Multiple Things (Updated)

RIP Molly Ivins

Your voice will be sorely missed in the Lone Star State.



Boston Powerless before scourge of the Mooninites

It seems that electronic ads featuring the Mooninites were mistaken for bombs or something.

CNN story here.

Hilarity here.


can you see this? because I'm doing it as hard as I can

The devices displayed one of the "Mooninites," outer-space delinquents who make frequent appearances on the cartoon, greeting passersby with a raised middle finger. Nine were reported around Boston on Wednesday, sending police bomb squads scrambling and snarling traffic and mass transit in one of the largest U.S. cities.

Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll called Wednesday's incidents "a colossal waste of money." She had no immediate comment on whether any laws were broken but said police would investigate further.

Thanks to an erratic schedule and my love of anthropomorphic food, I'm more than a little familiar with Aqua Teen Hunger Force. So, perhaps the APD would do well to keep me on staff for just such an Aqua Teen-related emergency, or emergencies related to Space Ghost or Sea Lab 2021.

And now, an example of someone taking out their personal embarassment as rage:

Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," Markey, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt.

Curiously, not a single stoner, geek or insomniac felt threatened. Go figure.

Luckily, I am sure everyone will maintain a level head about this.

oh, wait... They've actually arrested someone in relation to the rogue electronic signs.

I am unclear WHY the Boston police thought the Mooninites were a threat (well, I am sure the Mooninites would like to believe they are a threat). These are pretty clearly signs. I do not stop and believe every metal box I see is a bomb, but I also have not been through terror-response training.

I am sure there's a lesson here that probably could be summed up with the fact that our nation has a color-coded terror threat scale.

It's good to know that we're all now one poorly placed sign away from being charged with terrorism.

And for those of you still living in a world where you do not know what a Mooninite is:




Action Comics Annual #10

I wasn't all that excited about DC's fill-in for February's Action Comics miss (this is after no new Action Comics in January OR February). But DC wisely put out a preview for the Annual, and it looks pretty cool.

It should be a good one for your pull list. The format of the comic follows the format of traditional "giant" Superman annuals and issues from years past, with all the different stories highlighted on the cover. (Also used in "Superman Family").


Comic Fodder

Apparently I was one of many who got bent out of shape about DC editor Eddie Berganza's DC Nation column last week.

Still, it got me some much needed traffic on Comic Fodder.

Since then I've done two days worth of DC reviews and a post on when weekly comics go wrong.

I don't think Jamie actually ever reads what I write on Comic Fodder. I saw her reading it, like, a week ago. But I think that's the first time she'd ever checked it out. It's probably good that way. I take what everyone else says as constructive criticism, but when Jamie offers me anything, I feel like I totally screwed up. I don't know what the difference is.

And it's also been a reminder that the interweb is a public place. Some guy out there refered to me as a "goon", even after agreeing with me. Apparently my prose style can use some work.


Mom and Dad, i heart you

Apparently my parents are concerned that I no longer call as often as I once did. A few factors:

1) I no longer have a 45 minute commute. I'm unemployed. I don't have a period in my day when I know I will be on the road listening to you or "Marketplace" on NPR. When I am on teh road, it's no longer a completely straight line as it was in AZ. Plus, driving and talking = dangerous.
2) I am actually busier here than in Arizona. I no longer spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday watching VH1's celeb-reality proigramming, hoping someone will call to break up the boredom. I now DVR the celeb-reality programming and watch it while you're at work.
3) You people are never home. Did you know that?
4) I am unemployed. I have very little to discuss aside from what Jason has usually already told you about. He was there for most of it.

So if I'm not on the phone all the time, I'm sorry. If I'm not here when you call, I may actually have left the house, unlike AZ.

It does not mean your younger son does not think the world of you.

No Post

Nothing happened today.

Lucy is driving me insane.

Update:

I have posted reviews to last week's comics at Comic Fodder.

Is Carolina lurking at my blog? Say hi. Send an e-mail. Call. Something. It's been a while.

The last two movies I watched were: Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter, and The Punisher. Something has gone very wrong in my life.

I am sort of excited about Windows Vista. You know how you get excited about the new TV season because you sort of hope that THIS year they'll come up with something you can watch? Even though they usually don't? It's sort of like that. It's like birthdays when you reach middle school and you quit getting Transformers and start getting Knights of the Round Table shirts in weird colors you never would have picked out yourself. I guess I'm always up for anything new.

