League of Melbotis

The further adventures of...

2010-04-20T20:20:00.001-05:00

League of Melbotis Volume II can be found at: The Signal Watch

End of the Golden Age

2009-12-20T22:12:00.001-06:00

Neverending Battle

2009-12-20T22:00:00.009-06:00

In closing...

2009-12-20T00:06:00.005-06:00

So I wish I had some sort of terrific way to wind things up. Maybe some "Ocean's 11" ending (the remake, not the original) where you guys realize that this has been a 6+ year scam, and that I've secretly been using League of Melbotis to clean out your bank accounts, and just as you look at this final post are you able to put all the pieces together. That would be awesome. And I could certainly use the money.

Alas, I'm not that clever, and robbing my readership blind via a blog seems to be challenging at best. But if you wake up tomorrow to find yourself destitute and me driving a BMW around with a stack of Jimmy Olsen comics and smoking a cigar, well, we'll both know what happened.

I've already done my fair share of "wasn't it great when" and "aren't you people all great?" posts. So, you know, refer to those if you'd like. I suspected I'd have more to say for a final post, but I don't, and that's sort of the thing.

Two months was probably too long, but, heck, its over now, so we can turn the chairs over and shut off the lights. We'll worry about sweeping up some other time.

I literally have no idea what my life is going to look like now, which is part of the fun. I have many good things going on which I don't wish to screw up. I've not got too much a self-destructive streak in me, but like anyone else, I get uneasy when things are going a little too steady-state. Add in misguided visions of what I c/should be doing with myself and my time, and its sort of now or never. I'm too old to say I'll try new things when I'm older, and don't wish to look back and wonder where the time went.

I expect you guys to hold me to being productive one way or another.

In an odd bit of synchronicity, just after I announced the conclusion of LoM, I learned that Leaguers Steven and Lauren were moving back to the Bay Area. Perhaps not forever, but I'll be shocked if they ever return to Texas for more than a visit. Steven waxed a bit rhapsodic and brought the eloquence to the conclusion of chapters in a way fitting and with that flair of which I've always been envious. Read here.

It's also JimD's birthday (and I started this blog awfully close to my own 28th birthday). It was JimD who instigated the thing.

This evening we raised a glass with Steven and Lauren to join with friends and bid them adieu. Juan and Letty were there, as were Julia and Alfredo. And I won't share the conversation, but I had a few minutes to speak with Alfredo, and he remarked upon the impending closing of this blog, to which I gave the same smile and a shrug I've given most who've asked. As you do with these things, I laughed it off. Alfredo begged to differ, and I was reminded that from time-to-time, it wasn't all just Superman pictures and talking about awful movies.

Anyway, thanks, Alfredo. I am, and always shall be, grateful. You have no idea.

I don't know why, but I am also reminded of a moment from a year or so back, when I was at a comic shop here in town (now closed), and was looking at discounted paperbacks, when a person I didn't know looked at me across the table and said "You're that League Guy".

And that's the sort of thing I think I'll miss most of all. The never-knowing of being connected to people in such odd and different ways, whether its the random person in the comic shop, or wishing once-were-strangers-and-now-they're-friends the best of luck while they embark on their own next chapter.

But that's kind of how it works, isn't it?

A special thank you to Jamie, who has been an often silent partner, but one who has been remarkably supportive, and who is a remarkable person in every way. She has enjoyed being partners in The League since its inception, and has often been a writing partner in the ways that count. I love you, sweetie.

Let it never be forgotten that this started because of friends. And it was dreamed up and cared for in the name of the best pal on four legs you could ever have. The four-color adventures of a dog and his boy, indeed.

Be well. Be safe. We wish you the best, always.

I'll see you in the funny pages.

Up, up and away.

UT Longhorn Volleyball Fought Hard

2009-12-19T22:46:00.003-06:00

Man, that was a heart-breaker. Not only did we have to say good-bye to Steven and Lauren, but the National Volleyball Championship was on TV with our UT Longhorns. Unfortunately, despite winning the first two games, Penn State came from behind to win. Here.

I say... oh, well. UT kicked ass. They played amazingly well against an equal opponent, and the games were very close.

I've been pretty focused on football, but the Longhorns had an amazing season by any standard. Heartbreakingly close to a National Title, but they made a fan out of me. Next year, I'm definitely hanging out on Wednesdays to go to the games.

Keeping Up With The League

2009-12-19T09:24:00.004-06:00

So, as of midnight tomorrow, that'll be it.

Not to fret, The League of Melbotis will carry on in a limited capacity over on Facebook. And to a more limited extent, over on Twitter.

The site will remain up, but I don't plan to update links, etc...

The site already rolls overfor approval on comments after a week, but I may be shutting comments down all together. I foresee a future in which Chinese spammers are flooding my inbox and I keep having to reject comments.

Also, I imagine the email address associated here will be good for a long, long while.

Anyway, don't be a stranger.

WW Christmas

2009-12-18T22:15:00.002-06:00

Normally I don't post cheesecake comic art, because I find it distasteful and believe it just reinforces some negative stereotypes about comics. But... Ah, heck. Why Not?

Wonder Woman for Christmas is okay by us

Happy Birthday JimD

2009-12-18T20:17:00.001-06:00

Our Birthday Boy Stands in Repose

Panick Attack!

2009-12-18T19:24:00.000-06:00

I know you're not supposed to think the end of the world is awesome. But there's nothing I don't like in this video.

More Garth Merenghi

2009-12-18T19:17:00.000-06:00

To have to explain Garth Merenghi means you're not going to like it, anyway.

Here's new Garth Merenghi. I believe called "War of the Wasps". Found by Brit Simon.

UT Longhorn Volleyball in National Championship

2009-12-18T18:49:00.003-06:00

HEY

I keep forgetting to say anything about this, but on Saturday at 7:00, UT's Longhorn Volleyball team is on ESPN or ESPN2 (I forget) playing Penn State for the National Championship!

WOOT!

Just because. darn it.

2009-12-18T11:25:00.001-06:00

Iron Man 2!

2009-12-17T23:47:00.002-06:00

Hey!

I think you guys might want to check out the trailer for the upcoming Iron Man sequel.

HERE (its at Apple. Must have Quicktime. So, Jason, get someone to help you out.).

Thanks to Simon for the link!

Trail of Lights

2009-12-17T22:25:00.005-06:00

Hey!

Well, trying to keep our levels of Christmas Cheer set to "Jingle-riffic", Jamie and I headed to The Trail of Lights at Austin's Zilker Park.

The Trail of Lights faced a lot of challenges this year. In the spring, the city spent a truckload of money laying copper wire to enable better power for the mile long trail of lights. In the Summer, the City figured out somebody had come along and STOLEN all of the copper, likely for a tidy profit.

Then, ACL Fest was a bit rough on the lawn and the city is having to replant that grass, etc...

So... the Trail of Lights was renamed to "Zilker Tree Holiday Festival".

Jamie had fun.

The Zilker Tree is a longstanding tradition. Its actually several strands of lights attached to a Moon Tower, and while quite lovely from far away, the longstanding tradition is to get underneath the tree and spin until you barf. Good times.

I hadn't been to the Tree or the Trail of Lights in many, many years. Due to the challenges, the trail was a lot shorter this year, and on the other side of the park from the last time I was there. Also, they had like, five funnel cake stands.

Anyhow, we had a good time. And that's all you get for a post tonight.

Just look at Jamie. She's cute as a button.

Alicia Keys and Colbert rock NYC and the Burbs

2009-12-17T11:07:00.000-06:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

U.S. Speedskating

Found by Joe Cathey

I got nothing.

2009-12-16T22:52:00.002-06:00

Well, as the clock winds down, I should really have another post or two in me. But I think I'm sort of worn out from the last few posts.

Here's Power Girl. Now go talk amongst yourselves.

Happy Holidays From The League!

2009-12-16T18:59:00.000-06:00

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So long, Superman!

2009-12-15T23:44:00.003-06:00

About three and a half years ago (that's roughly 25 years ago in blog years), I posted what I felt was more or less my statement on WHY I'm a fan of Superman.

You can read it here.

I'd also pointed to my Superman collection at the time, which has only expanded in the intervening years. At that time, I did not have replicas of five shades of Kryptonite, a toy Kryptonian Battlesuit, etc... Were there time and my office in any condition to show, I'd have put up a few images. But its not, so... you're just going to have to stop by some time. Tours are $2.

I'm fairly sensitive to criticism of the Superman character, primarily because Superman has taken on this odd, avatar-like role for the squeaky-clean image of heroism that's fallen out of favor but which is mostly a gross oversimplification.

I talked about that here.

At another point I tried to address what I would think are limitations of Superman (and superheroes) here.

I get a lot of blowback from readers when I bemoan the misconceptions, and am told "well, its what the public thinks that matters". But I also am aware that the public perception is shaped by articles exactly like the ones Loyal Leaguers gleefully forward me (which is shockingly often). That's not to say that you can't criticize Superman as a character, but the thing is: John and Jane Public in this case are getting sold a bad bill of goods. And I've always felt that wasn't quite fair to DC Comics, John and Jane Public, people like myself who actually bother to read the comics, watch the movies, cartoons, TV shows, etc... and certainly to a figment of a teenager's imagination whose done little more in 70-odd years of existence but be the good guy.

There are different visions for how the story of Superman might end. Ends are how we can judge characters, after all. Alan Moore's closeout of the Silver Age with "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" is tragic, but ends on the right note. DC One Million suggests Superman sort of goes on forever. I like the ambiguous wrap-up to All Star Superman, with Superman toiling at the heart of the sun, having given up his Earthly life to save the world, and lifting from the page of all mythic heroes, with the promise that he will one day return.

I've made no secret that part of why I embraced Superman was because the franchise/ series/ character/ whatever DID have that weird, funhouse aspect of "oh, Jesus. What now?" that I still cackle about when a new editon of Showcase Presents Superman hits the shelves or I find just the right back issue. And its certainly a big selling point for me when I pick up an issue of Jimmy Olsen. I like that this same character is responsible for amazing comics like "Kingdom Come", "Peace on Earth" and many, many more... But its also the same character that spawned Beppo the Super Monkey.

Often, Superman can be a reminder of how short I feel the vision is of humanity. Sometimes I believe that its a lack of belief that a person wielding such power would turn it to the good that makes us flush with rage when the story does not become one of betrayal, petty abuse of power, and instead, page after page chooses to show us a man struggling with the choices before him.

In his own story, of course, Luthor is the hero. He's the brilliant mind who turned genius to profit and power, and who cannot imagine that someone so gifted would not want to cap and trade his own power. Superman must be waiting for something, and while we hiss and boo Lex, we're envious of him.

There's, of course, a personal and a quite literal financial stake in all this. I've got something invested. But I also started elsewhere with comics, with superheroes, with action and science fiction heroes, with all the same stuff we all pass through. n the end, I landed on Superman. Somehow, the constant striving to do the right thing didn't seem like such a bad thing. And maybe even the "taking it a step further" that happens when you want to be better than who you really are.

And that's what I read when I pick up those comics, and watch those movies. All those powers, and Superman still so rarely saves the day. I know I can do better, and I so often fail to do so. I do okay. I do well enough, but I don't do enough.

In the years of this blog, its unlikely I've turned a single person into a fan of the Man of Steel. I know I've probably shared more about the character than even one of you ever cared to read. That's okay. You people have no idea what Jamie lives with, here in our Fortress of Solitude.

I haven't forgotten that JimD obtained a theatrical print of Superman: The Movie for what was practically a personal screening, getting Randy to come down to join us, and setting us up in a magnificent theater (The Jefferson in downtown Beaumont). Or that Peabo and his wife drove out there with us to watch the movie.

And I haven't forgotten the endless viewings Jamie suffered through of Superman movies, TV shows, cartoons, etc... Nor have I forgotten the Super-related items folks have shared or given to me as gifts. All of that winds up as part of the package of what I think of when people ask "So you're a Superman fan?".

At the end of the day, I like the idea that there's this alien who came to Earth, and because he was raised to believe in Truth and Justice and The American Way, those things we're all supposed to believe in, that he decided not to use the power for himself, but to do the right thing. Whether its saving a space plane from crashing or standing between a shooter and their victim, that saving the day is the right thing to at least try to do.

It doesn't hurt that he can bend steel in his hands, that his eyes shoot lasers and that he's got Lois, Perry and Jimmy around.

Or that he's got a dog that has all his powers that's a superhero, too.

As I mentioned in previous parting posts, I am aware that Superman is and has been an odd sort of crutch when I needed hours to fill and something to focus on outside of the day-to-day. But I've also been able to look at Superman as metaphor, as inspiration of a sort, and as distraction during some of our most challenging days. A fictional Superman cannot eliminate ill-health, or want, or distress. All the character can do is appear in stories where someone tried to do the right thing, often against obstacles that seemed literally impossible, enough to defeat even a Superman.

I have a favorite memory, of Jamie getting better in the hospital, and me knowing she was getting better when I was able to show her pages from one of those fat "Showcase Presents" Superman albums and say "this is completely insane! Look at this!" I believe it was Superman accidentally finding himself with the head of a lion, and Jamie and I having a good laugh. That's just good stuff.

I'll miss talking about Superman with you guys.

Sometime, pick up a Superman comic. I'll be around to make suggestions, if you like.

I just hope that a few of you, when you see the red cape and boots will know a bit more than "John and Jane Public", and nothing would please me more than finding out you'd won points at trivia by naming Superman's dog (hint: its Krypto).

Verbot never worked

2009-12-15T18:54:00.000-06:00

I didn't notice last night, but even in the damn commercial, Verbot doesn't follow instructions. It happens around the 8 second mark.

Also, if memory serves, my dog HATED Verbot. Poor Puff.

I really grew to resent that robot.

Steans Family Christmas Carol

2009-12-15T18:53:00.000-06:00

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Be Careful What You Wishbook For

2009-12-14T22:37:00.008-06:00

My folks were not unwise. I recall many-a-conversation when they would ask "are you sure this is what you want?"

1 and 2) Dingbot and Verbot

You may remember the line of Robot toys from Tomy that hit stores in the mid-80's.

The four main toys were Dingbot, Verbot, OmniBot and OmniBot 2000.

Based on the commercials, I had high hopes for what these robots would do. I had visions of a robot buddy, a sort of Robot Friday that was going to be a bit of robot butler, side-kick and confidante. Seriously, look at this thing:

My folks, privy to my high-minded visions of how I believed the robots would work, talked me down to the lowest tier robot, DingBot. DingBot had no programmable features, but it sounded okay.

Here's a video of DingBot in action.

As you can imagine, the whole Butler/ Buddy thing didn't work out quite as I'd envisioned. It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy turning that thing on and watching it whack into walls, but I knew I'd just picked the wrong robot. My NEXT attempt would go better.

After all, the commercial for Verbot made it clear THIS was a robot that was going to listen to me:

Verbot never really worked correctly from Day 1. And, hey, funny thing. Every time you turned Verbot off and back on again, you had to reprogram the @#$%ing thing. Also, it didn't seem to particularly like my voice, so I spent a lot of time cursing at Verbot.

By 8th grade, I remember getting curious about what was actually inside Verbot, and taking him apart and putting him back together, at which point, ol' Verbot quit working at all. Wouldn't even turn on.

3) In 4th Grade, I got a Cabbage Patch Kid.

His name is Rhett Delbert, and I have no idea if he's in a box somewhere in my parent's house, or if he's been gifted via Salvation Army to some much-more worthy kid.

The Cabbage Patch craze sort of peaked when I was in 3rd grade, and in that way kids and readers of "Us" magazine do, I had to have an object because everyone else had that object. It was almost a check mark at the time more than any desire to have one. And, as a family we were often late to the party on this hip stuff, we sort of waited until the dust and tramplings cleared until I was a little too old for... dolls.

My grandparents had apparently secured the doll, and my folks made sure I knew they'd put themselves out to get this thing (and keep in mind, this is when people were literally getting killed wrestling for these dolls). So I knew I had to be extra appreciative.

So, yeah, there are some goofy pictures of me in these awful tan pajamas on Christmas,morning circa 1984 with this doll. The pictures themselves are doubly creepy to me because (a) I was really a big kid for my age. I was frequently mistaken for someone 2-3 years older than my age (these days, everyone assumes I'm in my 40's). So it looks like this pudgy 7th grader who is way, way too happy to have just received a doll. (b) I also was just getting to the point where I didn't really play with toys, per se, anymore. And I think I knew it when I opened that package, but the look of fulfilled avarice on that kid's face... anyway. I sort of hate that kid.

But I'd asked for this thing for two years, my grandparents had bought it, and I felt that I sort of needed to get my money out of the thing.

