Blogging about nothing.

Three more weeks. Then Summer. Hopefully no more rain. On tuesday and wednesday it snowed at sfu. SNOWED! Isnt it march? Arent we in spring? flowers blooming, birds singing all that crap? Global warmings a myth. It hasnt been warm in months. Im tired of it. When will it end?
Also. I've been on a real Decemberists kick. I wasnt really thrilled with the crane wife album when it first came out. However, over the last few weeks its become one of my favorite albums to listen to. Good bus music. I think if i had to rank the Decemberists albums for me right now it go: Crane Wife, Picaresque, Her Majesty the decemberists, Castaways and cutouts. For now thats really all I've been listening to lately. I have a few other albums but I keep forgetting about them.
Yeah. Thats about it. Smallvilles gone back to the suck. They take something with great potential and just ruin it. That shows wearing me down. Thankfully I still have Lost to keep me interested in tv. Until Heroes is back.
Anyway Id blog about other stuff right now. But Im going to do a bit of self censorship. Plus I need to start writing. So I think im going to go do that.

Current Comic: Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Season 8"-Whedon
Current Music: Decemberists-Sons and daughters

2am

I have completed my essay. I have enter sandman by metallica stuck in my head. And now I leave you with a haiku...and now sleep.

Vile weed it is
potent smell doth it maketh
Old English is fun

Current Comic: Powers-Bendis
Current Music: Barbra Striesand-The Way We Were

300

So I just got back from 300 with div. The verdict is that its good. Not perfect. I still liked it though. Id give it a 7.75 out of ten. Not quite an 8 mind you, but close enough. I think that visually stunning, would be the way to go. On the other hand its got some slow in parts. When Sin City opened i was immediately drawn in. This took awhile for me to get amped. I doubt it needed to be 2hrs.
This was a bit of a different movie, but then again its a bit of a different graphic novel. All that pride and honor talk can sometimes feel a little heavy handed and drawn out. Still there really wasn't a whole lot of dialogue in this movie at all, so I'm nit picking i guess. In the end this stayed true to form. And yeah was visually stunning. Will it win best picture. No. Will it be nominated for anything. I doubt it. I still had fun though. So for me it was worth the price of admission. So go see it, and come back with your shield, or on it.

Current Comic: Daredevil Omnibus-Frank Miller
Current Music: Carebears countdown.

Teachin.

So today was a lot of fun. First the kids in my Language Arts class made paper mache mummy masks. Which was messy, interesting and hillairous. "My eye my eye" "his eye his eye". I guess you had to be there. Next in P.E. i impressed a few grade 8s with my mad hockey skillz. It was good to be in goal again, even if it was to stop a whiffle ball. But I guess what i was most happy with was that I could start to take a little control of the class. As the teacher wasnt actually there for the first bit. Kids seemed to respond, which was both nice and reassuring for the future. Things have been on the up. Still looking for that job. Hoping I get one soon. But we'll see. Really looking forward to Frank Miller's 300. Though the "visually stunning" reviews have me worried. I have faith though. Franks stuff is awesome and it was a good graphic novel. Speakin of I just bought his Daredevil Omnibus. Its like my 6th omnibus now. Damn essential comics. Oh well. Its Daredevil and Frank Miller how can i not buy it. Anyway I'll write a review of three hundred later. This better not suck.

Current Comic: 300-Frank Miller, Daredevil-Frank Miller
Current Music: Something Feist or Lily Allen

RIP Lucky

You were a good cat. You will be missed. Apparently 18 years was a long life for you, but not long enough for me. Why must things die?

Current Comic: Runaways-Brian K Vaughn
Current Music: The Byrds-Turn Turn Turn

You took the words right out of my mouth.

So I saw meatloaf last night. I had pretty good seats(not great but good). The opening act was okay. Typical female singer songwriter. Her voice was good but the clarity for the audio in the coliseum sucked. It didn't improve much until the intermission.
I guess the highlights would have to be: Paradise by the dashboard lights and Hot Summer Night. Meatloaf always has good on stage presence and actually puts an act on during the show. Which is sorely lacking in most concerts. I miss the spectacle of rock.
I hope one day that I'll actually find a karaoke place to do either of those songs listed above. Or any of his material really.
In unrelated news does anyone know when the labor day weekend is? See, I was in class the other day and I was listening to an author talk give a lecture. He was talking about his book and said he wrote it on the labor day weekend for some contest. So i thought to myself why not do that!? I'm going to try. However I'm lazy and probably wont. This seems like a good enough time to end this post. I'm not even sure why I started.

