Cleverly Titled Blog
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Kucinich Watch
I thought Dennis Kucinich performed well in last night's debate, but it felt like he wasn't given much time. Granted, with eight of the nine candidates participating, nobody totally dominated, but it still felt like Howard Dean, John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, and (to a lesser extent) Wesley Clark got the lion's share of the time.
Still, I thought Dennis performed best of all, and I appreciated that nobody on the panel had a negative word to say about him, with Dean even complimenting him at one point.
Were Dennis to drop out, I think my next choice would be John Edwards. Although he reminds me a little of Will Forte's Tim Calhoun character from Saturday Night Live, I liked a lot of what he had to say. I also thought Carol Mosley Braun and even Al Sharpton had a lot of interesting things to offer.
Clark seemed too one-note -- nearly everything he said kept turning back to Iraq. I know -- and agree with -- what Clark would do there, but I want to know what he'd do about the economy, about health care, about social issues. He's still very vague on these issues, and that's holding my support back.
Kerry ignored every question asked of him and instead ranted about whatever he wanted to talk about; which was mostly to attack Dean. I can't abide that.
Dean and Gephardt were both okay. Dean tried to take the high road as the frontrunner can afford to, complimenting his detractors even as they were attacking him. Gephardt did go after Dean some, but unlike Kerry, he didn't do so at the expense of communicating his platform or by ignoring the questions asked of him.
It was interesting that no mention whatsoever of Joe Lieberman's absence was made. My understanding is that he'd initially declined, and then when he found out Kerry and Edwards had arranged to appear via satellite, he tried to go back on his refusal and appear via satellite as well, but was rebuffed.
My support is still strongly behind Kucinch, and he's who I want to see take on Bush.
Were the Democratic candidate to end up instead being Edwards, Braun, or Gephardt, I'd still vote Dem pretty unreservedly. I have reservations about Sharpton, Clark, and Dean, but would likely still vote for any of them.
Were the candidate to end up being Kerry or Lieberman, I'd likely go third party. While in general, I agree with Al Sharpton's statment that any of the candidates in the debate would be a better choice than Bush (worth noting that this excludes Lieberman, a Rep in Dem's clothing and a censor of the highest degree), there's still something about Kerry that makes me feel that I could not in good conscience vote for him.
Monday, November 24, 2003
What Do You Get If You Cross a Vampire and a Crypt-Keeper?
I was just reading an interesting interview with Julie Benz, who plays Darla on Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the course of the interview, she mentions her marriage to actor John Kassir. A quick spin to IMDB reveals that he's the voice of the Crypt-Keeper!
For some reason, I find the idea that Darla is married to the Crypt-Keeper enlessly amusing. What kind of offspring would such a union create? And can it possibly be more horrifying than Conner?
Kassir has a ton of interesting credits, including The Atom on the ill-fated (and ill-considered) live-action Justice League of America pilot and the voice of Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures. He's one of those character actors you see (or hear) all the time and never really notice. I'll now be keeping an eye (or ear) out for him in the future!
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
An American Idol... FOR ME TO POOP ON!
In general, I don't care for PETA's antics, despite being an avid vegetarian and generally supporting animal rights. While PETA does some good in encouraging vegetarianism and awareness of animal rights issues, more often than not, they make the more moderate among us look bad by association. But this is one PETA ad campaign I can get behind.
Not only is Clay Aiken -- and everything else associated with American Idol -- utterly insipid (in my opinion), but his comments on cats earn him no less. (In a Rolling Stone interview -- and why is RS wasting time with him, anyway? -- Aiken says, "I think cats are Satan. There's nothing worse to me than a house cat. When I was about 16, I had a kitten and ran over it.") In fact, Aiken should probably face criminal charges and be analyzed for potential psychological problems -- those that abuse animals often go on to abuse humans.
And besides, who better to deliver the message than Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog?
MegaSale
The one comics convention I make a point of attending every year is MegaCon. It's a short drive away in Orlando, but it's a huge con that generally lives up to its grandiose name. The family and I make it an annual event, and stay in Orlando for the weekend.
