RIP Knievel

Jesus. They killed Evel.

When I was a kid Evel Knievel was past his heyday of jumping the Snake River Canyon, breaking hundreds of bones and generally making an American Hero out of himself.

It wasn't so much that I remember actually watching Knievel on TV. I don't think I ever did. But I was familiar with the jumpsuit (and occasional cape), and I was familiar with the man's deeds. Including the fact that the mad would occasionally do time. Tate, the kid down the street, had a Knievel motorcycle toy we relentlessly drove into his wall.

Later, I heard the jail time was for hitting his wife, which may or may not be true. I don't know. Facts about this kind of stuff were impossible to come by in 1981 or so. It was the same way we all thought Mikey from Life cereal had died from a spider bite or Pop Rocks or something.

But if one performed a stunt of any kind, be it jumping off the dresser or hopping your big wheel off a curb, at my house you were labeled Evel Knievel.

Knievel would do time and later more or less disappear from the public eye as he had no bones left to break. Robby Knievel would take his spot as a motorcycle jumping daredevil, and I hear most of Knievel Sr.'s records have been broken in the past thirty years. But Evel Knievel will be the one they remember.

I dunno.

He was sort of one of those mythological figures you build up in your head as a kid. Someone with steely determination and grit you wish you had. It's kind of sad when you begin to tie the notion that he lived his life recklessly to the fact that he was also living it selfishly.

Also, The Admiral's tendency to refer to folks like Knievel as "that idiot". The Admiral knows keeping your bones intact and not being in jail is where its at.

But even then you hold some grudging admiration for the man, maybe the same way you admire the boozy old singers who made up the Flatlanders. Clearly nobody was telling Knievel what to do, just like you couldn't tell those old cowboys. Not a surgeon, health insurance company nor gravity could convince Knievel not to jump over a GD canyon in a rocket cycle if that's what he was going to do. And, dammit, people would pay to see that, so there was something to it.

There's only so many lands left uncharted and unexplored, I suppose, and then they're all mapped. Then you find yourself figuring out what a man can do with high octane gas and some good shock absorbers.

To be clear, nobody killed Knievel. Perhaps Knievel's own lifestyle killed him, but he managed to squeeze a lot of living into those years.

He's been out of the public eye so long, its questionable if anyone will really miss him.

Surely that is not how Knievel saw himself going out, though. How many times did he sit on a ramp, wondering if he was going to wake up in a hotel room somewhere tomorrow, or maybe in a hospital room, or just not be around at all.

My Office's Holiday Greeting

Behold and be terrified!

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!

Leaguers, it's December. Which means I can now insist that you be in the Christmas spirit. To that end, here are a few videos to get your Holiday juices flowing.


From the under-rated "Invader Zim"




J'onn has a Christmas in Smallville


Christmas with Flash and Ultra-Humanite

May the League Recommend...

No Country for Old Men

It's been a while since I thought the Coens were making a movie that I wanted to see.

I did not enjoy "The Man Who Wasn't There". I skipped the Tom Hanks heist movie and the George Clooney/ Catherine Zeta Jones flick.

But I did manage to make it out for No Country for Old Men.

Honestly, I don't even really want to talk about it, but the movie will defy many movie-goers' expectations, and that's either going to work for you, or it isn't. It worked for The League.

Also, performances were uniformly sharp, and the setting of West Texas makes sense not just in the context of the story, but is the perfect backdrop for the grander themes of the story.

I have not read any Cormac McCarthy book, but I know his fans were probably a bit nervous about the translation to screen. I've no idea how close it might have been to the book, but Jason, who had read the book, seemed fairly pleased.

We the movie at the new Alamo DraftHouse, which is where the Ritz once stood on Sixth Street. Technically, its still the Ritz, complete with sign, but the interior is unrecognizable. A very small part of my twenties has been compromised.

Parking isn't so much an issue as it is expensive if you don't want to walk several blocks back to your car. On top of ticket price and food, its an expensive night out.

