In Demand

Other than the usual 3-minute tales of romance both won and lost there are a few Texas tunes with another common theme, that of abandonment when the chips are down. The tune So-Called Friend and this weeks' featured song In Demand being two of them. While this just might be a case of going to the same creative well as other performers do for romance it is otherwise interesting to me that more than a few songs address this theme. Since I have never read about why this subject might be important to the band I can only speculate that this might have its origins the waning popularity and career changes of the band members who moved from Altered Images. The members of a once-popular band labored in relative obscurity for a few years and had to overcome the challenges of a changing market until they found new and moderate success with Texas.

The several tunes that deal with fair-weather people goes into even further detail, remarking that there are people who only want to be associated with the band or an individual only after they gain some notoriety. It is not unreasonable to think that the support of fans and business contacts would vanish with new directions in music or the first poorly selling album, only to be inundated with well-wishers, friends and parasites when later a single climbs the charts.

In Demand was a pretty respectful hit for Texas back in 2000. The song performed well even in countries it was not officially released in, undoubtedly reaching a wider audience through various online resources. The music video is notable for featuring popular actor Alan Rickman, who didn't appear too bewildered (as most movie stars do when appearing in music videos) and there is little reason not to suspect his part in the video helped promote the song.

From the compilation Texas The Greatest Hits is In Demand, featuring lead vocal Sharleen Spiteri fleeing from the Papparazzi and flirting like crazy with Hans Gruber.

Want To Hold My Toad?

Rare, possibly uncatalogued Hank Ketchum illustration featuring Dennis the Menace characters for the Childcraft: The How and Why Library series of reference books.

Childcraft: The How and Why Library, vol. 7, How We Get Things (1964). Original image 1963 by Hank Ketchum.

BURN!

From the Roswell Daily Record, Former President Bush gave a speech to a bunch of High School kids receiving scholarships. He mentioned how good it felt to no longer be the President. I think we can all empathize with that.

"I no longer feel that great sense of responsibility that I had when I was in the Oval Office," he said. "And frankly, it's a liberating feeling."

Bush told the soon-to-be-graduates that it was a strange experience walking his dog Barney in his new neighborhood after he moved back to Texas.

"I realized this was the first time I'd been walking in a neighborhood for 14 years," he said. "It's not all that hard, by the way. You take one step, and then you take another."

I wonder how far he walked? If I recall correctly the last time he tried to take 12 steps he didn't finish.

Most terrifying horror illustration ever

I would totally crap my pants, shriek like a little girl and then die of a massive heart attack if I was walking around a dark, creepy old house and was surprised by that duck. Don't lie and say you wouldn't, either.

The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle (Story and art by Hugh Lofting, Publisher F.A. Stokes, 1922).

Release the hounds!

Nice classic good girl cover art with a creepy theme from the Photo Club era of magazines when pervs gained a short-lived bit of main stream legitimacy. I think I should know who the cover artist was but I can't read the name and the parts I can make out doesn't look familiar.

Glamour Photography (Summer 1957).

Now with more lens flare

Got this Beam-Me-Up Star Trek movie tie-in badge in my dinner cereal last night. Not that I'd ever wear it, red is Engineering and that's what division Security is under, right? Wearing anything associated with a Redshirt is just asking for it.

Besides, there isn't any way to attach the badge to a shirt short of using a hot glue gun. I don't know what this thing does other than light up behind the insignia and at the tip and then only if you press the button pretty hard.

The picture on the box led me to believe there was a base for the badge included so it could stand up and look cool on a desk. But there isn't. Unfortunately, all it does is lay there. As far as promotions go the badge is kind of lame even as a flashlight. It would have been geek-cool if it had sound FX, could stand on it's side without falling, a clip to attach to your underwear or even a little hole in the body somewhere to run a chain through so you could attach it to your keys. Like the movie, the badge has potential and seems like it was intended to do something cool, but the company gave up somewhere between the licensing and the design stage.

Truer words never spoken

Strange Adventures #8 (May 1951).

Because sometimes you have to post a comic book page of astronauts massacring cuddly space-bears

Escape to the Stars #1 (1987).

