Señor Sinister's Low-Key Plan for World Domination

My Favorite Graphic Novels/Comics Collections

2011-11-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

So, I decided to put together a list of my favorite graphic novels and collections of comics. Most of these are pretty well known. All are worth checking out for various reasons. I've of course enjoyed a lot of other stories, but these are some of my favorites.

Kingdom Come - Mark Waid and Alex Ross - Possible my all-time favorite story. The story itself is fantastic (in the future, older heroes come out of retirement to get the new ones under control and to teach them what true heroism is), but it's the art that pushes this one over the top. Alex Ross could paint a grocery bag and it would look amazing, but what he does here, with these larger than life heroes, is truly stunning.

Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - A pretty obvious choice. This is the alpha and the omega of graphic novels. This book, as far as I am concerned, really does deserve all of the praise heaped upon it. Sometimes the imagery/symbolism is over the top, but mostly, what you are reading, is an incredibly intricate (watch-like) piece of storytelling which some people say is a deconstruction of the superhero genre. I don't know what that means, but I do know is a towering achievement.

The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2 - Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch - The name "Mark Millar" will show up again on this list. If you have any interest in a well-written, big time superhero team book about heroes taking on big threats, this is the book. Seriously, this is the $%^&ing book. In a lot of ways, the Marvel Superhero movies are based on these books more than they are on the traditional Avengers books. These are fun, accessible books with a real cinematic feel to the artwork.

The Authority: Relentless and The Authority: Under New Management - Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely - If you're looking for another big-time superhero book with wit and style and with a fantastic, cinematic feel to it, this is another place to look. The first 2 volumes involve fighting invaders from another planet, terrorists, the entire Marvel Universe of superheroes, and a giant creature that is essentially God. Plus, you have to love Midnighter and Apollo where the authors basically create Superman & Batman analogues that are romantically involved with one another. Brilliant writing and artwork.

Superman for All Seasons - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale - this book is pure magic. If you're looking for a straightforward, relatively family friendly story, this is the place. If you're looking for a beautifully told and illustrated story about the early years of Superman with humor and heart. This is the place. In fact, this book basically inspired Smallville (which I loved). The team of Loeb and Sale will show up again on this list.

All-Star Superman (generally sold as 2 volumes) - Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely - Up there with kingdom Come for the definitive take on Superman. Beautiful art (seriously, some of Frank Quitely's pages are just ridiculous), compelling and wonderfully written story, this is the whole package. This presents a larger-than-life, thoughtful, intelligent Superman. Also, they get points for effectively conveying Superman's origins in one page. One page! That's all you need.

Superman: Red Son - Mark Millar - Mark Millar must be my favorite artist, because in addition to these items I've already mentioned, he also wrote a bunch stories that would be in my next tier of stories that I love like Wolverine: Old Man Logan (Wolverine is the only surviving hero as an old guy, and the bad guys have taken over), and Marvel 1985 (real Marvel superheroes and villains show up in a town in 1985), both of which confirm what I love about Millar, which is that he gets what comics should be a about - big, ridiculous, fun ideas. Now about Superman: Red Son, the concept is simple: Superman lands in Russia instead of Kansas. That's all you need to know. The book is insanely fun, and has great twists on what you know from the regular DC universe. Read this book.

Wanted - Mark Millar and J.G. Jones - Mark Millar again. Love that #$%^ing guy. In this one, the Supervillains secretly control everything, and this loser finds out he's actually the worlds greatest killer and joins the secret society of supervillains. Like Harry Potter or the Matrix, but about a bad guy. Crazy fun.

Astro City - Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross and Brent Anderson (multiple volumes) - This is a fantastic series, but I'm not sure which book in particular to point a reader to. I'd start with the first collection, "life in the Big City". It provides a nice overview to the world of Astro City. These are stories from a world where there are lots of superheroes, and you see the world both from the perspective of the Superheroes and from the perspective of regular people. Or, low-level grunts in a super villain's organization. The writing here is top-notch, the stories are moving, funny, sad, dramatic and everything else. The concept here is kind of a continuation of the idea that Busiek and Ross first came up with in Marvels.

Batman: The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale - Loeb and Sale come together again to make magic. This story is so very good, and the art is over the top, but in a very enjoyable way. A long, good mystery for Batman to solve early in his career. Also great if you like "Godfather" references.

Marvels - Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross - Alex Ross is the man. Seriously, even if the story is crap, his art could make it worth getting. However, here the story is wonderful. It's a retelling of the early history of the Marvel universe, from the perspective of regular people who experienced it.

Planet Hulk - Greg Pak - Hulk is sent away by the superheroes to another planet and he meets a new, memorable group of warriors and has awesome adventures. All you need to know. Well, also the art is fantastic, I really like this characterization of the Hulk (not stupid, but not the "merged" brainy professor Hulk either, very much aware that he is a savage force of nature), and the story and action are really compelling.

The best album of the past 10 years? And some other thoughts.

2011-10-17T23:50:00.002-04:00

Slate had an article recently suggesting that the Strokes "Is This It" is the best album of the past decade. So, I said - challenge accepted!! First, right off the bat, I reject the central thesis of the article. I'm on a quest to figure out what I think the best album of the past 10 years is, but I'm pretty sure that the answer to the question, "is this it?", is no. I listened to the album this evening, and what I will say is that it's a really solid rock album. Very catchy, good listening. It's a fun album. But it's not a transcendent album. I have to believe, for myself, that the best album is something that you listen to and you feel changed. For me at least, the Strokes don't do that. But I will keep them in consideration, out of deference to the author, and the fact that it is a really good record.

Also, it is of course worth making the obvious point that art is totally subjective. I get that, but I also know that everyone loves making lists. So, using a quick and dirty analysis of the songs in my iTunes collection, here are some of my favorite albums of the past 10 years:

The Top 10 (probably):

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Muse - H.A.A.R.P.
Green Day - American Idiot
Bad Religion - The Process of Belief
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
Beck - Guero
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Wilco - A Ghost is Born

No surprise if you know me - I'm pretty clear that I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the best album of the past 10 years. Actually an easy question for me.

Here's a bunch of others I really liked:

Pearl Jam - Riot Act
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Cave In - Antenna
The Strokes - Is This It
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Black Mountain -In the Future
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Jane's Addiction - Strays
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Yo La Tengo - I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass
Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
The Black Keys - Brothers
The White Stripes - Elephant

One other conclusion to draw is that some of the bands I loved in the 90's (Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, R.E.M.) did not have as strong decades in the 2000's. Anyway, I have more to say about music (and bands that have disappointed me recently), I'll save that for another post.

Comics Reviews

2011-10-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a ton of comics recently, and wanted toget down some of my thoughts on issue 2 of the "New 52" issues, alongwith some excellent Marvel stuff I've been reading recently. I also think that it generally takes morethan 1 issue to really assess whether you want to read something. So, unless I thought something was not very good (or just didn't speak to me at all), I'm reading a second issue of it.

Action Comics #2 -Another fun issue. I'll definitely keepreading. One thing though, I'm actuallynot crazy about the art. I actuallythink it's kind of inconsistent in places. Lois looks sort of heavy in one shot, and then not in another. Still, very skillful storytelling going on,and I want to keep reading to see what Grant Morrison has planned.

All-Star Western #1 - A big, fun surprise from the New52. I had no intention of picking thisup at all, but I heard some good things about it and I'm really glad I readit. I'm not at all familiar with theJonah Hex character, but I get it (gunslinger with mysterious past, emotionaland physical scars). It was a reallywell told story; I'm not a particular Western fan, but the idea of taking thisWestern character in Jonah Hex, and putting him in the industrial early Gothamwas an interesting choice, and made for a really well told story.

Batgirl - like a bunch of other issues this month, this isan improvement over issue 1. Issue 1 wasgood but not spectacular, and Simone really steps up here. Very strong characterization of Batgirl, andshe develops a sympathetic villain. Goodstuff.

Animal Man - This is another very strong issue in a verygood, and creepy series. I'm not sure ifI'm in for this long-term, but I definitely think it's some interestingstuff. Art is strong (and, like I said,creepy and unsettling), and Buddy Baker and his family are pretty wellrealized, and realistically written characters.

Batman and Robin - I read it twice, and I'd say it's a bookdefinitely worth reading. Strongcharacterization between Bruce Wayne and his son Damien (Bruce is not going towin any father of the year awards). However, that being said, I can only read so many books and there's aton of stuff which intrigues me more than a second or third Batman book (I'mprobably just going to stick with Scott Snyder's "Batman" for now).

Batwoman - Now this book is freakin' great. The art is really just stunning, and thestory feels nearly as strong (which is high praise considering that the artreally is incredible stuff). I'll definitelykeep reading this. It has a real senseof atmosphere, a strong, distinctive, female protagonist who is powerful andsexy but is not once perceived as a sex object (you ought to check that out,Judd Winick and Scott Lobdell), and a real voice that comes through. This book is a real winner in my mind.

Demon Knights - Fantastic stuff. Not to sound like a broken record, but therereally is a ton of fun stuff this month. The new DC books continue to impress. I wasn't particularly sure I would like this series (I'm not necessarilya huge medieval swords and sorcery type person) but the writing is terrific andthe book, thus far, has been an insanely entertaining story, so as long as itkeeps being really good, fun stories, I will keep reading.

FF - Overall, this was a pretty strong issue even though notthat much happened. It felt like alittle bit of a break before the next series of big battles/adventures. I've been enjoying this series overall, andas I've said previously, I'm a big fan of Jonathan Hickman. This series has mixed big action and brainyideas, which is pretty much Hickman's stock-in-trade. It looks like they might be bringing back"Fantastic Four" in a few months, so I'm curious to see what rolethis series will play. I'm not sure Ican read both books if they end up being 2 separate books, but we'll see.

Frankenstein - Another ridiculously fun series, courtesy ofJeff Lemire (who is also writing Animal Man). This one, although involving monsters as well, is more fun than AnimalMan in that it's more absurd and over-the-top action, as opposed to just plaincreepy and unsettling imagery. I likethe tone of the story, Frankenstein (shouldn't it be Frankenstein's monster?)is a great character as well. I mightjust read the first arc on this one (as I feel like I've got a lot ofsupernatural monster/creature/horror comics on my plate) but it's definitelyworth checking out. It has a lot ofgreat and absurd ideas.

Green Lantern - Here's the thing with Green Lantern. It has been one of my favorite books the past2 or 3 years, but I think I'm pretty much ready to drop it as a book. I like Hal Jordan's character, and I reallylike all this Sinestro, but there are so many new and different books outthere, and I feel like I've seen the Green Lantern (and other color stories) goas far as I need to see them go. I am,to be honest, sort of bored with the character, and I'd rather read GeoffJohns' take on other characters, like Aquaman, or his overall take on theJustice League.

SHIELD - This was a weird issue. There was almost no dialogue in the issue,which involved the celestial space baby causing a lot of damage to the eternalcity underneath Rome. Yes, you read thatright. I love this series overall, andit's big, heady concepts, but this issue sort of lost me and didn't feel likeit advanced the plot all that much. Ihope the next one is better, since there's only 3 issues left in theseries. Overall though, I still lovethis series - I love the idea of a secret history of the world, strongstuff.

Stormwatch - Now thisis what I was hoping what the series would be. This second issue was a BIG improvement over the first one. I'm not totally sure why it is such a bigimprovement, but it really feels like in this issue Paul Cornell finds his wayhere, and this is what I was hoping for from a Stormwatch series - bigcharacters, big action, crazy villains, big excitement. So, assuming this keeps up, this will be astrong buy for me.

Superboy - This was another interesting issue. Scott Lobdell is definitely capable of strongstuff, so I don't totally understand why "Red Hood" was so weak of anissue. I like what they're doing herewith Superboy - you don't know how heroic he really is, and you're seeing thingthrough his eyes but you can't totally trust him yet. It's interesting stuff, very science-y. One gripe already about the new DC universe -how many different secret organizations are there? There seem to be a lot. I do have to cull down the number of titlesI'm reading, and I could see myself dropping this one and maybe reading itlater on in trade form. It's a strongseries, but not necessarily a must-read on a monthly basis.

Superior - I love Mark Millar. Seriously, I just love the guy. Nobody knows how to truly entertain a readerlike he does. He just \writes great,straightforward, entertaining stuff. Superior is the story of a disabled boy who magically gets turned into asuperhero, and it is completely awesome. I love it. Seriously, read thisbook.

Swamp Thing - A very strongseries overall. I sort of see this storyas a complement to Animal Man. AnimalMan is concerned with “The Red” (animal life) and Swamp Thing is concerned with“The Green” (Plant life). Both have a supernaturalhorror feel to them and you have to remind yourself that they take place in aworld with “regular” superheroes. ScottSnyder delivers another very strong issue here. I don’t totally know what’s going on, but I’m very interested, and hemakes you care about these weird, plant creatures. That’s good writing. This is another one though where I mightconsider picking up the trade later on. I’m not sure. I will say the art is outstanding here, and there is some seriously creepy, unsettling imagery. Also, a little heavy on the exposition, but it works reasonably well because Scott Snyder is a skillful writer.

Teen Titans - This was an enjoyable first issue. In the new DC universe, I can't tell if the Teen Titans were ever previously a superhero team, or if this takes place in the past as opposed to in the present day. I wish they would be more clear about that. This was a fun, fast-paced, and very entertaining issue though, and I thought it worked pretty well. It is also very much of a piece with Superboy - the stories kind of seem to go together as different sides of the same story. Not totally committed to this, but if you're look for some straightforward superhero stories, this seems pretty promising.

Ultimate Comics Spider Man – I wasn’t particularlyinterested in this one to start, but on a recommendation from someone whoseopinion I really trust, I picked it up and have really enjoyed it. It’s actually a nice change from all of thesupernatural DC stuff I’ve been reading, in that it takes place in the “Ultimate”Marvel universe, which, for a universe full of superheroes, much more closelyresembles the “real” world. Everythingher feels very real; strong characters, strong dialogue (a Brian Michael Bendishallmark), and believable motivations. And I really like the fact that Marvel takes place in actual cities you've heard of, and people live in places like The Bronx, as opposed to made up cities. Plus,it’s a fresh take on Spider-Man. Yougotta like that. There’s only so manytimes the Peter Parker origin story can be told.

My final tally on the DC comics relaunch

2011-10-02T23:51:00.001-04:00

Here's where I came out on those of the new 52 that I read. Overall, like I said in my prior post, I thought there were some pretty strong comics. Even the "maybes" had some good issues in them.

Strong Yes:

Action Comics
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batman
Batwoman
Swamp Thing
Wonder Woman

Conditional Yes:

Batgirl
Flash
Green Lantern
Justice League*
Supergirl**
Superboy**

* The first issue was not spectacular, but I have a good feeling that Johns and Lee are going to bring their "A game" to this title
** Realistically, probably only going to stick with one of these

Maybe (but I'll still read issue 2):

Batman and Robin ***
Captain Atom
Demon Knights
Detective Comics***
Frankenstein
Justice League Dark
Stormwatch****
Superman

*** A Fine issue, but I am only going to subscribe to 1 Batman comic
**** This the one I most wanted to love, and I'm really hoping it gets better

Probably not (but I might check in from time to time):

Deathstroke
Firestorm
Green Lantern Corps
Justice League International
Nightwing

Thanks But No Thanks (1 issue was plenty):

Catwoman*****
Men of War
OMAC
Red Hood and the Outlaws

***** I actually am sort of curious about this, but there's a lot of comics out there that I liked that I don't have huge problems with.

