We had to turn down an invitation or two as we'd been extended an invitation early on for New Year's (nice change of pace after 4 years of solo-New Year's), and headed to The Bloom's.
Sorry to Steven and Lauren. We'll catch up next weekend.
And to Hilary (who I do not believe actually visits this site). We'll catch up ASAP.
Thanks to the Bloom's for inviting us.
Finally was able to get Andy his replacement mit (a lobster claw mit, to go with the Mr. Pinchy theme. It's a long story). Met the famous Rosa. And even Jen Shaw made a rare appearance.
Jason can fill you in on the rest here.
As for today:
We really didn't do much. I eventually woke up, let Lucy out, and fell asleep again on the couch. So Lucy froze outside for an hour. Poor Lucy.
At some point this morning, Jeff got out again. We just hear him crying somewhere, and Jamie headed off to find him. I went to make coffee and saw the poor little fella standing at the backdoor, freezing his tail off.
High-School chum Scott Wiser came by (on his Harley. Damn you, Scott) and we hung out this afternoon. It's been a long time since Scott and I hung out (something like 13 years), but it was great to see the guy again.
Tonight we're off to see "Dream Girls". Because, I confess, I am willing to spend two hours watching women in slinky dresses. And I suppose with Beyone, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx, the music should be a-ok, as well as most of the acting. Still, it shall be no Eragon.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Adios, 2006
Hokey Smokes.
It's the end of one of the most tumultuous years in League history. Apparently, like a lot of other people, I've decided NOT to do an exhaustive Best of 2006 list. Honestly, this year has been so nuts, and I've been so pre-occupied since mid-June, I don't feel that I'm qualified to talk about movies, music, books or anything else. Life took over this year, and that means that a lot of media-review navel-gazing took a back seat to having a life.
Year in Superman
As a Superman Fan, I think it's definitely been a good year. With a new movie released (and one I enjoyed the heck out of), lots of reprints on the shelf, excellent creators on the core titles, fantastic creators on the ancillary titles, and Superman starring in a major cross-over event, two dedicated action figure lines, a great Silver Age action figure set from DC Direct, some nice DC Direct statues, lots of other new licensed product, tons of great material on DVD (from Kirk Alyn to Brandon Routh)... yeah, 2006 was a good year for The Man of Steel and his fans.
But, mostly, with the release of the Superman film, the usual Chinese Water Torture of journalists trickling out the same "Superman is Irrelevant" op-ed column completely evaporated. If Singer and Co. managed to do anything, it was remind the public of Superman's relevance.
The Move
I will always remember that moment in which I decided it was time to skip town with crystal clarity. I was sitting at my desk on a Friday afternoon, pushing some digital paperwork around for the millionth time, and thinking about how this was the same paperwork I could, potentially, be pushing around until I retired, and a little light went on in my head.
The move was a tremendous pain. As I knew it would be, it was expensive. It was risky. It was frought with complications. It was entirely worth it.
It's funny, because I DO miss friends and co-workers from the old place. I miss aspects of my old job (as The League loves it when a plan comes together). But the words "regret" or "second-thoughts" haven't popped up at all in relation to the move. No matter what issues Jamie and I have dealt with, or are continuing to deal with, it has absolutely been worth it. If anything brought that idea home, it was seeing so many friends at The League 2006 Holiday Spectacular.
I love this town.
Friends, new and old
It's avoiding the obvious not to mention the passing of Jeff Wilson, which, within our family and the circle of friends which Jeff was instrumental in establishing, has overshadowed the year. I don't know what more to say on this than was already said by folks who knew Jeff better than I ever did, and who feel the loss more acutely.
After years of hearing their names, upon arrival we met many new folks through Jason (and through Jeff), including Andy, Rami, the Blooms, JackBart and more. We've caught up with the Shaws and their addition. We've had the unique opportunity to become chummy with Steven and Lauren after years of e-mails and comment section postings. And, of course, we've reconnected with a lot of good folks in Austin.
We'll miss folks in Arizona, including my old office mates (hello OH), and some folks we met through Jamie's office. Hopefully we won't drift away until we're only exchanging Christmas cards.
We've been very lucky to see so much of Doug this year (but have a certain Kristen deficit we need to correct), are glad to be reintegrating Jason and Susan into our Austin-life, and are, of course, very happy that both sets of parents are now just a car-ride away.
I'm going to miss somebody in this, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.
Thanks, so much for a good year, everyone.
UT Football
So the 2005 UT Longhorns were sort of, technically, the 2005 team. But they won the Rose Bowl in 2006, so... Anyway, just wanted to bask in that one last time.
So long, 2006
It's the end of one of the most tumultuous years in League history. Apparently, like a lot of other people, I've decided NOT to do an exhaustive Best of 2006 list. Honestly, this year has been so nuts, and I've been so pre-occupied since mid-June, I don't feel that I'm qualified to talk about movies, music, books or anything else. Life took over this year, and that means that a lot of media-review navel-gazing took a back seat to having a life.
Year in Superman
As a Superman Fan, I think it's definitely been a good year. With a new movie released (and one I enjoyed the heck out of), lots of reprints on the shelf, excellent creators on the core titles, fantastic creators on the ancillary titles, and Superman starring in a major cross-over event, two dedicated action figure lines, a great Silver Age action figure set from DC Direct, some nice DC Direct statues, lots of other new licensed product, tons of great material on DVD (from Kirk Alyn to Brandon Routh)... yeah, 2006 was a good year for The Man of Steel and his fans.
But, mostly, with the release of the Superman film, the usual Chinese Water Torture of journalists trickling out the same "Superman is Irrelevant" op-ed column completely evaporated. If Singer and Co. managed to do anything, it was remind the public of Superman's relevance.
The Move
I will always remember that moment in which I decided it was time to skip town with crystal clarity. I was sitting at my desk on a Friday afternoon, pushing some digital paperwork around for the millionth time, and thinking about how this was the same paperwork I could, potentially, be pushing around until I retired, and a little light went on in my head.
The move was a tremendous pain. As I knew it would be, it was expensive. It was risky. It was frought with complications. It was entirely worth it.
It's funny, because I DO miss friends and co-workers from the old place. I miss aspects of my old job (as The League loves it when a plan comes together). But the words "regret" or "second-thoughts" haven't popped up at all in relation to the move. No matter what issues Jamie and I have dealt with, or are continuing to deal with, it has absolutely been worth it. If anything brought that idea home, it was seeing so many friends at The League 2006 Holiday Spectacular.
I love this town.
Friends, new and old
It's avoiding the obvious not to mention the passing of Jeff Wilson, which, within our family and the circle of friends which Jeff was instrumental in establishing, has overshadowed the year. I don't know what more to say on this than was already said by folks who knew Jeff better than I ever did, and who feel the loss more acutely.
After years of hearing their names, upon arrival we met many new folks through Jason (and through Jeff), including Andy, Rami, the Blooms, JackBart and more. We've caught up with the Shaws and their addition. We've had the unique opportunity to become chummy with Steven and Lauren after years of e-mails and comment section postings. And, of course, we've reconnected with a lot of good folks in Austin.
We'll miss folks in Arizona, including my old office mates (hello OH), and some folks we met through Jamie's office. Hopefully we won't drift away until we're only exchanging Christmas cards.
We've been very lucky to see so much of Doug this year (but have a certain Kristen deficit we need to correct), are glad to be reintegrating Jason and Susan into our Austin-life, and are, of course, very happy that both sets of parents are now just a car-ride away.
I'm going to miss somebody in this, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.
Thanks, so much for a good year, everyone.
UT Football
So the 2005 UT Longhorns were sort of, technically, the 2005 team. But they won the Rose Bowl in 2006, so... Anyway, just wanted to bask in that one last time.
So long, 2006
Name Dropping
Ah, there's nothing like tuning in and seeing seeing your name associated with the Wonder Woman Museum on your local 24-hour news network. Thanks, Andy! May the subscribers to Time-Warner Cable in Austin all become loyal fans of the Maid of Might.
This is pretty much it
Okay.
You may have noted some differences in the look of the site. I was more or less forced to update the blog thanks to changes within Blogger. Yes, it seems Blogger may have implemented new features since I first posted, lo, those many years ago. They now have some neat tools, and so I'm trying to integrate some of that.
