Not Just Another Drop In The Ocean.

a lot of time something will speak heavily to me. i'll often use hyperbole in the form of statements like "this changed my life". many was the time i have told someone that something applied to my life/mind state or whatever at a certain time, and got at least an eye roll, at best an explanation as to why it didn't actually apply to my life, because it was really about XYZ, etc.
Nonsense!
this happens a lot with music. the problem (but it's not really even a problem, not really, is it?) with a lot of lyrical content is that it's incredibly abstract. you can say "this line from this song applies to how i feel right now", and some wag will point out "actually, they're singing about Elvis OD'ing..." or something. fuck that shit. no one is going to tell me whether or not a lyric or theme from a song applies to my life.
oddly enough, this isn't aimed at anyone specifically. i was just thinking of it, because i'm currently listening to _Ocean Rain_ by Echo + The Bunnymen, an album that i connect with heavily on an emotional level. the lyrics themselves are probably not about anything to do with anything. but they all apply to my life because I say so. other people don't get to tell you how you feel about things or whether they apply to your life. believe that!

and while it's not from _Ocean Rain_, and it's lyrics are incredibly abstract at best, this song definitely carries a lot of emotional weight with me. especially the chorus. sorry, naysayers (not really).

Dynamic Adventuring.

some misc. bits, because why not?

-i've dropped a shit-ton of the comics i was regularly buying ("dropping" means i no longer purchase them on a regular, in this case monthly, basis. it's jargon, y'all). most of DC's new 52 output, which i was initially excited about, has turned suck-balls. so as with everything, i am voting with my dollars.
look, i love my Local Comic Shop as much as the next guy, but they've slacked on stocking the alternative/indie and lesser-known stuff. sad but true. it leads me to go to websites like instocktrades.com for my graphic novel/trade paperback purchases. also, been buying a lot of weird old comics on E-Bay on the cheap. nothing super old, mostly shit i either read through a friend but didn't buy, or couldn't buy because it was "mature readers" or just not accessible to me at the time. E-Bay is surprisingly good for that.

-i'm not gonna get into a big thing, but i'm really sick of my job. over a year. oh well. i don't want to get into a whole downward spiral thing. whatever.

-why does the internet have to have so many funny hotties? my twitter is infested with them, and frankly it makes me sick (BNR). that sounds weird. i have an awesome  GF (as the kids are calling them), so it's not about that. it's just... i don't have a way to describe it or anything. it's partially the whole just i feel like i'm getting older and i've missed every chance to hob-knob with these people and such. i'm not gonna lie, GF or no GF, i like hot, funny women! sue me, i guess. i don't know where i was going with that, but i'm not going to delete it. i'm an open book.

-for your troubles, here's a picture of adorable Pug puppy razzing you (or me. or whomever):

you adorable little bastard.

-next time, i'll try to have a real entry. i just don't want this thing to lay fallow for too long. word.

Children of The Atom.

As stated many times before, both here, my old LJ, and in "real life" (whatever that may be), i love comics. i've been reading them since i was about 8 (regularly, anyway. prior to that, here and there as kids are wont to do, perhaps). i've gone through many phases, both fanboy obsessed with superheroes, as well as indie "elitist" who only read the stuff "cool kids" read (like Ghost World, for example).
i feel as tho i've come to a sort of zen place in my love of comic books. as stands, i basically just love the medium; if the subject matter or genre is well done, and does not pander or insult my/our intelligence, i tend to enjoy them. same with film. superheroes, indie nerd stuff, biographical comics, etc; it's all good. but that's not really what this entry is about.

In case you've been living under a rock, or perhaps aren't all that bright, one of the more popular comic book franchises of the late 20th-century-to-current-day is the X-Men. even those who have never picked up a comic book (shame on you!) have no doubt seen them either on the TV, in a film, or perhaps some new-fangled video game. maybe you've even just seen them walking through a department store at some point. some of you may even be able to name an X-Man or two (probably Wolverine). heck, i'd go so far as to say a couple of you may have even asked someone (maybe even me) "hey, is that what the comic is like?" upon seeing one of the films or sommat. it's not unheard of.
well, like with many things, The X-Men and i have a long and complicated relationship that may seem arcane to those who either a)are not in the know, b)don't give a crap. understandable, but if you've read this far, might as well go a bit farther, wot? good.