DC's new 52, Week 4

2011-10-02T23:39:00.001-04:00

So, this is the final week of DC's new 52. Overall, I've really enjoyed it, and I'm going to be mostly picking up DC books for a little while because there have been some strong offerings (but there's been some very strong Marvel work I'll discuss another day). However, I think that there has been some valid criticism of the relaunch as a whole. I know this was not a complete reboot, but I think maybe it should have been. Maybe they should have completely just blown up continuity and started from scratch. That might have been better. Additionally, there are a lot of genres of comic books, and the fact is they're trying to tell those stories, but maybe not enough. Every comic takes place in the shared DC universe, including the vampire ones and medieval ones and supernatural ones and war ones and western ones. You have to wonder if the writers might have felt more freedom if they got to tell these sorts of stories in a completely independent universe.

Also, not to belabor this point too much, but if a something is labeled as a #1 issue, it should be easily accessible to new readers and not make you feel like you've been dropped into the middle of a convoluted story. A person with no prior knowledge of that series should be able to pick it up ad figure out what's going on and enjoy the book. I think the results were kinda mixed on that front.

Aquaman - Loved this! This was my big surprise of the week. Johns and Reis make Aquaman fresh and interesting like they did years ago for Green Lantern. They take the fact that Aquaman has been seen as a joke head-on, and address it with wit and humor. I was reading this because I like the creative team but I wasn't expecting that much, necessarily; but now, I'm on board. This really is good stuff. They're actually making Aquaman seem cool.

Justice League Dark - I really like the idea here; there are some threats to the world where super strength, super speed or super detective work aren't going to be enough, that being the magic/weird/supernatural corner of the DC universe. I have to confess, I am almost completely unfamiliar with the characters here (Madame Xanadu, John Constantine, Shade the Changing Man, The Enchantress), so anything that happens here is new to me. I know that a number of these are Vertigo characters that they're re-integrating into the proper DCU. So, this first issue was interesting; the Enchantress has apparently gone crazy and the regular JL are not equipped to deal with it. So, enter the weird magical type characters. I'm not totally sure what's going on here, but I am interested. I'm not totally sold that this is the book for me, but the writing is good here, these characters seem weird and interesting, and it's worth sticking around for at least a little while.

Superman - After the exciting, fresh take on Superman contained in Action Comics #1, I was intrigued to see how this translated into what will be the current-day adventures, and Superman's new status quo. This was certainly an action and information-packed issue but ultimately I was a little disappointed. I appreciate how much information was conveyed here and I think it was not an enviable task, but there was some stuff here that didn't quite work. I felt like I got more out of this issue regarding the status quo of the Daily Planet and the adjustment to a new media world, than I did regarding what's really going on inside Superman's head. What's funny was that even this was a new comic showing Superman's new status quo, this comic felt kind of old fashioned and sort of dated to me. So, here's what I did like from the comic - I like that they're reckoning with the fact that a newspaper wouldn't be the most new, vibrant place to be, so apparently the Planet has been bought by a News Corp type place. This could make for some interesting stuff, potentially. I also like that they're messing with what you think you know about Superman, by upsetting some of the expectations. On the he other hand, I sort of liked the old fashioned part, where it was Superman protecting Metropolis from monsters that only he can fight, and balancing his life as Clark Kent. Not sure what to think about the fact that George Perez is off this series after issue 6. I wasn't totally sold on this, but there's enough here that I'll monitor it and see where it goes, particularly if it ties into Stormwatch in an interesting way.

Firestorm - Not sure about this one. This is one that really feels like a genuine reboot. I was not overly familiar with the Firestorm character, but I know there have been many iterations over the years. I get from \what I read that this is a real change to the origins of the character. I didn't love this though. I thought that the dialogue (and issues they tried to address with the dialogue) were kind of heavy-handed, and I didn't think the art or story were so great that I feel compelled to keep tuning in. I was sort of surprised given that I have liked a lot of Gail Simone's other work. Frankly, there's been a lot of stuff I enjoyed a lot more than this, so I'll probably skip it unless I hear it gets really awesome in later months.

The Flash - Now this was a pretty strong first issue. For someone who doesn't know that much about any of the Flashes (Wally West or Barry Allen) this was still a pretty good introduction. He's really fast, he's apparently not married to Iris West, he works as a CSI type person in the police department, and he's working on a case that appears to hit close to home. It was a very accessible first issue, and frankly, the art is just stunning. I'm not overly familiar with Francis Manipaul's work, but there's some genuinely beautiful and clever artwork, art that legitimately tells a story (which the art doesn't always do). I'm intrigued by the "villain", and this is another one where (like Aquaman) I was just trying it out, but I'd like to see where it goes.

Justice League International - A fun story. If you liked previous incarnations of he JLI then you'll like this. This is a super team that will be a little more light-hearted than the "big" Justice League, and has a slightly more goofy quality. This was definitely an entertaining issue, but not really something I need to read month to month. If I hear the story is good I'll pick up the trade at the library.

Other comics I'm reading

2011-09-26T10:43:00.002-04:00

I realized I've been writing a lot recently about the DC New 52, but I've been reading a lot of other stuff as well. I thought I might highlight some of the noteworthy independent or non-superhero stuff I've read recently. These are just a few. I'll mention some others periodically.

The first writer I want to highlight is Jonathan Hickman, who is probably my favorite writer right now. Mostly you would know him from his amazing run on Fantastic Four (now FF), and for his work on the SHIELD mini-series. That is a totally mind-blowing series, which pulls in heady concepts and all sorts of historical figures. But, as many comics fans know, Hickman got his start doing his own work at Image Comics, with The Nightly News. This is a totally kooky series about people wronged by the media who take some pretty decisive action against it. Hickman did his own art here, and he's got this gonzo, stylistic art style that totally works for the subject matter. Some thought-provoking and unsettling stuff. Another one of his books I really loved was Pax Romana, which hooked me in immediately because it's a time travel story involving the Roman Empire. Brilliant stuff, really thoughtfully written. I'm also reading his current mini-series The Red Wing about a war being fought across both space and time. I don't totally get the time stuff sometimes, but I don't mind that at all. I like having a writer address heady concepts.

Also want to give a shout out to American Vampire by Scott Snyder. He's just a fantastic writer, and he's pulled off the incredible task of actually getting me to really like a vampire story. Anyone who knows my taste in comics and sci-fi will know that I'm not a horror person at all, I'm specifically not a vampire person. I thought that the movie Interview with the Vampire was tedious, and what little I've seen or read of the "Twilight" stories makes me want to run in the opposite direction. Plus, it always seemed like ridiculous goth people were into vampires. So, creating a story involving vampires that I actually enjoy is no mean feat. How does he do it? First off, by making them actually scary, as opposed to pouty and glum. His main character is a really bad guy who's not afraid to do bad things. At the same time, he creates a number of other more sympathetic characters and manages to do interesting things with them. So, if you're like me and are wary of vampire stories, try these out as they're scary and really well-written.

Something I read last year but still sticks with me is I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly. This was very powerful book, and a fantastic usage of the visual medium to convey emotion. I won't give too much away, but will say that this is an incredibly compelling illustration of how a young person would deal with a life full of challenges. Really worth your time.

DC's new 52, week 3

2011-09-25T13:57:00.000-04:00

Some thoughts on reading some of DC's new 52, week 3, or, as some people might call it, gratuitous sex and boobies/disgusting "Saw" level violence week at DC comics! In all seriousness, I have two young girls at home (6 and 3) who are starting to get into Comics. Thank goodness for Tiny Titans and Archie Comics, because there has not been a single comic DC has put out in this new 52 initiative that I would be at all comfortable giving to my girls. Definitely not any of the stuff that came out this week. I don't understand. Don't they want kids reading comics? If they do, give me more comics that I can comfortably share with my children!

As an aside, I do read comics other than DC Comics, and I look forward to reviewing both some Marvel books and some independent books I've enjoyed recently. Let me know what you're reading and what you liked (or what you hated)!

Batman - Very good comic. Solid introduction to the new universe/status quo, even though it really is a continuation of the previous stories. The story is pretty engaging, and they show a Bruce Wayne who is feeling pretty good about life and not quite as psychotically obsessing about his parents' murder. Art is fine, but I'm not a huge fan. It's a little too cartoony for me. I also share the minor complaint that they made Dick Grayson so much shorter than Bruce Wayne. If he really filled in as Batman for a year, he should appear to be a grown-up, and not a head shorter than Bruce Wayne though. These are relatively small quibbles though, as I really trust Scott Snyder as a writer. He seems to have a good handle on the characters, and I'd like to see where he takes this story.

Captain Atom - This was a nice surprise. I was completely unfamiliar with the Captain Atom character pre-relaunch. All I knew was that it was the character that Dr. Manhattan was based on. Also, I remember him a little from the old Justice League International, where he never seemed particularly interesting to me. However, this was something interesting and different. Seems like, while he is portrayed as a superhero, this will be also something of a sci-fi comic. I like the artwork, it's different from your standard Superhero art (a little more pencil-sketchy). I'm not sure I'll keep reading this, not because I don't like it but because I have to make some hard choices. Also, Captain Atom's powers are pretty similar (as far as I can tell) to those of Firestorm, and I'm really curious about that comic, coming out next week and written by Gail Simone (who I really enjoy). That being said, this is an interesting story and one worth watching.

Catwoman - Oy. Here we go. This is the first of two comics I read this week that make me want to wash my hands afterwards. I don't want to just parrot a lot of the sentiment that has been expressed elsewhere on the Internet; I'll get to the problematic stuff later. First, the stuff that was good in this issue. Judd Winick is pretty good at characterization, and I actually thought that Catwoman was a pretty likable character. However, if she is a master thief, how is it that people are frequently able to figure out where she lives and blow up her apartment? I thought she was really good at what she did. The art is good, clearly the artist wants us to know tat Catwoman/Selina is a "sexy" character. Really hard to miss that point.

Which leads me into the problems in the issue. I have no problem with the idea of a "sexy" comic which gets at the idea that these characters are adults and have, you know, feelings and urges. However, there's a difference between sexy (which some of the best characterizations of Catwoman have been) and this book, which is best summarized as boobies boobies boobies, Catwoman and Batman have sexy time. Seriously, you don't even see her face for a little while, just gratuitous T&A shots. This is really just not what I'm looking for in a comic. If I read a comic book involving Catwoman, I want to see her pull off some really clever heist, not her clothes. If I read a comic involving Batman, I want to read about him solving crimes or defeating bad guys, not making the "oh" face. So, thanks but no thanks.

Deathstroke - Deathstroke is a badass. A major @#$%ing badass. I know because they tell you, repeatedly in this issue. I know there's been some strong dislike for this issue on the web, and I understand where it's coming from. This issue does have kind of a dated, 90's feel to it, and for the world's greatest badass, his costume just looks stupid, like some Image comic from 1994. All that being said, I actually didn't think this was a bad issue. It definitely had appeal like a B-level action movie, and some fun moments. However, I won't be picking this up regularly. The end makes clear that Deathstroke is out to prove to everyone that he is the biggest badass on the planet. If each issue is just him proving that, then that's not really much of a story for me to follow. However, I'll check in on this one periodically.

Green Lantern Corps - So, to cut to the chase, I like Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps, but I'm only going to follow one of these books and I prefer the Hal Jordan character to Guy Gardner and John Stewart, even though they're both fun, good characters. This was a pretty good issue, and I thought that Peter Tomasi did a good job of catching new readers up and continuing things from the last story. This was a well-written issue, and if there weren't so many other comics I was excited about I would consider it. However, further to a point I made above, this is a really violent comic. Some of it is just gratuitous - I know there is violence in a world of super heroes, but I don't really want to see entrails and beings getting sliced in half. I also think that with Blackest Night and Brightest Day and the War of the Green Lanterns and all of the color corps, I may just have Green Lantern fatigue. So, thanks but no thanks.

Nightwing - Very solid issue. Good story, really enjoyed the art. Another one of these stories where past knowledge of the current continuity might be helpful, but the writer (Kyle Higgins) does a solid job of letting you know the current status quo (used to be Robin, then Nightwing, then Batman, now back to Nightwing). His Dick Grayson is a very likable character; sympathetically drawn. We spend a lot of time in his head, but he's a well-drawn character. The violence here is present, but not grotesque, and it sets up an interesting situation which seems to tie in to the storyline in Scott Snyder's Batman. Not sure I'll subscribe long-term, but only there are already so many solid Bat-books out there, but this one is worth watching.

Red Hood and the Outlaws - Yikes. Another comic that made me feel a little gross reading it. The characters and story are not strong enough to overcome the fact that Starfire is depicted as an amnesiac sexbot, and the T&A is just ridiculous. I get that she is a hot alien that comes from a clothing-optional planet, but I would be embarrassed to be reading this comic around other adults. If I was a 12 year old boy I would really enjoy this comic though, what with all the T&A, objectification of women, and shooting. However, neither Red Hood nor Arsenal are particularly interesting characters to me. This was disappointing, as last week's Superboy (also by Scott Lobdell) was a pleasant surprise. This, however, is something I can definitely skip.

Supergirl - The surprise of the week. I haven't read much Supergirl and wasn't really expecting much of anything here. Prior to the relaunch, the Superan franchise was in real need of a reboot, and this issue works extremely well. Unlike pretty much everything else I've read (even Action Comics starts 6 months in to Superman's super-career) in the relaunch, this comic begins at the very beginning of Supergirl's arrival on Earth, and the writer (Michael Green) nicely portrays Supergirl's arrival on Earth and her confusion about everything. Yes, it is an entire issue spent in a fight sequence, but I think it really works. I want to know how she interacts with her famous cousin and see how this develops.

Wonder Woman - Fantastic. One I'll definitely keep reading. This is a really strong entry into reading about Wonder Woman. She's actually more like a supporting character in this story, but Brian Azzarello really pulls you right in to a world of gods with amazing powers and mysterious motives. This feels like a supernatural mystery, which is not normally my thing but it is strongly written. You get that the stakes are high here. Wonder Woman is a little bit of a mystery here, you don't really get any of her internal thoughts or motivation, but you do get a sense of her larger than life (both figuratively and literally, someone finally realized that if the is an Amazonian, she should be really tall) presence, and that she is heroic and more than human. This was one that I was most curious about, and I was not disappointed.

DC's New 52, Part 2

2011-09-19T16:37:00.000-04:00

Another week, another batch of mostly very good comics. Again, I'm not reading all of DC's new 52 because of (i) money and (ii) no desire to read certain comics (looking at you, Rob Liefeld).

Anyway, before I get to the new reviews, I want to say another few words about Stormwatch. I reread the first issue, and I want to like this book. I mean, I really want to like it. So why don't I like it more? I'm not sure - it's got a lot of the characters I love (Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor), it's got big, high-concept stuff (the moon turning into a claw, existential threats), but there's something about it that's just off. The relationships between the parties isn't clear, the art is slightly off, it feels a little jumbled. I think I will read it a little longer, but it's definitely on my bubble list. There's too many excellent comics out there to read something I'm not sure about. With that, here are the reviews of what I read this week:

Batman & Robin - Very good effort. I like how they establish the new status quo, and the fact that Bruce and Damian are clearly going to have to learn how to work together and are going to establish their own dynamic. Damian is a real prick to his father in this issue - another reviewer (maybe at IGN?) pointed out why it made sense that Damian was being so obnoxious to Bruce, because Damian is having a hard time adjusting to his actual father, as opposed to the idealized version of his dead father. The story was fine, but it was the characterization of the relationships that's the real hook here. Very strong issue.

