it's a blogapalooza

- back to the ramona books, for a second. i know her family was supposed to be relatively poor (after her dad lost his job, especially) but it always bothered me how they would talk about going out for fast food like it was going out for a gourmet meal. i do get how, to some kids, even those with money, it is. but that just always bothered me.

- henry huggins. still the bomb. paper drives and all of that. really, i love me some beverly cleary. she rarely talked about that puberty stuff that judy blume threw into everything she wrote, even stuff like Freckle Juice.

- wednesday = comics. comics = sometimes good. sometimes frustrating.

- the good. the boys. seriously. the boys, is just a great book. sometimes too dirty, but i'd expect that from anything Garth Ennis writes. his satiric take on super heroes is just... brutal. and... yeah.

- Also good: Batman and Robin #12. the reveal at the end, very unexpected. Morrison still wins.

- the frustrating. Brightest Day. after Blackest Night, i would want a really strong follow up (ie 52 following up the mostly readable Infinite Crisis). brightest day, so far, is a lot of navel gazing. more setup than necessary. it's great that these characters are back from the dead and conflicted about it. where's it going to go? (the only really good bits were the Aquaman calling dead fish part and the return of Black Manta).

- also good. but even better because it was a buck. I Zombie. mike allred's art can pretty much make me like anything. and hey, a book whose plot revolves a zombie (who has to eat the brains of the recently dead once a month to keep from becoming "totally night of the living dead") whose best friends are a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf? how can that be bad?? (seriously, check out the prequel!)

- also, they killed nightcrawler in x-men. for what? who knows. is x-men going to do that thing to me where it makes me really not want to read them for a while?? best bit: beast yelling at cyclops at nightcrawler's funeral. kind of brilliant, really.

- my blog lacks focus. just random thoughts. i hope people don't mind.

random thoughts part deux

- man, that last entry formatted really weird. i blame the video embedding.

- i grew up reading the ramona books. loved them, though i never read the ones that came out after "ramona quimby age 8" (kind of like Judy Blume's "Fudge" books, i didn't care for the characters after I and they reached a certain age). i am incredibly troubled by the upcoming movie:

Ramona And Beezus Trailer

now, the casting actually seems good/right (even selina gomez), so i don't have a problem there. i think my issue is with what Walden media does to kids books when turning them into movies: add ridiculous looking "fantasy" elements. yeah, it's great to see what Ramona is imagining, but is it really necessary to have THAT much detail. that ruined their "Bridge to Terabithia" for me - by turning the Terabithia scenes into "lord of the rings light," they sort of missed the entire point. and really, the books are better when it's just ramona being mischievous honestly, i was too big a fan of the uber cool, sarah polley before Avonlea (and then awesome goto indie actress), Canadian tv series that pbs showed for about a year to accept any other live action version of the books.

also, that kid beezus is talking to had better be henry huggins! they left him out of the tv show. henry huggins is the bomb.

- i'm also not terribly thrilled about the tron sequel. i think they are doing some pretty cool things with it, but i just don't see it as necessary. my memories of tron will always revolve around when the Disney channel was fairly new, so all they seemed to show was Tron, Ozzie and Harriet, and Mr Boogedy. i love mr boogedy.

- is curious why Marvel has to revisit the 90's so much. first onslaught, then the clone wars, then "x-men forever" and "x-factor forever"... now a new look at the Infinity Gauntlet? I do like that it will be through Marvel's "all ages" Marvel Adventures line but... still. that said, i do think it's great that Marvel is bringing back Thanos, even if it's just in the cosmic books. if i had to pick a favorite Marvel villain list, he'd be up there...

- i think, as much as the whole "brand new day" spiderman stuff has kind of made a nice niche for itself, and has had some really great moment's story telling wise, for them to go back and remind us of the bullshit that started it all - apparently they are going to have us see the new version of what happened at peter parker and mary jane's wedding that caused them to not get married... i have heard some rumor that it might ultimately lead to an undoing of it all, which might not be bad (as long as it's not done in some ham fisted "okay, other reality restored" kind of way...). i, for one, really didn't have a problem with spider man getting married. who cares if it "aged" him - he is supposed to be an adult, after all. and if people really are into the single peter parker, i would think part of that is because they want to see him develop into the no-longer-single peter parker.

okay. that's all for now. maybe more coherence later?

back

has it been that long since i last posted... seeing how there's more action coming from spammer "commenting" on an old post of mine, i figured i'd get back into the blogging game... this will just be a random thoughts post, which i may elaborate on some of later, but for now... these are things i've either wanted to blog about, thought about either recently or for years, or just... wanted to type... so without further ado...

random thoughts:

- i don't really like the Grateful Dead. i actually think they have some okay songs, but i just never got into it. maybe it was because the Dead, to me, were a lot like Jimmy Buffett (at least at my high school where someone would inevitably want "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been" as the end of year senior class song) - not musically, which i think they definitely have a leg up on Buffet with, but in terms of the people they attract. that said, I have known some really passionate Grateful Dead fans, who followed the music not the "atmosphere." I will admit to thinking the video for "Touch of Grey" is completely awesome (and i don't really even mind the song...

