I had wanted to put this up sooner.

Last week before NYCC, I had gotten this via email from pal Gerry Acerno and it’s a really beautiful piece I wanted to share:



The week kind of got away from me though.

Oddities.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I go to have lunch with my cousin, anyone who knows me knows the one thing I have an abundance of is cousins. I have more cousins than you can shake a stick at. I’m lucky that I have them too because they are nice people and as I grow older I come to appreciate them ever more with each day.

One cousin though is probably the closest thing I have to a brother. Hell, we’re not even first cousins but, because of the way life works out we have a very strong bond with one and other.

There’s a restaurant locally that I frequent and as it turns out, this cousin was very good friends with the family way back when he was a teenager and first arrived in this country. So, a few weeks back I was in there picking up takeout and I happened to mention to one of the daughters who works with her parents how my cousin knew them from long ago.

She immediately knew who I was talking about and admonished me for never mentioning it before that day. Mind you, I’ve been going to this restaurant for a good decade now and they know me and treat me quite well. So, then and there the plan was sprung to surprise her brother who was a very close friend of my cousin.

Yesterday, was the day of the surprise.

It was warm and sunny, certainly a perfect day to have a nice lunch. We got down there and the two of them were very happy to see each other and get reacquainted. I felt really pleased if only because I did something that made my cousin happy and he’s done so much for me I can’t ever really do enough for him.

Afterward we stopped to have coffee and oddly enough while we were sitting in the local Starbucks, who should walk in but Anna’s vet. He said hello and I thanked him again for all his efforts in caring for her but I had to admit it was a little odd.

You are what you watch?

I’ve really been enjoying NetFlix, if you’re on the service drop me a line and we can do the ‘friend’ thing.

I was just going though my queue and it’s interesting if only to look back and see what I’ve watched over the last year:

Grindhouse: Death Proof: Bonus Material
Grindhouse: Death Proof
Grindhouse: Planet Terror
Heroes: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Threshold: The Complete Series: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 6 (8-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 5 (8-Disc Series)
Heroes: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Threshold: The Complete Series: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 4 (8-Disc Series)
The Invasion
30 Days of Night
Beowulf: Director's Cut
UFO: Vol. 3 (8-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 2 (8-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4: Disc 1 (6-Disc Series)
UFO: Vol. 1 (8-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 7: Bonus Material (7-Disc Series)
Primer
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Resident Evil: Extinction
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Andromeda Strain
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 3 (4-Disc Series)
Torchwood: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Dexter: Season 1: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
Them!
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Lost: Season 3: Disc 7: Bonus Material (7-Disc Series)
It Came From Outer Space
Lost: Season 3: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 3: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Fantastic Voyage
Soylent Green
Immortal
A Scanner Darkly
Blade Runner: The Director's Cut
Jekyll: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
Jekyll: Disc 2 (2-Disc Series)
Transformers
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Angel-A
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Kung Fu Hustle
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 3: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Spider-Man 3: Bonus Material
Spider-Man 3
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 5 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 4 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 6 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 2 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 3 (6-Disc Series)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 2: Disc 1 (6-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Season 1: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks
Doctor Who: Robot
Doctor Who: Survival: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
Monk: Season 1: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
The Pretender: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Word Wars
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Monk: Season 1: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
The Hours
The Man Who Wasn't There
Matchstick Men
Click
Munich
High and Low
WTC: The First 24 Hours
Monk: Season 1: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
Smiley's People: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
How to Draw Comics from Script to Print
The Notorious Bettie Page
Smiley's People: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
In Her Shoes
Smiley's People: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Classic Albums: The Who: Who's Next
Kinsey
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider: Bonus Material
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 3 (3-Disc Series)
Chicken Little
Defending Your Life
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 2 (3-Disc Series)
Being There
Control Room
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: Come Poop with Me
Inside Man
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Pan's Labyrinth
Saved!
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Disc 1 (3-Disc Series)
Ran
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
I Heart Huckabees
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story
Rashomon
The Weather Underground
The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
The American President: Disc 5 (Episodes 9-10) (5-Disc Series)
King Kong
The Lost Room: Disc 2 (2-Disc Series)
The Lost Room: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
The Constant Gardener
Superfly
The American President: Disc 4 (Episodes 7-8) (5-Disc Series)
Sky High
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
A Prairie Home Companion
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
The Who: The Kids Are Alright: Bonus Material
Strangers with Candy
The American President: Disc 3 (Episodes 5-6) (5-Disc Series)
The Who: The Kids Are Alright
Absolute Beginners
16 Blocks
Hard Eight
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Broadway Danny Rose
The American President: Disc 2 (Episodes 3-4) (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 7 (7-Disc Series)
The Hills Have Eyes
The Aristocrats
Shaun of the Dead
The American President: Disc 1 (Episodes 1-2) (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
Jackass: Number Two
Slums of Beverly Hills
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Mallrats
Life and Debt
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
The Corporation
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 3 (4-Disc Series)
Syriana
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
The Forgotten
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Capote
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 2 (4-Disc Series)
Art School Confidential
An Inconvenient Truth
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Dilbert: The Complete Series: Disc 1 (4-Disc Series)
The Island
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Boogie Nights
National Geographic: Inside the Vatican
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
The World's Fastest Indian
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Monster
The Final Cut
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Vampirella
Murderball
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Thunderbirds
The Fog of War
National Treasure
Six Feet Under: Season 5: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
House of Sand and Fog
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
Good Night, and Good Luck
Match Point
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Rumor Has It
Aeon Flux
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Man-Thing
Bubba Ho-Tep
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Spanglish
The Brothers Grimm
Hotel Rwanda
Six Feet Under: Season 4: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Kamikaze Girls
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 5 (5-Disc Series)
The Matador
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Elizabethtown
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 4 (5-Disc Series)
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series)
Dark Water
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 2 (5-Disc Series)
Transamerica
Flightplan
Six Feet Under: Season 3: Disc 1 (5-Disc Series)
The Weather Man
Domino
Crash

She’s gone.



I took this photo this morning, you can see her ribs poking through her side.

I’m going to indulge myself this last time on this subject and then I’ll let it drop.

So, today was the day. After watching her stumble around the house and knowing it was going to get even worse I took it upon myseelf to end her suffering. This morning I got up and she was lying down on one of her pillows (which I had placed strategically throughout the house so she would always have a comfy place to lie). When she saw me she got up and made to come over. You have to picture this little thing that is barely skin and bones weakly getting up and staggering towards me, my heart just broke.

So, I gave her water and held her. I stroked her and made her purr. I even gave her more whip cream and listened to her purr loudly and she tried to get as much down as she could. I called the vet and asked what time I could bring her in. A mere hour and a half left to her all too short life. I held her some more and stroked her some more because every precious moment she had left should be filled with contentedness.

Then, I put her on the pillow for a little while. Even though her energy was all but spent there was always something so comforting in just her presence. I took the last photos I will ever take of her. Morbid? I’m not sure but, I wanted to remember every moment I had with her. She really was my precious little jewel.

