Nothing to blog about

I have nothing to share. I wish I did.

The weekend was slow. I haven't been feeling particularly great.

Jamie has been playing Mario Galaxies, and is much better at it than I (despite my attempts at coaching). Its interesting to see how two people will attack the same challenge in different ways.

I don't link nearly often enough to Sleestak's site, but here's a little bit of the way, way back machine. Paired with this post today from Occasional Superheroine, in which Valerie tries to figure out what women want in comics... Anyway, it wasn't that long ago that romance comics were being targeted at girls and young women, and a world which would make Betty Friedan's head explode was pretty much what they were selling.

Weird, no?

Way back when I was contributing to Comic Fodder, I posted on the topic of what women want in comics, and I admit... the answers were a little less concrete than what I would want as a market researcher. Could have something to do with women being a wide and diverse readership or something. And then young women getting creeped out when they visit comic shops and have to deal with the He-Man Woman hater's club-house atmosphere. I have no idea.

But at one point, the romance comics and comedy comics were selling. And it's interesting to note that manga brings both, whereas the average modern superhero comic is supposed to be grim'n'gritty for the most part, and therefore devoid of romance or humor, items which once drew in large numbers.

Also, you know, wider distribution channels when you could pick up comics at the drug store.

I've also been pondering a bit about the Warren Jeffs' commune interception by local authorities in West Texas.

For those of you not familiar, Jeffs led a community in Arizona, Colorado City, which was solely occupied by his followers. The community was comprised of a splinter group from the LDS, which still practiced polygamy, and tended to set up marriages between minors and dirty old men. As the minors were raised in the colony and told Jeffs was a prophet, they didn't know any different, and believed themselves to be doing God's bidding.

Colorado City came under fire in the first year or so when we'd moved to Arizona, and it was announced that Jeffs was buying land in West Texas and trying to rebuild his cult fantasy land in the Lone Star State. I had a good laugh at that.

Arizona has a sort of "go along to get along" sort of attitude. I guess its a weird side-effect of Goldwater conservatism, but people tend to stay out of each other's business to a much, much higher degree in AZ than folks tend to do in Texas. At least traditionally.

Jeffs managed to grab some extra media attention last year when he went on the lam and was arrested (and I think, convicted) for arranging marriages between unwilling teenagers and dirty old men. I imagine the folks of West Texas did not cotton to the idea of polygamist statutory rapists living nearby.

Well, it seems things have come to a head.

400 kids have been pulled from the West Texas compound. Whether El Dorado, Texas can absorb 400 kids raised in bizarro-polygamy-cult land into their foster care system remains to be seen.

If I seem uncharacteristically judgmental of the Jeffs followers, its because I consider them to be evil, evil bastards. Essentially Jeffs has found followers who managed to lay claim to the city government of a corner of Arizona, and were able to milk the system for years, use their official power to keep official power out, and had systematically set up a system to keep women/ girls uneducated and, essentially, as breeding stock. Further, I am deeply suspicious of what became of many of the young men of the community. If each man could have many wives, the math doesn't add up. And while some young men were run out of town... I'm just saying.

So if the El Dorado authorities seemingly overstepped their boundaries, in this case, maybe I understand. What was going on behind the walls of the compounds was not a secret. In fact, In Arizona it was very well known thanks to a few women who had escaped. (And I do mean escaped. These women were more or less free to stay and be happy, or... leaving was not really an option when you knew no one outside and were told Satan himself controlled the world outside the city).

I would like to hope that everything that has occured has been "by-the-book". Letting the Jeffs cult have any legal ground to stand on isn't any good for anybody, and many of the 400+ pulled from the community might now actually have a chance to have some say in their lives, not have their lives directed by cult leaders.





Anyhow, I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

Cheston Merges with the Infinite

Toll the bells, and come not to me with words of good cheer, Leaguers. Aye, turn your eyes neither toward Earth nor Heaven in joy, but let them hear your weeping and lamentations. So above, so below.

The great one is gone. He shall stride the world no more.

Ne'er again shall we see his like. His grace. His very Chestonness which made him the Cheston. He's been called home by the cosmos, too great for this wretched world, yet always making this orb greater by his presence.

Now gone. Gone forever.



I say adieu. And goodnight, sweet prince. The world shall be poorer without your light.

Charlton Heston has merged with the infinite.

The League is in mourning.

Or is this the best video ever?

From who else? Bjork.

Wanderlust.

Of course, this is a pretty typical day for Jamie, anyway, so she'll be wondering "what's the big whoop?"

New Batman cartoon

Looks like there's a new Batman cartoon coming in the next year or so, intended to replace the now canceled "The Batman" series. Which had more or less turned into a team-up series in the past year, anyway. I wasn't crazy about "The Batman". The first year or two, the creators changed things, more or less just to change them, not because it added anything to the show.

I was also never 100% sold on their character designs. And they just never really seemed to really dig in and build a world the way Bruce Timm had done. Moreover, their takes on the rest of the Justice League was a far cry from the excellence of JLU.

I have no idea what the new Batman series will be like or about, but I like two things here:

1) The Dick Sprang styling on Batman. Looks very kid friendly. I'm hoping for a fun take.
2) Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle!

I am a huge fan of the current Blue Beetle series and character. One of the best titles out there right now, and the character is really well thought out, as are all of the details of the book.

I think Jaime Reyes is a natural for a kids cartoon show, so I just hope they don't screw it up.

Huzzah!

Anyway, the series looks pretty straightforward. Batman teams up with someone new from the DCU every week and, I guess, saves the day. Anyhow, I'll tune in.

Best Video Ever?

You may have your opinion about what was the best music video ever, but I am here to tell you, you are wrong.

