Buys'n'Gifts
I've got this thing about birthdays: I don't really mention them, even avoid them, but I'm not against getting gifts for them, especially on the wrong day. So Carolynn obliged me by being a couple weeks late with one DVD, Thank You For Smoking, and a couple of handy editions of Shakespeare plays, Henry IV (both parts) and MacBeth, both with Harold Bloom introductions culled from Shakespeare: Invention of the Human (which I own, but it's so much easier to have the relevant essay right there in the pocket book). Profuse thanks!
As for treating myself, I went to the comics store this week because Brave and the Bold #5 came out (somehow, it was the least interesting yet to me), and immediately grabbed Showcase Presents Batgirl. No Freedom Fighters trade, no Nextwave volume 2, no Wonder Woman Encyclopedia, but I always get trades in threes (so that one of them is free, as per my store's eternal special), so what could I do? I remembered that I really liked that first Fables trade, so I got the next two. Two days later, I'd gone through them both, so see below. Oh, and I also got the first trade of Rex Libris - I, Librarian - from SLG, which got rave blogosphere reviews.
"Accomplishments"
My last week of vacation, so I spent the first few days racing through a few DVDs. First was Peter Jackson's extended King Kong. The film is a love letter to the original Kong and really made me want to see the original in its entirety more than anything. The movie is really three little films. I liked the mysterious boat ride a heck of a lot, and the last part, Kong's inevitable death, is touching even as an animatic. The middle part, however, is just one monster race/fight after another, and the extended edition simply adds an extra half hour of monster races and fights. Dull. For all its problems though, it's a Peter Jackson release, so it's worth it for people like me who like in-depth, non-redundant extras. Took me about 12 hours to get through the whole thing (except the ROM-scripts, I'm not going there).
Next up was V for Vendetta, which I'd seen in theaters and liked a lot despite differences with the graphic novel. I'm not even sure why Alan Moore took his name off it (and for a while there, it was really creepy how they kept avoiding his name in the documentaries, though they eventually did). Watchmen should be so lucky. Another movie I'd seen in theaters and bought was Casino Royale, the Batman Begins of James Bond films. At the time, I spouted a theory about the Bonds on this very blog, which the extras neither confirm (sadly) nor deny.
I had a couple hours free after that, just enough for a no-frills DVD, and my choice fell on Yakuza Graveyard, which came off like a Japanese version of Mean Streets. Kinji Fukasaku directs violence as totally chaotic, and you feel like you're there, but there are also some surprising flights of visual and textual poetry, especially when the beautiful Meiko Kaji (Keiko) is on screen.
Oh, and I did flip Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (I reserve all extras for when I have actually watched through an entire boxed set), for this little daily series I do here. In the same spirit, I finished Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold volume 1, so I can now move on to other comics-related material on the SBG. Aren't you glad RomQuest can start again?
So comics. Yeah. I finished DMZ volume 2 (Body of a Journalist). I love DMZ and am glad I discovered it, that's the best compliment I can give it, really. I look forward to more trades in the future. And as I mentioned above, I read through volumes 2 and 3 of Fables (Animal Farm and Storybook Love) and while I liked volume 1, only now can I say I'm truly hooked. The three little pigs organizing a revolution? A field of Thumbelinas for refugee Lilliputians? The Big Bad Wolf blows on something? I am going to get a few more of these next time I go to the shop, guaranteed.
And in the chore section of our Geekly Roundup, got my Warcraft character from level 58 to 60, which means I again made my 2-levels-a-week quota without playing very much at all. I expect it to slow down soon, but I've been saying that since level 40. And I started work on the Fox TV Movie for my Doctor Who CCG, but only a little. 4 cards made, mostly a friend's designs (yes, I can be collaborative when I want to).
Ok enough, talk to you later!
I've got this thing about birthdays: I don't really mention them, even avoid them, but I'm not against getting gifts for them, especially on the wrong day. So Carolynn obliged me by being a couple weeks late with one DVD, Thank You For Smoking, and a couple of handy editions of Shakespeare plays, Henry IV (both parts) and MacBeth, both with Harold Bloom introductions culled from Shakespeare: Invention of the Human (which I own, but it's so much easier to have the relevant essay right there in the pocket book). Profuse thanks!As for treating myself, I went to the comics store this week because Brave and the Bold #5 came out (somehow, it was the least interesting yet to me), and immediately grabbed Showcase Presents Batgirl. No Freedom Fighters trade, no Nextwave volume 2, no Wonder Woman Encyclopedia, but I always get trades in threes (so that one of them is free, as per my store's eternal special), so what could I do? I remembered that I really liked that first Fables trade, so I got the next two. Two days later, I'd gone through them both, so see below. Oh, and I also got the first trade of Rex Libris - I, Librarian - from SLG, which got rave blogosphere reviews.
"Accomplishments"
My last week of vacation, so I spent the first few days racing through a few DVDs. First was Peter Jackson's extended King Kong. The film is a love letter to the original Kong and really made me want to see the original in its entirety more than anything. The movie is really three little films. I liked the mysterious boat ride a heck of a lot, and the last part, Kong's inevitable death, is touching even as an animatic. The middle part, however, is just one monster race/fight after another, and the extended edition simply adds an extra half hour of monster races and fights. Dull. For all its problems though, it's a Peter Jackson release, so it's worth it for people like me who like in-depth, non-redundant extras. Took me about 12 hours to get through the whole thing (except the ROM-scripts, I'm not going there).
Next up was V for Vendetta, which I'd seen in theaters and liked a lot despite differences with the graphic novel. I'm not even sure why Alan Moore took his name off it (and for a while there, it was really creepy how they kept avoiding his name in the documentaries, though they eventually did). Watchmen should be so lucky. Another movie I'd seen in theaters and bought was Casino Royale, the Batman Begins of James Bond films. At the time, I spouted a theory about the Bonds on this very blog, which the extras neither confirm (sadly) nor deny.
I had a couple hours free after that, just enough for a no-frills DVD, and my choice fell on Yakuza Graveyard, which came off like a Japanese version of Mean Streets. Kinji Fukasaku directs violence as totally chaotic, and you feel like you're there, but there are also some surprising flights of visual and textual poetry, especially when the beautiful Meiko Kaji (Keiko) is on screen.Oh, and I did flip Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (I reserve all extras for when I have actually watched through an entire boxed set), for this little daily series I do here. In the same spirit, I finished Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold volume 1, so I can now move on to other comics-related material on the SBG. Aren't you glad RomQuest can start again?
So comics. Yeah. I finished DMZ volume 2 (Body of a Journalist). I love DMZ and am glad I discovered it, that's the best compliment I can give it, really. I look forward to more trades in the future. And as I mentioned above, I read through volumes 2 and 3 of Fables (Animal Farm and Storybook Love) and while I liked volume 1, only now can I say I'm truly hooked. The three little pigs organizing a revolution? A field of Thumbelinas for refugee Lilliputians? The Big Bad Wolf blows on something? I am going to get a few more of these next time I go to the shop, guaranteed.And in the chore section of our Geekly Roundup, got my Warcraft character from level 58 to 60, which means I again made my 2-levels-a-week quota without playing very much at all. I expect it to slow down soon, but I've been saying that since level 40. And I started work on the Fox TV Movie for my Doctor Who CCG, but only a little. 4 cards made, mostly a friend's designs (yes, I can be collaborative when I want to).
Ok enough, talk to you later!
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