Fortunately, the movie was good enough that expense didn't play into the equation. However, had the movie been a dud...

Wild Zero: Greatest Movie Ever or simply Most Amazing Thing Your Eyes Will Ever Behold?

A while back I read a review at Chris's Invincible Superblog for the movie film "Wild Zero", and, immediately, I added the movie to my Netflix queue.

This movie doesn't just have a little something for every audience imaginable, it was as if someone took everything that would be cool in a movie, and then went and made that movie.

It's not enough that this is a movie featuring rockin' Japanese Punk/Rock'a'Billy outfit, Guitar Wolf. Mere words may not convey the rocking perfection of Guitar Wolf, and this post is not ready to contain my maserplan to henceforth shape my life to be like unto either Bass Wolf or Drum Wolf, the two best supporting characters in filmdom. Really, any scene featuring the heroic trio of Guitar Wolf is filmic perfection, from their flaming microphones to their coif-maintenance in the most dire of circumstances.

Also, icy-cool, leggy, weapons-dealing soldiers-of-fortune in curiously hounds-tooth-printed one-piece outfits are always (I repeat: ALWAYS) a must for your perfect movie. Especially when they take out zombie home invaders who surprise them in the shower.

Wild Zero is also a superhero/zombie/UFO/romantic/musical/action movie. And it believes in Rock 'n Roll in a way I have not seen in a movie in decades. Also, UFO's and blue, shambling zombies. And true love.

If, at this point, you were having doubts about the movie, the inexplicable ending of the movie (which i refuse to give away) has the most awesomest scene ever committed to film. Ever.

I dare you to find a better ending.

Anyhoo... Wild Zero.

Rock'n'Roll!!!!!!!

And now a trailer:



If you want a bit more spoiler: a clip

Thursday

'twas a busy day for The League.

I go to work an hour early, and could have probably used more time than that for the crazy day I had. Included two photoshoots, a release, and all sorts of additional mayhem.

We use actors for certain parts of our work at my company, as well as photographers and lights and a green screen and stuff. It's all very exciting and technical and exactly why I went to college. But today we were down a talent, and so I was asked to step in not just as a producer, but as Angry Customer. So, The League got pose. And be hugged by one of the talent who was having, perhaps, too good of a time working on my project.

Look, you work on one of my projects, and you're just going to want to hug me. That's how it works. That's the sort of project manager I am.

Anyhow, I'm contacting my lawyer to see who I can sue. Keep that in mind, Leaguers. Anyone touches you or looks at you funny at work... retain an attorney.

Immediately after work, Steven and Lauren popped in and we all headed out for some dinner at a place that used to be Mars, but is now an Italian place with a name I cannot recall. The food was good. The staff friendly. And I assume we were annoying other diners with our loud conversation about how sitcoms rely on scatological humor vis-a-vis the writer's strike.

It seems the writer's strike is a hot topic. And will be affecting us in weird ways. Today I heard that we may not see many new commercials as writers won't be around to write those. Also, one of the actors we used today usually lives in LA, but she's hanging out at her mother's in Austin because she knows she can work here, but probably can't in LA right now.

It was also new comic day on Thursday this week. And DC put out about a month's worth of comics in one day. I assume they are trying to get stuff out before Year's End. Anyhow, I have too much to read. But I lived the wrap-up to the Superman "Camelot Falls" story, even if it wasn't what I expected (more Subjekt 17, please). And I am getting a real kick out of the Sinestro Corps War storyline in GL and Gl Corps.

I will also be re-engaging in "Blogging Countdown" here and at another blog in coming days. Countdown has taken a few bizarre turns of late, including what I think may have been a mass dumping of the writing staff and a replacement crew. Crazy stuff, but after 25 weeks of going absolutely nowhere, the series seems to be richoteing off in an entirely new direction. Whether anyone cares at this point... I've no idea.

It is late. I am tired. Good night, Leaguers.