Poll Time!

Question of the day: Have you ever been to the movies on a Holiday?

I put a poll up to your right, but I would love if you leave a comment on your experience.

I am excited for Sherlock Holmes coming out this Christmas :)

The Truth.

Fact: French Onion Soup is one of THE finest dishes in all of the culinarian realm.

Try to dispute this and be met with silence.

If one does NOT ascertain that French Onion Soup belongs in the higher annals of pop culture consciousness, well...

...there's no hope for them.

Buffyverse

TV Show/Comic of the Day: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Website of the Day: Much Ado About Buffy

Buffy has never been a normal girl. That much is obvious. She has been chosen to be the one to pretty much save the world in a matter of hours.

I first saw the movie in 92 and thought it was pretty funny. But the show is the way it should have been done. It still has moments of humor, but it is much like a horror movie put into a tv show.

If you still can't get enough of that, there is always the Angel series. It shows you what happens to Buffy's ex-vampire love. It even has singing demons. Now, demons aren't all bad in the Buffy/Angelverse. I guess you have to watch it to understand.

Now, if you still can't get enough, there are the comics. Dark Horse continues to tell the tales of Buffy in Season 8 (which is in comic form rather than tv) and you can also catch up with Angel in his series.

Oh yea, there is a musical episode of the show. Who can say no to that?

.

Piet Mondrian - De Stijl.

Still we build monuments upon Dadaist props.

Drop the pretense (repeat and rinse) - Jackson Pollock was more metaphor then artist.

The hardest part is? We are not minimalists.

No sir, we are not minimalists.

Phillip Glass and Terry Riley - Brian Eno and David Byrne -

Blog posts running on too long and sentence structure with no juncture or pauses left to breath.

And I heard we dropped the pretense (repeat and rinse) - was Prince a minimalist?

Apartment Therapy is more metaphor then tips.

and none of us are minimalists.

No ma'am, we are not minimalists.

None of us are minimalists!

None of us are minimalists!

None of us are minimalists!

We compose our top 5 toy/music/comic/artist list.

Let it be said ma'am and sir - no please let me insist.

None of us are minimalists...

Shopping...

At the age of 25, I can see the naive joy of Christmas presents in the rearview mirror of my memories. We've all had those times - squirming in bed, unable to sleep because of the anticipation of discovering the contents in all of the shiny boxes out in the living room. As time has gone on (read: when I started living on my own), I've gotten to the point where I don't even think about Christmas gifts. Sure I'll get something for Melissa, but aside from that, I don't purchase Christmas gifts for a large cache of people. On the same token, I've come to not expect anything on Christmas morning either. Priorities shift. Now it's about what's on the table to be eaten, who there is to spend the day with - things change, mindsets change.

Melissa and I are in that space between. We are neither beneath our parents nor are we parents to anyone else. That leaves us free agents in many ways and if you were to catch either of us away from the ears of those who may frown upon it, we would gleefully tell you we like it better that way! See, everytime I win a full run of comic books on eBay (Green Lantern Volume 2: issues 1 - 187 complete for example) or Mellie gets a realllyyyyyy expensive bottle of perfume at Ulta (Harajuku by Gwen Stefani perhaps?) - well, there's our time of getting things. Because we find things to buy year round, the gift receiving part of Christmas is somewhat irrelevant...

I am however, quite the fan of a good deal. I'm huge into finding great bargains in second hand shops (season 1 of Buffy for 8! Score!) - I suppose though, I'm not as much of a fan as some.

See this morning, while I was JUST going to bed; throngs of people around the nation were lined up around big box outlets everywhere looking to get in to procure great deals for their Christmas lists. In lieu of last year's incident which saw the death of a WalMart employee at the erm...feet of a throng of early bird shoppers, many stores stepped up their security today with many having never closed last night in an attempt to keep a queue from forming. By all reports, nothing worse then a pair of physical altercations in a few California area WalMarts occurred.

Black Friday has always been synonymous with Thanksgiving in my mind. It turns out, the terms originated in the 60's, well before my time. By the time my mind began registering and storing shopping outlet television commercials to memory, things bled into each other. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a two in one separated only by a month for the sake of letting folks catch their breaths - and catch up on their shopping.

