Arturo vs. The World

Hammer To Fall: Arturo vs. Thor!

2011-05-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

It's going to be tough to really judge Thor until Marvel completes the franchise it's been building over the past few years - and that won't happen until we get through both Captain America: The First Avenger and, of course, the whole Avengers enchilada, mostly because this is as much a set-up piece as its' own story, something made very clear by the scenes both right before and right after the credits roll.

What we do get prior to that, though, isn't too shabby, and Thor succeeds in carving out its' own story. It's not as flashy as Iron Man and, thank goodness, not as self-indulgent as Iron Man 2, but most of the time, director Kenneth Branagh and the trio of writers behind the screenplay give just enough time to the title character, a man stuck between two worlds by his own forceful hand.

VERILY, THERE BE SPOILERS IN OUR PATH

One key similarity, though, between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the aforementioned Tony Stark, is that they're both Alpha Males at heart who are forced to learn how to dial that back - more bluntly, they have to stop being jackasses long enough to fully realize their potential.

But whereas Stark learns his lesson (sorta) trapped in the relative isolation of a cave, Thor has his power and rank stripped by a mournful father Odin (Anthony Hopkins, getting his Jor-El on) and is banished not just out of Asgard, but to ... New Mexico.

Like many an overconfident jock before him, Hemsworth's Thor goes from being the Golden Boy in his small community to literally being a man with no (accepted) name, a very small fish in a bigger "realm." The early scenes of Thor getting knocked unconscious drive Odin's point home as much as his ill-advised raid on the Frost Giants: without his privilege or his otherworldly gift, Thor is ill-equipped to handle life on its' own terms. At least, not without help.

Luckily for Thor, such help does arrive, in the form of Jane Foster, a scientist who stumbles onto - well, more like runs into him during his arrival. As Foster, Natalie Portman seems to do nothing but be stressing out most of the time. She's not bad at it, but it's never quite made clear why she's interested in the big blond, besides his pecs.

Oddly enough, the viewer gets to see more of Thor's gradual smartening-up than does the love interest. Give Hemsworth credit for conveying the appropriate importance to Thor's crucial encounters with both Jane's protective co-worker Erik ("I've seen how she looks at you") and his sibling Loki. When Thor is called upon to really become a hero, the moment is authentic. But most of his actual interaction with Jane involves vaguely-cheesy flirtations. Here's to hoping their relationship is really fleshed out over the course of future films.

Speaking of Loki, give the writers and Branagh credit for letting Tom Hiddleston ride this role across the Rainbow Bridge and beyond. The character's growth is just as steady as Thor's, but Hiddleston accomplishes his in an appropriately subtle fashion for the Trickster of Asgard. His Loki is all knowing looks and proper things to say, and, we come to find out, a set of motives more plausible than your average villain's.

So even if the whole isn't quite as much as the sum of its' parts, Thor manages to create interest for an eventual sequel. That is, unless it's rendered anti-climactic after the Avengers assemble.

The Ghost Of 'Fan Entitlement': Arturo vs. Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol!

2010-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

The prevailing trend so far in Steven Moffat's stewardship of Doctor Who has been to write the Big Episodes - Matt Smith's debut, the Season Five finale - at a break-neck pace, with Smith's Eleventh Doctor racing around until he stumbles into a solution. This year's Christmas special doesn't change that, as Smith at times threatens to out-hyper even the somewhat manic David Tennant. It's not a bad episode, but even Smith's charm and some game performances can't quite cover up some flaws - some character-driven, some pointing to a bigger problem.

SPOILERS AHEAD

But let's start with the positive. The genius of the episode was Eleven's decision to use "A Christmas Carol" as the basis for what amounts to a con - literally, convincing the miserly Kazran Sardick to re-rig his atmospheric control device so as to allow Rory and Amy's honeymoon cruise ship to land safely on the surface of ... whatever Sardick's planet is called.

(Come to think of it, why a planet presumably beyond our solar system would not only have inhabitants who dress and act like Victorian-era Londoners but airborne fish and sharks that look just like the ones you find on ours is never even hinted at. But we're trying to stay positive here.)

As the elder Sardick - both of them, in fact, as he also plays Kazran's domineering father - Michael Gambon delivers the kind of oomph you'd want of a Serious Actor moonlighting on this kind of show. As it turns out, The Doctor's scheme goes awry; his feel-good machinations lead the teenage Sardick (Danny Horn, an unsung standout as the pivot-point of this subplot) to fall for the terminally-ill Abigail (opera singer Katherine Jenkins). (What's wrong with Abigail? Why doesn't The Doctor even attempt to cure her? Wait, no, Positive!)

Abigail, you see, is cryogenically held as a lien on an undisclosed debt her family owes Sardick's father. How much do they owe? It must be somewhere in Wesley Snipes territory, as, rather than help the family raise up the funds to free her, The Doctor opts to chaperone Teen Kazran on a yearly series of Date Nights with Abi. When she 'fesses up that her time is running out, Kaz's heart shrinks all over again, forcing Eleven into a singularly troubling last-ditch effort. And here's where my good cheer toward the episode gets tempered.

As the older Kazran, Gambon perfectly sells the aftermath of that heartache, even if the fact that it numbs his character to the potential deaths of hundreds of people (and Amy and Rory!) steers him well south of "regretful old man" into "vengeful bastard" territory. To finally sway him, The Doctor plays the Christmas Future card - but against his childhood self, bringing Kiddie Kaz into the here and now to face the old man he will grow up to be. The shock for both Kazrans is palpable, and again, all credit is due to both Gambon and Laurence Belcher as his youngest self for capturing the moment.

But for fans, even New Whovians, there's also this to consider: in arranging the meeting, The Doctor willingly breaks one of his own rules; not only has he inserted himself into a timeline after becoming a part of events, but the meeting of the two Kazrans violates the Blinovich Limitation Effect - in effect, creating a paradox.

It must be said that the BLE isn't just some old device from the original series; it's been referenced repeatedly since Russell T. Davies revived Who five years ago. One of the first centerpiece episodes in the series' renaissance, "Father's Day," dealt with what can happen when you mess with your own timeline, best of intentions be damned. As recently as this past season in "The Hungry Earth," Eleven tells Amy and Rory not to get too close to their future selves.

At this point I want to say, again: I enjoyed "A Christmas Carol." But that doesn't mean the Kazran encounter doesn't bug me just a little. Nor should it mean that it can't. But even a little bit of a hand-wave - for example, Eleven saying something like, "I really shouldn't do this, but ..." - would've been it for me. After all, in last season's finale, Amy's younger and present-day selves met, but because the timelines around Earth had deteriorated by that point, it made "sense." (Although I also can't blame the inimitable Matt Bremner for dubbing "The Big Bang" CIRCULAR LOGIC - WE HAS IT!)

What's more disappointing than that plot point, though, is the response to bringing it up: "It's Christmas" or some variant of, "OMFG YOU'RE WRONG AND BAD FOR TALKING ABOUT IT." At some point in fandom, paying attention to things like continuity became something to be penalized for.

It'd be one thing for Steven Moffat to say, "It's just a show" (more on that in a bit) but when fans start demonizing each other as Comic Book Store Guys for things that even hint at critical analysis, that's a more-slippery slope. What's often derided as "entitlement" is really closer to investment: we watch or download shows like Doctor Who because we enjoy them, but asking that they play fair by their universe's own rules, or acknowledge when they don't, isn't automatically a fit of capriciousness. It's a recognition that attention to details of the past - like, say, Eleven hamming it up in a long scarf - can help elevate a series, and the lack thereof is often a symptom of bigger problems. Anybody who watched Heroes spiral into self-parody can tell you about that.

So it's perfectly possible that the Kazran Effect won't be reflected upon Doctor Who's upcoming sixth season. But it's not unreasonable to feel just a tingle of wearyness. "Time Can Be Rewritten" was meant as a threat during the Davies era, but it seems to have become a mantra for Moffat. If he's not too careful, that shark The Doctor and friends tamed Christmas Day might be the one they jump over later.

formspring.me

2010-05-18T16:28:00.001-07:00

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/ABoyNamedArt

The Blonde: One Year Later

2010-05-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

Previously:

What happens next, I'm proud of: I walk up to them and say, calmly, "Excuse me." She's got the balls to be surprised to see me. I hand her back her mixtape, and the cheap-ass vodka, and say, "Goodbye." And I walk away - first to settle our tab and say goodbye to @Soulcamp at the bar, and then up the 25+ blocks to my brothers Jason and Kev-Fu's apartment, where I'd have two Whiskey & Cokes to settle me down. As I'm leaving the parking lot, she texts me: "meant no harm." I take 10 seconds for my reply: Sure you didn't.

There was actually an epilogue to this: for a month or two after this, she'd send me text messages, maybe not daily, but every other day: the tone would vary from vaguely annoyed ("Come on, Art") to vaguely friendly ("Hey, how's it goin'?"). Finally, she decided to call me one afternoon. After another few seconds of vagueness, I just let her have it.

"I thought I said goodbye," I told her. Several awkward seconds later - on her part - she hung up. The weird thing about the moment was the feeling of something leaving me. I felt ... lighter. That feeling hasn't entirely gone away since.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago, outside a favorite coffee haunt of mine, when I hear a slight "Oh my God" from my left. I can't tell you if I actually heard it or I just felt like somebody was or should have been saying it, but there she was. I excused myself from my friends and walked up to her.

"I thought I sensed a disturbance in The Force," I said. We walked around the corner and finally, she let me have it.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I acted like a cad." And I thanked her, sincerely.

In the days since, she's gone back to sending vague texts ("How's yr day?") but we haven't met up again. In a perverse way, I wonder if the psychology of modern "dating" is actually protecting me: if I express interest in grabbing coffee or something, she'll back off, and not contact me for a few days. Then the cycle, such as it is, begins again.

But it's more likely she doesn't really care. And maybe I shouldn't, either.

Ask Art Anything #1

2010-01-04T01:41:00.001-08:00

In an effort to keep things lively around here, I signed up for Formspring, which will pass questions along to be answered both here and on my twitter account. Here goes nothing ...

What music are you listening to today?

As usual, it's a hodge-podge of stuff, but if you look on my blip.fm page, "The Metro," by Berlin, is the most recent track.

Ask me anything

2010 A.D.: Arturo vs. Doctor Who: The End Of Time!

2010-01-03T23:47:00.001-08:00

SPOILERS AHEAD

Everybody knew The End Of Time was all about one thing: the final moments of David Tennant as The Tenth Doctor - a perfect 10, for this new (re)generation of Whovians. Much like Ten, it's hard to imagine many of us thought about a season where he wouldn't be guiding some well-meaning sap, and us, through time and space. Life After David? Even Inigo Montoya would have called it Inconceivable even a year ago.

But, again, much like this Doctor, we've had a teeth-gnashing few months to prepare for the inevitable. The end of his Song had been signed and sealed. All we could hope for was a fittingly grand delivery. And Tennant was more than up to the task. The problem was, show-runner Russell T. Davies - penning his own swansong as well as Tennant's - came up way too short in swinging for the fences one last time.

Most of the two hours preceding Tennant's final moments in the TARDIS revolved around The Doctor seemingly facing three different threats, but the sum of his three adversaries was decidedly less than each of the parts: The creepy neo-futurist Naismith family stuck out like Week 6 baddies in over their depth, solely introduced so they could introduce the latest thingaMacguffin. And for all the bluster and gravitas Timothy Dalton provided as ~~Chancellor Palpatine~~Lord President Rassilon, the emergence of a war-crazed, nihilistic batch of Time Lords was good for nothing more than a two-minute scare. After the events of The Stolen Earth, it was more surprising the average Londoner didn't see Gallifrey hovering above, shrug and huff off complaining about why it's always Saturday when the nutters come out.

In reality, the Doctor's last dance partner was, fittingly, John Simm's Master, resurrected by a horribly disposable set of worshippers as a binge-eating, energy-blasting cross between Goku and Agent Smith, particularly when he uses the Macguffin Ray to go John Malkovich across the whole planet.

"What would I be without you?" Ten asks the Master at one point, in one of the little moments they share just before each shuffles off. And it's in those moments where the story, such as it is, stops to breathe and feels more natural as a result. Those bits of humanity also resurface in the conversations between The Doctor and good old Wilfred Mott, where the Doc finally releases the guilt that's been building at least since The Waters Of Mars. He also tells Wilf, and us, why the thought of this death rattles him so, when it would likely lead to another Regeneration, anyway.

"Even if I change, it feels like dying," Ten sniffs, fighting his sadness and anger at once. "Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I'm dead." When the mysterious Four Knocks signalling his death finally come, at the hands of a trapped Wilf, the Doctor actually hesitates before coming to the rescue, complaining, "I can do SO MUCH MORE!"

And it's those moments which finally set up the end of his road, making the rest of the story's misfires and unanswered questions - who was the woman coming to Wilfred? Where did the Master and the Time Lords end up? How could Donna's mental block survive this whole thing? etc. - tolerable, if nothing else.

Because for all that went wrong with this story, and with this Doctor, the heart just kept shining through. This Doctor loved life seemingly more than all his other incarnations, making his final few words truly heart-breaking. But time must move on, even if Time Lords don't, and here comes a new era, bounding in with big hair, a burning TARDIS and a "GERONIMO!" ...

Turn Wrong: Arturo vs. Doctor Who: The Waters Of Mars!

2009-11-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

SPOILERS AHEAD AND IN THE LINKS POSTED HERE

There's a moment in "The Waters Of Mars" where we see The Tenth Doctor doing his ... well, his Thing: working another last-ditch plan that he knows is going to save everyone, and you know it's going to save everyone, and so does the person he's rescuing.

But what makes this episode work is that, even as we see the Doc at his most life-affirming, his most ambitious moment yet, both you and the rescuee - in this case, the formidable Capt. Adelaide Brooke - know that he is absolutely wrong.

As we learn nearly immediately upon Ten's arrival on the Red Planet, the case of Capt. Brooke and her crew represents, like Pompeii did, a "fixed point" in time, which has come to be short-hand for an awful thing that Must Happen. Brooke's death, he confesses, is the impetus for all tomorrow's star treks: "Your death creates history," he tells Adelaide, who must realize she spent her whole life building up to its' end.

Once again, The Doctor isn't there to save anyone, merely to bear witness. And this time, the Doctor - a truly Lonely God, without a Companion to buoy him or his fellow Time Lords to rein him in - cracks. Seemingly on the side of good, initially, as he gets Adelaide and some of her staff out of harm's way, but the slope is already slippery; as she chides him for breaking his own rules, his only response is a raised eyebrow and one word: "Tough."

If all this sounds like it's ignoring the baddie of the week or the rest of Adelaide's crook, well, it kinda is. They're not bad, as "mid-season" episode groups of characters go - the unnamed lifeform that picks off the crew is clever enough to up the ante as need be - but the episode turns on the final 10 minutes, when Ten goes off the rails and realizes it too late. The Cloister Bell is tolling for him. And this time, both he and you know the end is coming.

Top image courtesy of oneGemini Studios

FRIDAY MORNING TACVBA II!

2009-09-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

We'd previously talked about Cafe Tacvba here, but on this most somber of mornings, a bit of whimsy couldn't hurt. Enjoy a special 5-song set.

FRIDAY MORNING MALDITA!

2009-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

What with Mexican Independence Day approaching, I figured the most enjoyable way to get into the spirit of things this month would be to share some rock from the Motherland. Kicking things off is a set from the mighty Maldita Vecindad. Enjoy!

Is May Parker the next Hannah Montana?

2009-09-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

From Disney's perspective, the storylines that set so many fanboy hearts and message boards aflutter don't particularly matter. It's the properties (read: characters) they contain, and what Disney can do with those properties, that count.

Because Disney's real business is the business of Doing Things With Properties. This deal is about what will get made from the raw material those characters represent, through licensing: toys, TV, movies, games, sleepwear and thrill rides.
- Glen Weldon, NPR

Even if the coverage of the Marvel/Disney deal focuses on how Marvel can help Disney market itself better to young men - and, man, is it creepy to read professionals talk about Disney's "Boy Problem" - I can't help but think of that as too narrow a strategy. Because Marvel has too many characters who could also hook Disney's existing female viewership.