For the past few years, the Con has been owned by CrossGen, and they've done a great job with growing it, and have run a top-notch show with interesting guests. While I was concerned that the panel offerings this past year left a lot to be desired (almost all the panels were commercial in nature, not much that was of a pure "meet the creators/actors/etc." nature), we still had a great time and the wide variety of interesting people on the floor more than made up for it.
So it was with some trepidation that I noted the rumor earlier this week that -- in conjunction with CrossGen's ongoing, overly-well-publicised money woes -- the Con had been sold, allegedly to Wizard. I don't care for Wizard in general (though I think their recent redesign/relaunch is an improvement, I still don't care for the magazine in general or the sexism/"boy's club" tone of the company in partcular), and I was worried about them taking a good Con down the wrong path (as some feel they've done with the venerable Chicago Con, now renamed Wizard World Chicago).
Thankfully, the rumor turned out to be false. The new owner of MegaCon is Beth Widera, who has been the director of the Con for the last four years. Beth is retaining the existing staff and it looks like the Con should continue successfully. She already has a good group of guests set up for '04, including big media guests Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Alison Mack and Brad Douriff. Widera also continues to work for CrossGen on their "Comics in the Classroom" initiative, so the CrossGen gang should still be a big presence at the Con.
Moreover, I'm hoping that now that the Con is not directly oowned by CrossGen that DC and Marvel will lift their ban of the last few years and again have a presence on the Con floor. As CrossGen started to get successful, both major companies pulled out of the Con floor and sent token (if any) representation to panels. No excuse for that now, so I hope to see a much larger presence from the big two (or at least DC) this year.
I wish Widera the best of luck, and I'm sure she'll continue to make the Con a big success.
Friday, November 14, 2003
Rock Me, I'm a Doofus
Dirk Deppey, in his blog Journalista!, mentions Casey Jones' new graphic novel, Lyrical Life -- a novel written entirely in familiar rock lyrics. Deppey things that -- sight unseen -- it sounds like the cheesiest graphic novel ever published. But I think it sounds like fun and would be interested in reviewing it. Of course, I'm a music geek AND a comics geek, so that shouldn't be a surprise. On top of all that, I once had an idea for a super-character who would derive his powers from singing familiar lyrics (kind of along the lines of the hoary old Silver Age DC Comics villain the Tattooed Man). In any event, I'm obviously the target audience for this book. Now, to track down a copy....
I know Dirk's probably right and it probably WILL be cheesy. And that just makes it all the more fun for me.
Addendum: A quick visit to the Lyrical Life Web site reveals that this Casey Jones is a writer, and is apparently no relation to the existing comics artist of the same name. I'm guessing he's also no relation to the character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or the guy from the Grateful Dead song, or the character from American folklore.
I did mention that I'm a geek, right?
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Pop (Culture) Quiz
While I love those "Which ____ are you?" quizzes, I rarely post them in my blog. But this one seemed somehow appropos: What Gritty No Nonsense Comic Book Character are You?
And the answer is:
You are Spider Jerusalem. Spider is THE journalist of the future. He smokes, he does drugs, and he kicks ass. The drugs are going to eventually kill him but not before he gets his way. And his way is the demise of the failed American dream. Although full of hate, he cares about his city. All he wants to bring the world is truth. Spider Jerusalem, conscience of the City. Frightening thought, but he's the only one we've got.
For some reason, I'm inordinately proud of this.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Charlie, Are You Queer?
You know, usually, I could care less about scandals among the British royals. But the Prince Charles "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" scandal is simply hilarious to me on several levels.
First, so what if Charles is gay or bi? Why should that even matter? If it's the case, think of what it could do for gay rights for him to come out. I'd respect him more if he'd just make a firm statement that addresses the issue rather than a half-assed denial of allegations that no news outlet in the UK is even allowed to print.
Second, I give you this couplet from The Smiths' "The Queen is Dead," lyrics by Morrissey:
"I said, 'Charles, don't you ever crave,
To appear on the front of The Daily Mail,
Dressed in your mothers' bridal veil?'"
Did ol' Miserable Stephen Patrick know something we didn't for some near two decades?
Finally, even if all this is hogwash, it gave us Stephen Colbert's brilliant report on last night's episode of The Daily Show, which included Colbert simulating fellatio on a banana. And wasn't that worth it all? (Should you have missed this, be sure to catch tonight's rerun at 7 PM Eastern. You'll thank me later.)
