Saturday, June 25, 2005

By the way, The League is on hiatus until July 1.

We're off to Minnesota.

Friday, June 24, 2005


A nice image to end the week on.

Concept art for the upcoming film, Superman Returns.
Normally politics won't find it's way into the postings of the League, but this is despicable.

Karl Rove accuses liberals of trying to coddle terrorists in the days following 9-11.

If Rove is referring to the mass confusion among Americans of all stripes in Bush's assertion that Hussein was responsible for 9-11 without generating any evidence, then, fine. Maybe some folks were looking for some sort of tiny evidence that what the president was saying might be true and not taking everything the White House said at that point with blind faith. Maybe people were looking to win the war in Afghanistan and find bin Laden instead of striking out on another military adventure.

It wasn't the liberals who waited a month to take military action in Afghanistan, giving bin Laden a month to hide. And it wasn't the liberals who asked advisor after advisor to please stop bringing up this bin Laden guy in the year leading up to 9-11.

Simply put, either Rove is lying in order to rewrite history and somehow try to associate people who support the ACLU with terrorists, OR he seriously believes what he says, which makes him insane (we have to rule out stupid as Rove is anything but stupid).

There are a lot of people who did ask "Why?" in the days following 9-11. What on earth did the US do to draw this kind of hatred? Neither the White House nor Congress ever did much to answer that question. Telling us that they hated our "freedom" was a simple, stupid, pat answer. We all knew there were a few dozen more countries as free as the US.

A few years ago, I would have ignored a comment like this. And I would have felt that Rove's attempt to rewrite history would fail miserably. But as Minister of Information, he's proven me wrong time and time again.

You know in a day or two, the whacko political bloggers from both side are going to be going nuts over this. Liberals will be doing something stupid like asking for an apology when they should be pulling out document after document and screaming for blood. Conservative bloggers will be nodding their heads about how it's all true and how unAmerican the damn, dirty liberals are, while a few more threaten to curb-stomp anyone who ever voted for Gore.

But the fact is, Mr. Rove is putting words in the mouths of people who aren't taken seriously when they defend themselves. He's putting thoughts in their minds, and feelings in their hearts which aren't true. He knows all he must do is open the box, and the words gain instant credibility, no matter how absurd. And he knows a rebuttal always sounds half-hearted in print. They'll never take the time to print the full response.

And he's doing it to me.

Is he saying I don't know what I was thinking and doing and saying in 2001? Or what my friends were doing and thinking and saying?

I was there. I know what happened. But he's going to make sure that never matters. So I'm saying something today, because I think it matters. And I'm calling Mr. Rove a liar, and I want more than an apology. I want him out of a job and gone.

Why on earth should I believe in my own government when this is what they do?

I told Jamie I'm leaving Spurs game coverage to her today. In the meantime, here's a picture of Samantha Cone, proud Spurs fan.
HOO-AHH! SPURS WIN 2005 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Mrs. League here, offering the Spurs and the city of San Antonio a hearty congratulations!

While the series has been one of the closest and most exciting ever, the media continues to complain about the decline in viewership because of the lack of 'Superstars' in the Finals. This really chaps my hide. You know how so called 'Superstars' are created? MEDIA COVERAGE. That is not going to happen when articles about a FINALS game are passed over for the 'SI model of the day' (I'm glaring in your direction CNN.com). I bet if you actually did some reporting on how unbelievably awesome Obi Wan Ginobli (name stolen from SBC stadium fans) has been or how Robert Horry singlehandedly rescued Game 5, more folks would tune in.

Anyhoo...end of rant. Leaguers, I have a secret to reveal about the League. He is the most fairweather fan you'll ever meet. And I'm not talking about the general definition of 'my team's record this year is 1-35, so I'm not watching anymore'. I'm talking about 'my team is not in the lead at this exact second so I'm leaving the room'.

Last night, three minutes into the 3rd quarter, the Spurs were down by 7. Seven points. The League loudly sighs and declares:

"Well, that's the end of that - it's over!"

Luckily he decided to continue watching, because I had no plans of getting off of that couch.