Over the years, I've watched as Buy Nothing Day has sprung to prominence as something of a counterpoint to the first day of the year where most retailers finally see their profit margins climb out of the negative areas. Decrying Black Friday for its heavy exploitation of consumers and its emphasis on crass consumption and capitalism, these individuals in their most extreme have called for an end to capitalism altogether. While the sentiment is merited (I myself spent today in and didn't buy anything either), sometimes I've noticed it can be something of a trendy thing to embrace (read: punk rock types who worship anything on Epitaph Records and still think throwing swears at random makes them rebellious despite being in their mid 20's!). For these 'anarchist' types (who've probably never even read Emma Goldman or Alexander Burkman to get the true inner workers of the anarchist term), they view Black Friday as the embodyment of everything that is wrong with society - society consumes, they're greedy, they buy too much and they don't care about anything else.

This may be true on one side - but there's another.

See the thing with capitalism? In any 'free' country, a certain level of it is needed to retain a semblance of freedom and the ability to CHOOSE. Otherwise, you would have government sanctioned food programs instead of restaurants to pick from, no say on which service provider you would like to go with for housing utilities, not much choice on entertainment and all of those cool apps I see the punks tapping away on their iPhones with, well - those wouldn't be there either would they? Not without a heavy amount of governmental licensing and approval before each and every one hit the iTunes store anyway...

Is it possible to keep things balanced?

I'll tell you after Cyber Monday wraps and I'm hiding my bank statements...

Day After Thanksgiving

TV Show of the Day: Friends

Website of the Day: Hulu

Last night we ate so much that I went into a food coma. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Anyway, on to the blogging. During the Holidays it is impossible to avoid those TV specials. Almost every Thanksgiving there are sitcoms where the dinner is the star. For example, the episode of Friends where Monica sticks a turkey on her head to get Chandler to laugh. It is also the first time he says I love you to her. We also can't forget the episode of Full House where first DJ's turkey is frozen solid and then it is like a black ball of coal.

Now, we will all be looking forward to the 24 hours of A Christmas Story to be played on our screens.

Make Cooking Fun!

Functional Toy of the Day: Russian Doll Measuring Cups

Site of the Day: Stuff Hipsters Hate

I found these measuring cups while looking at fun house things that I will probably never buy. But look at these! They are cute, displayable, and useful! Another plus side is that they come in 6 sizes!

Tomorrow I will talk about Thanksgiving and television episodes that commemorate the holiday. Have a safe Thanksgiving Eve!

Reviews for GL # 48 and BN # 5

Geoff Johns has been building anticipation for his Blackest Night storyline for a few years now. Starting with Green Lantern Rebirth back in 2006, the current volume has been retooled (even Hal Jordan's origin has been reshaped to include the current arc's co-villain The Black Hand, who in the time of his debut was a light and harmless villain who has since seen a massive overhaul into a more sinister guise) and at the run's midpoint in the 20's, The Sinestro Corps War arc outlined what was to be a War of Light.

Now there wasn't just A Green Lantern Corps. Now there were Yellow rings floating around. As time went on (and I'll spare the details for those of you unfamiliar with this story), a Blue Corps came into play followed by a Red. The Star Sapphires, long villains in the Green Lantern pantheon now shine a light and are rounded out by Agent Orange (the orange light of greed) and the Indigo Tribe who of course wield the Indigo light.

Seven Corps. If it weren't for the skilled writing and heavy layers of plot and story put into this by Johns, it would all just come off like a complicated and more grown up version of the Power Rangers. If only the Power Rangers were this great or even this much fun...

To catch up to speed from the past few issues of GL and Blackest Night issues 1-4, something has caused the dead heroes of the DCU to rise again. They're all wielding Black rings and are allied with what has now become led by Black Hand and christened The Black Lantern Corps. In the last issue, it was revealed finally that the mastermind behind even Hand's motives is Nekron. Most current readers of the GL mythos found themselves scratching their heads and running to their local comic shops to figure out who this guy was. As it turns out, Nekron first appeared in the 1981 three part series Tales of The Green Lantern Corps. Astute readers of GL's third predominantly Kyle Rayner fronted volume will note that Nekron appeared in one of the annuals bringing dead GL's back to life albeit for a very short time.

This pair of issues brings us up to speed on seeing the wielders of the colors of light reluctantly teaming up to take down the Black Lantern presence - GL # 48 is predominantly dialogue and build up showing Red Lantern Atrocitus finally succumbing to pain and revealing why his anger is so strong while Blue Guardian Sayd makes a deal with Agent Orange Larfreeze in order to acquire his participation.