Nothing about the awkwardness of the situation was helped by having an older brother who made sure to point out I had a doll, or by the fact that a new kid who'd moved to town who I played with was really into his Cabbage Patch Kid. Which, in the end, was sort of helpful.

When I look at the thing, I remember with stunning clarity having the realization by sort of watching my friend that I really, really was past this particular part of my childhood. Because my folks have that "we built all this from nothing" work ethic, giving gifts was happily done, but we understood that we weren't one of the families that was getting new bikes every Christmas. Even then, I couldn't tell anyone that I had no idea what to do with a Cabbage Patch Kid once I had it. And I sure as @#$ couldn't ever let Jason know I, too, in my more lucid moments, thought this was a pretty dumb thing for a ten year old kid who didn't want to get his ass kicked to have in his possession.

The odd thing is, I am sure I found some way to play with that damn doll, but I have no idea what I did with it.

And so, after a while, poor 'ol Rhett Delbert, who never did nothing to nobody, got stuck in the back of my closet, right along with a whole lot of embarrassment.

#4) Laser Tag

It did not occur to me until AFTER Christmas morning that it was a very good thing that my friends had also asked for a system that you need at least two people to play. Sure, there were games that you could play by yourself, but they all were about as interesting as seeing if you could hit a spot on the wall with a flashlight.

Once again, the commercials looked totally awesome:

I had never been to "Photon" in Dallas, but I'd heard about how cool it was. That same Christmas that we all got Laser Tag, the Photon franchise released their own home-game version of their equipment which had the added bonus of noting that the only target on a person is rarely a red disc about the size of a coaster, and because it came witha helmet that registered shots from any direction, it also suggested (unlike Lazer Tag) that one could be shot from any direction.

Because we all had the same Lazer Tag equipment, in theory it was a level playing field. However, being 12 or so, the first thing we all set out to do was cheat, either by turning off our receptors immediately after the game started, or covering them or by changing the width of our beams (yeah, the guns were oddly sophisticated).

In the end, gameplay turned into all of us eying one another with suspicion and nobody trusting one another enough to NOT cheat the minute they were out of site.

In addition, to make Laser Tag half as cool as Photon, you had to start buying the multitude of accessories, and if everyone didn't have the same accessories, it immediately changed the playing field. And, while our folks could afford the starter kit, nobody's folks were going to shell out an extra lump of cash for the helmet, rifle, etc...

Photon, by the way, just looked cool.

Looked cool, that is, unless you were a kid in a helmet designed for adults. When all the rest of us got Laser Tag, this kid Dave got Photon, and he looked sort of like a crazy person with all the wires and gear hanging off of him. Especially when he was playing with his 7 year old sister.

That not too specific language in the Photon commercial was their way of saying "dummy, if you buy Lazer Tag, you have to buy all the peripheral crap, and none of it is synched like our system". Nonetheless, both more or less failed.

But we atill have a place called "Blazer Tag" very near Jamie's dialysis clinic that I always threaten to take her to.

However...

The Rebel Transport toy from Kenner? Was totally awesome.

yes, it was usually used in scenes of role-played cowardice as I evacuated Rebel bases, but it was fun.

Also fun?

My blue Team Murray BMX bike I got in, I think, 2nd grade.

I was officially too old for Teddy Ruxpin when the talking bear debuted, but that didn't mean I didn't want to see how one worked. I was sad to see that Teddy Ruxpin's moving animatronic parts took the cues from electronic tones on the audio tapes. However, a more cheaply made competitor, the Cricket doll, simply responded to whatever sounds were on the tape. Once my friend Todd and I discovered this, we spent hours finding ways to make Cricket insist to Todd's sister that she was possessed by Satan, and that one dark night, she would choke the life out of her and turn her into a doll.

Ah, good times.

Rock It, Bing

2009-12-14T00:03:00.004-06:00

Pretty much exactly what one sees at League HQ come Christmas time.

Leaguers may not know, but I once had an affinity for the vocal stylings of Mr. Bing Crosby. It has greatly informed my approach to singing Christmas Carols. Except... I can't sing. So... it gets interesting.

This clip is from "Holiday Inn", which will run on cable over the Holidays. There are some seriously dodgy moments in the movie when it comes to race-relations of the time, and some versions cut out a particularly questionable sequence (the film loses nothing, and its about as offensive of a scene as you're likely to find).

Anyhow, Crosby's cover of "White Christmas" is one of the best selling records of all time, and, in fact, spawned a movie entitled "White Christmas", also starring Crosby. Both are a good way to kill an hour or so over the Holidays.

Crosby was considered a bit of a heart-throb in his day, and had a mind-blowingly long career, spanning around 5 full decades, dominating the charts for much of the pre-Rock-n'Roll era. He was, in fact, a hero of Sinatra's before Sinatra was Sinatra.

Anyhow, here's Bing and Bowie.

Throw in David Byrne, and this video would literally melt my brain.

One Week Left

2009-12-13T23:49:00.002-06:00

The last post from this blog goes up next Sunday around 11:59pm.

I'm starting to get a little more melancholy about the end of things. On Saturday Jamie and I were visiting the Armadillo Christmas Bizarre and ran into Maxwell and Family, and I know that were it not for this site and Cowgirl Funk, it would be unlikely that I'd have ever seen little Sophie or Eric (who is less little). And, of course, there will be an Earth-2 League that carries on with the blog in his world. Sadly, lacking a Cosmic Treadmill, I can't travel through time, space or dimensions to see what that world looks like.

I am worried about the folks I'll lose touch with, and that I'm doing something wrong. We'll see soon enough.

Part of why I wrapped things up when I did is that I have two entire weeks off, from Dec. 22 - January 3rd where I'll have time to start new projects and pick up old ones, and as I'm getting out of my normal pattern, establish a new one. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to starting my career in hip-hop.

Guest Post: The Decade in Comics

2009-12-13T23:44:00.002-06:00

I Guest Blogged at Comic Fodder, looking at the changes in the last ten years.

Click here.

Krampus + Lost Venture Bros. = Awesome

2009-12-13T21:49:00.003-06:00

So, I'm kind of counting on the fact that my folks never watch the videos I put on here to work in my favor, so... seriously, those of a sensitive nature. Don't click here.

I also don't know how many of you watch The Venture Bros. on Cartoon Network, but its become one of my favorite shows. Just... don't expect me to explain Dr. Girlfriend, or the fact that her voice doesn't phase me anymore at all.

But a few years back, it seems they produced a Christmas Special. I'd never heard of it until today, when The Dug recalled seeing it as it features... The Krampus!

So, if you want to see the first animated appearance of the Krampus in the US that I'm aware of, click here. Just be aware that... Venture Bros. is aimed at non-emotionally-mature adults.

It's a Wonderful League

2009-12-12T19:36:00.001-06:00

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Muppet Bells for Christmas

2009-12-12T10:34:00.000-06:00

Cubicle of Solitude?

2009-12-12T09:22:00.003-06:00

I'm just mad I didn't think of it first. Also, I'm not that industrious.

This looks about right...

2009-12-10T23:38:00.000-06:00

found at Calvin's site

Steve Hooperee

2009-12-10T23:32:00.002-06:00

I don't know who "Steve Hooperee" is, but people keep finding this blog looking for the guy.

Neil Diamond Brings It Home For the Holidays

2009-12-10T23:18:00.000-06:00

found at Pop Candy

Comic of the Decade?

2009-12-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

Time posted their comics of the decade and came up with a sort of wonky top 10.

You can see it here.

Ultimates is listed as the best comic of the decade. And this, clearly, is wrong (unless you're a Marvel fanboy of the highest degree). Most successful at what it was trying to do? In many ways, I could agree. Some of the best artwork in comics? Absolutely.

As a time capsule of the belligerency of a decade where the American Spirit coalesced into an angry child damaging everything in his path to prove he isn't scared? Sure.

Ultimates started with a lot of promise. It took Avengers, one of my least favorite concepts in comics (and Lord knows I tried to enjoy it, because so many others liked it, and I wanted to understand why), turned the cartoon cut outs of the Avengers into 2.5 dimensional characters, and said "No, its 2006. What ARE these characters?", did a good six first issues, and then promptly lost its way as a comic about set-pieces rather than story, and abandoning the implicit, post-9/11 agreement in comics that images and scenes of mass destruction should have weight to them, and that destroyed cityscapes and body counts of "Authority" (who Ultimates was always more or less imitating, anyway, and which found itself at #6 on the list) were a thing of the past.

Its fairly clear that whomever penned the list is into the "kick-ass", Ellis-infused-Machismo aspect of comics that so defined the last decade. Its all about seeing superhuman feats (Authority, 100 Bullets, Planetary all make the list) by just-over-the-line-of-fascist-"heroes" taking on even more diabolical fascists. It's adolescent power fantasy realized by way of lack of moral compass. Again, more or less how I'll remember the 'Oughts, anyway.

It's not that I don't LIKE parts of Authority, Planetary, Ultimates, etc... all of which I've read (not 100 Bullets. Azzarello's work leaves me bored and sort of bemused in a way he probably wouldn't appreciate). Its just that I got so bored of the schtick by the second volume of Ultimates that I ultimately gave it up. That doesn't say "Best of Decade" to me by any stretch.

But maybe it does say "Encapsulating the Decade".

Colbert/ Krampus/ The League - WTF?

2009-12-10T19:31:00.004-06:00

So, this is @#$%ing BIZARRE.

A week ago, co-worker Dan Z. started telling me all about Krampus, and we all had a good laugh about terrorizing his children. I actually wrote my Krampus post while watching Glee on my DVR, starting around 9:30. So... yeah.

Now Colbert, in my final two weeks here at The League, is making me look like I'm copying stuff off TV and passing it off as my own.

Anyway, seems last night around 10:30 central time, Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Report aired this (skip to 2:34):

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Blitzkrieg on Grinchitude - Hallmark & Krampus

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

U.S. Speedskating

I'm kind of freaking out.

Obviously Colbert Report tapes well before airing.

I... just don't know what to make of this. Is it possible it is, in fact, time for Krampus in America?

More Disturbing Yuletide Joy

2009-12-09T23:38:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Totally Needs Krampus

2009-12-09T21:51:00.012-06:00

My co-worker, Dan, recently informed me of something that I really want to start working into my Holiday season.

Apparently in Germany there used to be a tradition in early December that, in order to get little kids to behave in the Holiday seasons operated on the "more stick, less carrot" model. Germans, being Germans, had cooked up a surefire way of managing their kids by scaring the bejeezus out of bad kids with a fellow named Krampus (complete with horns, fangs, etc...) who came by in early December with Santa to warn little bad kids about how rotten they were, and apparently rattle chains and pop them with birch branches.

I'm not clear if an early December birch-thwacking was it for the kids, and if they still got apples in their shoes on December 25th or whatever the little stone age German kids used to get for Christmas, but I think we could work something out if we wanted to bring Krampus into the modern American Christmas.

Wouldn't this look awesome as an inflatable lawn decoration?

I like the idea that Santa and this Krampus guy can operate on a good cop/ bad cop model in a way that kids can wrap their heads around. It certainly puts a whole new spin on Santa when you consider that he seems to endorse Krampus's @#$%ed-up shenanigans.

Anyway, I guess in some parts of Alpine Germany, people still do this Krampus thing.

You know St. Nick thinks its totally hilarious to have a jack-ass side kick who makes those ungrateful little miscreants sweat a little

Oh, Germany. You are a font of never-ending old-school terror.

Charity Opportunity

2009-12-08T21:32:00.002-06:00

Hey Leaguers.

I am now beginning to recall that last year's charitable efforts went largely unnoticed here at The League. I'm giving it 24 hours more and then we're pulling it down. This is just sort of sad.

If you want to participate, click on the links on the left.

Just checking in

2009-12-08T21:08:00.005-06:00

Every week Jamie watches "So You Think You Can Dance?", the American Idol of dance shows. Despite the fact I found lots of American Idol chatter in my early posts, I've not watched the show since the second season or so, and I don't normally watch reality competitions.

I have no real knowledge of dance other than that I grew up in a household where it wasn't considered strange to go to musicals or watch them as movies. So I really have no idea if what I'm looking at is any good or not. The style is hardly Gene Kelly or Cyd Charisse in most dances, but I don't find it as embarrassing as I find the typical, hackey cover of a Queen song on American Idol (it does not matter who you are. You aren't Freddy, so stop it.).

This week has been very busy. My office Admin is out, so I'm doing parts of her job and trying to do my own. Today a major screw-up was uncovered, and so I spent the middle of my day sweating bullets around whether or not I was going to be able to fix that situation (it resolved itself imperfectly).

Its also been a week of announcements for DC Comics. Little things most of you guys won't care too much about, I guess. But stuff I believe is healthy for comics with one foot in the past and an eye on the future.

Superman Earth One

Mostly, I'm kind of tired. Which is why I don't think I have it in me this evening to say a whole lot.

An upcoming cover for Wonder Woman #600. New George Perez art!

DC's Earth One Initiative

2009-12-07T23:29:00.000-06:00

I'm guest blogging over at Comic Fodder for Travis while he travels. Wrote my three-page navel-gazing missive on what it means to put out new, original graphic novels hard rebooting Superman and Batman.

Go here.

Happy Birthday to Dug!

2009-12-07T06:47:00.000-06:00

Happy B-Day, B-Dug.

P-Squared, if you need help saving Christmas, we're your buddies!

Unnecessary meme

2009-12-06T21:00:00.002-06:00

Calvin posted this meme. And I hadn't done one in a while, so here you go.

1. What is the color of your toothbrush?
Gray. It is a fat Colgate toothbrush with a gray strip on the handle. I prefer fat-handled tooth brushes with a "medium" or "regular" head.

2. Name one person who made you smile today.
My co-worker Pete has a kid, Alex. Alex is about 3 months old. Babies are cute. I smiled at him during the office Holiday party. Also, The Admiral made me laugh several times on the phone.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Sleeping off the "celebrating" I did during the Horns game.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
Talking to the Admiral and watching football.

5. What is your favorite candy bar?
Probably the Hundred Grand or whatever they call it now. Although if its just a chunk of chocolate, I prefer dark chocolate.

Bonus Question: What no-longer-available candy would you bring back?
Grape bubble gum. How the hell did that disappear from the candy aisle?

6. Have you ever been to a strip club?
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"That looks good". Jamie was showing me a printout of the annual Christmas letter to the family.

8. What is your favorite ice cream? How to choose?
I am lactose intolerant. I choose "no" when it comes to ice cream. As a kid I liked Peppermint and Bubble Gum. As a teen, coffee.

9. What was the last thing you had to drink?
I am drinking "Canada Dry", a delicious Ginger Ale. I understand that in Canada, its just referred to as "Us Dry".

10. Do you like your wallet?
Yeah. Begrudgingly. Its the first wallet I've had in years without a Superman logo on it, but I got tired of placing my wallet face down when I was in mixed company. This wallet is a fairly standard folding affair from "Fossil". However, you can remove the ID holding part, which is nice when I want to just carry my ID and a credit card.

11. What was the last thing you ate?
Taco Cabana. I'm not proud.

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
I bought slippers at JC Penny this morning because they were half off and had a UT logo on them. Also, I owned no slippers, and we have concrete floors, and it was in the 30's this week.

13. The last sporting event you watched?
I am watching NFL football. Cards vs. Vikes. Cards are winning.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?
Plain with salt is fine. But I do not turn my nose up at caramel corn. Last year I realized I no longer care for cheesy corn.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to?
The aforementioned co-worker Peter, who I texted at the end of the UT game last night. He is an Aggie thrice-over (undergrad, Masters, PhD), and was hoping UT would lose.

16. Ever go camping?
Not really. Last camping trip was Spring Break 1994, and it was a disaster. I sprained my ankle when I got out of the car, and the camp site was across the lake from a power plant, and somehow I neglected to actually bring food. It was awful.

I also love indoor plumbing. Call me crazy.

17. Do you take vitamins daily?
No. I try to eat as many foods as I can each day so that I absorb vitamins the old fashioned way.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday?
No. And it makes certain people sad, so we shall discuss it no further.

19. Do you have a tan?
No. I inherited the ghastly pallor of my Finnish forebears and have no ability to brown up when exposed to El Sol. I just go red and get cancer-y.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?
That's like asking Archie if he prefers Betty or Veronica.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?
Driving: yes.
At the movies: sometimes.
At home: Never.
At restaurants: no, but I constantly worry I'm sharing spit with the last person who drank from that glass.
From a bendy straw: I'm not ready for that part of life.
From a crazy straw: As often as I can find one.

22. What did your last text message say?
Incoming: Your Horns are looking a little rough tonight.
Outgoing: That game was RIDICULOUS.

23. What are you doing tomorrow?
Working. Why?

24. favorite color?
Blue.