At the end of the game, the League and I shot ideas back and forth as to who would take home the MVP trophy. Our first thought was Ginobli, but soon the announcers revealed Duncan had put in 25 points during the game. Seriously, is the man a ninja?? I NEVER see him score, yet at the end of the game, he always has a respectable number of points.

Next season I'm sure we'll be back to keeping tabs on the mighty mighty Suns, but for now...

SPURS ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!
The Beat reports on Morrison, DC Comics' new structure (using creative consultants), and Morrison's place within the cosmos.

read here

One item mentioned is the failed attempt by Mark Millar (Ultimates), Grant Morrison (JLA), and Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) to re-vamps Superman comics circa 2000.

In retrospect, failing to allow this team to take over the Superbooks was probably the biggest forehead slapper in the past ten years. Why DC failed to jump on this team of top-level talent is, at best, a total mystery. My guess is that they planned to dump continuity from 1986-2000, and DC wasn't having any of that.

What could have been, my friends.... what could have been.

Part of me, a very small part, wonders if the shakeout from the new Crisis won't have that effect, anyway.
Statler and Waldorf movie reviews.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Take the MIT Weblog Survey
Wow, this is like a bad movie.

Translation: If someone with more money than you wants to build an autoplex where you live (in order to make yet more money), you have to take whatever they are offering and get out before they bulldoze your house. If you refuse, I guess they can toss you in jail.

Thanks, Supreme Court!

If only we had those little robots from *batteries not included to go and scare off Scalia.

***update***

The League has the reading skills of a 5 year old.

Scalia, while looking jolly in this picture, did not vote to toss people out onto the street. He probably just had a Whopper and is enjoying the after-effects.

Please read comments section below.
After my moody and irrational rant over the past 48 hours or so, The League appears to have lost all readership.

You'd think I had been writing a celebration of the achievements of Stalin or something.

Ah, well.

Scaljon has a Meme on his site, and there's nothing like a good Meme to get the blood flowing.

1. What is the earliest movie you remember watching in the theater?

It might have been Grease at a drive in with my family (which led to me being confused in my memories years later as to whether or not the drive in had a swingset. I think my popcorn addled brain led me to believe that the swing set Danny rests his weary bones on when at the movies with Sandy was actually at my drive-in theater).

Or else it was Star Wars. I do not recall which came first. I imagine it was Star Wars.

2. If you could strike one word from the English language, which word would you choose and why?

I think I would strike unAmerican. I'm sick of hearing that because I won't endorse jack-ass schemes by chuckleheads I didn't vote for that I am unAmerican.

That's the magic of it. I was born here. Whatever I think is automatically American.

And I happen to think we should all bow down before Peer-Wun, God of Wicker.

3. If you were a superhero, what would be your kryptonite?

Jamie. Or cookies. I can't say "no" to either of them.

Or maybe those glowing green rocks created from the debris of my exploded homeworld. Those certainly don't do me any good.

4. Would you rather win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, Golden Globe, Oscar, Pulitzer, or Nobel Prize? What work would you win it for?

Nobel prize. Can one win a Nobel Prize for blogging? I would actually like to win it for my imaginary work in medicine. And as long as we're imagining, also for my Mid-East Peace Plan which everyone can agree on. And for burying Tom Cruise in a vault two miles below the Earth's crust.

Or I'd like to win a Daytime Emmy for my work on General Hospital where I play Dr. Luke Strongheart.

5. What is your catch phrase? Don't have one? Then make one up!

I am sure Jamie THINKS I have a catch phrase, but I do not consciously employ a catchphrase.

I do say, "Oh, for the love of Mike..." sometimes. And I have consciously tried to work "Sweet Christmas!" into my repertoire, but I'm not sure it's really taken off.

"Sweet Christmas!" was the catchphrase of Marvel's street-level action star, Luke Cage (aka Power Man... But nobody calls him Power Man any more). Who knows where the catchphrase came from, but it's roundly considered one of the best/worst catch phrases of any superhero.

Read more about Luke Cage here.
The League throws in with Comic Candy

Big, big news.

The League has posted his first comic review for another publication.

Jenn over at Comic Candy has posted The League's review of the Dark Detective series from DC Comics.

Jenn has gone beyond the usual comic-blog and has built a pretty darn cool website where she's trying to build a community of comic fans. I'm not sure where the site is going, but I do think Jenn has got it off to a great start.