Some people would say why are you getting upset, it’s just a cat and admittedly I feel a little embarassed. This little creature that took up so much of my heart, that made me smile and usually was the best part of my day.

Anyway, I wrapped her in a towel and spoke softly to her. One arm had her cradled while the other I used to steer the car and we made our way down to the Vets. The window in the waiting area was open and I held her by it as she caught a whiff of the fresh air and I scratched her neck and she was happy.

We went in one of the exam rooms, placing that little bag of bones on the table and like that it was done. It was unnaturally quick and the moment the life had gone from her small body it was apparent and the shift was made from beloved friend to lifeless thing.

I’m sad. I know eventually I’ll get myself another pet but, there will only be one Anna. She was a wonderful little old lady, my special girl and I have been blessed by every moment I had her brightening my life.

Today, I will kill my cat.



So, I’m trying to get my head around this. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing or not. I actually sent off a note to someone and told them about my crisis, basically is it ever right to end a life? I love my cat, I really, really do and over the last bunch of days I have watched as my poor little kitty has withered.

She was a small creature to begin with weighing in at just over five pounds but now I would think she is maybe only two.

I pick her up and she is so frail I think she might come apart in my hands. I can feel her bones. I have given her intravenous fluids every day, I have feed her as much as she would eat but, there is no avoiding the ineveitable. She is withering before my eyes.

It’s sad to watch because she is still in there.

By in there, I mean she is still that wonderful companion that owns my heart. I come up in the morning and she comes out and walks around gingerly awaiting to be fed. After chowing down she comes back out as she has grown accustomed to me picking her up, cradling her in my arms and giving her water through an eyedropper. Then I’ll take some time to clean off her face before she drops down exhausted from the effort.

And over the last few days, since last Friday, each day she has gotten a little worse. When she walks, her rear legs almost give out on her and she has to catch herself but still if I am sitting at the computer she comes into the room and takes up residence on the pillow near me just to be close.

Tonight I held her and gave her the good scratching she deserved making sure I hit all the special spots she loves, behind her ears, under her chin. She stretched her paw out and put her head back and purred away.

The question becomes is it right just to wait for her to whither away completely and the answer is no. The heat has been getting to her too and just making her already dehydrated state even worse.

She got her treat of whip cream this evening and I loved hearing her purr as she tried her best to lap up what she could.

I’m cried out, or at least I think I am but then I can still find some tears left within me. I know it’s time, it’s just so very hard to say goodbye to her, she has been such a lovely addition and I truly feel I have been blessed to have her in my life. She has bought joy and happiness not just to me but also to the EYOC especially in his waning days and Madame X as well. She was the glue that held a discordant household together. You wouldn’t think such a small thing would have such great power but it was true.

Anyway, I know it’s time and there is still a part of me that wants another day but the truth is it’s not fair to her.

All I know is how much I will miss her.

Greeeaaattttt.

So, I bust my ass to write an article for Comicon’s The Pulse and I even get it off to them:



...and the good part was I even got the damn thing done before Newsrama had posted anything on the panel I was writing about but, wouldn’t you know it that the site has been down for the entire day.

If this doesn’t say it all.

I was thumbing through this week’s Village Voice and came across this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. It elicited quite the belly laugh and if it doesn’t sum things up about or nation’s current situation I don’t know what does:


Click through to read the thing full size at Salon.com

Winding down.

So, we’re back at the vet’s today. The visit being a follow up visit to Tuesday’s visit.

The specter of going to the vet now takes on foreboding proportions because I’m not sure if the vet will say it’s time to put Anna down. I’m dreading it but I know it is soon to come. Sometimes, I can be entirely normal about the world around me and other times I can find myself crying like a baby, just being entirely consumed by sadness over her loss of my little companion.

For her part, Anna wanders around the house. She sleeps but then that’s what cats do anyway. She walks gingerly, frailly, unsure of her own steps and very uncatlike. But she does manage to make her way around the house and still manages to get up onto some of her favorite spots to lounge about.

This morning I came upstairs and immediately went over to her in the bathroom (she’s confined at night for her own good as I have images of her falling down the stairs) and began to stroke her. She was genuinely happy and purred away lavishing in the attention. She had a nice breakfast and even though she isn’t drinking as much as I would like her too she has some appetite. Now she gets wet food twice a day because there really isn’t a need to worry about her overeating especially since she lost so much weight.

But there are times when her little mouth begins to shudder and she seems stricken by a wave of tremors causing her lower jaw to vibrate like an old person’s. It’s hard to watch.

Still as I was getting ready to take her over to the vet, she followed me all around the house in a surprising burst of energy (considering her weakened state). It was almost as if she knew what was on the agenda and wanted to make sure I knew she wasn’t ready to check out quite yet.

Still watching her and then thinking about the inevitable is overwhelming to say the least.

So, we made our way down to the vet’s and I actually wondered if this would be ‘IT.’ Would this be the last morning I had with her? What would the doctor say?

And it turned out she had gained a little weight but she was still dehydrated and needed more fluids. So she got poked and then we came home and she wandered around the house taking naps in various special spots.

Here it is beautiful outside, I mean the weather is just gorgeous and I find I can’t bring myself to leave her.

There’s lots to do and there was a lot scheduled for today but, in the end I wound up feeding her with an eyedropper and making sure she was comfortable. I’m just trying to get water into her anyway I can and the eyedropper seems the least intrusive way even though I can tell it is probably giving her gas as I can hear her stomach gurgling away but she seems to be parched.

Tonight I popped out just to get some dinner and while I was out I even managed to get her a little treat.

In the past, one of the great joys we shared was me putting a dollop of whip cream on a finger and she would stand up and greedily lick it off, delighting in the flavor. I know on some level it wasn’t the best thing but boy how she enjoyed it and once in awhile didn’t hurt.

Tonight when I got home I cracked open the whip cream and sprayed a bunch into a spoon for her. She only took some half hearted attempts at eating it and even then she was stricken with a good case of the shakes again.

So, I know it won’t be long.

But, I am trying to make sure it’s nice and like I said there are moments when I am fine and other moments when I am reduced to a blubbering mass of tears and sniffles.

It’s supposed to be a busy weekend and I’ll be spending the next few days away from the house, I can only hope she’ll be alright and not too lonely while I’m gone. When the time comes I don’t want her to be alone.

My first golden shower.



I’ve never been a big one for that kind of kink but I broke new ground last night.

I have cried and cried and cried beyond the point where logic says there should be anything left in my tear ducts. Right now someone is curled up on my lap with her head down sleeping. I go back and forth, really. One minute life is pretty normal and then another I am simply beside myself.

After a day at the vet getting fluids Anna was doing much better. Not great, just better.

As I said on Monday I kind of knew she was going downhill but it’s been a very rapid descent. The doctor showed me how I could administer fluids myself and then I bought her home and spent time cleaning her face (eyes, chin and crusted over nose) as well as her paws.