As an aside, I'm struggling a little bit with my decisions about what books I will subscribe to, as there are a number of strong contenders. I liked last week's Detective Comics, but the truth is I'm probably only going to subscribe to one Batman book (not including Batwoman or Batgirl), so I'm not sure why I wouldn't just get this instead of Detective Comics. I'm also expecting that Scott Snyder's Batman book will be very strong (I just read one of his American Vampire volumes and it was extremely good stuff). So, we'll see.

Batwoman - No surprises here, I thought this was fantastic. My pick of the week. The art is, just to state the obvious, quite stunning. J.H. Williams seems to have picked right up from his and Greg Rucka's run on Detective Comics. There was a lot jam-packed in this issue, plenty of threads to unfold over the next year or so. A very promising series. I also have to ask myself whether I want to subscribe to both this and Batgirl. I agree with those who have said that Batgirl #1, while good, was not Gail Simone's best work. We'll see. Barbara Gordon is an extremely likable character, and I've definitely enjoyed Simone's work in the past. Given the number of titles out there, I'm not sure how many Bat-family titles I can subscribe to.

Demon Knights - This falls into the category (like OMAC) of "really fun read, not sure I'd subscribe". I was entertained by the story, and I like the idea of doing a book with a medieval setting where the events and characters will have repercussions that will be felt today. I'm very unfamiliar with the more fantasy-oriented aspects of the DC universe, but I thought that the idea that this guy Jason Blood has the demon Etrigan trapped inside him was a pretty interesting one. I'm not sure about this one. I'll read another issue at least. I'd hate to see Paul Cornell go 0-for-2 in my reading list.

Frankenstein - Really fun stuff. Another strong issue from Jeff Lemite, with a very different feel than Animal Man, but still dealing with the supernatural. This one had some real humor, and it definitely felt like a Hellboy-ish comic. Some of the stuff was random (like his boss looking like a little Japanese girl) but it was overall very entertaining and I think the character of Frankenstein (shouldn't it be Frankenstein's monster?) is a strong one. A monster with a very old fashioned sensibility and a real moral sense. I like it, definitely enough to pick up the next issue or two, at least.

Green Lantern - I have to admit that over the past year or so, I was pretty close to dropping Green Lantern from my monthly pull list. I really loved the Sinestro Corps war, and I also really enjoyed Blackest Night, but I thought that the endless bickering among the different colored corps and the ongoing stuff with the Guardians was just kinda boring. So, the new status quo (which I know is a plot progression from the prior stories) really does feel like a breath of fresh air to me. I think having Sinestro back as a Green Lantern is a terrific story idea. I love his character and I hope they keep him as part of the GL corps for a while. I also love the stuff in here about Hal dealing with the consequences of flying around the galaxy for months at a time. So, they've got my attention again, and I feel like this issue was a necessary jump start for the series.

Superboy - My biggest surprise this week. I really enjoyed this issue a lot. Even though not that much "happened", plenty actually happened, and we got a lot of interesting setup. This new Superboy, we still don't know a lot about his motivations, but we do know that he knows more than his captors think he does, and that he has a pretty impressive power set. I'm very curious to see where they go with this - partly I assume where it is going is right into Teen Titans. That was not a title I was planning on picking up, but I just might based on my interest in the character.

My thoughts on some of DC's New 52

2011-09-15T13:24:00.000-04:00

When I first heard about the DC relaunch I was pretty excited. I was always a Marvel person growing up. Honestly, in 1984 or so when I first started reading comics, Marvel was so much cooler than DC. Marvel had Spider-Man and the X-Men, they had Secret Wars, and most importantly they had comics adaptations of G.I. Joe and the Transformers, which were the most important things in my life at that time. DC had a Superman that worked at a TV station, and was all kinda boring. I knew the DC characters because they were so iconic, but NOBODY I knew was reading DC comics.

I got away from comics for many years, and only around 2007 or so did I start reading comics again. In that time, I've done a ton of catching up on both Marvel and DC (along with a lot of independent books), and while I haven't enjoyed everything I've read, I have approached this relaunch with at least some knowledge of the Dc universe. That being said, even though I have read many DC stories over the past 4 or so years, DC has still felt fairly impenetrable to me. There's just so much continuity, and continuity seems to matter more in DC than it does in Marvel, or maybe they've just handled it better. I'm not sure. So, like I said, when I heard about the relaunch I was pretty excited. They were going to keep stuff that worked (most of Johns' GL run, the current status of the Bat-books) and revamp things that didn't (like in the Superman books).

Just as an aside, I agree it was time to blow up the Superman stories a little. I enjoyed Johns' run on the book when it involved Brainiac and New Krypton, and was pretty excited about the concept of a whole new world of Kryptonians, but that whole concept really didn't end up working like I'd hoped (and I read the whole New Krypton series). Maybe it's just hard to come up with good Superman stories.

So I wanted to get my thoughts down with respect to each of the new DC #1 issues that I am reading. I am not going to be reading all of them, and I don't think I really have the time to do detailed reviews, but wanted to share my thoughts on what I've been reading. So, here we go!

Action Comics - Loved it. Thought this was a genuinely new take on Superman (even though I realize that it harkens to his earliest days). It makes sense, too - a character created by two Jewish kids in the 1930's would of course have some socialist/fight the oppressors and on behalf of the common man type ideas.

Animal Man - Wow. Very impressed with this first issue. I'm not really familiar with Jeff Lemire's other work, though I knew he was a respected indie creator. I certainly want to check it out now. I loved the intro with his interview in "The Believer" (which I actually subscribed to for a time) and thought the story and art here were both terrific. It's definitely not traditional super hero art, but that seems right to me, as it is more of a supernatural/horror comic than it is "man in tights". Really enjoyed this, and look forward to seeing where it's going.

Batgirl - This was a lot of fun. Gail Simone is good at both dialogue and characterization, so I immediately felt like I was in Barbara Gordon's head. The very last panels didn't exactly make sense to me (no spoilers here), but I found her characterization of Barbara who is not yet comfortable being a "super hero" again to be very believable.

Detective Comics - Good story, very intense/dramatic ending. Tony Daniel is a great artist but is not yet a great writer (and suffers a little in comparison to Grant Morrison, Paul Dini or Scott Snyder) but he is improving. This felt like a pretty regular Batman story, not necessarily like a whole new world. I liked it though, and would be interested in seeing where it's going.

Justice League - I liked this, but wouldn't say I loved it. I enjoyed the banter between Batman and Green Lantern, I like who their setting up as the big first villain, and enjoyed the end. I also loved the Jim Lee art. What's my issue then? Mostly, it felt like not very much happened in this issue; I think they could have compressed it a little more and provided nods to a few of the other JLA members. Still, I definitely enjoyed it and will check out further issues.

Men of War - Thought it was fine, but don't think I'll be subscribing. The idea of telling a story about soldiers (or other "regular" people) in a world where superheroes exist is a good one, and one that has been well explored by Kurt Busiek in Marvels and Astro City. Additionally, "Gotham Central" is a great telling of law enforcement trying to do their jobs in a crazy world. Like Gotham Central, I get that the soldiers here seem to view the superheroes as a distraction to their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the author here is a fan of Garth Ennis' "The Boys". All that being said, I thought the story and art were fine, but felt a bit generic. Maybe I'm just not a fan of war comics.

OMAC - My biggest surprise so far. I loved this! I don't necessarily think I'll subscribe to it, but this was probably the most fun read I've had in a while. If Kirby-esque can be used as an adjective, then that's what I'd say this was. Clearly written in a style meant to evoke Kirby's fourth world and other concepts, this issue read like an old-school adventure comic out of the 1970's. It didn't much seem to relate to the larger DC universe, but was a real joy to read, as I thought it was full of good, ridiculous fun.

Stormwatch - This is the one that disappointed me the most. That is not to say that I disliked it, because I thought it set up a lot of interesting stuff, and I absolutely LOVED Ellis' and Millar's runs on the Authority, so I am predisposed to like any book that has Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor, etc. However, I wasn't crazy about the art (I thought the engineer just looked sort of odd), and the story just didn't grip me like I thought it would (which surprised me, given that Paul Cornell is writing), but I will give this another shot next month because I like generally where they're going (making this group into an analogue of Hickman's SHIELD).

Swamp Thing - Another awesome comic. As with Animal Man, I have only read the most classic runs of these comics and am not overly familiar with them, but this issue made me want to know more about the Swamp Thing character, and to try to understand the complex relationship between Alec Holland and Swamp Thing. There's some pretty compelling story, a general air of dread and unease, and some pretty horrifically compelling images near the end. Scott Snyder FTW!

Godwin's Law and Sinister's Corollary

2011-01-19T16:28:00.005-05:00

Godwin's Law - "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1".

Sinister's Corollary to Godwin's Law - "if someone invokes Hitler or the Nazis as an analogy or comparison to anything other than (i) actual Nazis, or (ii) people committing genocide or ethnic cleansing, then I will cease to take seriously anything they say, even if I might otherwise believe it." This Corollary applies across the political spectrum, to the left, right, center, and anyone else. No one group has a monopoly on making ridiculous and stupid Nazi analogies. Here are a few examples of application of the Corollary:

Example A: This clown compares Republicans to Nazis. Even though I agree that Health Care reform should not be repealed, I can no longer take anything he says seriously.

Example B: Glenn Beck has compared so many people with whom he disagrees to the Nazis that Lewis Black cleverly said he has "Nazi Tourette's". So, with regard to Glenn Beck, I will paraphrase Chuck Lane talking about Stephen Glass, and say that if it was sunny outside and Glenn Beck and I were both standing outside in the sun and he came to me and said, ‘It’s a sunny day,’ I would immediately go check with two other people to make sure it was a sunny day, and then I'd go get an umbrella.

Cars, Part 2 - Toyota RAV4 and the Canyonero

2010-12-30T10:08:00.003-05:00

Last night we took a test drive of the Toyota RAV4 and we really liked it. It felt very car-like, and although it's a somewhat compact-looking car, felt plenty spacious on the inside. The model we drove didn't have the third seat installed, but one can assume that it's best left for children. So, RAV4 is looking like the top choice at this point since we are now pretty committed to getting a car with AWD. I'd like to take another drive of the Kia Sorento, as I think they're very similar, and also so that E has a chance to drive that one.

We also, just for fun, sat in a Toyota Sequoia in the showroom, which is the real-life embodiment of the Canyonero. You could probably fit the RAV4 in the back of a Sequoia (like if you have a huge frame backpack that has a little detachable day-pack, that's the RAV4). Needless to say, we're not getting the Sequoia, even if it does seat 35.

all the joyful people

2010-12-28T17:42:00.002-05:00

Today I was walking on Newbury and there was a woman screaming at a guy in a car that she was going to find out his address and kill his wife. Pretty sure they were arguing about a parking spot. Boy that holiday spirit doesn't last long anymore.

My Somewhat Comprehensive Guide to Pretty Much Everything that's Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels

2010-12-28T13:30:00.012-05:00

So, I've previously discussed my disillusionment with the Star Wars movies, but because of the grassroots groundswell of lobbying and activism, I've decided to create my list of everything I hate about the Star Wars prequels. Not exactly listed out by movie, but generally so. If you think of others, let me know.

Idiotic political "intrigue". Taxation of trade routes? Eh? I'm not sure what little kids thought in 1999 when The Phantom Menace ("TPM") came out. I already had the goodwill from the original trilogy saved up by the time the new ones came out, but even I was starting to get wary when they were re-released in 1997 and Lucas made all those stupid changes. One can only imagine that kids, for whom this was their first exposure to Star Wars, were bored silly by all of the political talk. Lucas had 16 years to write a story in between movies, and TPM is what he came up with? I really wish he had taken Spielberg up on his offer to direct the first one, b/c at least Spielberg might have done some interesting things with the material (on the other hand, based on what I heard about "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", those two together are not quite as magic as they used to be).
Offensive ethnic characterizations. I deal more with Jar Jar (Jamaican Sambo stereotype) later, but he fits into this category as well as the Trade Federation (cowardly Asian stereotype), Watto (grimy, haggling middle eastern shop owner), and the Banking Clan (um, they control the money and have big noses, why not show them eating space-bagels too). Apart from finding these incredibly insulting, they seem just so lazy and generally inexplicable. Seriously, couldn't you have just given them all voices that weren't stereotypes? Was George Lucas channeling Archie Bunker?
Jar Jar. Apart from the racist, offensive shtick, Jar Jar is possibly one of the most annoying characters ever created. His only function is to be essentially useless and to get himself into "funny" trouble. Wow, way to come up with compelling characters to fill screen time.
The Pod Race. I'm sure the race is meant to be exciting, but whenever I have seen the movie I have fast-forwarded through the pod race. Even at fast forward, I find it tedious. I know it's supposed to be there to show what a talented pilot Anakin is even when he's just a kid, but I'm thrown off by the fact that there's a "funny" two-headed announcer, and the scene just goes on too $%^&ing long.
Jesus Skywalker. Anakin was the product of a virgin birth. Of all the ham-handed analogies, they just had to go there. Couldn't they have just made Palpatine the father? Apparently he was the result of a high concentration of midi-chlorians (which maybe the mom caught somewhere). Which leads us to.....
Insertion of Pseudo-Science. I expect fake science in my Star Trek (dillithium crystals, etc.), but there was something magical about "the force". They didn't need to explain it, it was meant to be understood as an Eastern-religion style concept and worked fine as mysticism. But no. They had to go ahead and insert blood tests, and we learn that being strong with the force is actually something in your hemoglobin or whatever.
Anakin. The kid who plays Anakin in TPM is sort of whiny and you don't really get much of a sense for him, and is not much of an actor. But he's 8, so you let it go. Hayden Christiensen, however, gets no excuses (well, he gets one excuse, but we'll get to that later). So, here's what we know about Anakin Skywalker from the original trilogy: (a) Obi Wan considered him a good friend, (b) he was a great pilot, (c) he was corrupted by the dark side. Fine. But then you meet Anakin as a teenager, and he is whiny, petulant, sullen and not particularly likable. Seriously, he sulks like a pathetic emo-boy, not the future Dark Sith Lord that he will become. We're supposed to understand that he was really good before, so we should like him and care about him, and his fall from grace should be a big deal. Problem is, we don't like him that much. We also don't see why Obi Wan likes him at all.
"Dialogue". This is the part that's not Hayden Christiansen's fault. The dialogue is just terrible. Seriously, put aside any love you have for the series (I know I've had to work hard at this), and just listen. There's some real clunkers in these movies (the "I hate sand" speech, any time they try to talk politics, any time they talk to the Gungans, etc.). They make even really good actors seem wooden, which of course is not just the dialogue but the direction as well. I don't know what happened to Lucas between the first trilogy and these movies, but he should really go back and look at the original ones. There are some real moments of tension and humor in those movies, and some memorable dialogue.
"Special" Effects. I won't say a lot here, as there's a lot of cool effects in these movies. I will note, however, that TPM came out in the Summer of 1999, the same time that the Matrix came out. While I enjoy CGI futuristic cityscapes as much as the next guy, the Matrix was a game-changer, and it's hard to look at not just things like bullet-time, but the whole ethos of TPM and wonder why George Lucas wasn't pushing cinema forward with special effects. Some of the CGI looks fake, as well, and you wonder why Lucas didn't use more models since almost all of the scenes from the original series still hold up, and those used models.
Random Stupidity #1. In AOTC, Obi Wan goes to what appears to be a 50's-style diner and an alien they might as well call "Big Al" (who appears to be the owner) talks with him. There's a robot waitress who they might as well name "Flo" . The whole sequence is just terrible, and you're wondering why somebody thought to create a "diner" in the middle of the @#$%ing Star Wars Universe? The alien is sitting there with Obi Wan talking and scratching his ass, which is supposed to be "funny", but the whole sequence takes you out of the movie.
Random Stupidity #2. General Grievous has a cough. Seriously. The CGI character has a cough throughout the whole movie. You're just waiting for him to ask one of his droids to bring him a cup of tea . He's supposed to this scary bad-ass, and they give him bronchitis . Why? Who knows. Seriously, did it advance the plot at all? Should he have stopped off somewhere for some Robitussin ?
Random Stupidity #3. In ROTS Padme dies because the "lost the will to live". Padme just gave birth to twins, so she could have sustained trauma during child birth. Additionally she sustained a "force" attack by Anakin, so that could have done irreversible damage. But no, even though she was medically perfectly healthy, she died because she lost the will to live? She just had 2 kids! Wouldn't she have had the will to live to raise the kids?
Lucas and His Audience. These movies are pitched to 6 year olds. This is particularly true of TPM, less so AOTC and ROTS (that one in particular has some pretty dark stuff). Jar Jar, the scatological humor, the goofy "humor" of the announcers at the pod race. This is stuff which is pitched to little kids, but in the most cloying and heavy-handed way (weirdly though, TPM is the worst about this AND about the boring political intrigue).
The Waste of Padme. In Episodes I and II, Natalie Portman does a fine job as Padme, bad dialogue notwithstanding. She's active, she's involved in the fighting, she's resourceful, she bares her midriff - she's what you would expect Luke and Leia's mom to be. But in ROTS, her jobs are basically to get emotional, have babies, and die. That's pretty much it. Serious waste of a character.