Let's not forget, the Distinguished Competition has dominated the TV/DVD animated boys' market for years, arguably from the moment any of us watched the opening of Batman: The Animated Series. From there we got the Justice League series, more straight-to-video Bat-flicks, and recent stories featuring Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, and the adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier. That's a sizable head start, even if Marvel's recent animated fare hasn't been bad.

But, should Marvel and Disney decide to give girls a wider range of heroine than usual, that could shift the balance of power on the DVD racks. Consider Spider-Girl up there: a character with an existing fanbase - one that had saved her book from cancellation several times, and perhaps best of all, a character with a more malleable continuity to work with, since she's an "alternate-future" character. One good animated film or TV series and voila! Mayday backpacks fit in perfectly alongside their plain ol' "Princesses."

As if by coincidence - or was it? OMG CONSPIRACY! - Marvel offered up another prime candidate for multimedia exposure in the X-Men's Pixie, who's slated to get her own mini-series later this year. The X-Franchise, in fact, could yield a treasure-trove of "new" stars: Kitty Pryde, Storm, Illyana Rasputin, and even Wolfsbane come to mind right off the bat. Outside of Xavier's School, you've got Araña; Ms. Marvel, the Runaways and She-Hulk potentially waiting in the wings.

So while we've been assured that "sparks will fly" after the initial meetings between Marvel and Pixar, as a fan, I'm hoping we get more than the umpteenth animated Wolverine or Iron Man - hell, Logan and Tony are already going to be in anime, so we're good. As a fan, and a consumer, I want to see innovation, I want to see diversity, I want to see Pixar finally listen to Linda Holmes. I want this deal to result in more work for male and female voice-actors and animators. I want this deal to kick DC in the ass enough to give me a Blue Beetle animated film. I want this to really, truly change the game beyond the boardroom. And, hell, even if I'm an old fanboy, I want my friends who have daughters and sons to see that the little girls don't have to look up only to the girl with the glass shoe, or the blonde wig - the one with the web-shooters can make just as good of a heroine.

Thoughts on Disney/Marvel Part I

2009-09-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

If nothing else, I'm happy Disney bought Marvel yesterday because it's already yielded enough LULz for the rest of the year, what with people calling out for stuff like WALL-E: Herald Of Galactus, Mulan, Agent of SHIELD, Ducktales Noir and the like.

Like a lot of folks, though, I was initially skeptical of the theory that the merger won't affect Marvel's content - after all, that theory was seemingly based on the Everything Is Always Fine In Comics school of thought.

After reading reactions and updates throughout the day, though, I do agree that there's reason to believe the Mouse House will play nice with the House Of Ideas - and not just because of the Disney/Miramax connection. One clue might in fact come from the Distinguished Competition.

After all, DC's long been a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and that hasn't appeared to slow down Vertigo or WildStorm. And DC's main imprint has, in recent years, been centered on events like Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and now Blackest Night, which all drew criticism for their subject matter and violent imagery. And titles like Judd Winick's run on Outsiders and Secret Six are closer to, say, a series on FX than something on Kids' WB. And, hey, the quality control can't be that strict if we're still getting Cry For Justice. (rimshot)

So no, I don't think we're going to see Deadpool forced to shoot only for the kneecap, or The Punisher work for angels again (though even that can't be as bad as the previews I've seen for FrankenCastle.) At least, I don't think so. If X-Force or Deadpool seem to quietly slip away, or if Shatterstar seems to suddenly ditch Rictor for a girl, the questions will come back again.

Top image courtesy of Bleeding Cool

HOUR 42: Two Days Of Richard Hatch!

2009-09-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, lots going on. I've got more thoughts on that later. But things have been exciting around the HOUR 42 camp, too, as we did two back-to-back shows Sunday and Monday as @ThePeterPixie and I set out to answer the question: Who the Frak is Richard Hatch?

Last night, we aired our nearly hour-long chat with RH in its' entirety - covering not just his TV career, but his thoughts on a new BSG movie, and his work as a motivational speaker. That's the first thing you can listen to on the player below.

Just behind that is our regular Sunday show, where we played excerpts from the interview, and also discussed:

* The Megan Fox-as-Catwoman rumor, and the Chick we endorsed for the role
* The latest discussion over what constitutes comic-book "gossip"
* It's Nerds v. Jocks - at Marvel!
* My newest dating adventure at SoulGeek

Thanks to everybody who's been listening so far. Enjoy these two shows, and as ever, we've got more in store for you ... as soon as this bloody heat stops.

FRIDAY MORNING GALACTICA!

2009-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Apologies for being away for awhile. I've been spending more and more time working on stuff for the show, along with @ThePeterPixie. Here's a recap of the past couple of weeks:

* This past Sunday, we talked about online comics, particularly Longbox, an iTunes-like service that will debut in the fall.
* The week prior, I wasn't available - that's a story I owe you - so I left Peter not one, but two guests: The Nerdy Bird filled in for me as a guest host, and we were visited by a new Twitter friend of mine, Kat Hill, aka the Action Flick Chick.

This Sunday, though, we'll talk to our biggest guest yet: Richard Hatch of BSG fame - both of them. We'll cover topics like:

* His involvement with a new geek-centric dating service, SoulGeek
* His work as a motivational speaker
* His prolific workrate in the '70s - seriously, dude appeared on just about every show for a few years there
* Playing not just the original Apollo, but Tom Zarek
* His connection to the original BSG, which inspired him to make his own trailer for a sequel to it:

Plus we'll be announcing an ... experiment I'll be undertaking on behalf of the show. Hope you can join us Sunday - 7pm PST, 10p EST!

FRIDAY MORNING LIVEMASH!

2009-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I stumbled onto The Cool Table while looking up mash-ups online, and became a fan within seconds. For awhile now, I've associated the genre with DJs and clever studio work. But these guys (and gal) do it live. Check out these first two clips:

Not bad, right? "Dreaming of Mr. Brightside," for me, was even better - it's part of a new karaoke project (yes, I have karaoke projects).

OWIE: The Extended Remix

2009-08-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been doing a lot of clean-up around the Hall of Justice, and recovering from a week of TECHFAIL. While we're clearing the decks, this post needs some explanation. The accident actually happened four years ago last month; the text that ended up here was taken from my original blog post the night it happened - yes, I blogged after getting in a wreck - and the full story surrounding it has become one of my favorites. So let's start over, with the original text in italics.
**********

It was just after 5 p.m. Tuesday and I was leaving work, turning east onto Rancho Bernardo Rd. just after the light had turned green. I was making my turn when I vaguely remember a shape coming in from the driver's side, toward the rear of the car. Then everything shook.

My next memory is of laying in the driver's seat while a guy -- I think he had a goatee -- asked me how I was and said he was calling 911. I have another vague recollection of talking to medical personnel. And that's about all I remember from the street.

I presume that's all I remember because I either blacked out completely or was sedated by EMTs after being loaded into the ambulance. Either way, while I was taken to the hospital, the emergency call went out to the SLB House, where Brothers J-Mac and Kev-Fu were watching tv as usual. They were all set to head up to the hospital to check on me - only they had literally just ordered a pizza before the hospital called them. So they waited for the pizza guy.

"The guy probably thought we were crazy," Kev-Fu later told me. "When he got to the house, we grabbed the pizza, put it in the refrigerator, and practically threw the money at him before we took off."

Next thing I know, it's past 8 in the evening and I'm in a hospital. My roomies Jim & Kev-Fu are already there, having apparently been alerted by the authorities. (Did I give them the house number? I wonder.) My spirits were pretty high, all things considered. I didn't notice the pain until later. I apparently asked the boys four times how their days went, confirming my concussion. But otherwise, things were okay: we joked around and I tried, vainly, to get one of the cuter nurses to come over and re-examine me. I also asked if we could import a particular female cast member in a nurse's outfit. I'm blaming that on shell-shock.

In the years since, the boys have never failed to remind me that I didn't repeat the same question four times. In fact, one exchange apparently went like this:

Dazed Me: So, what time did you get the call?
J-Mac: 7:30, just like the other seven times you asked.

We apparently ended up going round and round in this discussion for a few minutes while my brain adjusted itself back to consciousness. I do, however, remember the moment it all clicked back into place: a nurse asked me, "What do you take for pain?"

"Captain & Coke," I answered. Kev-Fu immediately looked at her and said, "He's gonna be fine." I imagine the hospital was only too happy to see us leave.

The drive home was pretty uneventful; Kev, who's sustained three concussions of his own, assured me this first one was easy. We arrived to find our Brother LBJ and cast leader Amy watching Cannibal: The Musical. I came in with both my shirt and undershirt torn, having been cut open by the authorities, exposing the long, slim mark from my seat belt on my left shoulder. They looked at me and probably thought, naturally, "WTF?"

"Mild concussion. Got in a car wreck," I said (or at least think I did.) "Not necessarily in that order."

After that, I relaxed on Amy's lap while pitching into callbacks for the movie, ate some chieken soup and drank Gatorade. I tried to get to bed a couple of hours ago, but I'm too tired to rest, if that makes any sense. I haven't had any nightmares yet about this, so maybe they won't come. Tomorrow, Kevin assured me, would be the most painful day: "It'll be like a really big hangover," he said.

And that's where the original entry ends. To write it, I clambered upstairs to my computer like Gollum to the Ring, just to get it all down on the screen. My roommates didn't get my glasses back from the hospital, so I used an old outdated prescription pair. A week later, I had to drive Kev-Fu's old junkster car to recover my stuff from the hospital lost-and-found; apparently I'd badgered the poor EMTs into packing everything from my car. And, yeah, I drove to get the items. The day after the accident, I decided I had to get back on the road ASAP to get over any fears of driving. But I'd be lying if I told you I don't still flinch sometimes at 4-way stops or stop lights.

The worst part, though, is this: I didn't even hear about the pizza until a year later. They never even saved me a piece.

Shrimpin' Ain't Easy: Arturo vs. District 9!

2009-08-15T18:06:00.001-07:00

The much ballyhooed District 9 succeeds at one thing – it leaves you with questions. The problem is, not all of them are of the good kind.

The film's conceit – sticking a million-plus misplaced extraterrestrials in the middle of Johannesburg – is promising. But from there, the story is built on a series of cheats, the biggest one being the rather loud absence of the word that, like it or not, comes to mind once you set the story in South Africa: Apartheid.

SPOILERS AHEAD

It's implied that the District is a stand-in for the Soweto of our own reality. But, again, that's a cheat: we're robbed of a potentially more potent commentary because of that substitution. Getting viewers to say, “Wow, humans are capable of great inhumanity” isn't as ground-breaking as co-writer and director Neill Blomkamp might want to think. And to think that any government would be handling a First Contact situation (as opposed to the internment of its' own citizens) without the U.S., United Nations or any other coalition tugging at its' sleeve isn't sci-fi – it's flat-out ridiculous.

The story kicks off 28 years after the visitors' arrival on Earth, but it's not really about them – our protagonist, and literal tour guide is well-meaning office schmuck Wilkus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a Christopher Guest character in way, way, way over his head. Wilkus is placed in charge of serving eviction notices to the District's residents and selling them on the new ~~FEMA~~ government housing they're getting shipped to.

While investigating a squatter's shack, Wilkus is sprayed with some of “the fluid,” a crucial biological material. Not only does it power the aliens' rather impressive weaponry, but it's the key to the escape plan of one Christopher Johnson, as a singularly clever Prawn is dubbed. Christopher has been plotting for 20 years to get the hell off this planet, and needs the juice to power his getaway craft and revive his people's mothership, still hovering over Johannesburg.

It's worth noting that Copley co-produced the inspiration for District 9, Alive In Joburg, a short film where the aliens get a fairer shake from Blomkamp; one of them gets to talk directly to the unseen documentarians and express a motivation (they just want to get off this planet) and a problem (our atmosphere is toxic to their physiology). There was a similar scene in the trailer for District, but it's not in the theatrical cut, which makes Christopher's positioning as the Noble Other/Savage really troubling.

Why is Christopher so much smarter than his fellow refugees? How could he be the only one trying to find a way out, or to know/care enough to clothe himself in a “human” manner? And, if humans and Prawn are able to understand each other by the time the “footage” is released, why did the documentarians – because that's how the first half of this film is framed – exclude interviews with any of the aliens in favor of black South Africans telling us how threatened they feel, and white South Africans denigrating the species as a whole?

We get no insight into any of this, because the movie retreats, very jarringly, into the realm of summer schlock after Wilkus' infection. As he becomes a test subject, a fugitive, and a less-than-altruistic ally to Christopher, their characters run headlong into caricatures: a wheelchair-bound, voodoo-influenced Nigerian gangster exploiting the Prawns for cash and weapons while eating their body parts on the advice of a “priestess”; and a xenophobic mercenary charged with turning Wilkus in to his slimy CEO father-in-law.

Copley isn't bad at all – his Wilkus is a terrific anti-hero. But could Christopher and his son, both CGI characters who summon up more “humanity” than the real-life Shia LaBouf, really have been less palatable figures for the audience and creative team to rally behind? Because the story we get, with awesome-looking alien tech and a white hero standing up for the Oppressed, doesn't end up going anywhere Torchwood didn't just saunter through with more brains and less blood; at least Russell T. Davies would've given Christopher's race a name. By the time the film reaches its (open-ended) conclusion, you're left hoping the visitors would return for vengeance – so that you could root for them.

FRIDAY MORNING ... KATTAN?

2009-08-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, two Facebook friends asked me the same question: how did Chris Kattan get his own miniseries?

I'm working on a review of the answer right now - it's called Bollywood Hero, and it aired on the IFC network a few days back. I don't have any clip of CK actually doing the Bollywood thing, but here's the trailer for those of you who missed it:

Aside from Kattan, though, most of the film's cast are Bollywood veterans, including Neha Dhupia, seen below with Sunny Deol:

On a personal note, I'm actually surprised, in the wake of Slumdog Millionaire, that we're not even hearing about more Bollywood crossovers into the States. But it should also be noted that, even before Slumdog, we had Bride & Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai, although in this number, the spotlight also shines on somebody you Losties might recognize:

Open Thread: The Best Of The Doctor

2009-08-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

As reported by Tennant News this morning:

Doctor Who Greatest Moments is a new series taking viewers on a journey through time and space to relive all the action from the legendary sci-fi show, featuring exclusive interviews with key actors offering unique insights on the classic moments.
In the first hour long episode, the likes of David Tennant, John Barrowman, David Morrissey and the League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss guide us through the Time Lord himself's greatest moments.

Watch Doctor Who's Greatest Moments: The Doctor on Thursday 20th August at 20:00pm on BBC Three.

So that got me to wondering: what are your favorite moments from the series? Whovians old and new are invited to chime in.

Tonight, HOUR 42 goes Hollywood!

2009-08-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight, @ThePeterPixie and I welcome our first guest with his own listing on IMDB - Ray Griggs, writer and director of the new independent superhero film, Super Capers! We'll talk to him about his experience so far as a relatively new filmmaker, and try to get a few good Adam West stories out of him.

Peter and I will also trade notes on G.I. Joe - what, you thought I'd let him get away without seeing it? Also:

* Just two weeks after San Diego, Chicago hosts its own comic-book convention - we'll bring you the highlights.
* We'll talk about some of the rather ... interesting creative choices that were published this week. Bottle of grappa, anyone?
* Plus YOUR comments and questions at 646-716-4799

In the meantime, if you want to catch up on last week's show, which featured even more guest-stars, just click on the handy-dandy player below - then come on back and join us at 7pm PST (10p EST) tonight for HOUR 42!

More 'Oh No' than 'Yo Joe': Arturo vs. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra

2009-08-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

The most surprising thing about G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra? It could've been worse.

But make no mistake: if this film doesn't make a Lusitania out of what could've been a fun franchise,the first three elements to go from any sequels should be writers Stephen Beattie, David Elliot and Paul Lovett, with director Stephen Sommers not far behind.

At least the marketing team is in on the joke: using Kid Rock in the ad campaign is a warning that G.I. Joe is years behind its' time – it really belongs alongside Street Fighter and The Crow: City of Angels in a Rifftrax '90s Film Festival; why else would the first words we see on the screen be “In The Not-Too-Distant Future”?