The best music video ever? Van Halen's peaen to school boy crushes on their teachers.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Hot For Teacher



Things you often love as a kid usually wind up a lot more complicated than you gave them thought for at the time. Truly, I don't think you could get away with this video again for about six or seven very legitimate reasons. Probably the number one being the utter objectification of the authority figure parading herself in front of a room full of children. Somehow I don't think that would fly. Sexist comes to mind. Possibly even misogyny (but I think that's unfair. I think the word is objectification).

Really, the video is hilariously awful. But wasn't that always the point of Van Halen's videos with David Lee Roth? They weren't exactly out there trying to uplift the intellect of mankind, unless you think Alex's drumming on "Hot for Teacher" is a breakthrough for humanity. In which case, you'd be right.

And, seriously, back in the 80's on MTV, this wasn't even close to some of the worst stuff you'd see when it came to ladies in bikinis. This was just the silliest. As immortalized in the classic "Tapeheads", in video music making, that's considered "production value". And if you don't believe me, watch any yound ingenue's video these days.

I think you have to give the director credit for the many pieces of the video which work so well together: the Harms-like Waldo character, the library table guitar solo, the Van Halen dance sequence, the young Van Halen equivalents, the ultimate destinies of each spelled out... Man. That's about five minutes of solid music video.

Sure, the video seems a bit as if it were cooked up by eighth graders, but that's appropriate to the subject material.

The video also gave us the phrase "Siddown, Wall-do!", which I think I need to start using around the office.

Anyway, its much better than the video for Sussudio (which I spelled correctly on my first try, thank you).

What was your favorite?

Superman at LakeCreek Alamo April 27th

Hey Leaguers,

Not much time for the blogging this evening, but...

Superman: The Movie will be showing at the Alamo Drafthouse up at LakeCreek on April 27th. Yup, up in Ye Olde Land of Wherefore The League Grew Up, up there kinda near Westwood High School. There are two shows, but we're going to the 1:00 show since its a Sunday, blah blah blah...

This showing is actually celebrating the 70th anniversary of Action Comics #1, which means just about absolutely nothing to the average Leaguer, but, hey... I get my little thrills where I can.


Superman wonders why The League has spent more time watching this movie than Reeve spent making it

While I saw Superman at the Paramount about a year ago with Jamie, Julia, Steven and Lauren, I'm kinda looking forward to watching it while eating a pizza. Which, in all likelihood, I've done before at home, but hell... this will be at a THEATER WITH PIZZA (we like to mix it up).

Justin is going to be there, and he's promised to wear his Brainiac costume. I assure you, you have not lived until you've seen Justin in his tiny, pink shorts with his legs painted green.

We've already bought our tickets, so we hope you'll show up.

And, forwarded by Randy (click to see full-size):

bookshelves, zen, Johnny Clambake's

Hey Leaguers. Not much to report. As Steanso might say, its been an uneventful week.

Over the weekend Jamie and I began my long-dreamt-of plan to get shelving up in the hallway/ open area at the top of the stairs. The League is actually very excited about this turn of events as it means: organization. Based on evidence of my life, ages 12-18, KareBear would probably not believe I actually really, really like self-imposed organization. I like knowing exactly where things are, and setting up organizational systems. In a way, what i really wanted to do was build my own "built-in" bookshelves, but if I wanted to do that, it would take weeks, and I couldn't guarantee the shelves would be, oh... flush to the wall and all sit level. I am no carpenter.

So we've Ikea'd it. We're putting in shelves from the Billy system. The system which is going to look much better with books on it, than sitting empty.

We also sort of screwed up, and I neglected to pick up the "corner hardware" which would actually make the whole "corner" bookshelf thing work. There's also an additional, small bookshelf I think i need to make it work, but... anyway.

Tonight I intended to continue on with the great bookshelf build, but we wound up going to Austin Asian-style-food-bistro, "Zen". Which has good food, but it's claims to being "Japanese" are pretty dubious. The reality is, if the food is okay, I could care less about its authenticity or pedigree.

What struck me was how utterly unrelaxing "Zen" is as an environment. There are TV screens with 3D animations flying around, they aren't shy with the volume of music, and the art design, while interesting, is sort of aggressive. Not exactly like a stone garden.

But, again, the food is good and priced reasonably.

Speaking of reastaurants, it's been almost a year, so I thought I'd repost the Johnny Clambake's post from last year, with names removed to protect the innocent.

Johnny Clambake's 1

Johnny Clambake's 2

Johnny Clambake's 3

Johnny Clambake's 4

And Steanso's raging response to me pulling down the post.

For those of you who weren't around this time last year, the Johnny Clambake's incident was the oddest, most controversial escapade of all the escapades at League of Melbotis. Not only was I contacted at home by a business owner, some Loyal Leaguers felt my deicison to remove my post was highly questionable. Just check out the comments sections for the free-for-all that ensues.

I guess The League had strayed too far from its punk-rock roots, but hell, I was a little sensitive to unemployment issues at the time, and I stand by those crazy kids and their meatball manufacturing ways. And, hey, Johnny Clambake's has wound up making a go of it in spite of anything I thought. Bully for them.

In the end, the woner of the place extended an olive branch. Heck, a whole olive tree, but I was too tired of dealing with the issue to take him up on his offer.
Thus, we never did claim that free meal. Nor have I been back, pretty sure that I would be taken out back by guys named "Tiny" and "Chuckles" who would see how far backward my knees would bend.

Honestly, it was a pretty unhappy event for me at the time. But if you can't look back and laugh, well, hell... you shouldn't be writing inflammatory restaurant reviews or keeping a blog at all.