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I just logged onto Newsarama for the first time in many months. It's really weird--I have so little connection to comcis news anymore. And not that I'm above it or anything; I'm just not that interested. Is SDCC going on right now? I think it started but I'm honestly not sure. I'm not going this year and I think I have a date for tomorrow, so that's what's on my mind. Also, I'm looking forward to this Alejandro Jodorowsky Criterion dvd set I bought. That's about it. Also, I'm very happy with the Sharper Image Turbo Cobalt Groomer I bought, which is about the size of your standard vibrator but is devoted only to trimming your nose hair. It's very handy.
Tom Spurgeon is a guy I like and a writer I admire a lot, utterly regardless of whether he may like my stuff enough to link to it now and then. ADD and I were talking about his style a bit the other day (I think ADD just said, "Yep," so this is more coming from me) that Spurge has a bit of an Ebert thing, where he has a good sense of humor and ability to bring down a big hammer, but he's almost apologetic about using it. That is, very seldom do I get any sense that Tom takes pleasure in a devastating line in a review. On the other hand, this one stuck out as I caught up on his review archives today, in a review of that Rosario Dawson Occult Crimes Taskforce thing: "If this comic were the Sci-Fi channel it would star Casper Van Dien and Jeff Fahey, and you would feel bad for Jeff Fahey. Stay away, and if you end up with it by accident don't let it touch your other comic books." Actually, the "don't let it touch your other comic books" part really sounds to me like more of an ADD line--I think he truly believes bad comics are toxic and must be removed from the premises as quickly as possible. I should point out that 99% of the time, Spurgeon also presents an observation about a book that makes me think about it differently, or in the case of reviews of books I haven't read, that observation is forever imprinted for if I ever do read the book.
They've squeaked out a few new Spongebobs and I saw one today. It wasn't very good. They now may be in that stage where you'd prefer they stopped producing more and just let you enjoy the sets you know and love. Speaking of which, I find I'm really indifferent about The Simpsons Movie. I mean, I may go, for the novelty of seeing them on the big screen, but I'm not very excited, and I find the previews kind of lame. I took the kids to Burger King today because my daughter wanted one of the toys--she doesn't know the name of the show but described it as the "one that's for grownups but kids can like it," which fascinated me. Both kids received the Barney figure, who says, "Call me!" when his button is pressed, which isn't funny or even representative. In fact, most of the figures either have bland vocal lines or the figure's design is uniconic and instead presumably tied to something in the movie. Like, Marge is squatting near a five-eyed raccoon. Comic Book Guy says, "Excuse me" rather than "Worst ---- Ever" or something snottier or more pop culture obsessed. Chief Wiggum says, "Stop in the name of squeamishness," which I can only assume is from the movie, because...huh? Well, in BK's defense, there are abundant, representative Simpsons figures around, so I guess it makes sense to go this route.
So, what else. Well, today wasn't a great day because both kids were kind of annoying, my daughter much moreso, throwing about seven fits over the course of the day for various reasons. She even got a mini-spanking for refusing to go upstairs for bath time. She's probably received about four in her life, so rest assured it's a last resort. We swam and did some errands and shopping, the usual.
Last night, however, was unusual. They came in from Maui with their new in-laws, as their mom and her new husband were staying on for a few more days for their honeymoon (yes, I'm fine with it and even said congratulations, but will not be buying a gift), so I moved into my new office and organized things and did some work, despite system shutdowns. Had pizza and a couple beers at Pizzeria Uno and then got to the airport about 9:30 for what was supposed to be a 10:18 arrival. It was delayed, but I was prepared, and ended up writing three pages of my comic, The Solution, and reading some of You Shall Know Our Velocity, which is an appropriate novel to read in an airport. I wrote two pages at lunch yesterday as well, so I'm pretty pleased with my output this week. Honestly, it's more than I've done in months. In fact, those two pages from lunch were partially written weeks ago, longhand as I tend to prefer now, and then I somehow lost them. I remembered it pretty well yesterday, and yet I think it's better this time. Part of that is that in the intervening time I saw Rio Bravo again, and found in one of the subplots echoes of one of the subplots here, and I chose to have the two characters discuss a problem in much the same way Wayne and Martin did in the film. It's a nod, really--the rest is so different. I just have two more pages of this issue of The Solution to write, and they should be easy--there's no dialogue, in fact. But this isn't even the halfpoint of the series and the rest will be pretty challenging.