One of the big things I'm going to try to work with is the "labels" or "topics" dealy. I think this will help me organize the archives in a manner more effective than trying to guess the date of a post. That said, I'm not going to backtrack and link EVERY Superman related post (though I gave it the old college try), comic book review, etc... Or at least I don't think I'm going to do so. Nor does this mean that I'm going to start writing specifically toward categories. I think. I hope.
I hope you like the basics of the new look. If not, sorry. This is the third look for the site, and it's stripped of a lot of the color, etc... which I assume longtime readers should be familiar. I played with a lot of templates and color-schemes, and this is the one I've settled on for the next several months, anyway.
As of now I am also not including links to sites which are not personal sites or comic/comic-related sites.
If you're missing something in particular, let me know.
Oh, I am also putting the monthly poll on hiatus. I'm not really sure how much anybody is really getting out of it.
You may have noted some differences in the look of the site. I was more or less forced to update the blog thanks to changes within Blogger. Yes, it seems Blogger may have implemented new features since I first posted, lo, those many years ago. They now have some neat tools, and so I'm trying to integrate some of that.
One of the big things I'm going to try to work with is the "labels" or "topics" dealy. I think this will help me organize the archives in a manner more effective than trying to guess the date of a post. That said, I'm not going to backtrack and link EVERY Superman related post (though I gave it the old college try), comic book review, etc... Or at least I don't think I'm going to do so. Nor does this mean that I'm going to start writing specifically toward categories. I think. I hope.
I hope you like the basics of the new look. If not, sorry. This is the third look for the site, and it's stripped of a lot of the color, etc... which I assume longtime readers should be familiar. I played with a lot of templates and color-schemes, and this is the one I've settled on for the next several months, anyway.
As of now I am also not including links to sites which are not personal sites or comic/comic-related sites.
If you're missing something in particular, let me know.
Oh, I am also putting the monthly poll on hiatus. I'm not really sure how much anybody is really getting out of it.
Sayonara, Saddam
I stayed up watching the news last night as the news networks went into a sort of countdown to Saddam's execution. Since someone finally found him in a hole in the ground, the whole thing has had an air of inevitability to it.
Of course anyone would be pleased to see Saddam face a court in his own country, especially with the endless line of witnesses who could provide testimony. The question now is what legacy Hussein will leave upon the country he must have had some affection for as the nation's leader.
I don't want to talk about this guy. Too much blood and ink have been spilled in his name, and I don't intend to spend anymore time writing about him.
Of course anyone would be pleased to see Saddam face a court in his own country, especially with the endless line of witnesses who could provide testimony. The question now is what legacy Hussein will leave upon the country he must have had some affection for as the nation's leader.
I don't want to talk about this guy. Too much blood and ink have been spilled in his name, and I don't intend to spend anymore time writing about him.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
For JimD: I Now Own Superpup
Holy Smokes. It appears that the Superman Ultimate Collector's Set ALSO includes the long-lost (never aired) pilot for Superpup.
Read up on Superpup here.
Pointing toward the parties responsible for this atrocity
It is badly recorded, utilizes the highly recognizable sets from "The Adventures of Superman", and a lot of expensive masks. That said, the production quality is sort of like a mash of "Adventures of Superman" and "Banana Splits". You can't say there's not a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but somehow the thing never gels, mostly because the mouths of the characters only partially move, and the voices attributed the achracters are uniformly awful.
This is some high grade nightmare fuel, and worthy of a Doug-viewing. National Periodical Publications made the right decision in shelving this particular gem.
Read up on Superpup here.
Pointing toward the parties responsible for this atrocity
It is badly recorded, utilizes the highly recognizable sets from "The Adventures of Superman", and a lot of expensive masks. That said, the production quality is sort of like a mash of "Adventures of Superman" and "Banana Splits". You can't say there's not a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but somehow the thing never gels, mostly because the mouths of the characters only partially move, and the voices attributed the achracters are uniformly awful.
This is some high grade nightmare fuel, and worthy of a Doug-viewing. National Periodical Publications made the right decision in shelving this particular gem.
Testing new formats
Don't get too excited. I'm trying new templates out. This isn't the final look. Nor is it the final functionality.
Re: comments - I am abandoning Haloscan for the integrated comments offered by Blogger. You shouldn't have to register to leave comments, but you may need to verify by using one of them text boxes. We're trying to avoid spam.
I am not even settled on the text sitting on the left. So, you know, check in to see changes. And while your input is always welcome, I'm going to do what I'm going to do, as always. If you have a really neat idea: super. Blogger.com is free to use. Go nuts.
I'll be seeking assistance on feedburner, etc... in fairly short order.
Re: comments - I am abandoning Haloscan for the integrated comments offered by Blogger. You shouldn't have to register to leave comments, but you may need to verify by using one of them text boxes. We're trying to avoid spam.
I am not even settled on the text sitting on the left. So, you know, check in to see changes. And while your input is always welcome, I'm going to do what I'm going to do, as always. If you have a really neat idea: super. Blogger.com is free to use. Go nuts.
I'll be seeking assistance on feedburner, etc... in fairly short order.
Superman II Extra Features
As you may know, Jamie bought me the Superman Ultimate Collector's Box Set for Christmas. This evening we were more or less rained in as Austin is sunk under a deluge, so I popped in one of the bonus feature discs associated with Superman II, and man...
A: There's a disco/ urban cowboy-era documentary of the making of Superman II in which Richard Lester more or less cops to shooting TV-style with multiple cameras ( big complaint of the cast after Donner left).
B: A short documentary on the Fleischer Superman cartoons with folks like Bruce Timm.
C: I believe ALL of the Fleischer cartoons.
D: And most priceless, there's a Superman 50th anniversary special produced by Lorne Green and hosted by a deeply mulleted Dana Carvey. Writers included Robert Smigel and Bruce McCullogh. What's absolutely stunning is the amount of talent assembled for the show, including two DITMTLOD (a) a pre-fame/ pre-Miller's Crossing Marcia Gay Harden playing a high schooler and (b) Ellen Greene as the curator of the Superman Museum.
The show is a mish-mash of reality and fiction, including interviews with real-life Superman actor Kirk Alyn, interspliced with Hal Holbrook pontificating on his one-man Superman show on Broadway. Plus, Noel Neill gets screen time as Lois Lane's concerned mother.
The show isn't necessarily great, but you do see some early Robert Smigel genius as he dons a latex egg-shaped cranium to play the very real comic-based villain "Brainwave". Al Franken plays 1/2 of a super duo attempting a "Scared Straight" approach to stopping "potential thugs and world dominators". And Ralph Nader plays a consumer advocate, instructing you on the effects of various colors of Kryptonite (skipping blue, which only affects Bizarros).
And The Flash and GL make an appearance. Again, well-intentioned, but not great.
SuperLadies
Randy sent me this. I have no idea what they're advertising...
As you may know, Jamie bought me the Superman Ultimate Collector's Box Set for Christmas. This evening we were more or less rained in as Austin is sunk under a deluge, so I popped in one of the bonus feature discs associated with Superman II, and man...
A: There's a disco/ urban cowboy-era documentary of the making of Superman II in which Richard Lester more or less cops to shooting TV-style with multiple cameras ( big complaint of the cast after Donner left).
B: A short documentary on the Fleischer Superman cartoons with folks like Bruce Timm.
C: I believe ALL of the Fleischer cartoons.
D: And most priceless, there's a Superman 50th anniversary special produced by Lorne Green and hosted by a deeply mulleted Dana Carvey. Writers included Robert Smigel and Bruce McCullogh. What's absolutely stunning is the amount of talent assembled for the show, including two DITMTLOD (a) a pre-fame/ pre-Miller's Crossing Marcia Gay Harden playing a high schooler and (b) Ellen Greene as the curator of the Superman Museum.
The show is a mish-mash of reality and fiction, including interviews with real-life Superman actor Kirk Alyn, interspliced with Hal Holbrook pontificating on his one-man Superman show on Broadway. Plus, Noel Neill gets screen time as Lois Lane's concerned mother.