That said, I'm not buying anything with Vista on it for six months, minimum.

I have an underbite. Sometimes it bothers me. When I close my mouth, my top teeth touch my bottom teeth. I could probably get it fixed as my father-in-law has been known to straighten a tooth or three, but 99.5% of the time, I don't think about it. But I bet he stares at it, knowing exactly what he'd do to fix it. Well, I shall be the teeth that got away.

Lucy is now asleep.

Jason has gone into radio silence since Saturday. I need to fit him with a bell.

Mel is usually asleep. Sometimes he chases the ball. Down the stairs. Add the cat to the stairwell, and hilarity ensues.

Arden Snow Prep

the indignities of the snow suit

Billy Bush is a PodPerson

We've had a lovely weekend at League HQ.

Friday night I headed over to Pat's for HD Movie night. Of course, Pat lured me over with an HD copy of "Superman II: the Richard Donner Cut". We also watched a few minutes of SuperPup (provided by yours truly), a few Superman cartoons, and a couple of HD programs. "Three Sheets" is a travel show following a lush as he goes from lovely vacation spot to lovely vacation spot sampling local booze. The guy is clearly in need of an intervention, but that doesn't mean the show isn't a lot of fun. It also reminded me I haven't been to the beach since November '01. Damn. They also have a show which is just swimsuit models on the beach.

This sort of shortcuts a business plan my former co-worker, Tom, once pitched to me: The Beach Channel. 24 cameras pointing at beaches, one in each time zone, and we rotate beaches once an hour. Sure, it's more of a screen saver than a show, but we'd also license steel drum music or something to make it work.

Saturday we had brunch with Jason at Maudie's, then re-grouped at his place with the dogs. The Austin weather was perfect. Sunny, breezy, and cool, and I wanted to do something outside. I had throwing a frisbee around in mind, but Jason reminded me that there was a march going on downtown, so we got all political and went and did that.

Then we wrapped up the night at Mandy's with Jason, Greg Johnson, a smoking chiminea and some decent beer.

When I got home, I finished my week-ending column for Comic Fodder, then went to bed.

Today was very pretty out, but a LOT colder. We've mostly been running errands, cleaning up a little and hanging out today. I did some maintenance work for Comic Fodder as per JimD's wise suggestion (no, I am not done), and tonight I need to do at least 1/2 of my DC Comic Reviews.

So I sat through 2 hours of "Grease: You're the One That I Want", NBC's Broadway-themed American Idol rip-off. It's hosted by TV gadfly Billy Bush, who I once tee'd off on in these very pages.

I finally figured out what creeps me out about Billy Bush (aside from the fact that he is, in fact, a member of the Presidential Bush family, and does, in fact, look a tad like Bush POTUS 43). What creeps me out is that all Billy does for a living is read from a teleprompter. And not particularly well.

Ryan Seacrest may be a parasite, but he's a highly successful, lamprey-like parasite. I've had occasion to see American Idol dozens of times, and I can give him credit where credit is due. Seacrest at least seems comfortable improvising and talking to the contestants.

Every single word from Bush's mouth is coming from the teleprompter, to his eyes and then out of his mouth in a bizarre, snappy patter that bears no resemblance to actual human speech patterns. It's almost as if Bush doesn't actually understand the words he's saying, or ever consciously process those words. He's a human vo-coder that merely blurts out sounds based upon some barely sophisticated programming.


it walks among us

And that may well be the truth. Take the vo-coder, add a head of LA-wet-moosed-windblow hair, blank/dead eyes and a zombified grin, and there's no real evidence to prove that Billy Bush ISN'T an alien being walking in our midst. A star-struck, semi-coherent alien with a lot of skin creme at his disposal.

I have decided, while watching this show, that I have a pitch Maxwell and I need to put together for a "reality" show. Our show would have to be on Bravo or A&E, and it would follow the process of bringing a show (TV, movie, Broadway, whatever) together, but not in a game show format. I think people would be interested in a documentary about the whole process.

Only our show would also have sharks.

Netflix Pals

This is how I got to 2000 posts.

If anyone wants to be my NetFlix Pal, click here.

I tried to set up my friend account with Maxwell, and it doesn't look like it worked, so please try it here.

I have no idea how this would benefit you.

Schrodinger's Bath

Oh, sweet Christmas...

