Wow, big week really, so let me get into it...
Beware of geeks bearing gifts...
Finally ready to describe everything I got for Christmas, and what's weird is that I got booze from actual geeks, and geek-stuff from non-geeks. Go figure.
DVDs received: The Batman Complete Second Season (that new cartoon one, now I need the First Season, I guess), Love's Labour's Lost (I am a Shakespeare geek on top of everything else), and Waking Ned Devine.
Comics received: Well, after the monkey cover talk we had, Carolynn went out of her way to find one, and that one was Superboy #53. Great inside joke gift to go with an aforementioned DVD and the Wanted TPB by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. She tells me the twit at the store recommended it because it had guns in it. "Does he like guns?" Exactly why I don't shop at that particular store anymore. From the description, same idiot who once told me the James Kochalka stuff I was buying looked like it was drawn by a five year old. Jerk.
Other: Well, the booze of course. But also this funky little voodoo doll/toothpick holder. Now I can clean my teeth AND torture my enemies. Perfect for the new year, thanks Emili!
Buys
A ton of stuff started coming in the mail from pre-Christmas splurges, including a number of DVDs: Peter Jackson's extended cut of King Kong, Time Tunnel Volume 1 and Clerks Uncensored. And then there's the comics-related stuff: Daniel Clowes' Ice Haven, Michael Chabon's The Escapist (vol.1), and the DC Comics Encyclopedia, which I got on the cheap (it's a snapshot of the DCU before Infinite Crisis happened, so probably totally irrelevant now).
"Accomplishments"
Sadly, got a bit of a cold and couldn't go through with one final RPG session before school started for everyone. Still managed to create more than a dozen cards for the Unauthorized Dr Who CCG (finishing up the Pertwee era), and sit down to read and watch a good many things.
Read The Escapist vol. 1, which I'd heard excellent things about from Chris Sims. It's a handsome little volume that collects issues 1 and 2 of this anthology series whose conceit is that it published stories from the golden age through today, all based on a character that never actually existed. But let's make like he did, ok? Michael Chabon wrote a novel - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - about the creators of the Escapist in the 40s, which lays the foundation for the comic series. I really want to read that now.
Also read Wanted, a postmodern tale of supervillains in the "real world". It's a shock-a-minute, wall-to-wall brains'n'guts, no taboo untouched, epic that stars, among others, a character called Shit-Head. Sounds bad, but it's a lot of fun, with some great geek-out moments when you try to piece together who each character is supposed to remind you of (Shit-Head = Clayface, for example).
On the DVD side of things, flipped the tape on Batman the Animated Series Season 3, which again had some great Harley Quinn moments. I think I'm watching Batman for her. Oh, and there's a completely gratuitous Jonah Hex vs. Ra's al Ghul episode in there too.
Also flipped two Doctor Who DVDs: The Hand of Fear, which is the one with the rubber hand, and The Mark of the Rani, which is the one with the rubber tree. Commentaries: Funny and mostly Anecdotal.
Then flipped Good Night and Good Luck, which wasn't hard to do since there's only a commentary track as far as features go. Found the film intensely interesting, but then I've always been into censorship (uhm... against censorship, that is). Commentary: Funny Historical.
And finally, last night I went through the classic Soylent Green (which you kids might only remember as something Homer Simpson ordered once). I don't think I'd seen since the very first time on some afternoon movie quiz show (back before they got replaced by those putrid talk shows), but it was a lot more prophetic than I remember. Commentary: Gushing Anecdotal.
Website finds
They promised us flying cars! But that's not all, is it? Underwater cities, smell-o-vision, the leisure society, we were promised them all! Retro Future is a great little site that discusses all of that, and Sex in Space too!
A favorite of ours is The Politically Incorrect Alphabet, a sort of primer with nifty little images I keep using as birthday cards even though people have asked me to stop. If a clothes hanger on the letter "A" is 1) something you "get" and 2) something that makes you laugh, then this site's for you!
If you've always wanted to know what age you'd have if you lived on another planet, then let me recommend Your Age on Other Worlds. It'll even tell you when all your birthdays are due! For example, my birthday on Jupiter is on February 5th! I'll be three years old! Better celebrate, it only comes up every 11-12 years! Of course, making like you were born on Mercury is the best deal, since your birthday comes up every 3 months.
Ok, well, that's it for me this week... Until tomorrow that is! See you then, and thanks for stopping by.