The show isn't necessarily great, but you do see some early Robert Smigel genius as he dons a latex egg-shaped cranium to play the very real comic-based villain "Brainwave". Al Franken plays 1/2 of a super duo attempting a "Scared Straight" approach to stopping "potential thugs and world dominators". And Ralph Nader plays a consumer advocate, instructing you on the effects of various colors of Kryptonite (skipping blue, which only affects Bizarros).
And The Flash and GL make an appearance. Again, well-intentioned, but not great.
SuperLadies
Randy sent me this. I have no idea what they're advertising...
Friday, December 29, 2006
Archives
Okay, sometimes my archives creep me out.
Right now, with my recent switch to Blogger II or whatever Blogger.com/Google is calling it, my archives are completely jacked up. I can no longer link back to a specific post, just a specific day. When I do this, I can only link to the day in question. So if I have five posts that day, tough noogies. One link.
Also, my archives freak me out because:
(A) most of the time I have no recollection of writing the post, and so it sounds like someone I'd sort of agree with, but who I think needs to polish up his grammar.
(B) occasionally I stumble across something in the comments section which blows my mind (such as the time Meco chimed in on my comments).
So I randomly looked at an old post which featured images of both Randy and grimace, and compared the two in the most flattering manner possible. Looking at the comments, I came across the following.
Re: 12/30/2004
#372 is my nephew. Not trained and no acting experience. He was "discovered" working at Trader Joe's. He received all kinds of compliments by the crew and director for his natural ability when filming this comercial. Just to get it straight...no one would ever describe him as "chubby". He's a lean, fit young man and we are all very proud of him.
Teri | 03.22.05 - 12:39 am | #
Obviously Teri didn't know The League is pretty chubby, but I had no idea what she was talking about. So, of course, I had to leap back and see
In December 2004 I had made fun of a kid in a really lousy McDonald's ad. You can read my description of the ad here.
Sweet mother of crap. What else is in there?
But, man, did that post remind me of what an awful, awful commercial Teri's nephew starred in. And clearly I had wanted to forget it. How sad.
You would have thought she knew I was kidding after comparing myself to Ronald and my wife to a Fry Guy.
Okay, sometimes my archives creep me out.
Right now, with my recent switch to Blogger II or whatever Blogger.com/Google is calling it, my archives are completely jacked up. I can no longer link back to a specific post, just a specific day. When I do this, I can only link to the day in question. So if I have five posts that day, tough noogies. One link.
Also, my archives freak me out because:
(A) most of the time I have no recollection of writing the post, and so it sounds like someone I'd sort of agree with, but who I think needs to polish up his grammar.
(B) occasionally I stumble across something in the comments section which blows my mind (such as the time Meco chimed in on my comments).
So I randomly looked at an old post which featured images of both Randy and grimace, and compared the two in the most flattering manner possible. Looking at the comments, I came across the following.
Re: 12/30/2004
#372 is my nephew. Not trained and no acting experience. He was "discovered" working at Trader Joe's. He received all kinds of compliments by the crew and director for his natural ability when filming this comercial. Just to get it straight...no one would ever describe him as "chubby". He's a lean, fit young man and we are all very proud of him.
Teri | 03.22.05 - 12:39 am | #
Obviously Teri didn't know The League is pretty chubby, but I had no idea what she was talking about. So, of course, I had to leap back and see
In December 2004 I had made fun of a kid in a really lousy McDonald's ad. You can read my description of the ad here.
Sweet mother of crap. What else is in there?
But, man, did that post remind me of what an awful, awful commercial Teri's nephew starred in. And clearly I had wanted to forget it. How sad.
You would have thought she knew I was kidding after comparing myself to Ronald and my wife to a Fry Guy.
Comic Related Quick Bits
SFFR
I took a look at Alison Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home" below this post. I worked pretty hard on my "review". I thought the book was very good and tried to bring up a tiny bit about what I liked.
The Flash
I am now 4 episodes in to the 1990 series "The Flash" with John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen. The show is a lot of fun, has some cool stuff going on, and Amanda Pays. Sure, there are some unnecessary trappings of a post-Burton-Batman, and it's sort of a Knight Rider-ish all-ages show, but I dig it.
I am digging it more than I am digging the current run of Flash, which I would drop if DC hadn't already said they're changing out creative teams ASAP. Ironically, the team which is currently writing Flash are the developers of the Flash TV show.
Rise of the Silver Surfer
Thanks to RHPT, I am now aware that the new movie trailer for "FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is available. I am deeply skeptical of the quality of the actual movie, but they nailed the wow factor of an otherwordly being on a flying surfboard.
Check it out in QT.
My Kung-Fu is better
I learned today, much to my surprise and chagrin, that my comic shop manager knows almost NOTHING about non-DC or Marvel comics. He had never heard of James Kolchaka, Harvey Pekar, Marjani Sartapi, or, I think, even the Dark Horse title "Concrete". It occured to me as I drove away from my shop, I do not think they carry any Will Eisner, Frank Miller or even Watchmen. He had never read Maus, and had written off "Bone" as dumb, based solely on never making it past the cover.
Apparently he and I have very different notions as to the definition of his job.
Why the World is Better With Masked Heroes
SFFR
I took a look at Alison Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home" below this post. I worked pretty hard on my "review". I thought the book was very good and tried to bring up a tiny bit about what I liked.
The Flash
I am now 4 episodes in to the 1990 series "The Flash" with John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen. The show is a lot of fun, has some cool stuff going on, and Amanda Pays. Sure, there are some unnecessary trappings of a post-Burton-Batman, and it's sort of a Knight Rider-ish all-ages show, but I dig it.
I am digging it more than I am digging the current run of Flash, which I would drop if DC hadn't already said they're changing out creative teams ASAP. Ironically, the team which is currently writing Flash are the developers of the Flash TV show.
Rise of the Silver Surfer
Thanks to RHPT, I am now aware that the new movie trailer for "FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is available. I am deeply skeptical of the quality of the actual movie, but they nailed the wow factor of an otherwordly being on a flying surfboard.
Check it out in QT.
My Kung-Fu is better
I learned today, much to my surprise and chagrin, that my comic shop manager knows almost NOTHING about non-DC or Marvel comics. He had never heard of James Kolchaka, Harvey Pekar, Marjani Sartapi, or, I think, even the Dark Horse title "Concrete". It occured to me as I drove away from my shop, I do not think they carry any Will Eisner, Frank Miller or even Watchmen. He had never read Maus, and had written off "Bone" as dumb, based solely on never making it past the cover.
Apparently he and I have very different notions as to the definition of his job.
Why the World is Better With Masked Heroes
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Suggestions for Further Reading: Fun Home
I am an illiterate idiot. At least, my days in college were not spent in the way college was once experienced, at least in my fanciful mind. Sure, I knew some other RTF and History majors who would stray into reading of the classics during their downtime, but when they were reading Proust or Joyce, I was flipping through X-Men, doodling in the margins of my notes, setting fire to the apartment I shared with CBG, reading non-fiction, the newspaper or magazines, and, of course, going to work. But all of those are excuses. I have the leisure time. At some point, I need to just cop to being willfully illiterate. Of course, I'm also fairly ADHD in my reading, so it's questionable that, even if I did purchase a copy of "Ulysses", I would make it past the first fifty pages.
Alison Bechdel makes me feel like an idiot or, conversely, that I've wasted my life reading the wrong things. Her graphic novel "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" is currently riding the end of the year "best in non-fiction" category in a few publications. This is remarkable mainly due to the fact that "Fun Home" is a graphic novel, it is autobiographical, it is personal, and it is everything many, many comics attempt to be, but utterly fail. Of course, Bechdel is very good at what she does.
I picked up "Fun Home" mostly due to a reading suggestion by an old college chum who I had once bonded with over Morrison's "Invisibles" and Jell-O shots. Amy usually had a few good ideas up her sleeve, and I figured she was wise enough not to just go off recommending books willy-nilly, not at the rate she reads. Also, I'd heard Time called it one of their books of the year. (Time does have a Comix reviewer, but I sort of quit taking him seriously a few years ago. I found his reviews too often slanted the subjective as if it were the objective, which I found a bit indefensible as much of the Time audience most likely knows very little about the medium.)
The book itself is currently available in hardback from Houghton-Mifflin (an interesting publisher for any graphic work, I thought). As per content, the story centers around the distant relationship of Bechdel and her father as Bechdel explores the awakening of her own sexual identity, the problematic issues of her father's sexuality and his untimely death.