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Like another bloated '80s revamp (to be named later) laced with bad CGI and no-dimensional heroes, Rise is crippled most by the attempt to “humanize” its' core characters. In this case, it's done through a romantic subplot between Duke and The Baroness. It doesn't help that, as an action hero, Channing Tatum makes John Cena look like The Rock. But the real disservice is done to the Baroness, who in Sienna Miller's hands goes from a magnificent '80s she-bastard to Girl Gone Mild-ly Bad - with a heart of gold, of course.

Other than the spayed Baroness, the villains in this film fare better than I'd expected. The flashback sequences used as backstory for the men who become Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Destro (Christopher Eccleston) actually work, and both Eccleston and Gordon-Levitt manage to wring something out of their cartoonish inspirations. Gordon-Levitt, in fact, stole the film – petty larceny, I know, but a feat I'd expected out of Eccleston. JGL's voice-acting was the film's most pleasant surprise; it holds up admirably alongside Chris Latta's original work.

Unfortunately for the film, the Joes' characters – especially Dennis Quaid as General Hawk – fare as badly as the Cobras' do well. The Army recruiters setting up shop at my local theatre would be much better off showing characters like Ripcord, Scarlett and Breaker in either the film's source material or Warren Ellis' more recent G.I. Joe: Resolute series, where they were naturally cool, rather than the generic grunts we see here.

The only hero to escape the creative team's clutches is Snake-Eyes, proving Ray Park's intelligence as an actor – bad writers can't hijack your character if they can't write dialogue, so Park is left free to do what he does best: the “Ninja Thing,” playing off Byung-hun Lee's Storm Shadow, re-imagined here as a metrosexual assassin. But, as with CC and Destro, at least Stormy isn't a buffoon. And, hey, he also makes with the beefcake, to balance out the "hot quotient" with Miller and Rachel Nichols, I guess.

In the end, though, G.I. Joe will be remembered most as a spiritual cousin to – you guessed it – Transformers 2: a co-tenant at the low point of American summer cinema, separated only by its' lacking Michael Bay's sense of xenophobia. I envy the marketing flacks who have to find positive pull-quotes for this film, but they can have this:

The Rise Of Cobra is better than Revenge Of The Fallen ...

... but not by much. Yo, Stay Home.

FRIDAY MORNING HUGHES

2009-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

In honor of John Hughes, some songs from his oevure. First off, a classic:

Now, as noted in the Oingo Boingo edition of FMJ, "Weird Science" gets played half to death every October, so I won't belabor it here. Because of that, though, you might be surprised to learn that Killing Joke was also on the film's soundtrack.

Speaking of Boingo, as this next song is from Sixteen Candles, I'm attaching the requisite Anthony Michael Hall shot before we move on to the next song.

Lastly, though I grew up to recognize and enjoy most of his work, the Hughes film that connected with me the most while I was actually a teenager was the very underrated Some Kind Of Wonderful. Geeky guy? Hot girl dressed in black? I was sold. I think, at the time, I was most impressed that Eric Stoltz's character, Keith, was written to win the day on the strength of his wits and, ultimately, his emerging moral code. And then came the final scene ...

Good Enough To Pay For?

2009-08-07T00:59:00.000-07:00

How much would you pay to hear me sing?

That's the question I'm being cajoled into asking all of you. Would, say, $12 be reasonable?

See, somehow I've qualified for the R&B finals in the local qualifier for the Karaoke Entertainer of the Year contest, to be held a week from Sunday. I guess one of the other qualifiers caught gout or something.

I will tell you, from here at home, where I'm relaxed and (semi-)rational: I don't expect to win, and will be rooting for my friend my friend Meredith wholeheartedly.

I tell you this here. In the middle of a competitive situation, like any Leo, I will tell you that not even Young MC himself could do his song better than I could anymore. He may get old-school fans going, but can he say he's roused an entire convention full of journalists who'd never met him before? I don't think so.

But, even at my cockiest, I think I'd balk at fulfilling one of the organizers' requests: to hawk tickets to my friends at $12 a pop. The "incentive" they're providing is, the people who sell the most tickets will get better spots in the singing order during the contest. Something about this just strikes me as bush-league.

And part of me - the part of me that will be pacing the floor before we go on, watching the stage for any and everything I can use as a prop, and running through freestyles during the day - wants to see if I can win the damned thing while singing from the worst position.

The End Is The Beginning: Arturo vs. Dollhouse: Epitaph One!

2009-08-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

For the most ballyhooed episode that hasn't been part of Dollhouse's brief run, J. Whedon cued up his favorite song: One Girl To Save The World.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Disconnected from virtually the entire season that preceded it, "Epitaph One" is based around a simple premise: everything's gone to hell, and the Dollhouse is the reason. At least, the body-swapping tech it's been using is: as we learn in imprinted flashbacks, what began as a plaything to give people "what they need," as deWitt continues to believe has morphed into a mass commodity. And even Adelle and Topher are horrified by the implications.

As we learn from the team of refugees who stumble into the 'House, what ends up developing is a war between "Actuals" and body-hoppers. "Kids with matches," one character sums up. "Burned the whole house down." (Browncoats will appreciate the implication of "the signal" in this reality, in a cruelly ironic sense.)

We get glimpses of the rest of the L.A. Actives and regulars throughout the episode, as well as an extended visit from Whiskey, in both her Dr. Saunders persona and her "natural" state, which gives us a chance to see Amy Acker look her most otherworldly since playing Illyria a few years back. If what happens from there is to be taken as canon, then Whiskey gets the best character arc of the whole episode, with a small heartbreak as culmination.

And, of course, there's Caroline/Echo. She's referred to as both during the course of the episode, as we learn that her relationship with Agent Helo evolves after Ballard joins the 'House staff. And, again, if what happens here is what's meant to happen in Season 2 and beyond, then Echo might hold the key to salvaging what's left of the world she now inhabits - though perhaps not in the fashion you'd expect.

Reportedly, "Epitaph One" was an effort by Whedon to not only give Fox a 13th episode for overseas distribution, but show them he could make a taut, capable thriller with a smaller budget - and, in this case, the effort was successful. The group of refugees, led by Felicia Day, were developed just enough for viewers to care about them, which made us experience their discoveries alongside them. And the glimpses into the nightmare scenario that ultimately undoes the 'House, and the world around it, are jolting enough to make regular viewers care about the journey even more, now that we know the show's coming back - even if it's still in a Friday night time slot.

ART VS. LIFE: And you are ...?

2009-08-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

So there I was ...

I had just bolted from the Heroes panel at Comic-Con and had an hour or so to kill before going to the Pop Candy get-together at the posh Hilton Bayfront. You can tell it's posh because the bar charges an average of $12 per drink - and the staff of leggy European emigres kept looking at me like I was homeless, even though I was wearing ... well, you can see what I was wearing above. Maybe I can't blame them too much for that.

As I was walking around the bar to avoid forcible ejection, I saw Adam from Mythbusters talking to a rather distinguished-looking older gentleman. Nothing says dedication to class like wearing a coat and tie in the Hilton lobby, which is, essentially, a gilded greenhouse. And the gent looked strangely familiar. Buoyed by what I guess was heat exhaustion - I'd waited for close to an hour to even get into the panel. And this was considered a light wait throughout the weekend - I decided to be direct: I walked right up to the mystery guest and said, "I know you." Because I'm an idiot. Could've been worse; in the seconds where I built up my courage, I considered asking the guy if he was Steven Spielberg.

Today, I wouldn't have blamed the guy for walking away, leaving me with a couple of choice epithets. Not to mention poor Adam; when was the last guy, you think, that he got stiffed? Instead, Mr. X was affable. "Just come back when you've figured it out," he replied, smiling. Undaunted, I took three steps back and looked at a young couple that had come up behind me. They weren't any help - all they knew was, Adam from Mythbusters was right in front of them, and they wanted a picture.

Without them to rely on, I turned to technology, punching up the Web on my phone ... when suddenly I heard an echo from within my brain, some lonely voice of recognition, like Jacob Marley after meeting his cousin Bob: JOHHHHNNNN ... LANNNNNNDISSS ... I typed the name into Google Images as if it were an incantation.

And oh crap, it really was John Landis. Mr. Blues Brothers. Mr. Coming To America. The man behind Thriller, for goodness' sakes. I considered marching back up to him and presenting him with his own image, but a rare dose of common sense won the day. Seeing that Mr. Landis and Adam were talking with an unidentified woman, I positioned myself between them and handed her the camera, asking if she would take my picture "with these two distinguished gentlemen." Heat exhaustion, I tell you. I apologized to Mr. Landis for being an idiot fanboy, but he got the last word in, again.

"Hi, my name is Jamie," he said with a laugh, shaking my hand.
**********

P.S: I ended up staying only briefly for the PC meet, but that was enough time to get this shot with the column's host, the lovely Whitney Masterson. If you wouldn't mind, though, please holler at her on Twitter and back my idea for next year's Con: 2010 Pop Candyoke!

The Pop Culture Jump-Off: Notes From The 2009 Comic-Con

2009-08-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

You can trace the story of this year's Comic-Con with a line. Not a straight line, necessarily, but one that seemed to wind all over the building at various points all day all four days. If you were at Con, it's almost a given you were in the line, or a line, maybe for hours, maybe even overnight. The phenomenon of the Line marked 2009 as a turning point in the Con's 40-year history, for a variety of reasons.

1.The New Demographic
Besides the Twi-hards, who spawned their own controversy – more on that in a bit – this year was a coming-out party for the latest anime/manga generation. A/M cosplayers seemed to outnumber their “traditional” superhero/villain counterparts around the floor; you couldn't walk more than a few feet without seeing another pair of furry ears, or a group of young people offering free hugs, or busting out some moves to entertain themselves and the crowd:

In fact, from the floor this year's Con looked like it featured the most diverse group of attendees in years. POC creators like Gene Yang, Dwayne McDuffie and Leinil Francis Yu were among those showcased in spotlight panels. And two pro-diversity panels received a strong attendance, from both POC and white fans, despite some at-times questionable panel placement: as we noted before the con, they were booked to start at 6:30 p.m., nowhere near “prime time” hours. There were also more POC-related properties and creators on the floor, a few of which we'll be spotlighting later. The question going forward is, how much attention will this market get from the comics/pop-culture profiteers?

2.The Uninvited Guests

“… The 10,000 Twilight fans at the con really were a problem for the show, but a lot of the reasons that got floated came from a sexist, xenophobic, bullsh-t fanboy place. I actually feel bad even writing this, but truly, legitimately, 6,000 people at the show just for Twilight means 6,000 people that weren’t spending money at the show means 6,000 people that might’ve wanted to go that had an interest in dropping a few bucks at the various vendors? Shut out.”
- Christopher Bucher, co-founder, Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Love 'em or otherwise, the Twilight fans were the topic of discussion throughout the convention, even moreso than the film series they're so devoted to. Some blamed them for the fact that tickets to the event sold out two months ahead of time. The line for Thursday's New Moon panel reportedly started Wednesday, before the convention even opened, and grew to Star Wars-like proportions. Tents even popped up in lines for showing of the series' eponymous opening film at a nearby theatre. Twi-hards, though, encountered a rarity at a geek gathering: a backlash.

Smart-asses bearing TWILIGHT RUINED COMIC-CON signs, while not abundant, were definitely on the premises, even after Thursday. The negative response was, no doubt, at least partially based in gender; here you had a flock of young women not just stepping into a traditionally male-based arena, but stepping into it without the “proper” fandom. Female fans of Joss Whedon and his BBD collection (Buffy/Browncoats/Dollhouse), for instance, tend to get a free pass. And it should be noted that people of both genders also reportedly camped out overnight for Saturday's Lost panel, without catching much flack. But on another level, the complaining about the Twi-hards wasn't so much about the nature of their devotion as it was about what it represented.

3.(Lost In) The Hollywood Shuffle

ITEM! PRACTICALLY NOTHING EVER HAPPENS OR IS REVEALED AT SAN DIEGO THAT F-CKING MATTERS. THE ENTIRE F-CKING THING IS LIKE A MOVIE TRAILER THAT LASTS FOR A F-CKING WEEK!
- mightygodking.com

Most of the biggest panels – and by that I mean the ones that were booked in the SD Convention Center's biggest rooms and drew the biggest lines – shared one disconcerting characteristic: none of them was related to comic books. Iron Man 2, remember, is an ongoing comic adaptation, not an original comic work. The same can be said for the much-applauded panel for Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. But, even if Twilight is being adapted in a manga format, its' panel was part of the ongoing encroachment of Hollywood into what used to be a comic-book convention. There were panels for, among other things, Lost, District 9, True Blood, James Cameron's Avatar, Burn Notice, Chuck, 9, the instantly odious Glee, Stargate Universe, and even web series The Guild – and none of these is based off of a comic book. And these are only a few examples on the tv/movie side. Even Kevin Smith showed up for his own panel, for no other reason than he's Kevin Smith and people will still line up to hear him ramble about nothing in particular.

That crowding for attention has spread from the ballrooms to the showroom. At least one end of the floor was dominated by video-game displays, and there were also booths dedicated to shilling material for films like The Collector and Sorority Row. The allure of the Hollywood dollar could also have bad implications for the Con's core constituency.

4.The Shifting Tide

With a reported waiting list of 300 media/consumer products companies lined up for booth space here at San Diego Comic-Con International, the convention feels absolutely no restraint as regards raising booth rent. What does exist is a totally uneven playing field, where mom-n-pop comics retailers, publishers, and creators are now being asked to pay the same cost per square-foot as the international corporate giants. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that we comics exhibitors are rapidly being priced out of our own house. I heard from several comics retailers who have been here at the convention for decades that they are either cutting back for 2010, or completely pulling out of the show.
- Chuck Rozanski, Mile High Comics

More and more each year, Comic-Con has billed itself as a “pop culture” extravaganza. It's not implausible to suggest this year marked the point of no return in that evolution. With Hollywood continuing to not only pay to play on geeky turf but re-sell geeky ideas and content to the multiplex masses, I heard more than a few local fans complain, privately, that the heart of the city's biggest non-athletic attraction was being torn out.

That loss might be more than metaphorical soon. It was reported during the Con that organizers are already threatening to move the event unless additions are built to the Convention Center, which is hemmed in on all sides by hotels, downtown San Diego, and the San Diego Bay. It's also no secret that officials from Los Angeles and Las Vegas have pitched their respective cities as preferable alternatives once SDCC's contract ends three years from now.

But what convention will we – and by “we” I mean comic-book fans - even be going to by then? If the Con continues to march toward becoming a mass-media trade show, will we even have a reason to go? If a more diverse demographic continues to attend, will the exhibitors pay notice? Will sitting in the Line for hours for the chance watching maybe two or three minutes of clips – the Avatar panel, featuring 25 minutes of footage, has to be considered an exception to the rule – be worth it in three years' time? Will camping out in the Line overnight, or holding your spot with the help of friends and family, now become an accepted practice? And if the Con does end up moving, who would go with it?

ART HISTORY: Owie

2009-07-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

May as well jot this all down while I can.

It was just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, and I was leaving work, turning east onto Rancho Bernardo Rd just after the light had turned green. I was making my turn when I vaguely remember a shape coming in from the driver's side, toward the rear of the car. Then everything shook.

My next memory is of laying in the driver's seat while a guy -- I think he had a goatee -- asked me how I was and said he was calling 911. I have another vague recollection of talking to medical personnel. And that's about all I remmeber from the street.

Next thing I know, it's past 8 in the evening and I'm in a hospital. My roomies Jim & HouseKevin are already there, having apparently been alerted by the authorities. (Did I give them the house number? I wonder.) My spirits were pretty high, all things considered. I didn't notice the pain until later. I apparently asked the boys four times how their days went, confirming my concussion. But otherwise, things were okay: we joked around and I tried, vainly, to get one of the cuter nurses to come over and re-examine me. I also asked if we could import a particular female cast member in a nurse's outfit. I'm blaming that on shell-shock.

