Teen Titans, Go! Here

Ran into this site while surfing around tonight. As a fan of the show and the comic, it gave me a few moments of reading pleasure.

Later!

mike

Thinking About Blankets

Yeah, so I just finished reading Craig Thompson's critically acclaimed graphic novel, Blankets. I had heard so many good things about it I thought I would give it a try when I saw it during one of my library trips early in the week. Also, I knew it was autobiographical, somewhat sentimental and dealt with Thompson's first love so I was pretty sure I was going to like it. There are a few things that, when combined, make a story that will capture my undivided attention and those are three good ones right there.

Anyway, after setting the book down I think I can say the story was just as good as I'd heard. It was more than I expected, really. I was happy with how Thompson managed to keep things very subdued and very real, yet maintain a lyrical quality to the storytelling. The imagery and his art style probably had a lot to do with that, but considering it is a graphic novel written and drawn by the same guy, it's all the same thing.

Often in autobiographies I find that characters who are meant to be drawn from real life tend to be a bit too functional. Rather than seeming like a real person drifting through the narrative, these people appear and serve their purpose to drive the plot forward. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but when you know that these people are supposed to be real, it can grow tiresome to see. In Blankets Thompson's cast of characters had a warmth and reality to them. I never really felt like they served in that overly functional capacity. They came into the story and drifted out of the story as they were required and their actions all had an impact on Craig's life in varying degrees. This is what life is really like. That Thompson can weave them all in and out like that without exposing his narrative intent is a tribute to his skill as a storyteller.

I also didn't feel like he went out of his way to romanticize his past like many others writers do. His recollections of events/feelings never seemed to cross any lines that challenged my suspension of disbelief. They came across as honest and genuine. I don't know how much of it is fiction and how much is totally real, but I believed the story and in what the characters were going through.

All in all, I think I'm going to go out and buy this one sometime. I definitely would like to have this one in my personal library to look at whenever I choose and I'm pretty sure that, like Brooklyn Dreams, Blankets will be a perennial favourite that I return to with some regularity.

mike

A Baby for Scully and This One's Not Mulder's

Pulled this off of SciFi Wire:

Former The X-Files star Gillian Anderson gave birth to a baby boy, Oscar Griffiths, on Nov. 1 in London, her second child and her first with boyfriend businessman Mark Griffiths, People magazine reported.

Congrats to Gillian, Mark and little Piper.

Later!

mike

The Great Pumpkins Return

Both the CD players in the home and in the vehicle have been playing a pretty steady stream of the Smashing Pumkins' seminal album, 'Siamese Dream'. I think it is pretty much my favourite album from the band, and likely one of my top 10 of, at the very least, the last 25 or 30 years. Something about the richness and texture of the music just grabs hold of me and doesn't let go. Maybe that's what 40 layers of guitar tracks in one song do to a receptive ear and mind, I don't know.

In fact, when I got my new demo this weekend, it didn't feel exactly right until my brother and I got in it and blasted some 'Siamese Dream' - a little "Mayonaise", a little "Rocket" and a little "Hummer" did the trick just fine.

Anyway, all this Pumpkins listening and christening got me to do an internet search (I think I was looking for a remastered version of 'Siamese Dream' or something) and I stumbled across this. I never would have imagined that the four original members would be getting back together anytime soon, but it looks like there is a new album forthcoming. They're working on it probably as I'm writing this post.

There's not much up on the webpage right now other than an e-mail newsletter sign up field, but you can get more info and blog entries by band guitarist, James Iha, at their myspace account.

Now I have to go and let my brother in on it.

Later!

mike

"This town needs an enema!"

A little while ago I managed to snag a copy of Batman Returns for less than $5. It was the new 2-Disc edition with the commentary and features and what-not so naturally I was excited. I'd been waiting many years for a commentary on this film or its predecessor, Batman, so I got it home, tore it out of its case and plugged her into the ol' DVD player post haste.