I managed to get her set up on a pillow on a chair in a favorite spot where she could lie in the sun and be warm and content. She purred away as I stroked her. Later on I bought her downstairs with me to bed. She‘s been sick awhile and confined to one room in the house and I had forgotten how much I loved having her curl up next to me at night. I put her under the covers and she immediately drifted off, purring herself to sleep.

An hour or two later she made a half hearted attempt to get out of bed and suddenly there was something warm happening. So, I got my first golden shower via my kitty. I stripped the bed down and bought her back upstairs, put her on her pillow and made sure she was comfortable. If you think I was at all upset, well I wasn’t upset at all because right now it’s all about her and her comfort.

Yeah, the mattress pad is getting thrown out but I don’t care. I just want her to be happy and enjoy what little time she has left to her. She is staggering around the house, she’s fallen over her back a few times (not from a height just trying to make her way around). It’s horrible but, there are moments when she is one my lap nice and warm and I am petting her and she is genuinely happy. I was going to go out today and when I started to make preparations to get ready she was all on top of me, standing on her back legs, demanding to be petted and wanting to be picked up.

And really... my heart is breaking and I cry some more. I am this brutish guy and this fuzzy little animal (the furthest thing away from what would be considered a man‘s pet) is my world. She has been the most wonderful companion and I hate having to face something like this again. I went through this when I had a cat as a teenager (she passed when I was in my early 20s) and I didn’t have another pet until Madame X bought little Anna into my life.

Who knew she would be able to make her way so deeply into my heart.

This sucks!



Sometimes you know something but, you just want to pretend you don’t. I kind of knew something yesterday (for the last bunch of days actually) but it was just confirmed this morning. I took my little pal to the vet and sure enough she is very close to the end. I was given the option of having her put down today or opting to try and get her more comfortable if only to stave off the inevitable for a brief time and to ease her pain. I chose the latter (though I have to wonder whether I did the right thing and whether it was in her best interests or guiltily mine).

Suffice to say it is a hard thing to contemplate a world without such a wonderfully small ball of fluff. Perhaps the most terrible thing was cradling her in my arms in the vets office, stroking her and having her purr away contentedly. I love that little creature and my heart breaks knowing she will soon not be a part of my life.

Funny accidents.

I came across this page quite by accident but the rant had me laughing out loud and it’s worth a gander:

Anyone who has an emotional bond with McDonald’s, or anyone who can relate anything they love about life to a company that sells deep fried processed chicken meat should be stabbed in the face. The only bond this campaign is rekindling is that of my ass to the toilet. I’d rather have my skin sand blasted off than eat another pig rectum sandwich from McDonald’s.

Awesome!

So, my big treat to myself for being sick was to go out and get Mountain Battles (iTunes) the new album from The Breeders.

JUST TERRIFIC!!!!!

I had already heard We’re Gonna Rise but, Overglazed, Bang On and Regalame Esta Noche are kick ass too!

Check out The Breeders My Space page and you can listen to the tracks for free!

I hate f*@#in’ being sick!

So, I’m coming into the last two weeks of the ten week gig and I missed two days last week and then two days this week, depriving myself of hours and money. Being sick is never fun but, it doubly sucks when I have work booked and it just doesn’t make a helluva lot of sense to work through being sick.

A couple of years back I made the mistake of working while I was sick and wound up paying the price by really damaging my hearing and winding up in the emergency room. Since then I vowed not to let work come before my health ever again.

So, the last couple of weeks have been crappy if only because various maladies have caught up with me.

A few weeks back, I thought something had gotten caught in my eye. Really! I had the kind of gritty feeling you sometimes get when something gets in under a lid and it is a b*tch to try and get it out. That went on for a few days as it seemed whatever was caught in the eye made it’s way from the corner around the back and the top of the eye. By the end of that week, I had a fairly intense headache thing going on on one side of my head (the side with the eye that had something stuck in it). I showed it to a co-worker discretely and they said it looked like pink eye.

For some reason I always think of kids getting pink eye though.

Anyway, over the course of the weekend it seemed to get worse and the eye was really hurting and finally I just took a day and decided I would get in to see the primary care physician. He took one look at it and sent me over to an eye doctor and it turned out there was something going on INSIDE the eye itself. Pink eye is inflammation around the eye and this was in the actual eye itself so, over the last week or so it’s been eye drops and a few more visits back to the eye doctor to keep up on the progress.

I took another day off just to rest and wound up back at work on Wednesday feeling if not 100% - much, much better than I had in two weeks.

Funny thing about eye drops (the thing that you wouldn’t know unless you use them quite a bit) is that you wind up tasting the damn things in your throat after you use them.

So, I had been using the things and the eye seemed to be clearing up nicely with the doctor pulling me back a little on my dosage and the eye started to get a little bad again and I increased the frequency of using the drops. Now though, I noticed my throat was bothering me and I wrote that off to just the drops irritating the throat.

But, no that wasn’t it.

Someone at work had been out with a really bad strep throat, something that had been running around the office and I think I managed to pick that up as well. So, even though I was in Monday and Tuesday, I noticed I started sneezing quite a bit and the nose was running and sure enough when I got up today I had a full blown cold.

Bleh.

So, the upshot is I hate being sick.

In the meantime though, during one of the sojourns between naps (sleep, up for awhile, sleep, up for awhile... you know the drill), I got to thinking about music. Specifically, I keep loading more and more into iTunes and I’ve been amazed rediscovering some lost loves of music so to speak. One of my long term goals is to go back and take all that vinyl and digitize it, I even got the hardware to do it but, it’s a big job and there’s a lot ahead of it on the list.

Ah yes, i remember it well...

Shea Stadium has been the site of some legendary concerts and this two-night stint by two major bands makes the list. The concerts were part of The Who’s first “farewell” tour, and it was the first concert in six years at Shea. The shows sold out in hours and the crowds were estimated around 70,000 because there was festival seating on the infield for the first time at Shea.

I can’t remember which of the two shows I was at but, i can very vividly remember where I sat (behind home plate on the mezzanine level). I also remember that it was the third time I saw The Clash and because they weren’t really a stadium band probably their weakest performance. Still a great, great show!

Bored with the internet.

So, i am finding myself increasingly bored with the internet of late. I don’t know why but, the usual haunts just have lost their luster. I’ve become much more aware of just how much time I spend either on the internet or watching TV or some combination of the two and it horrifies me.

Today, I have a few moments to spare while I’m waiting for something and I’m on the internet. And... it’s just a waste of time.

I love the internet, don’t get me wrong... well what I should say is that I love the web. We talk about ‘THE INTERNET’ and really what we are talking about is the web. I like having all that information at my fingertips. The big problem though is that I can find ways to idle away hours just on the kind of vague rollercoaster my interests will take me on.

So, I have to stop this... especially now that the weather is starting to get nice. I just don’t want to waste another summer stuck inside on the computer!

Breaking 60°!

Well, even though I wasn’t able to enjoy it, today’s temperature broke the 60° mark I think for the first time this year. I wasn’t able to enjoy it because of an ‘eye’ thing that has made me miss two days of work and had me sleeping away most of the day. Still, just the fact that the temps are climbing back upward again is enough to make me happy and means that idle afternoons of scooter rides are not far off.

