Media Wrap

I'm just watching the Olympics closing ceremonies right now. All the political stuff aside, I really enjoyed them this time. I mean,I always do, but I thought there were some incredible moments and the opening and closing ceremonies, and designs of the Birdcage and Water Cube, were amazing.

Halfway through a review of The Best American Comics 2008. I don't get a lot of review copies these days, especially from big publishers, so this was a nice surprise.

DVR has been a real boon to me as far as discovering some movies I didn't think I would like. Saturday I watched The New World, the Terrence Malick film about John Smith and Pocahontas, starring Colin Farrell and a lovely Native American newcomer named Q'Orianca something. Maybe she was Maori or something instead? That name doesn't sound Native American, but I guess I wouldn't know. The saving grace with Malick films is how much beautiful nature imagery he packs in, and that's the case here. It's food for the soul, and so the story is kind of secondary. However, Farrell wasn't too bad, and what really improved things for me was that he was out by the halfway point, when Pocahontas hooked up with another English colonist, played by Christian Bale, an actor I like ten times as much as Farrell.

I'm halfway through Jiro Taniguchi's The Ice Wanderer, and so excited by his stuff I think I need to get The Times of Botchan. I also started the American Flagg! hardcover, and finished the first volume of The Starman Chronicles. As for the latter, although the Tony Harris art isn't as good as I remembered, the writing overall really holds up for me. I remember finding that book, and the Jack Knight character, to be really special and a great middle ground between typical superheroes and darker Vertigo-type comics, and it still is.