A couple of days ago I found the first Batman film for the same price and went through pretty much the same process. The only real complaint I have with either release is that Burton's commentary is kind of so-so and not terribly informative. He repeats a lot of things about three or four times over the course of the film and doesn't really talk about the movie in a very retrospective way. Lots of reminding the viewer/listener about the psychological profiles they made for the characters but not too much else.

I was hoping for something a little more interesting based on how decent his commentaries on Big Fish, Planet of the Apes and others were. I guess it's nice to have anything, but it would have been cool to hear something from Keaton (who was great in the documentaries) or Sam Hamm on the first one or Keaton and Daniel Waters on the second. Even some producer commentary would have shaken it up a bit.

Ah, well.

I'm going back to watch the Legend of the Dark Knight documentary.

Later!

mike

Bouncing Around

I can't seem to keep my interest in any one thing for very long these days. A week and a bit ago I was totally immersed in the David Simon book, Homicide, which was followed shortly afterwards by a desire to watch some original Trek. That preceded the urge to read some classic Batman strips and a Gerard Jones interview I heard a little bit ago planted a seed to hear some Shadow radio episodes or to possibly pick up some issues of The Shadow Strikes!. Anytime I try and actually focus on something there's always something else that sneaks up and undermines the one for the other.

It's not really a big deal or anything, but it is occasionally disorienting when I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself in the evenings before bed. What to watch, what to read, what to listen to...yeah, my problems are overwhelming.

On another note entirely, I watched a double feature of Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite with my brother last night and it was a pretty entertaining evening filled with a few belly laughs and guffawing. It should be no surprise that the two movies work pretty well together, although I will say that my preference will always lean more towards Nacho over Napoleon. I just find it more funny. It's fan-TAST-ic.

Nothing else is coming to me at the moment so I'll take my leave for now and go back to being the faux receptionist here at Saturn.

I'll leave you with this clip from a new show which other bloggers have been talking about but I cannot watch because it is not available in Canada yet...



Later!

mike

Back Online!

Well, back online for a while, anyway. I got my internet problems sorted out and I am once again jacked in to the information superhighway. That means some more non-work blogging which, in turn, means more frequent updates. It also means that a little project I was working on may still get off the ground since it was internet dependent.

I don't have a lot of time right now to post but I'll definitely be back later tonight or tomorrow for sure.

Later!

mike

'I'm a Blogger! I'm a Blogger!'

Having never been formally trained as a journalist/interviewer, yet spending almost a decade dabbling in such activities and occasionally identifying myself as an entertainment journalist, I found this article kind of interesting.

Now, I'm sure there is a line somewhere in the argument over when blogging becomes journalism, but I'd say it's a very grey one. We've all seen blogs that deliver better news than the established outlets but there are just as many, if not more, that are just rubbish. And it's also pretty clear that those that cover more serious news/issues face considerably more scrutiny than those that cover gossip, film, music or comics.

I know I'm not introducing anything new to anyone who visits and reads the blog here, I just thought it was an interesting piece to mull over and I'm curious to see where the courts rule on this topic.

Back to work, now.

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama The Final Chapter

Happy Halloween, folks. Hope you're having a good one.

This last clip is from William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: Legion. It's one of the scenes that left an impression on me when I first watched it. It's long, slow and uneventful - until the very end, anyway. It still freaks out people when I show it to them.



I was going to pick a clip from the first Exorcist film but couldn't find a good one kicking around online. Not that using one from the third is a step down in any way, I just would have picked something from the final 30 minutes of the first film if I had a choice.

And that, my kiddies, brings a close to the clip-o-rama. I should mention that I may be absent for a bit after this since I'm without internet access for a while, but I'll try and come on whenever I can and post a few words.

Later!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Day 5

I struggled a bit with what to include this time around. I had two other choices that I decided not to go with - possibly to feature one or the other on tomorrow's posting - choosing instead to feature some zombie brain-eating fun. Much like yesterday's claim, what would a clip-fest be without some zombie love, especially in this exceptionally zombie-friendly period of the genre?