Also, the other great thing about the warmer temps is that it means I won’t have to shovel snow again this year (hopefully at all). I really hate winter not just because of the cold but also because of the extra work whenever we get precipitation. To illustrate that, I give you a series of before and after photos from the last snowstorm:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I am waaayyyyyy happy today!

Why?

Well, at this moment I have the ESPN on and am watching the start of ’08 baseball season. The Braves are playing The Nationals in the Nationals brand spanking new park.

Now if you’ve really been paying attention, the season actually opened earlier this week when the Red Sox played the A’s in Japan. There is something very cool about that. Tonight though is the first night game of the season on the continental United States and tomorrow the Mets and Yankees will be playing their first games of the season.

I’m a big baseball fan.

Last year even though I am a tremendous Mets fan, I didn’t get to a single game. This year is the last year for Yankee stadium and Shea stadium so I’ll have to make it a point to at least get to one game in each park before they’re gone.

I have to start taking baseball trips again.

I got out of the habit of taking baseball trips over the last decade or so but, I have in the past enjoyed seeing quite a few major league parks and I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad time on one of those trips (at least not where the game is concerned).

These are stadiums I’ve been to that are no longer around!

Milwaukee County Stadium (locally known as just County Stadium) was a ballpark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1953 to 2000. It was primarily used as a baseball stadium for the Milwaukee Braves and Brewers, but was also utilized for football games, ice skating, religious services, concerts and other large events. It was replaced by Miller Park. County Stadium was demolished on February 21, 2001.

---

The Olympic Stadium [1] (French: Stade olympique) is a stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It subsequently became the home of Montreal’s professional baseball and Canadian football teams. Since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2004, the stadium has had no main tenant, and with a history of financial and structural problems, is largely seen as a white elephant.

---

Philadelphia Veterans Stadium (informally called “The Vet”) was a professional sports facility located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It housed the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 through 2002 and the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 through 2003. The final game ever played at the stadium was on September 28, 2003. The ultimate end came when the 33-year old stadium was imploded on March 21, 2004.

---

Busch Memorial Stadium, or Busch Stadium was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League baseball team from May 12, 1966 to October 19, 2005. It opened four days after the last game was played in their old home, Sportsman’s Park (which had also been known since 1953 as Busch Stadium). The stadium was destroyed by wrecking ball in late 2005, and part of its former footprint is used by its replacement stadium of the same name.

---

Jack Murphy Stadium, is a multiple-use stadium in San Diego, California. It is the current home of the San Diego Chargers of the NFL and of the San Diego State University Aztecs college football team. It hosts the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl college football games every December. Until 2003, it served as the home of the San Diego Padres in baseball’s National League. lso in 1997, the facility was renamed QUALCOMM Stadium after QUALCOMM Corporation paid $18 million for the naming rights. The naming rights will belong to QUALCOMM until 2017.

---

Candlestick, after its original as well as future name of Candlestick Park, and sometimes just simply The Stick) is an outdoor sports and entertainment stadium located in San Francisco, California. On September 28, 2004, a new naming rights deal was signed with Monster Cable, a maker of cables for electronic equipment, and the stadium was renamed Monster Park.

---

The Kingdome was an indoor sports and entertainment arena owned and operated by King County, Washington. The Kingdome was demolished by implosion on March 26, 2000 and the footprint is now occupied by Qwest Field.

---

Riverfront Stadium, later known as Cinergy Field, (1970-2002) was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals National Football League team. The stadium was demolished by implosion on December 29, 2002. Video clips of its demolition were featured in the music video for the song MakeDamnSure by Taking Back Sunday.

---

Comiskey Park (35th Street & Shields Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series (one of which was played by the Chicago Cubs due to lack of seating at Wrigley Field) and more than 6,000 major league games. Comiskey Park was demolished in 1991, a process that started from behind the right field corner, and took all summer. The last portion to come down was the center field bleachers and the “exploding” scoreboard.

That’s 9 whole trips I have to take all over again! In the meantime, these are the stadiums that I’ve visited that are still in use:

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland, which was completed in 1992 to replace the aging Memorial Stadium. It is the home field of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. It was the first of the “retro” major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, and remains one of the most highly praised.

---

Fenway Park is the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club. The park, the oldest of all current Major League Baseball stadiums, opened in 1912. Fenway hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1946, 1961, and 1999, and has played host to ten World Series.

---

Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales. It was also the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League from 1921-1970. It was also called Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926 before finally being renamed for then Cubs team owner and chewing gum industrialist William Wrigley Jr..

---

Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) is a Major League Baseball stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the Kansas City Royals of the American League. Together with Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, it is a part of the Truman Sports Complex.

---

Angel Stadium of Anaheim (originally Anaheim Stadium and later Edison International Field of Anaheim) is a ballpark located in Anaheim, California. It is the home ballpark to Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the American League, and was previously home to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams (now St. Louis Rams). The stadium is often referred to by its unofficial nickname The Big A.

---

Dodger Stadium is a large outdoor ballpark in Los Angeles, California at Chávez Ravine. It is located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles. Dodger Stadium was privately financed at a cost of $23 million in 1962.

---

William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium, is an American ballpark in New York City. It is the longtime home of the New York Metropolitans Major League Baseball club, and one of the oldest ballparks in the National League, serving as home of the Mets for 44 years. It is located in the Flushing section of the borough of Queens.

---

Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium in New York City that is the home of the New York Yankees, a Major League baseball team. Located at East 161st Street and River Avenue in The Bronx, it has hosted Yankees home games since 1923 and has a capacity of 57,545. It was formerly the home of the New York Giants football team, and once hosted dozens of boxing's most famous fights.

---

Commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum, or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Network Associates Coliseum.

And to think, Yankee and Shea stadium will be off that list after this year! That will bring my total to 11 stadiums that are no longer in use and only 7 active stadiums. If that isn’t a good excuse to travel, I don’t know what is!

Devoid.

Or, Da Void depending upon where you were raised.

Right now, things have been generally quiet around here and on the Flickr stream of late. The simple reason for that is that I find my energy being directed towards the daily grind of getting in and doing my work on the gig I’m currently on. Right now, I’m on week 8 of the 10 week gig so there is definitely an end in site. It may run a few days over but, I’ve already started casting about to see if I can make the whole downtime thing a relatively short period.

Freelancing is funny in that you have to be like a shark in the sense you are always swimming about looking for your next meal. Sharks that get lazy and stop swimming don’t last very long in the ocean.

Truthfully, this sojourn into regular hours and office life has been fairly painless. Not perfect, just painless for the most part. I recognize my energy level (something I could never boast of being great) is diminishing with the passage of time. Consequently, I have little drive to do much else when I am focused on working.

Case in point, the day starts for me sometime between 4:30 and 6 am. Last week I was indulging and not getting up until seven am and was paying the price by getting into the office by ten. No one gives me a hard time about it, it’s just that I’m trying to establish good habits and get to work earlier rather than later. Any day I can walk into the office before 9am, I feel as if I started off the day right and accomplished something of a small victory.

