Saturday, February 09, 2008

25 Quickies

I've been out of the loop for a while. Don't know what's going on. Don't know who's doing it. So, I thought I would launch the return of Superheroes, etc. with as extensive a list as I can write comprised of brief statements regarding my thoughts on the various pop culture, general geekery, politics, and miscellaneous things that have happened since I was blogging more regularly.

1. The beginning of Lost's third season was formulaic and tedious. Others have assured me that season's finale and the episodes leading up to it redeemed it, but I lost my interest. I'm out of the loop there and I like it that way.

2. If you take me seriously when I give you a gentle ribbing about the prominent place you give to a copy of Essential Werewolf By Night in your GN collection, you lose at life. You know who you are. Dick.

3. Heath Ledger's death = bad.

4. Heath Ledger's Joker = good. At least from what I've seen so far. Joker shouldn't be funny. Joker should make you sick to your stomach. Joker should make you want to remind your kids about "red light/green light" people. I dig Burton's Batman, but I think I'm going to dig this more.

5. Am I a hypocrite if I simultaneously feel sympathy for the victims of Katrina, but hate jazz?

6. Steve Rogers is dead. Captain America has a gun and a shiny suit. If this lasts, I'm Gandhi.

7. I suddenly feel very hungry.

8. Persepolis looks phenomenal and it pisses me off that I never bought the GN, because now I'll have to get a copy with the "Now a major motion picture!" announcement on the cover, and those always make me feel like a tool.

9. World of Warcraft is very addictive.

10. Writer's strike = good.

11. SiCKO changed my life. I actually wrote a letter to my representative. It's like Bizzaro Mick. I've always been a cynic. I've never been blindly patriotic. But when it's just all laid out for you like that...man.

12. I like Obama. I don't like Hillary. I will vote for Hillary if I have to. But I don't like her. I didn't vote in the primary. It's New York, Hillary was going to take it. I will vote in the general election. Think I lost my right to complain for not voting in the primary? I support your right to be wrong (for reference, see "Constitution of the United States").

13. As much as people like Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney terrify me (I know Romney's out, but I have a feeling one of the two will be the Republican VP candidate because McCain will want that evangelical vote), I am thrilled Thompson dropped out so early. I had nightmares about having to watch Hunt for Red October with my grandchildren, explaining, "Yeah, that guy there who sounds like he's about to compare nuclear warfare to barn animals? He was the president."

14. While I don't like Hillary, I am thrilled at the prospect of being alive when the first woman or African American president is elected. No, I don't want to vote for either just because they're black or female, but I feel privileged just to be breathing when the two frontrunners for the Democratic ticket are a woman and a black man.

In fact, it reminds me of an idea I once had about eight years ago when I was considering studying to become a World War II historian. I may be getting the exact quote wrong, but basically Hermann Goering, head of the German Air Force, once said something along the lines of "If one allied bomb lands inside Germany, you can call me Hymie." And the fact is that as you read books about World War II, even divorced from the moral perspective, you learn pretty quickly that most historians consider Goering to have been a complete failure. So I had this idea I thought was clever. I would write a history paper titled "Thank you, Mr. Hymie," in a somewhat sardonic tone about how grateful the allies should have been to have an incompetent ass like Goering at the head of the Luftwaffe.

I'll probably never do that. But, in regards to the prospect of either a woman or a black man being president in January, 2009...thank you, George. Thank you so much.

15. Big Trouble in Little China is fucking genius.

16. A new X-files movie. Huh. Okay.

17. Speaking of which, if I suddenly find that - with nothing to go on but a few seconds of music, lighting, and not even a regular character on the series - I can immediately identify a scene as belonging to X-Files even when it isn't an episode I've seen before...who should die? Me or them?

18. Know what I watch more than anything at my night job? C-SPAN.

19. I really need a day job.

20. So far, I'm surprisingly disappointed with Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!). It's good. It's funny. They came up with a clever way to inject the whole "The Word" segment in print form. I guess I'm just surprised that this particular kind of book doesn't feel like a page-turner to me. It's something I might put on my coffee table or bathroom. It's funny to pick up and read for a few pages at a time, but I just don't feel any strong urge to keep reading. As hilarious as he is, it's usually pretty easy to guess where Colbert's going.

21. Did you know that taking a year and a half to write an undergraduate thesis about comic books sometimes can make you want to not read comics? Seriously! I would rather do many things to my genitals that include fire and electricity than scan another goddamn page of Captain America.

22. There are two comics I have fallen in love with recently which I never would've guessed I could care about - Astro Boy and Usagi Yojimbo.

23. Don't you dare tell me whether Hulk won against Sentry. Don't say a damn thing. Seriously. I'll nail you to a wall and throw full beer cans at you.

24. As part of a silly revenge scenario against my ex-girlfriend, I will spend most of Valentine's Day watching season one of House, M.D. How is that revenge? It's one of her favorite shows, I bought the DVDs with Best Buy gift cards her family gave me, and she doesn't get to watch cause, you know, we broke up. It's not actual revenge, and I don't really want actual revenge, but, you know. It's kinda funny. Kinda. And it beats the hell out of cutting up my foot when I slam it into the TV after the 50th "He went to Jared!" commercial.

25. Collector's Edition Twin Peaks DVD with everything. I wants it.

Friday, February 08, 2008

So, you think you're funny huh, Mr. God guy?

So, the title of my last post was "Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over." It's a line from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and I was trying to be all clever by using it to refer to the final acheivement of my Bachelor's degree while at the same time referencing a poem that is a wonderful example of why I desperately wanted to fire my ass out of college with a cannon.

Then, I didn't write anything afterwards in spite of my proclamation of "I am on the warpath to reclaim my life, starting with this blog." What happened there, Mick?

Well, so, yeah. Turns out my college education isn't the only thing that's over. My 5-year relationship with my girlfriend ended shortly after. I've been living with my parents for the past two weeks, officially becoming the comic book geek stereotype (and I don't even have a basement or attic to myself). And, for obvious reasons, haven't been in much of a mood to blog.

I'm not going to go into details. I'm not embarassed by what happened, and I don't care if the whole world knows. I'm not going into details for the sake of anyone who reads this blog. I can guarantee you that you would quickly file it under "TMI." That's right. Even in this dark time, I'm thinking all about you.