Best Seller

Huh? See here.

Isn't that always the way?

Nice illustration from Glamour Girl Photography (October 1959) an otherwise sleazy kind of mag typical of the photo-club era.

Winter's End

The 1993 album Ricks Road by the Scottish band Texas is the collection that is most influenced by American music. The entire album is about as Country as they get and is full of good old down home Blues, or at least a European interpretation of what American Blues sounds like. Most of the tracks sound heartfelt and like most gospel tunes have pleas to a higher power for salvation and succor. Lead vocal Sharleen Spiteri doesn't really reach too far or work to hard in this production and saves the wild talent and passion for only a select few tracks.

While a few of the tunes would easily be accepted during a church service the track Fearing These Days would not be out of place as background music for a politician on the campaign trail. The breakout track from Ricks Road is the song So-Called Friend, familiar perhaps to most Americans as the theme song to the 1994-1998 Ellen DeGeneres sitcom Ellen. Amusingly, Sharleen Spiteri's usually non-existent brogue momentarily sneaks into the song Fearing These Days and it is noteworthy because she typically speaks and sings in English with no discernible accent (at least to American ears). It was just humorous to notice because for a second it made me think of Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons.

Ricks Road was not their most well-received album and admittedly there are a few creative missteps that as a fan I can overlook far easier than a professional critic is willing to do. Often the band explores certain musical styles and with White On Blonde and The Hush it worked to great effect. But with Ricks Road it appears that the band is still trying to find a direction beyond trying too hard to garner a hit by sounding like any number of other contemporary pop bands of the time. Still, I generally enjoy most of the tunes on any given Texas album and Ricks Road is no exception.

As usual there are not many Region 1 videos of the band available so I cobbled this one together featuring Winter's End, a nice little Bluesy-pop tune. Enjoy.

Land Without Pity

Success is 99% other people's inspiration

I'm usually a person who supports the proliferation of greater amounts of Hayley Mills merchandise. But this image from a users' personal online store of Hayley and a Sleestak on a t-shirt caught my attention this morning.

The image of a Sleestak posing with Hayley Mills that is used on the shirt and poster is from a quick-and-dirty photo manipulation I did for the for the blog back in back in November 2005. The only change to the original image I posted is the addition of some text at the bottom commemorating a fictional band and concert. I don't know how long the t-shirt and poster have been for sale. The seller information says 2007 but I regularly search for Hayley Mills and Sleestak references and this is the first I have seen of it.

While I don't own the original image of Hayley Mills and her father that I pasted a Sleestak head into, I don't make any money off of it either. I use it for review, parody and unabashed fan purposes. The image isn't a secret as you can find the original on the web. Heck, there is even a colorized version a friend fancied up for me.

This guy is charging a lot of money for a t-shirt where 99% of the product is from work done by someone else. The thing is, anyone can make their own customized t-shirt at much less expense. The website he is using is only one of many custom clothing sites that are available. Furthermore, anyone with a printer and an iron can make their own and far more original hipster pop-culture t-shirt at home for even less.

Now I know how Tony Abruzzo must have felt.

Redshirt Blues

At last! A "Redshirt" speaks out about his lot in life.

Yeah, he's pretty dead. From Star Trek: Mission's End #3 (May 2009).

And not to be missed by any Star Trek fan, 2001's Redshirt Blues by David O. Rogers. A fun look at what those poor security troops have to deal with on a day to day basis in the Trekoverse.

Dry those tears, I'm gonna be rich!

Cool panel from a story found in My Own Romance #9 (October 1949). I cleaned up the panel, added fresh color and threw in some Benday dots for that nifty pop art effect. I think it came out pretty sweet. The original artist probably got something like less than $15 a page for the entire job. Yet like Lichtenstein, I am prepared to sell a print of this for hundreds, maybe thousands of times what the original artist was paid for the original work.

Art is cool.

Surfbunnies!

Young Romance #156 (Oct-Nov 1968).

Jerks

"We were in the neighborhood and thought we'd drop by to rub your nose in our happiness."

True Secrets #12 (December 1951).