It sounds a bit inane - either that or highly self indulgent. Like getting to work before 9 am should even be such a big deal but, the commute for me varies most days anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours so walking in the door before 9 am means I managed to get myself out of the house before 7:30.

Also true, is that if I wind up at work until 7:30 or 8 pm, I often don’t wind up walking in the door at home until sometime around 10. When you start crunching the numbers in terms of how the days fall out, it winds up being that there is very little time for me to do anything besides going to work and coming home.

Still, like I said I really can’t complain. I’ve gotten to a certain point now in my career where I’m just not thrown for a curve as much as I might’ve been earlier on and that means any potential disasters can be anticipated and dealt with well before they explode like the ticking time bombs they can be.

I still might dread having to drag myself in but, the truth is once I’m in the office I find myself having a pretty decent go of it. A lot of that has to do with the people I’m around but, as much as they may or may affect things the big determining factor is my own attitude. It’s something I’ve come to realize more and more - the simple lesson of how important it is to have a positive attitude and outlook on things.

Sounds simplistic?

I’m not saying I’m getting to the point where I put my head in the sand, just trying to manage a more even tone throughout the day and not let things bother me.

Case in point - Friday evening when I returned from work, I got to the garage where the car was park only to find my car had been keyed. Keyed!

Well, I walked up to the passenger door and noticed the kind of Jesus fish pattern in the side of the car and just thought someone was being a jerk. Then I saw that the same pattern had been carved into the driver’s side door as well. I imagine if the car was newer or something I might’ve been more bothered by it, as it was I wound up waiting for a policeman and filing a police report on the whole thing. I’m still not sure how I’ll handle it but, it didn’t ruin my weekend.

In the past I might‘ve walked around for a bit and held a certain amount of anger or rage about the whole thing within me but, something is happening in that I found it all together easy to let it go.

Like I said though, I’ve got to keep swimming around looking for the next meal so, I imagine there are more pressing concerns that are in the forefront of my mind currently.

What day is it?

The problem with working regular more than anything is that the days seem to pass by like mileposts on the highway when you’re doing 80. Today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter! While the holiday moved up on the calendar for this year, it’s also just about April! How did that happen so fast!?

Well, I am fairly happy because it means the winter is over and the warmer weather is on the way. This bodes well as I can’t wait to get back out on the road again and run around a little bit more on my Vespa! I certainly want to start taking some longer road trips.

Work proceeds apace... that means I have given myself over to something of a routine and while there are days I still feel like I would rather stay home and putter, I manage to soldier through. I’m coming to realize a big part of that has to do quite a bit with my own attitude. That may strike many as one of those D’uh! moments but, there is a lot to be said for it and it sounds infinitely easier than one would imagine.

I was reading a column the other day that summed it up all quite well, much better than I might in my limited scope:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” - Buddha

Simplicity? Easy to execute? Maybe you think so but, if anything you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Anyway, since it’s a quiet day at work, I think I will be happy and idle away the day anticipating leaving at a reasonable hour and enjoying the sun!

Hey! What happened!

My blogoversary passed on Saturday and I didn’t even get one note of congratulations (never mind the fact I got nary a gift).

Heck! I didn’t even notice it but, then again I’ve got a bit of an excuse as I spent Friday night wandering around the city.

So, if you want to find out about my adventures, click on the map below and be sure to zoom in way close so you can get a good view!


View Larger Map

Of crusading and disgraced governors.

Well, c’mon... with a name like Spitzer that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about what the man was up to behind closed doors!

Thought for the day.

So, you’d have to be locked away somewhere not to know about the rising cost of a barrel of oil. I was reading in the paper the other day where oil topped $108 a barrel... you know gasoline is going up, natural gas is going up but, no matter how much I fart I still can’t get rich.

It seems.

I should be doing something special to celebrate my upcoming blogoversary but, life has been so very hectic of late, I have had little time of late being concerned at all about the blog in the slightest. It’s just the way things work sometimes I imagine. Thinking about it though, makes me realize now is probably a great time to run through the draft queue and just finish and put out there all those unvoiced thoughts so the new year will start with a fresh slate.

Unnerving.

In just under two weeks I will mark my fifth blogoversary:



Of course, I will be accepting gifts of Wood or Silverware? (feh)

Not from around here.

So, I’ve been very busy of late. The schlep to work is time-consuming but bearable. One part of that schlep is the subway ride downtown from Grand Central.

Riding the subway is an experience in and of itself but, living in New York for most of my life I have become inured to it. It just has become one of those necessities of the day, some days being better than others depending on whether the trains are bunched up or not. Last week I had one day where I rode the express (which was a bit misleading because the thing crawled downtown) only to get to my stop when something happened and the train just died a car short of being totally in the station. So, there we sat with the doors closed for a good bit of time while the maddening if vague announcements about there being a problem with the train were repeated every five minutes or so.

One thing I notice now is that there is this big campaign about security down in the subways. They make it all well and clear that just by riding the train you are subject to random searches of your person (or bag) and there is a pronounced presence of police underground. It’s all very ironic in a way to someone who has lived here in New York from the seventies and who can well remember the wild west kind of atmosphere that at one time existed. Those days where riding the train was really a little unsafe, graffiti was everywhere and you just made sure to always be aware of the people around you.

Nowadays they have this ubiquitous campaign to heighten riders who may have been lulled into a false sense of security. I’m sure you’ve seen the signs if you been down in the subway... the campaign is ‘If you see something...’ well if you’ve seen it you know the rest.

Just reading it though, I know it’s one of those things that wasn’t thought up by a true New Yorker. True New Yorkers are a different breed and I’m not saying we’re a heartless bunch, just maybe a little more realistic where the world is concerned. So, taking that campaign I thought I would give it the true New Yawk slant it deserves. Just remember if you see it anywhere else, you saw it here first:

Two months and counting.

This year one (perhaps my only) New Year’s resolution was a simple one - it was to kick the weekly comic book habit. Two months in it seems I am having little problem keeping to it.

There are a few reasons for the decision I took.

Oddly enough, comics have never been more mainstream than they are now in perhaps the past 40 years. If you look at Hollywood fare, we are regularly treated today to comic originated properties being bought to the big or small screen. Comics has proven to be a very fertile ground for the medium of film and TV and reaches a broader audience than ever before because of it.

Still, there is a certain stigma to the image of the comic book reader or store proprietor that remains firmly etched in the minds of most people.

So, there’s that.

Second, the monthly book is becoming prohibitively expensive in comparison to what is was when I started out buying the damn things. While I date myself by saying that I started buying comics just at the tail end of the 10¢ cover price period, today the things cost at a minimum $2.99. That $3 proportionally puts a bigger dent in the wallet than 10¢ ever did.

Comics. at the price point they are at today, are just getting way too expensive!

Well, at least they are getting too expensive for me.

So there’s that too.

But, that’s not all there was into the decision.