25. Look to your left; what do you see?
A TV remote. Beyond that, Jamie.

Bowl Schedule 09-10

2009-12-06T19:50:00.003-06:00

Well, the Bowl schedule is up, and UT did manage to land in the National Championship. Pretty cool that two teams I follow (UT and OU) have each had a shot in back to back years.

I am, of course, a Longhorn by academic and professional affiliation. But these days I work with 17 other universities, and so my professional affiliations spread a little outside of that particular scope. But as a sports fan, I bleed orange. Just don't tell anyone.

Its sort of cool to know I will want to watch all five BCS games and a load of non-BCS bowls.

The Rose Bowl on New Years will be the scrappy Ducks versus the Buckeyes, and I think the Ducks stand a darn good chance of winning that one.

The Sugar Bowl (also New Year's Day) will feature the former National Champs and team who was ranked #1 all season against Cincinnati. I watched Cincinnati play three times this year, and I think this could be a surprisingly even match-up.

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 4) will feature Boise State (who I don't care about) versus TCU (whom we should ALL care about). TCU will spend the next month whining about how they should have been in the Championship Bowl, so its a chance to see what they've got against a serious challenge.

The Orange Bowl I'll be watching mostly because its on, but GT and Iowa...? Could be fun.

And, of course, my Longhorns in the National Championship. Versus Alabama, who seems superior in so many ways. It's my sincere hope that the Longhorns will embrace their underdog status, just as UT did in the 06 Championship, and play against an over confident Alabama. Or... Alabama could just walk all over my pals Colt and Kindle.

C'est la vie.

Some other bowls I'll consider watching:

12/22 - Oregon State in the Maaco Bowl.
12/26 - Pittsburgh in the Mieneke Car Care Bowl
12/28 - A&M in the Independence Bowl
12/31 - Houston in the Bell Hleicopters Armed Services Bowl
12/31 - Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl
1/2 - Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl
1/2 - Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl

That's a lot of football, but I have a lot of time off from work.

UT (barely) Beats Nebraska: Headed to National Championship Game

2009-12-06T01:20:00.004-06:00

(editor's note: This is being written at about 1:30 AM Sunday. If the BCS comes out tomorrow with a different ranking than I expect, and UT is NOT in the championship, I will not be entirely surprised. But it @#$%ing better not be Alabama and Florida)

At this point, I guess it means that the worst ranking UT will pull this year is #2? Which I can hardly complain about. Something tells me the other bowls will be the ones worth watching this year. So if you can't find me end of December - January 7, I'll be camped out and watching football.

Dear TCU Fans,

Hey! Feeling cheated that UT is headed to the National Championship and that you're going to have to play in some other stinky bowl game? Let me introduce you to me, this time last year when Oklahoma got to play in a National Championship game that we knew they weren't going to win while UT pondered how we'd beat those guys...

The BCS is ridiculous. You now have your own taste of it. And let me further instruct you that after watching the Cincy game today and the Alabama game, I sincerely doubt that UT would beat those guys either. But funny thing: UT started out ranked very high, played very well in most games, and won every game. That could be TCU next year if your team isn't a fluke this year.

Best,

The League

UT now isn't going off to play in a bowl game with decent ratings that nobody will remember by July. UT is going off to get their asses handed to them by an overwhelmingly superior Alabama. And, I assure you TCU fans... you would not win that game, either, and for the rest of his life Colt McCoy will have to live down the whispers that he (despite breaking school and NCAA records) and his team were always frauds.

I would love to believe UT is going to win against Alabama, and I will be wearing burnt orange the whole week leading to January 7th. But I'm not laboring under any illusions. The divine providence which gave UT a win this evening will most likely not replicate itself in Pasadena.

I'm just glad to follow a team that's strong enough that even when the offense decides to go bonkers for the game, the defense can win it. And if you look at the TAMU game, vice-versa.

Nah. If you want to catch a good bowl game, I'm going to recommend the Ducks in the Rose Bowl, or wherever the hell Cincy winds up. Those guys are insane.

But you can't say UT didn't keep it interesting the past two weeks.

Revisiting The First Posts

2009-12-05T15:51:00.007-06:00

League of Melbotis soft-launched in March of 2003.

You can see that first week's worth of posts by clicking here.

Its worth noting that I actually pulled down the League after its first week, then put it back up. I might have saved myself and all of you a lot of time and trouble if I'd just shut it down back then, but then who would have been around to give you lengthy reviews of "Santa Buddies"?

My very first post at this blog?

March 30th, 2003:

Greetings, mortals. This is my very, very first post to this blog. Jim Dedman is a weenie.
posted by Ryan at 10:29 AM

Two years into the Bush presidency and a year and a half out from 9/11, America was in an interesting place. We'd rolled into Iraq in a war that made little sense to me at the time. I did not understand how, if Iraq indeed had the WMD's we said they did, they hadn't lobbed them at our military as they spent a month gearing up on Iraq's borders. I also couldn't begin to guess what the gameplan was for occupying such a large and hostile country in the wake of an invasion.

Well, a funny thing happened...

Those early posts are fascinating to read in the here and now. At the time, I was in a very different place in my life. I had no real reason to believe my parents would find the site, nor anyone else that I not pointed to the site. Blogs were only semi-known as a publishing medium, and I couldn't fathom anyone Googling my name (and once it became clear that was an issue, I began referring to myself in 3rd person as "The League").

Jim and I were passing emails on various political topics back and forth, and looking at some of my opinions now, I don't necessarily think I was wrong, but would certainly address the issues in a different way.

Its also clear the contempt with which I held The Valley of the Sun. Neither Jamie nor myself were very happy when we arrived in Phoenix, and after four years, at best I'd say our opinion didn't improve. With three years behind us back in Austin, the majority of the four years is a blur of long work hours, hospital visits, odd social situations, boredom, and the endless planning necessary for scheduling visits to Austin, Houston and Lawton.

Last night Jamie, Jason and I were watching a Canadian documentary entitled "Cat Ladies" (recommended, btw), which reveals how managing, caring for, rescuing, etc... of cats has become a crutch and coping mechanism for the women in the film (a cop interviewed from the Toronto animal detail states that 99% of the animal hording cases are women).

Its not a huge leap to say that some of my obsession with comics, etc... and, indeed, getting into the habit of blogging stemmed from my own dissatisfaction. At one point, I considered winding up this blog when we returned to Austin because I was aware that the person who was writing this site in Chandler, Arizona would be a bit different from the one who was writing it in Austin. However, in the end, documenting the return and re-engagement with a life we'd left behind (and, of course, the aspects of "you can never go home again" which followed) was all part of it.

By April 2 of 2003, I was already ranting about Superman. Superman, comics and pop culture would immediately begin to overwhelm the conversation at LoM. I've never been particularly comfortable arguing politics, and find it odd that I thought a public website discussing politics was a good idea. But we can talk Superman, or Spidey or the latest movies without faces changing color or people feeling like they absolutely must have the last word.

By April 03, 2009, I was getting into details of the latest releases in comics.

At one point, blogging was still fairly new, and I wondered if LoM wouldn't accidentally find itself a wider audience of comic fans. There were little flirtations as I was linked to from bigger sites such as The Beat once or twice (Heidi is still my gold standard for industry coverage), the old Blog@ Newsarama, etc... Always enough to spike interest for a day or two, but I wasn't able to get any real traction.

Luckily, I had no expectations, just wishful thinking. And I do think that my comic work at Comic Fodder made a dent or two in fandom and saw quadruple digits on a couple of posts.

As I didn't believe my folks or anyone else was reading LoM, the language in those early posts is a bit salty. I don't apologize for that. It was what it was, and once I knew Judy and the KareBear were reading, I cleaned things up a bit, and also learned that "@#$%" is infinitely more satisfying than actual profanity, anyway.

And every time I type it, I think of Sgt. Snorkel from the Beetle Bailey comic strips I read obsessively as a kid, and who I recall first employing the tried-and-true technique.

My first pic of Melbotis appears here.

Leaguers may recall that early on, I didn't have titles on my posts, didn't have a comment section, etc... For years, we used HaloScan, and it was a tough decision to abandon the comment section that was sort of the comments of record. We've used the embedded commenting tool for a few years with great success, but I've since lost the comment the time musician "Meco" showed up in the comments to outline how George Lucas had screwed him on the Star Wars Christmas album, and when I'd complained about a McDonald's commercial and the actor's aunt wrote in to tell me I was a @#$%.

Here's a pic I posted on our 3rd wedding anniversary.

kind of sums it up

We'll be married 10 years in April. Go figure.

Here's my first link to Randy.

Its been a long, strange trip.

It is true that, in part, I am looking to close the blog to close a chapter in my life. Many of the reasons why League of Melbotis sprung into existence have wound down or come to a natural conclusion. We're in a different place in how we're dealing with everything from politics to career to comics. And, of course, we're going to have to dig deep when we return to a few outstanding projects that we promised ourselves we'd do touch on again some day.

Still, I'm glad to have such a long period of my life (6.75 years of the past 34.75. That ain't bad.).

And who knows? We could be back.

This could be cool

2009-12-05T15:29:00.001-06:00

I don't know too much about this except what I saw in this video, but there's a show coming on called "Slingers" that looks sci-fi interesting.

io9 had this to say.

Giving Opportunity #2: Heifer International

2009-12-04T15:32:00.004-06:00

Here's attempt #2 to find a charitable organization which we can support in the season of giving.

Team Melbotis at Heifer International

Here's a blurb describing Heifer International's general approach to things:

Heifer has learned over the years that a holistic approach is necessary in order to build sustainable communities. So we’ve developed a set of global initiatives – areas of emphasis that must be addressed if we’re to meet our mission of ending world hunger and poverty and caring for the earth.

Here are some areas Heifer is working in:

Agroecology
Animal Well-Being
Gender Equity
HIV-AIDS
Microenterprise
Urban Agriculture
Young People's Initiative

Again, this isn't about the size of a donation. If you can afford $5, that's plenty. I want to see what we can do together. Last year we did quite well with the Red Kettle, and I think we can do even better this year.

-Give here and get your name shown.
-Give here sort of anonymously.

So let's put our money where our mouth is when it comes to this time of year. Let's see what we can do with our hard earned dollars to help out some folks elsewhere who are less fortunate.

Go Ducks!

2009-12-03T23:29:00.001-06:00

Go Ducks!

I know who I'm cheering for in the Rose Bowl.

Easy Holiday Donation! Red Kettle

2009-12-03T22:53:00.006-06:00

really? Not one donation yet? I'm going to assume you've all been very, very busy.

It's RED KETTLE TIME, people! This isn't for me, this is The League trying to get you folks to show a little charity and generosity in this time of giving.

Its fast. Its easy. You don't have to give a lot, just a little. All together, we have the power to do something good!

This guy is helping The League drum up support for the Salvation Army

Click here to give!

And the sooner people start giving, the sooner I shut up about this thing.

Checking In

2009-12-03T22:36:00.003-06:00

I doubt much will come of it, but it's supposed to snow in Austin tomorrow. El Nino is making the end of 2009 a bit interesting, giving us this surprising cold snap and making a dent in our multi-year rain deficit.

We don't deal well with freezing weather in this twon, so I expect tomorrow to be a bit of a mess, coming and going from work.

I apologize for missing a day of posting as we wind down to the end here. Again, if you have any particular post you'd like to see, let me know. We've got a few in our pocket, but we better start working on them now, or its unlikely they'll see the light of day.

Yesterday Jamie and I made a late run to Target to do a spot of Christmas shopping. I much, much prefer doing shopping with Jamie than without, and weekends get crammed full of plans and plots this close to Christmas. Anyhow, by the time we finally really got home and wound down last night, I had neither time nor inclination to chat on much.

This evening I left work early for an eye appointment. I'm a big fan of my eye doctor, as she's very frank, and seems like she's really trying to make sure she's got my situation right, not getting me out the door so the next person can move through.

But as I'd left work early, this evening I was doing some work while Jamie watched TV.

Working to get about 25 of these videos up and online:

It's funny, because everything technical I learned in film school has been rendered moot by the ensuing ten years of technological achievement, not to mention the period between 09/2006 and now since I was responsible for video as part of my job and kept up with this stuff.

In many ways, I regret that I didn't pursue a career in video editing. Its a job I enjoy, and back in the day, I was fairly good and fast. Alas, Austin's jobs offered in the field circa 1998 were few and far between.

Currently, I am watching the Oregon/ Oregon State game, and cheering for the Ducks. Just a great game, which I'd like to finish watching.

Anyhow, here's to hoping the weather tomorrow isn't too rotten.

It's a Wonderful Blog

2009-12-01T23:04:00.005-06:00

I'll be writing a few posts as we head toward the December 20th ending point of this site which will be, alas, actually about the twists and turns of writing LoM over the years.

JimD suggested I write about people I might not have met and experiences that could not have occurred without League of Melbotis. And so I shall.

JimD

To understand this web of people, its also important to understand that JimD is at the center of it all. I met Jim in a screen writing class in the Fall of 1997, and took my second screen writing class with him in the Spring of 1998, just before we both graduated. I had no immediate plans following graduation, and he was headed for law school.

We kept up via email, writng back and forth multiple times per week on pop culture, politics, etc..., and Jim maintained a blog (one of many over the years). Eventually he persuaded me to start this site in the Spring of 2003.

Randy and Emily

Many Leaguers would be surprised to learn that I have only met Randy twice in person, and our acquaintanceship stems directly from this site. Randy knows JimD from many years back, and I guess Jim sent him a link to the blog circa Summer of 2003.

Since that time, Randy and I now email at least once per day. I still recall when he emailed me that he was thinking of getting engaged, and years later, he's now a husband and father. Kind of kooky.

Randy moved to Tennessee during the tenure of this blog to make a life with Emily, who I finally met this year, and immediately liked. Randy is a lucky guy.

Steven and Lauren

My understanding is that Steven wrote for UT's student paper "The Daily Texan" while JimD was editor of the paper. I don't recall exactly when Steven and I began chatting back and forth, but it was a good year or so prior to 2006, when he and Lauren packed it up and moved from the Bay Area to Austin.

Steven's decision to do so was part of the catalyst that launched us back to Waterloo. It became somewhat apparent that such a move was possible if we really wished it (and we did).

We'd been back about 3 - 4 weeks and missed one another a few times when we finally met for coffee at Magnolia Cafe. For whatever reason we hit it off, and Steven and Lauren have been terrific friends. Sadly (and I think I'm spilling some beans here), Team Harms-Roth is picking up and returning to The Bay Area this winter. My feelings are mixed as, selfishly, I hate to lose such great friends to geography. But I also know that career opportunity, lifestyle, etc... are a huge draw.

My gameplan is to visit Dug and K in Berkeley frequently, anyway, so I suspect we'll be seeing them on some sort of routine basis.

Simon

I have no idea when Simon began visiting the blog, and I pray he never finds the jokes I used to make about Canadians eating babies in some earlier posts when the League was still feeling its way.

A fellow comics nut, Simon and I chat via email regularly, have exchanged comics through mail, and I have visions of meeting up at a Convention one of these days. He's been a co-writer at Comic Fodder, maintains his own blog which I read when he posts semi-weekly, and has been an all around good guy to have around.

Fantomenos

Perhaps the most mysterious of all Leaguers, I know little about Fantomenos other than that he lives in Oregon, is a football and genre fiction nut, and wrestles with dog issues as well. He's my equal number living somewhere in the North Pacific.

I think 99% of our communication has occurred via the comments section of the blog, but he's such a regular, I really look forward to when he shows up to chime in.

I am, of course, very sad that the end of this blog will mean the end of the mysterious Fantomenos in my day.

Paul T.

I don't think I'd heard Paul's name before my trip to Vegas. I was checking my messages on my phone and an old high school chum, JenIn, emailed me that she was going to hook me up with this guy, Paul, assuring me we'd be best buddies.

Paul and I have been chatting back and forth ever since, and I actually owe him an invitation to coffee.

It turns out Paul is from the same part of Austin whenre I attended school in 4th - 9th grade, and also attended UT Film school, just a few years behind me.

Paul maintains a blog, and has started a nifty web project called "Sunday Screenings" that I really need to get motor-vated to take part in.

I guess JenIn saw enough parallels that she hit the nail on the head. Anyway, check out Paul's work.

Some Other folks:

Check out that "Fan" list. 77 Facebook fans. Not bad.

I see I forgot to mention the always amazing Alfredo, Anne Francis and about a dozen or so more of you. Wow. Truly a George Bailey moment.

Reconnections Via the Blog
some folks I used to know, who found me thanks to LoM

NTT
Michael Corley
Carla Beth
Meredith
Madi (she floated around here circa 2004 or so)
and many more!

That doesn't include all the folks I never lost touch with, but with whom I've been able to maintain contact, like JAL and Nathan C.