Beware of geeks bearing gifts...
Finally ready to describe everything I got for Christmas, and what's weird is that I got booze from actual geeks, and geek-stuff from non-geeks. Go figure.
DVDs received: The Batman Complete Second Season (that new cartoon one, now I need the First Season, I guess), Love's Labour's Lost (I am a Shakespeare geek on top of everything else), and Waking Ned Devine.
Comics received: Well, after the monkey cover talk we had, Carolynn went out of her way to find one, and that one was Superboy #53. Great inside joke gift to go with an aforementioned DVD and the Wanted TPB by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. She tells me the twit at the store recommended it because it had guns in it. "Does he like guns?" Exactly why I don't shop at that particular store anymore. From the description, same idiot who once told me the James Kochalka stuff I was buying looked like it was drawn by a five year old. Jerk.Other: Well, the booze of course. But also this funky little voodoo doll/toothpick holder. Now I can clean my teeth AND torture my enemies. Perfect for the new year, thanks Emili!
Buys
A ton of stuff started coming in the mail from pre-Christmas splurges, including a number of DVDs: Peter Jackson's extended cut of King Kong, Time Tunnel Volume 1 and Clerks Uncensored. And then there's the comics-related stuff: Daniel Clowes' Ice Haven, Michael Chabon's The Escapist (vol.1), and the DC Comics Encyclopedia, which I got on the cheap (it's a snapshot of the DCU before Infinite Crisis happened, so probably totally irrelevant now).
"Accomplishments"
Sadly, got a bit of a cold and couldn't go through with one final RPG session before school started for everyone. Still managed to create more than a dozen cards for the Unauthorized Dr Who CCG (finishing up the Pertwee era), and sit down to read and watch a good many things.
Read The Escapist vol. 1, which I'd heard excellent things about from Chris Sims. It's a handsome little volume that collects issues 1 and 2 of this anthology series whose conceit is that it published stories from the golden age through today, all based on a character that never actually existed. But let's make like he did, ok? Michael Chabon wrote a novel - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - about the creators of the Escapist in the 40s, which lays the foundation for the comic series. I really want to read that now.
Also read Wanted, a postmodern tale of supervillains in the "real world". It's a shock-a-minute, wall-to-wall brains'n'guts, no taboo untouched, epic that stars, among others, a character called Shit-Head. Sounds bad, but it's a lot of fun, with some great geek-out moments when you try to piece together who each character is supposed to remind you of (Shit-Head = Clayface, for example).On the DVD side of things, flipped the tape on Batman the Animated Series Season 3, which again had some great Harley Quinn moments. I think I'm watching Batman for her. Oh, and there's a completely gratuitous Jonah Hex vs. Ra's al Ghul episode in there too.
Also flipped two Doctor Who DVDs: The Hand of Fear, which is the one with the rubber hand, and The Mark of the Rani, which is the one with the rubber tree. Commentaries: Funny and mostly Anecdotal.
Then flipped Good Night and Good Luck, which wasn't hard to do since there's only a commentary track as far as features go. Found the film intensely interesting, but then I've always been into censorship (uhm... against censorship, that is). Commentary: Funny Historical.
And finally, last night I went through the classic Soylent Green (which you kids might only remember as something Homer Simpson ordered once). I don't think I'd seen since the very first time on some afternoon movie quiz show (back before they got replaced by those putrid talk shows), but it was a lot more prophetic than I remember. Commentary: Gushing Anecdotal.
Website finds
They promised us flying cars! But that's not all, is it? Underwater cities, smell-o-vision, the leisure society, we were promised them all! Retro Future is a great little site that discusses all of that, and Sex in Space too!A favorite of ours is The Politically Incorrect Alphabet, a sort of primer with nifty little images I keep using as birthday cards even though people have asked me to stop. If a clothes hanger on the letter "A" is 1) something you "get" and 2) something that makes you laugh, then this site's for you!
If you've always wanted to know what age you'd have if you lived on another planet, then let me recommend Your Age on Other Worlds. It'll even tell you when all your birthdays are due! For example, my birthday on Jupiter is on February 5th! I'll be three years old! Better celebrate, it only comes up every 11-12 years! Of course, making like you were born on Mercury is the best deal, since your birthday comes up every 3 months.
Ok, well, that's it for me this week... Until tomorrow that is! See you then, and thanks for stopping by.
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