The drive home was pretty uneventful; Kev, who's sustained three concussions of his own, assured me this first one was easy. We arrived to find our Brother LBJ and cast leader Amy watching Cannibal: The Musical. I came in with both my shirt and undershirt torn, having been cut open by the authorities, exposing the long, slim mark from my seat belt on my left shoulder. They looked at me and probably thought, naturally, "WTF?"

"Mild concussion. Got in a car wreck," I said (or at least think I did.) "Not necessarily in that order."

After that, I relaxed on Amy's lap while pitching into callbacks for the movie, ate some chieken soup and drank Gatorade. I tried to get to bed a couple of hours ago, but I'm too tired to rest, if that makes any sense. I haven't had any nightmares yet about this, so maybe they won't come. Tomorrow, Kevin assured me, would be the most painful day: "It'll be like a really big hangover," he said.

But before all that, I wanted to write down what I remember, if I need to refer back to it later.

The Critic Becomes The Critiqued: Arturo vs. Doctor Who: A Room With A Deja View!

2009-07-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

In this case, the Who - as in who's writing it - is half the selling point for this book, as noted comics muckraker Rich Johnston steps onto the frontline, as it were, in his first published piece with a licensed character - "the licensed character I spend my childhood wanting to be," he notes on his site, and "my adolescence wanting to write and my adult years wanting them to bring back."

No spoilers here, but Johnston's love for The Doctor - here, The Tenth Doctor - shines through. The story seems to take place not long after the events of Journey's End, and backs up some of the feelings we've seen Ten express in the recent television specials. Luckily for him, though, something pops up to get his mind off the doldrums and into a new mystery.

The thick of the story itself relies on a fun narrative trick, as The Doc encounters a sort-of interplanetary Benjamin Button - their conversation forces the reader to do a little extra work, but the payoff is worth it. Much like the last couple of televised specials, in fact, the book leaves you with a little smile at the end - nothing earth-shattering, mind you, but a nice one-off dose of fun. Still, if Johnston gets another crack at the character, I wouldn't mind seeing what else he can do with him.

@ThePeterPixie and I will be talking about the book more in depth on the show, and I'll be posting a chat with Johnston himself from SDCC during the weekend.

Dropping Names and Walking Dead!

2009-07-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Last night on Hour 42, @ThePeterPixie and I covered a variety of topics, including:

* The Blackest Night - how big could it get? Is it really too violent for today's audience?
* There's yet another comics convention coming to Southern California - but is Wizard Entertainment really out to undermine C2E2?
* Learn the secret of the FUNK LANTERN!
* And I did a little name-dropping of the people I'm looking to talk to at San Diego Comic Con, like Justin Hartley and Scarlett Johansson - and the one thing I'd love to hear SJ say.
* Starting Thursday I'll be posting from Con not only here, but at The R, and at Flickr.
* Also, Saturday morning at 11:40, I'll be calling in to L.A. Gen X Radio and giving them 5 good minutes - that's what she said - of Con coverage. If you go to their page, you can catch me crashing their party with BeTheBoy and The SlackMistress, as we talked about Michael Bay's (fake) Twitter.

Meantime, if you want to catch up on last night's show, just click the fancy-dan player below ... and get set for the audio-visual assault this weekend!

Fashion Police: Gallifrey

2009-07-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Filming started this morning on next year's season of Doctor Who, sez the BBC, with the pic above to prove it. The Doc Martens there are a nice touch, but the overall gear gives off a certain kind of vibe ...

Also, it looks like the new Companion, Amy, is indeed keeping the 'Round The Way look.

(thanks to @PopCandy for the link)

Update: The Sun has posted a slideshow, complete with a look at a guest-star, and The Daily Mail has more pics of The Doctor and Amy, along with some exterior TARDIS shots. (Props to Gallifrey News Base.)

It's the big Comic-Con prep show!

2009-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Less than 96 hours 'til SD Comic-Con and @ThePeterPixie and I have one more show before the madness starts. This week:

* Got questions for people in the biz? I'm taking suggestions!
* Reports on a new convention coming to So. Cal next year
* My one request of Scarlett Johansson
* And your comments and questions at 646-716-4799

See you all at 7p PST (10p EST)

FRIDAY MORNING DISCO!

2009-07-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, which most of us probably remember as a radio prank gone mildly amusing. Turns out that, while the stunt itself might have been played for laughs, there was something uglier fueling it. Check it out at The R today. And in honor of all this, let's play a little disco, hmmm?

CON NOTEBOOK 1: Putting It Together

2009-07-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

I had the time of my life at Comic-Con last year. How? Simple - I ignored most of it. I won't get that luxury this year.

See, this year I'm going on behalf of The R, meaning there's some panels I'm bound to go to, and some people I definitely want to interview. Besides that, I'll be hustling to make contacts for myself and the show. And on top of that, there's the best part of the Con for me - wandering around the floor and taking pictures of/with the fine and funny folks I run into along the way.

This year, though, because of my added obligations, I have to step it up: I'm already sifting through the Con calendar, each day side-by-side, filling in a prospective schedule on a spreadsheet; e-mailing pr reps to try to line up interviews; today I bought a camera; and I ordered business cards printed with the show's new logo. If it all goes right, I'll be able to write, edit and post at least one story a day for The R from the convention, with pics and/or audio. A one-man multimedia geek news crew, much like another journalist of yore:

A Sure-Fire Comic-Con Marvel Moneymaker

2009-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Over at Comic By Comic today, @RichL1 - nice twitter name, very Autobotish - posted previews of some of Marvel Comics' 70th Anniversary covers. And instantly I thought, I would pay cash money to be photographed inside one of those frames at Comic-Con.

I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one, either. So there, @Marvel, you can have that one for free!

A Pyrrhic Triumph: Arturo vs. Torchwood: Children Of Earth!

2009-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

I helped plot the whole storyline, and I stand by every single decision. Yes, including *that* one - I had my hand on the death lever along with everyone else, and was fully involved. I think it's a fantastic, brave, challenging drama, and contains some of the best moments on TV all year.
- Torchwood writer James Moran, on his blog.*

Couldn't agree with him more.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This was the year where less really was more. Less episodes, less time, less team members - add it all up and there wasn't any time for Torchwood to get bogged down in melodrama. No more SEKRIT SECKS affairs, no more holding Gwen by the hand.

What we got, instead, was the series' finest hour - finest five hours, in fact, filled with heartbreak, humor and an 11th-hour save that was as brutal as it was brilliant. Safe to say this season blew away anything the series had done before, and not just metaphorically: the team's comfy ol' Hub is now rubble, leaving nothing behind, presumably, but ambient Rift energy. That it went down in the very first episode, when normally it's a scene you see in a season finale, was a big clue that RTD and the creative team weren't going to hold anything back this time 'round. The biggest flaw in this mini-series was the lack of explanation as to why the government wanted the team dusted to begin with, especially after we learn the truth behind Jack's role in the 456's visit to Scotland, but it speeds by so wildly you hardly have time to examine that.

And indeed, they didn't. This was the rare time when the team was truly pushed to the limits. Beyond them, even. And it was the even rarer moment when everybody stepped up accordingly. It was a great relief to see Gwen finally become a full-on hero: leading when she had to, carrying out plans when asked to, but never losing it, as she was so wont to do in the first two seasons. Even Rhys and Andy got to shine. And Lois, who could have been a Mary Sue figure, would instead make a welcome addition to the team.

On the other side, the villains were ... well, they were us. The high-level discussions that take place after the arrival of the 456 were horrifying, but not implausible. They were human, in the most uncomfortable of ways. And all credit due, again, to Peter Capaldi, as Mr. Frobisher, who has great power and responsibility shunted upon him ... and just can't hold it together. As Agent Johnson, Liz May Brice provided a more than capable physical foil for the TW team, and made her "coming around" seem plausible.

And then there's Ianto.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Moran's statement references not only Ianto, but the brutal game-saving decision by Jack, and in each case I stand behind Moran's decision. What happened to Ianto was undeniably sad, but he went out strong as a character - rallying after the destruction of the Hub, rescuing Jack from Johnson and never wavering, even as he dealt with the ramifications of being involved with Jack. ("No other men," he confesses to his sister. "Just him.")

In the end, Jack loses as much personally as he wins in the "bigger picture," so much so that he can't even stand to be on the planet anymore - a man who can't die, after all, can never know true peace. And so we're left with him in exile, Gwen pregnant, and the Torchwood that we've known well and truly gone.

At least for now. As the Doctor Who News Page reports, the show was a ratings hit during its' maiden voyage on BBC One, which would seem to justify a fourth season. But how? My money is on a Buffy-like storyline where Gwen is playing Professor X-Preggers with Rhys and coordinating a makeshift team (Agent Johnson, Lois, Mickey Smith and, availability pending, Martha Jones?) until Jack is forced to return and begin his journey toward redemption. It's a challenge I hope Moran, Davies and the show's runners take up soon.

* Props to The Nerdy Bird for the link to Moran's blog

New time slot, new logo!

2009-07-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yeeeeah, you know it's the new hotness.

Yesterday, @ThePeterPixie and I did the first morning edition of Hour 42, live from a panel at Anime Fest Wichita, with special guests Caitlin Glass and Robert Axelrod. We also unveiled the show's new logo, designed by my friend @kittenfaced and con goers got dibs on hearing my review of Blood: The Last Vampire.

But, as they say, wait, there's more! Tonight we debut at our new time, 7pm PST (10p EST) with another visit from our friend Jill Pantozzi, aka The Nerdy Bird. Jill will be joining us to talk about the new Green Lantern, this week's Torchwood opus, and we ask the question: what's wrong with the Justice League?

To get a taste of the show, just click on the player below, and, hey, if you're at Comic-Con, say hi!

Notes on Torchwood: COE Part 5!

2009-07-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

* Brutal. Just brutal. Brilliant, but brutal. This episode - the best RTD finale ever - took us to the unimaginable, and then pulled the trigger.
* In an indirect way, the events here proved the worth of characters like Harriet Jones - and, yeah, that other guy, who gets name-checked. And how not everybody can reach that level, try as they might.
* The big question: Now what?

FRIDAY MORNING ANIME!

2009-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

In honor of both my going to see the live-action adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire today and the start of Anime Fest Wichita, we've got the themes to Robotech and Cowboy Bebop and a Lacuna Coil clip mixed in with shots from the original Blood anime film. Enjoy - and don't forget, special episode of the podcast tomorrow morning at 11:30a (PST)!

Notes on Torchwood: COE Part 4!

2009-07-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

* NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ahem. I'll try to keep it together.

* I just want to take a minute and point out: Peter Capaldi has been tremendous all week as Mr. Frobisher. If you want to see him really cut loose, check out The Thick Of It. I'll put up a clip at the bottom of this post.
* Y'know, if @ThePeterPixie and I are right, the ol' TWmobile might be getting a little more crowded next year ...
* Can RTD finally close a story satisfactorily? We'll find out tomorrow
* Still, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay, here's the clip. Language is definitely NSFW, but if you're into polite verbal brutality, you'll enjoy it.

Notes on Torchwood: COE Part 3!

2009-07-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

*It's crazy, but I'm actually used to the level of awesome in this mini-series so far
* One man is put in an unenviable position, while another isn't as good a poker player as he thinks - neither is whom you might suspect
* Turns out one of the villains has some humanity, after all
* Anybody else get an ID4 vibe from a few scenes there?
* "We want 10 percent"
* More dirty secrets come out
* Ratings-wise, the series is easily justifying a fourth, full season: as noted on Gallifrey News Base, Day 3 was No. 3 in the overnights for BBC1, a day after Day 2 topped the charts; Day 1, by comparison, started the week in 5th place

Previously:
* Notes on Day 2
* Notes on Day 1

Optimus brings the LULZ

2009-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Notes on Torchwood: COE Part 2!

2009-07-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

* Not only did the pace pick up acceptably well in Day 2 of the team's worst week ever, but John Fay's script supplied a surprising amount of good humor, including a solid turn by ANDY of all people.
* Bombshells were dropped, literally and figuratively, and handled adroitly by everybody involved.
* One ace in the hole came into play, and even though there were moments of Canon Sue, the character is still likable enough to root for after this mess is done
* Gwen's still running the show capably - capably enough for me to worry about her, to be honest - but Ianto really stepped up here, too.
* Day 3 promises to be the turning point, as we might get the one big question hanging over all this answered.

Previously:
* Notes on Part 1

Notes on Torchwood: Children Of Earth, Part 1!

2009-07-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Just to be nice, I'll keep things spoiler-free as much as possible, but here goes.

The challenge for Torchwood this year is quite different than the one faced by its'parent program. Without the benefit of either a sentimental farewell tour or a standard-length season, Children of Earth has to both haul ass and kick ass. And after "Day 1," it looks like it's on pace to do both.

Again, no spoilers here, but the lack of time to waste made the opener feel looser than the standard episode. The sides are quickly drawn; we get a welcome hand-wave to explain a potentially annoying absence; the villains we've met so far are, respectively, mysterious and suitably ruthless; and best of all, each of the three principals not only gets a good turn, but a welcome extra layer to each of their characters. It was particularly satisfying to see Gwen look finally, fully, a part of the team. So far, so good, definitely.

New at The R

2009-07-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Pop culture history is fraught with the archetype of the do-gooder rich guy. Bruce Wayne. Tony Stark. Daddy Warbucks. Richie Rich. Now NBC is attempting to trot out its' own version, Teddy Rist, aka The Philanthropist, in a show "based on" real-life humanitarian Bobby Sager.

So how did they do? Well, The Roundtable and I are happy to tell you.

This show was a rollercoaster!

2009-07-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, the magic of live radio. Last night's show was a bit of an adventure, to say the least. But here's some of the highlights:

* We talked about the latest news surrounding X-Factor and Captain America
* After some, uh, technical difficulties, @ThePeterPixie managed to have a nice chat with Lord Zedd himself, Robert Axelrod
* We previewed Anime Fest Wichita, where Peter will be hosting - and where we'll be doing a special daytime show July 11 at 11:30 am PST (2:30p EST)
* Last but not least in the very least, we got a special visit from our pal The Nerdy Bird!

So just click on the handy-dandy player below and listen in on the fun - and don't forget, two shows next week!

Tonight on the show ...

2009-07-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight will be the last show at 8pm PST for @ThePeterPixie and I before Hour 42 move up an hour earlier - to 7pm. And to join us on the way out, we're inviting a special guest-supervillain (hint hint, look at the pic).

Robert Axelrod, who played Lord Zedd on the Power Rangers shows, will stop by to talk about his experiences with both that show and Digimon. Also, Peter and I will be discussing Captain America, the JLA, Doctor Who and more, plus YOUR comments and questions at 646-716-4799

Indiana Vice: Arturo vs. Public Enemies!

2009-07-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

It's kind of fun to watch an audience deflate at the sight of dashed expectations – in the case of Public Enemies, the presumption that it was going to be all about Johnny Depp swashbuckling around again.

SPOILERS AHEAD

We do get some of that, of course, as Depp steps into the legend of bank-robber/folk hero John Dillinger. We meet Dillinger as he starts a comeback tour, escaping Indiana State Prison and gets back on the criminal horse. In the midst of all this he commits – or maybe invents? -- the classic crook's mistake: he takes up with a girl (Marion Cotillard). And these scenes, of course, are the ones dominating the adverts, with Depp crooning the girl into being his moll.

Unfortunately for fans of Depp, director and co-writer Michael Mann is more interested in tracing Dillinger's fall than re-telling his story. Much like another Depp character, Jack Sparrow, Dillinger and his loose cannon ways are out-of-place in a country where both the crooks, led in Chicago by a true villain, Frank Nitti (Bill Camp), and the cops are getting more organized.

Leading the charge for Johnny Law, if not the promotional blitz, is young G-Man Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), hot-shotted into a position out of his depth by embarrassed FBI honcho J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup). Purvis is a capable cop – witness his takedown of Pretty Boy Floyd (blink and you'll miss Channing Tatum) – and tech-friendly for his era, but Bale capably shows Purvis feeling just as trapped by his own environment as Dillinger is squeezed out of his. This parallel adds a welcome layer to the usual cat-and-mouse dynamic. Best of all, it's apparently not too far removed from historical truth.