Self-examination and auto-biography have been a staple of indie comics since Harvey Pekar drew his first stick man in a square, and with Craig Thompson's recent Eggers-like surge in popularity thanks to the Emo-Boy/coming-of-age tale "Blankets", publishers outside of small press seem to be taking notice.
Gay/Lesbian-coming-out tales are not unheard of in comic-dom, but where Bechdel separates herself from the little I've read is in her approach as she attacks the topic with more than the raw emotion of the topic. Instead, the book reads as a thesis in exploring her own story as a thematic reflection of the beloved literature which permeated her life as a child and young adult and the brief life of her father (and for which she obviously continues to hold a student's, if not a scholar's, interest). The depths of Bechdel's attempts at understanding are there on the printed page, and the sheer work which went into constructing the narrative as scholarship mode of telling the story speaks volumes.
Were Bechdel a lesser writer, the references would seem meaningless to those of us in the comic-consuming intellectual under-class. However, she chooses to illustrate (more often with words than her careful cartooning) the parallels she's selected and feels compelled to explore.
I am only familiar with Bechdel's prior work from the hilariously pointed title of her long-running strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" (a strip I'll be seeking out in collections or otherwise). In short, I'd never seen her stuff.
Bechdel's cartooning emulates the illustrations of early-readers I recall from around 1st or second grade, which utilizes clean, clear art and icongraphic symbols/features to differentiate characters rather than a realistic rendering style. At times her words overwhelm the seemingly simplistic drawings, but the juxtaposition between a child's recollection and an adult's 20/20 reflection plays well together.
Time's "Comix" reviewer is concerned with Bechdel's tendency to lean on words, hinting that he feels there's a useless repetition or disconnect between words and panels. I never felt that during the read, and even going over the examples he's cited, don't feel that he's made a particularly compelling case that Bechdel chose words over actions, given the reflective and meditative tone of the book.
Again, the comic makes me wish I'd spent less time signing up for Archery classes in college and more time in English courses. I am sure there were many items which passed me by in my first reading, but this graphic novel was a fantastic read, nonetheless.
I am an illiterate idiot. At least, my days in college were not spent in the way college was once experienced, at least in my fanciful mind. Sure, I knew some other RTF and History majors who would stray into reading of the classics during their downtime, but when they were reading Proust or Joyce, I was flipping through X-Men, doodling in the margins of my notes, setting fire to the apartment I shared with CBG, reading non-fiction, the newspaper or magazines, and, of course, going to work. But all of those are excuses. I have the leisure time. At some point, I need to just cop to being willfully illiterate. Of course, I'm also fairly ADHD in my reading, so it's questionable that, even if I did purchase a copy of "Ulysses", I would make it past the first fifty pages.
Alison Bechdel makes me feel like an idiot or, conversely, that I've wasted my life reading the wrong things. Her graphic novel "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" is currently riding the end of the year "best in non-fiction" category in a few publications. This is remarkable mainly due to the fact that "Fun Home" is a graphic novel, it is autobiographical, it is personal, and it is everything many, many comics attempt to be, but utterly fail. Of course, Bechdel is very good at what she does.
I picked up "Fun Home" mostly due to a reading suggestion by an old college chum who I had once bonded with over Morrison's "Invisibles" and Jell-O shots. Amy usually had a few good ideas up her sleeve, and I figured she was wise enough not to just go off recommending books willy-nilly, not at the rate she reads. Also, I'd heard Time called it one of their books of the year. (Time does have a Comix reviewer, but I sort of quit taking him seriously a few years ago. I found his reviews too often slanted the subjective as if it were the objective, which I found a bit indefensible as much of the Time audience most likely knows very little about the medium.)
The book itself is currently available in hardback from Houghton-Mifflin (an interesting publisher for any graphic work, I thought). As per content, the story centers around the distant relationship of Bechdel and her father as Bechdel explores the awakening of her own sexual identity, the problematic issues of her father's sexuality and his untimely death.
Self-examination and auto-biography have been a staple of indie comics since Harvey Pekar drew his first stick man in a square, and with Craig Thompson's recent Eggers-like surge in popularity thanks to the Emo-Boy/coming-of-age tale "Blankets", publishers outside of small press seem to be taking notice.
Gay/Lesbian-coming-out tales are not unheard of in comic-dom, but where Bechdel separates herself from the little I've read is in her approach as she attacks the topic with more than the raw emotion of the topic. Instead, the book reads as a thesis in exploring her own story as a thematic reflection of the beloved literature which permeated her life as a child and young adult and the brief life of her father (and for which she obviously continues to hold a student's, if not a scholar's, interest). The depths of Bechdel's attempts at understanding are there on the printed page, and the sheer work which went into constructing the narrative as scholarship mode of telling the story speaks volumes.
Were Bechdel a lesser writer, the references would seem meaningless to those of us in the comic-consuming intellectual under-class. However, she chooses to illustrate (more often with words than her careful cartooning) the parallels she's selected and feels compelled to explore.
I am only familiar with Bechdel's prior work from the hilariously pointed title of her long-running strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" (a strip I'll be seeking out in collections or otherwise). In short, I'd never seen her stuff.
Bechdel's cartooning emulates the illustrations of early-readers I recall from around 1st or second grade, which utilizes clean, clear art and icongraphic symbols/features to differentiate characters rather than a realistic rendering style. At times her words overwhelm the seemingly simplistic drawings, but the juxtaposition between a child's recollection and an adult's 20/20 reflection plays well together.
Time's "Comix" reviewer is concerned with Bechdel's tendency to lean on words, hinting that he feels there's a useless repetition or disconnect between words and panels. I never felt that during the read, and even going over the examples he's cited, don't feel that he's made a particularly compelling case that Bechdel chose words over actions, given the reflective and meditative tone of the book.
Again, the comic makes me wish I'd spent less time signing up for Archery classes in college and more time in English courses. I am sure there were many items which passed me by in my first reading, but this graphic novel was a fantastic read, nonetheless.
Home Again
We are home again.
We arrived home yesterday, about 9:00. This followed a six hour drive across a little-used stretch of road between Lawton and Austin. It's not only faster, it's the scenic route. Unfortunately, we left Lawton late enough in the day that most of the drive wound up occuring in dusk and dark.
Mangum had taken good care of Lucy and Jeff, I think. Nobody is missing a paw or an ear or anything. One telling item: a few minutes after returning, I asked if anybody had seen Jeff, and both Jamie and Doug claimed to have seen him. I looked and looked and no Jeff. Then Jamie opened the door, and the cat was standing outside looking up at the door. He's an inside cat, and is not familiar with temperatures below 70 or above 80. I am sure a ceilingless, chilly world beyond the door came as quite a shock. Who knows what he thought was going on outside.
I also called Mangum, who said to me, "You don't let Lucy jump on the furniture, do you?"
"Oh, heck no," I replied.
"Yeah, I didn't know what to do. In day three, she just started jumping up on the couches and the bed."
"Ah. She is not supposed to do that."
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
"But you didn't stop her."
"I didn't want to yell at her."
And this is why Matt is not allowed to have children.
Doug didn't fly out until this evening, so today we got a little more Doug-time (which is sort of like Peanut Butter Jelly Time), and enjoyed our post-Christmas time. The weather was lovely, and we ate on the porch at Magnolia, then hit Austin Books so Doug could see the wonderment.
A visit with Doug is always good to remind you that you may THINK you have refined taste in Horrifically Bad Media, but Doug is a connosieur. He's done all the legwork for you, and is not afraid to raise your "Eragon" with a VHS copy of "Santa With Muscles" (one of IMDB's 10 worst movies...) or "Monster-A-Go-Go". He also seems to delight particularly in Christmas themed media, both good and miserable (as evidenced by "Santa with Muscles"), always having a few choice items on tap for "after the parents go to bed" viewing. We also were able to take in one of the most mind-blowing half-hours of television EVER PRODUCED with the Invader Zim Christmas episode.
Dropped Doug off at the airport, then headed home, where, half an hour later, Cousin Sue and Unky D made an appearance. I haven't really seen much of Unky D the past few years. He lives in Florida most of the time, and his scheduled Christmas trips to Houston always fall on years when Jamie and I are in Lawton. However, being back in Austin means that when he goes back to Austin to visit Cousin Sue, we DID get to see him this year.