There are tons to choose from but I decided to go with a Romero's Dawn of the Dead, partly because I've seen it recently, and partly because I can feature both the old...



...as well as the new:



Not only that, but I can also sneak in a third 'cheat' clip, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's zombie tribute film, Shaun of the Dead:



I'm not going to do the usual trip down memory lane since I'm not posting this at home and I really do need to run, but three clips should keep y'all busy enough not to care too much. Odds are, you weren't paying them much mind anyway.

One day to go. See you tomorrow!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Day 4

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

It's also Day 4 for the Halloween Clip-O-Rama, a series of posts where I stick up a clip of one of my favourite horror/spooky movies and save myself the trouble of coming up with anything too terribly interesting to say.

This next clip probably needs no introduction:



I think my introduction to the Evil Dead series was through a friend named Robin Bougie. I had watched Army of Darkness shortly after I met him and he knew someone who had edited the three films together into one 4 1/2 hour movie. The video quality was terrible, but it was pretty cool to experience it that way and it sort of started the whole snowball effect that was to follow. Now Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are synonymous with must see, even if it's a no-budget D2DVD or D2Video project that I would have passed over without a second thought in the past.

Anyway, no list or series of clips would have been complete without including something from the series.

Later!

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama Days 2 & 3

My internet connection has gone to crap so I'm going to have to post my updates from work here 2 at a time until I get it sorted out. Two today, two on Monday,I'm sure.

Anyway, this time around we have a clip from two really fun movies, Dog Soldiers and John Carpenter's The Thing. We'll start with the former:



This was one of those 'Have you seen this movie' kinds of experiences where most of my friends and close acquaintances had seen it before me and tried to spread the word about it. It was a bit before my listen to what people tell you to watch/hear/read stage of my life so I was skeptical about this low-budget gore-fest with werewolves and SAS soldiers. It just didn't sound too promising at face value. Once I finally sat down and watched it, though, I was totally thrilled with what these guys put together - its humour, its horror, its timing, acting and story were all very cool and a real breath of fresh air for werewolf movies.

As for the latter:



I've been fascinated with this movie since I was 10 years old. It was a whole different experience for me back then, but the sheer love of the movie and its nail-biting suspense soldiers on. I love MacReady's hat, the many incarnations of the monster courtesy of Rob Bottin, Wilford Brimley was a hoot and this clip of one of my favourite cinema moments of all time. I remember watching it late one night with some buddies and when this thing popped, my stone cold friend launched 4 feet off the couch.

Priceless.

Not to mention it started a long-lasting love affair with Carpenter which continues to this day. In fact, you'll probably be seeing another Carpenter movie on the list before the 31st.

Well, they're bugging me to get off the computer so I better bail. Until next time!

mike

One Week To Halloween - Clip-O-Rama

I figured since it's one week until Halloween (one of my favourite times of year) I would celebrate with a series of clips from fave movies or shows that have a spooky or Halloween themed element to them.

First up is a fave scene from one of my top 5 movies of all time, Ghostbusters:



I can't even put in words how much I love this movie. It's left an indellible mark on me since I first saw it waaaay back in '84. I even still have pieces of the Ghostbuster Halloween costume I made in grade 8 although, sadly, the proton pack and positron glider are no more. Still, the Spengler bage is still proudly adorned on the ol' overalls so something got preserved.

I should see if my buddy Brad (I think he was Venkman) still has remnants of his suit or a photo or something. It's possible he may still have the trap we made.

Anyway, good clip, great line, fantastic movie.

Until tomorrow!

mike

Slow Work Day

Very slow day at work so I had the opportunity to finish reading the screenplay for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I had ordered the book from Amazon a while back and I was pretty happy to have it arrive a couple of days ago. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it in that baited breath sort of way, but I've missed the old show and character and was happy to have something new to peruse to get that ol' charge again.