You kind of have to have a mean streak to enjoy this, so this should be perfect for a lot of you.

Automated Cat Bath.

Thanks to Jamie for the link.

Titles are hard

Huh

Apparently, there used to be Love Boat action figures.

I have a new life quest. I will own an Isaac action figure. Oh, yes. I will.


Blogging

So I had dinner with Pat, Jeff and Keora this evening.

1) Polvo's is good, but it's kind of weird that it's still such a huge hipster hang-out. If it's about being seen, who wants to be seen cramming their face with moderately priced enchiladas? La Reyna, half a black down was kind of empty, as was El Mercado, another block down. Sure, those places aren't quite as good (especially after I discovered the Burrito Gigante [translation: Giant Burrito]), but they also has inside seating.

I will never understand this city and it's celebration of seemingly random restaurants. This includes the Olive Garden on S. Lamar.

2) Pat is against blogging. Or at least he thinks it's pretty silly. I can support that. Heck, half the time I have no idea what I'm going to say when I start writing, and suddenly I'm two pages into some inane monologue about how I hung shelves in the garage.

The whole blogging thing is NOT something you can explain to someone, or convince them is a good idea, if they're already pretty much convinced you shouldn't be doing it, anyway. Like scrapbooking. Or brushing your teeth.

Pat sort of kidded about starting his own blog, which, he said he would fill with "all my interests that nobody I know cares about". But when pushed, he eluded the question. All the more mysterious.

He did ask me discuss here either the cover-up of surrounding the death of 60+ birds on Congress Avenue a week or so ago. Now they're saying it was cold weather and parasites, but, I am told, I am to begin to say this is obviously NOT true, and there's something sinister at work.

or else I am supposed to speak in praise of "The Day After Tomorrow".

I forget.

Shoemaker, here's that blog I mentioned: Lady, That's My Skull


Shelves

So I've long had a theory that when I finally finish with the garage, which I've never really unpacked, I would get a job within a week. This has gone from a lingering suspicion to a bit of fatalistic thinking I've decided to take the lead on.

I've delayed and delayed putting the garage together, mostly because the garage is cold. And lonely. And there are spiders.

Yesterday I finally went to Lowe's and bought my melanite shelves, brackets and other assorted doo-dads. Now, an oddity of our garage is that it's exactly big enough to accomodate two cars, but not a lot of space for other stuff, such as lawnmowers. In fact, most of my neighbors have at least one car in the drive-way to accomodate their junk.

The icy weather last week reminded me that if we're hit with ice again, and I DO have to go to work or whatever, I'm going to go out in the rain or ice to get to my car. SO... Luckily our garage is really tall inside (our house sits on an incline). So I'm putting all the shelves up really high.

Not a lot of quick access with stuff sitting that high up, so items finding a home up there include things like Christmas Trees, etc... that we can afford to forget about most of the time.

I am very proud of how handy I've been today. But I also have a long way to go (maybe another two days in the garage) before I'm done.

Then, voila, I should have a job waiting for me next week.

Except that I still haven't finished organizing our books upstairs. That could be a project...

2004th Post

Hey, Leaguers!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Things are slow on the home front. Jamie's off one of her meds, and it's got her feeling a bit lowly until her body gets used to not having that particular med (withdrawal isn't as much fun as they made it look in "Trainspotting"). So we've mostly been sticking to the house and trying not to think too much about what kind of lousy weather we've been stuck with.

Really, I'm enjoying the rain and cold. After all, PHX has many things, but weather is not one of them. It's mostly the dogs who are making me feel bad. Poor doggies have been stuck inside for days.


Books

I finally finished "In Cold Blood", a book I started some time ago. I know this because I have one of Jamie's business cards which reads "Human Code" as a place holder. I loved the book, but found it relentlessly depressing, so I would put it down for years at a time, and then have to start over. That, and I always read books in bits and spurts, and I started this one again right after we moved here, so... yeah.

Next up is "The March" which I received for Christmas. I also have "The Time Traveller's Wife" which JimD, Steven and Lauren all recommended to me, although Lauren said "It's a little pulpier than I thought it would be." Luckily, The League lives for pulp, so let's hope Lauren's reveal rings true.

Also, I'm reading a metric ton of comics. I just wish the Superman books were back on schedule.


THANK YOU'S

I wanted to say thanks to all Leaguers. I enjoyed writing my 2000th post hoo-hah, but it was quite nice to get so many comments.

