A Day Off

I took a rare day off (scheduled), not to relax from the trying 4/1 quarter at work but to a) get my home theater installed and b) file my taxes. I succeeded at both, not without some difficulty. As I worked downstairs, I heard a thud as the Best Buy Geek Squad dropped the center speaker off the cabinet as they were moving it. It made a small dent and groove on the top of the cabinet, near the front. Not enough to be too upset about. And of course, though I thought I'd paid for everything, I did end up springing for the Harmony remote to run everything easily, and the programming of said remote. Better than dealing with several remotes. I did have to chase after the guys before they left, because I found I was watching cable but hearing the sound of Spider-Man 3, which was in to demonstrate the surround. We got it figured out, but the guy did notice a couple buttons on the remote didn't work and he had to do some additional programming. That's the thing I find about almost every customer service rep or contractor--they can't wait to get the job over with and frequently that means something gets overlooked.

I went to H & R Block to do my taxes, and that was fine, except I didn't have a receipt for my mortgage interest. I found a current bill but not the 2007 statement. Although Washington Mutual's bills and phone menu recommend doing almost everything online, it's really difficult to set up your log-in and have it pull up the account you need. It took over two hours of phone calls to actually get a profile set up for my 2007 loan and another for my current loan (I refinanced a month ago). Part of it was just stupidity on the part of one of the customer service people, as she kept suggesting whatever was easiest for her to do or understand rather than what I needed. Eventually, it did get done, and I was able to get right back in to the tax preparer and get it filed. Looks like pretty good refunds coming, plus that economic stimulus thing.

Good thing, too, as I have been on a dvd/blu-ray tear lately. Buy.com is currently selling Criterion dvds for substantial savings, especially on multi-disc sets. I'll start reviewing those as I watch them.

Tonight I watched Kansas beat Memphis in the NCAA tournament. A very good game, though lacking in a "sexy" story. No particularly charismatic players or coaches, just good basketball, though I was honestly surprised how Memphis blew it. The lack of urgency in particular I would have to put on the coach for not drilling it into the players enough.

I also watched a couple eps of Twin Peaks--I think 21 &22? I'm getting near the end. It's all new for me--I was a huge fan of the first season and then for some reason didn't watch much of the second at all. It's easy to see where things get off course, but there's still great stuff in each episode.

Big box of graphic novels arrived. I have been lax on comics for a long time and really need to start catching up, despite this movie fever. I read some of the first volume of Terry and the Pirates last night, and today I got through most of the first volume of the new format Comics Journal. I liked it a lot, though it's kind of a ringer--who doesn't like lists of great comics? It either supports your own tastes or gives you suggestions for what to check out. It's not tough--Exit Wounds was a very well done book, and since there are only a handful of well done (new) books each year, of course it will be on most people's lists.

I enjoy most of the regular columnists and critics like Crippen, Kreiner, O'Neil, Harvey--cool to see R.C. is very much up on current stuff rather than just old strips. I think it was Crippen who did the long piece on Stan Lee (using a book of interviews and Stan's most recent Marvel scripting job, The Last FF Story as an excuse to explore his theories of Stan the Man, Stan the Boss, Stan the Collaborator and Stan the kindly Hollywood Pitchman). After a couple pages of shots, I started wondering how long this old hat was going to go on, but then he found a groove and it ended up feeling pretty fair. Whether it's accurate, I don't know, but it felt like it was probably pretty close. He has a great line in there about how everyone loves Stan, and if they don't, it's because they've taught themselves not to (I'm paraphrasing and it might be better than that). It's true, and Crippen should know, because his piece is probably just about the best example of what I feel is pretty much an unavoidable assignment for comics critics--reconciling or rationalizing or somehow addressing how the magic of the '60s Marvels came with resentment and greed and other human failings.

By the way, I did flip through the final volume of the Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, and while I'm happy it's here, I think customers were sold a bill of goods as far as the "original Mike Royer inks" on The Hunger Dogs. I didn't expect to just see the original graphic novel with the bad D. Bruce Berry inks, and then tiny thumbnails of the original inked pages. Even at that size you can see how much better a job Royer did, but still, it's really difficult to read. I think it was a lame decision, unless they decide to put out a separate Royer version of Hunger Dogs. I liked Evanier's Afterword.

Speaking of Evanier, I know I wrote that his Kirby-King of Comics wasn't the thorough bio I expected, but as I'm reading it, it's really good. Evanier finds just the right note for it even if he doesn't have the room for lots of anecdotes. He's wry, admiring, loving. I think it's quite a worthy effort.