And As If To Illustrate...
Newsarama is among many outlets reporting on the latest assault on free speech, Michigan's new, overly-broad law that makes it illegal to "display, dissemiate, or sell sexually explicit material to minors." While on the surface, that sounds like a good thing, the legal definition in the state of Michigan makes almost all depictions of nudity outside health texts illegal -- and that's just for starters.
But what about the children?
That a parent's job.
I'm a parent, and I feel its neither the state's right nor duty to decide what material is appropriate for my child. Only two people have that right and duty: me and my wife.
It's worth noting, also, that the perpetrators of this law (the Representative that wrote it and the Governor that signed it) are Democrats. Just like the perpetrators of the PMRC were Democrats. Both sides are more than willing to attack our freedom of speech when its politically expedient, and while I still think the Dems are stronger in general and on this vital issue in particular, it's important to remember that they're not really that much better, and that ultimately, many of the problems in this country are rooted in our outmoded two-party system.
That's why I belong to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and why I need to do more to support free speech advocates like the ACLU. As a writer, limitations on free speech are a real hot-button issue to me, and I'll continue to support those that fight for our First Amendment rights.
Boy, am I off on several rants today, or what?
Fiesta Politicos
My hometown paper (and employer) has an interesting article on grass roots political movements that's well worth reading. The article mostly focuses on the insuregent Dean campaign (which lost some ground with his "Confederate flag" gaffe and subequent decision to step out of the federal funding system, if you ask me -- but I digress), but does some equal time with Republicans and also (most hearteningly) has some positive things to say about the Kucinich campaign.
I'm getting angrier by the day at the current faults in our political and social system. Last night we went to pick up some prescriptions only to find that our insurance company had taken yet another drug off our formulary, meaning the co-pay on that drug has doubled. Change has to come -- in our health care system, in our social policies, in our international affairs; basically, on almost every level. The system as-is is NOT working.
I believe Kucinich is the best man among those currently vying for the job of President. Even if he doesn't win, I admire that he's beinging issues to the forefront and making people think about the problems in this country and how we can change things for the better.
And I'm really realizing something: change isn't going to come just because people sit around and bitch. Change is only going to come by working for it.
At the start of this year, one of my "resolutions" (for lack of a better term) was to become more politically active. I'm ashamed to say I haven't followed through on that. But I plan to change that.
Last week, I signed up to join the "Kucinich in 2004" Meetups via meetup.com. Meetups take place the first Thursday of every month in localities around the country. At the time, I wasn't sure I'd follow through and actually attend anything, I simply wanted to start finding out about what was going on with the campaign locally. But now, I'm motivated. And even if Kucinich doesn't win, I'm going to help get his message out. And I'll be supporting whichever candidate comes closest to supporting that message.
Saturday, November 08, 2003
You Want It All But You Can't Have It
Marvel continues to distance itself from the Jemas era. While in general I think this is a good thing, their latest decision is not. As reported at Newsarama, they're pretty much writing off four titles that had been greenlit as part of the Epic line. Rather than being released as individual issues, the first issues of four new series -- PHANTOM JACK, SLEEPWALKER, YOUNG ANCIENT ONE, and STRANGE MAGIC -- will be combined into one anthology. If sales warrant, they'll do the same with the second issues a few months later.
This just seems like a huge mistake. Anthologies are generally a hard sell. I personally love them, but the market rarely supports them. Moreover, we're talking about an anthology full of new, untested creators. And then there's the price factor: surely, a book this size is going to be on the pricey side, and many readers that might have picked up one or two of these books to sample them at a single issue price will likely now pass, balking at the "unwanted" material and the higher cover price.
In short, they've set these books up to fail. And that's a slap in the face to these young creators. Yes, it's highly possible the books would have come out, not found a following, and been cancelled. But at least they'd have been given a chance. I will be astounded if the anthology succeeds (though I'm rooting for it). Worse, all of these people have been working on their books for months and expected to be paid for the issues they've done. Now there are no guarantees of being paid for anything beyond the first issues. As mentioned in his My Epic Journey column at Newsarama, PHANTOM JACK writer Mike Sangiacomo was already well into writing the fourth and fifth issues of the series, while his penciller, Mitch Breitweiser, had been working on issue #2 as of October 27. They may now never be paid for this work.