From there we're thrust into Blackest Night #5 where Barry Allen (the recently resurrected Silver Age Flash) is joined up by more current Flash and successor Wally West. The two are joined by various members of the JLA and JSA before Hal Jordan and the other ring bearers come in to neutralize the threat. This only makes matters worse however when Atrocitus's red ring activates the skull of Bruce Wayne that Black Hand has been carrying around all this time...

By issue's end, many of the DCU's major players who at one point in their careers found death but eluded it are now playing for Team Nekron and The Black Lantern Corps while Barry and Hal are left trying to avoid being ringed in themselves.

Blackest Night takes a break for the month of December and will resume in January with a wrap up scheduled for March. This series gets better and better with each issue and the layers that are able to be pealed back with the supplements of GL and GLC each month make for quite the ride. Geoff Johns at one point stated that he wanted to shape the Green Lantern mythos to be epic to the point of being on par with a saga such as Star Wars. If he keeps down this road, he won't be bluffing in his claim.

If you haven't latched onto the Blackest Night yet due to worries of too much past continuity or not enough knowledge of characters, don't let that deter you. There's enough accessibility to where you won't be needing to reference Wikipedia every page (well, maybe every ten or twelve pages...)

Solid.

Sometimes the Masses Aren't Wrong . . .

So I've always been the kind of person who has ignored things simply because they are excessively popular. I figured that would change as I grew up but it never really did. I have gotten past it to a degree but it does still happen.

Point being, as much of a bookworm as I have (or haven't compared to some) become in the last few years, I didn't want anything to do with the Twilight series. Like I said, I have a natural aversion to all things grossly-popular and this was no exception.

A couple of months ago the family and I went down to visit some friends and we decided we'd watch the first movie in the series. Upon first viewing, I wasn't overly impressed with the way the story was told, but I did love the atmosphere of the film. I figured it was a movie I'd probably watch again, and quite possibly enjoy more the second time around - that turned out to be the case. Since watching it the second time, my sister gave my wife her copies of the books. My wife read through them QUITE fast in comparison to her usual reading speed, so I figured there must be something to them. I ultimately decided that I would read them as well. . .

Now that I've read through Twilight and am currently about 60 pages into New Moon, I'm thoroughly "geeking out" about the story. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really a lovey-dovey, dreamy type . . . okay so I am . . . but anyway, I'm a Dune freak talking about how a drizzly, overcast day in north Jersey is a "Forks kind of day".

Yeah, that's right, I'm in deep. It might be because the story reminds my high-school-sweetheart-wife and I of our story, or it could just be the neatness of "vegetarian" vampires. Regardless, I'm having fun with it. As for the movie adaptation of New Moon, I think they did a splendid job with the direction and cinematography. However, as I've just started the book, I can't say much for its accuracy. The music for this one seems to be more potent and fitting. Not to say the music wasn't good in the Twilight film, but this one just seems more enthralling.

In closing, I've learned two things of late: the masses aren't always wrong, (maybe just misled) and it's really weird to see the way actors and actresses change over the years, even over a few number of them.

Comic Book Days

Job of the day: Working at a comic shop

Website(s) of the Day: G.E.N. & Graham Crackers Comics

What does Monday night mean to me? It means me going to bed earlier so that I can wake up early on Tuesday morning. Why? It's because I help out once a week for store credit. I dig and sort through long boxes of comics that I have no interest in (umm Punisher) to obtain the ones I am interested in. I get to drink a funky energy drink while listening to movie scores on the speakers. I hear Kriss and the manager talk about figures, comics, movies, etc. I actually enjoy being there. It makes me feel like I am behind the scenes. Today I grabbed a copy of the new Emily The Strange and an issue of Previews. Previews is a catalog of what is coming up in the next few months in the comic book world.

Anywho, time to take a nap and then read some comics of course!

If They Had Used Vegetable Broth, There Never Would Have Been A Problem...

Tony Chu isn't the typical criminal investigator. Speaking with the particular dietary life style that I choose personally, I'm pretty sure I would just quit the business altogether if I had his sense of erm... intuition.

See, Tony is a Cibopath (please don't hurt your head trying to look this up - it isn't real - it's a device for use in the plot... oh internet.) - he's able to get psychic impressions from everything he eats. He uses this ability to solve cases - murder cases. One can get a pretty easy jumping off point for what exactly it is he has to eat at times in order to get a clue...