how it all began.

the X-Men for me represent all that is best and worst in comics as a medium. when done well, in certain peaks of their long-ass run, they've been incredibly imaginative, thought provoking even. some point out the (often heavy handed) racism metaphor. the X-Men, you see, are "mutants": born with genetic defects that set them apart from humanity as a whole, they are scorned, hated, and even some times maltreated through institutionalized brutality similar to the Nazi treatment of European Jewry (like all great comics properties, The X-Men was created by two Jews) . like most superheroes, who are in some way "better" than us, despite being outcast from the great society, they have sworn to protect it, hoping one day to show "normal" people the error of their ways. this was a theme that was heavily grabbed on to in the 1990s (the height of my X reading days), with simplistic comparisons between Professor X's "Martin Luther King Jr" and Magneto's "Malcolm X" (no pun intended? perhaps...). the dichotomy is made further ironic by the rather patrician Protestant upbringing of Charles Xavier aka Professor X, who faced almost no prejudice in life, versus Magneto, a victim of the Nazi Holocaust, who lost his whole family to the Death Camps.

sidebar: this is where one's comic book history becomes tricky. Magneto is now seen as a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, as stated above. this is depicted in the comics as well as practically all the films (played rather well in the most recent "prequel" X-Men: First Class; which may for my money be the best X film). however, i think when Magneto stopped being merely the "big baddie" and was being more fleshed out in the 70s/80s, he was depicted as a "gypsy" or something like that. still a victim of Hitler's horrible policies, but not specifically a Jew. read your history: the Nazis targeted many groups for extinction, including the mentally challenged/ill, homosexuals (which is where we get the pink triangle; it is a re-appropriated symbol), so-called "gypsies", and even Jehovah's Witnesses (huh? weirdly enough, it's true: look it up). anyway, i'm not sure if it's more powerful to make Magneto Jewish or not. it is what it is, and i for one don't mind it. end of sidebar.

these elements aside: the X-Men at its best created a rather huge world that was off-putting to those on the outskirts, but quite rewarding for anyone who took half a minute to find out the backstory. i read it all through the 90s, which may have been the height of X-Mania. at that point, the arcaneness of the X-world was troubling to some, but clearly not enough to stop it from being one of the most popular comics on the stands. this is also where they started showing up on TV in the form of cartoon (not well produced by the by; i sure did watch them, tho), and various video games, mostly bad. although the Arcade game is fucking great. if you have Xbox 360, they released in for Xbox Live as a downloadable game, and it's well worth it. i digress. towards the end of the 90s run, however, is where the X-Men start to exemplify the worst of comics as a business. oversaturation was the name of the game, and it showed. the plots, already heavy with soap-opera bathos, became even more byzantine and, well, often time just plain sappy. there were almost no "joyful" X-Men, and really, that's never been what the comic has been about. but frankly, for a time, it became almost too much to handle. this is also when the yearly crossover events began to take over, and a self-contained X-Men adventure became nigh unheard of. the mercenary aspect of having to buy 6 or 7 extra comics for an entire summer was problematic for yours truly. this was also when i was starting to discover the more mature themed indie type comics, and i pretty much had to let the X-Peoples go by the wayside.

back in the super funky 90s...

another sidebar: the above image was the cover for a comic book called X-Men #1. now, some of you are no doubt saying, "the X-Men started in the 1960s! how can this overblown pin-up from the 1990s be X-Men #1? don't try to kid a kidder!" firstly, calm down. second, i'll explain. the X-Men comic title that carried over from the 60s was actually The Uncanny X-Men. no one really ever called it that, but that was the whole title. in the 90s, it was common for popular characters both at Marvel and DC to get multiple titles. Superman once had 5 separate titles. these were usually differentiated by adjectives. if the book already had an adjective, a new title lacking one was usually the designation, hence X-Men #1 in the 90s. that's not the interesting part, however. for me at the time, this was the first occurrence of so-called "variant" covers. that's right, one issue of a comic would have multiple covers. the contents of the inside where all the same, but the covers would be different. you could buy your favorite, or better yet (in Marvel's eyes) collect them all! the variants for X-Men #1 were basically that cover split into four panels, and then the fifth was a "deluxe" edition with the entire image above as a GIANT FOLD OUT!!!! crazy, man! i initally bought the cover that featured Cyclops and Wolverine, and that was it. several years later, i end up going to a comics warehouse sale, where they were attempting to jettison all the crap they couldn't sell, and they had literally hundreds of copies of each variant copy marked down to a quarter. i saw guys buying whole boxes of the supposedly "deluxe" edition. instead, i simply bought all of the variants, plus 2 deluxes, and ripped the cover off of one to use the deluxe cover as a poster. hilarious! this is why i tell people "no comic coming out today will be worth any money!" and i mean it. at free comics day this year, Phantom had piles of these 90s "adjectiveless" X-Men books they were giving away for 1000% free. this was the comic that people were buying in the 90s hoping to send their children to college. wowzers. end of sidebar.