Ok, that's it for now. There are probably others, but this is what I've got for the moment. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like in these movies as well (and I will make a list of things I like at some point as well, to be fair), but some of these just can't be forgiven.

March to HDTV/First look at Cars

2010-12-19T22:17:00.002-05:00

As an update to the previous post, we've gotten the toddler bed situation going (I mentioned that today), and safely grounded the outlet in the living room. Only 52 more steps to getting a big-ass TV.

On another note, we're starting to look at new cars in case the current one is on the way out (sadly we think it is). Our main criteria (other than wanting a car that is safe, reliable, doesn't get terrible gas mileage and is not gigantic) is that we want three rows of seating. Not that either of us really want to be carpooling kids around (because seriously, who wants extra children around, your own are plenty), but it just make sense to get the extra flexibility. Yesterday I test drove the Hyundai Veracruz and the Kia Sorento. I liked both of them, but I think we're probably going to eliminate the Veracruz b/c it is a little bigger (and we'd like something not too big) and it is also about 5K more expensive. It's a very nice car though, but we want to keep costs down and the Sorento felt slightly more car-like to me, and we don't want something that feels too much like a truck. Those third row seats are not exactly something I'd want to sit in for a 200-mile drive, but them seem serviceable for giving rides to kids, or just for extra flexibility. Next up, the RAV4 (which is absolutely ubiquitous) and the Mazda5 (which is kind of a mini-mini-van), both of which we are expecting to like.

My 2010 Favorites - Movies

2010-12-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

Everyone does year-end "best of" lists so I would be remiss not to get into the act. Honestly, I didn't see that many movies in 2010 but I saw some good ones. I think it's hard to say "best" because I don't know what it means when it comes to art, but I'll say my five favorite movies this year were:

1. Inception

2. The Social Network

3. Toy Story 3

4. The Town

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

The real decision for me as between Social Network and Inception at #1 - the rest of them, I could switch around the order and not have it be a huge deal. I had to go with Inception because for several days afterwards I kept having disturbing thoughts and dreams because of it, and felt like it #$%^ed my mind up, in a good way.

I'm sure there are a ton of good movies I haven't seen, so I know this list is anything but exhaustive.

Needed an electrician for this one

2010-12-19T17:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning the day started out pretty badly. We just moved Kid2 into Kid1's room, and it was her first night in a toddler bed (this of course means we did one of the previous things on the list, buy toddler bed). It went ok except that they were so excited about this arrangement that they got up extremely early (4:45 or so) and we're only resting periodically after that.

I had the bright idea (around 6:30) to change the kitchen light bulb which had burnt out. Not our main lamp, but the secondary lamp. Apparently I had never changed this b/c I didn't know how to change it. In the process of trying to open up the lamp to change the light bulb, I pulled the whole lamp out of the ceiling so that it was just dangling by electrical wire. I don't know much about these sorts of thing, but it seemed unsafe to me. So, I scrambled around frantically, woke up the LW (lovely wife), and eventually called 4 electricians. Thankfully one was available. He was not at all impressed with what the previous person had done when installing this lamp, and he secured it to the ceiling in a much better way. Next time, I will know how to take the relevant glass part out w/o pulling the entire fixture out of the ceiling. Even better, next time I will not try to be ambitious before 8 am.

Coming soon, I reveal my list of favorite movies, music and books this year. Also, I discuss my first trip to test drive cars.

Buying a TV

2010-12-15T21:09:00.001-05:00

We've decided to finally take the plunge and buy a HDTV. Now all we need to do is:

1. Buy a toddler bed for kid #2 and move it in to kid #1's room (now they will share, we'll see how that goes).

2. Disassemble crib in kid #2's room and either give it away or throw it out.

3. Move desks, computer and table from play room/office/guest room up to what will be the new office

4. Have cable company come and assess whether we can get cable connection in new office upstairs.

5. Assemble train table which was Hanukkah present for the girls and put it into the play room.

6. Get rid of the old entertainment center and TV or theoretically move it to the downstairs play room. If move it to the downstairs play room, find out from cable company how much it costs to add a second cable TV connection.

7. Have electrician come and figure out whether we can safely connect an HDTV to living room non-grounded outlet.

8. Buy new entertainment center for TV.

9. Finally, buy TV.

Seriously, it'll be April before I actually see this TV.

Vote Cuckoo McNutty for Congress!

2010-10-22T15:47:00.004-04:00

Hi, I'm Cuckoo McNutty, and I'm running for congress. Let me tell you what I believe.

I think that America needs to cut taxes severely in order to make our country stronger and more fiscally sound, because a government with no revenue, and which can support any government programs, is way stronger. Also, we need to look at cutting waste fraud and abuse. Now, my opponent has said things like "you haven't come up with a single concrete example of an actual program you would cut" - well, that kind of "evidence-based" thinking is just elitist and un-American. Also, I am in favor of fiscal responsiblity - sure I didn't say anything about it when George W. Bush was president, but, completely coincidentially, it became an issue for me on January 20, 2009.

Also, I am strongly in favor of liberty for everyone - well, except for the gays. Also, except where reproductive rights are concerned. I'm also in favor of religious liberty, and want people to be able to exercise their religious liberty in schools and on public property all over the place. Well, I mean, not all people, obviously. People who are the same religion as me. I mean, it's not like the constitution prohibits the government favoring one religion over another, particularly when that religion is the one true religion, right?

Also, no science in the schools. Because the constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom of science. I don't want my children learning that we humans are descended from monkeys. Do you see any half-human, half-monkey people walking around? It's a dangerous road, allowing your children to be exposed to things like "facts" and "evidence".

Also, think of me like a mama grizzly bear. Even though I'm a dude and totally manly. Nobody better get in between me and my grizzly cubs! Now, maybe you're wondering what the practical implications of all this grizzly bear talk is. You might think, "oh, you support programs that have been shown to be a huge benefit to kids like Head Start, and sCHIP, and public safety regulations that protect kids". Nope! I don't support any of that socialist nonsense. I support being able to protect my kids from all kinds of socialism and liberalism. Liberalism and progressive thinking are the biggest threat to liberty since, well, since ever!

Also, I hate the elites. Like doctors and scientists, who think they understand medicine or science better than you and I do just because they spent years studying in those fields and have earned advanced degrees. Well, I study too, at the feet of Professors Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Palin. They tell me everything I need to know. I take my advice from them, not from some group of wealthy, unelected commentators.

Also, I support free speech. But I hate the liberal media because they're always picking on me and askuing me questions I don't know the answer to.

Also, I hate tyranny, in all it's forms. Like that ObamaCare - wow, is that tyrannical! Seriously, there's no difference between ObamaCare and the gas chambers. After all, both are government programs, right? And all government programs are inherently tyrannical. Therefore, the president and all liberals are actually Nazis. Now some people say, where was your concern about "tyranny" when George W. Bush was president, with things like warrantless wiretapping, and extraordinary rendition, and detention of US citizens without habeas corpus". Now, I don't know what any of that means, but it sure sounds like more liberal lies to me.

My 25 all-time favorite science fiction movies (at the moment)

2010-08-24T18:35:00.016-04:00

I was listening to an episode of "On Point" yesterday, and the topic was "greatest science fiction movies of all time." After listening to the podcast, which was a lot of fun, I said - "I accept your challenge!" I thought the world would benefit from knowing my all-time favorite science fiction movies.

I am very deliberately not calling this list "greatest movies" because these lists are inherently subjective and I'm just listing my own personal favorites. A few notes:

I am keeping out movies based on comic books. While most of these would qualify as science fiction, I see them as their own category (and a list for me to work on for another day).
I am singling out individual movies, not just series (which makes it more challenging in a good way) - so I will not just say "The Star Wars movies"
These are my own personal favorites. There are many movies out there that are regarded as "great" that I haven't seen, or was not so impressed by; this list is only meant to cover my personal preferences.
I can't just do top 10 because it ignores too many movies.
If a movie falls into another genre but is also clearly science fiction, I am including it.
It has been so long since I last saw Blade Runner, I suspect that once I re-watch it, my list will change
If given another day, or two days or a week, I could probably monkey around with the order of the movies on the list (other than the top 5), so other than those, the order only reflects what I felt at the moment I hit "Publish Post".
I have not included animated films. If I did, Wall-E would probably make the list somewhere.
I have a suspicion I'm really going to enjoy District 9, but haven't seen it yet
About Star Wars Episodes I and II, each of those movies has a lot that I enjoy, (for example, the light saber duel at the end of Episode I is my favorite in the entire series of movies) and it is hard to separate out all of the affection I have for them as Star Wars movies, but I felt that overall, they were not good enough to make the list.
Avatar - one of the most visually stunning things I ever seen. Doesn't make the list. At least not today. I'm not sure how much I actually liked the movie, apart from the 3-D visual spectacle of it.

With that in mind, my list is as follows:

The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars
The Matrix
Back to the Future
Terminator 2
Return of the Jedi
Dune
Star Trek: First Contact
Minority Report
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Children of Men
Star Trek (2009)
Galaxy Quest
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Twelve Monkeys
Gattaca
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
E.T.
Donnie Darko
Starship Troopers
THX 1138
Inception
Brazil
Robocop

Miscellaneous Sports Thoughts

2010-08-01T14:58:00.003-04:00

1. I was reading about Ben Roethlisberger recently (NYT had a good piece on him) earlier this week, and just disgusted with the guy. I know he wasn't charged with what he allegedly did to a woman in Georgia, but the evidence seems pretty clear that he at least tried to rape her. This is also not his first time doing something like that. I just want to say I have a hard time relating to the mindset of the entitled athlete. Who goes around thinking they can treat other people like property? All because they can play a children's game, and do a good job throwing or catching a ball? Ridiculous.

2. Bud Selig seems reasonably intelligent, at least some of the time. If that's the case, then why the opposition to instant replay in baseball? I don't understand it at all. Isn't it kind of a no-brainer that getting the right outcome should be the most important thing? I'm not sure why that isn't important for everybody.

3. I totally agree with the Sports Guy in his most recent column about not caring as much about the Sox as I used to. For me though, 2 reasons are paramount (2 of the ones that he also reflects on):

a. They won in 2004 and 2007. I was no fan of the "curse" bullshit (and I would love to banish the phrase "Red Sox Nation" forever), but it does feel like the urgency and drama are gone. I just assume that they will be competitive and probably win again at some point.

b. I'm a parent now. This has reordered a bunch of my priorities. There are plenty of things I cared about pre-parenthood that I still care about, but sports in not as much one of them.

I still follow the teams, still care about how they're doing, but it's just not as important anymore. I'm not sure if that is sad, or inevitable, or if it doesn't really matter.

4. I wish I could go to a world where I don't hear about LeBron for a while.

Toy Story 3

2010-07-18T20:48:00.002-04:00

Saw Toy Story 3 Saturday. So great. I'm not sure what it is in the water that they drink at Pixar that makes all of their films so fantastic, but I surely hope they keep drinking it and would love to have some myself. They make such wonderful movies. Pretty sure my favorite Pixar movie is still (not surprisingly) "The Incredibles", but "Wall-E" is up there as well, as is the original "Toy Story". This one was terrific as well. I still haven't seen "Up" but understand that is great as well. Oh, right, I know what it is - actual storytelling. Right. When the people responsible for writing a story actually, you know, write a story, as opposed to layering one pop-cultural reference on top of another. Don't get me wrong, I love pop-cultural references as much as anyone, it is a currency I trade in heavily, but I believe they must be earned and well timed. Just making references to the Godfather does not make your movie funny. If I want Godfather references I'll just watch the Godfather (which I have done approximately 250 times, give or take a few).

Now you may have also heard that the end of the movie was making some grown men weepy. I wouldn't know anything about that, I just happened to get something in my eye at the end of the movie. Complete coincidence.

Can you have schadenfreude towards your own kids?

2010-07-14T09:35:00.004-04:00

Just to go ahead and state the completely obvious, dealing with kids can be challenging. One little interaction - Kid #2 has a habit of throwing/putting food on the floor. It would be one thing if she were 8 months old, but she's almost 2 1/2, and so throwing/dropping of food is not nearly as funny/cute. We had been frustrated recently, but have deleloped a new system for dealing with this. The first time she does it, we pull her away from the table for a minute or so as a warning. The second time she does it, she's done eating that meal and doesn't get anything else. It's a little harsh, but we're trying to get her to understand "consequences".

Anyway, this morning she put some cheerios on the floor so I pulled her away from the table. After a minute I brought her back, and a few minutes after that she proceeded to take her entire cup of water and quite deliberately dump it out on the floor. She seemed quite please with herself, but I was pissed. I took her out of her chair, handed her a towel and told her to clean it up (just a side note, I didn't actually expect her to clean it all up, my point was to teach her that we clean up our own messes). She started to clean it up, and quickly lost interest, and then decided it would be more fun to jump up and down and splash in the puddles on the floor. In the non-suprise of the year, she slipped and fell and landed on her ass.

Now, there is something of a balancing act that you need to do when this sort of things happens, and I'm not totally sure how well I balanced it. I comforted her because she was crying and in pain, but some part of me was thinking that this was an excellent "teachable moment" for her - you pour the water on the floor, you jumped in it instead of cleaning it up, and then you get hurt - all in all, that's a lesson I can live with her learning, particularly where she was not seruiously hurt.

Of course, there was another part of me that wanted to point at her and go "ha ha" like Nelson from the Simpsons, but I kept that to myself.