Resultantly, Tony is so disenfranchised with consumption, even on his own personal time, that he only eats beets. Beets as it turns out, are the only thing he can eat without knowing where they came from...

Set in a post chicken world where its restricted in every form, there are now dirty operations selling pollo in mass quantities and making a high profit - chicken is the new drug trade. Unfortunately the case gets personal for Chu when he finds that his brother, a former celebrity chef is buying the birds in large amount...

The plot thickens from there.

Chew is an ongoing series on indie Image Comics (and one of its few diamonds in the rough amidst a stable composed largely of bunk fare) and has been quite successful so far.

Issue #6 releases tomorrow setting up a new story arc while the previous five issue story arc has been collected into trade and will be released tomorrow in correlation. (I'm actually going to give it a read now...)

If the guys over at the Big Two aren't doing it for you and you still haven't warmed up to the certain pleasures offered by Dark Horse (purveyors of fine Buffy comics everywhere), give this smartly written and highly entertaining series a shot! (Please be advised that this series is for mature readers due to swears and occasional adult situations).

Order Volume 1 of Chew here.

Tomb of Ligeia

I grew up in a mad-house-Vincent-Price-watching family.

Over five years ago I signed up to Netflix. Right away I filled my que with movies I hadn't seen in a long time. One of those films was called Tomb of Ligeia. Unforunately the movie right away became unavailable and sat in my que's "save"section until they received a new copy. I noticed last week that it came out of the save section. I made sure I would watch it immediately before it would become unavailable again.



Tomb of Ligeia stars Vincent Price, who is very known for being in movies based off of the Edgar Allan Poe short stories. He landed mainly roles for playing in thrillers/horrors aside from his many Poe roles. The co-star is Elizabeth Shepherd.

Quick plot explaination: a man's wife dies and he feels her will to live after death still haunting him. He meets a woman who looks just like his wife and falls for her. Will his dead wife destroy his chance of new love?

Ramune Fizz Fizz

Beverage of the Day: Ramune

Website of the Day: Japan Forum

What is Ramune? It is a soft drink (pop,soda,etc) originating out of Japan. Its fun design is what keeps me wanting more. The flavor can be a little plain at times, mostly tasting like bubble gum (well, the ones I pick). You can mostly find them in your Asian market.

Now, let me talk about the bottle. There is a marble sitting in between the body and the top of the bottle. You take the top off and use it to push (really hard) the marble into the body of the bottle, which creates a fun fizz. The drink doesn't always come in these fun filled bottles, but I am sure they are the ones people enjoy the most.

Go on, go buy one!

Batman and Robin...

Last year's Grant Morrison penned Batman R.I.P. arc was pretty great - rife with Silver Age references (the Batman of Zur-En-Arh, The League of Bat Men, etc), the arc was a great read. Bruce was worn down and defeated by a new enemy - Doctor Hurt and a society known as The Black Glove - and put on the streets before finally redeeming himself. It was implied that at the end of the story's arc, his struggle with Hurt on an exploding helicopter was to be his final curtain.

Not so.

At the same time as R.I.P., Morisson was also penning the DC company wide cross over Final Crisis - a story line widely decried even now for its highly pretentious writing and unlived up to plot points. In issue 6, we find Bruce is still alive after all and has a gun holding the bullet that killed the God of the Fourth World known as Orion. Facing off against Orion's father, Darkseid (the man responsible for all the chaos in the plot), he makes a passing remark about how he never uses fire arms - 'but this time he'll make an exception' - before proceeding to nail the god of Apokolips with it. Before beginning to succumb to the poison within the bullet, Darkseid Omega Sanctions (go look that junk up in the old Super Friends cartoons from the 80's!) Bruce and by the end of the comic, he's back in the prehistoric days scrawling bats onto cave walls.

Is Bruce dead? Is he truly alive and just looking to find a way back from Dinosaur land?

Whatever.

In the aftermath of all of this, Tony Daniel's mini series Battle For The Cowl covered the vacuum left by Bats in Gotham with second Robin/now big bad Jason Todd now running around in a robotic Bat suit killing anything he finds. Dick Grayson of course is on the scene to stop him but is reluctant to take up the mantle of the Bat despite third and current Robin Tim Drake's pleas to do so. At the end of the series, Todd is defeated and Grayson takes on the mantle while Bruce's son Damien takes over the Robin mantle in the wake of Drake leaving to travel the world in his search for Bruce (apparently, he's the only one in the DCU who just won't buy that he's actually passed on...).