Its been a wild ride, Leaguers.

If I missed any of you, pipe up, and we'll do a post numbero dos.

But I gotta go to bed.

The League Watches: Santa Buddies

2009-11-30T22:08:00.002-06:00

There are a few types of movies which are produced with the Yuletide Season in mind. There are true, heartfelt holiday pictures which have become classics, such as "A Christmas Story" or those with a moral underpinning, such as "It's a Wonderful Life". There are broad comedies which use the annual festivities as a backdrop to explore the foibles of the average person, with varying degrees of success ("Jingle All the Way", "Christmas with the Cranks"). Some employ high-end CGI, namebrand actors and the Santa-related Christmas mythology to bring alive the "wonder" of Christmas ("Fred Claus", "Elf"). There are even the oddly sentimental and saccharine made-for-TV Holiday movies in which 30 and 40-somethings find romance, which hit CBS each December as regularly as fruitcake arrives by mail.

And then there are the endless stream of cheerless, mirthless, low-fi, relying-on-the-tropes-of-the-holiday, pushed through the Hollywood sausage mill, "magic of Christmas" films, almost all of which feature a long-out-of-work former-star as Santa.

"Santa Buddies" is Disney's ninth installment in the lucrative "Air Bud" franchise, which was once a simple tale of a dog who could shoot free-throws (and the boy who loved him). In this day and age, an adorable thoroughbred dog with an amazing talent is as useful to your Nintendo-DS-addled hottentots as a Smith-Corona ribbon. Lest the Hollywood studios lose a dime from haggard mothers looking for fifteen minutes of peace while their rugrats glue themselves to the screen in the back of the Caravan, Disney has gleefully kept the franchise up to date. Having jettisoned the sports-playing Bud of the first five movies, "Santa Buddies" represents the fourth installment to feature several deeply CGI-ed puppies who comment and wise-crack their way through the film and have Disney-approved stereotypes assigned to each of them, with the requisite attitude-imbued slang appropriate for each "character".

In this movie (in which, clearly, nobody is even @#$%ing trying), there's "Buddha", the openly hostile take on non-Judeo-Christian concepts of spirituality. "MudBud" is... dirty. And possibly a redneck. "Budderball" is the one who is into sports, so he's also kind of slow and really into food. "RoseBud" is the only female, and thus complexly coded as being interested in fashion and who likely believes math is hard. And, the nails-on-a-chalkboard "B-Dawg", whom you can expect your kids to parrot until Easter. Voiced by peppy child-actor Skyler Gisondo, "B-Dawg" is the hip-hop-slang toting, diamond-encrusted-medallion-wearing, embodiment of America's issues with race, culture and identity. But you shall truly feel your heart soar when B-Dawg's nose glows red and he proclaims "my nose is shining! Like my bling!".

Oh, B-Dawg!

Let it be noted: the Buddies are mostly a backdrop to a the goings-on at The North Pole where the massive frozen phallus by which Santa Claus* and Santa Paws take the measure of the level of Christmas Spirit is twinkling/ melting away. Viewers may be shocked to learn that for the purposes of our story, and reasons Santa and Santa don't get into, the world's Christmas Spirit just isn't what it used to be.

Santa Paws is, of course, Dog Santa, who delivers presents to good puppies**, and rides shotgun in Santa's sleigh. Somehow, the heir of Santa Paws, Puppy Paws (yes. Puppy Paws. It's a sort of six-degrees-of-separation thing you're better off not pondering too hard) just wants to be a "normal" puppy, and can give a toss for elves, magic, and the awkward glee that is veteran Little Person actor Danny Woodburn (of Seinfeld fame) looking like he cannot believe he's been roped into the part of Eli, the Only Competent Elf.

Anyone in this image could have had a potty accident

From a technical stand-point, the North Pole, the eight reindeer, and the Fortress of Solitude-like cave hosting the ice-phallus are all the finest CGI that could be rendered on a MacBook Pro in late 2001. Its likely writer/ director/ producer Robert Vince told himself that the unforgiveably awful graphics created a "storybook" look-and-feel, in order that he could sleep at night and still call himself a "filmmaker". Consumers buying this DVD should feel comforted that its just as likely that the intended audience of kids who think you disappear when you play "peek-a-boo" and hide behind your hands, will not notice the poor CGI. But one might (vainly) hope that a company built on animation such as Disney would have maybe tried a bit harder.

If writer/ director/ producer Vince*** does deserve a tip of the hat, its that the Buddies and Puppy Paws, all real-deal and seemingly not-dead-and-taxidermized puppies, actually sit still long enough for the necessary coverage to complete scenes. Forget all else about this movie, but watch in earnest amazement as Vince's leads do not just randomly tumble past the camera and give in to chasing their own tail.

Among the group with whom this reviewer watched the film there were, of course, theories floated, including the exclusive use of extremely tired pups, drugged pups, pups glued to some sort of mat, etc... But as this is Vince's 13th or 14th film featuring animals, one has to assume the man knows exactly what he can get out of any animal in Hollywood. And that Lassie must be sending him boudoir photos trying to get work with the man.

To get our plot shaking, for reasons that make no real sense, Puppy Paws identifies "Budderball" from Santa Paws' "Naughty List" as what a "normal" pup must be like (despite his omnipresent sports jersey and eye-black). Thus, he stows away to bum a ride in a surprisingly racist magical mail truck to the Buddies' fictional hometown of Fernfield, Washington, where he plans to join forces with "Budderball" and become "normal" as well.

The plot is fairly boiler-plate kiddie-faire, and should keep your wee-ones entertained, provided their standard for an hour's worth of amusement begins and ends with bright colors and shiny objects.

There's a non-menacing Christopher Lloyd, phoning in his performance as the curmudgeonly dog catcher just trying to make a profit. There's a semi-frightening/ cute puppy who delivers the film's chance to hit fast-forward with an original Christmas tune, and a kid who just wants a puppy, but Dad can't afford Christopher Lloyd's sky-high prices (which makes one wonder what happens when the dog needs to go to the vet, but lets not pick nits).

The movie delivers no shortage of lessons for our younger viewers, such as: run away from the new kid if he doesn't immediately fit in, people in far off lands all celebrate Christmas and live in easily stereo-typed ethnic homes, and that it isn't worth it to try to make friends with someone unless they have magical powers.

This reviewer found it somewhat striking that he became genuinely lost during a crucial point in the film in which Puppy Paws has supposedly learned a lesson about what Christmas really means. Perhaps because the lesson was delivered in a shrilly delivered song, I missed something, but it seemed unclear how "Santa Buddies" decided to define the meaning of Christmas, as no character dared to utter the lesson aloud again.

Part of the interesting mix of "Santa Buddies" is that, like most Christmas movies, the film was based almost entirely in a secular and magical world of elves, talking dogs, flying sleighs, etc... But the film also makes awkward attempts to appeal to the large audience "keeping Christ in Christmas", including scenes of characters praying, etc... This would seemingly raise the stakes for defining "the spirit of Christmas" as more than a warm fuzzy and colored lights, and there is some hint regarding charity, but its somewhat fuzzy and seemingly tied to how much you like being licked by puppies.

These puppies are stupid and I hate them

Its perhaps expecting too much for a movie about Santa's canine parallel's prodigal-son to say much about the human/ canine condition, or to ask that any message about the meaning of the Holiday be put into concrete terms, but there seemed no real transition from Puppy Paws' abandonment of his destiny and giving up and going home (ie: finding the spirit of Christmas). However, if Hollywood is intent on making Christmas film after Christmas film which insists that "people have lost the true meaning of Christmas", it would be nice to have a movie which didn't resolve the problem with fictional intangibles like "if Puppy Paws can just come back, we can deliver the presents/ save Christmas!", and perhaps do a bit more in the vein of "A Christmas Carol" or "It's a Wonderful Life" to recognize charity and giving.

This is by no means the worst Christmas movie you may see this year. That's what ABC Family and the Hallmark Channel are here to provide. Nor is it the worst Christmas movie ever made. That distinction is currently held by the 1996 feature, "Santa with Muscles". Kids may enjoy the puppies and their non-stop stream of mistaking saying-things-that-other-people-say for humor or something anybody actually wants to hear.

Its tough to imagine a world in which an adult might watch this movie and derive non-ironic joy from the viewing, but people are into all sorts of things, I suppose. Let us just say that I have lived a life the way a man is supposed to, and never believed it possible to hate an adorable puppy.

But God help me, I hate B-Dawg.

Fo' shizzle.

This reviewer would suggest that, perhaps, when seeking out holiday entertainment you may wish to look elsewhere for a video which may not be the filmic equivalent of feeding your kids nothing but creme-filled doughnuts for a week.

Luckily, Robert Vince is no man to rest on his laurels. IMDB promises that a second installment in the now ever-expanding world of Air Bud/ the Buddies/ Puppy Paws will be arriving next year under the name "The Search for Santa Paws".

*It should be noted that "Cheers" alum George Wendt, who played Santa in last year's "A Colbert Christmas", in 2007's "Larry the Cable Guy's Christmas Spectacular" and in a TV movie entitled "Santa Baby" in 2006, reprises his role as Santa Claus. He, however, looks a bit pale and ghastly throughout, and several times I wondered if Mr. Claus were not fighting off a flu or suffering low blood sugar. While comforting to know Mr. Wendt and his agent have locked up "Santa" as a role for the next few years and found a role Wendt can take well into retirement, it has created an odd alternate world of entertainment where the Buddies, Stephen Colbert, and Larry the Cable Guy all share the same Santa, who is Jenny McCarthy's dad.

**I assume all cats are either Jewish or Shintoist and do not participate in the Holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus.

***A long, slow clap, then, for the career of Mr. Robert Vince. For without his talents, its' not just that we would never have had the films "Most Valuable Primate", but also "Most Vertical Primate" and the unforgettable "Most Xtreme Primate".

Post Holiday and into the Holidays

2009-11-29T20:02:00.003-06:00

Howdy, Leaguers!

What a holiday! I am not at all ready to head back into work tomorrow, but head back in, I shall.

Wednesday evening Doug and Kristen arrived from Berkeley, and we met up for a small family dinner of Tex-Mex.

Thursday was the big day. You've seen photos, and I briefly posted on the Texas A&M/ Univ. of Texas game. Holy smokes. An amazing roller-coaster of a game. TAMU fans have a lot to look forward to next year, especially as UT goes through a re-building year with the loss of McCoy, Shipley, Houston, et al.

Friday we went to the Alamo South to watch "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", which was even better than I had heard. It's difficult to point to exactly why the movie hit a chord with me, but a smart script, great animation, well-defined characters, etc... and Wes Anderson's always great use of music (Wilson's "Heroes and Villains" appears early on), made for a very satisfactory movie-going experience.

Afterwards, we hit "The Highball", which is Austin's new bowling alley/ bar/ restaurant from the creators of the The Alamo. It was actually a lot of fun. Jamie and Doug rocked at skee-ball. I enjoyed the heck out of my "Dr. Pepper Ribs". Not sure Jamie felt the same (we shared).

We followed all this with a viewing of "Santa Buddies", Disney's 9th installment in the largely straight-to-home-video "Air Bud"/ "Buddies" series of films. This was done somewhat on a dare when Leaguer Nathan C., a station manager at San Antonio's Texas Public Radio sent me a screener-copy of the movie. I now owe Nathan and the city of San Antonio an honest review of "Santa Buddies".

The next day we hit Mary's Taco X-Press (which was amazingly un-crowded), visited South Congress (and "Hey Cupcake"), then went for dinner at Jamie's folks' place in San Marcos.

This was followed by a screening of "D War: Dragon Wars", which you may recall we discussed at some point in 2008. The movie is no better, but was significantly assisted by RiffTrax. But I felt that if Doug was going to watch the movie, he should really do so with someone who had been there mentally and emotionally.

This morning we had fake-McBride-Christmas as Doug and K will not be in Austin for the Holidays. Some gifts were exchanged, we had a wonderful Christmas-morning breakfast (including Holiday tunes), and we made merry.

One gift which had been bestowed was a copy of the new Super Mario Bros for the Wii, which I am thoroughly enjoying (even if I'm awful at it). We also received a popcorn popper and a pair of DVD's.

Also watched the Tennessee Vince Youngs play the Arizona Leinarts, complete with a last-second VY pass into the endzone for the victory.

A good weekend.

This afternoon and evening, Jamie and I put up our interior decorations for Christmas, so we are quasi-ready for the Holidays. With Scout having her first Christmas here, and with her needing space for her crate, we opted for no tree this year. A bit sad, perhaps, but I'd rather not risk Scout deciding to eat a fake tree, grab glass ornaments, etc...

I hope your Holiday was a good one.

Now, on to Christma-Hannakwanzaa.

TIME TO GIVE BACK: Salvation Army 2009

2009-11-27T11:47:00.003-06:00

Hey, Leaguers!

The Holidays are upon us, and its time for me to virtually stand in front of your virtual shopping center ringing my virtual bell.

We know things are tough for many people across the world this year, but we feel fortunate to have a home, food, a job, and so much. But many, many people haven't had the year we've had, and so we're looking to raise funds for a great organization.

Click here to lend a hand.

We've got 77 Facebook Fans, 24 "followers" on Facebook, and we've set the bar fairly low. I expect we'll be pumping up our donation goals before too long.

If all you can give is $5, that's cool. But let's see what happens when we all pull together to see how much we can raise!

Turkey Day 2009

2009-11-27T00:15:00.002-06:00

Judy and Dick knocked themselves out on Turkey Day this year. A fantastic spread with a delicious turkey at the center, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, home-made rolls, cranberries, a fantastic addition of stewed tomatoes via K's family (like, dessert good), pumpkin and chocolate pies...

Anyway, we Americans (and many in the west) are lucky to have so much, and that's something I think was on many minds. KareBear just returned from Kenya where she was be-spectacling folks in need of eye glasses, and its good to have that kind of touchstone to know that we live differently, and not to forget that there's a reason to be grateful and give thanks.

This was Dug and K's first Thanksgiving with us as a married couple, and also our first Turkey Day with Ciera as part of the family. She's a firecracker, and smart. Its fun to spend time with her.

Here's a photo Jason took of the partially assembled family as we make our plates.

from left: Cousin Sue, KareBear, Judy, Jamie, me smashing a plate on Dug's head, Dug, The Admiral getting into the turkey.

Prior to the dinner, some met up at Jason's to carpool south to Dick and Judy's. Ciera has been taking guitar lessons. Here she plays some tunes on Jason's guitar.

After dinner, I tossed around a football and frisbee with Ciera, Jamie and Kristen, then watched the Cowboys game. It was very All-American, which is kind of how we roll on Thanksgiving.

Then Northward where many of us met up to watch the UT game, gnash teeth, and finally collapse in relief when TAMU missed that final field goal. Every darn year that game is unpredictable, and no matter how TAMU has played all season, UT fans know that the rivalry may be friendly, but when its at Kyle Field, the Aggies are not kidding about this 12th Man business.

Poor Scout is afraid of the noise the people make during the games. She was alternately seeking attention and hiding all evening.

Hope you guys had a great Turkey Day. I'm thankful for having such an amazing family, and am really looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

UT/ TAMU Football Game 2009

2009-11-26T23:17:00.004-06:00

Well, @#$%. That was interesting, wasn't it?

I watched with the Steans-half of the family, all of whom were variously shouting in shock, dismay, anger, despair, etc...

UT's much-hyped defense were given a real run for their money by the Texas A&M offense who seemed to have their number, and whose tape Nebraska will be watching closely come the Big 12 Championship.

Colt had a terrific game which was overshadowed by the collapse of UT's defense and A&M's seeming ability to move the ball at will. Colt was responsible for 5 touchdowns and a total of 470 yards or so. That's... really good.

Anyway, this was a good game for UT fans and maybe for the UT players to be reminded that a powderpuff schedule isn't going to prepare you for a national title game, and that mayhaps your ranking isn't going to be so solid come Sunday.

TAMU didn't get the win this year, but come 2010... man. It's gonna be ugly.

The Origins of the Horns Hand Sign

2009-11-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

V - Episode 4. We watched.

2009-11-25T22:51:00.001-06:00

This episode was a real turning point for "V". It marked the moment when you realized that the writers and producers did, in fact, have an idea of what they were doing, but that idea is just sort of dumb.

Once again in the 4th episode, character development remains non-existent except for the "shocking revelation" that Padre Blando is a former soldier (which means a plot line about guilt, overcoming guilt, and explaining how he'll henceforth be a bad-ass - ie: American Sayid.). Villains continued to stare out of windows. Erica's parenting skills put her more in the class of passive roommate than "Mom". And the fate of the entire known galaxy of sentients depends on a kid with a brain the size of a walnut.