like Batman, the X-Men of today are almost unrecognizable. also like Batman, the X-Men continue to be "favorites" of mine, despite not really reading any X-Men comic from probably the last 10 or so years. when a film comes out, like say your X-Men: First Class, i definitely get excited, and have every intention of seeing it. and yet, if anyone asked me "hey, do you read X-Men? i liked the movies, should i check it out?" i would have to respond "hell, no!" (admittedly, i've read waaaaay more recent Batman comics than X-Men, primarily because one of my favorite comics writers, Grant Morrison, has written several series of Batman in the last dozen or so years. true to form "diehard" superhero comics fan-boys "hate" them as they consider them "too weird". all the more reason to love them, as far as i'm concerned. interestingly enough, Grant Morrison also wrote an X-Men series, dubbed "New X-Men", which is very weird, and very great. highly recommended! and, as with Bats, often maligned by mainstreamer nerds. oh well). if i were to recommend anything to potential X-Readers, it would have to be the "essential" collections, which are phone book sized paperbacks that reprint older marvel comics, usually from the 1960s and 1970s. they are in black and white, which bugs some people, but this keeps them affordable, and personally, i think you get a great read with these collections. huge chunks of old school comic-bookery. but even so, again, these may be a bit esoteric for the average reader. one might do well to just skim a wikipedia entry for the back story, then see if any of the many story arcs interest you. perhaps not a best place to start, but some of my favorite runs are "Dark Phoenix Saga", "Days Of Future Past", "Inferno", and "Fall Of The Mutants". most of those are from the 70s and 80s, but whattayagonnado? that said, the aforementioned Morrison's New X-Men is awesome, but it's also very nerd-centric. a lot of inside references to that which has gone before, seen through an almost jaundiced eye (which is why i, ever the cynic, appreciate it so much). it's a sticky wicket; i think someone who really was interested could get something out of the various X-Men story arcs, but where to begin? alas, i probably don't have a very good answer. comic book readers are often able to just pick up in the middle of something and go from there. it's a gift, i suppose. the 30 year backstory that preceded my dalliance with the X-Universe didn't impede me, but as i said, i'm a comic book reader. we're used to jumping on in media res. there it is.

so that's a glossing of my feelings on the X-Men, sorta. i intended to get into the most popular (or for some people's money (mine included) most overly exposed to the point of annoyance) X-Person, but i may have to save that for another time, as this entry is overlong as is.

on a final note: X-Men: First Class takes place in the 60s, which is rad. they mixed James Bond, Madmen, and, well, X-Men, to make a fantastic, poppy, over-the-top mix. it was fantastic, and if you've not seen it, i can't recommend it enough. i assume due to the success of the film, they plan to make more. one can only hope that they do one that takes place during the 1970s, and finish it off with one in the 80s (since everything has to be trilogies these days. it's my hope that as they showed lesser known characters like Havoc and Banshee, they'll expand it even further, and maybe we'll even see Dazzler (shut up), Long Shot, Polaris, and Storm with a mohawk. here's hoping!

totally rad, dudes.

ah-ah-ah! You Didn't get the science accurate!