Mother's Day in Gotham City

Nobody forgets Mother's Day in Gotham City. You see, if sonny-boy don't make with the gifts those Gotham mommies will fill ya full of lead.

Batman: The Long Halloween #8 (July 1997).

Under Your Skin

Sunday is always Don't Mess With Texas day!

Several years ago one of the duties I performed to help out at a job I had was to transport cruise or merchant ship crew from the dock to their hotel or airport and back again. During layovers some employees or crew stayed off-ship or used air travel to get back home. Due to customs and immigration laws all the crew were supposed to stay at their lodgings but few of them did. Many hit San Diego for the nightlife (what little there is of it) and sometimes when it was time to go back to work I had to detour to pick the crew up at bars instead of their hotels. The most interesting group I ever transported were about ten Aussie sailors from a merchant ship. Crazy bastards all. I nearly got arrested twice driving them the 6 miles from the dock to their hotel.

One time I drove a group of about six sailors from the Philippines to a cheap hotel in the Sports Arena area where they would stay for a few days. I didn't speak their language (as far as they knew) and they didn't speak mine (as far as I knew) but I think I managed to round up all the correct crew members for a ride to their designated lodgings.

This was the year 2000 and I typically carried about ten CD's with me to play at work and in the car. About that time I was pretty heavy into Jazz, Show Tunes and Big Band music and rotated the albums out frequently. But no matter what CD's I carried around at least two of those were from the band Texas and those were usually White On Blonde and The Hush. Nobody else I knew admitted liking the band enough to buy a CD but not being a hipster who has their entire self-worth contingent on what other people think of them I didn't really care. I was always annoyed that Texas never toured in the Unites States but the reality is that there wasn't a market for them here.

After loading up all the gear the Philippine sailors piled into the van and I prepared to drive them to their hotel. I ejected the Martha Tilton CD from the dashboard player and inserted a random CD. It began to play and it just so happened to be The Hush, the most recent Texas album. The music started and my passengers yelled and started screaming "TEXAS! YEAH!" over and over. By the time I drove onto the highway they were all singing along to the tracks. I didn't know if I should be pleased or not. Texas couldn't get arrested in America yet these hard-working sea-dogs who walked down a rusty gangway from an equally rusty foreign cargo ship without wearing shoes on their feet knew all the lyrics by heart. Music, like hate, truly is a universal language. Not that we had any real trouble communicating. It was a thing, had to be there.

The following featured clip Under Your Skin is from Texas' 2003 album Careful What You Wish For. If I didn't already know the song was from Texas I'd swear it was a lost track from the Parallel Lines-era Blondie.

Retailer Incentive Cover

I'm usually not down with the photo reference art. Don't get me started on Greg Land.

This one by Adam Hughes is particularly screwing with my childhood memories.

Power Girl #1 (July 2009).

Alibi verified

The man previously arrested for an assault on a Linda Vista woman has been released pending further investigation after his alibi that he was at work during the incident was confirmed via time card punches and video. It is good that he is free.

This means, and always has, that there is a very bad person still out there. Let's hope the San Diego Police have some solid leads and will apprehend the right guy. Anonymous tips can be sent in via the San Diego Crime Stoppers site.

Read the story here.

Can't Do Attitude

Where's that famous Gale Allen and her Girl Squadron can-do spirit? I'm sure Gale could butcher everyone if she tried hard enough. I should read the story and see if the Boy Squadron saves her.*

Planet Comics #29 (March 1944).

* Yep, they do.

Three

Three albums that no mid-60s household in America went without.

Say What You Want

Sunday is always Don't Mess With Texas day!

Though I had heard a few tunes from the band Texas prior to 1995 via my interest in imported music I had never really payed much attention to them. That changed when one day I was idly browsing the directory of a promotional CD given to me buy a car salesman. Not wanting to load the bloated proprietary adware that was surely bundled along with the information about a car I was interested in buying I poked around through the various folders. Looking for Easter eggs on a CD was one of those nerdy things I did back then.