Starting last June, Morisson returned to helm (in what would presumably be considered the reason he offed Bruce in the first place) the new title Batman and Robin. His idea to juxtapose a more lighthearted Batman (in both his Robin and Nightwing guises, Dick was always comparable to Marvel's Spider Man in that he cracked jokes and utilized sarcasm in situations) and a more serious Robin (Damien being the son of Bruce and Ra's Al Ghul's daughter Talia was born into the League of Assassins and was being taught how to kill after his first moments walking) was initially met with detraction by the majority of the comics community.

When the first issue dropped however, all of us had to pick our mouths up off of the floor. Morisson's considerably dialed down and more straightforward writing combined with Frank Quitely's exquisite and crisp art were a 1 2 punch. The team cranked out the first three issues without trouble and fleshed out the Professor Pyg villain first introduced briefly back in Bats # 666 while showing the working dynamic between the new Dynamic Duo. Trading insults towards each other as much as blows towards their foes, this new pair were starting down a bad road. With Dick used to his own role as Nightwing, taking on an act as complex as Batman was proving hard and he had issues being comfortable with it. Sensing this and in turn comparing him constantly to his father, Damien often went off on his own and did whatever he wished regardless of Dick's instruction.

Now we're in November and the second arc has wrapped up. With Phillip Tan on artwork (something of a step down from Quitely's) and a re-introduction of Jason Todd now reclaiming his Red Hood guise as well as a new villain called the Pink Flamingo, Batman and Robin hasn't let up steam in the writing department at least. With atleast seven more issues ordered for the run of the series (with Quitely coming back for atleast one more arc), there's much to look forward to. Issue 7 will be released after Wednesday's Blackest Night #5 in what appears to be something of a coinciding crossover.

While I'm sad that Bruce isn't with us right now, the current era of Reborn books - B & R, Detective Comics (featuring Batwoman), Paul Dini's Streets of Gotham, etc - are all proving to be solid reads with great writing and wonderful character development. While I may seem six months late on the Reborn era, I let things stay on the burner and simmer for awhile so that I could look at the line of books more objectively. It's easier to assess them when they have half a year's worth of issues under their belts more so then when they only have a month or two.

Your comic book shop has these in mass - go try them out now!

Dance The Magic Dance

Movie of the Day: Labyrinth

Manga of the Day: Return to Labyrinth

We have all seen the movie or at least got the Magic Dance song stuck in our head. I will however avoid certain...things about David Bowie in this film. Okay, we all know his hair looks amazing. He is pretty much unforgettable along with many of the other characters in this movie. My favorite would be the worm-like creature with the British accent. "Ello." "Did you just say Hello?" "No, I said ello, but that's close enough."

Now, if you haven't had enough of this classic tale, there is a manga continuing this tale. It's about Toby (Sarah's little brother) and his return to the Goblin King's castle. I have read the first two (4 is almost out) and noted the beautiful art work that is of course, manga styled. Check it out if you haven't yet.

(co-editor's note: Jennifer Connelly is STILL hot!)

Not So True Blood

As a closet dark soul, raging geek, and graphic designer I am always looking for great beverage and snack design. Enter: Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion. This tantalizing beverage is almost too much for my senses. From the clever packaging to the realistic viscosity I am addicted.

Come on, how many nights have you and your significant other spent the night listening to too much Tiger Army only to be awakened by the awkwardness of your lover trying to use your neck as a bendy straw? Not a good look. It's just like real blood, minus the hepatitis worries of course. I suggest you peep it out.

Nom Nom Nom

Let's Talk Sonic Youth....

Sonic Youth and I have had a difficult relationship for quite some time now.

I was first introduced to them via their Dirty record (wasn't everybody?) - but due to my being a generation after the siring of the Grunge nation, I didn't hear it until much later at the age of 17 from an old band mate of mine. Compared to alot of the other stuff we were listening to at the time, perhaps I was looking for something more straightforward - Sonic Youth were too abstract. Too arty for even my tastes. Through the next few years though, Kim Gordon's repeated motifs in the record's 'Drunken Butterfly' stuck with me and I would occasionally go back to them finding increasingly more and more enjoyable stuff - just never enough to make me fall in love.