Hopefully we'll still be doing this in a few years, and we'll see where we are on posts at that time.


NetFlix

I'm back in.

Leaguer OH e-mailed me to ask my opinion of NetFlix, and it got me thinking about their service.

We'll see what happens this time, but a few things contributed to my decision

1- Talking in movies. There's less distracting talking at my house.
2- At $14.99 a month, rather than $16 for two people to hit the theater, I'm practically making money
3- My post office box is much closer here than in PHX, making the whole movie-by-mail thing less daunting.
4- I am now willing to manage my NetFlix queue to balance the "quality" movies with the very stupid. My first two movies? "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate"
5- I no longer have forty movie channels. In Phoenix, we would subscribe to whole packages of movie channels. Couple that with the DVR, and I never really felt like I was at a loss for a movie to watch.
6- I do like movies. I have a degree to prove it.

Read Checkmate

Up on Comic Fodder


Coming to Trade Paper Back soon.

Other Pictures

Ah, extra pictures. These are some extra pictures left over from the past several weeks.



The Bros. Steans enjoy some quality time during the Holidays.


Our loverly Christmas lights


Jamie enjoys our Christmas lights.



I pose with Dave the Somewhat Animated Christmas Deer.

Cousin John, his wife Julie, Mandy, Ellie Gamble

Elf Rami

Mandy, Ellie Gamble, Feral Andy

Mel.

Lucy in her lovely Christmas collar.

Ice Day Flashback

Last week we were hit with some ice. Believing the gods were angry with us, The League was terrified. We cowered inside our home, and emerged to take only a few photos.


Mel zips around the front yard, enjoying the ice crunching uder his feet.



Icicles hung from the front of the house. I don't remember ever getting icicles like this before in Austin. The window on the left is the window to the Fortress.




Icilces in the backyard hanging from the porch. I kept one of these. It's in the freezer.




Ahhh... the firepit. The firepit filled with rain. And then the rain froze. And now it's melted, and it's gross, but the yard is all muddy, so I haven't cleaned it out. You can see icicles beneath the firepit.



Ah, the front yard. Yes, the front steps did ice up and become a deathtrap. As did the sidewalks.

2000th Post!!!

Son of a gun. 2000 posts. That's what Blogger is telling me.

I'm not sure if this includes the "draft" posts I never bothered to post nor delete. It also doesn't include the first week of posts Jim D. had to salvage when I committed blogocide early on, then JimD convinced me to have a change of heart. But, according to Blogger, this is big 2000.

Great googildy moogildy.

When I think of the time I've spent working on this blog, I realize I could have obtained a masters degree, written several novels, or dug a tunnel between here and Guadalajara. It's kind of pathetic. Instead, I've spent countless hours navel gazing, performing haphazard self examination and generally wasting everyone's time. I'm glad to see so many of you who've chosen to stick with me every miserable step of the way. After all, I already know what I think, so you keep coming back, I suppose to see what nonse will appear here as part of my permanent record.

League of Melbotis has been instrumental in my ability to locate old friends, make new friends, and keep up friendships in ways I never would have predicted. We've been linked to from USA Today, have made appearances in some odd blogs, and can proudly state that we've become the number one destination for folks looking for pictures of "supergirl + naked" using Google. I am so proud.

We've traced my dissatisfaction with Chandler, Arizona straight through to my final, crucial decision to skip town and return to my beloved Austin in my beloved Texas. I'm not sure that move would have happened as soon as it did, in the way that it did, had I not had LoM as a communication tool between myself and some other parties. Nor do I think my leap would have made as much sense to friends and family had I not chronicled my dissatisfaction with such excrutiating detail.


The assembled Justice League of America looks back on 2000 posts

It's my hope I've been able to somehow pique your interest in the sequential art form known as "comics" with my unending diatribes which I shall qualify as my "enthusiasm" for the subject. Comics were always my bag, but with very few entertainment options and fewer social outlets with my arrival in PHX, comics became a great source of distraction and amusement for me during some pretty tough times over the past few years. It's been my hope that you guys might hit your local comic shop once in a while to see what's available, and maybe find something you can enjoy.

I've spent no small amount of time dwelling upon all things Superman, and will continue to do so. It's my hope that I've dragged you kicking and screaming from seeing Superman as a silly man ina cape to a pop-culture icon and symbol for modern mythology. I also hope I conned you into seeing this summer's "Superman Returns".