Several years before companies thought it necessary to protect their product with nothing more than a warning they thought nothing of releasing promotional materials that contained free songs, videos and photos of musical bands stored in standard formats. For the most part these promotional materials were not recorded as data that could only be read via proprietary media players and files could be easily viewed and copied. Most companies did not anticipate, understand or could cope with the emerging peer-to-peer technologies and were unprepared for what could happen to their intellectual properties and how it would, for a short time, affect sales. A few years later the label that carried Texas would make them one of the first bands to flood the peer-to-peer networks with fake music files to discourage unauthorized downloading). Quite often fun and interesting stuff (relatively, that is) could be found in the folders of the random compact disc.

In one folder I found some video files and opened them. One video was an annoying animated squirrel that hosted the section featuring a car and one was random video of the car I was test driving. A few other files were interesting and were just CD extras of some sort. One was an an audio interview with the band The Cardigans and one was a music video from Paris Hampton. The final video was from the band Texas, it was 60mg big when most computers had trouble holding that much information on an entire hard drive and I played the hell out of it. I still have the original CD in storage and may be most noteworthy today for containing the only remaining existing recording of Paris Hampton performing her signature song Old Ghost.

Heavy with CGI that must have been scary expensive back when it was created in 1995 the Texas video was the song Say What You Want from their White On Blonde album. I had actually heard the song a few times before on the radio but it was the video that helped make me a Texas fan. For those who are influenced by that aspect of it in choosing your music, in the video Sharleen Spiteri has evolved from the young, scruffy-cute New Wave garage band performer into the sexy and hot woman that would be later be promoted so heavily in materials for The Hush era album. One could also see in the video the inklings of why Sharleen has such a large lesbian following.

The song received some respectable though short-lived American airplay back in 1996, possibly aided by being on the soundtrack of a movie. The Wu-Tang Clan also collaborated on the song for a later release and it was that version that was played in concert when Texas was touring.

Here is the video for Say What You Want, from their official channel.

Thank you for your interest in our company

Thank you for your interest in our company and for submitting your resume for our review. Should our hiring managers have an interest in your skills and capabilities, they will contact you directly. In addition, we will keep your resume on file for 90 days.

Furthermore, please stop the daily practice of hand-delivering your art featuring creepy decapitated gnome heads floating on a rainbow in a forest glen that is in the process of being clear-cut by weird otter-beaver hybrids. The sea gull picture is actually very nice and reveals some creative talent but ethics rules prohibit the hiring of persons who give us gifts.

Just FYI, the content of the notes you are leaving with the pictures are making people nervous. Also, please stop addressing the notes to the "Queen Princess Hiring Manager" as she is already insufferable and all the attention is going straight to her head.

On a personal note may I suggest not drinking large amounts of beer immediately prior to a meeting? While I appreciate your assertion that you can "quit drinking anytime" it does not bode well for your job prospects that you drunkenly staggered around and slurred non sequiturs during your visit. As for your stated qualifications I would again remind you that begging for spare change in a parking lot is not actually "cashier experience".

While we encourage people to follow up on their interviews showing up unannounced may necessarily require you to wait until those people with appointments are seen first. Shouting at both the Store and Hiring Managers demanding to know why you were not yet hired with our company is not what I call good networking.

We appreciate your consideration as a potential employer.

Sincerely,

Human Resources

But...

Little more than halfway through ten days of work with no day off and a crazy/busy personal family schedule. We really need a second car. I know how Wambi feels.

Jungle Comics #66 (June 1945).

I Don't Want A Lover

It's Sunday, so that means it's Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Why would a Scottish pop band not focusing on country or western music name their group after the most embarrassing state (after Kansas) in America? Actually, they didn't!

The inspiration for the band moniker Texas came not from the state but rather the 1984 film Paris, Texas. Oddly, there exists a number of pop-culture references to the film by various music groups. It appears that Paris, Texas the film is to musicians what Catcher in the Rye the book is to serial killers. The movie must strike some special chord with creative music types. Singer/Songwriter Sharleen Spiteri is on record as acknowledging that the band name may have diminished their chances to be heard in America as anyone observing the group's title would assume they were a country band and dismiss their work.

I Don't Want A Lover was the first big musical hit for Texas way back in 1989. The rock blues influence of Johnny McElhone (formerly of the New Wave bands Altered Images and Hipsway) and Sharleen was strong on the debut album, Southside. The song I Don't Want A Lover is notable for rising to a respectable place on Top Ten music charts and then several years later unexpectedly breaking into the charts again.