After dinner we came home, I watched an episode of "The Flash", and now I'm winding down from the Holiday merriment. I am ready for a little winding down, but I do feel Christmas was a success this year. We had a very good time at the McB's, experienced no major issues in our travels, and will most likely be enjoying a quiet night on New Year's (as Jamie has dialysis in the morning, which means an early bedtime). Then that's it for another year.
Christmas isn't really over until you're cleaning up the mess on New Year's Day and putting up the lights for another year.
I shall choose to believe that at the heart of it, the season is an opportunity for people to attempt to put their best foot forward and that the spirit of hope at the base of it all isn't always obscured by the money-making nonsense, awful decorations and incessant carols. To those of you who feel Christmas to be a humbug, you get the next 11.5 months of man's inhumanity to man to cherish.
We are home again.
We arrived home yesterday, about 9:00. This followed a six hour drive across a little-used stretch of road between Lawton and Austin. It's not only faster, it's the scenic route. Unfortunately, we left Lawton late enough in the day that most of the drive wound up occuring in dusk and dark.
Mangum had taken good care of Lucy and Jeff, I think. Nobody is missing a paw or an ear or anything. One telling item: a few minutes after returning, I asked if anybody had seen Jeff, and both Jamie and Doug claimed to have seen him. I looked and looked and no Jeff. Then Jamie opened the door, and the cat was standing outside looking up at the door. He's an inside cat, and is not familiar with temperatures below 70 or above 80. I am sure a ceilingless, chilly world beyond the door came as quite a shock. Who knows what he thought was going on outside.
I also called Mangum, who said to me, "You don't let Lucy jump on the furniture, do you?"
"Oh, heck no," I replied.
"Yeah, I didn't know what to do. In day three, she just started jumping up on the couches and the bed."
"Ah. She is not supposed to do that."
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
"But you didn't stop her."
"I didn't want to yell at her."
And this is why Matt is not allowed to have children.
Doug didn't fly out until this evening, so today we got a little more Doug-time (which is sort of like Peanut Butter Jelly Time), and enjoyed our post-Christmas time. The weather was lovely, and we ate on the porch at Magnolia, then hit Austin Books so Doug could see the wonderment.
A visit with Doug is always good to remind you that you may THINK you have refined taste in Horrifically Bad Media, but Doug is a connosieur. He's done all the legwork for you, and is not afraid to raise your "Eragon" with a VHS copy of "Santa With Muscles" (one of IMDB's 10 worst movies...) or "Monster-A-Go-Go". He also seems to delight particularly in Christmas themed media, both good and miserable (as evidenced by "Santa with Muscles"), always having a few choice items on tap for "after the parents go to bed" viewing. We also were able to take in one of the most mind-blowing half-hours of television EVER PRODUCED with the Invader Zim Christmas episode.
Dropped Doug off at the airport, then headed home, where, half an hour later, Cousin Sue and Unky D made an appearance. I haven't really seen much of Unky D the past few years. He lives in Florida most of the time, and his scheduled Christmas trips to Houston always fall on years when Jamie and I are in Lawton. However, being back in Austin means that when he goes back to Austin to visit Cousin Sue, we DID get to see him this year.
After dinner we came home, I watched an episode of "The Flash", and now I'm winding down from the Holiday merriment. I am ready for a little winding down, but I do feel Christmas was a success this year. We had a very good time at the McB's, experienced no major issues in our travels, and will most likely be enjoying a quiet night on New Year's (as Jamie has dialysis in the morning, which means an early bedtime). Then that's it for another year.
Christmas isn't really over until you're cleaning up the mess on New Year's Day and putting up the lights for another year.
I shall choose to believe that at the heart of it, the season is an opportunity for people to attempt to put their best foot forward and that the spirit of hope at the base of it all isn't always obscured by the money-making nonsense, awful decorations and incessant carols. To those of you who feel Christmas to be a humbug, you get the next 11.5 months of man's inhumanity to man to cherish.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Gerald Ford, RIP
I have virtually nothing to say about a President whose administration I know almost nothing about, except that he pardoned Nixon.
Seriously. Not a thing. My first memories of a President center around Jimmy Carter, and that's a story for another day.
So... yeah.
So long, Gerry. If I'm sure of thing, it's that they've got football in heaven. You should be just fine.
I have virtually nothing to say about a President whose administration I know almost nothing about, except that he pardoned Nixon.
Seriously. Not a thing. My first memories of a President center around Jimmy Carter, and that's a story for another day.
So... yeah.
So long, Gerry. If I'm sure of thing, it's that they've got football in heaven. You should be just fine.
Monday, December 25, 2006
GODFATHER OF SOUL MERGES WITH THE INFINITE
Hardest working man in show business given only 73 years to better planet with R&B perfection. Billions of Earthlings now left to own, less-funky, devices.
Thank you, Mr. Brown. R.I.P. Let us not dwell on the negative, but remember how you changed music, America and (on the whole) left the world a better place.
May God welcome you with a cape, a heavenly beat and an eternity of getting funky.
Please read more here.
Hardest working man in show business given only 73 years to better planet with R&B perfection. Billions of Earthlings now left to own, less-funky, devices.
Thank you, Mr. Brown. R.I.P. Let us not dwell on the negative, but remember how you changed music, America and (on the whole) left the world a better place.
May God welcome you with a cape, a heavenly beat and an eternity of getting funky.
Please read more here.
Christmas Day!
You have your Christmas wish, I'll have mine...
Hope your Christmas is going well.
We've opened presents, enjoyed some delicious roll wreath (ask Jamie for the recipe sometime... it will do nothing but improve your Christmas while expanding your waistline), had some coffee, cleaned up and are now basking in the post-Christmas Morning glow.
Jamie received some music books from Doug and has commandeered the McB family piano (I'm excited by the prospect of Jamie learning the theme to "The Magnificent Seven").
Judy and Doug are playing some billiards and Dick is engrossed in a New York Times Front Page book. It's tough to explain. (The New York Time's Page One 1851-2004)
I've already cashed in Jason's gift (a wisely purchased gift certificate) and expect my copy of "Enemy Ace Archives" first week of January. Jamie got me a copy of Spirit Archives Vol. 1, which I am very excited to have to absorb over the next few weeks. Doug landed me the entire run of "The Flash" on DVD (with Amanda Pays, truly a DITMTLOD). My loot also included two books I'll be getting into, and a set of Superman Uno cards (which I believe feature Jose Luis Garcia Lopez art).
Jeff the Cat even received a gift in absentia... a sort of self-heating cat blanket. We will never get him to move, ever, ever again.
Mel and the McB cats (Sam and Pippin) seem to be getting along swimmingly, less a short vaccuum/cat barking incident. Mel's gift was a swell bed which he's been using since his arrival.
Oh, we saw "Charlotte's Web" last night. Excellent movie for adults and kids, btw (Randy, take your nieces, etc...). I should have guessed the line-up of voices they recruited for the film should have indicated the script wasn't going to be a hacky, X-TREME "Charlotte's Web", but I was continually impressed with the filmmakers for remaining true to the material. Even if, subtextually, I worry for Steve Buscemi's self-esteem, what with his continual casting as miscreants.
That's all for this Christmas Day, 2006.
It's our sincere hope that your Christmas is a good one. Travel safe. Be good to one another.
We hope that you'll join us as all hands at The League of Melbotis wish for Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards all.
God bless us, every one.
You have your Christmas wish, I'll have mine...
Hope your Christmas is going well.
We've opened presents, enjoyed some delicious roll wreath (ask Jamie for the recipe sometime... it will do nothing but improve your Christmas while expanding your waistline), had some coffee, cleaned up and are now basking in the post-Christmas Morning glow.
Jamie received some music books from Doug and has commandeered the McB family piano (I'm excited by the prospect of Jamie learning the theme to "The Magnificent Seven").
Judy and Doug are playing some billiards and Dick is engrossed in a New York Times Front Page book. It's tough to explain. (The New York Time's Page One 1851-2004)
I've already cashed in Jason's gift (a wisely purchased gift certificate) and expect my copy of "Enemy Ace Archives" first week of January. Jamie got me a copy of Spirit Archives Vol. 1, which I am very excited to have to absorb over the next few weeks. Doug landed me the entire run of "The Flash" on DVD (with Amanda Pays, truly a DITMTLOD). My loot also included two books I'll be getting into, and a set of Superman Uno cards (which I believe feature Jose Luis Garcia Lopez art).