Originally getting this book was a big draw for people who were unable to see the director's cut of the film because it includes all the deleted scenes, but since Warner Bros. released the unedited version (by popular demand) on DVD that novelty has sort of worn off. I was pleased to discover, however, that a few scenes/lines that were in the screenplay never made the final cut. Nothing major, just a few words here and there that are cool for the trivia obsessed collector like me. Like when Woof comes out of the Jolly Jack building, sees all the cops and says, "Aw, man!"

Good stuff.

Looks like I'm going to have to go and watch the movie again because finishing the book has me all jazzed up. Unlikely that it'll be a movie night with the wife or kids, so I'll have to find 90 minutes somewhere when nobody is around to bother me.

Now that I think about it, I'm almost done the Superman series, maybe it's time I move on to Beyond as my next watch-it-again animated series.

Something to think about.

Anyway, back to work.

Later!

mike

Giving the Yokos Their Due

If you are the type of person who bothers to check out the Amazon links every now and then, you may have noticed that as of today they've all changed over. Beyond that, in the 'What I'm Hearing' column you may also have noticed that the album cover for the Yoko Casionos album is missing - not my fault but Amazon.ca's. I saw these guys live opening for Sloan this past weekend and I thought they were really great. Good energy onstage and they managed to really warm the crowd up netting them a receptive audience - something show openers don't always have the luxury of seeing.

I wouldn't have put them on the sidebar if I didn't want to draw attention to them, so to compensate for Amazon's shortcomings I'm going to post their album cover here:



And here's a YouTube clip of them performing live:



Not the greatest performance of this song (it was better at our show) but somethign to look at anyway.

Later!

mike

Interview Subject Drought Hereby Endeth

My search for an interesting interview subject has continued all week. Since my last post on the subject, I've e-mailed John Rogers but that hasn't turned into anything good. A little disappointed since he is working with Giffen on Blue Beetle and he's done some nice work on one of my new favourite shows, Eureka. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I also went and did some research on a Mr. Andy Diggle to see if he might be a nice addition to what I'm referring to as the Inaugural Four. After reading a bunch of interviews with the guy I decided that I would likely have a thing or two to ask him so I went ahead and e-mailed him as well. That was today, so I'm still awaiting a response. We'll see how that goes.

There is some good news, though. Another e-mail I sent today has borne fruit and I'm actually pretty excited at the prospect of getting a chance to talk with this guy, even if only by e-mail.

I just got word from Telltale Games' PR person that Steve Purcell is kind of available and will answer a handful of questions if I can send them some to forward on to him. He's apparently a really busy guy so I only get, like, 5-8 questions total, but it's more than 0 so I am happy. I've wanted to interview Purcell since the beginning, really, and having him as a part of the IF is going to be very cool indeed.

Now I just have to think of 5-8 really good questions.

Later!

mike

Made It To 500!

Hey, hey...

I wish I was posting something of more substance for the big 5-0-0 but I have a minute at work here and thought I would come on and make the ol' presence felt again before going back to the wonderful world of auto sales.

Probably the thing of most significance for me this wekend was seeing Sloan again at the Odeon Event Centre here in town. It's, I think, my fourth time seeing the band and they just keep getting better and better. Last year I indoctrinated my brother with their 'A-Sides Win' tour, promoting their greatest hits album. It used to be a lonely but fulfilling enterprise but now I get to share in the Sloan fandom so it's all good.



I also watched the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car this weekend. Working at Saturn, my interest was piqued after I saw the trailer for this movie when I went to see A Scanner Darkly. The Saturn connection is, of course, the EV-1, GM's first Electric Car which they brought into the world and then did everything they could to bury it. The doc is an interesting one and done sans Michael Moore mudslinging. It's well thought out, well presented and makes its arguments well.

Here's an interview with the film's director, Chris Paine:



If you get a chance to see this one, take the opportunity. You'll probably be glad you did.