if you're anything like me, you probably watched Jurassic Park on vhs. A LOT! we had the tape when i was a youth, and having a much younger sister, she was obsessed with it. i admit to also having a fascination for Dinosaurs when i was a kid. i think a lot of kids did/do. and to be honest, i still do like them. especially now that i no longer believe in those pesky god and jesus fellows. yeah, Dinosaurs are cool.
even when you find out much later that they didn't actually look anything like what we were taught. i mean, obviously, none of were there (or were we? no. we weren't. sorry). so everything is speculation. however, despite what some may think, it's speculation based on mountains of evidence. so shut it! sorry, again.
for example, everyone's beloved T. Rex more than likely looked like this:

so luxurious.

that's right, scientists theorize that many of the dinosaurs may have had feathers. pretty crazy, and amazing, i think!

this leads me back to Jurassic Park. believe it or not, but they apparently got a lot of stuff wrong. heck, wikipedia even has a whole entry on the subject!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_issues_in_Jurassic_Park

the best part for me is how much of the Raptors related stuff was pure-d wrong. even something as fundamental as their size. since most of you will probably not go to that wiki entry (jerks*), here's the size comparison of the real Velociraptor. hilarity ensues!

murderously adorable!

*kidding.

I Dug The Quality of Steel.

I know this blog hasn't been around for very long, but some of you might be wondering, "hey, where'd he come up with that kooky title?"
first, stop using the word kooky.
2nd, i'll tell you.

here's yr answer.

this is what i do.

Male Privilege and a Stupid World.

Almost a month ago, an unfunny jackass and host of a clip show that makes fun of people who do stupid things on "teh interwebz" made some rape jokes in public. an audience member was rightfully offended, and probably unwisely chose to point out that rape jokes are wrong. said unfunny dickhole preceded to ask "hey, wouldn't it be hilarious if like 5 dudes just raped this lady right here?".

okay, so, you may have guessed by reading the above or ANYTHING ELSE I HAVE EVER WRITTEN that i am not objective on these matters. in my opinion, there is nothing defensible in what this "comedian" did or said. yet, people who should know better (i always think that, and i am always burned *sigh*) will defend him, because, hey "heckling is wrong".

here's the deal: i am 100% anti-heckling. no one should yell out when someone else is performing. it's uncouth. and even if you are offended and they are saying horrible things, you can always leave and maybe try to get your money back. tell the world this person is awful, has no brain in their head, says horrible things, makes light of violence against women (or whatever the thing is), and spread the word. this woman did not do that. she heckled.

now: let's say that stupid-fuck-joke-man had said "lady, shut the fuck up. it was a joke. i don't come down to where you work and piss on the benches at the bus station before you can clean them" or whatever. then it would've just been like a comedian "smacking down" a heckler. no big deal. but that's NOT what happened. instead, in a fit of pique, he said that a specific woman, someone in the audience,  should be raped, and it would be hilarious. sorry, ass-clown. you did not handle yourself properly at all. even if he had called her a "bitch" or used the brand name "c word", it would have been a completely different story. he would have been an asshole still, sure, but it would've been more a situation involving performer and heckler. she would've seemed foolish. but, again, that's not what happened.

*sidebar*: i do not think that everything is off limits "as long as it's funny". sorry. what am i saying here? do i think rape jokes are wrong? yes, i do. am i suggesting no one should ever joke about rape? again, yes, that is exactly what i'm saying. sorry. i personally think it's easy, and society is "easy" right now. instead of thinking of something that is actually satirical, biting, thoughtful, etc, people are more likely to "buy" that, giving the performer more perceived cache. instead of honing his/her craft, they settle for the big money easy shit, and we get a bunch of mouth breathing troglodytes. hilarity ensues! not...
further: i am in no way, shape, or form condoning censorship. do i think anyone should tell rape jokes? no. would i ever speak out in a live audience and try to have that person removed or silenced or taken off or whatever? never. i would "vote with my dollars" as i am fond of saying. i'd probably walk out. would i later "badmouth" said person on the net, etc? probably, but that's not censorship. that would be my opinion, my blog, my twitter, whatever. hey, if it takes money from their pockets, fucking good. maybe they should try to be smart instead of shock-ful. there are enough comedians out there, some are very hilarious.
also, what constitutes a rape joke? is mike birbiglia's joke about "a rapist would never have a bed like that" a rape joke? no, i tend to think that's a joke about his being awkward and ill equipped for human interaction. the punchline of the joke is he says, instead of nothing, "you'd be surprised", and then realizes that was a dumb-ass thing to say. is my beloved Kristen Schaal on Flight Of The Conchords asking if Brit and Jemaine had been raped while in jail a rape joke? sadly, it kinda is. the humor is predicated on whether or not the two were sexually violated in jail. did i laugh at that? did it end up getting a pass because i really like all the involved players? i'm not sure. personally, again, i think it is fairly easy. i'm certainly not perfect, but i try to do the best i can. the mention of the word "rape" in a joke/bit doesn't automatically make it a rape joke. that may be grasping at straws, but it's all i got for now. something to think about, right? *end of sidebar*