Some of this enthusiasm you've shared with me, some less. I've taken my desire to blog upon comics and tried to do something with it. I hope you're either checking out Comic Fodder or breathing a sigh of relief that every third post isn't about the genius of Justice Society of America. Without years of practice here, I sincerely doubt I would have made the decision to throw my hat in the ring and give such an effort a try.

We've dwelt upon all things pet-related. I confess, the blog was much heavier in pet-related posts in the first year. Honestly, the pets sort of have their patterns, and I'm not sure how much of their daily activity to cover which won't start to make me the "crazy dog guy".

In the past few years I've also become much more interested in sports, so I appreciate everyone humoring me as I waxed rhapsodic upon the 2005 Lonhorns, the Phoenix Suns, the lowly Diamondbacks, and my occasional bursts of enthusiasm for various NFL teams. Sports is the great equalizer.

And League of Melbotis has given me my rooftop from which I get to regularly proclaim that I am, indeed, a lucky guy. Not too many people get to meet someone who can be their high-fiving best friend and get to marry them. Nor do I know of anyone else who is married who has a spouse as patient, understanding and as much fun as Jamie (sorry, rest of the world. It's true.). And she's given up a lot of quiet hours while I've sat and click-clacked on a laptop, in order to post as regularly as possible. So thanks, Leaguers, for letting me try to get you to know Jamie, just a little.


It seems like just yesterday I was telling JimD I didn't think I had enough to say to sustain a blog. And I was right, but that hasn't stopped me.

There are no plans for League of Melbotis to disappear anytime soon. I know I occasionally whine about a lack of readership, or that I feel as if I'm whistling into the wind here, but by-and-large, this has been a phenomenal experience for me, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Thanks to all of you for making 2000 posts not just possible, but something I wanted to do.

We'll see you at 3000.


The entire Superman Family wishes you a happy 2000th post

Post for Monday Morning

SHAME

Leaguers, only a small fraction of you bothered to wish Reed a happy birthday. I am ashamed of you.

Reed has been a vital part of this blog for many years, and all you had to do was post a birthday message. But, apparently, you're too busy. Apparently, you're too good for Reed. I had no idea this was the sort of snobbish audience the League had grown to cater to.

I shame myself and I shame the good name of The League if I can't get you to post a "Happy Birthday" message to Reed.


SUN

We finally got some sun today. It's been cold and wet since last week sometime, so a little break in the weather was a welcome change. We didn't manage to take as much advantage of the weather as I would have liked, and I didn't make it home until after dark, so I didn't go running, which I'm feeling sort of badly about.

We've got another wintery blast scheduled to come through (cold, but not a freeze), and then we should have sunshine again on Thursday. So, right now, I'm holding out for Thursday.


PLAY-OFFS

We're not even done with the 1st quarter of the NE/IND game as I watch this, but I did see the end of the Bears/Saints game. I suppose I must now make Superbowl plans. No matter what, I suppose I shall cheer for the team that is NOT the Bears, unless I am given a compelling reason why the Bears should curry my favor.

I've been fairly dispassionate about pro-Football this year, and have already snuck over and watched a few NBA games (although I am reminded that the NBA coverage in Austin is abysmal in comparison to what we had in Arizona. My kingdom for an NBA Season Pass on Time Warner Cable).

Peabo was right about one thing in life, and that's about the inherent superiority of College Football over Pro Ball. I cannot get onboard with the anti-NBA plank of his platform, although I understand his argument.

***UPDATE***

Holy SMOKES, man!!! Was that ever a game! Holy cow!!! COLTS are AFC CHAMPS!!! Whoooo!!!!

(sorry, we like Peyton Manning at League HQ and have been waiting for him to have his shot at a ring for a while.)


GHOSTRIDER

I've never been a huge fan of the Ghost Rider comics. I sort of think the idea begins and ends with character design, and you can get more out of an 80's-era Iron Maiden poster than you can out of the average Ghost Rider comic. GR's not actually terribly scary or anything, so I'm not really clear on the point of the guy. I actually think he would be handled better as a DCU Phantom Stranger/Spectre-type character, but that's just me.

Now it's a movie. So far, the most interesting thing in the trailers has been Eva Mendes. And my deep love for paying to see very bad movies.