THIS IS WHY TELEVISION WAS INVENTED

TIME-TRAVELING DINOSAUR VS. HELICOPTER

Primeval (Series 3, Episode 18).

Book him, Danno

On April 22nd a suspect was apprehended in the April 18th assault of a woman in Linda Vista. That was fast! I encourage everyone to let the boys in blue know how much we appreciate their good work in finding the alleged attacker.

Story via KGTV 10 News.

UPDATE: He didn't do it.

The Complete Shakespeare for Americans

Shakespeare for Americans has been updated and is now complete.

Doin' the Desert Jive

Whisper #3 (May 1950).

Crime Watch: Linda Vista Road and Fulton Street

Last Saturday on April 18, 2009, shortly after 6:00 a.m. in the vicinity of Linda Vista Road and Fulton Street a female friend was walking to the bus stop on her way to work when she was ambushed and viciously assaulted in what Police are calling an attempted rape.

Her attacker shoved a gun to the side of her head and started to drag her away. She fought back. At least one shot was fired by her assailant that narrowly missed hitting and probably killing her. She was beaten with the pistol and received numerous injuries before her attacker fled the scene. Eventually, she was assisted by some people in nearby apartments.

She is hurt, traumatized and it is likely that she will not be returning to work for some time. She is fortunate to be alive. It is without reservation that I can attest my friend was respected and liked, if not loved by everyone who knew her. Her fellow employees are taking up a collection for her at work. This woman has some healing to do, might be out of work for a while and she and her family should not be worried about whether the electricity will be turned off during her recuperation.

Here is the initial news report: Suspect in Linda Vista Assault Still on the Loose.

The first follow-up report is mostly about public safety: Protect Yourself from an Attack with Self-Defense Training. I appreciate that the choice to fight an attacker was addressed. She was hurt and could have been killed, but common wisdom states that if taken from the scene of an attack the odds of survival drop precipitously.

The suspect was described as male, of slim build, dark-skinned, in his late 20s and wearing a white, hooded sweatshirt. It was reported that he fled the scene in a dark-colored compact vehicle. This is an initial description and may not be fully accurate.

I'm sure the Police will be doing all they can to apprehend this criminal. If the age of the attacker is as reported it is doubtful this is the first crime this person has perpetrated and he is in a database somewhere. It is during events like the recent attack that one wishes television crime shows were not so fanciful and that DNA tests would quickly identify a suspect in a matter of hours. A check of the San Diego Police Department crime statistics maps reveals a number of sexual assaults in the vicinity over the last month but it isn't possible for civilians to determine if they are related. The stats for that particular area are not any greater or less than those for nearly any section of the city so it would be foolish to speculate and better left for Police to determine.

While often it is the steady hard work of dedicated and trained individuals in Law Enforcement that solves crimes sometimes they are closed by the average person connecting some dots and passing the word along. I'm hoping that if the Police are unable to swiftly resolve this crime then maybe some civilian will help. For example: One could help by noticing that someone matching the description of the attacker and driving a similar car didn't come into work Monday. Then when they showed up on Tuesday had lots of scratches about the face and arms.

Anonymous tips can be sent in via the San Diego Crime Stoppers site.

When We Are Together

Sunday is Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Texas is a band that due in large part to singer/songwriter Sharleen Spiteri has creatively always sought inspiration from decades of music. Their output is somewhat eclectic in nature. They don't just jump on whatever trend that happens to be popular at the time, rather they experiment with different styles. This is typically some time after the music they are referencing has dimmed in the public consciousness. The band has been variously blues, pop, pop-urban and alternative. Sharleen Spiteri cites Motown legend Diana Ross as one of her influences and this is particularly evident in the 1999 album The Hush. Several tunes are direct homages to the vocal styling of Ross. That unique Diana Ross pacing and tone can be clearly heard in the songs When We Are Together and Black Eyed Boy from their album The Hush.

So go ahead and spend a few minutes listening to When We Are Together. Like most music videos ever it's kind of pointless but it does have Sharleen splashing around in a pool, so there is that.