When Melissa and I got married, we combined our cd collections (but not our vinyl, her only contributions at that point were a few pop punk seven inches). One of the cd's now available to me - SY's 1995 effort Washing Machine - beckoned me to give the group another try. This time I got it. By this point, I had also been into avant garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and early German bands such as Can and Neu!. I had also by this point fallen in love with the early 70's electronic punk band Suicide as well as their late 70's No Wave descendents such as James Chance, Teenage Jesus and The Jerks and my absolute favorite - D.N.A.. Hearing them through the filtered ears of having subjected myself to these bands and their recordings, Sonic Youth seemed almost down right poppy in comparison. Growing up with an older sister who worshipped the alt gods of the 90's, Melissa professed that one of her favorite singles ever was the band's "Bull In The Heather" due to the song's accompanying video clip featuring a prancing Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill and later Julie Ruin/Le Tigre fame.

Upon hearing Washing Machine in its entirety, I went to the record store a while later and purchased their b-sides record The Destroyed Room. All four sides of the record poured brilliance from the speakers and I couldn't stop - one of my vices since has been collecting all of their recordings on vinyl (so far I have 10 out of the 16 studio records, 4 out of the 6 vinyl releases in their experimental SYR series, etc). For quite some time now, Sonic Youth have been takers of my life's soundtrack.

No strangers to pop culture themselves, Sonic Youth were actually some of the original pack who embraced it openly - 1990's Goo featured a Kim Gordon penned tune ruminating on the life of Carpenter's singer Karen while most recently, they performed an acoustic version of their 1986 tune Starpower on the wildly chastised by some and obsessed with by others television program Gossip Girl. Having been released from their contract with mainstream label clowns Geffen Records some years back and in turn, now creating without the pressure of mass audience success, they've released this year's The Eternal on Matador - is it irony or natural progression that the record boosts some of the 'poppiest' songs of their career? Sonic Youth have been around for nearly 30 years and in that time have been the architects for 75% or more of what every other underground, indie or 'alt' band has drawn from - they've got nothing to prove.

Here's to 30 more....

I Got Nerve

Celeb of the Day: Miley Curus

Website of the Day: www.vh1.com

Yes, I picked the child of Billy. If you give Hannah Montana a chance, you will find it quite funny. I laugh every time. She has a wonderful voice and seems like someone who is easy to get a long with. Probably the best teen-friendly pop tunes in a long time.

Also, she gives the peace sign like someone else I know.

Why Does Everyone Want This So Bad When The Second One Was So Awful!?

Fact: 1984's Ghostbusters is easily within the pantheon of quality films. Me personally, it's easily in the top 10 (however I won't further quantify the nerdiness of this blog by composing any top 10 lists).

See, it has everything. You have Harold Ramis, Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray at their comedic zeniths. These were the men who were spinning gold at the cinemas and this was their master piece. You had Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts all providing solid supporting rolls (and in their brief moments - such as the altercation between Venkman and Janine about the poor quality of the work environment - actually outshining the leads).

The music, while dated - has stuck with me since first seeing the film as a small child. The eeriness of the atmosphere when the ghosts were freed from the reactor, the oft-repeated motif with the piano throughout the film - all of it. Gold. When I was in kindergarten and we went to the skating rink, Ray Parker's theme song ALWAYS got everyone on the floor - in the first grade, our music teacher would play it on his keyboard for our class and we would shower him with applause!

When the credits roll, one sits back content in knowing that they've viewed a film that is fully encompassed within its own 100 minute run time.

1989 had an answer for that. 1989 had an answer for alot of things - on one front you had Sonic Youth and Nirvana preparing to make pariahs out of Bret Michaels and his ilk of poncy Aquanet dependent troops. On another front, Tim Burton's seminal Batman was released into the cinemas to much acclaim - HERE was an answer to all of the detractors who envisioned Bats as a guy doing the Batusi while high on hallucinogens and flower power. Millions flocked to see and enjoy it...

...but did those millions enjoy Ghostbusters II?

GB II had the advantage - enjoying the largest three day opening for a film up until that point - a balloon that was popped by Bats one week later. When pairing the film next to its predecessor however, you see a myriad of differences. GB had all of the vitality and energy of a 4 year old child - except, the child had somehow been born with a high level of genius and reflected this in snappy words and clever thought. GB II was that child as a 9 year old lying in the gutter with a bottle of Stefanoff and a collection of bad life choices. To apply a more minimalist assessment of Ghost Busters II, it was flat, dull and uninspired. It felt like a cash in and it came off crass. But why? The original ensemble of actors was there, the director was there, yet it the final product was so insipid.

