Pointless story #452

Normally I wear sunglasses when outside, but I lost my sunglasses a few weeks ago. So last week I'm walking down the street and it's middle of the afternoon and kind of warm out, and I've been in meetings for hours. And I'm walking past this bar called Dos Gringos, and I kind of look at this guy. Not stare, but look over as one always does to ensure a person heading toward you is not weilding a meat cleaver or about to kick you in the nards. And the dude looks me in the face and I involuntarily give the "what's up?" head nod. it's about half an inch up and then back again, indicating, "I see you buddy," but that's nonverbal communication usually used for folks you know, or have even seen before.

But not for this guy, because he says "Hey, what's up?" and I'm still walking. And he's not a hipster. And he doesn't look like a guy who usually casually hi-fives people on the street. Not having sunglasses on, he can clearly see I was, in fact, looking at him.

Sidenote story: A while back i was telling my co-workers how cool it was to be in Houston in the summer of 1994 when the Houston Rockets won the NBA Championship. As part of my story, I described how folks were high-fiving total strangers out on the street, and how great the feeling of community spirit was. Apparently, my co-workers mistook that I thought in civilized society, people should be high-fiving everywhere. Anyhow, it's now an office joke that my vision of utopia would involve a lot of high-fiving. Which, upon reflection, if there's no high-fiving in heaven, I don't want to go.

So anyhow, this guy stops and turns as if to talk to me, and I stop, because I suddenly think maybe I know this guy (he is wearing sunglasses and I might not have recognized him at first.) So I stop and do the head bob again.

"So what's up?" he says again. And not threateningly, but rather with a high degree of familiarity. At this moment I realize with absolute certainty that while he looks a bit like the guy who runs my local comic shop, I do not know this guy. No clue at all who he might be. And I wonder who he thinks I am.

"Not much." I shrug.

And then he looks at me for a second, and I think he begins to realize I am NOT the guy he thought I was. Or not. I do not know. But he's not going to let this go. "So what's been going on?"

"Not much," I say, and then, looking down the street in the direction I was headed, I add: "Gotta run."

"Later."

And for some reason it left me completely flustered. I do remember talking to a girl I couldn't identify for half an hour one day when i worked at the Disney Store. I knew I SHOULD know who the girl was, and she clearly knew me, but the hangover which was screaming in my head, and the taste of stale cigar in my mouth was kind of making me miserable. She was also fairly good looking, so I WANTED to remember who she was, but it wasn't helping. I talked to her for a long while and I laughed and I kidded with her. Eventually she had to go, and I had to go back to making it look like I was working. Later, I thought maybe she was a girl I knew from a neighboring high school, but my dim memories of her from high-school had involved a lot of stage make-up, and my new memories were clouded by how very, very hungover I was.

But this wasn't even like my chance encounter with (possibly) Jenny S. This was just... some guy. Anyway, I wondered if he wondered who the hell I was, or if he was even aware I was the wrong guy. I mean, I'm always willing to pretend to be someone I'm not, but I need a little prep work and a few key details. And then i wondered how far that conversation could have gone before he realized I was not, in fact, the guy he thought I was. Especially if I insisted I WAS the person he was looking for.

Of course there is always the possibility I DID know this guy. I do that a lot. I think i haven't met somebody, but I have, in fact, spent hours with them. This happens a lot with faculty. I think I've never met them and then they get angry, insisting we met a year and a half ago. Or, even better, when I go to a meeting and realize in hour two that this is a different meeting than the one I thought I was attending. That used to happen a lot.

Anyway, wherever that dude is, I hope he's not soliciting the head bob from folks and then stopping them all over town. Moreover, i hope to god I didn't actually know that guy.

It's March 1st!

Watched the Oscars on and off last night. Billy Crystal still annoys me, and he had nothing to say about Seabiscuit except how Pete Rose likes to gamble? Given, i never saw Seabiscuit (movies about horses running in circles tend not to draw me out), but it WAS up for Best Picture. Surely he could admit he never saw the movie, too.

Was absolutely stunned Lord of the Rings made the sweep it did. At one point Star Wars was up for Best Picture. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I never saw most the movies nominated. I never saw:

House of Sand and Fog
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
Cold Mountain
The Cooler
21 Grams
Thirteen
Pieces of April
Whale Rider
In America
City of God
The Barbarian Invasions

You know what? I did see "Broken Lizard's Club Dread" this weekend. And I'm sorry I did. Wow. Was that not good.

I could blame Tempe/ Chandler for not carrying the Oscar contenders at the megaplex, but they do carry them at the Madstone theater out by Jamie's office. I guess I just have a hard time telling what's worth seeing and what's not anymore.