On the plus side: Apparently there IS a reason that the V's do not wander around their ships looking like lizards, and it has something to do with trauma that occurs if they don't wear their people-suits. Which... yeah. It makes a convenient plot device, but makes the people-suits no less ridiculous.

In this episode, the show writers once again ham-handedly tried to reflect the "ripped from the headlines" approach, by continuing to exploit our superstitious beliefs about modern medicine by revealing that the flu vaccine is actually an alien plot against us (that's what we need. More people deciding not to get the flu shot. Slow clap, ABC.).

As revealed last week, we have aliens acting as if a dweebish 17-year old* is some sort of lynchpin for their ability to conquer Earth (and that teen's mom just happens to be one of a few people that know tha V's are up to no good. What a koinky-dink.).

If I may:

Look, aliens. If you're going to conquer earth, and your plan relies upon seducing a 17 year old with a willing blond (easy) and counting upon a slow witted 17 year old in any way (not so easy), I hope there's a "Plan B". I recommend lasers.

At this point, I'm almost curious to see what happens in March when the show returns, because I want to see how this Rube Goldberg plot to take over the Earth unfolds, and how it couldn't just be done better with nukes or germ warfare or a million other options.

The episode also leaned upon the "oh, my God! How did that happen? Flashback to 14 hours earlier" in media res plot device to absolutely no positive effect. That device is supposed to be there for when something indicated in the scene (a) actually happens, or (b) matters.

At some point I made a comment that a hapless and easily dispatched security guard became a focus for the show, and... in the final scenes of the episode, he actually did reappear as a plot point. It was kind of exciting that I called that one out. But, you know, you have a seemingly pointless lingering shot of a guy...

Had the US not had major security changes in the past 10 years, some of "V" would be a bit easier to buy. It is significantly harder to believe that the world would be happily letting aliens treat our ill and integrate into our society within weeks of their arrival. I was laughing so hard I had to pause the DVR when our Arch Villainess casually announces she's got a miracle shot which, apparently, had FDA approval and was being released immediately. We've got cures for the common cold we haven't managed to squeeze through the approval process.

One of the reasons "Alien Nation" never worked for me was that the producers were never creative enough to ponder how different an alien culture might be from our own. District 9 is one of the few movies that, though borrowing heavily from refugeeism as seen in South Africa, bothered to make the aliens significantly different from the culture they approached, not just in looks, but in culture, etc... Honestly, if an alien with no accent of any sort, who looked a bit like Swiss Miss told me she heard a place had "amazing pizza", or that it even knew what pizza was, you should be terrified. How long had these aliens been watching? And what were they doing now?

The concept of the alien technology is also all straight from the Ikea catalog, the designs are uninspired and insipid, and I think last night they tried to pass off a dental lamp for super-science. If we're to believe alien technology looks like a Fujitsu tablet PC, that the interiors of their ships look like the causeway at a convention center, and that they all dress in leftovers from the STNG wardrobe department, why bother with appearing to be aliens at all?

The tragedy of V is that it didn't need to be hackneyed and trite. What COULD have been an interesting series, looking at how this sort of thing was handled on local, federal and an international level, instead (much like Flash Forward) became much more about an FBI in pursuit of badguys. The opportunity to see a White House dealing with the arrival of seemingly benevolent aliens seems infinitely more interesting than Erica Evans doing database searches, which is what the show effectively turned into last episode (also, shouldn't she be at work? At least a little?). How Earth handles seemingly benevolent gifts of science and industry over even a few months might have at least given us something to hang the plot on.

Instead, the show focuses entirely on only five or six people, turning intergalactic warfare into a parlor mystery. To that end, when our sleeper-agent V's human girlfriend** happened to be the shrink to Rodney the Rebellious Teen (the same teen who the leader of an alien race believes is going to be their "in" to humanity), any sense of scale the show carried was poured down the drain. These characters simply don't need to be connected so tightly.

I don't want to be rude, but this is a show that counts on its audience to have formed a concept of how government, the FDA, the military, police, religion, etc... function entirely by watching other TV shows. To just go along with a scenario in which THIS is how the world would react to aliens seems... bizarre. It also counts on an audience to get excited by retread plot points, hackey villainous behavior, and to give no critical examination of the actual events of the story and just coast along with whatever the show shovels out. Getting excited that the actors from Firefly are getting work again isn't a pass.

Honestly, the show just sort of makes me mad. Elizabeth Mitchell is a talented and foxy actress, and she's stuck in a lead role with all the depth of a kiddy pool. It's bad enough that the producers lifted an old concept, but the stunning lack of vision for how this would be an improvement is disappointing.

I'm told that the show will have new producers when it returns, and so part of me wants to give the show another shot. After all, there IS opportunity to retool the show and possibly save it from itself.

Also, Elizabeth Mitchell.

*I have heard a lot of people's messages on the phone. Only on TV do I hear the ever-present "This is (fill-in-blank). You know what to do." as an instruction for leaving a message. I don't know if that's a standard LA-thing, or what... But, I doubt anybody ever actually used "you know what to do" as an outgoing message with such a terrific lack of irony.

Seriously, stop it. It makes your heroes sound douche-y.

**Also, must everyone who mentions they're feeling a bit off on TV either (a) be diagnosed with an incurable and fatal disease, or (b) be pregnant? And didn't we already do the whole "V-Baby" thing pretty ineffectively in the original series? You couldn't hold out a little longer or telegraph that one a little more?

Macy's Parade

2009-11-24T23:43:00.007-06:00

Somehow I had totally forgotten that Thursday isn't just Thanksgiving, its the Macy's Parade. The League LOVES the parade no less now than when we were 7 years old. And now, we have a much greater appreciation of The Rockettes. Always the highlight of the parade for this avid viewer.

I skip the local parades every year as I know they can't hold a candle to 50 foot Snoopy, Disney-approved child-talent lip-synching in the cold and marching bands from across the US.

An extra thrill this year: they've had to change the route, and a lot of people are predicting that the balloons can't make the turn at one point. It is going to be AWESOME.

Also, Rockettes!

The parade also is the catalyst for holiday staple "Miracle on 34th Street", which is a favorite here at League HQ. It features Santa on trial for his sanity and the always foxy Maureen O'Hara. What's not to like?

Santa, you can give me a linebacker's shoulder pads and make me terribly attractive. Oh, wait. I have those things.

So I'll be up and tuning in. And shouting profanities at Meredith Viera, who just dumbs the whole thing up when she hosts.

Turkey Day approaches

2009-11-24T22:14:00.002-06:00

Oh, evolution. You are the cruelest @#$%& of them all.

Short post as I assume many have taken the day and nobody should be ruining their holiday reading this blog, anyway.

Dug and K are coming into town tomorrow. Our first Turkey Day with them as a married couple. But this is also going to be the first Holiday with what's going to be the configuration for our family for quite a while.

As you may know, Jamie's folks are living in San Marcos, and my own folks have a home in N. Austin, where they plan to retire. Jason is living here, of course, and Cousin Sue and Ciera live in N. Austin. So we're all going to be able to see each other with a minimum of traveling (aside from poor Dug and K., because I don't see this whole operation heading to Berkeley for a couple of years, so eastward they'll come).

So Thursday should be food, Dallas Cowboys and the UT/ TAMU game.

I am thankful for a lot of stuff this year, not the least is that Scout is home and safe, and relatively unharmed.

Here's a list of things The League is thankful for:

1. League-Pals and Leaguers. You know who you are, and we salute you.
2. A not-insane family. Seriously. Thank you for not being crazy.
3. Dogs and cats.
4. A job that I am amazed I am still happy to walk into each and every day (and where you never know what the day will bring)
5. Size 14 socks.
6. Jamie.
7. A super-lifestyle.
8. Not ever winding up on "Cheaters".
9. No zombies.
10. Twilight romance weird, but not as weird as Godzilla star-crossed lovers story.

We'll be back soon and will most likely post intermittently.

Fallon does Neil Young covering Fresh Prince

2009-11-24T17:47:00.002-06:00

thx to Keenan

Turtles Forever

2009-11-23T20:40:00.006-06:00

I actually am watching the "Turtles Forever" movie from CW Kids. And its a really weird take-off on DC "Crisis on Multiple Earths" storylines/ "Crisis on Infinite Earths" in almost any way which counts.

Its also oddly meta for a kid's Saturday morning cartoon. I mean, they just arrived in "Turtle Earth Prime", which is the first issue of the classic Eastman and Laird run on TMNT from the mid-80's.

Eastman and Laird's TMNT was part of why I got into comics as a kid, and its part of why I started wanting to draw. I'm not a huge TMNT nut, but...

I'm kind of freaking out a little bit, because it looks exactly like the comics. And that is real, yo.

Classic TMNT from the 1980's (first issue)

Also, at commercial breaks, the networks keeps advertising "Christmas Buddies", which...

the part of me which loves horrible movies and the part of me that likes cute golden retriever puppies are sort of conspiring to make me watch this thing at some point.

Scout's Amazing Misadventure

2009-11-23T18:40:00.006-06:00

Around 2:45, Jamie called me at my desk.

"Scout got out. She found a hole in the fence and pushed her way out. She's running around the neighborhood."

A month ago or so I took Scout to the park and was astounded when she was off her leash. "If she ever runs, we are never going to catch her," I said. And, sure enough, given the opportunity, she ran.

Jamie did a great job trying to track her down, but no dice. A few people had seen her, but we have a creek which runs the length of our subdivision and the adjoining subdivision, and many people who back up to it do not have fences. Which means, really, Scout could be anywhere in about a mile radius in about twenty minutes.

I got home about 3:20 or so, and began looking at the park. I looked high and low, tromping around the weeds, to no avail.

Jamie was circling, and kept coming back to the house to see if any messages were left. Her folks also zipped up to Austin and helped look around the neighborhood.

Jamie came home to find some strangers who had found poor Scout. Unfortunately, she'd been clipped by a car out on Manchaca.

Don't worry, Scout is okay, we think.

I can't really thank enough the complete strangers who corralled her and brought her home. That people would pull over and help out like that? Anyway, it gives me a moment of pause and a little something to be grateful for this week. Thanks, South Austin people. You're the best.

I was still wandering around a creek when Jamie gave me a call, and I sent her on ahead to the vet. As I realized the one spot where I'd crossed the creek, I couldn't recross, and spent about ten minutes trying to figure out how to get back across.

The good folks at Century Animal Clinic gave Scout a thorough looking over, and we're feeling pretty good about how Scout is doing. She's resting, tired, and she had a big day. I'm keeping an eye on her to make sure we didn't miss anything. But at least she's home.

I can say: Scout did have a collar with a tag stating our address and home number. We're going to need to replace that with our cell number as it would have been a lot easier to reach us while we were searching for Scout. We also have Scout chipped, which I guess a lot of the Black Helicopter folks think is just one step away from chipping all us humans (too late for me, I got my flu shot). But as stressed as I was, I knew that between tags and chipping, we'd find Scout sooner or later. I just would have preferred to find her before she got hit by a car.

She's home and sleeping, and we're very happy to have her here.

V Update

2009-11-23T09:51:00.004-06:00

So, last night I finally got around to watching the most recent episode (week 3) of "V" (featuring Elizabeth Mitchell).

At the end of the episode, I proclaimed "I think that's my last episode of 'V'".

Jamie informed me that there's only one more filmed episode of the show, or something. She sort of tends to know these things thanks to her handy subscription of Entertainment Weekly.

So for anyone who believed it is a mini-series, you were dealing with better info than what I had. But if it is a 4-episode series, its got one of the least impressive trajectories of any mini I've had the pleasure of seeing.

I will review episode 4, just to round it out. Also, Elizabeth Mitchell.

Twilight/ New Moon/ Sparkle Vampires

2009-11-22T20:27:00.003-06:00

The work of Stephenie Meyer is a hot button issue at League HQ. I am not supposed to tell you that Jamie has read the entire series.

Or that she owns the Blu-Ray of the first movie. Or that she will see New Moon in the theater at least once, if not twice.

Anyway, as you can imagine, the Sparkle Vampire franchise is a pretty small sliver of Jamie's media intake in comparison with how I've said "I ain't reading anything but stuff about people in tights fighting colorfully-dressed, albeit ineffective criminals. Often on the moon.", which Jamie is very good about not nitpicking to death.

But.

It's my official stance that Twilight is sort of stupefying in how it embraces and endorses behavior that seems abusive.

Look, I get that teen-age girls (and adults, in many cases) get all excited about broody, mysterious guys. But when they take you into the woods and talk about how they've killed people and how they can't help themselves when it comes to violent acts, saying "that's okay, we're in it together" is how women end up in half-way homes five years on.

That's not to say that Superman comics weren't (from about 1950-1977) almost entirely about Superman being an emotionally manipulative jack-ass to Lois. Those Silver Age and early Bronze Age comics are often a bit iffy (including the assumption that if Lois and Clark ever did marry, she'd quit working immediately. WTF? Earning potential, people.).

Now, I should qualify my statements around Twilight. I've only seen the movie, never read any of the books, and the version of the movie I saw was RiffTrax. And I may have had a few glasses of wine. I do not know Edward and Bella the way many of you will. I do not have the Barbie dolls of Edward and Bella that I saw at Target today, for example.

I just sort of wonder how something like Twilight doesn't just slip through the cracks, but that nobody really talks about the messages of the franchise to its target audience of young women when its become such a massive phenomenon. Reviewers like Lisa Schwartzbaum of EW.com, who normally take movies to task for stepping anywhere off the line from an ERA-era take on gender politics, seem to shrug off the ick-factor of a 108 year old dude getting hot and bothered by a 17 year old girl (who, I might add, has the personality of a mopey house cat), and who alternately threatens and baits her.

My theory is as follows: The Sparkle Vampire phenomenon taps into some of being a teen-age girl that The League so completely does not get that its loosely the equivalent of why guys don't blink at the absurdity of beer commercials (ie: If you drink Natty Light, you will meet women), at which women tend to roll their eyes.

Anyway, with the release of New Moon (which I mentioned on our Facebook account that I'd go see under certain conditions), I can't help but ponder the phenomenon afresh.

It's probably also worth pondering the emasculation of vampires in the post-Anne Rice era.

The physiology and habits of vampires as described in Stoker's "Dracula" are obviously far different. Its worth noting: in the book, Dracula did not burst into flames when exposed to sunlight. I now have no idea where that came from. Instead, he simply loses his powers and is often seen sleeping. He does not sparkle. Nor is he seen as being of particular romantic interest (and it seems that the appeal of Dracula's brides hits a bit differently than Edward's appeal).

But since Anne Rice took the romantic cues of the Frank Langella-starring Dracula and spun them out to historical fiction, and authors started pondering the "what-ifs" of vampirehood, removing the limitations and peculiarities of vampires seems to be a method of humanizing the characters while simultaneously doing exactly what's happened on shows like True Blood, and that's turn the very nature of the beast on its head.

As discussed after reading "Dracula", becoming one of the Un-Dead means a dissolution of the victim's personality. The nature of vampirism is seen through a very different filter if the taking of life becomes a choice (one that we know Dracula's victims are denied). Even Dracula himself has an expression of peace after our heroes drive a stake through his heart, and so there's the tortured nobility of the Twilight vampires if they have the option to just, basically, be super-anemic. But it certainly removes the whole "eternally damned" aspect of vampirism, and just makes it an inconvenience with nifty benefits.

Its an inadvertent side-effect that the lust for blood in Edward which is read as just plain lust can be read as a lust to do violence and winnow away the personality of Bella Swan as she gives up on friends and family to be with her man.

I don't think the movies or franchise are "dangerous", per se. But it is a reminder that for all the messages we get in health class about violent, co-dependent relationships, and what we can agree are things we wouldn't normally say were okay to see in a movie as an overt message, we're happy to put aside those stances when it comes to the right story. Buried under sparkly, handsome Edward, any suggestion of abuse or violence becomes coded or muddled, and its not hard to dismiss possible readings to that point as "not getting it". After all, nothing is more powerful than the lunch-table conversations with our peers who egg us on or who feel wrong when they suggest we're making a romantic mistake, and who is the better lunch-table buddy than Bella? Heck, the first movie tells us she's the dream lunch-table pal.

Anyhow, its an interesting phenomenon. Meyer is becoming as wealthy as Rowling as the sort of pop-culture juggernaut that seems self-perpetuating builds around her. The kids who grew up with Harry Potter can add sex to the mix, and a dozen or so imitators can pop up in books, one CW TV show, and a grittier take on the concept on "True Blood" (I've never seen either show).

