Ill communication

I just listened to Ill Communication on my way home from work tonight. I left at 9.00p. I realized that it would be a great title for a blog post, so…

I was at work for the second night in a row until 9p, so that’s ill. I have gone just over a month without posting, so that’s ill. If I went a calendar month without a post, that would be ill… therefore, here’s your fluff piece to put a stop to that.

Seriously though, I intimated in the last real post that I’d fill in blanks later, so I guess this is it. I think that blogging during the summer can be a bit tough when you don’t have some regular topic to shout about. I definitely have never had that, so it is here and there. Well, weekends are straight out because the last thing I want is to be in front of a keyboard on a weekend. Weeknights have also been straight out because I have been getting home late most nights and since those are due to work, I have had enough of the keyboard for a day. When not, I want to spend it on the couch in front of the 360 for a game or catch up on summer shows.

Now, I am not complaining about work in any shape or form. I am very much enj... Continue reading »

Who’s watching Watchmen?

Okay, so I was close to the end of my current geek book, so before I left for work this morning, I remembered that I hadn’t finished reading Watchmen and knew that would be perfect new train fodder. I searched my house for 10 minutes looking for it after it wasn’t in my office, where it should have been. I gave up and left for work and had to suffer thru 1.5 train rides of staring at the odd people on the train. (I’m sure they don’t think that about me.)

I got home tonight and spent a further 15 minutes looking everywhere. Looking in the open, under furniture, in boxes, in the kitchen cabinets (and drawers) and nada. No Watchmen to be found.

I never lose anything. Ever.

So, the question is… did I lend it to someone? Anyone have it?

My civic duty

Oooh… I just love it when I can use a Scrubs inspired title for a blog post.

So, today I fulfilled my civic duty by spending a day in the jury pool. I know… fun, right?

Actually, not that bad. It would seem that the folks at this particular courthouse get the fact that no one wants to be there. In fact, I think many are working on their amateur night stand-up routines. I won’t get into the specifics of their comedy, suffice to say that it wasn’t half bad. Heck, even two judges were part of the act!

The decades old orientation video even provided some unintentional comedy. Not quite like a Hanso Foundation film reel, but maybe as old. I’m guessing by the clothing and hairstyles that this thing was filmed during my high school years, so late eighties.

All kidding aside, I will say that the folks were all very nice, especially those two judges and the two court officers babysitting us. This seemed in sharp contrast to the procedural folks I remember from my last dip in the pool 11-12 years ago. As for the folks in the pool itself, not so much. Most everyone was complaining amongst themselves about being there. In fact, I found ... Continue reading »

Three hundred

This is going to be short and sweet because I am so late to the party with it. I have wanted to post on it for a while, ever since seeing it and then reading Jason and Ed’s posts on it, but other things got in the way. I think I’ll be ahead of the curve for the DVD release though, yeah?

I found the premise of writing a graphic novel about this event in history to be quite novel. I mean, how exactly did Frank Miller get about doing this as a project? This is a guy better known to the masses for Sin City, Robocop, Batman (comics) and Tank Girl (heh… well, the original work was better than the flick. Oh where have you gone Lori Petty?). I’m sure I could do some research on the web for this, but I’m a lazy blogger today and like I said, short and sweet.

And, again, being lazy (and potentially dumb to do so), I’m going to go off what I remember as the gist of what either Ed and Jason (or both) were saying about the film. I’m not going to argue that acting in a giant green sound stage is just as easy as one filled with set pieces and extras, never mind in the wild. I will argue that using this method is fairly new to a lot of act... Continue reading »

Magneto

As you may have begun to notice, I get my entertainment news in two forms, my copy of Entertainment Weekly and an E! Online portlet/gadget/widget on my Google page.

Anyway, E! Online is providing me with news of a Magneto solo flick spin-off from the X-Men movies. Set to be an origin piece, this is the way to go for sure. Heck, McKellen might pass on by the time they make it… (that’s not very nice). The Magneto origin is a good one to appeal to a wide audience and exploring his early relationship with Xavier is something that I have always found interesting in the books.