Comic Book Review - Batman: The Long Halloween, and Marvels (also some Marvel vs. DC discussion)

2008-10-16T09:59:00.006-04:00

After I got finished reading Batman: The Long Halloween I proclaimed that it was one of the best superhero books I had read all year - it's suspenseful, entertaining, the art is wonderful, and it gives you a real sense into how Batman goes about his work as the "world's greatest detective" (even though he doesn't necessarily live up to that title in this story). Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are a terrific writer/artist team, and they've done some other wonderful work which I haven't reviewed but really loved (I HIGHLY recommend Superman for All Seasons, which covers the early years of Superman and was apparently some of the basis for the Smallville TV show which is one of my favorites - it's engaging, good-hearted and totally easy for the casual fan to follow). Anyway, back to Batman.

Let me digress for a minute. I was never a DC guy growing up. I mean, I loved the Christopher Reeve Superman movies (the first 2 at least), I loved the terribly wonderfully cheesy Super Friends cartoon with the DC characters, but actually reading DC comics on an ongoing basis was never interesting to me. I was always (and this really applied to almost everyone I knew who read comics growing up) a Marvel guy. Superman and Batman may have been some of the most amazing, iconic characters ever created, but I think they didn't feel cool to us - not nearly as cool as Spider-Man and certainly not as cool as the X-Men. If you wanted to read something that was cool and totally awesome in the early to mid 80's, it was definitely all about the X-Men. They were misfits, they were outlaws, and they battled frickin' giant sentinel robots! Spider-Man was also a character that a young kid could relate to. First off, while he does have super powers, he's not godlike like Superman or Thor (probably why Thor never held any interest for em - he was just too powerful and in his case he was an ACTUAL Norse God!). If a character has the ability to destroy a planet or something, there's not so much you can do with them. Spider-Man, by contrast, was an incredibly human character. He fought bad guys on a relatively modest scale, he was really funny, and seemed to live a much more real life than other characters. Plus Mary Jane was hot. Anyway, all of this is a long-winded way of saying that in recent years, as I have gotten into reading more DC Comics, I have had to play a lot of catch-up. I'm getting a sense of who the players are and what the dynamics are between the various characters. DC has been a around a lot longer, and they seem to have a lot more characters just sort of hanging around. Frankly, a lot of their characters are not that interesting to me. Elongated Man? The Question? Eh, not so much (except perhaps as Question is one of the bases for Rorschach. Still, there's a whole huge universe and it's been a major undertaking trying to catch up.

Back to my review. This is a great story, and I appreciate that Batman really is a detective and is trying to solve crimes. The takeaways on this story are that the art is wonderful - hyper-realistic and occasionally excessive, but portraying the true essence of each character. The writing is terrific, and as a huge Godfather fan I appreciate that the story is chock full of references to that movie. Very clever stuff. I highly recommend.

If my takeaway from The Long Halloween is that it's a great story, then Marvels is an absolute masterpiece. Here's what makes it so special. It takes events that have occurred through the history of the Marvel universe and retells those events from the eyes of a newspaper photographer, so you see and experience what he (and other regular people) were experiencing when these events happened - like, the first appearance of Captain America (who battles the Nazis), or the notoriety of the Fantastic Four, or the appearance (and societal backlash) against mutants like the X-Men. By itself, the story is brilliant. It was exhaustively researched and coordinated by Kurt Busiek to fit perfectly within the Marvel timeline. If that was enough, it would be fantastic. But it is taken to even higher levels of greatness by the artwork of Alex Ross.

Ahh, Alex Ross. Of all the comic artists I have seen, he is far and away my favorite, because his style is so unique and different in the comic books world. He is a painter, and his artwork has the appearance of being painted. See for yourself what I mean. His work is absolutely beautiful and iconic, particularly his work on Superman (and in Kingdom Come which I should talk about some time). Anyway, I definitely have an art-crush on him. I also wish he was illustrating actual books these days. I know he is busy doing covers for different books, but I'd love to see him do a whole book again.

The artwork is amazing and so incredibly life-like, you feel almost like you're reading about real events. The whole thing is an absolute wonder, full of hidden treasures. I've spoken in previous posts about my love for Astro City, and it's clear that the team of Busiek and Ross first developed the idea of telling stories about a universe full of superheroes from doing Marvels. It's a wonderful idea, and here in Marvels they give you a sense of the wonder and danger and conflicting attitudes you might have, living in a world where people exist who can do such extraordinary things.

This one gets my super-duper extra special good highest recommendation. A real treasure.

Gee, Joe, I feel really bad for you

2008-10-15T14:40:00.001-04:00

The quote in this link from Conservative talk show host (and former Republican congressman) Joe Scarborough is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Um, should we feel bad for them?

On the other hand, the hateful, scary stuff people are yelling at McCain/Palin rallies reminds me a little too much of a lynch mob, or some third world country with coups, dictators and "militias" roaming the streets.

Update

2008-10-06T16:20:00.002-04:00

Good news on the technology front - I got an A/B splitter and it solved the problem with the new DVD player. $16.99 well spent at Radio Shack.

In other news, I'm probably not going to be posting as frequently because I'm taking a writing class and with 2 little kids at home and work as well, there's only so much time in the day for writing. I'll try to post stuff when I can.

I'm so surprised by this finding

2008-10-02T15:29:00.001-04:00

Apparently, Tim Donaghy was the only bad actor. Well, whaddya know.

I think Obama will actually win big - you can blame me if it turns out differently

2008-10-02T15:16:00.004-04:00

Maybe I am being unrealistic, but I think that recent weeks (the financial crisis in particular) have corrected reality to how I thought it was going to be, which is a big win for Obama in November. I actually don't think it's going to be that close. Here's some evidence.

My day in sales (an old story)

2008-10-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

This is an old story about something that happened to me a long time ago, when I was out of work and in between jobs. Actually, it was in the Spring of 2003. Funny (at least to me) experience, so I want to write about it.

I'm a lawyer by profession, but was in between jobs back in 2003 and was considering whether maybe I should be looking at jobs outside the legal profession. I thought about what might be interesting areas to me, and because I think of myself as a reasonably creative guy, I considered jobs in advertising and marketing. So, I looked up job listings and found this one position in a city just outside of Boston. I don't want to give too much detail but I will say that there's a lively discussion here and here of the business and its pitfalls, and here's another very comprehensive overview of what I had gotten myself into. I'm just going to cover my own experience.

The first tip-off that this was going to be weird was that they responded to quickly to my resume. You know that old saying by Groucho Marx that he wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would let him in? That was the initial sense I got. But, I was desperate, and needed to work.

I went to the interview which was pretty weird. It was in this really bare-bones office with a bunch of boxes, and I had a really short interview with this guy that was the owner of the business. He was a young guy, who claimed to be educated at an Ivy League school. I remember sitting in the office beforehand, listening to the receptionist take call after call after call to set up interviews. I thought, "wow, that's a lot of interviews - pretty weird". Anyway, the interview was short, but long enough for me to figure out that this was a business, the foundation of which was door-to-door sales. Yikes. Not exactly what I went to college and law school for, but again, I was desperate.

I was told that I did well and they wanted me to come back for a "day of observation" so I could see what it was like to work as a part of this business. So, I came back two days later for what I was told would be a whole-day experience. Definitely an experience.

I arrived early in the morning as each "team" was getting ready to head out for a day of sales. I was in a car with a guy, let's call him Jock, who claimed to have formerly been a pitcher for a major league baseball team. I later saw his name somewhere on the web and it seems that he may have in fact had a cup of coffee in the bigs, but that was about it. One can only assume that had he done better, he would have been in this particular racket. Anyway, with me and Jock was another guy, let's call him Schlemiel. Schlemiel had already joined the company as a salesperson and was a few weeks in to his formal training. He was really not very good at it, which I'll get to later.

So we drove to a particular neighborhood in a town directly north of Boston, and our job was to canvas that area with booklets for a particular neighborhood car wash. We were to greet each house here by saying something along the lines of:

Salesperson: "Nothing serious here, folks, just going around the neighborhood for ------ car wash."

Homeowner: "ok."

Salesperson: "Do you have a car?"

Homeowner: "Sure."

Salesperson: "Do you like to keep it clean?"

Homeowner: "Sure, I guess."

Salesperson: "Well here, check it out."

At "check it out" the goal was to get the coupon book into the hands of the customer. Apparently at this point they're more likely to want to buy it since it actually seemed like a pretty good deal. Anyway, we walked around the neighborhood for a while, with Jock leading the way, and giving Schlemiel the chance to try, and he was TERRIBLE at it. He would get tongue-tied, and couldn't remember the script. After about 15 minutes I had memorized the script. I felt sort of out of place with these folks, and pretty shitty overall about my life at this point. I remember I used some word (don't remember what) and they characterized me as "Mr. Dictionary" or some other moniker denoting my usage of "big" words.

All the while, Jock was also quizzing me on these certain points tat I'm supposed to learn and remember for a quiz at the end of the day. If you check the links above, you'll see some of these key points, but I remember it being weird, like "what makes a successful person" and my answers were not correct, there were certain correct answers I was supposed to give them.

Anyway, we did this for pretty much the whole day until we had essentially canvassed the whole neighborhood trying to peddle these coupon books for the car wash. We sold a few of these books, but all the while I was walking around I was trying to do the math and come up with some scenario where selling these little books could possibly be profitable. I couldn't come up with one.

At the end of the day we all went back to the offices and this was a social gathering time. As each team came back to the office, there was this incredibly weird ritual where if someone sold a certain number of these booklets (say 5) they got to ring a little bell. If they sold a bigger number (maybe 10) they got to ring the bigger bell. Everyone yelled and cheered for them as this was happening. I looked around, not quite sure I was really experiencing what I seemed to be experiencing.

After the bell-ringing ceremony, there was some socializing where I got a chance to meet some of the other sales people. Everyone was REALLY friendly, but they all asked the same question:

Sales people: "So what do you like to do for fun?"

Me: "Well, I enjoy reading, creative writing, spending time with my wife, being active in my Synagogue, etc."

Well, as you can guess, I got these sort of quizzical looks. I think the answer they were looking for was more "I like to work hard, and play hard!!!" or something to that effect.

At the end of the night after I had taken my quiz, Jock came to me and told me that they had a good feeling about me and wanted to bring me in the the business. I really agonized about it for a little while (which in retrospect seems ridiculous) but at the time I was pretty desperate to be working. As I took the T home, I really had to think about it. It became more and more clear though that I felt like it was kind of a scam, and that I'd have to work too hard for not much money, and that, to be honest, it felt beneath me (I know it's a snobby thing to think, but I really didn't feel like I spent 4 years in college and 3 years in law school to be a door-to-door salesman). Additionally, it required having a car, and we only had one car, so that was a problem too.

Thankfully for me, the legal work picked up after that, I had some good temp work for a while and a few months later got a permanent position at a firm. I'll always look back fondly though at my day in sales. I wonder what Jock and Schlemiel are doing now? I hope he's gotten his script down by now.

Complaints about technology

2008-09-23T16:09:00.002-04:00

For a change of pace, I'm going to go ahead and vent about technology issues for a little while.

So back in December our old VCR broke. We thought, "no problem, we can just buy a new one". Turns out (not so surprisingly) that no one makes VCR's anymore. So, we decided to buy a combo VCR/DVD player (even though we had an existing, perfectly good Toshiba DVD player) since that was the only way we could get a VCR. Why buy a VCR, you might ask? We have a bunch of videos for our kids to watch, and it didn't seem like it would be a problem. So, we bought a very nice LG DVR/VCR with a built-in digital tuner and 1080i upconverting. This worked for a while until it started having an incredibly annoying problem of refusing to recognize the existence of the discs you had to put inside it. Problematic, no?

So, I went about figuring out how I was supposed to get it back to LG to fix. They explained to me that all I need to do was send them the original receipt (ha!) and put the DVD player in the original box (ha ha!) and send it back to them along with $69 for labor. So, I spent a ton of time searching all over the place for the receipt (basically ransacked our house) and couldn't find it, but then I got in touch with Best Buy and they explained that they can just send me a duplicate receipt. So that was great, and then I sent it to the UPS store to have it wrapped up, and sent it off to LG.

In the interim I decided to hook up the old DVD player to the TV. Unfortunately I just couldn't get it to work. The configuration was different. Back when we used this old DVD player we had it connected through the VCR. Now it was different and for some reason I couldn't get it to work.

No matter - just a few weeks later I got back a box with what appeared to be a brand new DVD player. I realized that it actually was a brand new one. In fact, it was an upgrade over my previous one. Whereas my old one only had 1080i upconverting, this one had full 1080p upconverting. So, very exciting, everyone loves a free upgrade. Unfortunately, not so great. I hooked up the DVD player as I normally would (I have done this sort of thing several times before, and am reasonably good at figuring this stuff out), but it just wouldn't work. So, I called a friend of mine who is more tech-savvy than I am and asked for his help. He was stumped, until we eventually discovered that this new DVD player is not designed to work with our old TV (perfectly good CRT television, 9 years old). So, now we have 2 perfectly good DVD players, neither of which can work with our television set.

My friend suggested a number of possible options: (i) buy an A/B switcher box to go back and forth; (ii) buy a receiver and run everything through the receiver; or (iii) buy a new TV.

Now, I like options (ii) and (iii) because our current stereo is a boombox-style Aiwa stereo that I bought in 1994 when was in college and it has been a complete POS ever since I bought it (the tape deck hasn't worked in years, and the CD player doesn't work either, at this point it's just a large radio). I have been holding out on replacing it because I didn't want to replace it with another POS, I wanted to actually get a good stereo system. I also like the idea of getting an LCD flat-panel TV.

Mostly, I am annoyed and a little bitter. We actually have 3 DVD players in the house, if you count the one that is a part of our computer but that has weird problems whenever you try to watch a DVD. So, 3 DVD players in the house, and none of them work. No pithy conclusion, I'm just sort of frustrated.

Comic Book Reviews - Y:The Last Man, Ex Machina

2008-09-17T16:02:00.008-04:00

I just finished reading the final book of Y:The Last Man and I am comfortable saying that reading the series is some of the most fun I have had reading anything, ever. Brian Vaughan writes mainstream action/adventure comics better than almost anyone I've read. His comics (both Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina) are compulsively readable. Once I've started a book I absolutely cannot put it down until I am finished. He draws you in that quickly. He's sort of like Stephen King in that way - being able to write mainstream, exciting, fun works.

I'm not sure if "Y" is supposed to be about bigger issues, I think maybe it is, but the chief fun of the series is finding out what's going to happen next. It's possible that Vaughan wanted the series to be at a "higher level" and in that regard I'm not sure it succeeds. I mean, I was definitely interested in finding out what was happening, and what caused all of the men to disappear, and I also was fascinated with what he had to say about a world where all of the men are gone, but don't be worried - it's not high-level reading. It's extremely accessible, but it may not necessarily be great literature. That being said, it's just about as much fun as you can have reading a comic book, and I think Vaughan should be writing in Hollywood. I hear they are going to make a movie of this eventually. I think that's great, as it's a terrific story. I just don't want them to use Shia Leboeuf. I find that kid annoying, and am not sure why Hollywood is so fascinated with him.

I have recently finished reading the fourth book of Ex Machina. If it's at all possible, I think that Ex Machina is an even better series than Y: The Last Man. The artwork is a little more sophisticated (but still totally accessible), the narrative is slightly more complex (he jumps around a lot more from one time period to another), and the series reaches more of those high-level issues that think Y is going for but doesn't quite achieve. Plus, it's really entertaining. How could you not love a series about an ex-superhero who becomes mayor of New York? You can see some similarity between Mitchell Hundred/The Great Machine, and Yorick Brown (the lead character from Y), but each is his own character and both are very compelling. Again, this series would make a fantastic series of movies. Again, hopefully not starring that Leboeuf kid.