Why vampires and why now? Man, I have no idea. Certainly it helps fulfill that angle that pop-culture critics kept insisting we needed out of the modern superhero any time a superhero wasn't "conflicted" enough. By jettisoning the concept of vampire as monster, and reinstating them into the equation as nothing but a tortured paramour, Dracula goes from hellspawn to unique-fixer-upper opportunity. Its not enough that with power comes responsibility, but the powerful pay for their "abilities" in obvious and direct ways, sort of how Singer's X-Men seemed to in the first outing (and which was melodramatically forgotten by the time Wolverine rolled around).

WKRP Thanksgiving

2009-11-22T13:10:00.005-06:00

In middle school, around 5:00 every day WGN showed re-runs of "WKRP in Cincinatti". I think I wound up watching it as a default rather than local news or Wheel of Fortune, and probably because Loni Anderson seemed like a living cartoon (but a young League found Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters had her own, and just as interesting thing, going on.).

But the show has not just one of my favorite Holiday scenes, but my favorite scenes in television. Ever.

The WKRP Thanksgiving Promotion.

Happy Thanksgiving - WKRP Turkey Drop - kewego
http://www.sharkhost.com Happy Thanksgiving from Sharkhost.com! This is a blast from the past, WKRP in Cincinnati Famous Turkey Drop. Sharkhost does not own any copyright to this material. Web host, web design, marketing and promotion.

Keywords: thanksgiving happy wkrp cincinnati turkey drop

Video from sharkhost

Senior Day at UT Football

2009-11-22T00:29:00.005-06:00

after yelling so much at the game, I am a little hoarse.

Well, I was expecting UT to spank Kansas. And had they not given up a ridiculous kick return, UT would have had an even better game.

Anyhow, hopefully we'll still be voted in the top 3 or four this week, given the decisive 50-21 win.

Jamie, Jason, The Admiral and I attended this evening's contest on the University of Texas campus. I yelled. A lot. Its what I do.

It was Senior Day, which meant the final home game for players like McCoy, Shipley, Muckleroy and Houston. No doubt 2010 will be another building year as QB Gilbert figures out if he can fill the shoes of his predecessors (speaking of, James Brown was at the game! That's some mid-90's UT flashback material.).

But it was also Senior Day for dozens of members of the UT marching band, sideline crew, cheerleaders, dance squad, and limitless drunk kids in the stands. Colt and his crew were gracious, and a huge number of fans remained in the stands to salute the seniors and give them one last Texas cheer.

Anyway, a lot of fun.

It was also the first game Jamie and I have attended together, which seems odd, given that we've been together since '95. But there you have it. I think she had a good time, even if she disappeared for 30 minutes in pursuit of a hot cocoa. I'm chivalrous, but not "30 minutes standing in line for cocoa during the 3rd and 4th quarter" chivalrous.

We cheer a lot together at home, but its more fun to cheer with 103,000 of your closest friends.

And, hey, Fantomenos, saw that Oregon score and highlights. Holy smokes.

Spill Movie Reviews: New Moon

2009-11-21T11:26:00.003-06:00

Back around the time I graduated from UT, there was a local public access movie review show called "The Reel Deal" featuring a handful of 20-something guys who were actually pretty good. The show was funny, as well produced as anything you were likely to see on Access, and the reviews were usually very fair, especially as you had between 3 and 5 people giving their opinion.

Interestingly, one of the guys worked with Jamie at former Austin dotcom cautionary tale, Human Code. Jamie and Korey became chummy, and so I got to know him a bit a while back.

It seems that Martin and Korey have moved on to The Spill, an online animated movie review site. Its pretty darn good.

Here's their review of "New Moon", both before and after they'd seen the movie. And it is hilarious (but PG-13, and other reviews stray into R-rated territory).

Die. Die. Die.

2009-11-20T22:04:00.000-06:00

Enemy Ace thinks there are already too many cooks in the kitchen

2009-11-18T23:42:00.003-06:00

Enemy Ace doesn't think you should read this series, either.

I'm going to some Leadership whatzit in the morning. Gotta get up early.

Get your own post.

Anniversary of Aggie Bonfire Tragedy

2009-11-17T23:04:00.002-06:00

The 18th marks the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Aggie Bonfire. Leaguers will remember the bonfire as one of the great traditions not just in sports, but a great Texas tradition.

It was always mind-boggling to hear about the bonfire, a massive, multi-story structure that was built by students, and whose eventual torching was the social event of each year at Texas A&M for many students and alumni. The fire, of course, was Texas A&M's good-natured effigy of UT, and the fire was equal parts man-made wonder and joke. Unfortunately, unforeseen construction issues occurred with the fire being built for the 1999 UT/ TAMU match-up, and the tower fell, killing 12 students.

I was working on campus at UT at the time, and what I remember was the shock on campus, and the line that went around the mall in front of the tower as students queued to give blood, unsure of what else to do. Neither students nor staff could imagine what must have been going on at the Texas A&M campus.

Anyway, the ensuing years have certainly not meant that people have forgotten. Texas A&M has erected a very nice memorial to the students, and memories of the bonfire are still a favorite topic of conversation among Aggies and friends who were able to ever see the fire.

I am not sure what Aggies do these days prior to the game. But Aggie spirit is something to behold (and fear a bit, if you're a Longhorn on gameday), and hasn't flagged a bit in the years since the tragedy.

Some Items I Love About Vegas

2009-11-17T22:13:00.002-06:00

1) Shooting machine guns is no problem (for a fee)

2) Drivers.

I love cab drivers no matter where I am, but in Vegas, those dudes have seen everything and will talk about anything.

We had a great conversation with a cabbie who explained how, after what sounded like he'd married a string of elderly women for their money, was now retiring from a life of being a kept man and becoming a plain-old gigolo. Retired is a strong word. His last wife had died of natural causes, which led me to believe she had at least twenty five years on him.

But he was pretty pumped about this new chapter in his life. In fact, he showed us the books he was reading on becoming a gigolo.

Also chatted with a driver who was amazed by the nuclear test sites near Vegas, and theorized it was that which made people who lived there too long begin to transform into "the people from 'The Hills Have Eyes'". Apparently a lifetime of cigarette smoke, drinking, desert sun and recycled air is no problem, though.

We also chatted on the fact that Vegas doesn't recycle, which, we agreed was insane. It was decided he should seek seed money and start a tire and paper recycling plant a few miles outside the city (to keep the fumes from getting the tourists).

3) Moms next to hookers.

Visitors to Vegas don't just put up with stuff they'd never have in their own backyard, they embrace the malarkey. You really can't get anywhere too far on the famed "Strip" without someone trying to get you to call a "lady of the night" by handing you a glossy card with a picture of what is surely not the actual hooker who will show up at your room (another bit of unsolicited information the drivers wanted to make sure I had in my pocket).

Its just interesting to me to see all these people who look exactly like my parent's friends having a club soda and sitting at the slots, I guess just tuning out what has to be a thriving industry in Nevada.

Most of me suspects that, when you get down to it, like most other things people pretend to be outraged by, Las Vegas is testament to the fact that the vast majority just doesn't really care all that much about what we label societal ills when they crop up in our backyard. But, you know, put them in the glitter ball that is Vegas, give some free drinks at the slots, and it's all good.

4) Celebrities you totally forgot about (some of whom are dead) have a lucrative career going on

When was the last time you thought about Bette Midler? I'll tell you: that episode of Seinfeld more than ten years ago. But in Vegas, Midler has a stunningly successful show at Caesar's Palace. So does Cher. Barry Manilow is rocking the Hilton, I believe.

Yeah, there's all the Cirque du Soleil shows, etc... but Wayne Brady has a show, and all kinds of other comedians, singers, etc... And there's even some celebrities who are there in spirit via long-running drag shows with the stars impersonating all sorts of celebrities.

And even being dead is no barrier. The mostly-dead Beatles have a successful show of people singing karaoke of their stuff, and the Rat Pack is refused the right to rest in peace as impersonator after impersonator puts on hammy versions of Dino, Frank, Sammy, etc... And certainly there's no shortage of Elvii, and I actually bore witness to a street performer getting into his Michael Jackson getup in the bathroom at a Cali-Mex place. And, heck, I passed a Liberace museum on my way to shoot guns.

Brooksie Would Have Been 106

2009-11-16T12:18:00.012-06:00

I have my favorites of the silver screen, and in college discovered silent-era star and bon-vivant, Louise Brooks (aka: Lulu, aka: Brooksie).

You may not know her name, but you know the look she institutionalized.

ArtMan 2112 posted an original drawing of Louise Brooks at his site for her birthday, which was Saturday. And this got me thinking: I should probably mention Louise Brooks as a Dame in the Media The League Once Dug.

The Louise Brooks Society maintains a website and a blog as complete as I think you're going to find on any starlet of the silent film era.

I've only seen a few Brooks movies, but there's no doubt that she manages to steal the show in the films in which she appears (a bit like whenever Veronica Lake would bother to just show up in a frame of film).

There's also a fascinating documentary about Brooks called "Looking for Lulu", that's equal parts an amazing life story and fodder for a great movie that's never been made, following the tragic trajectory and surprising turn in Brooks' final years. Someone out there should be turning the story into the next great BioPic. But, holy cow, did it sound like Brooks was a handful, both as a starlet and still her declining years.

Brooks seems to have been the definitive Jazz Age Baby, and was the shadow opposite of Mary Pickford's curls and vestigial Victorian-era faux-virginal innocence (which ultimately ended her career in a completely different manner). Brooks was eclipsed by her contemporaries such as Clara Bow, who, you know, is her own thing and we do not complain.

Most famous for her roles in "Pandora's Box" (recommended), which gave her the nickname of her character, Lulu, and Prix de Beaute, Brooks had gone to Europe to act for Pabst, etc... Her attempted return to Hollywood didn't go particularly well.

I'm not exactly sure about the reasons, but if I had to guess:

breakfast is the most important meal of the day

Brooks would disappear after appearing in a few b-movies. I am not sure if a post-code Hollywood couldn't handle her, or if she had simply burned too many bridges. As near as I feel like relating what happened (rather than suggesting you check out the documentary), she more or less became a kept-woman, and I think the doc was politely suggesting she took up the world's oldest profession. It sounds like Brooksie may have been suffering from some emotional/ mental issues if diagnosed today.

Later, she would find some grace as she was accidentally discovered by a film enthusiast who referred her to the Kodak company in the 70's.

Brooks has been imitated to such a degree (its unclear if she invented bangs on women rather than girls, but she seems to have been the one to popularize the look), that she now exists more as archetype than person. Which is odd.

But I do find that small bit of redemption for Brooks at the end of her life (when it sounds like she was still a cutting pain-in-the-ass) to be an oddly romantic story. And, honestly, she was very good in what she did. Its unfortunate she never made the leap to talkies, but many, many did not.

So a belated birthday salute to Louise Brooks.

Coincidentally, if you find "Beggars of Life" on DVD (a legal copy), let me know. While the studios are doing a surprisingly good job of bringing stuff from the 40's and 50's to DVD, the silent era has been more or less ignored, as near as I can tell. Right now, the only way I can find to see a lot of these movies is on VHS, which... there's not even a deck in my house, so I'm out of luck, anyway.

I suspect as the catalogs of the studios become available on-demand, this sort of thing will be easier to obtain.

Superman Returns: The Extended Cut?

2009-11-16T11:19:00.002-06:00

The 2006 film "Superman Returns" clocks about 2.5 hours, and by many viewers' standards, its a pretty long viewing experience as it is. Its not much of an action movie, and isn't for everyone, but...

People following the production closely noted that there were a lot of missing pieces from the final product that we'd seen in previews, stills, etc...

In many ways, I believe it may have resulted in a loss of context in favor of a run-time short enough to get more butts in seats. My understanding is that the final cut was approved and managed by director Bryan Singer, but there have long been stories around Superman Returns that Singer somewhat lost control of the production. So was the 2.5 hour version what the creators intended?

Superman Homepage has posted a story that several Super-Geeks have put together a petition for an extended cut, which they're calling "The Bryan Singer Cut".

Supposedly this version includes more footage of Kal-El's visit to the remains of Krypton, the interior of his spaceship, a lot more in Smallville, and probably other footage I don't know about. There's supposedly a new relationship between the windowed Martha Kent and Ben Hubbard, a guy mentioned in a single line (but never seen) in the first Superman movie.

I would love to see this version of the movie, and given that fan pestering resulted in the release of Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, its possible WB could work with Donner and Co. to put together a lengthier version of "Superman Returns".

So... If you want to help out Supes, The League and the weirdness of Superman Fandom, you can click here to learn more. Beware: there's a blast of Super-Music when you click the link.

Back from Vegas

2009-11-16T01:55:00.005-06:00

Well, goodness. That was certainly Vegas-sy, was it not?

Had an absolutely great time with 20 dudes from Austin, Seattle and Vancouver. The rules of Vegas are clear, and in the advertising: what happens in Vegas, etc... And so while we can discuss the trip in broad strokes...

Arrived Thursday night, ate quickly, and then I met Jerry Springer.

That's right. Jerry Springer.

We stayed at Planet Hollywood on the strip, down near Paris and the Bellagio. The "America's Got Talent" TV program tapes there (I think), but while its not currently taping, I guess they hired several of the acts from the show who perform as a live stage show-thing with Jerry Springer as MC.

Anyhow, I'd been at the hotel all of an hour and was having a cocktail with the assembled crew near the Sportsbook, and Springer wandered in (an enormous cigar in his mouth) to check some scores. He was only modestly mobbed, and I asked politely to meet him (he seem amused that I'd called him "Mr. Springer"). Hopefully Matt will e-mail me the picture this week. Anyway, the man was extremely gracious, and I've been a fan since college. No, I don't watch every day, but I watch from time to time when I'm home on a weekday.

(Anytime you want to know what I think America is really like, I ask you to consider how many guests Springer has had on his show over its 2 decades of existence. Also, the existence and popularity of Las Vegas now that its ditched its "It's Family Fun!" angle of the 1990's.)

One oddity of Vegas (or maybe not so odd) was how quickly we all decided 4:00 or 4:30 AM seemed like a reasonable bedtime, and so we were all crawling out of bed at 12:00 or so Pacific time for breakfast.

Friday we headed to "The Gun Store". I have conflicted views on how our 2nd Amendment has been interpreted, but by golly, I was fully in support of SOMEBODY having the right to rent me time with a machinegun by Friday evening.

Shoemaker got a slightly more... bad-ass package, but The League went vintage and got the WWII package, where we got to fire an MP40 SMG, a 1911 Pistol .45, and a Thompson SMG. It was all very Sgt. Rock. And I shot the holy hell out of some paper targets (we're all ace shots at 20 feet, it seems).

I also learned I have no idea how to hold a pistol correctly.

Attempted to play a game called Pai Gow, which was a variation on Poker, and immediately blew through what I'd set aside for the tables in about 25 minutes. I am not ready for much more than nickel video poker, and we've confirmed I'm barely okay at that.

I was disappointed at how expensive I found the food, and never really wound up having a kick-ass meal, but given what I was paying for stuff I wasn't blown away by, I wasn't looking for much better than how we did.

The best part, of course, was an opportunity to hang out with local friends in an environment outside of our day-to-day, catch-up with old, very good friends from out of town, and meet some new guys you can get along with pretty darn well.

Things I could do without:

Being sold on the very hotel I am in, the entire time I am there. You already have my money, casino.

The Strip is very much appealing to the E!/ Us Weekly lifestyle in a way I imagine many would find off-putting. They may not care, but it seems like there's very little between that avenue and hotels which are clearly passing their prime. I just was a little tired of the LA-Couture thing by end of last night. Everyone's a rock star in Vegas. I get it.

Anyway, no plans for pics. I didn't take any, and its probably bad form to publicly post pics from Vegas should any show up in my e-mail.

Returning Shortly...

2009-11-12T15:30:00.003-06:00

In Vegas with 15 dudes for the weekend. Wish me luck. I'll need it.

No, I've Never Actually Read the Books. Why?

2009-11-12T09:29:00.007-06:00

Calvin found this.

From the studio who brought you "Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus". Seriously.

I haven't seen the movie, but seeing a poster with Sherlock Holmes and dinosaurs, a gigantic squid AND fire breathing dragons on it is exactly representative of everything I think about when I consider how Hollywood deals with perfectly good source material. Except that there are no boobs anywhere on the poster.

Yes, I know Asylum is sort of kidding as a company. I am not sure their audience knows that.

Coming to DVD end of January.

KareBear Returns to Africa

2009-11-11T23:26:00.002-06:00

So tomorrow my Ma returns to Kenya. She went last spring as part of a group from her church that visits semi-annually to fit locals with glasses. Not a bad gig, and as I understand it, its a pretty chummy set up. The locals get to have a good laugh at the expense of confused Americans and the Americans get to meet people in a context that's not part of the hospitality industry in a completely different part of the world.

Plus, Giraffes.

