Stuff, Nonsense

Just some random thoughts for a Wednesday night. Need to make sure most of my clothes and everything is packed up, as my friends are coming home a week early. Not that I trashed the place or anything, but I do tend to spread out wherever I'm at, so there are several pairs of shoes around, unfolded laundry on the couch, and quite a few books I'd meant to review but haven't gotten around to yet.

I don't have any problem with Augie De Blieck, Jr., who has been writing his Pipeline comics column over at CBR for longer than almost any other such column, but he does write some goofy things at times. One example is that in his latest, he mentions more than once what a huge fan he is of the art of Guy Davis, and yet, he is apparently wary of buying the just-solicitied $40 hardcover of Davis' THE MARQUIS. Now, Augie is a big fan of hardcover comics collections of all sorts, so it's not really a money thing, so I wonder why a supposed Davis fan wouldn't want what is clearly the work in which Davis has invested the most of himself. I mean, this is one of the few things Davis has written as well as drawn, and he did three miniseries' worth, so he's obviously rather involved with it. Plus, the artwork is his most expressive and intense, with an air of dread Davis' color work on even horrific material like BPRD just can't match. So order it already! It's like saying you're an Orson Welles fan, but haven't seen Citizen Kane--Casino Royale is just fine, thank you very much.

I discovered last night, while looking for other PS2 games, that my friends have the Billy Joel box set. Now, I was a big Joel fan for a few years as a kid--the rocking-out album Glass Houses, then the downbeat The Nylon Curtain and starting to fade out with An Innocent Man. Didn't buy anything after that, but kept up with the hits, as they were on radio and MTV pretty frequently. Now that I'm older, I can recognize some quality in stuff I thought was crap, and also find some of the stuff I liked was kinda crappy, too. Well, generally, that's true, but in this case, the stuff I liked, I found I still like fairly well. But let's get to the box set itself, which is a real disappointment on a couple levels. It's four discs, which sounds promising, but in actually is about 2 1/2 discs of material. Disc One is Greatest Hits Vol. 1, and it's ONLY 11 SONGS! I don't get that--this is a CD! Put some more on there! In thematic terms, okay, it's a decent cut-off point between albums, but that's really no excuse. In fact, some hits or almost-hits are left off entirely. A big omission from Disc One is "Honesty", a really nice, plaintive Joel song from the period when his piano playing really dominated the songs; when his Elton John influence was more profound, I guess. Instead, we get "Captain Jack", an okay drug song that was done better on Songs from the Attic, an album of old stuff rerecorded around 1982. There are some other good ones on there, but none of that makes it onto the record, I don't think. I remember liking "Los Angelenos" as well. And there's nothing from Joel's first album, Cold Spring Harbor. Anyway, "Movin' Out," "Just the Way You Are", "Piano Man", the perceptive and eerie, "The Stranger" are all here.

Disc Two is a whopping fourteen tracks, including the long "Goodnight Saigon", which still works well. This is probably the best disc, as we get "You May Be Right," "Don't Ask Me Why", "It's Only Rock N Roll To Me" into the more intense "Pressure" and "Allentown", plus another great piano love song, "She's Got a Way". The stuff from An Innocent Man is good, too, though not something I could hear real often. It should be said, though, that in trying to model his arrangements and harmonies on doowop and Motown for the album, Joel did come up with some strong songs--and his most upbeat--in "Tell Her About It", "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time". It can be said that there are some warning sigs here, though, as Joel starts to write songs of advice rather than the interesting stories he used to tell.

I'll be fair and listen to Discs Three and Four before review, though I doubt "Keeping the Faith" or "I Go to Extremes" will suddenly appeal to me, much less "We Didn't Start the Fire". Disc Four seems to have been influenced by the VH-1 Storyteller series that was popular around the time of its release, as Joel talks about some of his songs and influences, each bit followed by a live performance, though the selection isn't that promising: "We Didn't Start the Fire", "Hard Day's Night", "River of Dreams".

I did buy that DC COUNTDOWN book today. Hey, it was just a buck. I have very little expectations of it, and am guessing Randy Lander's putdown over at The Fourth Rail is probably right on the money. I mean, it's true--Blue Beetle doesn't fit the role he's put into for this story. I'll read it and comment soon. The best single issue of the month has to be the Morrison/Stewart MANHATTAN GUARDIAN #1, just a primer on how to start a series. If Morrison wanted to write this as an ongoing, I'd be there, but it's kind of fun knowing it's just four issues, too. The lead character is simple and true but I'm rooting for the guy; the subway pirate idea is amusing, and the interview Jake goes through to be the Guardian is really exciting, cool, and wacky--Morrison is able to convey the feel of a 70s Kirby comic without aping the guy. The interview felt like something out of MISTER MIRACLE, but was new at the same time. And that final image of Guardian hanging on a chain off the back of a speeding train, while at the end of the chain swings a burning corpse, is unforgettable.

I've always kinda liked THAT 70s SHOW without feeling the need to watch it very often, but I did catch it tonight, and it brought up some questions: 1) Why does Ashton Kutcher get to have his normal, too-short-for-the-late-70s-or-1981-or-whatever-it-is-now hair, while Topher Grace has to wear that ugly-ass wig? 2) Laura Prepon--as a redhead, you're cute and different; as a blonde, you're nothing special--why continue? 3) Laura--could this be why you're not in any movies anyone hears about? 4) Mila Kunis--what's your excuse? You're hot--why aren't you in anything else? 5) Is it your annoying voice? 6) Fez (whatever your real name is)--are you content just telling jokes, or would you like a character who's consistent from episode to episode? 7) Is Ashton bringing up his baby someone's terrible idea of a possible spin-off show? I hope not. But having them living with Fez is bad enough on its own.