Another thing very prevalent in the industry today are ‘event’ comics. Event comics are these big publisher-wide story arcs that have chapters across many titles and issues. I suppose it makes some business sense in promoting readers to go out and buy titles they wouldn’t ordinarily follow to keep up on all the chapters of the story but, if you are a regular reader of title ‘A’ and don’t have a great deal of interest in title ‘B’ (or spare cash lying around) you wind up in the unsatisfying position of missing a chapter (think of reading a paperback where pages have just been held back or cut out entirely).

Then, finally there is the style of writing today.

Well... maybe I should qualify that.

There are a lot of good writers out in comic book land today but for every good writer there are five times as many copycats or lesser imitations of those writers. Where a writer might use something as a plot device and may do so eloquently and deftly not all the writers the industry today have the same skill and there is a certain ham handedness in plots or dialog that is painful to read.

Finally, there is the art.

Look, I understand everyone wants to contribute when they work on a project but modeling a frame that will ultimately be 1.25" X 2" in Photoshop over already dark pencils and inks just makes for a muddy mess. Surprisingly enough I have a bunch of people I know in the industry who are pencilers and inkers and it’s something they are aware of too. These are the days when I desperately miss Glynis Oliver and Christie Sheele (among others), people who understood the limitations of the medium and who didn’t try to be DaVinci on a pinhead.

So, like I said, two months into the new year and you know what?

I’m not missing them at all.

Now to get about selling the oh too many boxes of the things I have lying around here and getting some coin for the effort.

Meantime, if you think I’m off the medium as a whole, you would be mistaken. I just find that hardcovers and trades are more of a way to go and I’m being much more selective in what, and when, I get something. I don’t know about other fans but, I have to say if I was a shop owner I would begin to worry.

When desperation sets in.

What I first thought to be a joke, turns out to be only too real. Guess the writing is on the wall and the flailing is beginning in earnest:

It’s not really all that quiet.

There has been a dearth of activity recently around these parts. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First off, last month I had two occasions where I found myself vomiting. Spaced exactly two weeks apart, I had just really, really horrible nights - the second time I actually was either going to drive myself to the hospital or call 911.

Vomiting for kids or as a young person is a big deal but, at this point in life it is absolutely traumatic.

The first time I finished my volunteer work and came home to some dinner after which while I can’t say I felt off... I just didn’t feel right. My mouth was coated, I was burping and well... without going into detail lots was happening. Later on I tried unsuccessfully just to sleep through it.

I don’t know what it is but, I spoken to people round about my age and whenever you’re feeling off, the first thing you hope is that a good dose of sleep will allow whatever is wrong to work its way through the system and when you wake up you’ll feel a lot better. I laid in bed for a few hours before I got to a point sometime around 3 am where the thought struck me that I may in fact vomit. Literally, it was just like that! I got up to make my way to the bathroom in preparation and only made it as far as the nearest trashcan.

Not fun.

So, after lying on the floor for a good twenty or so minutes (and this actually felt good), a few more trips to the bathroom and finally I was able to rest for a bunch of hours. Two days later I was back on solid food again and things were slowly returning to normal.

Hey, it happens! I figured it was just something off with dinner (although it didn’t taste off) and wrote it off to food poisoning.

Two weeks passed and again, I did my volunteer work and returned home to dinner (something entirely different). No burping or anything but, a few hours later I got to thinking I felt like it might happen again!

Sure enough, whammo - this time I didn’t fight it but it was incredibly more violent. So much so that for a bunch of days later my sides hurt from the strain. Well, that night was way worse, I even thought I was going to pass out at one point. I went to the doc the following week, got checked out and the doc wrote it off to coincidence and food poisoning.

Thing is, I spoke to a bunch of people over the next few weeks and heard a bunch of similar stories about people getting rapidly sick to the point of puking. I got the feeling there has been some kind of really nasty bug that‘s been going around this winter.

Well, that was one thing, the other was that I wasn’t the only sick creature.

My beloved little furry beast had taken to just willy-nilly not using the box. I mean there was a minefield of poop that had to be cleaned up. It was horrible and very much unlike her. So, she has been confined to a single room – this sucks if only because I am really accustomed to having my little companion by my side pretty much all the time when I am home and I miss her.

I did some reading and found that sometimes kitties just do this. So, the whole confinement in a single room was a bit of an experiment to determine two things:

One, was the kitty getting into something that was causing her system distress and

Two, would confining her keep her out of whatever it was she had gotten into.

So, a week went past and there was much mournful crying (on kitty’s part). However, on the good side the frequency of kitty puking that had been going on decreased noticeably so, it proved kitty was in fact getting into something. However, usage of the kitty box was still not up to normal standards.

So, a trip to the vet was in order where it was discovered kitty has feline hyperthyroidism. Fortunately, it is something treatable but, in the interim before the new medication takes hold, my little buddy is demanding quite a bit of attention in terms of maintenance and the like. I can hardly deny her. She at this point is somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 (at least) years old and I am compelled to care for her to the best of my ability as my love for such a tiny critter is so great.

Finally, the work situation has just taken off, incredibly so. It has just been as busy as busy can be and between all these other things there is too much spare time and what there is of it I am trying to cram in some things to make life fun. So, for the time being the thing that suffers is the blog.

Crap. crap and more crap...

Back on the 23rd of January, I posted this:

We interrupt this program...


I just wanted to make a quick point... there are a lot of times when we wish we had said something to someone when we had a chance. This usually happens when a person is no longer around and the choice of saying something is taken away from us.

Growing up, there was a group of writers I was weaned on if you will. Besides all the adolescent standards of Authur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague De Camp, Robert E. Howard... well I could go on and on. There were also a good group of writers in comics at that time who were coming of age. They were the second generation of Silver Age writers and I eagerly gobbled up their works.

I’m talking about the likes of Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Don McGregor, Steve Englehart, Mike Freidrich, Gary Freidrich, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella and of course Steve Gerber.

Before there was a Grant Morrison, there was Steve Gerber. Whether or not Morrison was influenced by Gerber’s work I can’t say, but I don’t think there would have been a place in mainstream comics for one without the other. Comic book fans of the last decade or two will always talk with amazement over the work of Grant Morrison and I like Morrison’s work quite a bit. I enjoy his work so much that, I will generally figure if Morrison’s name is attached to a project, I’ll want to check it out. Still Gerber did it first. All that wonderfully odd material that came out of Vertigo at one time finds its origins in things like Man Thing, Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown and Foolkiller. Material like Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Shade the Changing Man and Kid Eternity can find some of their origins in Gerber’s work from a decade before.

Void Indigo, something that looks relatively mild given today’s tastes was deemed far too outré to even warrant finishing the series! A few years later it would’ve fit perfectly with the market.

Anyway, not to digress... Steve Gerber has been sick, real sick for some time. It’s the kind of sick where a person is facing their mortality and it becomes a battle.

It‘s at these times I think that a person’s outlook has a lot to do with whether or not they succeed in that battle against disease and I wanted to point people over to Steve Gerber’s blog with the idea that each well wishing comment, helps in some small way in improving the man‘s chances in the battle he‘s in. Steve Gerber is part of a generation of creators we are losing (just off the top of my head John Buscema, Marshall Rogers, Dave Cockrum come to mind) and such a small thing can mean so much.