The missionaries do get a "free" day, and it sounds like KareBear will be heading to the farm from "Out of Africa", the real life home of Karen von Blixen-Finecke (aka: Isak Dinesen). Apparently the place is now a park.

No, I've only seen the movie and never read the book.

Mostly, however, its eye-glasses time.

Anyway, we wish KareBear safe travels and look forward to hearing her stories over Thanksgiving.

Madonna, eat Lady Gaga's Dust

2009-11-11T21:55:00.005-06:00

Lauren and Randy pointed to this video, and I can see why.

In the tradition of pop stars who relied upon image, sex and production value over any actual ability to sing or dance and who aren't necessarily traditionally beautiful, Lady Gaga is picking up where Madonna dropped off when I was in high school. No doubt this video would have been "controversial" in the late-80's and early 1990's for, basically, freaking out The Moral Majority.

Today, its just a particularly well-produced video. But, nonetheless, Mom, you can probably skip this one.

If I wasn't a fan before, they had me from 3:43 to the end

Despite the fact its a fairly standard driving disco song, it's clever and sort of tragic and fits in with Gaga's over-the-topishness in a way I can't help but admire. Seriously, whether I love the music or not (and I actually do like this track), I have to salute that this isn't going weird for Lady Gaga, but from what I can tell, this is sort of where her persona lives.

I am reminded of how vague accusations seemed to surface that Madonna had co-opted, processed and (possibly accidentally) made okay for the Pepsi Generation the culture of the gay community to create a persona at times, and its hard to look at Lady Gaga and not get the same, vibe. There's something oddly Hedwig-like about the personality she's creating that I wonder how it sits with John Cameron Mitchell. At minimum, the lush costuming, elaborate make-up, etc... seems lifted from a drag show. And I'd guess I'm not the only one whose reading some of that, as, after all, the lady was accused of packing just this summer (which I think was disproved, but am also fairly certain is a little irrelevant).

But I gotta go with Randy and Lauren on this. I'm digging the video, and on view #4, the song.

A Tragic Lack of Bubo

2009-11-11T14:21:00.002-06:00

I am not so sure about this one. I can no longer guarantee I'll see stuff like this, the way I once could. But I kind of want to see what they do, you know?

Calibos and Medusa could wind up being really cool in this version. Could, being the operative word. But I don't see any actor listed for Calibos, so...

The League Watches "V", Week 2

2009-11-10T21:58:00.005-06:00

Well, it's certainly a television show, isn't it? It has actors, and sets, and stuff.

Here's the thing: any sense of tension you're trying to build gets totally deflated when you know exactly what's happening and exactly what your bad guys are up to. And to have people walking around expressly saying what's happening doesn't really help.

I was really looking forward to having an excuse to stare at Elizabeth Mitchell once a week, but they are really making it difficult to want to see Mitchell slog her way through clunky exposition and this mix of V and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (who is a lizard person? ANYONE CAN BE A LIZARD PERSON!!!!" Thus, lots of squinty looks and insert shots of extras because everyone is a suspect!!!).

It just feels like the show refuses to acknowledge that the same audience that's made Lost a hit could be patient enough to let them tell their story. Ie: Lost may have gone too far the other direction, but if there's no mystery to what the invaders are up to (and I'm guessing stealth invasion) and you won't even put it through its paces, if you can't be patient, why should I be?

Also:

Dear World,

If Aliens show up in massive ships with an iffy sounding agenda, amazing technology far superior to anything we've got, and seem to be trying way, way too hard to ingratiate themselves to us, I expect you will at least TRY to have a military presence, quarantine, etc... in the first two weeks of their arrival.

Not just act like a busload of Canadians or "Up With People" have decided to camp out in a parking lot.

Best,

The League

Anyway, week 2 wasn't any better than week 1. They get 1 or 2 more weeks. Even with this ridiculous subplot featuring the kid.

Also, if you think nobody would be shooting at those big ships, Hollywood, you really, really do not know America.

What sort of annoys me is knowing that all the sci-fi fanboys who insist that anything that's genre fiction is worthy of being saved are going to love this show.

Still. It has Elizabeth Mitchell...

Her name's Mitchell. She's a cop.

The League Salutes: Veterans

2009-11-10T21:46:00.002-06:00

Its no secret The League has not served his country, or, really, anyone.

We are very proud of the service done by The Admiral (not actually an Admiral, but formerly of the USAF) who served in Vietnam and of our Grandfather's service in the 82nd Airborne during World War II. And let me point out that Jamie's own dad was Army for many years (on the front lines against tooth decay, but that's just one way to fight a battle, people).

We looked with awe at these men and women's service when we were younger, but as time has marched on, that's deepened to true gratitude. I have never had to pick up a gun, I have enjoyed my freedoms without worry, lived without worry of any attack upon me or my family, and there are millions who have served to ensure that could be true.

It is impossible to say that its easy for me to see the purpose of some of our wars and military actions. To pretend the US has always been in the right in all military application is dishonest and to suggest otherwise means we cannot learn from past error and judiciously consider when we put troops in harm's way. But we've always had brave men and women who were able to be there when Uncle Sam asked. They've done it for little pay, for little glory, but because they could serve, and that's something we can't treasure enough.

The League of Melbotis salutes all veterans today, whether infantry or sailor or technician or dentist.

Vegas Hiatus

2009-11-10T21:21:00.005-06:00

Some people have weird jobs

On Thursday I wing off for sunny Las Vegas, Nevada with several dudes from the greater Austin area. We plan to meet up with dudes from the Pacific Northwest. Some of you may know The My and Manzo.

I do not return until Sunday, so you're going to have to bear with a bit of radio silence from LoM for a few days while we bury a few bodies in the desert.

I am not really sure what to expect, to the point where I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to pack. Honestly, part of me knows that if I need a tie to go anywhere, its somewhere I can't afford enough to be there in the first place.

Pretty much what happens the minute you step foot off the plane in Vegas.

And, yeah, its sort of canned and cliche to head to Vegas with your male buddies as you try to deny that you're all entering "that point" in your life, but, what the hell... If I didn't go, I'd regret it forever.

I've been to Vegas enough times to know that while movies like "The Hangover" are cute, my experience has been far from "anything can happen", but much more of a "wow, it sure cost a lot for anything to happen and somehow the most fun was that Star Trek exhibit thing". Also to know that mega-conventions are fun on Day 1, and each day afterward is progressively more depressing.

May the spirit of Goulet guide me in Vegas, as he does every day

Also, on my first trip out, Columbine happened. On the next trip, I was there on 9/11/2001. So, you know, not all great memories.

If anyone is going to be in the area, Leaguers, let me know. I'd love to see you and have a soda with you at Circus Circus.

The Wall

2009-11-09T15:17:00.008-06:00

I was in 9th grade when The Wall came down. A lot of people are going to have something much more intelligent to say about the fall of the Berlin Wall. I see no reason for that to happen here, but I'd hate to let the moment of the 20th Anniversary fall by the wayside without mention.

To some extent, as memory serves, I was born and raised and nurtured on such a steady diet of NATO and America being Awesome and Communism being Evil that there was a hint of inevitability to the wall eventually coming down, but nobody thought it was going to happen when and how it did. At least in the group of 14 year old boys I talked to. We mostly believed it would be in 250 years after a fierce laser-pistol and Commie-Robot-Army battle.

The climate prior to the Fall of the Wall, and the domino effects in Eastern Europe, meant I was used to regular patrols of my neighborhood by F4's from the local Air Force base, and mutually assured destruction as routine a thought as if I wanted Coke or Pepsi, but there you have it.

In a way, losing The Wall was a bit of a bummer. The Wall was this big, obvious metaphor that we got cool movies based upon where democracy-loving spies, Germans, etc... got to cross the wall and shoot the bird at Evil Communists as they snuck past them in the night.

Mr. White, my 9th grade geography teacher, made sure we watched video of Germans partying along the wall as it was being destroyed by hand. A bit of a former hippy and amazingly socially conscious for a high school geography teacher, Mr. White saw to it that the import of the moment was not lost upon us. Although he did not include in his lesson that it was President Reagan's magic fairy dust that brought The Wall down, as the story has now been written.

For a bunch of kids raised to believe that sooner or later, we were going to be going bayonet-to-bayonet with some Godless Commie (most likely right there on top of The Wall), suddenly realizing Glasnost was sort of working out came as a total @#$%ing shock. Hating Commies was just part of every day life, and with The Wall coming down, it was now just... over.

I really have no idea how German reunification went. Fine, I suppose. I don't remember nearly as many stories about East Germany as I've seen on Russia and the legacy of 5 Year Plans and factory cities being shuttered.

I've now met more people from East Germany and Russia than I have from Delaware or Maine. My colleague is married to party official's daughter. My pal Dan is married to a Russian molecular biologist. Its a crazy world.

Sure, in the ensuing years we ignored the lessons of Rambo III and Nostradamus and found all new people to pick a fight with, but its just not the same. Back then it felt a bit more like "my local sports franchise is better than your local sports franchise". The Russians and East Germans were jerks who would nationalize your lemonade stand, but they didn't live in caves and declare 1000 year jihads upon you. Building better jets to keep up with your enemy used to mean something, dammit.

It wasn't until later in high school and certainly in college where I began to understand why Russia didn't exactly spruce up East Germany, and hadn't taken to cuddling the Germans like best buddies. It's still amazing that Berlin managed to exist in its split island state as long as it did. In many ways, that's something that I believe future generations simply will refuse to believe existed, when nobody remembers Checkpoint Charlie.

Germany has experienced a reunification that most didn't expect, and it makes one wonder if, cooler heads prevailing, the DMZ couldn't disintegrate and Korea become a single state in my lifetime.

I don't really miss the Red Menace, I suppose. Not when we've managed to find so many other threats to worry about. I do miss sexy East German double-agents and movies depicting heroics done in the name of democracy.

So long, Wall. We don't miss you all that much.

Showcase Presents

2009-11-08T12:35:00.005-06:00

Last night I went to an after-hours event at Austin Books with a special display of what they term "Showcase Comics". These are comics that are not in the plentiful back-issue bins, but which the good folks at Austin Books have recognized of being of exceptional quality either through what state they are in or because of their value to fans.

What made last night particularly interesting was that it was spotlighting some new comics that Austin Books had recently acquired, including a large Golden Age collection, all held by the same person since they were bought off the rack. I saw Superman and Batman comics (and had one in my hand) that I assumed I could easily have never seen in person.

For good or ill, I brought my personal financial consultant with me (Jamie) to ensure I did nothing rash, and while I very much wanted to bring home Bob Oksner-covered Superman issues in the #20-50 range, I decided it was okay to have just had the good fortune to see them.

There's an amazing amount of history to those comics, and to know that they have been in a single person's possession all these years is astonishing. Many valuable comics are bought and sold as a commodity, and its not hard to believe you're the third or fourth person whose owned the comic when you're looking at the more valuable stuff. But seeing a kid's signature get neater on covers as the years progress gives you a moment of pause. Let alone that the kid hung onto these comics for so many years.

There are the War Bond ads on some covers, and Superman beating up Hermann Goering on others. They're not just Superman collectibles, but a slice of the zeitgeist of the era (as comics so often are. Someday, you need to Google "Prez, the Teenage President").

Anyhow, I had opportunity to consider my own fandom and chat with the hardcore collectors who were there (and absolutely know that angle of the comic collectible market). It was reassuring to see that they're still picking these comics up out of love, not as investors. One gentlemen mentioned to me that he'd never actually resold a comic, which, considering what he was buying, sort of blew my mind.

It was fun.

Rather than sulk, I did manage to grab a Jimmy Olsen issue and a great Kubert-drawn Enemy Ace comic.

Poor Little Lu (I broke my dog)

2009-11-08T12:23:00.004-06:00

Last night I was playing with Lucy (our beloved little black lab) and picked her up.

She let out a yelp, which Lucy has only ever done once before when I was playing with her roughly.

Well, we left for a little while and came back to find Lucy was not willing to climb up on the couch (which you would think I'd be happy about, but...), and was just not terribly mobile.

I was going to just keep an eye on her, because with dogs half the time this stuff just passes. But the last time she yelped, we wound up with a trip to the vet and learned she has hip dysplacia, a fairly common problem in large-breed thorough-breds (part of why we went for 100% American Mutt when we adopted Scout).

Anyhow, at 2:30 AM I was walking into the emergency vet.

Lucy received a narcotic of some sort and... high animals are a really weird thing to deal with. She's also got some pills for the issue. She's resting next to Jamie on the couch, but we had to get her up there.

Because I'd stayed up late to keep an eye on her, and then missed sleep from about 2:00 - 4:30 AM, I'm a little punchy today.

I am most sad that it was my fault. Very Jack Torrance of me.

Lucy used to bounce all over the place and "delicate" was not a word I would have associated with her physique. But I need to adjust when we're playing, and not do anything as simple as lift her anywhere except onto the bed or into the car. And not take it as a sign that her jumping all over creation is the same thing as her getting picked up.

The League Sings

2009-11-07T23:18:00.002-06:00

photo courtesy Mr. Harms

Yes, We Are Still Shutting Down/ Future Plans

2009-11-07T22:31:00.001-06:00

I am flattered that Leaguers are asking about whether or not we're still shutting down, whether we'll continue on, if there aren't possibilities for other outlets, etc...

Its always been a shock to me that so few have written in asking me to please, please just stop it seemed nice enough. Knowing that anyone gives a darn enough to ask that we should continue is a bit overwhelming.

To cut to the chase, here's the game plan.

1) December 20th, in the PM, I will have up the final post. It's done already.
2) We will continue to maintain a presence on Facebook at facebook.com/melbotis. A lot of the smaller items you'd find here are what you'll find there. We're also on Twitter, but that's a repost of Facebook, so there you go. twitter.com/melbotis
3) April 21st, 2010, I will make a statement on Facebook in regards to any future plans for more blogging activity.

I need to give myself hard deadlines on this stuff as it will force decisions one way or another. I was a PM for a while.

Anyway, it's been suggested I talk about favorite posts.

Rather than do that (because I've got 3,300+ posts) I welcome you guys to guest-post on any particular League-related topic, post, etc... that caught your fancy. You can contact me via e-mail. We'll run those right up until that last week.

I will, I believe, have some sort of series of "before we go" posts to wrap things up. So, if you have any requests, send them in. We live to serve, and I'll be looking for ideas for generating content. And, no, I have no idea what I mean by "if you have any requests".

The League Reads/ Listens to: Dracula

2009-11-07T14:39:00.002-06:00

On Thursday morning I finished a 12-hour audio book of the original novel of "Dracula".

If you've grown up in the US, you're familiar with Dracula via Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman or any of the other innumerable TV or film versions of the character. And, most likely, you've seen one of those History Channel specials on "The Real Dracula" about the Romanian count who is rumored to have killed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people on the end of a pike.

I've seen the Browning directed, Lugosi starring "Dracula" at least five times, seen the Coppola directed, Oldman-starring "Dracula" two or three times, seen a few other versions, at least two plays of Dracula (one of which was a musical), odd sequels to Dracula from "Dracula 2000" to "Monster Squad" (which gave us the phrase "The Wolfman has Nards!", for which I am eternally grateful).

But I'd never read the book.

Drac didn't get to tidy up before you popped by.

For today's reader who picks up the book for the first time, unfortunately, "Dracula" has two things going against it.

1) It definitely works in that "paid by the word" mode of its contemporaries, where characters are likely to have long, unimportant asides and speeches that go nowhere. By today's standards of narrative economy, its hard-going at times.
2) It more or less defined a tradition and formula, based upon folklore and tradition, that has become so completely ingrained in the popular psyche that you already know what is coming through 99% of the book. Especially if you were familiar with the book from other sources.

That said...

Its not a bad listen or read. Even scenes which we've all witnessed on screen becoming far more chilling as described in the course of the book and with Stoker's ability to deliver this information as fresh and revelatory.

What struck me most is that, while Stoker does make a 4th quarter play to recognize that his Count was also once a human and therefore should get some measure of pity, this is not the "oh, I'm really just a stand in for those broody guys from high school" Dracula which we've come to know over the years. My guess is that the Lugosi (who, apparently, the ladies quite liked), and the lack of gore and general ickiness described in the book, makes becoming a vampire seem not all that bad. You stay good-looking, you never die or get sick, you get your way all the time, and have an array of super powers that would make Martian Manhunter jealous.

got... got a little something... right there. on your chin. there. you're gonna want a napkin.

But Stoker's Dracula and vampires are drawn from the tradition of demons and monsters, not GQ models. Dracula himself is horrible to behold before Harker even figures out there's anything amiss. Drawing blood isn't an exaggerated hicky, but something Drac and his lady-friends do by stealing peasant children in sacks and then going family-style on them. Turning into a vampire isn't waking up with superpowers, as if one were accidentally bathed in cosmic rays, but a weeks-long process of slow death with the knowledge that one is becoming a hellspawn, but cannot even tell anyone else to kill them, because that will just turn you into the hellspawn directly.

