Catching Up

Not a lot of work done the past couple days. I had a yen to write some reviews, so I did a few last night before a little reading and then bed at 11:00 or so--unusually early for a Friday for me. And yet, I wouldn't be surprised if I go down about the same time tonight. The kids and I have been rained in this weekend and I think the gloomy weather, and them, have worn me out.

The reviews are all going into a Comic Book Galaxy column, especially as they're mostly pretty brief and not good enough to stand on their own. I'm clearing them out of my In Box, really. Bought a couple books the other night on a whim, mainly because it was a buy two, get the third free special at Borders (only good on a select few on one table). So I bought David Sedaris' ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY, THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2004, and the Dave Eggers-edited THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2004, which sports a fine Adrian Tomine cover and has one comics story in it, by Sammy Harkham from his own anthology KRAMERS ERGOT 4, which I have also read. Began the Science book, which has an excellent study of suicide terrorism, and refutes the common beliefs that the suicide bombers for Al-Qaida or Hezbollah or anyone else are uneducated, poor, evil cowards. The cowardice is arguable, but statistically, most such terrorists are fairly well educated and social, and often of relatively decent incomes. I know that's a lot of qualifiers--check the article itself for the numbers, but I did remember being surprised that as one goes up the educational ladder in Israel, the numbers increase for those in favor of suicide bombings, so that something like 60% of college graduates support the practice.

Watched Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster with the kids tonight--these movies aren't bad at all, really. Okay animation and they don't overstay their welcome. Teen Titans is a very good show as well, better than the comic ever was, if you ask me. Not that the comic wasn't good, but I just think the show has a better look, better feel for young adults, and of course it gets to the point very quickly. Trevor recognizes that Slade (the demographic is too young for him to be called Deathstroke the Terminator like the comic, and I think Slade is great as it is) is the toughest bad guy for the Titans.

Oh, and for whatever reason, I started making notes this week toward a revival of an old project of mine, an unfinished novel about myself, my best friend at the time, and two girls we worked with and fell for, now about twelve years ago. It was stupid to write it at the time, while I was living it, and I'm surprised I almost finished the first draft. I'm not sure exactly where it is now, but though I will try to find it in one of my boxes, I would be writing this as a graphic novel pretty much from scratch. I think I remember enough, plus I have enough distance from it to not just use things because they happened, but to invent better situations. It was a turbulent time and there's plenty of true stuff, but it doesn't need to be entirely autobiographical. Forinstance, I already realize it's a better idea to combine this friend with my other good friend and housemate at the time, to increase the tension and strengthen the characterization. No hurry on this project; it can wait until some other things get done and I'm ahead on Superunknown.