In fact, it's a pleasant surprise that Mann and co-writers Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman seem to omit more of the Dillinger legends, rather than make up some new ones. (Fans of Baby Face Nelson, though, have reason to complain). But, for example: Manhattan Melodrama and the Biograph Theater? The unsavory deal Purvis struck? The theft of Sheriff Holley's car? All part of Dillinger “canon.”

It might be the omissions, however, that stop Enemies from being a meatier work, rather than a capable summer matinee. You're left wanting to know more about why Dillinger did what he did, or wanting to see more of his “man of the people” persona at work and his own cunning (did you know, for instance, that the "Jackrabbit" was one of the first crooks to use bulletproof vests?) We get glimpses here and there of the man behind the myth, but the romantic and chase storylines dominate the film. What we get isn't executed badly – but hopefully we'll get a longer cut where Depp and Mann can really dig into the man behind the myth.

FRIDAY MORNING PE!

2009-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just to keep the joke going a little longer - and because everyone should listen to Fear Of A Black Planet once in their lives ...

WHAT? A Doctor Who movie, after all?

2009-07-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that was my reaction, too.

From this morning's story at Bleeding Cool:

Hidden at the bottom of a recent BBC piece PR was the news that the British Broadcasting Corporation are planning a Doctor Who movie, probably for 2011, starring David Tennant in the role, while Matt Smith will continue to play the character on the television.

Expected to be written by Russell T Davies, while Steven Moffat becomes showrunner of the TV series, there is very little detail revealed as to what kind of movie it will be.

Suddenly the DW panel at Comic-Con got a bit more interesting.

Previously: Tinseltown For Tennant?

Gratuitous Pic Spam

2009-07-01T10:33:00.001-07:00

Taken from Neill Cameron's The A to Z of Awesomeness.

Oh, those Public Enemies ...

2009-07-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

So, Brother Kev-Fu and I are probably going to check out Public Enemies at a Friday matinee. I gotta tell you, though, I'm already disappointed - when I first heard the title, I hoped it was a biopic on these guys:

Ah well, a guy can dream.

So how's the show doing? Glad you asked ...

2009-06-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest: when @ThePeterPixie and I started talking about doing Hour 42, it was almost on a lark: the two of us doing on-air what we'd been doing online and off for most of the almost nine(!) years we've known each other - geek out over comic books and superheroes and heroines. I think we wrote the bulk of the first show - aka the Collectors' Item - about an hour before showtime. And there was more than a little dead air.

Seven months later, I really feel we're on an upswing. A big part of the credit, of course, should go to Peter and his lovely wife, @TheOrnament - even in the weeks where I feel like I'm falling into the hole again, they've helped me keep my focus and, really, just relax and be geeky.

What we've discovered is, so far, more people seem to listen to us on demand than during the live show - we're "DVR viewing," you could say. I can't say we've amassed a big audience so far, though appearances by The Nerdy Bird and MGK yielded not only sizable audiences but really fun shows. (By the way, guys, the door's open for you to come back at any time.)

Now, for the Coming Attractions section:

* Starting July 12, we're switching time slots, to a 7pm PST (10p EST) start-time. Hopefully this will help us coerce more east-coast friends to join us *cough* @ohsuperheroine and @RichL *cough*
* This coming Sunday, July 5, will be our first show with two guests: Robert Axelrod, who played Lord Zedd on the old Power Rangers shows, and we'll be hearing from the folks behind the Screaming Tiki Con in Cleveland
* We're working on a special anime-centric episode to be broadcast live - with an audience! - from Anime Fest Wichita, where Peter will be serving as the host
* I will be representing The R as a correspondent at San Diego Comic-Con, but I'll also try to make some other connections there ...
* The show will have a presence at the Long Beach Comic-Con in October - and we'll probably be giving away passes through the show in some form.

So yeah, the show is still fun, my partners and I don't want to strangle each other yet, and we're getting a little bit of notice - not bad for a spur-of-the-moment idea, right?

Down In A Hole

2009-06-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

I think it started - or rather, began again - during last week's podcast. Everything felt dull. Not boring, really, just blunted. Didn't seem to be worth saying. I got some things done at The R, of course, and wrote and contributed to this week's episode. But I haven't known what to do with my own space.

Today, though, I'm starting to feel better. And things are picking up personally, if not "professionally." I'll keep you posted on these developments, sooner rather than later.

A 2nd Count of Vehicular Filmslaughter: Arturo vs. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen!

2009-06-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

“... From the day the [writers'] strike ended to the first day of shooting was three months, so we had to write the script in those three months, handing in pages at the end of every day so they could be prepped. It was crazy. We finished writing the movie two weeks ago, literally.”
co-writer Roberto Orci, as quoted in Superhero Hype, June 23 2009

You can't make stuff like this up, folks.

Look, you knew Revenge Of The Fallen was going to suck. I knew it was going to suck. Everybody knew it was going to suck as only Michael Bay movies do nowadays. So why is it on pace for the fifth-best opening of all time?

Put it this way: forty-six percent of this country voted for John McCain, remember?

SPOILERS AHEAD

I kid, I kid. To be fair, there were moments where Revenge improved upon its' predecessor: the opening sequence and Optimus Prime's last stand in the forest delivered what everybody was looking for – Giant Robots Kicking The Sh-t Out Of Each Other. And with bolstered rosters for both the Autobots and Decepticons, Orci, co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Ehren Kruger and director Michael Bay got to raise the stakes, if not necessarily the casualties, in a logical fashion from the first film. The increased interplay between Megatron and Starscream was suitably full of venom, and the Decepticons' eye in the sky, Soundwave, was a capable villain in his own right.

But the problem – and this is always Bay's problem – is that nobody on the creative team here can resist going from increase to excess. And, sure, we got more robots and more battles, but the biggest problem with the first film only got worse here: Too much LaBeouf; too much Fox; too many humans, period. None of these people, though integral to the story because of creative choice, were the reason to go see this movie.

Likewise, the idea of the Autobots working with a military ops squad makes sense; the silent, sad reaction of human ally, Lennox (Josh Duhamel) to Prime's apparent demise is as close as the film comes to invoking a sincere emotion. But again, Bay undermines both that moment and Duhamel's performance with his constant fawning over the U.S. Military, to the point of making any other fighting forces look like chumps.

So watching Optimus fight for his and Sam's (LaBouf) lives in the forest, which could have been a welcome callback to his self-sacrifice in the animated feature, is undone from within – too many cut-backs to a cowering Sam and a score that JUST WON'T SHUT UP throughout the film, with invasive “orchestral” touches and faux-inspiring chants.

So to assuage those who just say critics are “hating” on this film because it's Stuff Blowing Up, let me assure you, that's not the problem. It's the crap that Bay and the writers – Orci & Kurtzman gave us much more enjoyable escapism just a month ago with Star Trek - lump in with it. It's Sam's “vision;” it's the Twins; it's the dog-sex jokes and Sam's annoying parents; it's the 20 shots of Fox and Labouf setting the screen inert with their non-chemistry; it's the things that take a movie from mindless fun to just plain mindless. And no amount of money can buy back the feeling of wasting three hours of your life.

Michael.

2009-06-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

There's no question that he wasn't right in the head. Abuse. Addiction. Warped "affection." And all of that will be revisited in the days to come, for good reason.

But so will the good times. Like this.

FRIDAY MORNING WEIRD AL!

2009-06-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hour 42 and new directions

2009-06-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed less comic-booky content here lately. That's because, in the interest of the show, I've started moving more of that stuff to the Hour 42 blog. Which will open this space up for ... well, I'm still figuring that out.

In the meantime, however, head on over to the show blog and check out this bit on SD Comic-Con and its' "multiple" Twitter feeds.

Wednesday Links

2009-06-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

* Yesterday I saw the worst movie ever - The Hangover. I realize many of you might like it. But all I'm gonna say is, it pissed me off so badly as an audience member I went beyond the usual friendly confines and took my review straight to The R.

* Also, friend of the show, The Nerdy Bird did an interview for the SPEAK Foundation talking about ... well, her coolness. Check it out here.

* Wanna help my friend The SlackMistress out? She needs A Really Goode Job!

Stay Classy, L.A.

2009-06-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

As if the usual assortment of nitwits "celebrating" the Lakers' title win last night wasn't bad enough, the town's paper of record recently released a sexist-as-hell "guide to Comic-Con," offering breathless "previews" like this:

Women will be rushing the stage, offering to do star Jake Gyllenhaal's laundry on those washboard abs that he acquired for the film, since he spends much of it fighting, shirtless or both.

For more on that, plus a contest on IGN that sparked an online backlash, head on over to the Hour 42 blog.

Image courtesy of SportsRubbish

Last night, on the show ...

2009-06-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last night's episode of HOUR 42 was, from my perspective, pretty satisfying - and not just because my internet connection had to be restarted less than three minutes before showtime. For most of the hour, @ThePeterPixie and I talked about the week's news in comic-book journalism - and how some of these things could affect you and us as readers and consumers:

* Newsarama and Comic Book Resources and their relationships with the editors-in-chief of DC and Marvel, respectively
* A golden opportunity that Wizard Magazine arguably had, and chose not to pursue
* The Twitterverse fight involving longtime columnist Rich Johnston
* And Peter challenges me to step up and ask somebody a tough question at San Diego Comic-Con next month.

All in all, a good show, that forced us to think about what we're doing - and we've got some more plans as far as that goes, but we'll get to them later. For now, click on the handy-dandy player below and check us out - and hey, do give us your feedback via e-mail at hourfortytwo@yahoo.com!

New at The R

2009-06-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

At Racialicious today I wrote a short column focusing on Guillermo Del Toro's interview with Wired magazine, in which the writer seems to want to keep pigeon-holing GDT as a geek even while praising him for breaking out of the geek box. Plus, Del Toro says he's identified the "Model T" for a whole new way of telling stories.

Also, check out Wendi Muse's story, Nostalgia: A Sport For The Privileged. Here's an excerpt:

We fall in love with the beautifully enchanting portrayal of the past that we encounter in novels, historical fiction, and on the big screen. We get lost in the dashing gentry, the voluminous hoop skirts, the lazy Sunday evenings. This fantasy past, however, is quite far from the reality most of us would have encountered in the "good old days."

On the show tonight ...

2009-06-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

This was a big week for the comic-book press, and @ThePeterPixie and I will be discussing that and more tonight on HOUR 42, including:

* Wizard Magazine's ongoing labor issues
* A rift between a star creator and a comics journalist reaches the Twitterverse
* A more in-depth look at ES' post from yesterday - how might it affect us at readers?
* And what does that picture mean? You'll hear more about that, trust us! And if you missed last week's episode, or just want to try us out, click the handy-dandy player below! Join us LIVE tonight at 11pm EST (8pm PST)!

A Moment In DOH!

2009-06-13T13:30:00.001-07:00

I made my way to the back of the wine-and-burger(?!) joint with the second-story view. Like the yellow cab drivers below, I had to jostle for position to get around the place. When I got to the back a mild-mannered gent who asked me how it was going.

"I tell you, I don't think this place is narrow enough," I said, looking behind me at the pack of Twitterrr ... ers who had gathered for the latest local networking session. I don't have a lot in common with many of these folks, be it phones, blog topics or hangouts. But by and large, they seem generally pleasant enough company to enjoy free sliders with. "Next time we should meet in a hotel hallway and push the envelope." Less than two minutes later, I found out he was the owner of the joint.

I hate networking. But the sliders were good.

FRIDAY MORNING FANFILM!

2009-06-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Topless Robot compiled a list of their favorite fanfilms of all time, so I thought I'd share a few of their picks with you.

Kicking things off is Ashes To Ashes, a Bat-flick filmed in France - say that five times fast! - with a definite Sin City vibe. The premise here is, Alfred's been murdered and Bats is, to put it mildly, très fâché.

From the classic file, here's TROOPS, one of the first fanfilms I ever saw, a COPS parody set on Hoth, following your average squad of Stormtroopers through a regular enough workday.

Batman: Dead End was a revelation at SD Comic-Con a few years back when it screened for fans, and it's easy to see why. The director, Sandy Corolla, has gone on to greener pastures: he's directing Hunter Prey, a sci-fi thriller set to be released later this year.

And we're finishing up with something that is not on the list, and most definitely not for the squeamish: a fan-made trailer for a Marvel Zombies flick. Stick around past the credits for one final bit of ... well, icky.

Joker image courtesy of Collora Studios

The Bastard Sons Of Joel McHale: Arturo vs. Tosh.0 & Web Soup!

2009-06-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

Joel McHale is to ~~Talk~~The Soup what David Tennant is to Doctor Who: maybe not the very best star the show's ever had – Greg Kinnear started somewhere, remember? -- but certainly the guy who's made it a hot commodity.

Naturally, this means the copycats are now out in full force. First there was Sports Soup on Versus. This week saw two different web variants on the Soup formula in G4's Web Soup (produced by the folks behind McHale's show) and Comedy Central's Tosh.0. Both follow the basic formula: skinny white guy (Aisha Tyler, I guess, was the exception proving the rule) narrating various pratfalls, this time spotlighting the hapless Internauts unwittingly running for a Darwin Award.

In a case like this, it's up to the hosts to provide that little bit of difference that will make one of these shows watchable and the other a bad idea. And this is where Tosh is the decidedly better show.

Soup host Chris Hardwick inadvertently undermined himself during a brief cameo by McHale during Web's debut, when he defensively cried, "I hosted Singled Out!" during a mock rant by Joel. And that's the biggest problem - that show is more than a decade old. Citing a lengthy career works for Oscar winners; not so much for clip-show hosts.

And even during his Singled days, Hardwick wasn't the lead; it was always more about spotlighting a young, hot (if unfunny) Jenny McCarthy, who's managed to redefine herself as a reliable guest-star and more importantly, a caring mother and activist. Hardwick, though, still comes off like ... well, the Chris Hardwick of more than 10 years ago. Hardwick can be funny in his own right, but, perhaps by design, the Soup producers seemed determined to strip him not only of the ferocity McHale gets to show off, but of his own gift for snark. The awkward act we get in exchange isn't likely to keep peoples' attention between the clips.

By comparison, Tosh host Daniel Tosh, while projecting a relaxed vibe, doesn't lose the viewer. And his show offers the most unique feature on either program: “Web Redemption,” a visit, seemingly played straight-up for now, with the “star” of a random viral meme. In the opener, Tosh interviewed the guy known as the Afro Ninja, and rather than settle for the cheap joke, we got to see the guy and his family. Even Tosh got into the act, busting out a backflip of his own. If “Redemption” continues to engage these would-be micro-celebrities as people, we might get a welcome injection of heart into a TV formula that's already in danger of getting stale.

WEDNESDAY MORNING BEAKER!

2009-06-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

I've been fighting another block this week, so maybe switching things up will help. Hence, a special video jukebox starring Bea-f'ing-ker.

This morning, Pop Candy (written by the fabulous Whitney Masterson, who I've met) blogged about the Webby Awards, which yadda yadda best on the web yadda yadda Jimmy Fallon won so I don't give a damn anymore. But, our boy Beak earned a People's Voice Award nomination for this take on "Ode To Joy:"

Beaker winning after that was, of course, a fait accompli. The Webbys "twist" on acceptance speeches is, they can only be five words long. But Beaker came prepared ... sort of.

That just made me smile. Because electrocution is always funny. Next up, a haircut, some furniture changes, and some more writing.

We did a show last night ...

2009-06-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

... but I couldn't get the preview posted in time, mostly because this time, @ThePeterPixie and I were asking ourselves, "Where do we start?" almost up 'til we went on the air. But, here's some of the stuff we did touch on:

* A look at Marvel Comics' price increases, what they could mean for both consumers and retailers - and the star writer who got proven wrong on the internet over one increase.
* Peter talked more about his impressions of Firefly
* I offered up an analysis of the debut of Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin - and the difference between the new Batman and the new Captain America

And much more! So if you missed the show, just click on the handy-dandy player below!

A small token for D-Day

2009-06-07T00:33:00.001-07:00

R.I.P. David Carradine

2009-06-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

ART VS. LIFE: The Pink Slip Predators

2009-06-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Many a romantic evening started with drinks - so I've heard. But Wednesday night somebody tried pulling my pants down over happy hour.