Since then, it would appear that key members of the cast as well as very forgiving audiences and fans - no doubt still dizzy from how great the original film was - have been lobbying for a third and final installment to complete the franchise. Akroyd and Ramis, both having done a few notable things in the last two decades, but not too much - have been the main proponents. Bill Murray, the final piece in the original triumvirate, now knee deep in a resurgence due to his roles in a number of great films such as Lost In Translation, The Life Aquatic and The Royal Tenenbaums has taken a more level headed stance in that he would only be in support of a sequel if the script is above par. According to Akroyd, the film would be a spring board for a new generation of ghoul hunters - including Eliza Dushku of Buffy and Dollhouse fame.

While I'm not personally all that crazy about a third installment, I'll still be one of the mindless hopefuls who buys a ticket on opening night anyway on the off chance that it would have some redeeming value. Perhaps I am one of those denizens who is still dizzy from the brilliance of the original film - it's so easy to forgive slip ups when the first attempt was so solid. As it stands, Ghostbusters III is looking at a 2012 release date - in my own opinion, the film will probably languish in development hell for a few more years before a key player kicks the bucket (none of them are getting any younger) or is finally put to bed in the vault of cinematic broken dreams.

I'm only pulling for it because honestly, I think Eliza Dushku with a proton pack WOULD be pretty rad...

Computer Love

Functional Toy of the Day: USB Flash Drives by Mimoco

Website of the Day: FredFlare.com

Who said toys can't be functional? If you look around at web stores like Fred Flare, you will notice things that are not only functional, but cute too. I mean, who wouldn't want to cook with a frying pan with a panda face?

What Are Blammoids Anyway!?

Toy of The Day: Blammoids!!!

A few months ago, I was over at Dark Tower Comics in Lincoln Square talking to my friend Charles about new stuff coming out. Stating something of a jaded despondence at the lack of innovation or risk taken on the parts of the mainstream toy companies, he quickly grabbed the July issue of Previews and showed me a fantastic and quirky new line called Blammoids.

As you can see above, they have quite the bit of peculiarity that I enjoy and I found myself recanting my rant on DC Direct in particular not taking any risks.

It turns out that they're taking a huge risk on these cute little paper weights because the vast majority of those who follow DC Direct faithfully absolutely abhor them! Common complaints have been sighted about the shapes of the figures themselves (too bloated, they look like half of the relatives at a Thanksgiving dinner, etc), the lack of articulation (like these were designed to be physically played with - they are afterall designer toys), their detail (why does Aquaman have no face? Where are the Joker's eyes? Where is Hal Jordan's mouth!? Why does Hal look like a dog relieved themselves on his head!?).

Really though, these reasons are why I *like* this line of figures. We ARE afterall talking superheroes here. Typical lines feature these figures looking like Atlas and Zeus in their body sculpts - why not have them bulky like your Uncle Larry and Aunt Barbara? And Firestorm - come on! how could you NOT love that cute little translucent orange flame on his head?! And Sinestro - oh gosh don't get me started on how cute Sinestro is with that little mustache that looks like it's a throwback to the dude in the logo of those Red Baron frozen pizzas...

Many detractors have called these out as cash grabs on the part of DCD - a crass attempt to break into the designer vinyl toy and Japanese influenced toy market. They decry them in the name of the now ended line of Mini Mates (which I was never personally a fan of anyway since they just looked like fancy Lego figures). Being a fan of both DC Direct's traditional figure lines AND designer toys, I think this line is a great thing and shows DC has the back bone to stray from the traditional 5 .75" tall figure with 22 points of articulation.

The wave pictured above drops in early January. The second wave, featuring a great looking Plastic Man, The Creeper, Barbara Gordon era Batgirl, Lex Luthor, Superman and Darkseid releases in April...

First Post by The Other Guy

Hello Blogosphere,

My name is O. Hoch and I'm the second contributor (hopefully there are more to follow) of this humble little pop culture blog. Maybe I'll get into my life story and the why's and how's I'm obsessed with pop culture - but that's for a later day. This isn't about me, it's about all of the stuff going on in the world!

Stuff I'm excited about?

Today's Toys: Blackest Night Wave 2

Now I'm sorta cheating since this is four figures and not one singular figure, but they're a set so it's okay.