So, other than moving a tub, working a women's trade show and listening to my brother talk about his new date, that was pretty much my whole weekend. Not too shabby, but nothing too dramatic.

Just like this post, I'd wager.

Anyway, 500 and counting. Later!

mike

A Spirited Life

Continuing the link to interviews series...

Bob Andelman, writer of the Will Eisner biography A Spirited Life, has been doing an interview blog for a little while now. There are some really good ones that are worth checking out. I particularly liked the one with Darwyn Cooke and am looking forward to digging around the site some more. Other subjects include Dave Sim, Howard Chaykin, Bo Hampton, Will Eisner and Alex Saviuk and Gary Chaloner, to name a few.

If you like Eisner, interviews or The Spirit, these are worth checking out.

Later!

mike

Frustrated Interviewer Seeks Subject

Argh!

I've just checked my gMail account which, lately, has been a continuing exercise in frustration. I've sent out three interview requests so far, all of whom I had in mind for launching the new interview blog that I talked about in an earlier post, and no one seems to be interested in participating or, in some cases, responding.

The first of which, Brian K. Vaughan, was chronicalled right here on the blog a few weeks ago. I have become a huge fan of Vaughan's Escapists comic book and have been enjoying his Doctor Strange mini-series, and with his impending departure from Runaways and the release of Pride of Baghdad, I figured Brian for a shoe-in. Over-commitment ended up being my downfall there, I think. I was told that he was unable to fulfill many of the requests he had already agreed to so he wasn't going to take on any more.

Understandable.

So, I rolled up my shirtsleeves and decided to go with my follow-up plan. I searched for some contact information and quickly fired off an e-mail to X-Men: First Class artist, Roger Cruz. The first issue of his and Jeff Parker's mini-series has done very well for itself, and Roger has also introduced a new style which I thought might be interesting to talk about. A response, however, has not been forthcoming.

Granted, I may have sent it to an e-mail that he doesn't check very often or is even valid, now that I think about it. For that matter, there may even be a language barrier to consider here since Roger is a native of Brazil and may not be comfortable communicating in English. I know that in the past I conducted an interview with Humberto Ramos and I discovered that he was a little gun-shy about his responses since English was actually his second language. I don't think that is the case (I've seen interviews with Roger and he seems quite eloquent) but I have to entertain all possibilities.

Whatever the reasons, I decided to move on to Plan C, as it were, and sent a request to another creator I'm itching to talk to, Ted Naifeh. I thought that the great thing about doing an interview with Ted right now would be the Halloween connection. Since Ted's known for books like Death, Jr., Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates, tying it into a seasonal holiday sounded like an idea that I couldn't turn down.

Unfortunately, I'm still awaiting a response from Mr. Naifeh, as well.

I know that a big problem here is probably my 'press credentials'. I've been out of the loop for some years now and I have no official ties to anything or anyone other than my own blog and website. If I was doing something Buffy related I'm sure I could muster some attention, but even my contacts at Dark Horse COmics have moved on. And as far as the rest of comicdom is concerned, I'm starting from scratch. Leaning on folks I already know and throwing everything else at the wall to see what sticks.

And for the record, just in case I'm coming off like an unsufferably whiny bitch, I'm not trying to complain or pulling an 'o, woe is me' thing, here. I'm not cruising for a sympathy trip I'm just laying down some thoughts and using the blog for what it was always intended for. I'm just a little surprised and disheartened that I'm 0 for 3 so far.

I'm not 100% sure who is going to be next on the hit-list but I have a few names in mind right now. I'll probably post the results in a future post so don't be surprised if this isn't the end of it.

Later!

mike

Abadazad Interview on NPR

Next up in my brief but burgeoning series of interview links is an NPR audio piece featuring J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog talking about the latest incarnation of the Abadazad series.

It's not a very long piece but if you know me I'm a sucker for J.M. DeMatteis and, really, how often do you get to hear Mike Ploog?

You can listen in RealAudio or with Windows Media Player.

Later!

mike