- speaking of "the dead," I really enjoyed DC comics recent "Blackest Night" event. Really. A lot.

There were definitely some problems I had with it (the outcome, where certain heroes and villains

were brought back from the dead, was well played, I just wish they had brought back some more than

others...). I'm really interested how this is going to play (mostly i just want to see a new Aquaman ongoing),

but again: the ending was top notch. And really, I have to say that this is where DC comics, i think, really

beats Marvel in their crossovers.

With Marvel, the last few "Major Events" (since civil war) have been kind of ham handed, and really didn't

seem to be interested in "change" - yeah, it looks like some of this upcoming "heroic age" will be a big,

permanent deal... but i still half expect "Seige" to have a huge cop out ending where the key to defeating the

now batshit insane "Sentry" is something they've had all along. With DC, although it has felt like each crossover

has just been serving to lead to the next big event, they actually have impact. (of course, Marvel does a

significantly better job with timing, whereas with a DC book, you can never tell when in relation other books

are taking place to the big event, and sometimes you get events spoiled for you. Marvel definitely is a little more

disciplined, though I think Luke Cage taking over Thunderbolts would have been a better thing to find out

when Seige was all over...

- I still have no real interest in sitting down and seriously watching James Cameron's "The Smurfs" "Avatar."

Similar to my aversion to "Cloverfield" if someone convinces me... but otherwise. I think it's less to do with the movie

itself and more to do with my loathing for most of the work of James Cameron (and, bluntly, the man is a

ridiculous asshole, but i only object to how that seems to come across in his movies). I like the first Terminator

just fine, and Aliens (although it doesn't hold a candle to the first one), but i seriously cannot name another James

Cameron film i truly like (the Abyss might come close, although, hmm, no. not really.) Also, as much as i sort of

like 3D (i think for some movies, like Coraline, it has worked really well), i'm not too terribly into seeing a 3D

movie that, as has been largely pointed out elsewhere, is either stealing the plot from disney's "Pocahontas" or something

else (Dances With Wolves, Fern Gully, etc.) (or, as many critics from various ends of the political spectrum have stated, is

an extremely ham handed political analogy of anti-imperialism/racism/environmentalism/younameitsomepoliticalhackhasfounditsm).

nope. not for me.

(and really, it's the smurfs. sorry.)

- it's sort of awful how bad i want to see iron man 2. i never really liked iron man as a character. even now. even post

movie. even with all the, admitedly very cool, thing they have done to him in the comics (asshole iron man is better than

bland "rich guy uses money for superheroics" iron man any day. and now he's having to redeem himself. a lot.) i just

have little real interest in reading him.

- i don't understand tween pop stars, especially those churned out through the disney or nickelodeon machines. i'm also

a little disconcerted that there's a nickelodeon "tween" machine now. but seriously, all the tv shows are overacted, overly

broad comedy and the music just tries to hard to fit in some popular niche of music, that it all seems really trite and boring.

and i know this is how various elements of the entertainment industry has always worked (a manufactured pop star is a

manufactured pop star. period). but... ugh...

- "true" by spandau ballet is a terrible song. just terrible.

- if Marvel is bringing Jean Grey back, and i sort of hope they are, they had better not do it just to kill her in a few years.

it gets old. fast.

- even though they explain it in Darkest Night, i would have liked to see all of the unnecessary deaths from "Identity Crisis"

undone for brightest day (Firestorm's was a start, but i'm talking sue and ralph dibney). i also think they should have had - or do

as some sort of parody/one shot kind of thing, the dead black lantern versions of all the unnecessarily/ridiculously killed off

characters from the past couple of decades in DC history and have them attack the writers/editors responsible...

- all for now. more to come...

conspiracy proven

apparently, the moon landing WAS faked as an A.I.M. plot...

the proof?

well, neil armstrong is apparently, actually MODOK!

=

yep. i knew it.....

sometimes i'm such a tease and sometimes i'm a liar

yep.

no halloween posts. not even one. one in progress that i'll just say is a regular post. i'll do better for christmas, i swear.

so i'll just leave you with this, because i think it's pretty f-ing amazing...

i'm captain lou and i'm talkin to you!

RIP captain lou. many childhood memories involve you somehow...






wow. does anyone even remember that "Rock N Wrestling" existed?? i think it came on right before (or maybe after) pee wee's playhouse... man, THAT brings back memories...