And all this just to distance themselves from Bill Jemas. While many of Jemas's policies were -- in my opinion -- bad ones, that's no reason to punish those that weren't responsible. Marvel was paying a pittance for these books creatively, surely it wouldn't have been a financial bath to publish them as planned. So I'm left to believe that the only reason for this change is to make Jemas look bad. And Jemas is good enough at doing that himself.
If there were real financial or creative reasons for this decision, I'd understand. But from my P.O.V. (which I'll wholly admit, is not informed by ANY inside information), I'm not seeing them. All I'm seeing is dirty office politics. And that's a shame.
And yet, I'll bet Marvel won't get a third of the flack over this that CrossGen has received over their recent money troubles...
Friday, November 07, 2003
Two Degrees of Electric Boogaloo
I just learned that my dear friend, Jim Guida, is the son-in-law of actor Richard Gross. In addition to numerous interesting small roles in television and film. Gross played the crucial role of "Juggler" in the deathless cinematic classic, BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. Which means I'm only two degrees away from "Shabba-Doo" and "Boogaloo Shrimp." Whoo hoo!
'Course, I've actually met Ice-T, who was in both BREAKIN' films, so I guess I was already one degree away, but still... you can never have too many connections to the ELECTRIC BOOGALOO...
TV Cancellation Bloodbath
OK, let's get this blogging thing rolling again...
According to Zap2it.com, this week, shows are being cut right and left:
Fox has cancelled the mega-hyped SKIN after three episodes.
ABC has pulled L.A. DRAGNET from its schedule and halted production. They will eventually air the unaired episodes but that's apparently all.
The WB has halted production on TARZAN. There are three more completed episodes still to air, but it's considered unlikely that production will resume even if the sliding ratings approve. It seems sad that a series featuring Mitch Pilleggi and Lucy Lawless couldn't succeed, but then, I still never watched it...
In brighter news, UPN has picked up JAKE 2.0 for the full season despite struggling ratings, saying they're happy with the show creatively. So we'll all have something to watch while ANGEL is in reruns. I liked the few episodes of this show that I saw before ANGEL started its season, so I'm glad I'll get another chance to visit it.
Also, NBC is debuting THE TRACEY MORGAN SHOW on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 8 PM. They'll shift the rest of the Tuesday lineup around and move GOOD MORNING MIAMI back to Thursday to take the place of the cancelled COUPLING. Morgan's show got good notices from critics when it was previewed before the start of the new season, and he's a fave of mine, so I'm looking forward to this one.
In general, I find it absolutely fascinating that the networks are having so much trouble getting anything to click. I believe that a combination of playing things overly safe and jumping the gun on cancellations is killing the networks. Mostly gone are the days when a network would give a struggling, quality show time to develop. Were CHEERS or SEINFELD debuting today, they wouldn't have lasted a season. Shows are cut before they have a chance to find their audience (don't get me started about FIREFLY again). Interestingly, it seems that with BOOMTOWN and L.A. DRAGNET cancelled so early into their second seasons, that even when the networks try to show a little patience and renew so-called "bubble" shows, that impatience carries over into the new season -- honestly, did two or three more new episodes really make or break them? Is that even a chance?
But mostly, network content has become bland and vanilla, save a few intriguing shows like 24, ANGEL, SMALLVILLE, and ALIAS. And with the competition from literally hundreds of cable channels, DVD, and the Internet, the networks have simply lost their stranglehold on America's home entertainment. And I don't see how they're going to get it back.
And the funny thing is, I'm hardly watching any network fare at all, myself. Shy of religiously watching 24, ANGEL, and SMALLVILLE, I'm not watching any prime-time network stuff regularly. I haven't even sampled Eliza Dushku's new TRU CALLING yet (for some reason, getting home by 8 on Thursdays seems to be a problem). And I still find myself unable to regularly catch ALIAS on Sunday nights, despite likeing the show; at this point, I think I'm relegating myself to following the series on DVD (kind of like "waiting for the trade" in comics).