Now that I'm in my sixth month of ~~unemployment~~ living a life free of sucking from the corporate teat - hey, my blog, my rationalization, alright? - I've become one of those people who are even wary when I do see a job posting. I think our club is called Anyone Who's Ever Been To Craigslist.

Still, the ad for something called a "Pink Slip Party" looked encouraging: drinks at Balboa Park while meeting with other job-hunters and possibly recruiters. Reviews from similar events on the east coast seemed positive enough, so I put the $5 entrance fee on the proverbial table and gambled for a shot at a regular paycheck. But I passed on the $10 appetizers - job-hunting with chicken wings in your mouth only works ... actually, I can't figure out when it would work.

I arrived with 40 resumes tucked neatly into two manila folders and myself fitted just as neatly into my black vest, slacks and shoes, topped off by a blue shirt and red tie. The second-story meeting room wasn't hard to find; I just followed the smell of desperation. At the door, the organizers asked me to wear a yellow plastic lei instead of the more complimentary orange option -- orange, you see, was reserved for the recruiters.

"Prettier than a bullseye," I remarked to another would-be employee-to-be in a white lei. Indeed, the agents in orange were instant targets, the prettiest girls (and boys) at the ball. (Not to be confused, of course, with the Prettiest Girl At Last Call. But I digress.)

At this point I should tell you that I hate "networking." Encounter somebody funny at a bar? No problem. Say hi to friends of friends at an actual party? All about it. But "selling myself" has never been enjoyable for me. So watching everybody else in the room jockey for position around the middle-managers in our midst made me queasy enough to circle the room a bit, eyeing nametags and deciding whether any of them were worth my "pitch," such as it was.

I was interrumpted from my spy games by a brunette in a long black cocktail dress. She almost looked too indie to be there.

"I'm just here looking for friends," Paulina* said, shaking my hand. "But my friend wanted me to keep an eye out for sharp people. Do you have a resume?"

Not a problem at all. I was about to whip one out - a resume, you sickos - when I asked her what said friend did. And the look in her eyes stopped my hand in mid-air. She went blank, saying, "I don't know." O RLY?, I thought. Putting the resume back in the folder, I asked for the name of the friend's company. She nodded no, same blank look. Finally, I asked if he had an e-mail. Still nothing.

I told her this was a little weird and backed away, resume safely in hand, and made for the patio, where I ducked behind a couple of smokers and called @soulcamp. Given my recent history with the opposite sex, I considered that I might have reacted out of paranoia, so I wanted a second opinion. 'Cause, you know, this girl was cute.

The way I figured it, if @soulcamp's cynical ass told my cynical ass, "Man, your ass is cynical," then I'd have a reason to re-assess the situation. Alas, he concurred with my assessment. Sorry, rom-com fans.

After resuming my semi-circles around the room, I noticed more job-seekers walking in than job-givers. In fact, I only counted 12 orange leis in the whole joint. In the center, I saw two of the recruiters standing at tables, as hopefuls arranged themselves in front of them out of self-immolation. This wasn't a mixer - it was 1930s Moscow, and the fight for the crumbs had begun.

I walked a little faster, making a note on the folder (more on that later) and feeling the pressure leave my shoulders; nobody was going to get anything substantial out of tonight, I realized. So, newly care-free, I passed my resume along to a few honest-to-goodness recruiters and tried to sneak into a local news crew's shot. After my last brief chat, I noticed somebody new standing to my left and sizing me up. Imagine Ronald Isley as a character from Office Space. Paulina appeared to my right.

"This is him," she announced, in introducing Tom*, before shuffling off. "I was just telling him about you." Like I did with her, I asked Tom about his company while reaching into the folder. An IT firm in Kearny Mesa, he said, a plausible answer: the area is mundane enough to house that kind of business. We parried for a couple of minutes on whether my more admin- and creative-based experience would work in that kind of field, and I finally handed over my resume. "Let me tell you if you're worth hiring," he said. I shrugged off his buffalo stance and asked for a card. Who was this guy?

Prepare for quotation overload: he handed me a card for "his other business" - no name attached, but saying you could "work from home and make $1000 - 3000 per week." What was this about? I asked. He tried to liken whatever this was to medical insurance when I cut him off and asked what employees did.

"If you come aboard with us," he said with a light tone of indignation, "you make money signing people up to memberships." I reached toward the small stack of resumes he had managed to con out of people tonight.

"I'm gonna go ahead and take that back," I said, handing back the card. "It's not gonna work out between us." I'm only disappointed I didn't throw in "It's not you, it's me," just to slide the dagger in deeper. The look of disappointment will have to be enough. I headed back toward the patio and ran into the only person I honest-to-goodness met the whole time: a copy editor for a local Filipino newspaper. "How are you doing?" she asked.

When I told her the truth, she looked at me like I was the only other person in on the joke - and maybe we were; behind us, people still flittered about, as desperate as anybody else stuck in a bar just before closing time. Time to cash out. I stopped at the check-in table and the two professionally cheery redheaded organizers were no doubt expecting profuse thanks; they'd probably gotten them in L.A. and Boston, right? Wrong.

"I hate to be a spoil-sport, but I'd like my five bucks back, please," I told them. I pointed at the note I made earlier before going on. "Of the five companies here, four were other staffing firms. I'm not asking for Fortune 500, but this was not what I signed up for." The younger one looked at me like I'd pissed in her appletini. The older one greeted another person while quietly handing my money behind her back to Young Red, who handed it back to me. I wished them good luck with their next effort before heading down the stairs, giddily. POWER - I CAN HAZ! On the way home, I took those $5 and re-invested it into a gallon of milk. Best $2.19 I ever drank.

* Names were changed, but not the actions

Last night, on the podcast ...

2009-06-01T22:08:00.001-07:00

If you missed last night's episode, here's some of the stuff the boys talked about:

* No Joss? No problem! I offered up a plan for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot.
* The firing of Dwayne McDuffie and why it makes DC Comics less trustworthy
* Speaking of the Whedonverse, @ThePeterPixie announced he's going to give one of Joss' shows a try!
* A classy gesture honoring Superman at the upcoming Screaming Tiki Con in Cleveland next month

All that and a lot more, so just click on the handy-dandy player tomorrow and check out HOUR 42!

We are LIVE in three hours ...

2009-05-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Lots to talk about tonight on HOUR 42, including:

* The new Doctor's new Companion
* One convention sells out, while another honors two hall-of-famers
* The dismissal of Dwayne McDuffie from one of DC Comics' flagship titles
* The latest on the reboots, prequels and re-sets being talked about, including El Secreto's plan to build the next generation's Slayer and Peter Pixie on Megan Fox's controversial comments
* Plus your comments and questions at 646-716-4799, LIVE tonight at 8pm PST (11pm EST) on HOUR 42!

BREAKING: BBC Announces The Doctor's New Companion

2009-05-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

Word came in this morning via Gallifrey One that the BBC has just named the Companion for the 11th Doctor next year - 21-year-old Karen Gillan. From the release, these words from new show-runner Stephen Moffat:

"We saw some amazing actresses for this part, but when Karen came through the door the game was up. Funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it. A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too."

I'll be the first to say it: Okay, yeah, I can see a bit of the ol' Rose in her. But ye gods, this is gonna be a pair of young'uns. Cue the Doctor Twilight jokes!

FRIDAY MORNING WORKLOAD!

2009-05-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Busier week than I expected, for temp-related issues. Can't say I don't mind being productive away from the home again, but it's cut into my blogging time just a wee bit.

So, in honor of the rest of us working stiffs, three labor - not to be confused with Labour - related tracks to get you going this morning. And no, Loverboy will not be involved here. Enjoy!

New on the Hour 42 blog ...

2009-05-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Last week's episode of the show, where @ThePeterPixie and I were joined by MightyGodKing, has been listened to more than 100 times since Sunday night. And over at the show blog, both Peter and I have new columns up, regarding:

* The underwhelming sales "success" that was Battle For The Cowl

and

* Peter sharing his thoughts on a new addition to David Tennant's farewell tour - a guest-stint on The Sarah Jane Adventures. And if you want to catch up on our chat with MGK, just click on the handy-dandy player below!

Racialicious Responds To Star Trek

2009-05-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

New at The R, the Heroes roundtable follows Zachary Quinto over to his newest project -- iTrek! Among the topics up for discussion:

* Why Uhura matters
* The surprising new "cool" character among Trek fans
* The guest-stars we want to see next in the new series
* What to do about the Klingons?

Head on over and check it out!

Last night, on the podcast ...

2009-05-24T21:08:00.001-07:00

Last night on the show, @thepeterpixie and I were joined by one of my favorite bloggers, MightyGodKing, and we covered a whole host of topics, including:

* The key to writing about Dr Strange
* Why Bullseye ticks him off
* Why he didn't read Power Girl #2
* A good way to include Galactus in a Fantastic Four movie
* The utter ridiculousness of GI Joe

And much more! So if you missed the show, or want to listen to MGK and I make fun of Smallville, click on the handy-dandy player below, and don't forget to catch us next week!

Tonight, on the podcast!

2009-05-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight on HOUR 42, @ThePeterPixie and I will be LIVE tonight with the man who should be writing Dr. Strange, Canada's own MightyGodKing! We'll also talk about:

* The end of Battle For The Cowl
* Further thoughts on Terminator Salvation
* Bad news for Smallville fans
* Legal news surrounding the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Plus your comments and questions at 646-716-4799. And if you missed last week's eventful show, just click on the handy-dandy player below!

Wack To The Future: Arturo vs. Terminator Salvation!

2009-05-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Forget the easy “No wonder Christian Bale was mad” jokes, just believe the hype: this is the anti-Trek, in all the wrong ways.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Actually, director McG does a good job setting the table in Salvation, which takes place after the events of Rise Of The Machines, with Los Angeles and the rest of the west coast devastated and the human resistance forced, literally, underground. And here's where this new series could've set itself apart from Trek: As a war story with sci-fi trappings, showing John Connor and the human Resistance trying to hold on to their morality while battling for survival, we might have gotten a good, gritty couple of films out of this “tentpole,” the no-frills alternative to Trek's iPod shinyness.

Instead, trapped by a PG-13 rating – little blood, no cursing and no much-needed gallows humor – McG and writers John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris have to build a “blockbuster” out of cherry-picked bits from other franchises and increasingly forced shout-outs to Salvation's predecessors.

The set-up, such as it is, isn't horrible: Connor's mission is to ensure the beginning of the movie timeline (namely, his mom getting knocked up) comes to pass, so that he can grow up to be ~~Marty McFly~~ ~~Neo~~ the spiritual, if not actual, leader of La Resistance. And the key to that happening is lost in the badlands of Los Angeles – from the lack of upkeep and basic supplies, I'd guess somewhere in Orange County. Christian Bale tries to give us a glimpse into Connor's increasing desperation, but the script doesn't let him do much but be Action Hero Guy, all gruffness and Jack Bauer-like pronouncements of doom, even when he's broadcasting an inspirational message via CB radio.

Hope arrives on two fronts: the sudden discovery of a means to win the war, and the arrival of Marcus Wright, who we meet in the past as a Death Row inmate and, to be honest, is a bit of a d-ck. Yet somehow, Wright re-emerges being able to hotwire cars that've been out of commission for years, and instantly battle-ready, not even needing to stop for food. And none of these Hardened Resistance Fighters even raises a finger of suspicion against their new friend Marty Stu.

Of course, the trailer already spoiled it for us – Marcus is a ~~Cylon~~ Terminator built to infiltrate Connor's forces and set them up for defeat. Wouldn't you know, though, Marcus is still convinced he's human, thus revealing that Skynet is not a sophisticated form of cyber-intelligence; it's actually a Bond villain with a higher screen resolution. And the moment Connor and co. find out what we already know, the "plot" accelerates past plausibility and off the deep end. In a little more than an hour, Marcus gets the girl, confronts his masters, renounces his origins (complete with “throw the chair through glass in anger” slo-moment) and helps save the day.

The problem with this character arc, though, is that it's undone from the get-go. We never find out exactly what he's in for, and we never see the moment where he decides, “Okay, I guess I won't be a douche.”

Like Bale, Sam Worthington is asked to be as plastic as an action figure, more robotic than Summer Glau ever was on The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- which, this film inadvertently(?) reminds us, doesn't "count" in movie canon. And that's all the sadder, because between that show's cancellation and this film's lack of ... well, humanity, Salvation is exactly the opposite: it's the death-knell for a series that used to offer us a lot more.

FRIDAY MORNING COMPETITION!

2009-05-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

This past week, millions of people sat in rapt attention watching and supporting young hopefuls as they sang their hearts out for the chance at glory.

I'm referring, of course, to Eurovision, the annual song competition that drew in contestants from 42 countries that began in January and culminated with the finals in Moscow last Saturday. Now, sadly, the participants aren't acts already well-known in the U.S.. Can you imagine, back in the '90s, Oasis repping the U.K. against Sweden's Ace Of Base? Hell, an all-Britpop slugfest to even qualify for the competition back then would've been amazing fun.

Even if they're relative newcomers, Eurovision's participants seem to fall into a category fans of ~~pre-packaged lowest common denominator reality-show swill~~American Idol are well-acquainted with: goofy-ass pop. Witness the entry from Greece, Sakis Rouvas -- and watch out for his pelvis!

Now, the route to the finals was a lot more controversial than its' American counterpart. For instance:

* The entry from Georgia, "We Don't Wanna Put It In," stirred up a ruckus because - get this -- it had unfavorable political connotations. Obviously, given the song title
* When the Moscow Pride Parade was held the same day as the finals, following a pronouncement by the city's mayor that homosexuality was "satanic," 20 people were arrested, and some of the contestants took the opportunity to express solidarity with the cause.
* The second semi-final round was broadcast on a tape delay in Spain, without the option of televoting -- a violation of contest rules.
* A disagreement flared up between Armenia and Azerbaijan (the latter fielded the 3rd place finisher, "Always") after Armenia used a statue in a promo video that sits on land disputed between the two countries. How's all that for drama?

Compared to this contest, your precious Idol is a spring chicken. Eurovision has been around for 54 years. And apparently, even if these folks aren't well-known here now, they might be, in time: past participants include ABBA, Julio Iglesias and - gulp - Celine Dion. So that's where the blame lies.

The eventual winner, Norway's Alexander Rybak, looks like he's already got a leg up on post-Euro life: "Fairytale," shown below, is already charting heavily across the continent. So if he's annoying the hell out of you by this time next year, well, don't say I didn't give you fair warning.

Where Optimus Happens

2009-05-20T13:10:00.001-07:00

If Michael Bay includes this scene in Revenge Of The Fallen, all is forgiven:

Return Of The Blonde

2009-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Blonde texted me about a week after I first told you about her: "Art?" We went out a few days afterward, during which she suggested we make mixtapes for each other for the next time. We talked about catching Lyrics Born and Leonard Cohen when they came to town.

The night of the LB gig, though, I texted her it was probably better for my pursestrings if I didn't go. She wrote back, "nevermind. Best 2 u." Not the most supportive message, I thought.

Four days later, though, she called me, and we met up for wine and happy hour. A few minutes in, she started telling me about her making out with some guy from a band on the beach, and how upset she was that he didn't call back. All she was about, she said, was the makeouts; why did people have to complicate things? She also reveals, indirectly, that she never went to the Lyrics Born show. So why did she text me about going that night? Was she looking for me to foot the bill?

So, yeah, at that point I start having second thoughts about continuing the evening. Just to be sure, after dinner I move in for a kiss. She backs away, but still wants me to go to another bar with her. "Eh, I'm not sure that's a good idea," I say. "I kinda like you, you're not really vibing here ..." But she insists, says, "Let's go, have fun, enjoy life." We make plans to meet 90 minutes later, split a cab and do karaoke. Before we part ways, though, I give her the mixtape she'd suggested during our prior outing.

She ends up being 45 minutes late, after calling me every few minutes assuring me she's on her way. We grab a cab -- on my dime, and get to the bar.