Jeff the Cat even received a gift in absentia... a sort of self-heating cat blanket. We will never get him to move, ever, ever again.
Mel and the McB cats (Sam and Pippin) seem to be getting along swimmingly, less a short vaccuum/cat barking incident. Mel's gift was a swell bed which he's been using since his arrival.
Oh, we saw "Charlotte's Web" last night. Excellent movie for adults and kids, btw (Randy, take your nieces, etc...). I should have guessed the line-up of voices they recruited for the film should have indicated the script wasn't going to be a hacky, X-TREME "Charlotte's Web", but I was continually impressed with the filmmakers for remaining true to the material. Even if, subtextually, I worry for Steve Buscemi's self-esteem, what with his continual casting as miscreants.
That's all for this Christmas Day, 2006.
It's our sincere hope that your Christmas is a good one. Travel safe. Be good to one another.
We hope that you'll join us as all hands at The League of Melbotis wish for Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards all.
God bless us, every one.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Arrived!
We are in Lawton.
My parents called me two days ago and were pleading with me not to venture forth on Friday for our Holiday travels. They were under the impression that the weather in Colodaro would hit us.
"It's going to be horrible! The rain! The sleet! The ice!"
"The forecast says 50+ degrees and sunny."
"NO! It shall be horrid! You cannot travel!"
"But... we're looking at weather.com right now. It says 50+ degrees and sunny."
"The Houston weatherman says it's going to be awful. You can't drive!"
Anyway, it was a lovely, sunny, literally cloudless drive, averaging 55 degrees.
Doug flew in Wednesday night. Thursday we zipped about Austin taking care of some last minute purchases. Thursday night we met up with Jason at Macaroni Grill for a lovely dinner. Friday we rose, tossed our stuff in the car (including Melbotis) and drove to Lawton.
Matt "No, I Will Not Read Your Blog" Mangum is house/ pet-sitting at League HQ. So Lucy will have some company on Christmas/ her birthday. Lucy will be two on December 24th. I can scarce believe it.
We're very grateful to Matt and we left him a little something under the tree.
I'm now deeply embedded in the McBride Family Christmas. There's billiards, watching of local news and keeping a watchful eye on the cats as they keep an eye on Mel (who is mostly sleeping).
Jamie has already opened her present, so no surprises there, I guess. I feel a little bad. There's just not going to be all that much from me when she goes to open her packages.
This morning she's at dialysis, so this afternoon will be sleepy time for Jamie.
I, myself, was exhausted for some reason last night. I slept like a log for almost ten hours. Today, however, I feel back up to snuff. And, dare I say? Christmassy? JimD would be so disappointed, declaring the whole thing a humbug.
Hope everyone's Holiday is going well.
We are in Lawton.
My parents called me two days ago and were pleading with me not to venture forth on Friday for our Holiday travels. They were under the impression that the weather in Colodaro would hit us.
"It's going to be horrible! The rain! The sleet! The ice!"
"The forecast says 50+ degrees and sunny."
"NO! It shall be horrid! You cannot travel!"
"But... we're looking at weather.com right now. It says 50+ degrees and sunny."
"The Houston weatherman says it's going to be awful. You can't drive!"
Anyway, it was a lovely, sunny, literally cloudless drive, averaging 55 degrees.
Doug flew in Wednesday night. Thursday we zipped about Austin taking care of some last minute purchases. Thursday night we met up with Jason at Macaroni Grill for a lovely dinner. Friday we rose, tossed our stuff in the car (including Melbotis) and drove to Lawton.
Matt "No, I Will Not Read Your Blog" Mangum is house/ pet-sitting at League HQ. So Lucy will have some company on Christmas/ her birthday. Lucy will be two on December 24th. I can scarce believe it.
We're very grateful to Matt and we left him a little something under the tree.
I'm now deeply embedded in the McBride Family Christmas. There's billiards, watching of local news and keeping a watchful eye on the cats as they keep an eye on Mel (who is mostly sleeping).
Jamie has already opened her present, so no surprises there, I guess. I feel a little bad. There's just not going to be all that much from me when she goes to open her packages.
This morning she's at dialysis, so this afternoon will be sleepy time for Jamie.
I, myself, was exhausted for some reason last night. I slept like a log for almost ten hours. Today, however, I feel back up to snuff. And, dare I say? Christmassy? JimD would be so disappointed, declaring the whole thing a humbug.
Hope everyone's Holiday is going well.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Eragon: the Best Bad Movie of 2006
Wow.
Simply, Wow.
As folks who've followed League of Melbotis for any amount of time might know, I tend to skew towards genre in my movies. I'm usually up for action, monkeys, robots and space ships. And I can often be tempted to see a movie simply because it features a dinosaur or the promise of some web-slinging.
One of the things even long-time followers of this blog might not know is that it has always been a trade-mark of The Brothers Steans to wind up at the grisliest of mistakes coming out of Hollywood. I think our poor movie selection speaks to two things: (a) our eternal optimisim that we might stumble into something of interest, and (b) when together, we'd rather share the misery than try to drag someone else into a mistake we figure we're going to make, anyway.
So Jason is working from home/on vacation this week from putting people in the slammer, and I'm unemployed. So mid-day, after we'd gone to a pet store and played with a little pig (I now totally want a pig), we headed to the Regal Cinema at WestGate to see the new fantasy feature, Eragon.
I don't know much about the Eragon books. I think they're some sort of 15th generation fantasy novels based in a Tolkein-light universe. I'd also heard that the author was in his mid-teens when he wrote the first novel.
Eragon is, essentially, the tale of a young farmer who lucks into a dragon egg/ R2-unit. There's an evil king, a former dragon rider, a total fox of a princess, and absolutely no new ideas.
At it's heart, Eragon is the sign to anyone over 20 that they are no longer of the younger generation. As Lucas cannibalized the films of his youth, so Eragon literally cannibalizes whole scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, offering nothing new in return.
Literally, we are given analogs of Luke, Han, Leia, Obi Wan, Vader and either Grand Moff Tarkin or the Emperor, depending on how you want to read it. There's a sort of Death Star to invade, storm troopers/ orcs to fight, and a battle for Yavin IV. There's even a recreation of the scenes in which Luke realizes Uncle Own and Aunt Beru might be in trouble, right down to Luke leaving the now destroyed farm. (Although Storm Troopers aren't responsible. This time it's LOTR's Dark Riders. No, seriously. Only they have Wolverine's claws AND his off-screen trampoline to leap from. This flick has no shame in it's desire to lift from successful franchise movies).
Things to know about this movie:
1) It is a foregone conclusion that this is the first of a series of movies. There are multiple books, I hear. So it plays a bit like a Saturday matinee serial with multiple dangling threads and an arch-villain who isn't even really inconvenienced in any way by the actions of the film.
2) I cannot think of a single reason this was not a Sci-Fi Channel original movie.
Thirty minutes into the movie, Jamie started inserting lines from Star Wars between the lines of dialogue. Soon we were all jumping in on the gag, no doubt really upsetting the wide-eyed 'tween-age fantasy fans who were there for the showing with their moms.
Jeremy Irons plays the Obi-Wan analog, and throughout the movie I continually pondered how he must have said the wrong thing to the wrong person in Hollywood, or else Dead Ringers really caved his career a lot more than I thought... but it's so sad to see a perfectly good actor slumming with dialogue which, for a reason, feels as if it were written by a fifteen year old. John Malkovich plays The Emperor/ Tarkin, and, unlike Irons, you have to sort of admire his business decision. Malkovich never leaves the staircase of what is clearly a minimally dressed soundstage. He has about six lines in the whole film (one of which sent me into a giggling fit, thus I've listed above). It's the Brando-Superman business decision that, no doubt, got him the Italian marble tub Malkovich had always dreamed of owning, and surely his piece took no more than about an hour to shoot.
Still, he gets top billing and his face on the poster. Well done, Malkovich.
