75% of The Planet is Covered by Water.

If i live to be 1 million years old, i will never understand the public's fascination with dissing Aquaman.

in case you're unaware, here he is.

everyone has taken a dig at him: SNL, Family Guy, even the Big Bang Theory. Aquaman is the comic book world's whipping boy, and i for one can't stand it.

the main problem with Aquaman for most people's money seems to be his ties to the sea. how can he fight crime? he lives in the sea? this presupposes that all superheroes do is fight crime. this may be the case with more "street level" characters like Batman and Spider-Man, but it's not alway the case with many, indeed one could probably even say most superheroes. most heroes, even the aforementioned crime fighters take on villains that are in keeping with their thematic elements. Spider-Man often fights animal themed villains and the like. Batman (who i maintain is not crazy, as the current media would have us believe; i personally feel he is beyond driven, which may lead to what some would perceive of us as a kind of mania) fights foes who are primarily insane. the list goes on. it's no different for Aquaman. he fights sea related villains.
consider the subject header of this entry: 75% of the Earth's surface is ocean. that leaves vast amounts of unexplored territory for truly imaginative writers to utilize. to me, that's what it comes down to: sheer laziness. if you can't watch 5 minutes of a nature special about the undersea world and see how it could be used to great imaginative effect, you're just not very clever.
granted, i think a lot of people may see Aquaman tackling sea monsters and such and perceive a kind of goofiness. i understand that on some level. in the 1950s, Batman (a character who we see as very gritty today) was often fighting aliens on other planets. it seems out of place, hence the goofiness. but if you really break it down, all superheroes, even the "dark" or "grim" ones, are kind of goofy. as a notion it makes very little sense. a child's parents are killed before his eyes: he becomes a giant bat and fights crime. wait, what...?
we've become cynical, and i admit to being quit the cynic myself, friends. but the problem is that we aren't cynical about the right things. governmental abuse, the poor, unjust wars, global atrocity: no one bats an eye in the face of that shit. but Aquaman, i mean, he wears orange and green and rides around on whales and shit, AMIRITE? i feel no need to be cynical about Aquaman. he serves his purpose. no one complains about Green Lantern fighting in space. because he belongs in space, right? well, Aquaman belongs in the sea.
so i admit wholeheartedly: i like Aquaman. i'm not ashamed.

Nothing Is Safe From All Pervasive Corporate Bullshit.

When we were kids (presumptuous of me to assume a)people reading this are in my age group, b)people are reading this), LEGO was the a series of toys with themes: Town (which i believe it now called "City"), Space, Undersea, etc. you got generic blocky figures i always just called "Lego Guys" (apparently they have an actual name: "Minifigs". i will not be referring to them by this horrible appellation), a series of blocks that interconnected, and awesome green and/or grey flat thing to connect everything to, and maybe the bare-bones of a story. there were basic instructions for creating dwellings and vehicles, but those were suggestions at best. the point was to try and make as crazy shit as possible. the blocks were maybe color-coded to what the theme was (my space sets were all white, grey, and maybe some black; they had rad transparent canopies for the cockpits). the "Lego Guys" themselves were fairly gender neutral, but in my unenlightened pre-adolescent mind, they were "guys". you could've made them female quite easily, tho, with a snap of some strangely molded plastic hair piece (mostly it was "Ted Copple" for dudes, and then maybe ladies had longish hair). fact is, i'm not sure if the space set had hair at all, as the characters mostly wore bitchin' retro-futuristic helmets. had i been in the know as a kid, i could've re-enacted some awesome Day The Earth Stood Still or Planet of Vampires stories, but i think i mostly tried to tie it in to whatever weird sci-fi thing i had seen on TV or sommat. Other sets were different colors and had a different configuration of "guys" (probably even some that were more representative of females). there were also just "generic" Legos that were the traditional color scheme one may associate with Lego; the familiar green, red, blue, yellow, grey, and white. those sets weren't as interesting to me, but they did of course get mixed in with the more "themed" sets, which just led to crazier, more elaborate, and more outlandish vehicles/dwellings for the space men (et al). my point is, Lego never struck me as boys or girls toys. my sister and i played with them, tho i did generally play with them alone. and it never really dawned on me that Lego was considered a boys toy until now.
sadly, Lego has been primarily marketed to boys for the past 20+ years. it stared subtly with Zack, the Lego Maniac. you no doubt remember him:

even so, the focus was still on building, and the sets were original. these days, Lego is not what we had as kids. it's primarily in the pocket of major genre franchises: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, etc. and the focus on the boys only club mentality is even more pronounced. an attempt to make a "Lego for girls" (which is idiotic, as the toy started out as being for everybody, including parents even!) called "Lego Friends" was introduced, and it's wretched. the entire line is bedecked in pink and purple. there's nothing wrong with these colors per se, the problem is that these are the marketed colors telling girls that this is for them, and the other stuff (Star Wars, Harry, the space and the city) are not for them. Lego Friends figures are not compatible with the blocky "guys" of yesteryear. they're taller, slim, and "look like girls" (i.e.- have boobs, wear skirts, have long hair). there aren't even occupations in Lego Friends' "Heartlake City" (this is whether they live. yep. "Heartlake city". jeezis...). all of the sets are based on taking care of pets, decorating a house, and getting your hair did. Feminist Frequency's Anita Sarkeesian puts it best when she states what do the "friends" do if a house catches on fire? call the boys from the "real" Lego City to put it out? conversely, where do the inhabitants of Lego City go when they're hungry? do they all commute to Heartlake City? her two part deconstruction (pun intended!) of Lego and gender is highly recommended by this humble writer (she says it much better than i could, truly):

(you can link to part 2 through this video, and i strongly suggest you do).

it's sad to see that even Lego is not safe from this patriarchal nonsense. i look back fondly on Lego, and i do plan to buy the new Lego Batman 2 video game, but i really do wish Lego would get their shit together and not pander to macho stereotypes of boys fighting, nor talk down to girls and expect them to clean up the mess afterwards. i might have to buy that Superman set i keep ogling from afar used on Ebay, because frankly, i'd like to support them as little as possible with my money until they at least try to straighten this out.