I’m more interested in seeing this spin-off than the Wolverine one.

Captain America, dead?

Yeah, right!

I love how the mainstream media tunes in on stunts like this. I was just listening to Nightline tease this in the background when I clicked on boston.com and this was on the front page.

Name one big hero that has been killed and stayed dead… they even brought back Bucky for crying out loud. Wonder if he was the sniper that did the job…

Fanboy Fodder 9.4

This is about two weeks in coming, but I fell behind for a while and I am now catching up. This week was a heavy DC week, for me anyway (6 books), and it was the second week in a row I bought a ton of books.

Honestly, I’m a little bummed that it took me so long to read some of these books because it was a good week featuring the second installment of the new JLA series, Ultimate Spidey #100 and Ultimates 2 #12. On to the books!

Justice League of America #2 Since I didn’t lead the week issue one came out with its cover, I’ll give the honor to the second issue which features a Michael Turner cover. Kind of odd to have Turner handle the regular cover while the regular artist gets the variant version, but that’s the way today’s comics seem to work. Brad Meltzer celebrates being #1 (at the time) on the bestsellers list with his latest novel, The Book of Fate, with another excellent issue of this book. I’m not one to read novels anymore, but I’m guessing it is as good as his comics writing, no? Getting back to the point, it would seem this cover features the regular lineup even though they are still voting, without a final outcom... Continue reading »

Downey Jr. to Play Stark

It was announced last week that Robert Downey Jr. will play the role of billionaire and genius inventor Tony Stark in the upcoming Iron Man film. For those that don’t know, that will also mean he’d be wearing the Iron Man suit as well, but you have to assume that will rarely happen in this age of CGI.

I actually like this choice as Downey Jr. can actually channel his inner addict for the role. In the comics, Stark is an alcoholic and has trouble staying off the sauce. In fact, many times getting sauced up helps him get the job done.

Fanboy Fodder 9.3

Big week to make up for the previous two light weeks. It all comes around to bite the wallet and this next week, really this week, which will be 9.4, is another big one.

Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to read the books last weekend, so I was able to read a couple during the week and I finished off the rest tonight. Yup, a true geek on a Friday night. Sitting home and reading comic books and now writing a blog post in the post midnight hours.

Astonishing X-Men #17 Had to lead with this book again. I mean, look at that cover! Look at who writes the book (Joss Whedon)! Look at the art inside the book! If this isn’t the best comic on the stands right now, then it has to be damned close. The handling of Wolverine has me cracking up and it should be evident from the cover that John Cassaday plays a huge part in making it work. The last panel rocked.

Runaways #20 Next book up is the book Joss Whedon will be writing once his stint on Astonishing is done. This is sort of old news at this point, but I am excited to see where he takes us. Given that these kids in the book already seem like a Scooby gang, it will be fun to see Joss put his spin on them. As for ... Continue reading »

Fanboy Fodder 9.2

Didn’t I write just last time out that it was unlikely I’d buy another week of comics and be able to read them all? Well, it’s still true, but this week was a close one… and by one, I mean there was only one Civil War (CW) tie-in that I couldn’t read. The comic store had a CW postcard dropped in the bad and it looks like they are readjusting the schedule slightly due to late books and also adding on the end. Sucker isn’t finishing up until at least February at this point.

So, pulling out that CW issue — Ms. Marvel #7 — leaves me with six comics to review again. Now that I have pretty much gotten thru a month of introductions, I’ll be shortening the blurbs. Sounds like a good reason, but really, I’m feeling lazy and would rather not write much about them.

Wolverine: Origins #6 I hate to lead with this one, but it has the best cover of the week (I find it amusing that the book’s artist gets the Variant cover while Joe Z provides the regular cover; shouldn’t this be reversed?). Anyway, this book is exhibit A of what is pissing me off lately. A whole lot of pages of nothing, as in nothing happening... Continue reading »