Well, Steve Gerber passed away just today. He battled pulmonary fibrosis for a long time and it’s a horrible disease to battle with. He left a legacy of characters that speak to his wonderful creative genius and there isn’t much more to say aside from the fact that he will be missed.

While I am otherwise occupied.

Something for your listening enjoyment:

Some truths are self evident.

The end of every relationship begins with the words “I need some space.” That line indicates that the distance between you and your one time beloved has become polluted like the lake near a toxic dump. Whether it is your farts or armpit, the stink has made the distance between the both of you rancid and unliveable. The clarity of “we have to separate” clearly reflects the inability to rehabilitate your relationship. The stench of your testicals, buttocks and general anatomy drives your girlfriend to nausea and vomiting fits.

You know if you‘re not reading Al Goldstein‘s blog, the question is why not? Regardless of your opinion of him, there is some good writing to be found there.

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS!

Today’s video vault entry is a rarity and has a bit of a story behind it!

Costello wanted to play “Radio Radio” on SNL. Columbia Records (Costello’s US label) on the other hand, was interested in having an already-established song performed on SNL to stoke the fires of interest prior to the American release of My Aim Is True and This Year’s Model. Costello began the SNL performance playing “Less than Zero.” After a few bars however, he turned to the Attractions waving his hand yelling, “Stop! Stop!” Then, he said to the audience, “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there’s no reason to do this song here.” This was perhaps a reference to the obscure story behind “Less than Zero,” written as a reply to British fascist Oswald Mosley. The band then broke into a rousing live version of “Radio Radio.” As a result, Costello was banned from Saturday Night Live for twelve years. This version of “Radio Radio” (fading into the “false start”) can be found (in monaural) on Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Musical Performances, Vol. 1 (track time - 3:08).

I’m a big Elvis Costello fan - I saw him perform an open-air concert in Manchester New Hampshire back in ’89 (f*ck that’s closing in on 20 years ago!) So, any piece of obscure Costello trivia is welcome indeed and now that YouTube is around it‘s a helluva a lot easier to find things like this:


Also, I’ve included the clip of Costello’s performance when he returned during a special celebration many years later:

It’s coming, it’s coming!



...and I can’t wait!

We interrupt this program...


I just wanted to make a quick point... there are a lot of times when we wish we had said something to someone when we had a chance. This usually happens when a person is no longer around and the choice of saying something is taken away from us.

Growing up, there was a group of writers I was weaned on if you will. Besides all the adolescent standards of Authur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague De Camp, Robert E. Howard... well I could go on and on. There were also a good group of writers in comics at that time who were coming of age. They were the second generation of Silver Age writers and I eagerly gobbled up their works.

I’m talking about the likes of Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Don McGregor, Steve Englehart, Mike Freidrich, Gary Freidrich, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella and of course Steve Gerber.

Before there was a Grant Morrison, there was Steve Gerber. Whether or not Morrison was influenced by Gerber’s work I can’t say, but I don’t think there would have been a place in mainstream comics for one without the other. Comic book fans of the last decade or two will always talk with amazement over the work of Grant Morrison and I like Morrison’s work quite a bit. I enjoy his work so much that, I will generally figure if Morrison’s name is attached to a project, I’ll want to check it out. Still Gerber did it first. All that wonderfully odd material that came out of Vertigo at one time finds its origins in things like Man Thing, Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown and Foolkiller. Material like Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Shade the Changing Man and Kid Eternity can find some of their origins in Gerber’s work from a decade before.

Void Indigo, something that looks relatively mild given today’s tastes was deemed far too outré to even warrant finishing the series! A few years later it would’ve fit perfectly with the market.

Anyway, not to digress... Steve Gerber has been sick, real sick for some time. It’s the kind of sick where a person is facing their mortality and it becomes a battle.

It‘s at these times I think that a person’s outlook has a lot to do with whether or not they succeed in that battle against disease and I wanted to point people over to Steve Gerber’s blog with the idea that each well wishing comment, helps in some small way in improving the man‘s chances in the battle he‘s in. Steve Gerber is part of a generation of creators we are losing (just off the top of my head John Buscema, Marshall Rogers, Dave Cockrum come to mind) and such a small thing can mean so much.

Another reason to be smitten.

So, while Jamelah is recently bemoaning bumping into one of her young charges when she was a babysitter and finding herself lusting after him, I have for a long time now wrestled with the fact that although my number keeps getting bigger I still find myself looking at young women. I consider this a bit of a good thing/bad thing. Good in that I haven’t yet lost interest in that part of life, bad in the sense that as my number (age) increases, so does my perv quotient (unfortunately).

Anyway, when I was watching The 40 Year Old Virgin, I couldn’t help but be wowed by the young woman playing the daughter of Catherine Keeler’s character. Turns out the woman was 19 at the time of the films’ release but damn if she there wasn’t something about her - those eyes, those lips! Ah, I descend into lecherdom yet again! Alas!

Well, the last time I got that vibe from someone in a movie was watching Scarlett Johansson in Ghost World (probably because she reminded me of an old girlfriend).

Anyway, so every once in awhile I will look in on Kat Dennings blog and that was where I came across this (something I really loved watching):

Caught the new Rambo movie!

The best part was when he shot the rockets from the sides of his wheelchair! I mean, chrissakes! Sylvester Stallone is 62, isn’t he a little long in the tooth for these roles? What’s next, Dirty Harry in a walker?

Last week’s entry into TERROR FILLED MONDAYS! is considered a scifi classic so, it’s an only fitting segue this week to follow up with another classic by the same director.

I can remember seeing this film during its original theatrical run...

I remember seeing it and having nightmares afterward.

Looking back I’m not entirely sure why that was the case but, I do remember being fascinated by the lobby display of the germ of the film’s title, exhibited in a mirrored showcase with blinking green lights.

It left such a clear mark on my young and impressionable mind, that over three decades later, I still remember I saw the movie at the Baronet (or the Coronet - I can’t be sure which). In retrospect, I have to wonder if I didn’t run into a young Sylvester Stallone.

A military satellite returns to earth, and a recovery team, in a single van, to avoid suspicion, is sent out to retrieve the satellite by radio detection. While on a live radio connection to the military base, the recovery team dies. A photo surveillance plane is sent to discover what has happened, and discovers the small town where the van went through to be obliterated; apparently the entire population has been killed. The base commander, upon seeing the film returned by the plane, dials a special tie line number in which a recording takes his message urging that the Wildfire team be activated because of a suspected extraterrestrial organism having been brought to earth.

This flick was helmed by the very talented Robert Wise and I have to wonder in some ways if it didn’t give him further cred to later direct the first Star Trek Motion Picture. Of course, it was Wise’s opportunity to work with the renowned special effects maven Douglas Trumbull who would also go on to work on Star Trek 1.

This I believe is Michael Crichton’s first work to be translated to the big screen, Crichton of course would later have great success in Hollywood and of course create the long running ER.