When I said I was done posting on Sarah Palin, I lied

2008-09-17T16:02:00.003-04:00

Sarah Palin is going on a field trip to the UN. The funniest part is the anonymous source saying that taking her to the UN will "improve her foreign policy credentials." Um, just because you visit the UN doesn't give you foreign policy credentials. Sometimes I go to lunch at Quincy Market and get Japanese, Thai or Greek food. Does this improve my foreign policy credentials?

Also, I have a new analogy for the seeming groundswell of support for Palin, and the culture of narcissism that wants us to see someone "just like us" in the White House. Did you ever see the Simpsons episode where Homer meets his long lost brother (voiced by Danny Devito) and he turns out to be this really successful executive at a car company? Homer's brother then decides to have Homer design a car for "regular people", since Homer is just a "regular guy". The car turns out to be a giant disaster and costs Homer's brother his job and destroys the company. Sarah Palin is Homer Simpson, fulfilling our desire to see someone "just like us" in charge.

Also, Jeff Jacoby had something in today's Globe where he implores us all to just leave poor Sarah Palin alone. He's one of my token favorite conservatives because I think he often makes good points, but I had to disagree with him on this one. I sent him an email (paraphrasing some other points I've previously made here), the text of which is below. I'll post if he responds.

"I agree with your column that some of the Palin coverage has been critical, but you cite mostly bloggers and commentators. However, I think you seriously understate the amount of vitriol, slander and outright lies that Barack Obama has faced from the right wing, including bloggers and other commentators. Besides, the McCain spin control team has made it seem like any inquiry into Sarah Palin's life is out of bounds - I'm pretty sure it's still the press' job to ask tough questions.

She is theoretically going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and access to her has been so incredibly stage-managed that you begin to wonder what they're afraid of (if she's so great, why not let her say something other than giving her canned stump speech?). That lack of access can only contribute to the air of speculation around her, and statements like Steve Schmidt's that the press is not being sufficiently "deferential" are pure idiocy. John McCain has never shied away from facing tough questions (and Obama and Biden have given plenty of press access) and his running mate shouldn't either.

One other thing you mentioned was about her family. I don't believe families should be discussed on the campaign, and they should be generally off limits. Barack Obama made a strong statement echoing this point. However, isn't it sort of hypocritical for the campaign to say that family is "off limits" with respect to Palin's daughter, when at the same time she shamelessly uses her two sons as campaign props? I mean, how many times are they going to tell us that her son is going to serve in Iraq, and how many times is she going to use her infant son as a prop to burnish her pro-life credentials? As a parent, I think she should be ashamed of herself for using her children in this way. I say, stop using the children you want to promote as campaign tools, and maybe people will leave your other children alone.

Besides, don't you think people's desire to have a president they can "relate to" is incredibly narcissistic and kind of silly? I mean, you don't choose a doctor or a contractor based on whether you can relate to them, do you? Then why use that standard for the presidency? I mean, we're talking about someone who is going to help run the whole country, not just redo your kitchen.

I will say, though, that I can "relate" to Sarah Palin in at least one way. I'm not qualified to be vice president, and neither is she."

Two political thoughts

2008-09-16T10:37:00.002-04:00

1. Recently Karl Rove publicly said he thought McCain had gone too far in some of his ads. Yikes! Having Karl Rove tell you you're gone too far is kind of like having Stalin tell you you're "not being nice."

2. Why do people want to vote for candidates that are "just like them?" People seem to want "relatability", which I think is really dumb and incredibly narcissistic. Only in politics do people ask for this. I mean, if you needed brain surgery, would you want the brain surgeon to be "like you", or would you want him to be highly competent and good at what he did? I don't want to "have a beer" with my doctor, I just want him to do the job correctly. Why do we ask less of our politicians than we do of our doctors? I don't want a politician who is just like me. I'm not qualified to be president! I want a politician who is much much smarter than me, since being president involves dealing with really big issues that I am in no way qualified to deal with.

Ultimately, this means that I wish someone more qualified than Obama was the Democratic nominee, but he does have time in both state (as a state legislator) and federal government, and he was a constitutional law professor, so I'm hoping some of that will come in handy. Still, I wish he had 4 or 8 more years in the Senate under his belt before he ran.

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-15T11:50:00.004-04:00

I was very sad to hear last night that David Foster Wallace killed himself recently. He was such a talented writer. All I ever read of his was A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, which is absolutely brilliant and I commend it to anyone looking for smart, thoughtful, clever essays. Particular, the titular essay and the one about the Illinois state fair are the sorts of things you can sit around reading hilarious passages to friends. Now, there is plenty of self-righteous snark that comes across in the essays, but it's damn funny, even if it seems kinda mean.

Anyway, I'm very sorry he's gone.

Maybe someday I will work up the courage to take on Infinite Jest (though maybe not, given the descriptions of the novel as "Pynchonesque" and given my limited enjoyment of Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon - I'll have to write about the experience of reading that book some other time).

Comic Book Review - Fables

2008-09-15T11:20:00.002-04:00

I recently started reading the Fables series and so far I have read the first two books in the chronological series, along with 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which is a prequel to the series. I feel like something of a broken record by saying this (i.e. giving positive reviews to popular series), but I'm really enjoying it. I enjoyed vol. 1 - Legends in Exile more than I enjoyed the second one, Animal Farm, but both are quite good. The author (Bill Willingham) has done a really terrific job of transporting all of these different fable characters into the modern world. In order to fully enjoy these stories, you don't have to know a lot about fairy tales and fables, but it helps to know the basics, and it is clear that the author has a strong background here. The stories themselves are extremely engaging, straightforward and fun (similar to Brian Vaughan's work). It's quite funny to think of Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk as this low-level loser, or that the Big Bad Wolf is now a detective. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed those stories, I have to say I think I enjoyed 1001 Nights of Snowfall even more. There, you learn the background stories of some of the characters that appear in Fables, and how they ended up in Fabletown (in New York). The stories have a magical, real fable-like sense to them (which the regular comic does not - it definitely takes place in our world), and the art (done by different artists for each story) is quite wonderful. The stories also have something of a "Harry Potter" feel to them, as it posits a magical world that has to be hidden from the mundanes/muggles. Anyway, I love the series, and hope to read more of it.

He's got my vote

2008-09-12T15:54:00.000-04:00

Finally! A presidential candidate I can believe in.

My last post on Sarah Palin (hopefully)

2008-09-10T14:45:00.002-04:00

I was at the physical therapist today and next door they are demolishing a building. All that's left is a wall in front, so that if you just look at it quickly for a moment you might still think there was a building there, but if you spend any time at all looking, you'll see it's clear that all that's left is the wall in front, and nothing behind it. That's what Sarah Palin is like. She's the "potemkin candidate". She's got catchy slogans and sound bites that sound good, but there appears to be nothing behind it. Only recently did she even agree to give an interview to a member of the press. If she's so great, what are they afraid of? She (and the attention surrounding her) also reminds me a little of Chauncey Gardiner. Everyone projects on to her what they want to see, but she's actually an empty shell.

The last thing I'll mention is about the media "hubbub" surrounding her and her kids. It's pretty tiresome to hear her and the McCain campaign complain about the treatment of her daughter's pregnancy, when the campaign is busy shamelessly using her son with down syndrome and her son going to Iraq as props to score points. As far as I'm concerned, she's opening her whole family up for scrutiny by politically using her own children in this way.

Why I think Obama will win

2008-09-10T14:37:00.001-04:00

He's fine, I've got some issues with him, but demographic trends are going to help him win.

Are stupid people thinner?

2008-09-04T16:13:00.000-04:00

This new research makes me want to think less.

More leftovers from Last Night's Republican Convention

2008-09-04T14:53:00.002-04:00

I read that Mitt Romney (of whom I am not a fan) said that his party (the Republican Party) was the party of "big ideas, not big brother". Two questions:

1. What big ideas? How do Republicans propose to solve all of our major problems - invade some other country? Blame gays? Get us all to read the Bible more?

2. The "not big brother" part gets me - isn't this the same party that brought you warrantless wiretapping, Gitmo, thousands of FBI inquiries, the USA PATRIOT Act, and countless other actions that push us closer to being a police state?

At least Giuliani won't be President

2008-09-04T11:26:00.006-04:00

I watched about 5 minutes of Giuliani talking yesterday and it was as much as I could handle. He somehow suggested that John McCain would both expand free trade and protect American jobs, and that Obama was going to somehow ship them all away. How exactly McCain will be both a protectionist and a free-trade guy is beyond me. I'm pro free-trade, having recently read The World is Flat by Tom Friedman I think that guy is spot-on when he talks about what America has to do to remain competitive in the world. Being protectionist is not one of those things. Anyway, Giuliani seemed to be suggesting that McCain would simultaneously do both, which is pretty much impossible. Additionally, he failed to mention that more American jobs have moved overseas during the presidency of George Bush than at any other time. But, who needs facts?

Additionally, he said McCain would shrink the size of government. Politicians are so full of crap when they make this claim. I read recently that during the past 25 years, the period of time when the size of the federal government was at its smallest as a percentage of GDP was during the presidency of Bill Clinton. But, again, who needs facts?

I don't care so much about the "experience" issue because I think that the only job that prepares you for being President is being President. That being said, it has been amusing watching conservative commentators tie themselves in knots (and making themselves seem really stupid) by making the argument that Palin has more relevant experience than Obama or Biden.

Also, read this. Funny and devastating critique of the McCain campaign's anger at the media.

Watch this weasel squirm

2008-09-03T14:27:00.002-04:00

Does John McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds say anything at all in this clip? He can't answer a pretty basic question about Governor Palin's "experience".

Movie Review - Tropic Thunder

2008-09-02T14:20:00.003-04:00

Just saw Tropic Thunder last night, and I absolutely loved it. Nothing ground-breaking to report in my review here (i.e., sentiments will probably echo general consensus), but I thought it was hugely entertaining, very funny and spot-on with its commentary about society and Hollywood.

As an aside, this is my first movie review posted here and I'm still trying to figure out whether I'll be including spoilers or be relatively spoiler-free, in how much detail I'll summarize the plot, and whether I'll include any kind of rating system (stars, thumbs up/thumbs down, etc.). I'm inclined to try to stay relatively spoiler-free, and to not include any rating system because I think those are arbitrary and silly. I'll tell you if I liked or didn't like something, and if so, why.

Anyway, Tropic Thunder opens with some very funny fake trailers that provide some pretty good exposition for the main characters of the story. I liked all of the main leads, but I was least enamored of Jack Black's character (a cross between Jack Black, Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley) - I think I'm just not a huge Jack Black fan. Hmmm, is that true? I do really like him in certain roles (High Fidelity, School of Rock). Well, I'll have to think about it. Anyway, the plot concerns the filming of a war movie that goes horrifically wrong, and the self-absorbed actors who get involved in the movie that turns into real life. All sorts of wacky hijinks ensue, which is not as relevant to me as the terrific performances in the movie. You don't really need to know much about the plot, except to know that it's full of action, suspense, and assloads of funnies. Let me mention briefly the "controversy" surrounding this movie. If you actually see the movie, you will understand completely that this controversy is much ado about nothing, and that the mentally disabled are not the target of this movie. Hollywood is the target, and their idealization of the mentally disabled as "awards material". Also, I can't speak to whether Robert Downey Jr. "blackface" performance is offensive to African-Americans (as I am not one), but I would say that while he definitely walks some fine lines (as the movie does generally), his character takes the embracing of his role very seriously, and is again I think a satire and criticism of how seriously actors take themselves, as opposed to being a straight-up attempt at crude blackface humor.

All that being said, the movie is fairly crude and there' s a lot of swearing (particularly from Tom Cruise's "Les Grossman" character), along with some intentionally ridiculous Hollywood violence. As an aside, I think there is some argument that the most offensive characterization in the movie is Cruise's portrayal as the Jewish movie producer. His character is cheesy, money-obsessed and something of a walking stereotype. He is also completely hilarious and I loved the performance. So, I have mixed feelings about it (I'm Jewish). I did not have mixed feelings about the movie generally, though, I totally loved it and thought is was a real ass kicker of a comedy, with terrific acting and very smart dialogue.

One other thing. Tropic Thunder owes a huge debt to Bowfinger, the underappreciated Steve Martin movie where he films an action movie around a paranoid action star (played by Eddie Murphy) who has no idea he is in the movie, with a team of people who also have no idea that their star has no idea that there is a movie being filmed. I'd highly recommend Bowfinger to anyone who enjoyed Tropic Thunder.

Comic Book Reviews - Wanted, The Boys, A Contract with God

2008-08-31T20:57:00.006-04:00

At first glance, you'd think that Will Eisner's A Contract With God did not belong with the other comics I'm going to review. You'll see why it fits in quite nicely, I'll get to that later.

Ka-pow!! I first have to go right into reviewing Wanted, which I just finished reading a few minutes ago. It completely knocked me on my ass, it was that good. Everything about it just completely blew me away. I hate to sound like some sort of adolescent reviewing this, but that's how it made me feel - like I was a pre-teen that just discovered something really illicit and awesome, that's what reading Wanted was like for me. I just started reading a few of the reviews on Amazon, and some of them hit the right points for me. Which are - if you like comics that resolve themselves with some sort of morality at the end, you'd best skip Wanted. As others have pointed out, this is a story about the bad guys, and the bad guys basically win here. The concept is fantastic here, that a society of super-villains are running the world and nobody knows it, and that there used to be superheroes but they're all gone, and that this lowly peon turns out to actually be the son of one of the greatest of all the super criminals, and capable of amazing feats. I know, it sounds like Fight Club, The Matrix and Star Wars all rolled into one, and I think that's probably fair. It also explains why I enjoyed it so much - not surprisingly, I love Star Wars, Fight Club and The Matrix. Imagine how much cooler Star Wars would have been if Vader got to Luke before Obi Wan did and convinced him to become a sith lord, and Luke was totally into it and the bad guys really and completely won out in the end? That's this story, except no light sabers. It's such an old and compelling idea - what you know as your life is not all that there is, there's this whole amazing world out there, and you are not just an ordinary person living an ordinary life, you are special, you are somebody, in this amazing world. A compelling idea, masterfully done here - with the added twist of a completely nihilistic world view, where the path to success is lined with wanton violence. This comic is violent and somewhat disturbing, and not for the faint of heart. It has my absolute recommendation. I'm very curious but also dreading seeing the movie adaptation, since I liked the comic so much and since I know that they changed the plot significantly for the movie.

I also enjoyed reading The Boys , a series which is so cynical about superheroes that it's hard to take it at all seriously, which I assume is the point. I read both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 recently, and found them to be outrageously funny, vulgar, violent and crude, with more explicit sex, sexual references and sexual imagery than I would think was possible in a comic book (you may have gotten this point already, but I'll drive it home even more - this one is really not for kids). Anyway, it's a scathing take down of the superhero archetype, as the "heroes" here are portrayed as being egocentric, sadistic, corrupt, venal, lascivious monsters that you'd never want to be around - ever. The superheroes are all pretty much controlled by a large multinational corporation. The actual "heroes" of the story are a group of CIA-backed operatives whose job it is to keep the superheroes in line, and impose "rough justice" on them as necessary. I guess the author is going for the "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" idea. Anyway, I think I enjoyed Vol. 1 more than Vol. 2 - I wasn't as keen on the story where the Batman/Iron Man analogue "Tek-Knight" can't stop having sex with everything (and I mean everything). At some point the writer (Garth Ennis) just sort of lost me because the superhero characters are so devoid of merit, there's very little reason to take any of this seriously. On the other hand, the "Boys" are reasonably sympathetic, particularly "Wee Hughie" (the character who looks just like Simon Pegg ), but even the Butcher character - it takes a skillful writer to make you like such a loathsome character, but realize that he's not nearly as loathsome as he initially appears. Anyway, if you're looking for a totally crude, clever, satirical sendup of the superhero genre, this is a highly entertaining read.