Not quite. Before we go in, she insists on having something to drink beforehand. She buys a $4 bottle of vodka and cheap orange juice and, as we're standing in the alley behind the bar like truant high-schoolers, mixing and trading off swigs of our little cheap-ass cocktail, she hands me a hastily-made mixtape, sitting in a cd sleeve. The artists are listed, by hand, but not the tracks. Still, I appreciate the gesture.

We're halfway down the bottle when we finally walk in. My buzz is negligible. We find a spot near the KJ booth before I head out to buy our first round. Me paying for stuff is starting to not surprise me in a non-pleasant way. I get a more welcome surprise when I see @Soulcamp at the bar. The next few minutes seem to speed by: as we watch people go up on stage, she tells me she's looking forward to hearing me sing; I step away from her to go to the restroom between drinks. Back at the bar, @Soulcamp informs he she's called him "a dick." Now, my friends are many things, but, as we mentioned yesterday, they're not liars.

I'm still processing this info as I go up to ~~butcher~~belt out "Take Me Out" when I see her standing toward the back of the room. I'm not expecting Beatlemania from her, but it still irks me to see she's not even looking toward the stage -- instead she's making time with a skinny regular, a hipster who works the "I'm singing badly because it's ironic for me to do so" gimmick every week. By the time I'm done singing, they're out of the room.

I go back to the bar and grab another drink. @Soulcamp hasn't seen her, either. I feel a chill in my gut as I know where this is going. Still, I need confirmation.

I inhale and walk outside, making my way back toward the alley ... and there she is, making out with this hipster buffoon, glasses in her hand, heavy breathing audible from almost 10 feet away. I close my eyes again and inhale. Strike Three.

What happens next, I'm proud of: I walk up to them and say, calmly, "Excuse me." She's got the balls to be surprised to see me. I hand her back her mixtape, and the cheap-ass vodka, and say, "Goodbye." And I walk away - first to settle our tab and say goodbye to @Soulcamp at the bar, and then up the 25+ blocks to my brothers Jason and Kev-Fu's apartment, where I'd have two Whiskey & Cokes to settle me down. As I'm leaving the parking lot, she texts me: "meant no harm." I take 10 seconds for my reply: Sure you didn't.

Later that week find out that after I left, she complained to @Soulcamp that I was taking things too personally, that she didn't "feel the chemistry." In the days since, the odd times she's tried to start a text conversation with me, she's attempted to reproach me, and to appeal to the ease of our prior conversations, and just saying hi. But she hasn't apologized at all. Chemistry is one thing; courtesy is another. It's reasonable to expect, of course, that she feels she's done nothing wrong. But even if that were the case, I can't be that guy anymore, the noble back-up option hoping to "earn my shot." Because if she were willing, that quickly, to hurt my feelings for the first skinny jerk to cross her path in front of me, then it was only gonna get worse from there. And for once, I think I deserve a bit better.

Shedding the spotlight on Zetaman

2009-05-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Over at the Hour 42 blog, my co-host @ThePeterPixie talks about the latest webisode series from Portland costumed activist Zetaman. I guarantee, the video is a lot more advanced than you've probably been led to believe RLSHs (Real-Life Superheroes) are capable of putting together. But it's definitely worth a look.

ART VS LIFE: Ten Years Ago Today ...

2009-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

The memories came back with a twit from @ohsuperheroine:

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of STAR WARS Episode One - THE PHANTOM MENACE! [Barf!]

Give or take a couple of days, that also makes today the 10th anniversary of my college graduation. Back then I was, much as I feel I am now, something just a bit off-center, choosing the life of a college newspaper diehard over something more ... well, collegial. From my farewell column:

No big Spring Break adventures. No great college romances. No frat pledging. Not even any Greek invitations to parties. No afternoons at Monty’s drinking with my buds. No trendy shoes or wife-beater shirts or armband tattoos.

Just three years of sitting in this bunker, typing story after story, going to Associated Students meeting after women’s basketball games, after football road trip, after softball doubleheader, after tennis meet, after whatever else I’d talk myself into writing about or doing, just to feel that rush of doing something. Instead of the latest drink special; I was after a story.

So don’t feel sorry for me because you did more “typical” college things than I did. Instead of the beer bong and the body shot, I had a notebook, a recorder and a will.

The ceremony was held on a sunny Sunday morning at Tony Gwynn Stadium, then a shiny new announcement of my alma mater's fundraising power, now a backdrop for the latest baseball phenom. We didn't get to come out from the dugout, as I would have preferred, but the day was still enjoyable: I sat on the field with my newspaper colleagues and friends. (Trust me, they weren't all one and the same.) The Group -- my circle of high-school friends who I've been lucky to have since moving to the U.S. in '88(!) -- attended en masse, as did my mother.

At the time, I felt my mother's pride in me for not only surviving the accompanying culture shock, but in the journey I'd just completed. Nearly four years later, at the end of a six-month stint living back at home with her and my stepfather, as I was getting ready to move myself out on my own accord, she told me she and my stepdad never wanted me to move in with them in the first place. I realized then and there that love, as the song says, is thicker than blood. And that's all I'm prepared to say about that. Right now.

Ten years later and I've still led a life most unconventional: from the observation deck of the Sears Tower to the pits of South Texas in August; throwing the first pitch at a baseball game; I've seen death hit loved ones, and seen other loved ones give birth to new lives of their own; I have known love, I have hurt others, and I have been hurt. Part of me wonders, occasionally about the "conventional" things I've missed out on -- the weddings, the houses, the great loves -- but I don't know if the cost of getting those would really be worth it. There's not many places I'm genuinely scared of venturing into, not many styles of music or film or art I'm not at least willing to explore. I've gotten standing ovations at Vaudeville theatres and from an entire restaurant full of people. I don't believe the appeal of "growing up" would have been worth living without these experiences. Because, hell, if I'm going to die poor, the worst thing I could do to myself is to do so quietly. (I also, by the way, have a plan forming covering certain events after my death. We'll get to that later.)

I also don't think the "grown up" me would have quite the same kind of friends I do now: creative, progressive, artists, writers, musicians, performers, people who are unafraid as a matter of fact. I certainly don't think that person would have friends, literally, almost across the globe: Chula Vista, San Diego, Wichita, Los Angeles, England, Singapore, New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, etc. The kinds of folks who would know, without any prompting, that the proper graduation gift for a smart-assed geeky college journalist would be to skip the parties and liver-picklings and instead take in a matinee of The Phantom-fucking-Menace followed by dinner at a classy establishment:

Ten years later and I'm still fighting. But I still have my pride. And I still have people who care about me. Even if it takes a crappy prequel to remind me about that once in a while.

Meanwhile, on the podcast ...

2009-05-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

On Hour 42 last night, @ThePeterPixie and I had a lot to talk about, including:

* Marvel's newest Avenger
* The latest Doctor Who casting rumors
* Our shared frustration with the Smallville season finale
* The newest comic convention for you to travel to
* And we announced our special guest for next week: the guy who should be writing Doctor Strange, Toronto's own MightyGodKing!

So we hope you can spend part of your holiday weekend with us this coming Sunday, and if you missed last night's show, you can listen to it on the handy-dandy player below:

RaceFail '09 and FOC_U

2009-05-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the latest Heroes Roundtable, there's been some pretty acrimonious discussions online between some science-fiction authors and a group of fans on LiveJournal.

The affair has been dubbed RaceFail '09, and Seeking Avalon has a timeline of events here. Snacky at LiveJournal has one here. And there's another timeline with specific dates at the RaceFail Wiki.

As noted on Seeking Avalon, the debate began in January over the work of author Elizabeth Bear, specifically Blood & Iron. Eventually, fellow authors Will Shetterly, Emma Bull and Kathryn Cramer got involved, and the arguments degenerated to the point that peoples' real names were posted without their consent (though they were subsequently taken off the web).

In the wake of the controversy, another LJ community, has emerged, Fen Of Color United, aka FOC_U. (Fen, it should be noted, is a plural term for fans.) Here's what The Angry Black Woman wrote about the community and today's efforts, specifically:

As RaceFail 09 continues, it has become clear that there are those who are hellbent on marginalizing and silencing people of color. In the past few months, minorities have been denigrated by bigoted authors and publishers who have also asserted that Fen of Color are rare and pratically non-existent. Despite numerous discussions and attempts to enlighten on the fact that POCs are fans, writers, artists and just as integral to this genre as our white counterparts, we are continuously dismissed.

On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.

White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.

In addition, a new community entitled FOC_U has been created. It’s designed to be a safespace for POCs/non-whites and white allies to discuss the issues pertaining to RaceFail and a place to counteract its destructive effects. And it’s also a fun place for everyone to also discuss their favorite fandoms. While memberships and posts are under moderation for the time being (until the community gets more established and input is welcomed), everyone is encouraged to join and make this a home.

You can help out by spreading the word and reposting this banner on your personal blog or creating one of your own if you’d like.

The gauntlet’s been thrown and I for one think it’s past time for us to take a stand and let our voices be heard, whether some people want to hear them or not.

Another LJ user, Oyceter, wrote about some of the bigger issues spinning out of the controversy:

Even though this started as RaceFail, it does not affect "just" race. For one, that assumes that people of color only suffer from a single oppression. Secondly, as many, many people have noted, outing can be threatening on many levels, and I would like to highlight that it can seriously harm women who are being sexually harrassed, GLBT people who are not out, POC who have been threatened, and etc. Media fandom is a safe space for some people. Again, this is something I never thought I would say, as it has proved time and again that it is not a safe space for all people. But in this particular case, it is more of a safe space than SF book fandom because of media fandom's lack of business deals and money-related matters, because of the general lack of ways to retaliate in the offline world. The act of outing comes out of the attempt to control conversation and thereby acts as an attempt to control the people having the conversation, and it comes from not just from two individuals trying to silence an anti-racist ally, but also from a community with more power in terms of gender and race.

WS and KC did not do this in a vacuum; they did it in an environment in which they could reasonably not fear many consequences (and as far as I can tell, they will not suffer consequences at all, save being banned from some blogs they probably never visited). They may not have knowingly taken advantage of this power, but they did regardless. And right now, that same environment's reaction is saying that it's ok.

Talkin' Heroes at The R

2009-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a delay, you can now catch the season-ending Heroes Roundtable over at Racialicious, and get our take on:

* The season-ending death and ensuing twist
* The continued victimization of Claire
* Mohinder's medical qualifications
* Predictions for next season

As ever, the ladies I work with on this are great fun, and the hardest part of compiling this article from our chat was doing the editing -- I started with almost 20 pages of transcript and had to parse it to less than half that. Still, they bring the snark, as ever. Hope you like it.

Podcast tonight!

2009-05-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

(x-posted from the Hour 42 blog!)

Lots to talk about for @ThePeterPixie and myself tonight, including:

-- The newest Avenger and his connection to Trek
-- The new lease on life for Dollhouse
-- The craptastic Smallville finale
-- A travel tip for you comics folks who can't make SDCC
-- And an announcement for next week's show!

All this plus your comments and questions at 646.716.4799 LIVE at 11pm est (8pm pst) tonight on HOUR 42!

BREAKING: Dollhouse reportedly renewed!

2009-05-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Props to @FuryOfSolace and @The_Orphan for the tip: slight report here. This will surely be updated throughout the weekend.

Update: @feliciaday linked to this story from THR.com also reporting the news, saying the move will be formally announced Monday.

Quick Notes on the Smallville finale

2009-05-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

After you give up on something, it's natural, after some time has passed, to reconsider your feelings -- was your judgment rushed earlier? Were there qualities you'd forgotten about when you chose to walk away? Would time and distance give you a new perspective if you made the choice to come back?

Thank you, Smallville, for renewing my faith in my own instincts.

After sort-of keeping up to date on the season thanks to SV loyalist @ThePeterPixie, I tuned in for last night's season finale and saw the same things that drove me away. It's not about canon -- that got thrown out the window the minute Lois was brought into the picture. It's the relentless monologuing by everybody about everything they're going to do. This particular episode, it was the tease of a Legion return and possibly a team-up with the Little League, which yielded a pointless cameo by Cosmic Boy, and the rest of the team looking like imbeciles. Really? Hog-tying Doomsdreamy was the big plan? Would a Wet Willie have "crossed the line"? It's little wonder Bruce Wayne hasn't been allowed to associate with this batch of whiners -- it'd be like sticking Denis Leary on a soap opera:

Bruce: Okay, we're gonna send Doomsday to the Phantom Zone. Here's what we --
Chloe: But there's still a real person there!
Bruce: SHUT THE FU*K UP! NEXT!
Bruce: After that's done, we're taking down Lexcorp.
Ollie: Um, I already had an idea about --
Bruce: SHUT THE FU*K UP! NEXT!

Ok, maybe that sounds more like Frank Miller. But you get my point.

And then there was the long-promised throwdown between ~~Super ... guy~~Clark and the Doomsday entity, which lasted all of a good three minutes, sacrificed for the sake of, what, Lois and Tess hurling pronoun modifier smack at each other? Bart Allen's Spicoli impersonation? Look, Clark Kent's morality and immigrant issues can make for a good story. But sometimes, Clark just needs to beat somebody down.

See how satisfying that is for everybody? Anyway, I'll spare you more vitriol. If you check out my twitter feed, you can see how upset I got watching the show. And if you check out the HOUR 42 show blog, wonder of wonders -- Peter didn't like the show either!

FRIDAY MORNING FORMAT!

2009-05-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week I felt like giving you something on the funky side -- so I went with one of my favorite hip-hop acts of the decade: London's own DJ Format. Format and his crew only released two albums, but they were light years ahead of a lot of what you're hearing from the radio. We'll start making our case with his collaboration with Jurassic 5's Charlie 2na and Akil, "We Know Something You Don't Know."

That same album, Music For The Mature B-Boy, also featured the track that introduced me to Format, "Vicious Battle Raps," featuring Abdominal:

Abdominal would return for Format's second album, If You Can't Join 'Em ... Beat 'Em, and joined fellow Canadian D-Sisive on "3 Feet Deep" -- and I'd definitely play the video game featured in this video.

Examining The Body: Arturo v. Dollhouse 1.12!

2009-05-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

I can only imagine "Omega" was difficult to write, because it certainly became difficult to watch at times. And not for the right reasons.

As much as "Briar Rose" seemed to propel the series further into the deeper, darker themes Dollhouse delivered on at its' best, the season (series?) finale seemed to mostly backtrack.

The worst offender, unfortunately, was Alpha. While the idea of 48 different personalities getting dumped into -- and apparently mixed with -- that of a "born" killer, it was off-putting to see that his spokes-personality seemed, at times, to be a one-off Buffy villain. And that's not exactly a bad thing; that type of character, striking the cartoonish "HUZZAH!" pose as Wendy is being turned "into" Caroline, is just out of place in this world.

The scenes between Wendy/Caroline and the multi-booted Echo herself played out well, even if Echo's "ascension" into the more fully-realized version of her heroic "authentic" self was, unfortunately, telegraphed the moment Alpha dubbed her Omega. For a genius, he should've known that naming her something like Olivia might have had better implications for his plan to work. And the "climactic" chase and escape scene in the power plant just fell flat and felt rushed; the wedge just falls into Ballard's hands and Alpha walks off-stage without even a "Until next time!"? Ugh.

As has tended to be the case, though, the "B" plot in this episode outshone the main event. This time, the reveal behind Whiskey/Dr. Saunders wasn't just handled efficiently -- seriously, less than 5 lines before confirmation -- but the character's journey from No. 1 Doll (and Alpha's first target) to her bitter reprisal of a defenseless Victor to her apparent self-acceptance was packed with emotional shrapnel. And there's still the question: why would Topher program her to hate him?

The rest of the ensemble was handled inconsistently, perhaps due to time constraints. Toph and DeWitt were on point, but the budding bromance between Boyd and ~~Helo~~Ballard was undercut by Ballard apparently taking the lead thanks to Super-Detective-Fu Skills. There didn't seem to be any questions or conclusions coming from him that Boyd, a former cop himself, wouldn't have arrived to, based on his actions earlier in the series. And Ballard's deal to offer himself as a 'House "contractor," though based on a nice gesture, has one major hole: what leverage could he possibly have on DeWitt to make her accept his terms? Dude outright told Agent Badger the truth and got blown off. Unless Badger is revealed as another "sleeper" Doll, there was nothing stopping Paul from taking the scoop to somebody more sympathetic.