Admittedly, Texas and their music are not everyone's cup of haggis but I usually enjoy their work. I found out a little while ago that Sharleen Spiteri recently released the delightfully retro solo album Melody. While on break from the group in 2008 she worked on her own project. Many of the new tunes on Melody are stylistically reminiscent of the mod atmosphere of Swingin' 60s London. Melody features Spiteri on a trip into the ancient past, accomplished by channeling the artistic spirits of the talents of Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield and even Petula Clark all while retaining her own unique voice.

Happy Birthday, Hayley!

The world was made a better place on April 18th.

Happy Birthday!

Nerd Libs

This solicit has been showing up in the recent DC Comics titles this month. Yes, it's stupid.

I'm cynical enough that I'm convinced comic book companies put out these sort of advertisements just so suckers like me post and comment on them. Yeah, Okay. It worked. Other and far more qualified and caring critics will be commenting on why the members of the JLA are so serious about Supergirl's breasts. I imagine there will be plenty of "Caption What The Guys Are Thinking" contests going around for everyone to play with.

For my efforts though it's going to be interesting to see how people are going to insert their own words in the redacted spaces in the "memo" from Dan Didio to Ian Sattler.

Why do I think it's going to be along the lines of Gang-Orgy, Supergirl and YouTube?

The finger, having accused, points

Illustrations from the May 1945 issue of the National Police Gazette. A time of grand-standing, politically power-crazed Government oppressing the brilliant by crushing dissent, fear-mongering, pandering to the gullible and telling the easily manipulated there was a bogey-man under the bed. People think they have it bad today...

The Spirit Was Willing

From the July 1977 issue of Cosmos science fiction magazine is a short article by art director Jack Gaughan. In it he briefly reminisces about his time working for Will Eisner. Included with the article as the centerpiece of the magazine was an original work by Eisner featuring the Spirit and a few of the cast in a scene referencing the Spirit's science fiction adventures. I've never seen that particular art anywhere else so I thought I'd share it with the Eisner fans.

Candy Girl

Only slightly suggestive ad from Lovelorn #10 (February-March 1951).

Sunday is the Saddest Day

Forget Easter, Sunday is Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Texas, the pop-rock band formed in Glasgow, Scotland way back in 1988, that is!

I've followed Sharleen Spiteri and Texas for several years, ever since I discovered a 60mb video for Say What You Want hidden deep in the data folders of a promotional CD advertising a sports car. While the band and Sharleen as a solo artist get little to no airplay or exposure in this country, American audiences may be familiar with the band's music via various movie soundtracks such as Titan A.E., Ever After, Picture Perfect and the title theme for the sitcom Ellen.

Here is a song from 1996 from one of my favorite albums, White On Blonde. Good videos from the band are rare so this one with photos of Sharleen will have to suffice. I don't think anyone will really mind though. Enjoy!

Iron Age II

There are worst ways to live than following the modern Christian Commandments. With the exception of the two entries based on magic they are a pretty good guide for getting along with others and having a nice life.

Yet if the previous two Presidential administrations have taught America and the world nothing else it is how dangerous and foolish it is to interpret the Decalogue, dare it be said, liberally. America is walking the same path sowed with mines that many other countries have tread upon and we are ignoring the warning signs. A successful theocratic Government is as much an impossible dream as a successful utopia. The Utopian format fails for the same reason one based on religion would: Human nature. Selfishness, laziness and greed for power will always undermine even the most perfect system. A Government based on religion is particularly vulnerable, as the expressions of fealty by those in charge play and prey off of the beliefs and gullibility of the populace. Freedoms and basic human rights are restricted or vanish all in the name of what is 'right' or what is interpreted that God would want. That a select number, usually in a privileged position few people can attain, would be able to wield ultimate authority over the thoughts and actions of millions based on an interpretation of the 'truth' is mind-boggling, rife with hubris and arrogance. It is a crime of oppression.