I COULD go to see every movie ever produced so i could up my hip factor and have good cocktail party conversations. And I'm not suggesting that the movies on my list of "didn't see's" are bad movies. I'm just saying, when I walk into a store, I don't buy every towel they have so I can find the fluffiest towel. Nor do I go to the expensive linen store to find the "best" towel. I just buy a towel that's the right size, shape and color. Occasionally i realize this towel isn't absorbent enough, or it chafes, so i need to try another one.

Anyway, that's a crummy analogy, but hopefully it gets the point across. I used to be a 2 movie a week guy. In the theater. With a box of candy and a coke everytime. Now it's once every month, maybe less. Funny how things change.

Speaking of movies, Jim D. is fretting over the latest draft of his screenplay. He's sent it into Project Greenlight, but it looks like Project Greenlight is targeting a horror/ thriller this go-round. Best of luck to Jim. I've read the screenplay. It's very good. It is not, however, a horror movie nor an Ashley Judd vehicle.

Jim has suggested his pal Alistair might direct this film. If this is true, I foresee Jim becoming Hollywood's next Joe Eszterhas, only without all the cocaine and hookers.

I wrote a screenplay once. It was in the neighborhood of 120 pages and the characters said the "F-Word" a lot. other than that, it's best redeeming quality was that it was also recyclable.

I've been watching a LOT of Spongebob Squarepants lately. If you haven't seen this show yet, give it a shot. I am getting on the gravy train very, very late as it is, but I like me the Spongebob.

Anyhoo, going to Houston for 4 days. It's Mummsy's birthday and she's still recuperating from her surgery. So I will be flying out Friday and returning Monday. It's going to be a hot time in Spring, Texas.

The League generally steers clear of sex, religion or politics. This is editorial policy. And woe be to the poor writer who must fall under this policy or who tries to buck the editorial board which holds the League in it's infernal grasp.

Hence, the League has spiralled into a soup of comic info nobody cares about, rambling stories about couches, letters answered by the League's namesake, and a lot of other "play it safe" sort of tidbits. Looking at The League these days, I can't imagine that as an outsider, I would be remotely interested in ANY of this content. It's ridiculous. We don't even give regular Melbotis updates anymore, kind of nullifying the whole point behind the League.

But the League got tired of hurt feelings and political debate, and so the League decided it was going to quit messing around with anything remotely political, religious or sexual in nature.

I think we started out good. We had some good bits, but it's become a real routine, and the content is definitely suffering. Especially under workload and going to school (because I try not to talk to much about either within these pixels).

So as of today, the League is going on hiatus (but NOT blogicidal) until THe LEague has a meeting with the editorial board and can figure out some new ground rules which will keep The LEague from becoming the Highlights for Children of the blogger set. (oh, Goofus! Why can't you be more like Gallant?)

Anyhow, don't be alarmed if there are limited posts for a while.

Justice League will become Justice League Unlimited in Season 3.

I FEEL GREAT!!!!!

Worlds collide as the NBA teams up with Kids WB! action star Static.

I actually really like the Static Shock cartoon. I never read the comics when the Milestone line was released back around 1990. There was a deluge of new material coming out then, and at the time, all I read was some Sandman, Hellblazer and Batman. The Milestone comics were geared toward a black audience, featuring mostly black cast members with traditional super powers. Aside from that, i can't say much. I do remember picking up Static and liking the art, but saving my pennies for some crucial turn of events for Swamp Thing or somebody who I was more familiar with.

(little note to folks not collecting comics: picking up issue #1 of anything was once fashionable for comic readers to do. This could lead very quickly to burnout on "origin" stories as there are ALWAYS #1's being printed. This is also why so few new comics survive in the marketplace.)

The Milestone line died somewhat prematurely, without ever exploring the possibility for merging into a core Universe, like the DCU.

The Static Shock! cartoon came on Kids WB! (lots of exclamation points when you're aimed at kids) a little while after the cancellation of the comic. And while eating my Grape Nuts on Saturday morning, i began to tune in.

The cartoon is about a kid who gains fantastic powers centering around electricity. At the same time he gained his powers from a mysterious explosion (at the heart of Dakota City), many other gained powers as well. Static is supposedly the only one who happens to be using his powers for good. Hurray!

The show has guest starred many real-life folks, including Shaquille Oneal. It appears in this episode that Static is teaming up with several super powered NBA players, including Karl Malone and Yao Ming.

In a nutshell, here's the episode:

Together, these four form the leading members of the secret organization known as the National Biotech Authority, dedicated to preserving world peace and stability. In the episode they join forces with Static to help defeat the evil Doctor Odium, who's created a frightening new device to dominate the world.

Anyway, sounds not unlike when the Harlem Globetrotters helped Shag and Scoob solve the mystery of the creepy mansion.

I saw Yao Ming play in December. If he's fighting crime in his off-court time, it may explain why he didn't appear to have the energy to pull down anything off the boards.