what's my point in all this, you may be asking? well, as with many things that are this emotionally wrought, it's easy to get mixed up in the details. people are in fact flat out defending the use of rape jokes. so yeah, fuck those people; they're beneath my notice. next! people are defending not his rape jokes, but his reaction because the woman in the audience was a heckler and heckling is wrong: i will not do this. because he said that it'd be funny if she was gang raped in the audience. even if he wasn't saying "she should be raped" or "i hope she is raped", the thought that someone would say (even if they didn't think it) that someone being raped is funny just sickens me. and this for me is the heart of the matter. i don't think it's exaggeration to say that all of this stems from male privilege. i overheard a comedian whose name i forget (apologies) on a podcast i quite like defending the situation via the "heckling is wrong" defense. the problem i had overall was that someone saying this could've easily been written off, but he preceded to make other faulty arguments. for one: he started saying "one person said all this stuff, and everyone believed her." to me, that smacks of the tendency for people to disbelieve women who report rape. for another, he said some rather thoughtful things about the fear women feel everyday as they do things that may not bother us as men: walking alone at night, parking lots in the darkness, the usual. this would be a plus on his part, but he further negated himself by stating that these things did not in fact prove that America is a "rape culture", and that it was also alarmist rhetoric. but he's wrong: America is a rape culture, or else we not only wouldn't be able to defend people's use of rape imagery in supposed "comedy", but said people WOULDN'T BE USING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

so maybe my arguments are sloppy. truth be told, i'm not a sociologist or critical theorist. i'm a concerned human and staunch lefty; this is not something i've ever denied. i really just wanted to get my thoughts out there. whether or not some white privileged dudes out there think there's no problem don't make it so. and as long as this is so: we live in a stupid world and we are at the mercy of stupid, stupid people.

have a great day.

NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH... you know the rest.

so i saw The Dark Knight Rises. it was quite excellent, and i'm glad i got to see it in the theatre, mainly because i saw the other 2 there, and i think for a first viewing, when it comes to these Nolan Batman movies, the theatre is the best. i have the other two on DVD, and i enjoy them, but it doesn't compare. who's to say?

to be honest, it wasn't my favorite of the 3. i think The Dark Knight gets that honor. but all three films have had a great amount of goodness to get behind, and frankly, i don't think they could've been handled better.


this part may contain SPOILERS: it's often difficult for me to make amends in my mind with the difference between comic books and comic book related movies. for one thing, in the comics, almost no one ever figures out anyone's secret identity. in the movies, every single Batman movie (including the original series, most of which is wretched) has had him either reveal his identity or someone figure it out. i know they have to do in 2+ hours what's taken 70 years in the comics to do, as well as for non-comic readers. but still, by the end of TDKR (i apologize for that, but i'm sick of typing it) everyone knows who he is. and some didn't even use shmancy detecting. Joseph Gordon Levitt's character "just knew". kinda lame. i also don't like the whole "we killed him off BNR" thing. non comic readers may see this as the best, most fulfilling, and even most realistic ending. well, realism is dumb: it's a movie based on a comic book (note: neither of those things are real). this is why people carping on the whole "how'd he get from the prison in the desert to gotham???" is nonsense. frankly, i don't want to see 30 or 40 minutes of Bruce Wayne hopping sheep trucks in Uzbekistan or wherever the fuck. sorry. his suddenly appearing in Gotham City didn't bother me.