Highly Recommended: Feminist Deconstruction of Pop Culture.

if you're anything like me (shyeah...), you like to think about things. even things that some people (wrongly) don't think need to be thought about. you might have even been told over 75% of your life that you "think too much" about these things (and things in general).
if you are that type of person, i highly recommend Feminist Frequency:

http://www.feministfrequency.com/

if you're not that sort of person... well, we may still be friends, but i find that highly dubious.

I'm Not Letting The 'Net Spoil My Film Experience.

I just watched Prometheus. never mind how, i just did. it was actually a movie i had been anticipating for quite some time. i'm a big fan of the first two Alien films (the heretofore mentioned film as well as the sequel Aliens), and enjoy the concepts within that universe in general. the 3rd movie and up, however, sucked balls.

initially, Prometheus was touted as a prequel to the Alien franchise. later it was said not to be an actual prequel, but took place in the same universe. then it was a prequel again. furthermore, fan reaction (read: "internet reaction") was mixed at best. i was worried at first, because i hadn't really known anyone whose opinion i actually trusted that had seen the film and given a raved review (Truby was cagey at best, but he almost might have been trying to avoid spoilers, which i appreciate). one kid i worked with raved about how amazing it is, but he's, well, not all there. he was also going on and on about how you had to be a huge H.R. Giger (which he pronounces "Guy-ger"; it's pronounced "Gee-ger", hard G, like "geek") fan, which i am not. i like him alright. i'm also not a 15 year old boy. i digress. my point is, i was a bit wary, but i figured there'd be something to take from it.

i was right. i actually enjoyed the film quite a lot. i would easily give it 3 1/2 stars, if not 4. something keeps me from giving it 4. maybe the whininess of a few of the characters? the pseudo-mystical elements don't bug me all that much. it's fiction, it's purporting to be the actual story of humanity's origin. i don't care if Ridley Scott believes it (personally, i don't think he does), it's not trying to proselytize bullshit, so it's fine with me. no spoilers, i'm just here to say it was a good film.

highly doubtful they'll make a sequel (a sequel to the prequel. wow. how far we've come *sarcasm*), as it seemed like it was super expensive to make, and has not justified the rewards of doing so. there's more to glean from this line of origin of Alien, but we'll probably never see it. oh well. worth seeing in my book.

I don't love it, nor do I hate it.

Today I was listening to a podcast i often listen to about video games. The subject of the interview said something to the effect of how she believed it was "lame" not to get into every latest bit of technology that comes out, stating "get over it, it's here to stay." (not exact quote). this actually made me kind of upset. i mean, i ultimately let it go, but at first i was bothered by it. the question is: why?

first off, why is it "lame"? everyone has different aptitudes. not everyone is as tech savvy as the next person, especially someone who designs video games for a living. furthermore, people have different interests. i love comic books, and i do honestly think that everyone should read them. seriously. but i have never called someone "lame" for not liking them. i could not give two shits about this newest "hip food" fascination (half of my tumblr feed is clogged with assholes posting pictures (sorry, "pics") of what they ate for dinner), but i don't bag on people for being into it (not out loud, any way).

also, why is it "here to stay"? because you say it is? 8 tracks, betamax, HDDVD, cassette tapes, atari 2600: all once brand new, cutting edge technology, no longer available. someone surely thought these were "here to stay". and yet, they didn't stay, did they? nope.

my overall point: technology is not going to save us. if you have devices that you enjoy, fine. but don't try to convince me that they're important. they're not. and get your head out of your goddamned phone when you're hanging out with actual living people. jeezis.

it's not a popular opinion, but i actually kind of think that this is the new dark ages. never has more information been more easily available to a greater amount of people, and never  before have people been more willfully ignorant. i know people who brag about not reading. not that they're "too busy" or whatever; they straight up do not read. I... i have no words for how disgusting that is. we just don't care any more. it's all fed to us, and none of it is worth a damn. and it really doesn't seem like it's getting better. i dunno. i have no idea what to do about it, because no one cares. plus this entry is getting kinda depressing, so i'll just end it here.

i really wish i could beg like i did in a tweet earlier in the year for someone to please, please read a goddamned book, a REAL book, made of paper (you don't even have to buy it! i have a shit ton, i will give you one!), but i know no one will. oh well.

anyone who knows me probably knows i'm a big fan of cover songs. i'm especially a fan of covers of american/english language songs covered by foreign groups who clearly do not speak english, or at least speak it as a second (or 3rd or 4th, etc) language. it's true: i can't get enough of 'em.

so here's I Dik Dik (pronounced "ee deek deek") from Italy, i believe, with an all time favorite.

Do Not Betray Your Destiny.

Still haven't really thought of anything for a "real" entry yet.
for now, here's a link to one of my all-time favorite blogs.

http://vintageninja.net/

you may get lost in it for hours. or you may not give a crap either way. s'up to you.

By Way Of Intro.

If you've come here, then you probably know me. there will be more at some point. don't expect it to be brilliant or anything, most of these posts will probably be either rants, idea related, and pop culture crap. also, there will probably be swearing.

Hi.

Hey, Everybody.