The last item I'm reviewing today is A Contract With God which I read a few days ago. I'll say up front that it is regarded as the first Graphic Novel, by the legendary writer Will Eisner - and I really didn't love it. It feels sort of blasphemous to say that, like saying you enjoy plays but don't like Shakespeare, or you enjoy novels but don't really like Don Quixote. There are four stories in this collection - A Contract With God, The street Singer, The Super and Cookalein. Of these four, by far my favorite is the titular story. It's maudlin and over-the-top, but I really was moved by it maybe because it concerns a a father losing a daughter, and I have two little girls. Additionally, I enjoyed the way that Eisner used the visual medium to make his text work together with the imagery (on a rainy day, he has water dripping down from the letters - it's very clever and effective). So, I really liked this story. Unfortunately, I didn't like the other stories in this collection as much. Maybe it was something about the artwork, or something about the characters (they're all pretty selfish, unlikable, dishonest people), or the subject matter. I found the rest of the stories over-the-top, and although I appreciated Eisner's very funny and cynical take on human nature, I thought the stories were almost predictably amoral (if such a thing is possible). Now, to be fair, I've been reading primarily superhero stuff, so maybe I'd be more into it at some other time. I'll give it a try again down the road.

Reading A Contract With God right before I read The Boys and Wanted, I found (surprisingly) the worldview is not that different. All three provide a pretty nihilistic, cynical worldview. Actually, notwithstanding the fact that it is the most vulgar and explicit of the three, The Boys is actually the most "moral" out of all of them, because The Boys exist to keep superheroes in line and make sure that, in a very weird way, that justice is done in the world.

Monkey Scribe

2008-08-29T15:13:00.002-04:00

Who says there's no more civility in the legal profession?

Experience the multiculturalism - get your cat a hat

2008-08-29T15:00:00.001-04:00

Enjoy the weirdness, it speaks for itself.

Wow, I feel old now

2008-08-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

Michael Jackson just turned fifty today. Not quite sure what to do with that, but that makes me feel old.

Comic Book Reviews - Persepolis and American Born Chinese

2008-08-27T13:29:00.004-04:00

It was not my intention to have this be the "ethnic coming of age" graphic novel review blog post, but you know, I guess it is. It was over a month ago that I read The Complete Persepolis and not to sound like a broken record or to state the obvious, but it was fantastic. As a general note, you'll find that my reviews are mostly positive. I'll try to go beyond just saying "it's great, I loved it" but will also say why, and maybe anything I wasn't so crazy about - but I'm not going to have very many negative reviews because I'm not that snarky of a reviewer, and I try to only read things I'll like (i.e., I'll try to avoid reviewing crap, by not reading it in the first place). In the event that I review something I didn't like so much (like The Surrogates), I'll let you know why.

Anyway, back to Persepolis. First off, I learned a ton about Iranian history from reading it, a lot of stuff I really didn't know about the revolution and what happened afterwards. Extremely informative. Secondly, this was extremely moving - there were definitely parts I read where I almost started crying, because the author does such a beautiful job conveying the difficulty of adolescence occurring in the midst of a harrowing political situation. I mean, being 13 is hard enough without having a war and political repression. I know - I remember. I felt like it dragged in a few places, and I wasn't quite as into the parts when she was living abroad as I was when she was younger and back at home, but those parts were wonderfully rendered as well. The author is a really astute observer of life, of adolescents and young adults, and at people posing at being something that they are not (whether it is pseudo intellectuals, anarchists, or whatever.). The artistic style is extremely accessible but a little incongruous with the heady subject matter - discussion of torture seems particularly unsettling in this very cute and charming "cartoony" style. Anyway, any quibbles I have are minor - I loved it, and give it my highest recommendation.

I felt pretty similarly after reading American Born Chinese, which was equally fantastic. It didn't make me cry quite in the same way that Persepolis did, but made me laugh out loud at certain points, and always kept me engaged. The author uses three different stories to tell this bigger story, and they all come together in a clever and thoughtful way, which really ties all of the themes of the narrative together. There's the fable of the Monkey King and his quest to be something more than a Monkey, and there's Jin Wang and his struggles to assimilate into a school where he is one of the only Asian students, and then there is Danny, whose cousin "Chin-kee" comes to visit every year and makes things difficult for him in a very embarrassing and humorous way. While some of the ideas in this book relate specifically to the experience of being Chinese in America, the way the book deals with feelings of loneliness, feeling out of place, not knowing how to communicate with the opposite sex, fumbling through adolescence - these are universal themes, beautifully drawn and told throughout the story. Plus, in the story, characters play with old-school Transformers like Optimus and Megatron, which forever endears this book to me. As with Persepolis, I can't recommend this strongly enough, particularly if you are either an adolescent, were at some point an adolescent, or like things that are awesome.

Reinforcing my decision not to see the Clone Wars

2008-08-25T21:42:00.002-04:00

Pajiba (one of my new favorites) delivers the snark in this brutal review of the Clone Wars. George Lucas delivers a movie that is high on the suck-o-meter.

Dogs are better than people

2008-08-25T11:33:00.001-04:00

I always find these "kind animal" stories fascinating.

Comic Book Reviews - Y:The Last Man, The Surrogates, Astro City, The Authority Vol. 1

2008-08-24T19:58:00.002-04:00

I have been reading so much stuff recently, the pace has been relentless. I've just felt this real drive to catch up on all this stuff that I used to love as a kid and had lost touch with for years. It's been fantastic. So, since there's so much, my reviews will be pretty short. On Friday, I read Volumes 2-8 of the Y: The Last Man series. I know, it sounds like I must have spent all day reading, but it wasn't quite that bad. I read on the way to work, and during lunch, and during the evening b/c LW was out. So, based on the fact that I read 7 volumes in 1 day, you can guess what I thought of it. The series is definitely as good as you have heard. It's compulsively readable - it's like cotton candy or popcorn or something totally addictive. You keep wanting more of it because it is so well plotted, and funny, and entertaining. The art is pretty realistic, straightforward (and extremely well done), and the pace is lightning quick, and as you can guess the writing is terrific. Who knew the death of every man on earth but one would be so much fun?

The next thing I read a few weeks ago, but that I want to discuss is The Surrogates. I wish I could recommend it as enthusiastically as other things I've read recently. If I used a "star" system like they do on Amazon, I'd give it three stars. Not bad, at least somewhat entertaining, but definitely not all I was hoping it would be. The main thing here to note is that the idea is really clever. Not to spoil much, but in the future, we will have "surrogate" bodies through which we can live our lives. The implications are interesting, and the author actually does a pretty good job discuss the impact on crime, career choices, etc., if you could essentially have an avatar live your life for you on the world. Sort of like treating the actual world like Second Life. Anyway, that's the setup, and the story itself concerns a "murder" mystery of a sort, and while it's a decent story, I didn't love it, for several reasons. First, i really didn't enjoy the artwork. It is minimalist to the point of sometimes just feeling like the sketches. It's like the artist made a general overview sketch at the beginning and showed it to the writer, just to get the overview of what the work should look like, but instead of going back and filling it in, the just stopped there. Now, I get that they were trying to go for some sort of minimalist moody noir vibe, but it really just didn't work for me. I'm not saying I need my art to be completely traditional, but it was a distraction for me here. Secondly, I didn't find the mystery particularly compelling. Eventually when you find out who the "bad guy" is, you're sort of like "oh. so what?" If you've got a mystery, the person committing the crime that you find out about at the end should be someone you've already met and someone in whom you have some kind of stake. Not to spoil too much, but that's just not the case here. I feel like in the hands of a more experienced writer, there could have been made a better story out of this good idea. Now, all that being said, it was the writer's first graphic novel and it is a terrific idea, and the author shows promise. Perhaps if he revisits the material some time in the future, he'll have some more compelling story ideas. Of course, I hear they're turning this into a movie, so what do I know.

I'm not going to go into detailed reviews of everything I've read, but let me just mention a few other things I've read recently. First is the Astro City series, which, not to overstate things, is really everything that a comic should aspire to be. If you're interesting in writing in the super hero genre, or interested in reading something in the super hero genre, and you want to read or emulate something that is entertaining, well written, moving (at times), skillfully rendered, and also happens to be (if such a thing is possible) a non-cynical, loving deconstruction (or perhaps a reconstruction) of the super hero genre, then Astro City is the series to read. I've read the first five books in the series - I have not yet had a chance to read The Dark Age because my library doesn't carry it yet. Just to describe it generally, because I feel like to go into too much detail would spoil the joy of discovering it for yourself, but Astro City posits a world where many super heroes and villains exist, and imagines what it would be like to actually live in such a world, whether you are someone commuting from one part of town to another, or you live in a neighborhood known to be populated by frustrated ex-super villains, or getting to see two major super heroes go on a date. Each story is like discovering a new treasure.

Next is The Authority Vol. 1, which is also a super hero comic but VERY different. Not to be completely cliche, but to describe this series as "hard-hitting" would be something of an understatement. These are superheroes who don't save cats from trees, they don't foil bank robberies, and don't worry about secret identities. Instead, they use all means at their disposal to stop evil and save the world. If it happens that 1,000 civilians have to die in order to save 10,000, so be it. The characters are extremely compelling, and while there are some fairly clear analogues to other series (Apollo and Midnighter = Superman and Batman, only gay), the series has its own, original, interesting vibe. The art is terrific as well, very wide screen, "cinematic" approach to the action. I'm looking forward to reading more.

My brief, informative, insightful book reviews - Review of Godland Vol. 1

2008-08-21T13:16:00.003-04:00

I'm going to start posting reviews of books I read here, particularly comics that I read (since that seems to be most of what I'm reading these days). I may not catch everything I read here, but will try to get pretty much all of the comics have read recently and stuff going forward. Enjoy, true believers!

First up is Godland Volume 1 which I just read yesterday. Fantastic!! Ka-blow!! Cosmic and Celestial!! Yes, this is highly derivative of things like early Fantastic Four, Kirby's Fourth World series and the Celestials, but that is a GOOD thing. This book was a super quick read, and had that totally fun "cosmic" feel that you really don't seem to get much of these days in comics. By no means is it heavy duty reading a la Watchmen, but it was highly entertaining and readable, and even though it takes place now (as far as I can tell), it definitely has a "space age" vibe to it. The art is fun in an "almost realistic" depiction of humans (stylized, but not ridiculously so), and if full of bright imagery. So, I'd definitely recommend it as a fun read, and I look forward to reading more in the series.

My love affair with Star Wars is almost over

2008-08-19T14:28:00.000-04:00

I love Star Wars. I love the original movies, and for years now I have been defending the prequel trilogy even though I am willing to concede some of the things people find problematic (wooden acting, overly complicated storytelling, comprehensive yet uninspiring CG, way too much stupid "kiddie" humor, plot and character motivation issues, racist or anti-semitic alien characters, etc.). Still, I have loved them because I have founds things in each movie that I really enjoyed, and because (I'm paraphrasing some movie, wish I could remember) I love them for who they want to be, and for who they almost are, etc. Also, I just love them because they are Star Wars and they get to keep me thinking about Star Wars a little bit longer. I would even argue that Episode III is close to or better than Return over the Jedi. Now, everyone knows that ROTJ is the weakest of the original trilogy, probably because by the time of the ROTJ Lucas had already started turning the Star Wars movies into "kiddie movies" (see Aint it Cool for a discussion of this, I can't say it any better than they did), but still, ROTJ has always had a special place in my heart b/c it was the first one I actually saw in the theater (being too young for the other ones). But I watched this sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, and it made me profoundly sad, as did the recent reviews for the "Clone Wars" movie. I'm unlikely to see that in the theater, though I'll probably still rent it when it comes out on DVD (just because of my "completist" tendencies).

I agree with everything the negative commentators have said about what Lucas has done to the Star Wars story. The reason that sequence from TESB made me so sad was that I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in any of the prequels one tenth as good as that sequence (except for maybe the light saber duel at the end of TPM, that was pretty spectacular) because all in one sequence it had humor, excitement, real human drama and tension. Pauline Kael and other may have complained about the acting in the original SW when it came out, but it seems like the Royal Shakespeare Company in comparison to some of what is delivered in the prequel trilogy.

So, I'm willing to concede now that despite the fact that they all have good stuff in them, the prequels are generally disappointing, when taken as a whole. I'm still not willing to say that they completely suck. However, the stuff that's good is really good, but then it is overwhelmed by the stuff I hate (less so in Episode III, but general principle still applies). Examples:

Episode I:

Love: light saber duel at end, rescue mission of Queen Amidala and escape from Naboo

Hate: stupid "roger roger" droids, ridiculous Asian stereotype trade federation, jar jar, offensive middle eastern watto character, pod race, pod race, pod race (did I mention I hate the pod race?), clumsy wooden acting (I swear Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor are good actors, I've seen it elsewhere), etc.

Episode II:

Love: the notion that the entire war/conflict is being engineered by one guy to create a climate of fear and create the need for draconian security measures, the sequence when Anakin goes searching for his mom, Obi Wan on the cloner planet and his interactions with Jango (genuine drama!), watching a group of jedi fight, the arena sequence (how can you not enjoy the tearing of the shirt to reveal Natalie Portman's midriff?)

Hate: Anakin and Amidala on Naboo ("I hate sand", frolicking in the fields, etc.), Obi Wan in a diner (WTF?!?), tedious political talk

Episode III:

Love: initial flight sequence, duel between Anakin and Obi Wan, duel between Yoda and Palpatine, sequence between Palpatine and Anakin at the theater, duel between Obi Wan and Greivous, the genuine drama when Anakin goes bad and helps Palpatine kill Mace Windu, subsequent slaughter of the Jedi

Hate: Any Anakin/Amidala interactions, Amidala generally (she became completely useless in this movie), the fact that she died "because she lost the will to live"? (Again, WTF?), the fact that you never quite believe or understand Anakin's transition from good guy to bad guy, or the fact that as Hayden Christiensen plays him, you never really think Anakin is all that good of a guy in the first place

So, anyway, I can only be sad when I think about what a different prequel trilogy might have been like, one that was more true to the spirit of the original films, and one that had better directors (Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro) at the helm.

Babies of the species Dada-LW

2008-08-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

LW and I were talking about Baby and how cute she is. I just had a "vacation" for a week and a half, and at the end of it I am much more bonded to the Baby than I was before. I'm not any more or less bonded to the Banana, but my hair is a little grayer as a result of her inscrutable toddler-ness. She really is 8 different kinds of wonderful, but she also makes me want to bang my head against the wall some times, or consider selling her on eBay. She's very cute, so I'd do well.