For nearly the last two decades America has served as a perfect modern example of why Church and State must remain separate. Americans suffered under increasingly bizarre policies brought about by applying fanciful interpretations of right and wrong. Those in charge increasingly eroded the barriers between Church and State through a desire to increase a power base. This was done by pandering to the variously gullible, hopeless, hopeful and the unbalanced members of a large and influential religion.

It was a spectacular modern failure. The abuses and corruption were made all the more heinous as those responsible for misdeeds on occasion used a book as a shield and cowered behind an altar. It was our Government that pretended to lead a Christian nation by applying Christian ideals as solutions to moral and ethical problems. It was a Government that all but declared Holy War against the extremist nations who strictly follow their own version of a deity. It was our Government that allowed magic to trump science, superstition and opinion to replace facts. It was a Government that declared a few cells in a test tube "sacred" but had no ethical hesitations when it came to torturing soldiers and civilians captured in foreign battlefields. Along with patriotism (which is intimately tied into Christianity in this country) religion was used to mollify, deceive, quell dissent and excuse behaviors.

The greatest advances in this country as a people have all resulted in us evolving away from Iron Age superstitions and the last 8 years has very nearly undone centuries of progress. The separation of Church and State needs to be maintained and moreover, restored. It was what our founders wanted.

Blog Against Theocracy 2009

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

Not creepy at all. From America's Mark Twain (1962).

Thank You, DC

Why couldn't you have done this back in 2006?

Childhood's Endtimes

It was with some skepticism that I sat down to watch the apocalyptic sci-fi drama Knowing. Surprisingly it turned out to be Nicholas Cage's best film in years. It isn't a great film but it is entertaining and isn't on the level of dreck he's been doing for years.

Themes familiar to SF fans abound. Ideas from Clarke's Childhood's End to Signs to the Mothman legend and even some Men in Black paranoia appears but the film doesn't do a bad job of it.

Knowing is about a college professor who through his child discovers a several decades old text of seemingly random numbers. The number sequence of course is actually a prophecy of micro and macro disasters as sent years ago to a child by the otherworldly, terrifying and angelic Mothmen in Black. The child, bombarded by voices from the future, goes mad and changes from an eccentric kid to a raving hermit preparing for the end times. Nicholas Cage plays the typical educated skeptic but avoids the usual cliche of refusing to believe the evidence until the end when he achieves enlightenment. Fairly quickly Cage accepts the evidence before him and takes it upon himself to help wherever he can. His attempts meet with mixed results and the movie takes a turn when Cage figures out what the final sequence of numbers foretells.

As expected in a film about the destruction of humanity, religion, or to be more accurate, mythology plays a large part in the film. This is particularly evident in the final scene of the film and even prior to that during the climax one gets the idea that the character played by Cage is merely humoring his father in the interest of familial peace.

I'll be adding Knowing to my DVD collection when it hits the store a few months from now in an exception to my usual No Cruise/Cage/Costner rule.

Product Placement

If I thought this display was arranged that way on purpose I'd be having a little chat with the department manager.

More One More Day

This Marvel house ad has been appearing in a few magazines this month. I can only speculate that this means the story arc that will ultimately conclude with the return of Steve Rogers as Captain America is going to begin.

I'm curious as to why the star is inverted, the familiar symbol of Captain America corrupted and referencing a pentagram. Does this mean that Marvel is going to continue using Mephisto as their own "Black Lantern"? When a reboot is required, when someone needs to be brought back from the dead is a contract with the devil going to be used as the plot device to accomplish it?

This appears to be the case.

From what I've read and seen in online chats with comic professionals, Marvel and DC are working somewhat parallel in regards to their respective universes. Deceased or forgotten characters can be returned as a Black Lantern without messy retcons or cheesing off the fans too much. Admittedly, this is only as effective as the execution of the story. Depending upon the popularity or story requirements of the reanimated character they can be freed of the Lantern influence and live again either as a member of the Corps or a citizen of the DC Universe in some other capacity be it supporting character, villain, hero or otherwise. The same, after a slug-fest of some sort presumably, could be done with returning a Marvel character to the most marketable or fan favorite status quo.