Who am I kidding? I'm going to see this movie. I sort of wish I could figure out a way to see it with Randy, because I bet Randy is going to love this flick. Somehow the idea of dragging Harms to such quality, low-brow entertainment is equally appealing.


Norbit

Is this movie just about making fun of fat girls? Am I really supposed to pay money to see that?

Eddie Murphy.... You used to be beautiful, man.


John Wayne

So the other day I watched all of "The Sons of Katie Elder", which I had never seen before. Darn good Western, and one could clearly see where they'd lifted some moments for Silverado. I did not know this, but 2005's "Four Brothers" was a sort of homage to "The Sons of Katie Elder". Only, with Marky Mark instead of John Wayne.

Last night, after watching "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", I watched a good chunk of "The Undefeated". I've got "Rio Grande" in my DVR queue. Either I, or TCM or AMC am on a John Wayne kick. Given the amount of John Wayne on TV everyday, I am inclined to think it's me.

Sure, me and Mr. Wayne might not have agreed on too much had we ever met each other, but I love a good John Wayne movie. I think, partially, because I respect Wayne's ability to make any nonsense that comes out of his mouth sound like God's own truth. And he's not above having a good laugh at other people getting slugged in the head in many of his films.

Oddly, I've not seen too many of John Wayne's non-Westerns, such as "The Green Berets", "Donovan's Reef", or "The Flying Leathernecks". Luckily, I have DVR and basic cable, so it's just a matter of time.


Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Make sure you wish Reed a happy birthday.

DC Reviews for 1.17.2007 are up

Hey all, I've done my Comic Fodder duty and reviews are up for DC Comics released last week.

Please come on by and check it out. Click on some ads, and then take a look at some of my other DC commentary.

And, also, I'd love some comments. It's always nice to get a discussion going.

I could certainly use the support, and, if nothing else, it keeps me from posting lots of comic stuff you're not going to read at LoM.

That is all.

Happy Birthday, Reed!

It's Reed's birthday. So everyone post a happy birthday wish to Reed-o.

Go. Do it now.

The League has been associated with Reed longer than most Leaguers. He was in band with Jason back in middle school, shortly after we moved to Austin. At the time, he was known as "Weed Saw".

Ahhhh... after all these years, that's still gold.

Anyway, Reed and Jason probably don't remember this, but the first time I met Reed, I came home and Jason and Reed were in my room for reasons that I still am not clear on. I think they were going through my comics. At any rate, my privacy had been well invaded.

So it's been two decades I've known the man. He's now an engineer, a drummer, a husband and father. Quite a growth curve for Reed-o. He no longer dwells upon Trek the way he once did. Instead, he's replaced that geekdom with a tremendous mental database of all things Rock 'n Roll. Seriously. It's frightening.

Sure, the days are long since past of hitting comic shops together and going over the happenings in Batman comics, but we still see quite a bit of one another, and Reed is still the same good guy he was when he first invaded my room.

Happy B-Day, Reed. Go eat some cake.

Football PodCast

hey all,

Friend of the League, Sigmund, has begun a fulltime career as a sports journalist. He's focusing on a Football themed podCast called "The Audible", I believe.

You can sign up for Sigmund's podcasts at the Applestore, here.

2 things

Comic reader appears in TV show The League enjoys

The League doesn't watch too many one-hour dramas on TV. But we do hunker down once a week to watch NBC's Friday Night Lights.

If you haven't watched the show, it's based upon the award winning book from circa 1990, and produced by Peter Berg who handled the feature film version from a few years ago. The show is framed by a small-to-medium sized Texas town that lives and breathes for the local high school team.

One of the characters is former quarterback Jason Street, played by actor Scott Porter. Street was injured in the first episode and is now confined to a wheel chair.

Apparently, Porter is a big geek and reads quite a few titles. Read more here.


John Kelso is a moron.

In his column for today he argues that Austin was perfectly safe during the recent ice storm, and that the newscasters had brewed up a conspiracy to keep us off the roads and watching their news stations rather than going to work.

Kelso has lived in this town long enough to know better. People in Austin can't handle the ice. They tend to do things like cause 60 car pile-ups on I-35 (which occured in Dec. 1998), drive off of roads into ditches and each other. And, apparently, the number of emergency calls for the elderly escalates tremendously as some fairly frail people slip and fall on icy patches.