(okay, i can't embed the girls just wanna have fun video... weird... but that's likely what most people remember him from....)

blank... now with filler

i have had bloggers block for weeks.

i have some halloween-ish ideas. but... hmm...

consider this filler:

___________
From High Fidelity
"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up is hard to do – it takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch -but you don’t wanna blow you wad, so then you gotta to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules…"

so one of the things i spend an awful lot of time doing - or have spent at least, over the past... oh... 15 years or so - is making mix tapes. and cd's. mostly cd's, but it started with tapes...

here's a decent sampling of some of what i have done over the years. not all of them, but quite a few.

now, most of them have been for girls. yes yes, i know... it's almost a cliche, boy making mix tape for girl (granted, many of these were for friends and/or girlfriends, not merely girls i had crushes on, but i certainly made my share of those too). and, for the most part, though certainly not entirely consciously, i have followed Rob Gordon's rules, and certainly agree that it takes ages longer than it might seem (i have really only successfully "thrown together" 1 mix in my entire life. 1. and even it took 3 days instead of the usual 2 or 3 or... well... more weeks).

some other basic rules i follow:

1. don't put their favorite song on it.
they have their "favorite song." they don't need to hear it again. i once made a tape for someone who requested all sorts of stuff be on it. it was awful (and was the one thrown together in a few days). you can definitely sidestep it by putting on a song they might not know by the same artist, or something similar, but if you out their favorite song on, while you might score some points, you might as well be buying them the record. (okay, that assumes you know their favorite song. there's a lot to be said for not knowing what their favorite song is and putting it on inadvertently. that, actually, is awesome).

2. always throw in something fun
unless it's a very serious mix, this shows you're not taking things TOO seriously. also, it's good to make people laugh. this can be anything from outright comedy songs to funny covers ("music of the beatles goes disco," etc.). if nothing else, you make them laugh or create a conversation starter (which, if that was sort of your point...)

3. covers are your best friend
see rule 2 and rule 1 and combine them. covers can be fun or funny. covers can sidestep the favorite song issue by giving them a new version of the song to enjoy. covers have always been a big part of the mixes i have made. i also used to do this thing where i sort of spliced 2 versions of a song together (all very technical. involved creative use of the pause button...)

4. close it off with a bang
some songs are meant to end mixes. you know them when you hear them. yeah, they aren't EXCLUSIVELY end songs, but they just work perfectly. maybe they sum up the purpose of the tape. maybe they just add a fun endpoint (this is sometimes where the fun or funny song comes in well). the closer is definitely just as important as the opening track, so definitely not a place for filler...

5. filler is okay.
with tapes, it was a necessity. you had to fill 45 minutes of side A of a c-90 and you had about 3 minutes left... 3 minutes of dead space just wouldn't do, so this is where you can throw in pretty much anything, as long as it doesn't go against the spirit of the tape (this also is a good place for the fun or funny song...). with cd's it's less of a problem, but really, if you're not filling the 80 minute capacity of the cd-r you just put into your drive, what's the point?

for me, it's a whole process. yeah, you have to grab them with the songs, but it has to be a nice package too. and this can take as long as the mix to make if you really work at it... yeah, you can just write the song titles on a j-card (if you're making a cassette) or cd-booklet, but to me, taking the time to make the artwork, shows as much passion behind the project as the songs you choose...

example, here is the artwork for a mix cd i made for my girlfriend recently:




yes, it's designed to look like a Penguin Classic. Took forever. but this is the kind of detail i'm talking about. it's really an art... i'm certainly not saying everyone should make highly detailed artwork for mixes, but really, why not? even if it's just a weird/funny picture (tons of those online)/ something from a movie... it just shows that you actually put that extra effort into it.

__________
in 2005, thurston moore edited a book all about mix tapes called, appropriately "Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture," where people from different walks of life - DJ's, musicians, artists, actors, etc. talked about mix tapes they've made ranging from love tapes, break up tapes, and "indoctrination" tapes (i once made a friend a series of 3 tapes of musical history/music they should know since at the time the only music they knew was savage garden (eew) and they might be giants. so i suppose it's something like that.) it's a good, fun book. definitely worth the 2o something it costs.

_____________

so, the mix tape. as the website says, it is certainly an art. As thurston moore says (or at least the publisher's product description of his book says), it is a "new way of re-sequencing music to make sense of our most stubbornly inexpressible feelings-a way of explaining ourselves to someone else, or to ourselves".

i make mix tapes.

the end.



(and, included for your reference, a couple of links, one if which i find the existence of hilarious. guess which one!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtape
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Perfect-Mix-Tape-or-CD