Andromeda Strain also is another one of those favorites of yore that are being remade for today’s audiences, it will be interesting to see what the result is.

Best quote ever?

I was doing some reading this morning and came across this jewel of a quote that is possibly one of the most interesting quotes I’ve ever read, certainly one of the funniest:

“The last time the Chinese came,” he remarked, “they stayed one thousand years… I prefer to smell French turd for five years, rather than eat Chinese dung for the rest of my life.”

They just don’t make ’em like that anymore.

“FOR ME, TO POOP ON!”

Peter David was talking over at his blog today about American Idol (a show I never watch) and Star Wars fans. I made me track the short below down, something I think is one of the funniest bits of television that I’ve seen in a long time and still has me laughing as much as I did on the night it was first broadcast:

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS!

Today’s video vault entry is over 20 YEARS OLD! Simply astounding how quickly time passes.

Thing is, it stands the test of time and has made those lists for best music video ever. If they ever make some kind of msuic video hall of fame there is no question that today’s video should definitely be included.

Funny thing though, today MTV - Music Television rarely shows music videos anymore! What is doubly ironic about that is how much more accessible the tools to make video and edit it have become! Now, it‘s not as if there weren’t sucky music videos back then because there were more than a few but, something happened along the way and the people who did videos became less creative? Does that make sense?

This video has a tremendous song behind it, no question but, what makes it a great video is how it was approached, the imagery in it. It’s accessible to young and old alike and I think that had a lot to do with its popularity and persistance. Then again, judge for yourself:

Trying to see myself in the background.

Last weekend, I was flipping channels this evening and came across a rebroadcast of a Law and Order CI episode I caught them filming in Washington Square awhile back. It was funny watching the episode and remembering them shooting it. I kept looking to see if I could catch myself in the background.


Click through for the full set.

The broken system.

If anyone needed proof about how dysfunctional our electoral process is, they need only take a look at what is transpiring today. I’m talking about the Michigan primary and the amazing thing about this is that because the state decided to move its primary up, the national committees decided to penalize the voters of the state by taking away their delegates to the national conventions!

Michigan has been told not to bother sending its 156 Democratic National Convention delegates to Denver, where even the hotel rooms have been taken away.
Petition groups target primary voters to get issues on ’08 ballot Lawsuit wants access expanded to Mich. primary election records National convention hotel rooms taken away from Michigan Dems US judge rules against Democrat who sued to stop Mich. primary Lawsuit calls for halt to Democratic presidential primary Will all votes count in Michigan’s primary? On the Republican side, the party faithful are supposed to pick just 30 delegates to attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, half the normal number.

Think about that for a second, the voters are being told by the national committees of the two major parties that the national organization DOESN’T CARE what they think! Neither party is innocent, the Republicans have cut the delegates from Michigan in half but, the Democrats have invalidated the entire state’s delegates!

Now, Michigan happens to be the eighth largest state ranked by population - does anyone think the national committees are sending a message to the voters in Michigan? If they are, I can tell you it isn’t a good one.

As of July 1, 2007, the estimated population of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the other insular areas of the United States was 303,746,137. Notably, the top nine states in population contain slightly more than half of the total population.

So, who is getting taught a lesson here?

Former U.S. Sen. Don Riegle and former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, pals since both were in office in 1994, united Monday in Detroit to tell Democratic voters who support candidates not on the presidential primary ballot to vote uncommitted.

Riegle called the ballot a sham and said it was rigged.

Hillary and Bill Clinton “don’t care how they win, only that they do,” he said of the candidate and her husband. “It’s not very different from what used to happen in the old Soviet Union.” After Michigan defied the party by scheduling an early primary, Riegle said the Democratic candidates had an understanding that none of them would compete in Michigan. Barack Obama and John Edwards honored the commitment, but Hillary Clinton did not and gained an unfair advantage, Riegle said.

These are not Republicans who are saying this!

Kay Nevil plans to pull a Democratic ballot, but told us, she isn’t sure how she’ll vote for the candidate she wants to.

Caroline Doan plans to vote Democratic, too, but says she’s confused about what to do as well. Her solution if she’s confused behind the curtain?

“I guess I would just not vote,” she said.

That’s exactly what election workers are worried about because, legally, they can't explain to a voter “step by step” how to vote for a candidate.

“All we can do is tell the voters what the options are or what the law or regulations are,” said Stein.
Minks is convinced that will be enough to ensure Michigan isn’t left behind.

"It is disheartening to some folks now, but we have to make the stand to bring it back to where everybody has a voice," he said.

Then a few moments ago this just came across the wires:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won a meaningless Michigan presidential primary Tuesday night, a contest held in violation of party rules as she and her Democratic rivals shared a debate stage 2,000 miles distant.

You just have to love it when the eighth largest state in the nation holds a primary that afterward is declared meaningless. What does that say to us?

It’s a fine mess, created in part by the national party’s infernal allegiance to the idea that the world might end if Iowa and New Hampshire didn’t get to winnow the presidential field by holding their primary contests first. State Democrats’ dithering over a fix after the candidates withdrew added insult to injury.

Democratic voters should remember this sham, and it should inspire them to work even harder for a more rational primary system next time.

Sometimes, you just have to pay homage to the classics and this week’s TERROR FILLED MONDAY! entry certainly could be considered one of the classics!

Wise’s background in directing horror (his solo directorial debut had come with producer Val Lewton some five years before) lent itself to a “haunted house” feel to the movie’s spookier scenes, with a stark use of deep shadow, often patterned to resemble the bars of a cage (his hospital room, the wallpaper and balustrade of the boarding house, the elevator). High angle shots are often used to create a feeling of vulnerability or isolation; here, they are presumably used to augment the viewer's Klaatu’s separation from the people of Earth, whose warlike ways are alien to him. Low angle shots are believed to give the subject an aura of potency; it can be inferred that shooting Klaatu in low shot was intended to highlight the unlimited power he represents. Theories of cinematography such as the effect of camera angles were, at the time of the making of this film, an art not a science.

The Day the Earth Stood Still another one of those hallmark scifi pics, while last week’s entry could be considered emblematic of the genre as depicted in film in the 50’s, the Day the Earth Stood Still is markedly a cut above. In large part that has to do with the cast and the cinematography.

It may well have been the highpoint of Michael Rennie’s career but, it was another outstanding performance by Patricia Neal, two years off the Fountainhead and 12 years away from an Oscar for Best Actress (HUD).

The other notable performance in the movie was that of Billy Gray who played mostly opposite Rennie as his diminutive tour guide to our planet. Gray would later play (and the thing I remember him most for) Bud on Father Knows Best.

The other thing the flick has going for it, is a haunting score penned by one of film’s great composers, Bernard Herrmann. A score that plays into and emphasizes the wonderful mood of the piece.

While looking around for source material, I came to discover that like other TERROR FILLED MONDAY! entry Colossus, this film is another movie in the process of being remade and updated:

Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic. Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

Already in production, the movie will also have Jennifer Connelly in the role played by Patricia Neal. I’m just hoping it’s not another Hulk fiasco.