Anyway, check out the review. Criticize my criticism. But also make sure you go to Comic Candy and look around, and maybe even sign up.

My guess is, I will post straightforward reviews there, while keeping Suggestions for Further Reading as a separate sort of column here, focusing on comic movies, comic info, comic trivia, and other items casual or non-comic readers might find amusing.

I do assume you all find it amusing or you wouldn't be here.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Okay.

So, it's getting really, really hot here in Arizona. It's 111 degrees today.

And I think that, coupled with some work issues, has made The League grouchier than normal.

The League admits that The League should not have asked for Loyal Leaguers to apologize.

Years ago, The League wasn't going to add a comments section as we anticipated bad behavior cropping up. But you know what? Loyal Leaguers have made The League of Melbotis a lot of fun to work on. As much as The League enjoys shooting his mouth off, he enjoys the comments, jokes and snarky remarks which he can find mere hours after posting.

So we hope everyone will continue to participate and keep making this a fun endeavor. But remember, keep it fun. And keep in mind that while all you Loyal Leaguers have thrown your hat into the same ring of justice, we may not all know each other as well as we'd like to. And sometimes that can lead to misunderstanding.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Two Major items

1) The Spurs lost, sending the series to a nail-biting game seven. Which they will surely lose. At home.

Duncan looks like he needs to take a nice, long nap and listen to some self-affirmation tapes. Ginobili is rattled, but keeps pouring it on. And I'm seeing a lot of Barry, and I'm not sure why. Mohammad has been his reliable self, if not stellar. Big-Shot Bob was sort of shut down tonight as well.

The Spurs' 3-point percentage has been pretty poor, but they keep firing away. In addition, they seem hell bent on driving into the lane. Which is kind of nuts, because the Pistons' defense gets a turn-over (without a foul, I might add) each time they try this. Spurs need to learn to shoot from the perimeter, play more solid D, and... for God's sake, REBOUND. I know those ankles are killing you, Tim, but your job is to hop up and grab the ball, not let some dude named "Chauncey" take the ball away from you.

2) For those of you involved in the kerfuffle going on in the comments section, knock it off.

I will seriously turn this car around and we'll all go home. Or at least shut down comments.

I want an apology out of everybody.

Now.
Superman Celebration 2005 with Mo Rocca.

Man, I wish this had been Triumph.
THE REAL WORLD: AUSTIN


"It'll be really weird to see myself drunk. But I guess we'll all learn something about ourselves."

So it's time for another season of MTV's hit "reality" show, The Real World (a name which has lost all meaning since the show's original, much more idealistic inception). As The League recalls, The Real World was originally created to fill the heads of cotton-headed MTV viewers with a glimpse of life in NYC, but, more specifically, to showcase the trials and tribulations of leaving home and trying to make it in the big city.

This was an era of the show in which the cast memebers were defined by what they did, not whom they did. Someone could, in this early stage, be "the actor guy" or "the musician guy". Cast members were pulled in from all points of the country with big city aspirations, and, I THINK the point was to show folks getting away from their comfort zone and sort of dealing with the mish-mash of personalities and ideas that one faces in "The Real World". Only 24/7 and in a swank loft.

I'm not sure they actually succeeded, but the show did prove Americans love to voyeuristically watch other people doing the exact same stuff they could do if they weren't watching the program at that same moment.

Well, it's God-knows how many seasons later, and The Real World is now subtitled Pretty Drunk Exhibitionist Mental Midgets You Might See "Doin' It". No longer are the cast members asked to, or even really encouraged to, leave the house. Instead, the program fills a house with booze, adds a hot tub, and casts people who are nuts for the sex and insist they "don't want nobody gittin' all up in (their) face". It's a beautiful, beautiful level of simplicity that has taken full advantage of the Gen Y belief in self-entitlement and instant celebrity. After all, there is absolutely nothing special about the cast members. Seriously. Not a damn thing aside from an over extended ego and lack of foresight regarding covering camera lenses when having sex.

So the new season of The Real World takes place in The League's professed hometown of Austin, TX.

Being Austin, apparently not everyone took kindly to folks making a scene and invading their turf.