Kelso has made a career out of being a grump, and it's occassionally difficult to tell if he's being serious or not as he stays in character. I think, in this case, he's throwing in with the folks who would like Austinites to cowboy up and just keep on with business as usual when the ice hits. And, yes, some of the reports were flat out dumb. But apparently he missed the part of Amy Hadley's news8 story that he makes fun of that remarked that the trucker he mentions was, in fact, stuck. (It's not the trucks which are the problem here, it's our inability to sand and salt our roads). I guess Kelso missed the footage of trucks jack-knifed all over I-35 on his voyages.

Look, we suck at this ice thing. We're very bad at it. So quit whining and watch some movies or get ahead on your columns, Kelso.

I totally guessed it, and more

I knew from his first appearance the true identity of "Supernova" in DC's 52. Sure, I had a few moments of doubt, and I wasn't sure what details would get us there, but I guessed right.

I apologize to anyone who has now read 52 who I might have intentionally thrown a curve ball as late as last week. If I was right, I wanted to do my "AH HAAAAA!" here. so here it is:

AH HAAAAAA!!!!

If anyone has cracked the code in Didio's column (I assume it's every 52nd letter, but I am not sure I am ready to go to the photocopier and highlighters yet), let me know in an e-mail.

Now I must review my Animal Man collections.

Also, I found it amusing that the Bottle City of Kandor they showed in this issue (that shouldn't give anything away, Leaguers... it's just in a few panels) was based on the Kandor prop DC Direct put out a few years ago, and which The League proudly displays each day at home.

Kandor!


Smallville:

Smallville suckered me in this week with a new episode which shows the earliest formation of the Justice League according to Smallville.

The episode was entitled "Justice" and featured Green Arrow, Flash/Impulse, Aquaman, Cyborg and Clark Kent.

I'm not sure if the episode was great, but it was certainly much better than the lowly levels Smallville had reached when I gave up on the show two or more seasons ago.

Now, the original members of the League did not include Green Arrow or Cyborg. In fact, Cyborg has never been in the JLA. Not to mention their "Flash" is Bart Allen, who has never been in the JLA.

But whatever. it was kind of neat from a novelty standpoint.

American Idol viewing comes to an end

I guess Rosie O'Donnell beat me to the punch on this one, but, once again, despite telling Jamie "I will not watch this season of American Idol", I have seen three hours of the show already.

It may be the producer's knowledge that America loves to watch people fail, no matter who they are and as long as they quickly disappear from the screen (see: America's Funniest Home Videos). Or, it may be because of the saturation of American Idol into the zeitgeist, that American Idol is now attracting more applicants than ever of all stripes... And, perhaps after six seasons, no matter how grueling the humiliation the judges dish out, contestants are smart enough to just keep their mouths shut.

This season, American Idol's audition episodes seem to be showing nothing but mildly deranged, somewhat mentally challenged and functionally autistic contestants. Apparently it's not enough to just bring in the kids who think they can sing but have delusions of grandeur (which is how Idol reps classify their contestants). It seems that Crazy Mary from a few seasons ago really lit a fire under the producers to let through and broadcast the judges haranguing folks who the producers SHOULD have the common courtesy to excuse from the auditions. Instead, it's sort of the TV equivalent of laughing at the special ed kids in high school. Nice.

Of course, because the show lasts somewhere in the neighborhood of 87 weeks each season, the audience sort of forgets the folks who maybe should never have been paraded in front of the camera. But it's unlikely those folks forget, if they're ever even aware of how they were presented.

If someone put on a show where they pitched itself as: we promise to make fun of the mildly deranged, the somewhat mentally challenged and the functionally autistic, I would not tune in.

That's why I don't watch "Carlos Mencia" and "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour".

Anyway, I'm done. No more Idol.

@#$% them.

The real tragedy of all of this is that longtime readers will know I love it when bad things happen to good people. Somehow this TV show is taking away my love of the schadenfreude. And that's just not fair.


I DVR "Friday Night Lights" on Wednesday nights, so I have but one live-TV option:

It's "Armed and Famous" for me on my Wednesday nights. Go Officer Estrada!

Shut up. That show is awesome. While you were watching your fiftieth contestant butcher a Celine Dion song (as if Celine Dion songs should be encouraged, anyway) and Simon's 1000th eyeroll, I saw LaToya Jackson assist in the delivery of a baby.

That, Leaguers, is TV magic.