While I'm among the multitude of throngs championing this series, Geoff Johns' latest epic The Blackest Night is single handedly one of the most concise and well executed multi book crossover stories in quite some time. It dispenses with the literal pretension espoused in last year's Grant Morrisson penned Final Crisis. While FC had alot of great moments, it tended to fall beneath its own weight in both its ambition and its myriad of dangling plots. I love 'event' books, however I don't want to buy other titles in order to fully 'get' what's trying to be done. With FC I had to read Superman: 3D to understand the final enemy and well, as a Batman fan I wasn't too fond of Bruce dying at the end of the R.I.P. at the end of his own books only to have Morrisson and the brass at DC go "sike! to see Bruce's death, tune into issue 6 of the Crisis!" No good.

With The Blackest Night, Geoff John spins a yarn that can stay self contained and allow you to fully understand the weight and the gravity of the plot without having to go buy other books to get the full scope. His writing over in the monthly Green Lantern title along with his corresponding pivot work with Peter Tomasi whose handling The Green Lantern Corps is mindblowing, but again you don't need to read the titles in order to get what's going on in the main book. If however you like to see layers pealed back, then perusal of these titles along with the corresponding minis (might I suggest the Batman: Blackest Night 3 parter where Bats Dick Grayson is joined by Boston Brand (aka The Dead Man - one the DCU's coolest mystical properties)) is highly recommended.

The toy line courtesy of DC Direct in correspondence with the series has been top notch. The first Wave featured a Black Lantern Earth 2 Superman along with now roboticized Alpha Lantern Boodika. The set was rounded out with Red Lantern leader Atrocitus (sporting a good inch or two more of height then the other figures making his presence the most massive) and Blue Lantern Saint Walker. This wave features the leader of the Indigo Tribe, Black Lantern J'onn Jonz (The Martian Manhunter returned after a fitful burial on Mars), the murderous Sinestro Corps member Kryb (not a top pick due to her massive ugliness, I would have far preferred an Amon Sur figure to represent the Sinestro Corps) and is rounded out by Green Lantern John Stewart. While I like this wave over all, I'm not too thrilled with Stewart's inclusion due to his being featured in rival company Mattel's DCUC Wave 11 series (which in itself is impressive as it boosts figures of fallen GL Katma Tui as well as the Vic Sage era The Question and a quite emaciated looking Deadman.) however I suppose I can't quibble with it since they are afterall two separate companies releasing two separate lines.

This wave of the Blackest Night line releases on Wednesday and I already have my set on order so that they'll be on my shelves by Tuesday night (the advantages of working at a comic shop once a week? You get everything a day early!)

In my next post, I'll discuss my thoughts on the death of Honor GL Kyle Rayner in the pages of GL Corps #42 and pontificate on why I'm the only one who cares AT ALL about DCD's upcoming Blammoids line!

Until then, go listen to the new Gaga record and show yr teeth!

Ciao!

La La La Oh La La

Website of the Day: http://www.geekchicdaily.com/

Toy of the Day: Ame-Comi Batgirl

I have been looking at Ame-Comi figures for a few months now. We finally started getting them thanks to our store credit. I wish Batgirl's costume was this cool in the comics.

I am trying to get Kriss to write some comic book reviews for me. Hope he does :)

Hello Hello Again

I didn't feel like my first post was long enough.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Mellie and I live in a sweet apartment in Wicker Park,Chicago. My husband and I are the owners of 3 beautiful cats and the owner of a lot of pop culture junk (toys,books,music,etc).

My love for pop culture pretty much followed me home from birth. My mom carried me home in a Strawberry Shortcake outfit in the year of '83. I am honored to have been born in such a wonderful decade. I was also introduced to the decades before me since my step-dad was a teen 50s and my age in the 60s. So I naturally love Chuck Berry and garage rock. Of course I love influences from those years, such as the Ramones. If you were wondering, my first cassette tape that I fell in love with as a yongster was.....UB40s Labour of Love. I found out years and years later that Cherry-O Baby was a cover....go figure.

I will talk about toys,movies,and books in the up coming posts.

Anyway, what's your story?

Aloha

So I decided to start a pop culture blog. It's about time,eh? If you want to contribute, let me know. I have no problem sharing the wealth.

Website of the Day: www.retrojunk.com

Toy of the Day: We don't have this edition, but we have two others from this collection.

Kid Robot