Meanwhile, Sierra and November ... did nothing. They got prepped for Super Hot Girl Bounty Hunter Action! - and then we never saw them again. Well, at least we didn't see them again; thanks to Ballard, November is allowed to return to her civilian self, Madeline. Still, as underwhelming as the pursuit of Alpha turned out, you'd think that having a couple more shooters on the ground couldn't have made things any worse.

Even if the series weren't seemingly on the chopping block, grabbing a season-low share of viewers for its' finale can't help Dollhouse's chances at getting a second season. You can thank Star Trek for those ratings, methinks. So unless the super-duper DVD set (which will reportedly contain both the unaired pilot and the much-discussed "Epitaph One" epilogue) sells like crazy at SDCC this year, this might have been Joss' last stand on traditional television: certainly flawed, occasionally brilliant, but always reaching for some greater meaning. Joss' own Doll -- built for us.

Ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!

2009-05-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

Come in, make yourself comfortable. Like what we've done with the place?

The makeover wasn't a rash decision; it came about when I created the new official blog for the podcast, which @ThePeterPixie and I will be maintaining from here on out. Plus, the new title conveys the spirit of what I've been sharing in this space, anyway. Have you tried explaining Callbacks to a non-RHPS person? Not the most effective use of one's time.

Of course, the TIC stuff will stay in the archives, and stuff like the Friday Morning Jukeboxes and other features will also stick around. But stay tuned for more surprises, True Believers!

Back To The Future: Arturo v. Star Trek!

2009-05-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Let's get the questions out of the way now:

* Is the command structure in the new Star Trek entirely ridiculous? Yes!
* Is the “Red Matter” the epitome of flimsy sci-fi “science”? Yes!
* Is a small, evil part of me disappointed that we didn't see Tyler Perry as Admiral Madea? Kinda!
* Is Classic Spock's entire presence a series of plot-connecting contrivances? Definitely!
* Does any of this make the film any less enjoyable? Absolutely not!

No, the new Star Trek (iTrek, for short) is barely at all like the original series. That's the whole damn point, one that's acknowledged early on. This is a different timeline – doesn't mean prior canon doesn't count; just that the game is different from here on out.

And even then, this story and this ensemble nailed the most important aspect of any Trek movie – the relationships between the Enterprise's core group – while at the same time redefining them. In short: Uhura hooking up with Spock? Good. Uhura hooking up with Spock over Kirk? Very good.

That romantic development underscores the biggest difference between iTrek and 8-Track Trek: Chris Pine's version is decidedly not the Alpha Dog here. In this timeline, JTK is more like a wolf in the old Kipling poem: without this team around him, he's effectively useless. He needs Pike to motivate him; he needs Uhura to confirm he's not talking out of his ass; he needs Sulu to save said ass on Nero's mining platform; and he needs both Spocks and Scotty in order to save the day. Everybody gets to shine, and the ensemble is so much the stronger for it.

Now, people are going to complain that this is “a dumb action movie,” but stop and ask: did anybody seriously expect anything involving this bunch to go smoothly? What did people want, Degrassi in space? The return of V'ger? The Phantom Menace? This story zooms along at a more ludicrous speed than Spaceball One, the heroes constantly cheat to win (the Kobayashi Maru sequence; Sulu's embellishing his “combat training;” Classic Spock shattering about 50 different time-travel tropes) and the villain – Eric Bana's under-developed Nero – gets punked out way too easily.

But the character work was too good to harp on any of that for too long. To wit:

The Racialicious Scorecard:
Uhura: No character benefited more from both the reboot and the re-vamp of their origin. Here we saw her as not just a determined, successful cadet, but one who brought a real skill-set to the table. Bring on the Uhura/Spock slash-fic ... er, and hopefully some insight into how those two crazy kids got together in the first place.

Sulu: Again, Kirk only survives the fight atop the first drilling platform because of young Hikaru – in a lesser movie, Sulu's “fencing” confession would have been a set-up to make him look inept in actual combat. We got quite the opposite here. The “parking brake” bit gave us a chance to see the patented John Cho Frustrated Face. Interesting note about Cho's casting: apparently director J.J. Abrams was concerned about having a Korean-American inheriting a role played by a Japanese-American, but was told by George Takei that the character was meant to represent “all of Asia.”

Spock: And now we come to the Big Other. The nature of Spock's heritage gets addressed early on, and it was a little ham-handed to see Vulcans being so openly prejudicial for two reasons:
1.Would Logic not show racism to be ... well, illogical?
2.We never saw him encounter racism from anybody in Starfleet – weird to think of that as “wrong,” but we'll talk more about Starfleet in a bit.

When it came to addressing Spock's basic inner conflict, though, Zachary Quinto pulled it off. He even brought a bit of swagger to the character (“I have no comment on the matter” and “Out of the chair” were two of my favorite lines in the movie). And when he met his elder self, I recoiled in horror because that's what they teach you on Doctor Who, yet I must confess ... ah, it got a little dusty in the theatre.

Nero: Was anybody else thrown off by us seeing an extraterrestrial villain who didn't sound British? The guy's working-class patois made him sound almost like a Tarantino character, but the fact he was a working-class guy almost made it work. Of course, as a villain with an ugly-as-sin ship, he was no Montalban. But who is?

Starfleet: Ok, so all of the power players were men. This is nothing new, unfortunately. (According to Memory Alpha, of the admirals seen in prior canon, most were men, only four were POC, and the only female was Vulcan. Six women, including Voyager's Kathryn Janeway, were Rear or Vice Admirals.) But the shots of extraterrestrials and POC serving together, without anybody looking at anybody else as weird – Kirk was a misfit because he's just that big of a clueless putz – was encouraging in the sense that, rather than the audience getting the “lesson” of tolerance handed down as a plot point, we got to see it in action. Let's hope for some more active examples as the series continues. One more note: the doomed Capt. Robau of the Kelvin was played by Faran Tahir, an Angeleno of Pakistani decent.

Join us TONIGHT with The Nerdy Bird!

2009-05-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

We're just three hours away from an extra-packed edition of HOUR 42! Tonight, @ThePeterPixie and I welcome The Nerdy Bird, Jill Pantozzi, as she makes her podcast debut!

Jill will join us to talk about the online controversy surrounding the upcoming Marvel Divas series. We'll also discuss the debut of the new Power Girl solo series, and we'll share our thoughts on the summer's big releases and hero news -- Star Trek! Dollhouse! Deadpool! All this plus a strange story out of Cincinatti: are you ready for Real Life Super-Villains? Join us for the fun this Sunday at 11pm EST (8pm Pacific) on HOUR 42!

The Bird is the word on HOUR 42!

2009-05-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

@ThePeterPixie and I have something special for you this Sunday on HOUR 42: the podcast debut of comics blogger, radio personality and all-around media maven The Nerdy Bird herself, Jill Pantozzi!

Jill will join us to talk about the online controversy surrounding the upcoming Marvel Divas series. We'll also discuss the debut of the new Power Girl solo series, and we'll share our thoughts on the summer's big releases and hero news -- Star Trek! Dollhouse! Deadpool! All this plus a strange story out of Cincinatti: are you ready for Real Life Super-Villains? Join us for the fun this Sunday at 11pm EST (8pm Pacific) on HOUR 42!

FRIDAY MORNING MIXTRESS!

2009-05-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today we're showing off another mixtape, one created for my friend Jules, aka The Mixtress.

The concept is simple: make a mixtape. Send Jules two copies and $3. In return you get a mix from her and a mix from somebody else participating in the project. It's a dead-lock cinch you'll get to hear something brand-new to you -- and, hey, you can help turn somebody on to stuff you like, as well. So, here's what I'm sending this month:

MIXTAPE SPOILERS AHEAD!

1. Shiny Toy Guns -- Major Tom
2. Bimbo Jones -- And I Try
3. DJ Lobsterdust -- Down UnDa Club
4. UNKLE & Josh Homme -- Restless
5. The Felice Brothers -- Run Chicken Run
6. Angry vs. The Bear -- I Sing, We Sing
7. Figurines -- Hey Girl
8. The Stranglers -- Golden Brown
9. Drew Andrews -- I Could Write A Book
10. Lior & Sia -- I'll Forget You
11. KaiserCartel -- Oh No (live on My Old Kentucky Blog)
12. A Fine Frenzy -- Last Of Days
13. The Hood Internet -- In The Air Ce Soir
14. Metric -- Help I'm Alive (The Twelves Remix)
15. Thunderheist -- Space Cowboy
16. Semi Precious Weapons -- Magnetic Baby (NSFW)
17. De Novo Dahl -- Be Your Man (live on MOKB)
18. You Me & Iowa -- Howling At The Summer
19. The All New Adventures Of Us -- The Wide-Eyed Led Us Home
20. Location Location -- Starpusher
21. Paul Van Dyk -- Time Of Our Lives

A Friendly Reminder About Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing a semi-yearly tradition of mine since my days working at my college paper, just a few notes about today:

1. This is not Mexican Independence Day
Nope, that's September 16th. 5/5 commemorates an unlikely Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The battle delayed, but did not stop, an eventual French occupation of the country, which lasted three years before it was toppled.

2. This is not that big of a deal back home
Don't let the beer ads fool you; 5/5 is a regional holiday, usually celebrated at the site of the battle. But, it's nowhere near as big a deal as it is in El Otro Lado. Now, is that because of immigrant pride, or American corporate opportunism? That, I leave for you to decide. During my time working in local Spanish-language radio, the biggest sponsors for our Cinco de Mayo concerts were -- you guessed it -- beer companies. Banners everywhere, beer girls hawking their wares on the stage, booze selling like hot cakes in the fenced-off drinking area. I don't doubt that at least some of the people who attended the events had their hearts in the right place, but the commercial aspect definitely got on my nerves when I thought about it.

3. 'Celebration' does not equal acceptance
Sure, people around the country will don their fakest sombreros and sing Ricky Martin at karaoke bars -- because all Latinos are from Mexico, right? -- but the furor over the H1N1 virus revealed examples of how we're still Others here, no matter the method of emigration. Check out these comments by Boston radio host Jay Severin regarding Mexicans:

"When we are the magnet for primitives around the world - and it's not the primitives' fault by the way, I'm not blaming them for being primitives - I'm merely observing they're primitive."

"It's millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America."

"We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of criminaliens already here.

And in Pennsylvania, two white teens were acquitted in the beating and killing of an immigrant. From the story:

"Isn't it a little late for you guys to be out?" the boys said, according to court documents. "Get your Mexican boyfriend out of here."

... Burke recalled hearing one final, ominous threat as the teens ran. "They yelled, 'You effin bitch, tell your effin Mexican friends get the eff out of Shenandoah or you're gonna be laying effin next to him,' " she said.

On the more anecdotal side, have you ever noticed that, in some discussions about the increase in Spanish-language radio stations in this country over the past few years, that there's almost always one person in the talk who gets indignant about it? That complains about "fucking Mexican music" as if it were clogging up his or her airwaves, depriving them of valuable time that could be spent listening to Sublime for the 80 millionth time? The guy who fancies himself a new Zapata today might be parroting Lou Dobbs tomorrow. Just something to listen for, if you're joining the party at your local watering hole tonight. Myself, I'm probably gonna sit it out, think about home, and have a drink.

Not tequila, for the record.

What's Behind The Music?: Arturo v. Anvil: The Story Of Anvil!

2009-05-04T20:44:00.001-07:00

As easy as it could be to compare Anvil! The Story Of Anvil to This Is Spinal Tap, it's really more like a more acclaimed movie, The Wrestler, than you might imagine.

Like Randy "The Ram" Robinson, band founders Steve "Lipps" Kudlow and Robb Reiner were big in the '80s, until they somehow lost their way, resulting in them playing Toronto-area bars and, in Lipps' case, making do working for a school-lunch catering company.

Quite unlike Randy, though, Lipps and Robb are living in more understandable circumstances. Their band is still playing and recording, and each of them is supported by a loving, if at times seemingly bemused, family. Not only are the Anvil boys more real than The Ram, they're more sympathetic. As we see each of them -- Lipps, especially -- ping-pong between optimism and fear, friendship and frustration, and a steady, if underwhelming, stream of gigs across Europe, it's not hard to feel for them as they keep reaching for a level of success that, going by the sentiments of the array of stars interviewed for the film, they should already have reached.

The problem with the movie -- and it's not necessarily the band's fault -- is that we never learn why they never made it big. There's allusions to mismanagement throughout the movie, and the band meets a guy on tour who seemingly volunteers to help remedy that, but we never find out what comes of that encounter. Furthermore, it's surprising to find that Anvil isn't able to capitalize on the '80s nostalgia wave and book itself into smaller halls closer to home. Put it this way: if Enuff Z'nuff can still tour, there's seemingly no reason why Anvil -- who, judging by the tracks we hear in the movie, is actually good -- shouldn't be, either. At least, none that's shared in the film.

In the end, though, Anvil does its' duty as a feel-good story, culminating in the group's return to Japan, which was the nadir of their initial run toward the big leagues. Whatever the hell had happened to deny them further triumphs, the joy in Lipps' face as he sees the crowd is genuine. And if the positive press this movie and their accompanying tour is getting Anvil some of that long overdue recognition, I won't fault them for that.

Shanks For Nothing: Arturo v. X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

2009-05-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the movie of the year! ... if the year were 1995.

Give Hugh Jackman credit for putting his money where his mouth is -- he's listed as a producer on this flick, and his affection for the title character seems genuine. Unfortunately for him, this movie was more like Van Helsing than X-Men 2. Hell, there were moments when the movie felt like a slightly-better-written episode of Smallville.

Part of the problem is, because the film is a prequel (in film canon, it takes place more than a decade before the X-series opens), there's too many limits going in. You know Jimmy/Logan/Wolverine is gonna make it through; it's just a matter of how the dots get connected.

And to be fair, the script by David Benioff and Skip Wells does that well enough. Yes, a young Cyclops is featured in the film, but there's not enough contact between himself and Logan to mess with the timeline established in the rest of the movies. There's even a scene thrown in for the Scott/Emma Frost 'shippers among us. (One wish for the planned First Class film: a triangle between Scott, Emma and a young Jean Grey. Fanservice and soap opera all in one!)

The brightest spots amidst all the angst (more on that later) are, not surprisingly, Ryan Reynolds stealing the movie as Wade Wilson in the course of one monologue; and, somewhat surprisingly, Taylor Kitsch giving us a Gambit who is refreshingly long on swagger and short on the Pepe Le Pew-like pronouncements he's prone to in the comics. Both are one-note characters, to be sure, but they're entertaining one-note characters -- enough so that you actually want to see their roles being expanded if the series continues.

As ~~Duncan MacLeod,~~ Logan himself, Hugh Jackman again brings his best t-shirts to the proceedings. But the character is undercut from the get-go. First off, as we've all known since his first solo mini-series, a good Wolverine story should not be PG-13. You can't do the grim without doing the gritty. As he tells his girlfriend, "What I do isn't very nice," so to put it bluntly, this story needed blood. Maybe not Eli Roth-levels of gore, but enough to hammer home the nastiness of the circles he runs in when he's not in Westchester County.

The toning-down of the story also leaves Liev Schrieber with precious little to do as Sabretooth, who is further neutered by being portrayed as Logan's half-brother, something which Wolvie's proper origin didn't cover. The "my brother is my enemy" subplot, spread out over what felt like 200 fights between the two, took Wolverine from retro to outright dated. Not bad, per se; hindsight being what it is, if this were the first X-movie we'd ever gotten back in the day, it would be a good warm-up for whatever was to come. But by now, it's just another comic-book movie -- hardly the best at what it's trying to do.

Quick Thoughts on Dollhouse

2009-05-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

Dammit, now that was Prime Whedon Stuff right there. "Briar Rose," written by TEH JOSS and Jane Espenson, gave us a cliffhanger on par with anything we'd seen the Mutant Enemy team do before. Anything.

And most of the credit here, without spoiling it, should go to Alan Tudyk, who knocked his role out of the park. This is the kind of ass-kicking Heroes just can't deliver any more. Suddenly I'm more hopeful next week's episode is only a season finale.