The titular character of Eragon is, as Jason said, "man pretty." He looks sort of like a cross-eyed version of the dude from Blue Lagoon, or a less goofy version of Peter McNichol's character from DragonSlayer (a dragon movie in which dragons were f-ing AWESOME, I might add).
As per the action of the movie, I don't know what this means, exactly, but I leaned over to Jamie about 45 minutes into the movie and said "Is it just me, or are things 'just happening'?" She agreed immediately with a roll of the eyes.
I think what I meant was this: Not only does every single character in the film seem to lack a motivation of any sort, but motivations they SHOULD have seem cast aside so the paces of Star Wars can play out in full. Most odd is that it feels as if huge portions of the movie were scrapped at some point... characters meet and instantly refer to each other's recent history without any possible discussion time shown, nor even hinted at. There were odd bits like Obi-Wan telling Luke "Look, you're a Dragon Rider. This means you must join the resistance you've never heard of." "Quite right!" Luke replies. "That will really advance our paper-thin plot! People will completely expect that beat since the narrator talked about those guys in the prologue! But they WILL be surprised when I run off mid-movie, hollering about a vision (this movie's "You're our only hope..." hologram), so that we can have our "infiltrating the Death Star" sequence, complete with a slain Obi-Wan (who has the fastest horse. Ever.)."
Another sequence in which time and reason sort of collapses centers around the dragon, who magically grows from a puppy-like rat-catcher weighing about fifty pounds to a 2-ton flying behemoth in a magical burst of... I guess Super Dragon Puberty. She suddenly has a name, vast knowledge of the world, dragon history, biology and a pretty good bead on our cross-eyed hero. I kept waiting to find out that dragons reincarnate into other dragons to explain all of this... but, no...
Oh, and before I forget... look, Rachel Weisz is foxy. But she doesn't have a particularly memorable voice. Perhaps because she is also a mid-level actress who is happy to take fantasy roles, somebody offered her the part of the dragon's telepathic voice. I kept thinking back to the "sending" from Elfquest comics I read in fourth grade, but mostly it just felt really awkward as the dragon would sort of blurt out master-of-the-obvious dialogue.
The Dragon is also fairly meek and mild for a 2-ton killing machine. I don't really understand why they went this route (ie: making Valcor look like a raging bad-ass compared to Eragon's dragon), but it certainly doesn't lend much to the film. There are also logistical problems, such as the dragon complaining about carrying 300 pounds of extra weight in one scene, and then suiting up in 800 pounds of steel armor about 3 scenes later.
Other oddities in the film included a few "non-surprises" which, I guess, were supposed to be a surprise. Obi-Wan is revealed to be a former Dragon-Rider a full hour into the movie. This is after training our young Jedi, telling tales of the Knights of the Republic (aka: Dragon Riders) and doing everything but using sky-writing to inform him of his background. As an audience member, we know EXACTLY what Obi-Wan is in the first 8 frames in which he appears, so, unfortunately, the only effect this has is to make Eragon appear exceedingly dim.
When Princess Leia (oh, yes, she's a princess) finally joins the action, she manages to know a heck of a lot about our hero, or at least is exceedingly comfortable with him. And then she goes through a bit of Frodo's Dark Rider poisoning problem.
And this is just an oddity, but the guy who plays Luke is something like 19, so probably 18 when they filmed the movie. Princess Leia just looks too old for him, if they are going to lead to a romantic interest. So, I looked her up, and sure enough, she's 31. There's some really bad dialogue about Luke's missing mom, so I hope to GOD that this princess is not supposed to be his mom. Because right now that'd be skewing pretty far into the red zone on the Oedipal scale.
I don't have any real reason to think that the girl is supposed to be his mom other than that they went way out of their way to make sure the two never touch and mostly just smile at each other. But I also thought Famke Janssen looked ten years older than James Marsden in X-Men. And, lo and behold, she was. That doesn't mean that Princess Leia can't just be an urban cougar, but the whole thing was just so chaste... And she really, really doesn't look old enough to be his mom, either.
I'm sort of spent. The list of bad goes on an on. The scenery-chewing by the guys playing villains is, at times, priceless. The list of "name" actors who are in the film is a bit surprising, leading me to think that this film's budget was greater than it should have been 9or spent in the wrong places). The villainous army looks like a rejected LOTR concept, completely emulating the Uruk-Hai, but without the make-up budget. D&D/ LOTR fantasy folk such as dwarves and elves are mentioned, but never seen. A lame "chosen one" plot thread is used to bypass any actual training period (one sure fire way of determining this was a 15-year old's fantasy in our world of immediate gratification for kids...)
And, last, but not least... during the Attack on Yavin IV/ Battle at Helmsdeep conclusion to the movie, our heroes have somehow, idiotically, pinned themselves and the entire resistance into an unescapable valley. Then the invading army enters the fray through a single entry point. This would be the exact opposite of laying siege to a castle. This would pretty much allow the dudes you were attacking to just shoot every one of your soldiers as they walked in the door.
So what's good?
There are two very good looking actresses in the film, but one only appears in two scenes. And the other spends a good deal of the movie trussed up in the Detention Block being poked at by the floating sphere robot.
The dragon CG is not too bad. Unfortunately, the dragon does a lot of posing and posturing, and doing seemingly odd things that would scare people, but which make for a well composed shot. (beating wings, roaring, etc...)
And...
I'm sort of at a loss. Even the cinematography was about sci-fi channel original level.
And for some reason Joss Stone is in the movie for, like, 30 seconds.
Eragon could make for a great drinking game, I think. Watch, insert Star Wars dialogue to appropriate scene, or name analog scene or character... rewarded with a drink.
To me, the oddest thing about the movie is that it appears to be aimed at the folks who would like Star Wars and LOTR. But, as I mentioned above, you'd have to be under the age of twelve or an idiot not to note how they've completely lifted every element of this movie from some pretty popular sources. Eventually those kids WILL see LOTR or Star Wars. So any shelf-life this movie might have had to launch a series is going to be relatively short-lived.
The movie genuinely FEELS like maybe it was written by a fairly mature kid. There's no patience for pacing, only jumping to the next set-up. Characters seem only partially evolved and obvious. Character names seem like copies of Tolkeinish names. Elvish words (used for jedi-tricks) seem EXTREMELY Tolkeinish. There is world building going on, but it's a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction. One day this kid might come up with a really fresh concept to match his motivation and passion, but for now... it's like getting the grocery-store knock-off of the action figure you really wanted (aka: Spader-Man).
Anyway, Eragon. You are amazing.
Wow.
Simply, Wow.
As folks who've followed League of Melbotis for any amount of time might know, I tend to skew towards genre in my movies. I'm usually up for action, monkeys, robots and space ships. And I can often be tempted to see a movie simply because it features a dinosaur or the promise of some web-slinging.
One of the things even long-time followers of this blog might not know is that it has always been a trade-mark of The Brothers Steans to wind up at the grisliest of mistakes coming out of Hollywood. I think our poor movie selection speaks to two things: (a) our eternal optimisim that we might stumble into something of interest, and (b) when together, we'd rather share the misery than try to drag someone else into a mistake we figure we're going to make, anyway.
So Jason is working from home/on vacation this week from putting people in the slammer, and I'm unemployed. So mid-day, after we'd gone to a pet store and played with a little pig (I now totally want a pig), we headed to the Regal Cinema at WestGate to see the new fantasy feature, Eragon.
I don't know much about the Eragon books. I think they're some sort of 15th generation fantasy novels based in a Tolkein-light universe. I'd also heard that the author was in his mid-teens when he wrote the first novel.
"I suffer without my stone. Do not prolong my suffering!"
Eragon is, essentially, the tale of a young farmer who lucks into a dragon egg/ R2-unit. There's an evil king, a former dragon rider, a total fox of a princess, and absolutely no new ideas.
At it's heart, Eragon is the sign to anyone over 20 that they are no longer of the younger generation. As Lucas cannibalized the films of his youth, so Eragon literally cannibalizes whole scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, offering nothing new in return.