Anyway, LW took Baby to a luncheon at her work and everyone was oohing and aahing over her. Rightfully so, she's very cute. We were talking afterwards about how much we love her personality, and comparing the children (which of course good parenting probably says you're never supposed to do, but all parents do it). Anyway, the conclusion we've come to is that our kids personalities at this age are pretty much the same. They are super-similar physically. Baby's head is a little wider and more square-shaped than Banana's was at this age, but both at this age (almost 5 months) are highly alert, don't cry for no reason (only when there is a specific issue), very smiley and good with people, not super-heavy, have high muscle tone (i.e., if you hold them up they will essentially use their legs to stand up themselves) completely bald, and physically seem almost exactly the same.

So, they're both lovely babies, but both are (or were) lovely in a very specific way. I joked with LW that it's almost as if there was a particular breed of child (let's call her the Dada-LW breed), since both kids have these pretty specific personality traits. If we had a third child (really, no plans to do that), I suspect we would make another baby that fit the Dada-LW mold. I mean, if we had a really fat baby with a lot of hair that was fussy all the time and didn't hold themselves up on their feet, I'd have to ask the LW some hard questions!

A few political observations

2008-08-13T21:23:00.000-04:00

A few thoughts about recent political stuff:

John McCain: Here's my concern about McCain. Let's say he's elected, and becomes President of the United States. What if, all of a sudden, he realizes that there's some younger, prettier country that he'd rather be president of. Let's be honest, America's not so young anymore and not so pretty. Let's say he looks at Israel who needs a new president at some point, and says, "hey, Israeli women are hot, and the modern nation of Israel is younger than the US." Given his track record, this is a legitimate concern. America, we better get some botox if we want to make sure to keep McCain's attention!

Russia/Georgia: Russia is like the former abusive boyfriend that just won't let the girl move on. Back in the old days, they were in an abusive, codependent relationship, and Georgia went along with it because Russia had all of the power and Georgia didn't know any different. All of a sudden though, they break up, and she's trying to move on. She's got a new job, is making new friends, really trying to move on with her life, and Russia can't stand it. Russia's sort of impotent for a while though, and just nursing the bitterness. All of a sudden though, Russia's circumstances change and maybe Russia's got a new job, making some money, and he decides that he's going to show that Georgia Bitch who is in charge, and that if he can't have her, no one can. So, nothing is out of bounds at this point, even physical violence. Poor girl, she's stuck now, her new friends are showing that maybe they aren't as willing to go to bat for her as she thought they would be, they don't want to interfere in the relationship, and just like that, she's stuck again, only now it's worse because he has money and he is bitter and resentful at past slights.

Hilary: I can't stand her. She could make things better for Obama but she doesn't want to. I think she's willing to have the country undergo 4 more years of Republican president just so she can have another chance in 2012. What if a bunch more justices retire before then? There's venal, there's really really venal, and then there's the Clintons. They're in a class by themselves.

Obama: Seems kinda weak at the moment. I like the guy, but I'm afraid he's about to get swift-boated. Some studies have shown that negative campaigning works, and doesn't really have much of a negative impact on the person on whose behalf the ads are run. With that in mind, I'd like to see Obama really cut loose and run all sorts of vicious (and accurate) ads asking the question "who is John McCain" and doing whatever he needs to do to win. I don't want to see him be yet another idealistic Democratic loser.

Changes to my list

2008-07-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

I've been listening to the live album HAARP by Muse recently, and I totally love it so it is getting added to my Top 40 Albums, so something is going to have to come off of the list. I think it'll be "When I woke" by Rusted Root. I really enjoyed that album a lot in the mid 90's but it doesn't really speak to me anymore.

Top 40 albums, take two

2008-03-12T15:15:00.000-04:00

I've thought it over and realize that I should just have some guidelines:

1. 1 album per band (hard to do w/r to my favorite bands but I'll give it a go)
2. No "Greatest Hits" albums
3. Live albums are ok if they are really good and distinct as live albums (you'll see my example below)
4. Soundtracks are ok (but I don't think I can have more than 1 on my list, absent special circumstances)

So, I want to further define what the list means. It is the 40 albums most important to me. Not necessarily the 40 most "important" albums I own ( as in important in a global sense), but the albums that have been most important to me historically. This means that an album may be less important to me now, but if it was at some point really important to me or I really really loved it, it at least merits consideration. Also, when choosing the one album from a certain band to include, I will include my favorite one, not necessarily the one I think might generally be considered the "best". Ok, here goes:

Nevermind - Nirvana
OK Computer - Radiohead
The Process of Belief - Bad Religion
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Paul's Boutique - The Beastie Boys
Abbey Road - The Beatles
Odelay - Beck
London Calling - The Clash
Take Five - Dave Brubeck
Under the Table and Dreaming - Dave Matthews Band
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
American Idiot - Green Day
Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses
Lost and Gone Forever - Guster
Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol
Utonian Automatic - Isotope 217
Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction
Blue Train - John Coltrane
Houses of The Holy - Led Zeppelin
What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
Bitches Brew - Miles Davis
Double Nickels on the Dime - The Minutemen
Signals, Calls & Marches - Mission of Burma
Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
Vs. - Pearl Jam
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Surfer Rosa - The Pixies
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back - Public Enemy
Pulp Fiction - Soundtrack
Document - REM
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
When I Woke - Rusted Root
Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
Superunknown - Soundgarden
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
Joshua Tree - U2
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

So, now I've gotten it to 40. My next task will be to think about whether I can put it into some order, or maybe even say something about each album.

my non-sleeping daughter, Eliot Spitzer, Top 40 albums

2008-03-11T20:47:00.000-04:00

I think the Banana might finally be asleep. She should be, it's been almost 1.5 hours since I last went into her room, and more than 2 hours since I first attempted to put her down for bed. She just started sleeping in a "big girl" bed a few nights ago, and is having adjustment trouble. As for me, I have had a pretty miserable time this evening. I told her after the second time I came back that that was it and I wasn't coming back in, and I meant it. Still, listening to her call to us makes my head want to explode. Am I being heartless? I don't think so - I just think that she needs to learn how to fall asleep on her own. She finally seems to have stopped crying - hopefully not emptionally scarring her too much. She fell asleep eventually, but I still feel a little like I'm made of glass at the moment.

On the Eliot Spitzer thing, not too much to say other than to observe that he is another loathsome hypocritical political sleaze. I'm not sure which part I think is the worst - the hypocrisy (crimefighter hoisted on his own petard, much to the schaudenfreude of corporate types everywhere), the stupidity (thinking that as the f$%^ing GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK he would be able to get away with visiting prostitutes on a regular basis and funneling $ all over the place), or (not to sound too old-fashioned) the criminality and immorality of the whole thing. I think I liked him a few years back, now not so much.

I was talking with a work friend/colleague recently about Top 40 albums lists. Not sure why 40, but it was an interesting discussion because it made me realize I have over the past few years been thinking about favorite songs, not favorite albums. I'm going to try to rectify that though, by coming up with a list of my own Top 40. Actually putting them in order seems like it might be a huge challenge, so we'll see how that goes. In the interim, here goes (in no particular order, except slightly alphabetical):

Nevermind - Nirvana
OK Computer - Radiohead
Kid A - Radiohead
The Process of Belief - Bad Religion
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Paul's Boutique - The Beastie Boys
Check Your Head - The Beastie Boys
Abbey Road - The Beatles
Sgt. Peppers - The Beatles
Odelay - Beck
London Calling - The Clash
Take Five - Dave Brubeck
Under the Table and Dreaming - Dave Matthews Band
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
American Idiot - Green Day
Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses
Lost and Gone Forever - Guster
Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol
Utonian Automatic - Isotope 217
Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction
Blue Train - John Coltrane
My Favrite Things - John Coltrane
The College Dropout - Kanye West
Houses of The Holy - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin I - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin
The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan
Frances the Mute - The Mars Volta
What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
Bitches Brew - Miles Davis
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
On the Corner - Miles Davis
Double Nickels on the Dime - The Minutemen
Signals, Calls & Marches - Mission of Burma
Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
Vs. - Pearl Jam
Ten - Pearl Jam
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Surfer Rosa - The Pixies
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back - Public Enemy
Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
Document - REM
Automatic for the People - REM
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
When I Woke - Rusted Root
Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
Superunknown - Soundgarden
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
Joshua Tree - U2
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
Being There - Wilco
Blues & Roots - Charles Mingus

OK, that's actually 57 albums. I'll narrow it down at a later date.

New posting again and again

2008-02-28T23:27:00.000-05:00

I keep saying that I'll be better about posting. This time I will (maybe). Banana is going to be a big sister soon, and I want to keep a better record of my life as a dad. We'll see....

posting again

2006-09-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while I see something or do something that makes me wish I was writing on my blog more frequently. I can't even remember now what those thing were. For example, I was talking with people about my thoughts on the double album. I think that in most cases, this is a case of a band's ego getting the better of their judgment. Case in point, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium. It has a number of good songs, but I think it's bloated at 28 songs - they could have exercised a little discipline and produced one excellent album. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan, we're going to see them in October at the Garden. Still - the album has a bunch of filler.

I did get two new CDs today, Till the Sun Turns Black by Ray Lamontagne and Broken Social Scene's eponymous album. I'll have to post back once I give them a listen.

I'm still getting the hang of this whole "linking" thing w/r to blogging. I'm also not sure what I am going to consider appropriate souce material for blogging. I sis previously post some family stuff, but I might consider that off limits going forward. We'll see.

Life with baby - 6 months

2005-11-29T21:15:00.000-05:00

Banana is six months old. Lovely Wife ("LW") and I were reminiscing a little bit about what she was like as a newborn. I wish I had started blogging sooner bcause for the life of me,. I don't really remember. I know she was smaller, less entertaining and not as cute. I know that sleep was not as continuous, and that she was not nearly as interactive. I know feeding her took much longer and that the first few weeks were kind of a blur. I know that before we taught her to "cry it out", she used to sleep in the room with us, and she would sometimes stay up really late.

Suffice it to say, if you have a newborn, take notes while they're really young, otherwise the whole thing will just be a blur later on. By the way, I do know what she's like right now. She is funny and sweet and good-natured and wonderful. She didn't even make that much of a fuss when she got her first vaccine shots today. Erica called her baby over easy. She is a really wonderfully low-key baby. We are extremely fortunate.

Cute picture of Banana

2005-10-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

This is just a cute picture of Banana I wanted to share. I suspect I'll want to do a bunch of writing about her because she's so amazing. If you met her, you'd think so too. She's not like one of those docile, prozac babies. Also not one of those crazy colicky babies. No, this kid is alert, smiley, good natured and really fun. She's a little undersized, but we're about to start giving her formula too and hopefully that should help.

"Intelligent" Design

2005-10-18T20:59:00.000-04:00

Lots of people have weighed in on the intelligent design issue, but I feel like I want to as well. I would recommend to anyone looking into the issue that they go to www.slate.com and read articles by Dahlia Lithwick and William Saletan on the topic. They say it more eloquently than I can. Still, here it is.

I am critical of "intelligent" design theory because it is not science, but it attempts to replace science in the secular school classroom. I believe in G-d, I believe G-d created the universe and I believe that there are some things that natural science cannot explain. I also believe that the more science discovers, the more that the complexity of the world might be evidence of the creator.

However, that's not what intelligent design is or says. It says, that there are things that are so complex that science cannot explain them, and then says that G-d fills in the gaps. Now, while this may be comforting to people, it is NOT science. In fact, it is the opposite of science. Science looks at things that we don't understand and tries to figure them out. Intelligent design, or
Creationism, looks at things we don't understand and says "oh well, that's G-d".

Can you imagine if scientists 100 years ago had adopted that attitude? If Einstein, instead of trying to wrestle with the complexities of the physical universe and mathematics, instead just forgot about pursuing his theories? How many scientific innovations might not exist today? No cures for diseases, since those people would look at terrible things going on that they didn't understand and say "oh well, that's G-d, we can't do anything about it". There would be no technology, no modern medicine.

There is a proper place for people to wrestle with questions of faith and address the biblical creation story - that is with their families and at religious school. That's what it's there for.Also, you said that science is just as much based on faith as religion is. That's not really true. While evolution is just a "theory", so is gravity. It is however, a scientific theory which means that there actually has been actual scientific testing and empirical review. Evolution, along with other peer-reviewed scientific theories, can be tested. You look at various genetic mutations over time, along with historical and fossil records. How, exactly do you test the theory of intelligent design? You can't, because it's not even a real theory. How can you test a religious belief? You can't, there's no way. That is why they call them "faiths", because they rely on a belief in things unseen and unknowable. I'm not anti-religion, after all I am a practicing and believing Jew, and I was a religion minor in college. I love the study of religion, I love the intricacy and beauty of people's faiths, but it is not the same as science. Trying to bring the two together is a recipe for trouble.

Scientists don't want to take away your right to believe in the Bible, and neither do I. Many scientists are people of faith, and they know that there are things they don't understand. In fact, a researcher I once heard about said that the more he learned about the structure of cells the more he believed in a divine creator. This is a little different than intelligent design though, because all that does is critique the theory of evolution and act as a Trojan horse for creationism in the schools. It has no research, no data to back it up. All it has is faith, which means that the proper place for discussion of intelligent design is in the cultural and political arena, not in the science classroom. When they can actually produce scientific data that supports their non-theory, then I say that they can be in the science classroom.

Also, American students are really stupid. They lag far behind other countries (like for example, South Korea, where incredible scientific advances are being made in biology). The last thing that dumb American kids need is to have their minds clouded even further by something that isn't science. How can we expect to continue to compete on the global stage if this is the stuff we're teaching our kids?

Besides, I don't believe that the creation story is not meant to be taken literally. It is difficult to believe that the world was created 5766 years ago. In general terms, the recounting of the creation story does parallel the historical development of the universe, and because it does that, it is all the more impressive. First there was a black void, and then there was light, and then there were the seas and then there was land, and then there were little animals, and then there were bigger animals, and then there was man. That, as far as I know, is a pretty accurate description of the creation of the universe. I personally take the usage of the word "day" to mean "age" or "period of time".

The only issue is that with carbon dating, and with the red shifting of stars, we know that our planet and the universe are billions of years old. Think about when we see something like another galaxy millions of light years away. To say that the world is only as old as the bible says, you have to be willing to throw out the notion of the speed of light, and the extension of that being that we are seeing where objects were millions of years ago. That's a whole lot of provable science you have to be willing to throw out the window.

Also, another problem I have with the methods of intelligent design is that they don't have any actual ideas of their own, but all they do is critique other people's theories. In a way, they are a lot like Holocaust deniers. The main technique Holocaust deniers use is to point to some kind of disagreement between scholars. For example, someone might say that 200,000 people died at a certain camp, others might say it was 300,000. A Holocaust denier will point to that controversy and say "see, they don't agree, therefore no one died at that camp". In the same way, so-called intelligent design scholars will point to some minor debate at the margins of scientific scholarship and say "see, they don’t agree, therefore the whole thing falls apart". I reject the idea that this is legitimate scholarship. Besides, 95% of scientists agree on 95% of the stuff, so any debates are at the margins.

To conclude, I think that both faith and science have their place in the world. They are different ways of understanding the universe. Sometimes, though, it is best of they are left to their separate spheres. After all, you wouldn't want math and science being taught at Hebrew school, would you? That would make kids even less likely to want to go to Hebrew school. I had plenty of excuses when I didn't want to go.

2005-09-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

Banana and me this morning - she's dressed like a little hippie.

I already have a blog - this seems cooler

2005-09-03T08:02:00.000-04:00

I already have a blog but this one seems to have more features so I think I'll "migrate" over here. More to come.