To add insult to injury, and fueling my dislike of UT's Paul Stekler (which began when he told me to my face he didn't care if I could graduate), Stekler offered the Real World cast a job.

To keep the cast from slacking, "The Real World" puts the kids to work . . . sort of.

In Austin, filmmaker and University of Texas film professor Paul Stekler ("Last Man Standing") was recruited to help the kids make a mini-documentary during the South by Southwest Music Festival in March.

Initially Stekler thought it was "a pretty weird offer." But then he decided it could be good publicity for UT. The graduate students who trained the cast — P.J. Raval, Jenn Garrison and David Hartstein — were paid. Stekler's time was covered by a contribution (undisclosed amount) to the UT film department.


You know, it's reasons like this that UT RTF calls me and calls me and I won't give them any money. I remember how much I had to bust my ass to even get into a class where I could have done a project like this. Apparently I should have been greasing Steckler's palm.

I might watch an episode or two of the Austin-based series, but it's going to be tough to take the mouth-breathers of the show's cast seeing Austin as nothing more than a huge bar while the producers angle to make the show hip enough for their soulless LA-based bosses.

Ah, well. The League is getting old and grumpy.

Monday, June 20, 2005

So.... The first ten minutes of the AFI tribute to George Lucas was sort of the culmination of everything non-superhero which defined my life.

Lucas
Shatner
Spielberg
Ford
Sinatra?

Genius.
So long, Jake.

Jake Pickle, former U.S. Rep from the Great State of Texas, has passed away. Pickle represented the Central Texas area.
Howdy, Leaguers

Well, this weekend was nice and quiet. Some work stuff reared it's ugly head, but I'm trying to remain calm about it. I am sure it will be awful enough on Monday that there's no use getting my red trunks in a bunch right now.

We've had some changes here at League HQ regarding scheduling, and I am afraid the blog here has been the top item to suffer. Basically, if Jamie is awake at night, it looks like I'm less likely to rant for pages at a time.

So there may be fewer posts than normal until all settles back into it's usual pattern.

Heads up as, not this week, but the following week... The League is going on a much-needed (but probably not deserved) break. We're headed to sunny Cook, Minnesota for a few days of bobbing about in a boat and failing to catch any fish. Also, I hope to make some headway in teh book I began reading en route to Vegas, Theodore Rex. Jim has suggested I read "The Historian." Perhaps I shall, just not until I finish this whopper of a biography.

Perhaps The League shall take some vacationy pictures for your amusement.

I also spent a lot of time this weekend catching up on comics I had fallen behind in my reading. I have to say, the new creative teams on the Superman books are doing a great job, with Rucka's Adventures of Superman (pencils by Kerschl) leading the pack. It'd be great if Rucka could stay on for another full two years, but i doubt we'll be that lucky. Gail Simone is currently writing Action Comics with art by John "Man of Steel" Byrne on pencils.

JLA is currently tackling some of the hanging threads from Identity Crisis. Geoff Johns is on writing chores with a fellow who writes for the TV program The OC. This same OC guy is writing Superman, btw, and it's been very good thus far...

DC is killing my wallet.

The Seven Soldiers of Victory limited series are each great, and are weaving a gigantic tapestry of multi-aspect story-telling.

Meanwhile, the limited series tied to Countdown to Infinite Crisis are all turning out to be extremely readable in their own right.

I'll be writing a column on the benefits of massive cross-overs at some point this week, because, darn it... too many people are down on these things. The League just dislikes them when they're done poorly. More on that later as time permits.

In other League news, The Spurs botched a possible last second clincher in regulation to go into overtime and pull out a completely different last second clincher, putting them up 3-2 in the best of 4 series. And they're headed home. This whole thing could be over by Tuesday with the the Spurs having a trophy to match the trophies from 1999 and 2003.

But, man, I really like this Pistons team. They're really, really good. I can't figure out how the Spurs beat them tonight at all. Oh, yeah, I do. Robert Horry. The man's experience and cool head won the night when Duncan looked like a scared little girl.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Earlier incarnation of Jamie as Catwoman



Notice, it's Christmas. This is Jamie's Halloween costume. I think she liked her costume...

and, just because...