Tom Spurgeon is a guy I like and a writer I admire a lot, utterly regardless of whether he may like my stuff enough to link to it now and then. ADD and I were talking about his style a bit the other day (I think ADD just said, "Yep," so this is more coming from me) that Spurge has a bit of an Ebert thing, where he has a good sense of humor and ability to bring down a big hammer, but he's almost apologetic about using it. That is, very seldom do I get any sense that Tom takes pleasure in a devastating line in a review. On the other hand, this one stuck out as I caught up on his review archives today, in a review of that Rosario Dawson Occult Crimes Taskforce thing: "If this comic were the Sci-Fi channel it would star Casper Van Dien and Jeff Fahey, and you would feel bad for Jeff Fahey. Stay away, and if you end up with it by accident don't let it touch your other comic books." Actually, the "don't let it touch your other comic books" part really sounds to me like more of an ADD line--I think he truly believes bad comics are toxic and must be removed from the premises as quickly as possible. I should point out that 99% of the time, Spurgeon also presents an observation about a book that makes me think about it differently, or in the case of reviews of books I haven't read, that observation is forever imprinted for if I ever do read the book.
They've squeaked out a few new Spongebobs and I saw one today. It wasn't very good. They now may be in that stage where you'd prefer they stopped producing more and just let you enjoy the sets you know and love. Speaking of which, I find I'm really indifferent about The Simpsons Movie. I mean, I may go, for the novelty of seeing them on the big screen, but I'm not very excited, and I find the previews kind of lame. I took the kids to Burger King today because my daughter wanted one of the toys--she doesn't know the name of the show but described it as the "one that's for grownups but kids can like it," which fascinated me. Both kids received the Barney figure, who says, "Call me!" when his button is pressed, which isn't funny or even representative. In fact, most of the figures either have bland vocal lines or the figure's design is uniconic and instead presumably tied to something in the movie. Like, Marge is squatting near a five-eyed raccoon. Comic Book Guy says, "Excuse me" rather than "Worst ---- Ever" or something snottier or more pop culture obsessed. Chief Wiggum says, "Stop in the name of squeamishness," which I can only assume is from the movie, because...huh? Well, in BK's defense, there are abundant, representative Simpsons figures around, so I guess it makes sense to go this route.
So, what else. Well, today wasn't a great day because both kids were kind of annoying, my daughter much moreso, throwing about seven fits over the course of the day for various reasons. She even got a mini-spanking for refusing to go upstairs for bath time. She's probably received about four in her life, so rest assured it's a last resort. We swam and did some errands and shopping, the usual.
Last night, however, was unusual. They came in from Maui with their new in-laws, as their mom and her new husband were staying on for a few more days for their honeymoon (yes, I'm fine with it and even said congratulations, but will not be buying a gift), so I moved into my new office and organized things and did some work, despite system shutdowns. Had pizza and a couple beers at Pizzeria Uno and then got to the airport about 9:30 for what was supposed to be a 10:18 arrival. It was delayed, but I was prepared, and ended up writing three pages of my comic, The Solution, and reading some of You Shall Know Our Velocity, which is an appropriate novel to read in an airport. I wrote two pages at lunch yesterday as well, so I'm pretty pleased with my output this week. Honestly, it's more than I've done in months. In fact, those two pages from lunch were partially written weeks ago, longhand as I tend to prefer now, and then I somehow lost them. I remembered it pretty well yesterday, and yet I think it's better this time. Part of that is that in the intervening time I saw Rio Bravo again, and found in one of the subplots echoes of one of the subplots here, and I chose to have the two characters discuss a problem in much the same way Wayne and Martin did in the film. It's a nod, really--the rest is so different. I just have two more pages of this issue of The Solution to write, and they should be easy--there's no dialogue, in fact. But this isn't even the halfpoint of the series and the rest will be pretty challenging.
Posted by ChristopherAllen at 11:09 PM [Link to this post]
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