also, i'm not a big fan of Bane, generally speaking. i didn't give a shit about him in the comic. i think he's kind of cool in the movie, however, but... jeezis, can we just say it? the voice. i mean, what the fuck? i wasn't giggling the whole time like one reviewer i read, but it was pretty damn dumb. however, if thought of in these terms, it may make a bit more sense: despite being a horrible killer, global terrorist, mass murdering psycho, and huge mountainous slab of hugeness, he's played off as something of a dandy. seriously, think about it. he walks around in that woolen coat, holding the lapels as though he were Oscar Wilde. he is often seen quipping, asking questions with questions, pondering philosophical queries, etc. during the national anthem (which was wretched by the way, but a "stirring" a cappella version of the National Anthem sung by a boy falsetto is not my cup of tea, sorry everyone. call me a commie if you must) he remarks "what an angelic voice!" or something to that effect. bear all that in mind, as well as the fact that he was Talia al Ghul's protector when she was a tiny child, and in the film she is easily in her 30s, Bane has got to be pushing 70. i'm serious. he would have to be at least in his 60s. if Talia was like 8-10 when she escaped, and she's 30 now, Bane looks to be in his 30s in the prison. so at the least late fifties, more than likely 60s. maybe not quite pushing 70, but he's on the back end of middle age. he's older than Bruce Wayne, easily. it's possible that whatever the fuck his mask does (never fully explained, by the by), it may jack him up to his mammoth proportions, as well as slow the aging process (remember, this is a comic book based movie!). also, it's possible that Talia was older than she looked, and had been stunted by malnutrition and lack of sunlight. that's a thing, right? i just think, if she's young enough to be mistaken for a boy, she's probably still pretty small.
in the comics, it actually is Bane that is born and raised in prison. he is also pumped up with a chemical called Venom, which is a super steroid that caused huge amounts of agression. also, he's south american, not Anglo-Mid-Eastern. and not tied in with R'as al Ghul. and the mask is kinda like a Lucha Libre mask, with tubes and shit connected to it that pump the venom to him. strangely enough, the horrible Batman and Robin got it closer, if still not quite right. hilarious.
factoid: IRL, Marion Cotillard, who plays Tali al Ghul/ Ms. Tate is two years older than Tom Hardy AKA Bane (36 and 34 respectively). absurd!

also, in the negative Column, well, sort of: Joe G. Levitt as "Robin". gimme a break, please. half-way through the film, my roommate turns to me an goes "lemme guess *points to JGL on the screen*: Nightwing?" and i was like "oh shit, yeah. i can see it..." well, as it turns out, he is probably not only not Nightwing, and not even Robin, but will be the straight up new Batman. a backdoor for making more films sans Nolan, hmmm? methinks. well, i don't per se think JGL would make a terrible Batman, but i think it'd actually be cooler if he were Nightwing. tho would i pay to see a Nightwing film in theatres? probably not. also, it depends on who was directing. he was good in the film. but it think it's kinda lame to have "Robin" not be at least Tim Drake or Jason Todd if not straight up Dick Grayson.  pretty silly. as the cop character John Blake, tho, he was actually pretty good. i didn't see inception; the only film of his adult career i've seen was G.I. Joe and it fucking sucked. i don't even want to talk about it. but, no, in this he was good.

also, i'm sorry, i didn't like whiney Alfred. he was fine in the other two movies. also, one reviewer pointed out it was his idea for Bruce to be Batman. but, i can't hate on "Michael. Caine.", so there's that.

and now, the best part of the movie, and not necessarily for the obvious reasons: Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman. she was fucking fantastic. and not just because of her ridiculous hotness and her riDONKulous donka-donk in that catsuit either. how she switched from shy and demure when thieving the pearls to the bad-ass who doesn't give a fuck, jumps out the window, and precedes to kidnap a senator right up to the climactic scenes in besieged Gotham. she was the shit. and, sorry to seem pervy, but i could watch her ride that Batpod motorcycle thing any day of the week. she's a fantastic actress and seriously beyond hot. i mean, it's almost shameful how hot she is. i could go on and on, but instead, exhibit A:

holy crap, Batman.

i could go on and on about other things i love and liked less, but over-all, it was excellent, and i maintain it was a worthy capper for the trilogy. will they make more, again, without Nolan? will Joey L. be the new Batman? did Bruce Wayne actually live or was it a figment of a senile Alfred's imagination? did Bane die? was R'as al Ghul actually alive, or was it in Bruce's mind brought on by pain and exhaustion (in the comics he's immortal)? no fucking clue.

i guess we shall see.