For Marvel's purposes, Mephisto is serving as the big reboot device. Someone agrees to a bargain and Monkey's Paw style, they get their wish. As one source in the industry notes, this is good for years of cross-overs. Want dead heroes or villains back? Easy, just call up the Devil and get it done. One More Day aside, Marvel can't really get away with this easy out more than once unless there is an over-all plan already in place. Of course, for the characters nothing will go to smoothly and there will rarely be any happy endings. The Devil doesn't play fair. Over time all the heroes and villains and regular people who made their desperate bargains will come to realize that they were manipulated and the bill remitted by Mephisto will come due. Let's face it: There is an entire story arc to be had from someone wishing the Hector Ayala White Tiger to be alive again even as someone else makes a bargain for him to be dead.

Eventually, all this bargaining and "soft-reboots", as a source let slip, will lead to the cosmic-level Mephisto War mega event a few years from now. This could be Marvel's opportunity to merge the 616 and Ultimate Universes, do some house-cleaning and refresh the stable of characters without starting from scratch. It is I'm told, "planned to be a cross between Inferno and Heroes Reborn but without the horrible creative missteps and suckage." I'd take this thing with a grain of salt, though. It reads like typical hyped solicitation.

Yet erasing decades of stories is risky. Companies rightly worry about turning off what fans they have remaining. DC balked when resetting their universe at Day One after the 1986 Crisis event and the Heroes Reborn debacle showed how resistant fans were to sweeping wholesale changes even during the 90s, surprising considering the main readership didn't care how good a story was as long as there were plenty of giant guns, bandoleers and pouches. Marvel also became hesitant in the execution of the Ultimate line. Reading Ultimate X-Men in its entirety reveals an evolutionary dead-end and not for fictional humanity. What started out as a unique vision quickly became indistinguishable from the regular line of X-Books.

Hopefully, the Mepshisto War won't have the rushed, half-assed climax that seems to be typical of the last several years of mega events that plague the comic book companies. But it is at least two years and several mini-series yet distant, so maybe the editors will grow some berries and reign in the egos of their superstars and the creative teams will manage to pitch and accomplish a cohesive, fun and exciting story by then.

The Dolittle Codex

While out shopping at a grocery store I found a copy of The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle (Written by Hugh Lofting, Publisher F.A. Stokes, 1922). While the wife browsed for snacks I checked out the donation table where customers drop off books to be sold for a modest donation to whatever worthy cause the store is supporting that month. Typically the table is usually overstocked with old travel books, regional geographical survey pamphlets and religious tracts. But this time around far more interesting fare had been donated by some unknown customers. There were a number of mainstream paperbacks, a few scholarly texts and other types of novels but the real prize on the table was the Dolittle book.

It was in great shape, boasted a color plate on the cover and it was full of ink illustrations. But the bonus was the color frontispiece (a copy of which was also the cover illustration). The frontispiece is about a character in the Dolittle book and is titled The Popsipetal Picture History of King Jong Thinkalot. The page tells a story and the layout is similar to a modern six-panel comic book format. Included on the next page is a tanslucent text overlay. When the page is turned over onto the frontispiece the text overlays a corresponding panel and describes each scene. The author, Hugh Lofting, is credited elsewhere as the artist for this book.

I've included each page separately and one showing the combined effect of the overlay. Click the pictures to make Gub-Gub-sized.

Enjoy!

Space: 1999

From the team that brought us UFO comes the science fiction classic Space: 1999, exploring the adventures of the crew of a moon base, stranded on site when the moon was blasted into deep space by an atomic explosion. This two year British import featured the real world husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, most familiar to American audiences as having been featured in the Mission: Impossible television series from 1966 t0 1969.

The title sequences from the first year of Space:1999 are cool. It always featured groovy noise and the best FX money could buy in 1975. Due to editing, each opening sequence was marginally different and unique. Not only did the sequence inform viewers how the moon was thrown out of Earth orbit but also included a mini-preview of the upcoming episode. Today the preview would be considered a 'spoiler' but back in 1975 it was a tease, a taste of awesomeness to come. The second season title sequence in my opinion is actually kind of inferior and the music far more jarring to the ear. Yes, I had the Space: 1999 toys.

Enjoy!

Space: 1999 - Breakaway. Originally aired on 17 November 1975.