Current comic: 300-Frank Miller
Current Music: Meatloaf-Bat out of Hell

Comics

Originally I was writing this as a best of review for 2006. Well I don't think that really applies anymore. Still I'm going to bore you all now with my comic recommendations. I'd be recommending these anyways but at any rate, enjoy?

Best Series:

1. Fables-By Bill Willingham

By far one of my favorites and quickly rising up my all time rank is Fables by Bill Willingham. It was nominated this past year at comic-con for an eisner, and won. Eisners are sorta the Oscars of comics. Stressing the stora here. In any case Fables is a well crafted bizarre tale. It encompasses all the old "Fable" characters such as the big bad wolf, snow white, etc and puts them into or rather exiles them into "our world". Now don't get the wrong impression here, its not a kids book. Though most people get that impression about comics these days but that's a digression for another time. Fables is well worth its purchase.

2. Invincible-by Robert Kirkman

This was a big year for Kirkman. His Walking Dead book is simply awesome, His run on Ultimate x-men is going good so far. Even though I haven't read it yet, I hear Battle Pope (yes you heard me) is an enjoyable (if not odd)read. However, hands down Invincible is by far his best work. I picked up the ultimate trades and I couldn't put them down. That rarely happens with me and trades. I always finish them, but never that quickly. It was a simple read mind you. Dad's a superhero from another world, son gets powers and has to grow up fast. However it is also a very and i stress the very entertaining read. I simply love this book and its a shame I have to pick it up in the trades.

3. Strangers In Paradise-By Terry Moore

I never thought id start a review off, with holy fuck shit! But holy fuck shit this stuff is good. Buy it! Buy it now! I had my apprehensions about it. However the Internet buzz was too much for me to overcome. This is one of the best non powered/indie books out there. In fact it might be my favorite. Terry Moore can draw better than most. Plus the way he crafts his story, consistently awesome. Sadly this series is ending forever. Yet that shouldn't stop you from buying the trades. I did it. So can you.

4. Queen and Country-By Greg Rucka.

Now I know some of you will love this trade, and some of you will absolutely hate it. If you're not a fan of gritty espionage, surrounded by well crafted storylines and characters, then this may not be for you. However, Rucka is one of my favorite personalities in the comic realm these days. His story telling is just solid. Queen and Country is some of his best work. There's really nothing more to say.




5.Daredevil-Ed Brubaker

Okay I know Daredevil is just a character. Its all just entertaining fiction. Yet why for the love of god cant this guy just catch a break. I feel bad for taking so much pleasure in seeing how much more twisted and horrific, Matt Murdoch's life will become. On the other hand I cant stop reading it. I was almost going to drop this title when I heard that Bendis was leaving. Brubaker's run however got me to love this character all over again. Daredevil may be my favorite superhero of 2006 which is saying a lot.


Events: DC VS Marvel

Civil war: I, like so many of us comic nerds and fanboys alike; had been psyched to see this come out. However in the past months and weeks as the storyline unfolded I became bitter and disappointed that there were too few highlights and not enough pay off. That's not to say its not good. It has its moments. It ended on a high note. However, then there was the delays. I think the 4 month delays were the straw that broke the camels back. Marvel really dropped the ball on this one.

52: Okay so I started out really liking 52, though not fully grasping what the hell was actually occurring in it. Not being a huge DC fan its hard for me to care about the minor character story lines, like booster gold. So I actually stoped reading about issue i dunno 10. Now I've gone back and reread all 42 issues thus far and the verdict is that 52 is outstanding. Not just good. Its hard to imagine that DC can pump out a comic once a week, without fail and without delays. Still have a great overall story arch. While marvel has continuous problems with crossover titles and release dates. 52 is making me see that Crossovers aren't necessary for big event issues. With 52 DC is slowly winning me over as a fan all over again.


Writers
1. Robert Kirkman
2. Bill Willingham
3. Grant Morrison
4. Darwyn Cooke
5. Joss Whedon

Artist
1. Darwyn Cooke
2. Mark Bagley
3. Terry Moore
4. Ryan Ottley
5. Alex Ross