headspace.

Onwards and upwards!

mike