It's a bad scene, and when pop culture critics look with crooked eye at the post-Anne Rice foppish-emo take on vampires, there's a reason for it. The horror of being one of the undead is not an inconvenience, which is more or less how Rice and the post-Rice followers portrayed their vampires. There is no choice to live well by raiding blood supplies or hunting deer or whatever modern creators have decided is an acceptable substitute, because becoming a vampire means loss of self, and what replaces you (whether you or a demon substitute) is not particularly interested in the ethics of the living.

Being a vampire is not all that different from modern images of zombie-ism, in that the zombies (and in many cases, werewolves) obviously have no choice about their motivations. Oddly, one of the more popular visions which seemed to match up was how vampires were portrayed in the first season or two of Buffy (which I didn't watch after season two or so. Sue me.).

Dracula enjoys the great taste of Keanu.

I tip my hat to Stoker's depiction of Mina, a character who is portrayed often as a damsel in distress, and unconvincingly as a character at all by Winona Ryder. Stoker celebrates "the modern woman" who was still 30 years off from the vote, but who men were surprised to learn could type, understand science and math, etc... And which Madam Mina seems to exemplify (and is far, far more interesting a character than the character of Lucy, who mostly swoons and feels pretty, then sick).

The belief in science and reason by the heroes is never questioned, superstition is puzzled out, and even the supernatural is more or less suggested to be just one more mystery of science. This current is occasionally explicitly addressed, but is certainly evident in how Stoker's characters grapple with the dilemma's surrounding them and give way from from what they know as gentlemen, to what they eventually open their minds to via observation and experience (which, honestly, takes up a huge portion of the book, and often seems to be the exact point of the book).

I confess to a particular affection for the character of Quincey Morris, who is often eliminated from the stage and screen versions, as his role is mostly to be The Manly Texan who is there to wield a Bowie knife and be happy to tackle some vampires while the Englishmen are grieving, swooning, etc...

And, of course, its easy to see why so many versions (particularly Coppola's film) become enamored with the wily genius of Van Helsing (whose name but nothing else is lifted for the Hugh Jackman movie of a few years back then seemed hellbent on ruining Universal's Monster Movie franchise). He's an interesting character, a man of science who openly recognizes that perhaps the age of reason and scientific investigation have led to people not looking at the sources of folklore and myth.

Some of the "scientific" discussion doesn't make a load of sense (I never got the "child-brain vs. man-brain" thing), but Van Helsing really sells it.

Dracula himself becomes somewhat lost as a character after the first quarter of the book. Only Harker has direct conversations with Dracula, while still in Transylvania. The polite foreigner who has moved into town of stage and screen is an invention intended to keep Drac on stage. But you kind of have to love how darned eeee-vil Dracula is when dealing with Harker, and what a clear picture is drawn of who the guys is, and that he is, in fact, struggling to get the hell out of the sticks and be a man of the world/ have a much bigger hunting ground.

If I've a complaint, its that Dracula's death is oddly ant-climatic both because (a) you know its coming, and (b) by today's standards, its not exactly a "Big Boss Fight". I found myself sort of rooting for the guy by the end, which I would guess is not an uncommon position.

Batman makes everything awesomer.

Regarding sex and the vampire:

There's absolutely no question where Stoker was going with his succubi-like "Brides of Dracula" (a term which doesn't actually appear in the book, if memory serves). Harker discusses what a big turn-on the women are, and when Van Helsing happens upon them, he's no less enchanted.

However, having had heard repeatedly how "sexy" we're to find the character od Dracula, and given the tone of the Frank Langella, Lugosi and Lee films, the eroticism of Dracula himself is a bit non-existent. The source I figured I was counting on for the lustiness of Dracula was Coppola's presentation, which he were told was a faithful adaptation, but that's fairly iffy. Given that the book is written in the form of various journals and diaries, it's possible, one supposes, that Mina and Lucy simply do not discuss the sexual aspects of vampirism, but the scenes I recall from the Coppolla film in which Mina is wooed just aren't there.

I'm of a mind that Stoker intended for Dracula himself to be deriving some sort of pleasure from taking his female victims (which is very different from how one assumes Dracula dealt with the all-male crew of the ship which brought him to England, who seem to have been roughly dispatched), as he returns to them night after night, and the book does suggest that Vampirism may spread by lovers willingly being turned to spend eternity with their partners.

But as for a suave gentlemen who maybe nibbles a little to hard on the neck? That seems to be derived from plays and movies, as neither Mina or Lucy ever really actually meet Dracula outside of when he comes to them at night.

On the whole, yes, the book could be a bit of a struggle to get through if you're not one for the flowery and often purple prose of the time period. But as vampires have become such a hot topic of books, TV and film of late, its worth going back to the original material and trying to understand how we got to the point where vampires are hanging out in the deep south and ordering blood at bars, and it's probably worth considering why we try, quite literally, to defang them.

The book, be forewarned, was unusual for its day. Vampires were not dominating the sales charts, and every school kid probably didn't know how two or three ways in which you could bump off the undead. So the book spends no small amount of time basically explaining what the heck is going on and setting up the various rules and roles of vampires which our vampire media of today still at least acknowledges.

I did enjoy the book, and if you were of a mind to get at the origin of vampire in the popular imagination, I'd say its an invaluable read. I do not believe I'll seek out Dracula's predecessors in literature and penny dreadfuls (I think I've actually seen a filmic adaptation of Carmilla back in college, but beer was involved, so...).

If this Existed, I Would Read It (update: It is real, I will read it)

2009-11-06T11:56:00.007-06:00

fun with Photoshop at Postmodernbarney.com

Editor's Note: Dorian (author at Postmodernbarney) has written in to inform me that this is an actual book, not Photoshop at all! I am... amazed. And now will be seeking my very own copy. A trip to Half-Price before I buy from Amazon.

Half Mast

2009-11-06T00:01:00.004-06:00

Killeen and Ft. Hood are not all that far from Austin.

My evening ran long, and so I wasn't going to post at all this evening, but before turning in, I wanted to join in with so many others who are shocked and stunned by the events at Ft. Hood today.

Details are sketchy as they always are in the first 24 hours of any such incident. I've not been watching much but the local news, trying to avoid what will surely be knee-jerk and uninformed reactions to the situation, which does the victims no honor.

I am positive that the soldiers of Ft. Hood and all military installations will take this day with the same resolution with which they face challenges abroad.

If you read this site, you will know I'm no jingoist, but like most people who love their country, I salute the women and men of the armed forces, and find it all the greater tragedy that any of them would be attacked by one of their own, and one they should have felt theyc ould trust over all.

May the US military pick up the pieces, learn what you can from an act of senseless violence, and continue on.

From the AP wire and Austin American Statesman.

Wish I Had Taken a Picture

2009-11-05T18:44:00.000-06:00

An organization on campus had put together a Date Auction in order to raise funds. The theme, as near as I could tell, was "Jack the Ripper".

1) I find it interesting when people decide to raise funds by becoming "escorts" for an evening. That's really the first thing to come to mind? Really?

2) Jack the Ripper ranks up there, shortly behind Jeffrey Dahmer, as the worst "date" ever. He, too, paid for an evening's entertainment. I'm just saying.

Anyway, let us thank Jebus for student organizations and their odd, odd ways of trying to raise funds (I paid someone $3 today for a cupcake to raise money for what I believed to be their Diwali festival. Yes, I was hoping for an invitation. No, I did not receive one).

Penny for the Guy?

2009-11-05T17:54:00.003-06:00

Once again, I almost missed it. Thanks to Calvin for jogging my memory.

Inspiration for "V for Vendetta" and all around conspirator, Guy Fawkes was found out on November 5th, 1605 after trying to blow up Parliament (I like how you can say "Parliament" as an American, and nobody bats an eye and everybody knows what you mean. Thanks, cultural legacy!).

Let us just say that Guy had a rough time of it in the days that followed.

What you're going to want to know is summed up here.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

So let us all give a penny for the guy, and a salute to the majesty of the Crown.

Enemy Ace is a Poor Choice of Pet-Sitter

2009-11-04T23:13:00.006-06:00

I have a not-great story about how occasionally I low-bid on items on eBay. I've been doing this for years without winning. It's fun. See a car online? Bid $100. See Action Comics #1 online? Bid $25, with the full knowledge that people are using sniping software to win their auctions and that you have no chance of winning before you've finished entering your bid.

About a week ago, on a whim, I did this again, bidding on an Enemy Ace GI Joe collectible doll. And... won. And while I bid a fraction of what I'd seen the item available for on auctions with a "buy it now" price..., I didn't particularly intend to win.

However, I'm now the proud owner of an Enemy Ace GI Joe doll. GI Joe and/ or doll collecting is a whole side of collecting I'm aware of, but do not participate in.

At least I got a really good deal on this thing, I guess?

Lesson learned. No more bidding "just to see what happens". Well, maybe for this. And this.

By the way, the story depicted on the cover above doesn't end particularly well for anybody. You can read up on it here.

Curiously, "killing puppies" was my example of choice for how one could cynically manipulate an audience when we talked over such things in film school. Some things just provoke a reaction, and its either a cheat or its crutch. But its also something I'd never actually seen done until Schatzi (a name, which, had we adopted a boy dog, I was going to try to slip in there to see if I couldn't get Jamie to bite before revealing the origin).

And while I don't feel Kanigher's story and the point of "the tragedy of innocents of all stripes in war" aren't effectively conveyed... ferchrissake, they doom a puppy.

Or do they?

You can see Sleestak's appreciation of Schatzi here.

New Required Wear for My Employees

2009-11-04T22:59:00.001-06:00

I have two people reporting to me. And I now know what they are getting for Christmas.

happiness hat from Lauren McCarthy on Vimeo.

more here

Found on Facebook thanks to Molly B.

The League Watches "V" (the 80's TV remake, not the comic movie)

2009-11-03T23:09:00.005-06:00

Well, they jumped right into that, didn't they?

Apparently aware that everyone was going to already know the big plot twist from the original 80's-era TV mini-series of the same name, the new V bypasses what could have been convincing plot and character development to jump right into the Rag-Tag Band of Misfit Rebels portion, which marked the original incarnation's climax and eventual decline.

There are significant issues to investigate were we met by a highly advanced alien race, and rather than unfold these issues, the producers insisted on blasting right past all that. It just seems like such a bad choice to never give the audience the opportunity to fall for the aliens the way the public does in the original movie (back when it was an analogy for the Nazis making friends of their European neighbors).

It wasn't entirely awful, and didn't feel quite as hollow as the pilot for ABC's "Flashforward", although it was certainly trying.

I dunno. It has Elizabeth Mitchell. I'll give it another two or three episodes.

Elizabeth Mitchell is commandeering my TV until I'm positive I can't watch anymore

Oh. My. God.

2009-11-03T22:28:00.001-06:00

Randy sends this.

You don't see many ads for dog-related items that promise celestial well-being and include shots of Dingoes.

But here you go.

Green Lantern & Superman Recent Issues

2009-11-03T21:13:00.001-06:00

Last night I read the last two weeks worth of Green Lantern and Superman titles, and...

I am enjoying the heck out of all of these books right now. Which is absolutely awful for my pocketbook, but makes being a DC fan a lot of fun at the moment.

Some of the Batman books are enjoyable, such as Morrison's "Batman & Robin" and Rucka and JH WIlliams III's stunning "Detective", but the line isn't holding in the same way here as it has been for me for the extended "New Krypton" storyline in Superman, and certainly not the way I have been grabbing every darn comic with a "Blackest Night" tie-in on the cover (I was "meh" on the Batman Blackest Night, but actually sort of enjoyed the Titans tie-in).

If you read the internets (and I do), then as a comic fan, you're not supposed to like anything that smacks of a tie-in/ cross-over/ event. The funny thing is, this sort of thing is more or less what's keeping the Big 2 alive right now. Fans have consolidated around a few core concepts, and they seem to be more than happy to keep pace with events either to know what's going on (and hate every minute of it), or because readers enjoy this kind of storytelling in numbers greater than what it takes to sustain individual titles.

My guess (and you know I've got one) is that it's nice to know that the story you're reading isn't filler or won't be ignored completely and has seemingly built out of something as part of the greater architecture of the shared universes that can sustain these sorts of events.

Whatever.

I'm not really supposed to say "I'm enjoying Blackest Night", but I am. It feels like its got gravity, there's a massive threat that seems undefeatable, its wrapping in characters I enjoy, and seems to be setting itself up as a watershed event that will affect things for years. Not just because its a big event, those get swept under the rug all the time, but because its not an arbitrary idea thrown into the middle of other ongoing stories, and which builds on what's been happening in the DCU for a while.

I might also point to the way the Superman books are handling the current storyline to create an environment in which events are building upon one another and each issue is a chapter in a larger story (and has been since 06 or so). Its practically unheard of in monthlies at the Big 2, and is usually only seen in book at Vertigo, etc...

Weezer + Snuggie

2009-11-03T12:15:00.001-06:00

I am most likely late to the party on this, but:

Nicole Discovers She is Invulnerable (we hope)

2009-11-02T21:05:00.000-06:00

So, walking to the garage with my co-workers this evening, Bill mentioned that on his way in, he'd seen a girl get hit by a car at one of the intersections. "She didn't cross at the wrong time," he said. "I have no idea what happened."

We talked a bit about how dodgy the intersections were, and I related a tale from when I'd seen a girl hit on campus, who sailed a dozen feet or so when co-eds were first pairing cell phones and SUVs.

Anyhow, I walked in the door about twenty-five minutes later to find Jamie on the phone.

"Nicole got hit by a car!"
"That was her?"
"How do you know?"

Anyway, sounds like Nicole, who is slightly larger than a breadbox, took on a car and lost, but is doing well. She's been to the hospital, and all her parts are where they're supposed to be. I don't have all the details yet, but she's home and chillaxing. So let's all be grateful that Nicole seems invulnerable to moving steel.

Halloween is Done for Another Year

2009-11-02T21:01:00.003-06:00

The great thing about everyone showing up as Green Lanterns? Until there's 7300 of you or so, there really aren't too many. That's Reed and Your Friendly Neighborhood League.

I want to thank so many of our friends for coming by on Halloween night! I know there are infinite options on such a night (and its one night that if you stayed in and watched horror movies rather than show up for a party, I might believe you weren't just blowing me off), so thanks to all for getting dressed up and joining us at League HQ.

We had a lot of trick-or-treaters, who started around 6:30 and wrapped it up around 9:00. Our first guest showed up to watch the game around 7:15, and so we were sort of dividing attention for a bit there. Happily, almost everyone wound up in a costume of one sort or another.

In the end we had:

Supergirl: Jamie
Green Lantern: Ryan
Zombie thing: Jason (Jason also helped hand out candy and gave the kids a spooky experience)
Green Lantern: Reed
Tippi Hedren from The Birds: Nicole
Rod Taylor from The Birds: Matt
Tippi Hedren from The Birds: Tania
a cat burglar: Justin
Cop: Bill
Crook: Lynn
Project Runway contestant: Jonathan
Project Runway model: Billi Jo
MadMen Don Draper: Steven
MadMen Joan Holloway: Lauren
Super Pat: Pat
Knight from The Holy Grail: Juan G
Punky Brewster: Letty
Star Fleet Officer: Julia

Here are pictures by Julia that I swiped from Facebook

Julia actually worked out her Starfleet rank. She's a Chief Engineer.

Super Pat! His power? Cheering on the Horns, anytime, anywhere.

Green Lantern and Supergirl wish you a mighty Halloween.

Don Draper (Mr. Harms) and Joan Holloway (Ms. Roth) enjoy the festivities

Garcia forgot his Holy Hand Grenade

Look, I'll be honest. Jason's costume totally freaked me out.

Matt and Nicole deal with a Hitchcockian dilemma

Billie and Jonathan rock the Project Runway thing

I know in the current age that parents have decided that they can't let their kids trick-or-treat, but our street is always swarming with kids, whose parents, I guess, aren't afraid of the urban legends about poisoned candies.

That's kind of nice.

Its also the only time we talk to our neighbors, people all seem to be in a good mood, and the kids aren't creeped out when you talk to them.

All in all, a happy Halloween!

Dune Book Club

2009-11-02T14:48:00.006-06:00

In the spirit of both Jamie and I finishing "Dune", and now watching the Sci-Fi Channel's devoted but slightly goofy 2000-era mini-series, I wanted to point to a new web project by comic creators and fans which is devoted to Dune.

Here.

And, geez... will someone just fund Paul Pope so he can create a whole Dune graphic novel instead of doing single pages for his own benefit?

Here.