Literally, we are given analogs of Luke, Han, Leia, Obi Wan, Vader and either Grand Moff Tarkin or the Emperor, depending on how you want to read it. There's a sort of Death Star to invade, storm troopers/ orcs to fight, and a battle for Yavin IV. There's even a recreation of the scenes in which Luke realizes Uncle Own and Aunt Beru might be in trouble, right down to Luke leaving the now destroyed farm. (Although Storm Troopers aren't responsible. This time it's LOTR's Dark Riders. No, seriously. Only they have Wolverine's claws AND his off-screen trampoline to leap from. This flick has no shame in it's desire to lift from successful franchise movies).
Things to know about this movie:
1) It is a foregone conclusion that this is the first of a series of movies. There are multiple books, I hear. So it plays a bit like a Saturday matinee serial with multiple dangling threads and an arch-villain who isn't even really inconvenienced in any way by the actions of the film.
2) I cannot think of a single reason this was not a Sci-Fi Channel original movie.
Thirty minutes into the movie, Jamie started inserting lines from Star Wars between the lines of dialogue. Soon we were all jumping in on the gag, no doubt really upsetting the wide-eyed 'tween-age fantasy fans who were there for the showing with their moms.
Jeremy Irons plays the Obi-Wan analog, and throughout the movie I continually pondered how he must have said the wrong thing to the wrong person in Hollywood, or else Dead Ringers really caved his career a lot more than I thought... but it's so sad to see a perfectly good actor slumming with dialogue which, for a reason, feels as if it were written by a fifteen year old. John Malkovich plays The Emperor/ Tarkin, and, unlike Irons, you have to sort of admire his business decision. Malkovich never leaves the staircase of what is clearly a minimally dressed soundstage. He has about six lines in the whole film (one of which sent me into a giggling fit, thus I've listed above). It's the Brando-Superman business decision that, no doubt, got him the Italian marble tub Malkovich had always dreamed of owning, and surely his piece took no more than about an hour to shoot.
Still, he gets top billing and his face on the poster. Well done, Malkovich.
The titular character of Eragon is, as Jason said, "man pretty." He looks sort of like a cross-eyed version of the dude from Blue Lagoon, or a less goofy version of Peter McNichol's character from DragonSlayer (a dragon movie in which dragons were f-ing AWESOME, I might add).
As per the action of the movie, I don't know what this means, exactly, but I leaned over to Jamie about 45 minutes into the movie and said "Is it just me, or are things 'just happening'?" She agreed immediately with a roll of the eyes.
I think what I meant was this: Not only does every single character in the film seem to lack a motivation of any sort, but motivations they SHOULD have seem cast aside so the paces of Star Wars can play out in full. Most odd is that it feels as if huge portions of the movie were scrapped at some point... characters meet and instantly refer to each other's recent history without any possible discussion time shown, nor even hinted at. There were odd bits like Obi-Wan telling Luke "Look, you're a Dragon Rider. This means you must join the resistance you've never heard of." "Quite right!" Luke replies. "That will really advance our paper-thin plot! People will completely expect that beat since the narrator talked about those guys in the prologue! But they WILL be surprised when I run off mid-movie, hollering about a vision (this movie's "You're our only hope..." hologram), so that we can have our "infiltrating the Death Star" sequence, complete with a slain Obi-Wan (who has the fastest horse. Ever.)."
Another sequence in which time and reason sort of collapses centers around the dragon, who magically grows from a puppy-like rat-catcher weighing about fifty pounds to a 2-ton flying behemoth in a magical burst of... I guess Super Dragon Puberty. She suddenly has a name, vast knowledge of the world, dragon history, biology and a pretty good bead on our cross-eyed hero. I kept waiting to find out that dragons reincarnate into other dragons to explain all of this... but, no...
Oh, and before I forget... look, Rachel Weisz is foxy. But she doesn't have a particularly memorable voice. Perhaps because she is also a mid-level actress who is happy to take fantasy roles, somebody offered her the part of the dragon's telepathic voice. I kept thinking back to the "sending" from Elfquest comics I read in fourth grade, but mostly it just felt really awkward as the dragon would sort of blurt out master-of-the-obvious dialogue.
The Dragon is also fairly meek and mild for a 2-ton killing machine. I don't really understand why they went this route (ie: making Valcor look like a raging bad-ass compared to Eragon's dragon), but it certainly doesn't lend much to the film. There are also logistical problems, such as the dragon complaining about carrying 300 pounds of extra weight in one scene, and then suiting up in 800 pounds of steel armor about 3 scenes later.
Other oddities in the film included a few "non-surprises" which, I guess, were supposed to be a surprise. Obi-Wan is revealed to be a former Dragon-Rider a full hour into the movie. This is after training our young Jedi, telling tales of the Knights of the Republic (aka: Dragon Riders) and doing everything but using sky-writing to inform him of his background. As an audience member, we know EXACTLY what Obi-Wan is in the first 8 frames in which he appears, so, unfortunately, the only effect this has is to make Eragon appear exceedingly dim.
When Princess Leia (oh, yes, she's a princess) finally joins the action, she manages to know a heck of a lot about our hero, or at least is exceedingly comfortable with him. And then she goes through a bit of Frodo's Dark Rider poisoning problem.
And this is just an oddity, but the guy who plays Luke is something like 19, so probably 18 when they filmed the movie. Princess Leia just looks too old for him, if they are going to lead to a romantic interest. So, I looked her up, and sure enough, she's 31. There's some really bad dialogue about Luke's missing mom, so I hope to GOD that this princess is not supposed to be his mom. Because right now that'd be skewing pretty far into the red zone on the Oedipal scale.
I don't have any real reason to think that the girl is supposed to be his mom other than that they went way out of their way to make sure the two never touch and mostly just smile at each other. But I also thought Famke Janssen looked ten years older than James Marsden in X-Men. And, lo and behold, she was. That doesn't mean that Princess Leia can't just be an urban cougar, but the whole thing was just so chaste... And she really, really doesn't look old enough to be his mom, either.
I'm sort of spent. The list of bad goes on an on. The scenery-chewing by the guys playing villains is, at times, priceless. The list of "name" actors who are in the film is a bit surprising, leading me to think that this film's budget was greater than it should have been 9or spent in the wrong places). The villainous army looks like a rejected LOTR concept, completely emulating the Uruk-Hai, but without the make-up budget. D&D/ LOTR fantasy folk such as dwarves and elves are mentioned, but never seen. A lame "chosen one" plot thread is used to bypass any actual training period (one sure fire way of determining this was a 15-year old's fantasy in our world of immediate gratification for kids...)
And, last, but not least... during the Attack on Yavin IV/ Battle at Helmsdeep conclusion to the movie, our heroes have somehow, idiotically, pinned themselves and the entire resistance into an unescapable valley. Then the invading army enters the fray through a single entry point. This would be the exact opposite of laying siege to a castle. This would pretty much allow the dudes you were attacking to just shoot every one of your soldiers as they walked in the door.
So what's good?
There are two very good looking actresses in the film, but one only appears in two scenes. And the other spends a good deal of the movie trussed up in the Detention Block being poked at by the floating sphere robot.
The dragon CG is not too bad. Unfortunately, the dragon does a lot of posing and posturing, and doing seemingly odd things that would scare people, but which make for a well composed shot. (beating wings, roaring, etc...)
And...
I'm sort of at a loss. Even the cinematography was about sci-fi channel original level.
And for some reason Joss Stone is in the movie for, like, 30 seconds.
Eragon could make for a great drinking game, I think. Watch, insert Star Wars dialogue to appropriate scene, or name analog scene or character... rewarded with a drink.
To me, the oddest thing about the movie is that it appears to be aimed at the folks who would like Star Wars and LOTR. But, as I mentioned above, you'd have to be under the age of twelve or an idiot not to note how they've completely lifted every element of this movie from some pretty popular sources. Eventually those kids WILL see LOTR or Star Wars. So any shelf-life this movie might have had to launch a series is going to be relatively short-lived.
The movie genuinely FEELS like maybe it was written by a fairly mature kid. There's no patience for pacing, only jumping to the next set-up. Characters seem only partially evolved and obvious. Character names seem like copies of Tolkeinish names. Elvish words (used for jedi-tricks) seem EXTREMELY Tolkeinish. There is world building going on, but it's a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction. One day this kid might come up with a really fresh concept to match his motivation and passion, but for now... it's like getting the grocery-store knock-off of the action figure you really wanted (aka: Spader-Man).
Anyway, Eragon. You are amazing.
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